Posted on 03/12/2012 3:56:43 AM PDT by Kaslin
Author’s note: This column is based on a metaphor I stole from Scott Klusendorf. As such, I owe him and Oliva V and a trip to the Texas Roadhouse.
Like most of you, I try to be financially responsible. For example, I pay my IRS estimated pre-payments well in advance. I also make conservative estimates of what I owe the IRS. Therefore, I usually end up getting a nice tax refund. When I get it back, I buy something I really don’t need. Two years ago, it was a Fender Telecaster. Last year, it was a Fender Stratocaster. I don’t mind splurging every year just as long as I wait until I actually have the IRS check in hand. Just last week, however, I did something I should not have done: I spent my tax refund before I actually received it.
But I had to have it. The Mesa Boogie Express 525 amplifier is one I’ve been eying for the last couple of years. When I finally got it home and plugged it in it did not disappoint. I’m already thinking of getting another Mesa Boogie – this time an Electrodyne 2x12. But before I take the big plunge, I’m going to drive out to California to tour the Mesa Boogie factory. When I get there, I’ll have an opportunity to see them put a Mesa Boogie amp together, piece by piece.
They’ll probably start by fastening four pieces of solid birch together. But when they finish fastening them together, they won’t yet have a Mesa Boogie amplifier. Next, the engineer will bolt in a 12-inch Celestion speaker. But it still won’t be a Mesa Boogie amplifier. Even after he fastens the tubes into the chassis, it still won’t be a Mesa Boogie amplifier. When they finally put the knobs on the outside of the amp, we’ll be pretty close to calling it a genuine Mesa Boogie. (For the record, if they ever build me a custom amp, the volume knob had better go to eleven. Ten just isn’t loud enough for this aging rock-and roller).
But after the input jack is installed (so I can actually plug in one of my guitars) I will concede that we finally have a Mesa Boogie amplifier. And that will be well worth driving across the country to see.
And so I’m off to Petaluma, California. Spring break is this week and I am about to head west on I-40. Just a couple of miles from my house, there is a sign that says “Barstow, California, 2,554 miles.” I’m not stopping for anything except gas until I get to California. On the way home, however, I plan to take a detour and stop by the Grand Canyon.
The first time I went to the Grand Canyon was 1973 – the year the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade. I was just eight years old. The sight was so beautiful that I took out an old Polaroid camera and snapped a picture from atop the deepest part of the canyon. As it began to develop, it was only a tiny blob. It was too small for me to tell what it really was. In fact, it was kind of ugly at first. A few minutes later, however, it became apparent that something very beautiful was developing out of that tiny little blob. When it was done developing and ready to pull out of the camera, it was a beautiful thing, indeed.
Human beings are not put together from the outside like Mesa Boogie amplifiers. Therefore, there is no legitimate debate about when a human becomes a human. From the very earliest stage of life, humans are actively involved in the process of developing themselves from within. That’s why it is so tragic that in 1973 the Court decided that a woman has a right to disrupt that process by destroying the tiny human in the womb.
Those who understand liberty believe that living entities should be left alone to develop themselves from within. The only thing standing in their way is a living constitution constructed gradually from the outside. Tags: Abortion , Constitution , Roe vs. Wade Mike Adams Mike Adams
Two years ago, it was a Fender Telecaster. Last year, it was a Fender Stratocaster . . . Just last week . . . had to have it. The Mesa Boogie Express 525 amplifier . . .A Fender Telecaster? A Fender Stratocaster? A Mesa Boogie amplifier? Clearly (says this proud player of a Gibson Les Paul through a Fender amplifier) the gentleman is a proud philistine . . .
(/wisenheimer)
Wished I’d gotten a refund and I’d have bought a Telecaster. Don’t care much for Mesa Boogies.
Prefer Gibson myself.
And much more rebelious!
Hey!
Don’t be telling ME what to do with MY amplifier!
I can toss it in the trash if I don’t want it.
People like you would try to pass laws that if I don’t want my amplifier, then someone else would get a chance at it, before it got crushed in the dumpster..
See, that’s what happens when you write an article and don’t get to the point until the 5th or 6th paragraph. No one gets the point.
you mean they're not sending the Learjet for you?
Ok I admit it’s an ok piece. By pop “logic”, it’s not a Mesa until the experts say it’s a Mesa, or until somebody wants to buy it.
I went to the Mesa store on Sunset when I was there last time, but mussed the factory. Amazing stuff. I consider them the “Rolls Royce” of amps.
That said, I buy all my guitars and basses here: http://www.rondomusic.com/
Even after a complete setup, they’re ridiculously inexpensive and serve very well.
It was a stretch to say the least.
I thought he was arguing the OPPOSITE argument at first,
that a baby isn’t a baby until all its pieces are together.
—See, that’s what happens when you write an article and don’t get to the point until the 5th or 6th paragraph. No one gets the point.—
Yeah. It was a complete switching of gears. It was like two articles glued together. And you can see the seam.
I have an SX bass as well. Good value, to be sure.
And I'll be getting a new Amp with my Tax Refund too, a Fender Mustang III. 100 Watts, 12" Speaker, and tons of presets. Also comes with cool software.
And that new Blacktop Jag is cool. Has a short scale 24" neck. With the 2 'hot' Humbuckers it's *almost like* a Strat and Les Paul mated.
Me too...
Sounds like something Bwaney Fwank would do :)
Well get back over there and clean up that factory! You muss it, you bus it.
I prefer my John Lennon signature Rickenbacker played through a Vox AC-30 Top Boost Amplifier using Pyramid Gold strings!
I have made some sweet music with my ‘76 Les Paul custom but after acquiring my tele, it’s all I play anymore. I keep the Les Paul around because it’s beautiful, somewhat sentimental, and, at nearly 40 years old, irreplaceable to me but I rarely play it. The tele rocks man. I play through a marshal amp and a fender amp. Hard to say which of those I like more. I’m listening to a jam I recorded on the fender/fender setup a few weeks ago- it’s an eargasm.
I modified my epiphone valve Jr with a bitmo tweaky mod and a new power output transformer and tubes It’s now my go to amp. $170.
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