Mesa Boogie Subway Rocket

1

1neeto

New member
A friend of mine is trying to sell me his for $700. Always wanted a Boogie, and this amp seems to be a rare small 20 watt tone monster. I currently have a Peavey Classic 30, and a Boss Katana 50 in my bedroom. The Katana is fun and sounds great at bedroom volume, and the headphone tone is decent too. But it’s really easy to get lost tweaking and downloading patches. The Peavey sounds great, but at 30 watts, I can’t play it past maybe 2.5 without having angry wife telling me to turn it down.

I’ve seen several YouTube videos of this amp, and it does seem to have a great high gain tone, and great cleans and some even claim this amp has one of the best sounding spring reverb. Quite sold on it really, but is it worth $700? Anyone here has or had one?


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a 20w amp is not appreciably less loud than a 30w when it comes to bed room playing. at a gig the 30w amp could have a little more clean headroom but boogies are typically overbuilt. its a good amp but i have no idea what they are going for these days
 
jeremy said:
a 20w amp is not appreciably less loud than a 30w when it comes to bed room playing. at a gig the 30w amp could have a little more clean headroom but boogies are typically overbuilt. its a good amp but i have no idea what they are going for these days
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Quick reverb search shows that’s about the going price of that amp. Friend claims is in mint condition so he only went down from 750 and not any lower than 700.


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The lower watt Mesas are still pretty loud for the watt level, but this amp gets most of its sound from the preamp. So just use the Master for the overall volume. This amp does sound good at all Master volume settings, though.
 
I am no expert in how wattage translates to real world volume, but just from my own, anecdotal, experience; Boogie watts are straight up louder than other amps.

I have heard a 90w 1x12 Boogie combo absolutely dwarf a 100w Marshall SLP half stack. I'm not sure if it's an issue of headroom or the super over-the-top midrange of the Mark series, and obviously it could be all in my head, but ever since that experience I have always been slightly skeptical of watts directly correlating to volume.

P.S. You should absolutely snatch that up.
 
oilpit said:
I am no expert in how wattage translates to real world volume, but just from my own, anecdotal, experience; Boogie watts are straight up louder than other amps.

I have heard a 90w 1x12 Boogie combo absolutely dwarf a 100w Marshall SLP half stack. I'm not sure if it's an issue of headroom or the super over-the-top midrange of the Mark series, and obviously it could be all in my head, but ever since that experience I have always been slightly skeptical of watts directly correlating to volume.

P.S. You should absolutely snatch that up.
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Man weird things are happening. He was about to make a deal for that amp, and my classic 30 which used to be his for 500 but got cold feet last second. So I’m just letting it stew for now and see how the deal evolves tomorrow.


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1neeto said:
A friend of mine is trying to sell me his for $700. Always wanted a Boogie, and this amp seems to be a rare small 20 watt tone monster. I currently have a Peavey Classic 30, and a Boss Katana 50 in my bedroom. The Katana is fun and sounds great at bedroom volume, and the headphone tone is decent too. But it’s really easy to get lost tweaking and downloading patches. The Peavey sounds great, but at 30 watts, I can’t play it past maybe 2.5 without having angry wife telling me to turn it down.

I’ve seen several YouTube videos of this amp, and it does seem to have a great high gain tone, and great cleans and some even claim this amp has one of the best sounding spring reverb. Quite sold on it really, but is it worth $700? Anyone here has or had one?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Owned 3 over the years. Have owned a particular early pre reverb for many years that I will never sell. AMAZING little amp that flat blows soundmens minds with its miced tone in the FOH regularly at whisper stage levels. Absolutely rock solid reliability on all 3. They have gone WAY up over the last couple years and for a clean one yes $700 is no out of reason. Hard to find and if something happened to mine would be looking guaranteed for another!
Mine live super low stage volume no effects except a wah in front and a little delay in the loop. You can barely see the little amp on the floor behind me to the left and the person who was talking smack about my little bitty amp when I walked in with it got shut up HARD on that first note LOL! Running a WGS ET 10 in mine. Man is this amp a little tone MONSTER!
 
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Here is another clip with my Rocket only running a Boss DD3 in the loop here absolutely nothing else with a SM 57 on her at a whisper on stage. Baddest little grab and go amp I have ever played through!!
 
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Mincer said:
The lower watt Mesas are still pretty loud for the watt level, but this amp gets most of its sound from the preamp. So just use the Master for the overall volume. This amp does sound good at all Master volume settings, though.
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I have a Fillmore 25, which is an 18/23 watt amp and while it is pretty loud, I agree with the notion that most of the tone comes from the preamp. I will say that it sounds a touch richer/fuller at the higher master ratings, but only up to a point and there is a point where it doesn't sound any better and can even get worse. Not sure about the Rocket, but my Fillmore does not like the masters too high. It starts to clip in an undesirable manner.
 
I have a Mesa Blue Angel, which doesn't even have a master volume- it is one of the very few Boogies that gets the tone from the power amp.
 
Oh yeah. Subway Rockets sound amazing (to me). Not sure what they're worth. It'd be cool if your buddy would let you jam it at rehearsal or at home for a few hours.
 
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All mine! Got to jam with it and couldn’t put it down. My buddy then connected it to a Marshall 2x12 cab, and wow! But it sounds amazing through the factory 10” speaker. Super happy, won’t miss the Peavey.


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1neeto said:
3014458154f523d370ce7da8de2061e7.jpg

All mine! Got to jam with it and couldn’t put it down. My buddy then connected it to a Marshall 2x12 cab, and wow! But it sounds amazing through the factory 10” speaker. Super happy, won’t miss the Peavey.


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Welcome to the club! Have owned 3 of those amps one for almost 20 years now and will never sell it. Own both a rare early pre reverb Mesa Rocket like yours and also a F 30 short head now. GREAT little amps that sound amazing plus are super well built and rock solid reliable CONGRATS!
Here is another clip of my little monster live. Before the event as we set up had someone snicker at my little bitty amp then get shut up HARD when we started! The Amp you can hardly see on stage and is behind me to the left on the floor it's at very low stage volume and miced with a SM 57.
 
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Ascension said:
Welcome to the club! Have owned 3 of those amps one for almost 20 years now and will never sell it. Own both a rare early pre reverb Mesa Rocket like yours and also a F 30 short head now. GREAT little amps that sound amazing plus are super well built and rock solid reliable CONGRATS!
Here is another clip of my little monster live. Before the event as we set up had someone snicker at my little bitty amp then get shut up HARD when we started! The Amp you can hardly see on stage and is behind me to the left on the floor it's at very low stage volume and miced with a SM 57.
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Hard to date these amps, but from what I’ve read, it seems the early non reverb ones are more rare. Love the thing. Been shopping for a reverb pedal now. It never ends. Also where’s the video?


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dystrust said:
I don't own a Subway Rocket, but I'm pretty sure the second button switches the contour mode on and off when on the lead channel.
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Exactly. Right side button switches lead/contour. Fun little but loud amp!


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