The Shadows & Mesa Boogie

[suboA21]

Does anyone have any photo's of Bruce's Boogie ideally with the flight case and Bruce?

I now own BW1 but would like some photo's as provenance because some friends don't believe me.......

Steve

[David Martin]

I know Bruce gave his Boogie to "Big" Mick Johnson, as he showed it to me at his home.

[Quadraverb]

Gary from the Runaways told me in 2010 that he had Bruce Welch Mesa Boogie amp . He had it up for sale on Charlie's site some time back.

[phil kelly]

The truth about Bruces mk 11 c boogie is as follows, Mick Johnson had it from Bruce, then sold it to me, i later sold it to Tim Adams of the runaways, not gary,
Phil.

[StuartD]

There must have been some bad Voxes around that time because the reason that they switched to Boogie was that for the 1982 tour there had been ten Vox amps delivered and five broke down during rehearsals. The story I remember goes that Hank refused to use them ever again, though someone may know something more accurate.

Quite correct Dave. Hank told me they were very unreliable. I had my shop at the time and they were being manufactured by Custom Sound, who also made FAL!! They were using PCB's. Dreadful!!

[JimN]

There must have been some bad Voxes around that time because the reason that they switched to Boogie was that for the 1982 tour there had been ten Vox amps delivered and five broke down during rehearsals. The story I remember goes that Hank refused to use them ever again, though someone may know something more accurate.

Quite correct Dave. Hank told me they were very unreliable. I had my shop at the time and they were being manufactured by Custom Sound, who also made FAL!! They were using PCB's. Dreadful!!

Some years ago, at the Pipeline Convention, a new-ish AC30 stopped working. The standby switch was not passing any current.

"No problem", I thought. "I'll just bypass the standby switch with a wired link and it'll be just like any other AC30 with a single on-off switch".

Taking off the back panel, I expected to be able to slide out the chassis and get to the underside of the control panel, just like on all the AC30s (three) I'd ever owned...

But...

I soon found out that those screws sticking out of the sides of the cabinet (the Frankenstein's neck screws, as I've always thought of them) were there for a reason. The construction of that era's AC30s bore no resemblance to "proper ones" like mine.

And there was no easy way to get at the hard-wired standby switch. We just had to bring in a non-Vox spare amp.

[dave robinson]

There must have been some bad Voxes around that time because the reason that they switched to Boogie was that for the 1982 tour there had been ten Vox amps delivered and five broke down during rehearsals. The story I remember goes that Hank refused to use them ever again, though someone may know something more accurate.

Quite correct Dave. Hank told me they were very unreliable. I had my shop at the time and they were being manufactured by Custom Sound, who also made FAL!! They were using PCB's. Dreadful!!

Thanks for confirming that Stuart, I suffered a really bad Vox about fourteen years ago and it almost put me off them too.
I was fortunate in a way to find out and understand about the manufacturers of that particular batch, it was one of those that was supposed to be 'special', an aniversary model with a brass plaque on the back and leather handles, built under the Rose Morris banner. I learned that these were thankfully short lived and I acquired a real 1963 one from Terry Devon, as well as a Marshall built TBX which is excellent. I fitted Roger's 'Vintage Box' to that one and it's great, never been a problem.

[bazmusicman]

Hi Dave, I can say the same about the Marshall built VOX AC30 TBX. I have one that I also fitted Roger Alcocks EF86 'Vintage Box' into. Sadly I have to 'downsize' some of my equipment so this Amp is for sale. It is in near new condition if anyone is interested.

[suboA21]

The truth about Bruces mk 11 c boogie is as follows, Mick Johnson had it from Bruce, then sold it to me, i later sold it to Tim Adams of the runaways, not gary,
Phil.

Yup, I bought it from Tim earlier this year. So now have this and surprisingly a lovely Marshall built AC30.
I understood there were some photo's around of the Boogie with Bruce. Just would be nice to have in my home studio (spare bedroom!);as I have no intention of selling the Boogie on.

[fenderplucker]

There is a photo of Hank and Bruce using the Mesa amplifiers (at NEC Birmingham in 1986) on the TVS web site: http://www.tvsspecialtyproducts.com/shadows--amplifiers.html and scroll down to the 1980's section.

Paul.