Mesa boogie king snake and the mid/boost control

[Dr-Joned]

Yea I read the "exact replica" hype also. Does this mean he will bootleg original Fender Transformers to install? LOL

[Cameron]

Patient applied for ...docs wont show anything only when the patient is granted will it show that stuff. Im wondering if its just like the GW Texas tea control. Knowing how much mr smith takes from others ..I would bet its close or the same.

[Cameron]

...

[M Fowler]

Texas Tea circuit

[oj]

Hmmm, look at the schematic that Mark posted with the fixed 5k6 to ground.

What happens if this fixed resistor becomes adjustable?? We now have a mid pot tone control.

What happens IF this fixed resistance value is increased? We have a boost.

What happens IF we add a fixed resistance and a pot together? We have a mid tone control and a boost.

So a pot and a resistor overlap the mid-control, any additional resistance on the pot is now a boost. Nothing special, 1 "knob". There may be an additional cap in play connected to one of the pot lugs?? Just speculation on these points, but have done similar things more than 20 years ago.

Nothing Mesa does, is, or will be magic ever... Certainly not worth patents. Yawn.

John am not a beginner !
I have built ,modified for over 20 years.
But am a dyslexic person how not from US, so don't write so much .

I do know what u saying but, that is not how this mid/boost works .

U can here that is not just a big pot on this clip : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mD03JT1AgY
after 9 m

[oj]

Texas Tea circuit

Not what going on whit the mid/boost control

[oj]

Can some person replay that have seen the amp?

And do understand the issue of patent , don't get me wrong!

[M Fowler]

I think it is just a RAW control. The one amp I put a RAW control gets a boost like this amp.

[John_P_WI]

Good luck oj, personally, I don't think many of us here give a collective fuck about Mesa.

Also the 4 or 5 of us who responded to your questions have had many, many years inside amps, and together we pale compared to the number of amps that Mr. Cameron (who also responded) has been in.

I would suggest you learn by the soldering iron, instead of simply telling us how it "doesn't work".

[M Fowler]

Yes people post and if they feel they don't get the right answer then it's fuck you stop posting and let the guys that know what is in this amp post because I'm tired of waiting for the correct answer.

Oh and I hate Mesa amps.

[schaublin65]

Hi

the first half serious amp I owned was a mesa boogie. Bought new.

Lots of silicon in the signal path.

Then I was fortunate enough to acquire an old JMI AC30.

I sold the boogie to a great player who loves it still.

For a modern mass production amp they are well made and reliable.

Compared to a real vintage Fender/Marshall/Vox they are not so good.

Mr Smith's journey up his own ass and the arrogant patent approach he adopts to other peoples work

I don't hate him but I would never want another Mesa.

Take care.............

John

[randalp3000]

looks to me like the mark I had a ground lift on the mid control to bypass the tone stack. The below comments sound to me like a custom taper pot that's 25KL from 0-5 and much more resistance from 5-10 maybe 1M. seems pretty simple to me. My buddy Jon Cusack got a free one for allowing them to use the name, he acquired the Reverand brand awhile back. I doubt he feels like taking it apart for you to look tho.

Here is what's in the boogie manual for the King snake

This is actually two controls in one, hence the two names. One big improvement from the original Snakeskin
MARK I that Carlos toured with in 1972/73 is the addition of an adjustable pot where there once was a two-position On/Off switch.
This produced a huge increase in gain achieved by lifting the Tone Controls and allowing the entire signal available
in the Rotary Tone Control string to “run free”. It was a great and innovative feature, especially for its time, but it had
two shortcomings; 1)it was all or nothing (normal or boosted) and these two were wildly different sounding due to the
saturation that occurred in BOOST position. 2) once the whole signal was unleashed by the BOOST, there was noth
-
ing much left gain-wise in the Tone Control string for the Tone controls to work on, and there was little-to-no shaping
power available in BOOST Mode.
Back then everyone was so mesmerized by the newfound gain available, this trade-off seemed a small price to pay for SUSTAIN!
But Here at MESA/Boogie, Tone never sleeps so we’ve endowed this model with an adjustable BOOST found here on the upper half
of the MID control! It doesn’t completely solve these issues, but it does provide a middle region previously unavailable that allows
incrementally added gain WITH incrementally decreasing Tone-shaping power in the Tone control string. When the MID/BOOST is
maxed (set at 10.0), there is still very little gain left for the Tone Controls to utilize and hence, they do less at this extreme setting. But
this scheme allows YOU to choose the desired balance between gain and Tone-shaping power on the Tone Control string and there
are some truly magic sounds in this new range of incremental gain.
From 0–5.0 the MID/BOOST works like a normal MID control, albeit with a little more condensed taper. A general settings tip for this
narrower taper might be to set the MID two or three numbers below where you think your sound might be with a traditional style MID
control.
Above 5.0 the MID morphs into an adjustable BOOST control that incrementally lifts the Tone controls and allows their full signal
strength to come through, unbridled. Some players will opt for the maximum gain possible here and for those folks, there will be the
same limited power in the Tone Controls as found in the original MARK I’s BOOST Mode available. But for those players who may
not the need the maximum gain BOOST there is a really usable range of enhanced gain over a broad, warm sounding region of mids.
We are extremely pleased with the Tonal possibilities this simple but powerful improvement has made in both sound and dial-ability
and have applied for a patent to claim its obvious benefits as a MESA Exclusive. The simplest ideas are often the best... and easiest
to walk right by for 40 years. If only the folks at the patent office played guitar... we’ll cross our fingers.
Use this valuable enhancement at-will in either INPUT to craft some amazing threshold of clip chording or Blues solo voices or ap
-
ply it to already overdriven sounds to thicken them up or put them over the top. Just be aware that there is more gain here than can
feasibly be applied and still retain a balanced sound with a coherent attack characteristic. In other words... don’t dial yourself into
mush by adding so much gain there is no Tone left. A simple but often ignored concept.
NOTE:
THE MID/BOOST control functions as a normal Middle control in the lower half of its range from 0.0–5.0. In its upper range,
gain is incrementally added–until fully maxed at 10.0–it saturates the notes almost completely. This upper range may be over-the-top
when used in Input 1 with the VOLUME CONTROLS set high, as it can over-saturate and compromise the attack characteristics. Use
the MID/BOOST sparingly and with taste

and remember be nice to these guys

best of luck to you

[Gaz]

Hmmm, look at the schematic that Mark posted with the fixed 5k6 to ground.

What happens if this fixed resistor becomes adjustable?? We now have a mid pot tone control.

What happens IF this fixed resistance value is increased? We have a boost.

What happens IF we add a fixed resistance and a pot together? We have a mid tone control and a boost.

So a pot and a resistor overlap the mid-control, any additional resistance on the pot is now a boost. Nothing special, 1 "knob". There may be an additional cap in play connected to one of the pot lugs?? Just speculation on these points, but have done similar things more than 20 years ago.

Nothing Mesa does, is, or will be magic ever... Certainly not worth patents. Yawn.

John am not a beginner !
I have built ,modified for over 20 years.
But am a dyslexic person how not from US, so don't write so much .

I do know what u saying but, that is not how this mid/boost works .

U can here that is not just a big pot on this clip : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mD03JT1AgY
after 9 m

Oops, according to the manual that's exactly what it is! Myth busted.

[Smokebreak]

I think it is just a RAW control. The one amp I put a RAW control gets a boost like this amp.

I put these in Fender types, too. 250K audio so it works like a mid controls halfway up or whatever then variable stack lift the rest of the way. Great for getting a little bit extra grit out of Fenders when playing smaller rooms

[Gaz]

Also, swapping for a Dumble style mid control with 250kA pot is even better because the treble and bass controls still work!