gringopig's guitars
Mesa Boogie 'King Snake'
Based on the amplifier that Carlos Santana used early in his career and then later on after rediscovering it, this amplifier has a faux snake skin tolex and a beefy quad of 6L6GC giving switchable 100/60/10 Watts of power
Click on gallery for larger version
This signed limited edition amplifier recreates Carlos Santana's own amp and is signed by Carlos and Randall Smith. It uses combinations of the 4 available valves in the output section to provide class A/B 100 Watts with all 4, 60 Watts with inner 2 and 10 Watts in single ended class A with 2 valves. It also has a cascading input section, so with guitar plugged into input 2, you get a super saturated cascading gain from 1 into 2.
Apparently, it is based on a Boogie Mk1 and is essentially the first Boogie style - a modified Fender amp with additional valves stuffed in to a small chassis. It's small. It has 4 6L6GC valves. It has a small fan! It has to have it. I was puzzled about the quiet whine I heard after I got it home but eventually worked out that it is the fan running! I suppose given that this thing is so massively loud that a small fan won't bother anyone. Ha!
It's very heavy too. Not as back breaking as my Twin reverb with EVM 12L speakers but very heavy indeed. Extremely loud. Shockingly loud actually. I had to buy the Tone King Ironman II to tame it. It's rated at 100W RMS max and that's what the amp is but I use the amp on the 60 Watt mode or 10 Watt only really.
It has the potential to be a super saturated high gain amp but I generally like it into input 1 and leaving the gain a bit lower. The controls are all extremely wide ranging and it is unique in my experience for an amp to have such a precision control set. Every millimetre of travel on every pot makes a difference.
A nice reverb tank too but having the high end 'tweed' or 'blackface' control and reverb on the back panel is a bit awkward. It's a compact amp though.
To me it sounds like a Fender with the mid control about 1-2 and higher than 5 actually boosts the mids to create that Santana tone. Hardly surprising as it is his amp recreated.
He uses 60 Watt mode into input 1 and the mids about 5. Don't quote me though. I think he uses it at full volume and controls the guitar.
The amp has some weird ability to beam out volume. Did I say it was loud?
The Ironman II really helps. I couldn't use the amp without it actually.
I now have something interesting in hand for this amp. I had it on sale as, to me, it sounded a bit tight and 'beamy' - throwing out a loud stream of solid midrange but it was a bit 'boxy' sounding for the style I play. I like an open airy sound and this amplifier is quite small although very heavy and I felt the cabinet was maybe just a tad too small for a big chassis and a 12" speaker. There wasn't much acoustic space for sound to develop so it all beamed out the front like a laser.
It didn't sell though, so I took it off the market and tried plugging it into other cabinets in my other amps and lo and behold, the sound I was after was there!
So, this is the plan. I have ordered something special from Zilla Cabs in Cornwall and it's ready!
A custom made head and Fatbaby 1x12" cabinet is going to be the new home for the King Snake chassis. It has now arrived and the chassis has been transplanted!
I have retained everything in the original cabinet but just remove the chassis and moved it into a deep head cab with it's own new reverb tank in the bottom and tank bag. I bought an EVM 12L speaker which is the best speaker available in my opinion - I have 2 in my Fender Twin Reverb and it's installed in the Zilla Fatbaby cabinet now
Look at how cool this looks with the Boogie badge I bought from Mesa and the fantastic Zilla work!
The finished article is below.
I had sent Zilla down a form detailing the measurements of the chassis and this might be useful if you have the same amp and want to do the same thing as I did, so I include it below.
I also kept everything from the original cabinet intact so bought a replacement reverb tank and the means to make the reverb cable too. Now, this wasn't easy as it turns out.
I determined from measuring the input and output DC resistances of the original tank that the type was a 9AB3C1B and from the figures below you can see what those characters mean:
I bought a MOD 9AB3C1B tank with the following spec, so I thought it was correct as I measured 1.3 ohm on the input and 225 ohm on the output of the Mesa tank and I knew the Mesa page described the King Snake as having a 3 spring tank.
Type: Long (3 Spring) tank
Decay: long decay
Input: 10 Ω
Output: 2,575 Ω
Connectors: Input insulated/output grounded
Locking: No lock
Mounting: Horizontal/open side down
However I also had to buy a cable with one insulated wire and one non insulated as this came with the Boogie and I fitted Switchcraft phonos to each end. It didn't work in the amp though and I measured a high resistance between the hot of the input phono and the ground lug of the tank and output phone whereas the Boogie was measuring 1.3 ohm so confusion reigned.
Until I noticed that the tank had a wee unpopulated pad inside the tank which would link each phono to the chassis of the tank if required and I bridged them both!
In retrospect, I turned the tank into a 9AB3A1B
Then the resistances mirrored the Boogie and it worked. The problem was I couldn't take the reverb tank out of the Boogie to check without removing the speaker as it was such a tight fit.
I fitted it all back into the inner and outer Tube Doctor reverb tank bags and into the bottom of the head it went.
As I had the chassis out, I took pictures of the chassis which might be useful to someone. See below for a gallery of photographs of the build.
Sound samples soon but the amp sounds a lot better with the EVM 12L in a roomier open back cabinet. The Zilla cab actually has a 3 piece back so can become a closed back if need be.
This is a detailed look at the chassis gutshot. Click on the image for a magnified view.
This is a detailed look at the chassis gutshot. Click on the image for a magnified view.
Check out the demos below! The amp sounds a lot better with the EVM 12L in a roomier open back cabinet. The Zilla cab actually has a 3 piece back so can become a closed back if need be.
The first demo features my SC Relics Telecaster style guitar and the second features the 60th anniversary Les Paul and my 2014 60th anniversary Stratocaster.
