Mesa Boogie’s Randall Smith worked with Carlos Santana to create the Limited Edition King Snake 1×12 combo amplifier.
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This amp is based on the original Boogie amplifier that helped propel Santana and Mesa Boogie’s popularity.
The King Snake is an exact replica of the Snake-embossed Lambskin covered amp that Santana toured with back in 1972 and 1973, right when he was introducing his new sound to the world. As expected some modern additions were added utilizing the 43 years of innovation since the original amp was first introduced.
The Boogie amp made quite a buzz when it was introduced because it had a unique distorted harmonically-rich tone – which was ideal for guitar solos and parts that need to stand out in a mix. The story goes that the name was derived from Santana when he exclaimed “Man, that little thing boogies!” after trying out the modifications done by Randall Smith.
The press release mentions: “Before the Boogie’s appearance back then, players had to turn an amp all the way up to get overdrive and sustain and it occurred in the power section, which of course was LOUD. With the creation of the world’s first high gain tube preamp in 1970, found only in the little Boogie by MESA Engineering, players could achieve sustain and singing tube overdrive at any volume.”
Now Santana and Randall is paying tribute to this special amp with the limited edition King Snake. It is a 1×12 combo amplifier that features an all-tube preamp and poweramp (5x12AX7 and 4x6L6) to recreate the sound of the original. Boogie Mark 1’s two input options were retained, you can choose between normal or cascading-gain signal paths. The look was carefully mimicked as well, featuring a custom-aged King Snake embossed lambskin leather with extruded edge moldings and vintage weave grille.
A nifty rear mounted reverb knob controls the all-tube 3-spring long-tank reverb that is built into the amp. The reverb is voiced to mimic vintage units adding a pinch of mechanical spring artifact to make the sound more authentic.
To cope with the needs of today’s guitarists, Randall and Santana allowed for various modern additions to the design. Most notable of which is the patented 10/60/100 Multi-Watt power switch that controls the Power Amp section. This allows for three power class (10/60/100 Watts) and two operating class (Class A and Class A/B) options – allowing for saturated tones at lower volumes and added tonal flexibility.
The King Snake amp will be introducing a new Eminence made Fillmore KS-100 speaker. This is the second speaker in Mesa Boogie’s new line of Fillmore speakers and are made in the USA.
Other modern improvements include Mid/Boost control, Dual Presence control switch that lets you pick between Black Face style or Tweed style presence circuit, buffered FX loop and automatic true bypass.
Pricing information will soon be available, you can visit Mesa Boogie for more details.
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