TH E S P I R I T O F A R T I N TE C H N O L O G Y

CLASS ‘A’
Exposed &
Explained
A Technical Rap
for Musicians:
“How Amps Work”
AND

“What is Class A?”

Randall Smith
MESA ENGINEERING
©2005 All Rights Reserved
Randall Smith
MESA ENGINEERING
 INTRODUCTION
G rab a glass of your favorite beverage and prepare to
hang out. These are big, tough topics we’ll be dealing
with and hopefully you’ll find this informative and enjoy-
able reading …especially because there’s no mandatory test
on Friday!
Two topics I’m often asked to explain are, “What is
Class A” and “What are the differences between the Lone
Star and its brother, the Lone Star Special”.
Because the two amps are the same except for their
power sections, we can combine both those questions so
that each one helps to explain the other. And when you get
a chance to audition the two amplifiers, you’ll be treated to
a demonstration of the musical impact of all the techno-
talk you’re about to read. You’ll be able to directly compare
Class A to Class AB, single-ended to push-pull, as well as
the inherent sonic differences between 6L6 and EL-84
power tubes. School was rarely this much fun!
But hang on because this stuff is pretty deep and no
one can expect to understand it all in one shot. I’ve worked
with it and thought about it for decades and still have lots
to learn. It’s more likely that each time you delve into it,
one or two more things will make sense and your under-
standing will grow step by step. A little like learning to play
an instrument.
First, the overview of the two amps: The Lone Star Spe-
cial includes all of the features of the original Lone Star
except Tweed Power. (You’ll see why there’s no need for
Tweed in a minute.) The Special has the same two-channel
pre-amp including the switchable Drive mode for Chan-
nel Two; the gorgeous Reverb, with its own Bright switch;
the all-tube FX Loop with the hard-bypass relay (which
totally removes the two Send and Return tubes plus their
Level controls and jacks from the signal path); the switch-
able fan; the aluminum chassis and so on, just like its Big
Brother.

Introduction 3
 But whereas the Lone Star uses four big 6L6 output
tubes with channel-assignable power switching of 50 or
100 watts, the Special uses four EL-84s, the crunchy little
nine-pin power punks. Each style of power has it own mu-
sical virtues, and many players will want both amps.
The 6L6s put out huge, airy warmth with shimmer-
ing highs and enough clean headroom to play almost any-
where. These power tubes are run “push-pull, Class AB”,
two for 50 watts, switchable to four in “push-pull-parallel”
for 100 watts, still Class AB.
The EL-84s in the Special sound a little more brash and
rebellious with their chimey top-end. Again they’re switch-
able, this time between three different power levels: 30,
15 or 5 watts, assignable per channel. These power ranges
are perfect for individual playing, recording and gigging
up to mid-size venues. And the different out-
put and break-up characteristics of the three
EL-84s are run
power levels is incredibly rewarding.
pure Class A for The EL-84s are run pure Class A for the
the maximum in maximum in vintage warmth. In the 30 watt
vintage warmth. position, all four tubes are operating in a
push-pull parallel configuration. Then one
pair can be switched off to provide 15 watts from the re-
maining two tubes. But what makes this amp truly Special
is the way it can also kick down to just one EL-84 for five
watts of preciously nuanced, single-ended, Class A power
bliss (patent pending).
OK, the rap sounds familiar, you’ve heard most of these
terms before because salesmen like to toss them out to get
you hyped on an amp …and perhaps a little intimidated as
well. Players usually nod their heads knowingly, thinking,
“Yeah, Class A. That’s the best. Isn’t it?” But few players
ever have the nerve to toss it back and ask for a real expla-
nation. And for good reason, too! The salesman probably
doesn’t know much more than you do! Yet after reading
this (a couple of times) you’ll be way ahead of the crowd.

4 Class A – Exposed & Explained

 OVERVIEW
T he most important thing for a musician to understand
is that the different amplifier Classes and Configura-
tions serve different purposes and styles. No one is flat-out
better. A player looking for maximum clean headroom will
want a Class AB, push-pull amplifier because power is its
forte. A player seeking a certain vintage vibe may well pre-
fer a Class A amp, but no matter what tube is used, it will
definitely be less powerful.
Either type can be made to sound warm and lush
or brash and biting – mostly as a result of other impor-
tant factors such as the pre-amp and driver circuitry, trans-
former and component choices
and, of course, speaker options.
(Of no demonstrable importance
is whether it was wired point-to-
point or on a well done printed
circuit board.) Tube type is vital:
EL-34s, 6L6s, EL-84s, 6550s
all sound different (especially
when clipping) and even differ-
ent brands of the same tube can FIGURE 1 illustrates a guitar-note waveform. The
vertical scale shows the amplitude (or amount) of
sound shockingly different. So if signal, as measured in volts. The horizontal scale rep-
you want to know more about resents time. As you can see, the frequency remains
the same (A-440) even though the amplitude decays
the technical classes, please read rapidly after the attack, exactly like the string vibra-
on and enjoy. But remember: the tion. This electrical waveform of that voltage (as you
would see it on an oscilloscope) would actually look
most important thing about any very much like a picture of the actual string vibration.
amp is what it does for You!

OK, TIME FOR SCHOOL!

L et’s start by making an important distinction between
“class of operation” and “power configuration”. These
are two separate concepts that describe two different as-
pects of an amplifier and how it works. Most people mix
them together and that only adds to the confusion, even

Overview & Time for School 5

 though they are related. So let’s try to straighten it out by
explaining each one separately. These terms are usually
used when describing the power output section of an am-
plifier because that’s where the differences occur. Nearly
every pre-amp circuit ever used is the same in that they are
all “single ended” and “Class A”.

CONFIGURATION
C onfiguration refers to the number and arrangement
of the tubes. The common terms for describing pow-
er tube configurations are “single-ended”, “push-pull” and
“parallel”. In single-ended, the entire signal runs through a
single path and is amplified by one tube at a time. Picture
your guitar cord: it’s single-ended. There is only one con-
ductor (plus ground) that carries the entire signal, swing-
ing back and forth between plus and minus voltages as the
string moves back and forth across the pickup. And as that
voltage goes through the pre-amplifier stages, it remains
single-ended. In a few amplifiers even the output section is
single ended with just one power tube – like an old Fender
Champ with its one 6V6 power tube. And of course that
5-watt position in the Lone Star Special. Mostly single-
ended power is used for
economy but it also has
some very interesting and
unique tonal characteris-
tics we’ll talk about later.
The much more com-
mon power configuration
is “push-pull”. Here the
signal is first split into two
FIGURE 2 shows a guitar string vibrating 440 times per second halves, 180 degrees “out
over the pickup, which is made of hundreds of turns of hair-size
wire wrapped around a magnet. The movement of ferrous metal
of phase” with each other.
(iron) in the string generates a voltage in the pickup wire by The “pluses” are ampli-
disturbing (or “modulating”) the field of the permanent magnet.
This is an example of a “single-ended” signal. For clarity and
fied by one tube, and the
simplicity, we’ll no longer show the amplitude decaying. “minuses” are amplified by

6 Class A – Exposed & Explained

another tube. Then the two signal halves are “recombined”
in the output transformer back into a single-ended voltage
to drive the speaker. (Picture a shower faucet with separate
Hot and Cold valves where the water mixes together and
all comes out of one spout.)
Most power amplifiers use the push-pull configura-
tion because it enables the output tubes to operate much
more efficiently – pro-
ducing more power from
fewer tubes with less waste
heat, and we’ll explain
how a little later. Mean-
while, note that push-pull
requires two power tubes
minimum though addi-
tional pairs may be added FIGURE 3 shows a balanced microphone output. Placing the
“in parallel” to increase ground in the center of the coil creates two separate “single-
ended” signals of opposite phase. The top half of the coil works
the power. That is why just like the example of Figure 2. The bottom half is similar but
you always see two, four, because it is “up-side-down” – with ground at the top of that sec-
tion of coil, the voltage swing is also “up-side-down” and there-
six or sometimes more fore 180 degrees out of phase. Thus as the voltage swings positive
big power tubes in an in the top half, it simultaneously swings negative in the lower
half. Merely relocating the “zero voltage” reference point of ground
amplifier, but always an to the center tap creates the balanced ”push-pull” signal halves.
even number.

HELPFUL DIGRESSION
P ush-pull is very similar to a balanced microphone out-
put. That signal is also split into two opposing phases
and is carried in two separate conductors (plus a ground).
The reason here is for noise cancellation. Microphones have
a very low output voltage that must be amplified many
times to become useable. The weak signal plus the high
amplification required means that noise picked up by the
mic cable becomes a big problem. This noise is made up of
stray AC electro-magnetic fields that are everywhere in the
modern world and they show up mostly as small 60 and
120 cycle voltages that are “induced” into the mic cable.

Configuration 7
 (“Induced” means the cable functions as the “secondary
winding” of a transformer, converting the stray magnetic
fields into small electrical voltages that sound like buzz and
hum.) Even a well shielded cable will pick up objection-
able levels of noise so the solution is to accept that noise
is unavoidable and solve the problem by canceling it out
at the mixing board. Here’s where push-pull or “balanced”
operation saves the day. Splitting the signal into two bal-
anced halves includes reversing the phase of one half while
retaining the phase of the other half. Say the original sig-
nal’s phase went + to - to +. One wire would remain just
that way.
Meanwhile the other wire with its phase inverted would
simultaneously be going - to + to -. In the process of re-
combining the two signal halves back into single-ended,
the “out-of-phase” component reverses back to its original
phase and is added back to the in-phase component. If it
remained out-of-phase when it was recombined, the pluses
and minuses would cancel out each other and the whole
signal would disappear. These phase changes are caused
simply by relocating the “0” voltage reference point from
the bottom of the transformer coil to the center, as shown
in the drawings.
So as a result of these phase changes, any voltages that
show up “in phase” on both conductors at the same time,
are later cancelled out because they become “out of phase”
with each other later on, when they’re recombined into sin-
gle ended. Since both conductors in a balanced mic cable
pick up the identical noise components, they totally cancel
each other out when they are reconstituted. The process
is called “common mode rejection” and the sole purpose
for the balanced cable system is simply noise suppression.
Humbucking pickups also use the phase-canceling prin-
ciple to reduce noise. This digression is included because
most musicians instinctively know something about bal-
anced mic cables and humbuckers even if they don’t know

8 Class A – Exposed & Explained

exactly how they work. And it’s a good introduction to
push-pull, especially since that cancellation process will be-
come important when we discuss the different sound char-
acteristics between the distortion harmonics of push-pull
and single-ended power amplifiers a little later on.

FIGURE 4 shows a transformer for converting between single

ended and push-pull. It works just as well in either direction.
The mic system might have one of these at each end to con-
vert from single-ended to balanced for the cable then back to
single-ended for the board. In a push-pull amplifier, the power
tubes would be on the balanced side and the speaker on the
single-ended side, since that’s the kind of device it is.

MORE ON CONFIGURATION
P arallel simply means additional identically wired tubes
are added to increase the power, either single-ended or
push-pull. But as a practical matter, single-ended parallel
is almost never used and here’s why: Even though adding
a second tube in parallel with a single-ended circuit will
double the power, the same two tubes wired instead for
push-pull can triple the power, or more. And the reason for
that difference has to do with that other term: the Classes
of Operation, so let’s discuss that next.

Configuration 9
 CLASSES OF OPERATION
T he “class of operation” describes how the tube(s) (in
any configuration) are “biased to operate”: are they
Class A, Class B or Class AB? (There is even a Class C
although it’s used for high power radio transmission, not
audio.) “Biased to operate” sim-
ply refers the various voltages on
The “class of operation” the tube(s) and how they relate to
(determined by the voltages one another, especially the negative
present) is totally separate “bias” applied to the grid. These
from how the tubes are voltages determine how much elec-
arranged and every amp trical current flows through the
circuit has BOTH a class tubes both when they’re amplifying
and a configuration. and when they’re “idling”, waiting
for you to play a note. Thus the
“class of operation” (determined
by the voltages present) is totally separate from how the
tubes are arranged and every amp circuit has both a class
and a configuration. Since pre-amp circuits are always run
single-ended and Class A, when we speak of other classes
and configurations we’re generally referring to the power
sections of amplifiers where the horsepower is generated
to drive the loudspeaker. That’s where the hard work gets
done and the output wattage is generated. Pre-amp signals,
in contrast, amplify the signal voltage all right but the cir-
cuits are high impedance so very little current (or amper-
age) is involved.

SECOND DIGRESSION
L et’s quickly describe the difference between voltage
and amperage. Voltage measures the “energy level”
(like pressure) and amperage measures the quantity. Both
must be present in some degree to comprise any electrical
current, but they can exist in wildly different proportions.
Here are two examples: Everyone is familiar with a static
electricity shock you may get when walking across a carpet

10 Class A – Exposed & Explained

and touching a door knob. The charge you pick up can
exceed 100,000 volts! That’s not a typo – and 100,000
volts is in the range of high-tension power transmission
lines! Fortunately, there is almost zero amperage (quantity
of electrons) or you would burst into flames and die. This
much high voltage can charge up because of the extremely
high impedance of dry air: there is virtually no load on
your body to drain the static (“not moving”) charge. Con-
trast that example with the battery in your car. It’s only
12 volts, so you could touch both terminals without feel-
ing anything. Yet the battery can produce lots of current
– a thousand amps or more – to turn over your engine.
Those may be low voltage electrons but there are so many
of them, the battery cables must be thick to handle the
high-amperage current. Power is measured in watts and
they are the product of multiplying volts times amps.
Pre-amp signals in vacuum tube amplifiers are mostly
“voltage” ranging from the 1 volt or so your guitar puts
out to as much as 100 volts of massively overdriven signal.
However, the current remains very low, around a milliamp
more or less (a thousandth of an amp), so like the static
electricity, there is almost no power involved. However the
power needed to drive your speaker to 100 watts is 20 volts
times 5 amps, closer to the car battery example. So you can
see that producing output power is a whole different job
for the tubes than merely boosting up a pre-amp signal.
And that’s why the other configurations and classes were
developed. And why an output transformer is needed.

CLASS ‘A’ POWER AND

CATHODE BIASING
Y ou often hear of “Class A” referred to with special
reverence, as though it possesses some mystical pow-
ers of musical magic. And maybe for some styles, it does.
Class A power always seems to sound warm, smooth and
natural – even when it’s pushed to clip and sounding brash

Class 'A' Power & Cathode Biasing 11

 and rebellious. Some players describe the feeling as juicy
and dynamic as well. Class A is the oldest, simplest and
least expensive way to wire power tubes. But Class A also
runs the hottest, and is the least
Class A power always seems efficient, least powerful way to
to sound warm, smooth operate tubes. And that’s why so
much development was aimed at
and natural –even when it’s circumventing the inefficiency of
pushed to clip and sounding Class A power. (Maybe it’s all that
brash and rebellious. waste heat that accounts for much
of the tonal warmth!)
The reason why it’s the simplest, oldest and cheapest
way to operate power tubes is because it generally doesn’t
require a “bias supply”. That’s an extra power supply sepa-
rate from the Main High-Voltage supply that ultimately
powers the speakers. The bias supply produces a negative
voltage (around -50 volts for 6L6s) and enables “Class AB”
operation of the tubes where they run cooler and put out
much more power than Class A. Virtually all guitar ampli-
fiers operate in either Class A or Class AB and we’ll get to
the differences between them in a moment.
Meanwhile, back to the historical roots. Any power
supply, including a bias supply, requires a rectifier to con-
vert the AC wall current to DC, plus a few resistors to set
the proper voltage and some filter capacitors to smooth out
the DC. AC is any current where the voltage is fluctuating;
DC is steady state current, as from a battery. Because it’s
fluctuating, AC can be “transformed” through transformers
to alter the voltage-amperage ratio (or the phase, as we’ve
seen). Though Edison gets most of the credit for bringing
electricity to the cities, he stubbornly (and incorrectly) ad-
vocated DC. Nikolai Tesla saw the virtue of AC: It allows
high voltage power transmission over great distances with
little loss that can be stepped down along the way to a level
safe for domestic use. The rivalry between these two men
was so fierce that Edison “invented” the electric chair, us-

12 Class A – Exposed & Explained

ing AC to show how deadly it was. Unfortunately, it failed
to kill the first poor victim until the third try! (Hey, I’ve
been shocked by both AC and DC high voltages but I hon-
estly failed to detect any significant differences in how they
felt!)
In the old days, rectifier technology was primitive and
expensive, usually requiring a tube, though selenium recti-
fiers were often used, even if they were almost as cumber-
some, expensive and unreliable. Now we have reliable sili-
con diodes that do a “technically superior” job of convert-
ing AC to DC for pennies. (I add the emphasis because we
have a patent on amplifiers that feature switchable rectifiers
to showcase the musical differences between vacuum tubes
and silicon diodes. That feature is included in both Lone
Stars as well as the famed Dual Rectifier models. But we’ll
go in-depth on the rectifier topic another time.)
For so-called Class A operation, the entire bias supply
can be eliminated (saving a lot of expense) and a simple re-
sistor connected between ground and the power tubes can
serve for biasing. It’s really more accurate to call these cir-
cuits “cathode biased” because they’re probably not always
going to be Class A, despite that preferred description. But
the distinction is a technical one and far less important
than the sex appeal attached to calling an amplifier “Class
A” – with its implication of being the very best. And that
will always out-class “Cathode Biased” even though both
terms are commonly used to describe the exact same thing!
Note that Class A can also be derived using a separate fixed
bias supply though, for guitar amps, it almost never is.

SO WHAT IS CLASS A?
W hat Class A really means is that “Grid bias and alter-
nating grid voltages are such that plate current in a
tube flows at all times”. Got that? That’s the entire defini-
tion from the RCA Tube Manual: the Ultimate Authority
itself. I’ve pondered that statement for decades and have

So What is Class A? 13
 concluded that it’s both simpler and more complex than
it appears.
To make it simpler, think of a tube in the British sense:
It’s a “valve”, mate. All Class A means is that the valve
would never shut off all the way. Some amount, even a
trickle would always be flowing through it. (How sexy is
that?)
In a vacuum tube, electrical current – like a fog of water
droplets – flows from the hot cathode (that central core
with the glowing filament inside) to the plate (or “anode”)
that big metal structure just inside the glass. In between the
cathode and the plate is the grid, a spiral coil of fine wire
with plenty of space between the turns. The grid acts as the
control element (like the handle of the valve) by regulating
the electron flow from cathode to plate. Here’s how:

FIGURE 5 shows a triode vacuum tube, such as a 12AX7. The

cathode has an electron-rich coating and is heated by the filament
inside. Electrons boil from its surface and form a cloud around the
cathode. These negative electrons are strongly attracted by the posi-
tively charged plate. But in between lies the grid and it is biased to
be slightly MORE negative than the cathode. Thus it repels many
of the electrons. In Class A, the balance between these two opposing
forces is set (or “biased”) so about half of the electrons flow between
the turns of the grid wire and make their way to the plate at idle.
Altering the voltage on the grid slightly causes a big variation in the
number of electrons that can pass through –and that’s how amplifica-
tion works!

14 Class A – Exposed & Explained

 Most everyone has heard that “like charges repel and
opposite charges attract”. Electrons moving in a vacuum
respond to these principles and that’s how tubes work.
The plate is charged positive and so it attracts the negative
electrons that literally boil up from the hot cathode. Those
electrons that make it to the plate are the plate current flow.
But in between the cathode and the plate is that “control
grid”. This fine wire coil is charged (biased) to be slightly
more negative than the cathode, and
thus it repels electrons because they’re
also negative. (Like charges repelling.)
The more negative the grid becomes,
the more it repels the negative elec-
trons and impedes their flow from the
cathode to the plate. And when the
grid becomes less negative, it has less
of a repelling effect. More electrons
can stream through its open spaces
to the positive plate. So all you have
to do to vary the plate current, (that’s
the electron flow) is to vary the grid FIGURE 6 is a schematic diagram of a
12AX7 triode tube in a typical pre-amp
voltage a little bit, up or down. That’s why circuit. The 1500 ohm resistor creates
the grid is like the handle of a valve: it con- “cathode bias” by lifting the cathode
slightly above the zero-volt ground. The
trols the flow of plate current. And since 1Meg (million) ohm resistor imposes
the grid doesn’t connect to anything (it just virtually no load on the grid or the signal
driving it but it does hold the grid’s static
hangs out there in the vacuum between the charge at zero volts and that makes it
cathode and the plate) it doesn’t consume “negative” with respect to the positive
cathode. The plate is charged highly
power and is very easy to drive. A small positive through the “plate load” resistor
change in grid voltage can cause a large to run at about half of the supply voltage
at idle. This is called “biased about the
change in plate current. mid-point of the linear region” and the
The “grid bias” of the RCA definition same principle is applied for power tubes
running in Class A as for pre-amp tubes.
is the fixed voltage that sets up the balance
between the plate’s attracting force and the
grid’s repelling force to determine how much current flows
when there is no incoming signal. By definition, “Class B”
means biased right to the point where plate current ceases

So What is Class A? 15
 to flow at idle and the tube is said to be “cut off”. (The
“valve” is turned all the way off.) The negative influence
of the control grid is so strong that no current flows until
you start to play a note. But in Class A, there is lots of idle
current flowing, optimally 50% of the maximum possible.
(You’ll see why later.)
Now the “alternating grid voltages” of the RCA defi-
nition are merely the incoming signal voltages from your
guitar that the tube is going to amplify. It’s YOU playing.
Your touch on the strings is what’s generating the origi-
nal “signal voltages” that your amp delivers to the speaker.
These “alternating voltages” are made up of “frequency”
(say A-440) and “amplitude” which is loudness. Pluck an
A note hard and about 1 volt comes out your guitar. As the
string vibration decays and the note gets softer, the volt-
age dies down, but it still alternates 440 times per second.
Now it’s more accurate to think of that 1 volt AC signal as
alternating between “plus 1/2 volt” and “minus 1/2 volt”
since that’s what’s generated as the string vibrates back and
forth over the pickup.
When that alternating voltage swings positive and is
added to the first pre-amp tube’s grid, it counteracts some
of the negative bias voltage there,
making the grid less negative and
allowing more current to flow to
the plate. When the guitar’s out-
put voltage swings negative, it
adds to the already negative grid
voltage, increases the repellant
force field of the grid and further reduces the current flow
to the plate. And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the
valve …uh tube, works. Pre-amp tube or power amp tube,
it’s exactly the same except for the size.
Class A would simply be a set of operating parameters
such that the valve never shuts off completely and some
amount of current, even if it’s just a trickle, is always flow-

16 Class A – Exposed & Explained

ing through it. This is the best part of Class A operation
because it’s when a tube stops and starts – cuts off then
resumes conducting current that most distortion or “non-
linearities” – occur. And
distortion, to the RCA en-
gineers, was Bad. In their
world, amps were never
intended to be turned up
into distortion. But even
the most Class A amp, if
turned up loud enough,
would go beyond Class A
and into cut-off. At some
point those “alternating
grid voltages” (that’s the FIGURE 7 shows the same tube under dynamic conditions.
As the input voltage swings positive, it reduces the repelling
signal, which increases with force the grid had at idle. More electrons then stream to the
loudness) will add so much plate, loading it down and causing a bigger drop through the
plate resistor. This “drags down” the voltage on the plate from
to the “fixed bias voltage” 100 to 50 volts. When the grid swings negative, the effect is
and create such a strongly reversed. The grid repels more electrons and causes less of a drag
(or drop) through the plate load resistor allowing the voltage
negative field at the grid, on the plate to rise to 150 volts. Thus the 1 volt input signal
that current will indeed has now caused a 100-volt change at the plate. By coupling this
“fluctuating DC” through a capacitor or transformer, the DC
cease flowing. In radios component is blocked and only the fluctuations remain as a
and hi-fi’s, designers can as- pure AC signal of 100 volts, or, + and - 50.
sume you’ll never turn it up into heavy clipping because it
sounds so bad. Thus they can say an amp is always Class A
because they can predict the maximum input signal. Then
there are guitar amps. No such prediction can be made
and in fact the opposite is true. Huge signals are purposely
used to create overdrive and distortion. Those poor old en-
gineers would be shocked and stunned at what we do to
their tubes! And in the name of music, no less! I’ve hung
out with some of these old guys and indeed, they were ap-
palled, once they got over their disbelief! (Try describing
an amp spewing out a barrage of hard-core krang to a guy
whose only exposure to guitar is campfire folk songs!)

So What is Class A? 17
 HOW AN AMP WORKS
N ow let’s discuss something pretty basic that confuses a
lot of musicians. In an amplifier, the weak little volt-
age from your guitar is not really “built up” to something
that can drive a loud speaker. Rather, there is a big High
Voltage Power Supply in every amplifier and that is the
source of the juice that makes your speaker move. Think
of it as a jumbo battery. And like a battery, it’s a DC power
source, steady and un-
wavering.
What the amplifier
does is “modulate” the
power from that supply
through the speakers in
accordance with your gui-
tar signal. It’s that same
current flow we were just
talking about. And in a
way, amplification is like
FIGURE 8 shows a complete but very simplified single-ended
amplifier. The power supply consists of the transformer to converting DC to AC (the
boost the 120 AC wall voltage to around 450; the rectifier to opposite of “rectifying”).
convert the AC to DC; the main filter capacitor to smooth the
DC and provide a reservoir of current. Juice flows from this Play a soft A-440 and the
main high-voltage power supply through the power tube and output valves in your amp
its output transformer. Fluctuations in current flowing through
the output transformer are coupled to the speaker as useable let a little of that DC cur-
output power. The pre-amp increases the guitar signal to a level rent flow from the supply
sufficient to drive the power tube.
through to the speaker,
440 times per second. (Now it’s 440 Hertz Alternating
Current.) Play a loud A and the tubes allow a lot more cur-
rent to flow, still at 440 Hz. Now that’s basically how tube
amplification occurs – and it is like a valve! Think of the
chain of pre-amp tubes as working like a sequence of levers
hooked up one to another so at the end there is finally
enough “leverage” to open and close the big power valves.
“So, what about the ‘Class A’ bit”, you ask. “If Class
A means current always flows, why don’t I hear anything
when I’m not playing”.

18 Class A – Exposed & Explained

 Good question. Here’s the answer: at idle, the current
that’s flowing is pure DC, direct current, steady and unwav-
ering. And the “output transformer” coupled between your
power tubes and your speaker does more than “transform”
the different impedances of the tubes and the speaker so
they match each other. It also blocks
the flow of direct current.
Put another way, the output trans- The “output transformer”
former only allows the fluctuations in coupled between your
current flowing through its primary power tubes and your
(input) winding to be coupled through speaker does more than
the magnetic field of its iron core and “transform” the different
to induce a current at the secondary impedances of the tubes
(output) winding connected to your and the speaker to match
speaker. Any current flowing through
each other. It also blocks
the primary winding that is steady
and unwavering, as is DC, produces
the flow of direct current.
no current at the secondary.
Look at the picture. You’ve got this big DC power
source coupled through the output tube and the trans-
former primary winding. The power tube functions like a
valve turning a little more ON then a little more OFF, 440
times a second for the soft note. And turning a lot more
ON and a lot more OFF for the loud note. In this way the
amount of high-voltage DC current flowing through the
primary is modulated, or fluctuated, 440 times per second.
On the secondary side only the fluctuations appear as 440
cycle Alternating Current without the high-voltage DC
component. Again, that’s amplification! Only this time it’s
power amplification and it’s “transformer coupled”. So the
output transformer does three important things: It is an
“impedance matching device” converting the high-volt-
age-at-low-amperage required by the tubes into low-volt-
age-at-high-amperage required by the speaker, it converts
from push-pull to single ended, and it blocks the flow of
DC current. Moreover, the output transformer is a cru-
cial part of an amplifier’s sonic personality. One of the first

How An Amp Works 19

 transformer engineers I was fortunate enough to work with
was a real old guy who said, “Son, output transformers are
half science and half black magic. But it’s the black magic
that counts!” How true!

IDLE CURRENT
T he Classes of Operation have just as much to do with
the idle state as with the actual amplification itself.
Consider Class B, because it’s easy to picture. In Class B,
the bias is set so no current flows when there’s no signal.
Thus no power is being consumed and no heat generated.
(Think of this as “zero idle RPM”.) Then when a signal
voltage hits the input grid, the positive half-cycles turn the
tube ON, it begins to conduct current from the power sup-
ply directly into the load (usually a transmitting antenna)
and very efficient power amplification takes place. It’s a bit
like an electric golf cart or a new hybrid car. The motor
stops turning when you stop the cart. When you want to
go, the motor starts right up again. It has its range from
Off to Maximum. But to get going, you have to first turn
on the current because none flows at idle.
Then there is Class AB. This would be like having the
motor go to a low RPM idle when you’re stopped. It’s still
turning over (some current is flowing) but not nearly the
maximum available. You could let out the clutch and putt
around but only at a slow-to-moderate speed. But to get
fast (or loud), you have to increase the total current flow
– not just cause it to fluctuate. The loudness at which the
total current begins to increase is the transition into Class
B. In many ways Class AB is the best of both worlds for
audio and it’s how the 6L6 Lone Star, the Rectos, Stilettos
and most Fenders and Marshalls operate. Its high efficiency
makes it the pinnacle of power for clean, cool audio.
Then there’s good old Class A. In a single-ended, pure
Class A power circuit, the current runs at 50% of maxi-
mum even at idle when there’s no incoming signal. Then

20 Class A – Exposed & Explained

when a small signal voltage hits the input grid, it causes the
current flow to fluctuate up and down between, say 60%
and 40% of maximum. A louder signal would cause great-
er current fluctuations, say between 80%
and 20%. And the maximum undistort-
ed signal output would occur when the
input signal drives the tube so it conducts
a current that fluctuates between 100%
and 0% at the A-440 or whatever the in-
put signal frequency is.
Notice how the current fluctuations in a proper Class
A amplifier are always centered around the mid-point, that
50% of maximum which is the same as the idle current.
What this means is that there is no net increase in the cur-
rent flow like there is in Class B or AB, no matter how
loudly you play. In a single-ended configuration, the in-
creases and decreases in current flow are momentary (at
the signal frequency), equal and opposite around that 50%
mid point. At one instant of the A-440 there will be more
current flowing, but in the next instant there will be an
equal amount less flowing. Thus the total over any period
of time remains constant.
Now in a pure Class A, Push-Pull amplifier, 100% of
the maximum current flows at idle, 50% through each
side. When an incoming signal causes fluctuations, the
current in one side of the push-pull increases from, say
50% to 70% while current in the other side simultane-
ously decreases from 50% to 30%. The two signal halves
alternately offset each other so the total current flowing
through the output circuit remains the same at 100%.
(Not all, so called, Class A amplifiers work so perfectly bal-
anced right up to – and well into – clip, but the Lone Star
Special does. You can measure the current flowing through
the output tubes and it never changes whatever the signal.)
Remember, only the fluctuations in current are transferred
as useable energy to the speaker.

Idle Current 21
 DISSIPATION
N otice how in the Class A example, the current swings
are always centered around that mid-point idle cur-
rent which is 50% of maximum. This is called “biased
around the mid-point of the linear region”. That’s the vital
for low distortion. The other classes of operation, Class B
and Class AB are definitely not biased anywhere near that
mid-point and that’s the key to their ability to run cool and
produce more power.
Remember earlier how
one big disadvantage of
Class A is that it runs so
hot and is so inefficient?
Here’s a new word for
most of you: “dissipa-
tion”. (And I’m not talk-
ing about the Keith Rich-
ards type of lifestyle!) Dis-
sipation is wasted power
that the tube turns into
FIGURE 10 shows the current fluctuations of Push-Pull Class heat. To use the car anal-
A operation. Total current remains at 100% under all condi-
tions. At idle, the current is split 50-50 between the push-pull ogy: Class A idling is like
halves. When driven by a signal, current flowing to one side having the engine running
increases but is simultaneously offset by an equal decrease in
current to the other side. This “back-and-forth” increase/de- wide open with the brakes
crease action alternates at the signal frequency A-440. locked and the clutch
slipping. All the engine’s power is being wasted and “dis-
sipated” into heat. To get some useful output, you would
have to let up on the brakes, not completely, but enough
to get the car moving. Then there would be less total slip-
page (or dissipation), even though it’s now shared between
the clutch and the brakes – which are dragging but not
locked. But now you’re getting some useful work from the
engine’s power, in the form of motion, instead of just waste
heat. Engine power – in any amount that’s used for mov-
ing the car – reduces the dissipation by that same amount
because there is that much less total slippage at the clutch

22 Class A – Exposed & Explained

and brakes. At full speed ahead neither the clutch nor the
brakes would be slipping. Nearly all of the power would
finally be converted into motion (or sound) with virtually
no dissipation through slippage friction. But just as you
can’t drive your car at full speed all the time, the highly
dynamic nature of music means that Class A amps spend
most of their time dragging and slipping. There are only
briefly dynamic peaks where most of the energy actually
goes to the speaker.
To recap: Class A amplifiers, single-ended or push-pull,
suffer from maximum dissipation at idle. All the steady
state DC power passing through the tubes goes up in heat.
Only when that power fluctuates (like at A-440) does some
of it convert to useful audio power
to drive the speaker. Power that flows
through the tubes and drives the
Power that flows through
speaker is power that is not dissipated the tubes and drives the
as heat. Yet the dissipation rating of a speaker is power that is
tube is what limits its power capabil- NOT dissipated as heat.
ity much more than the useable pow- Yet the dissipation rating
er that can pass through it. Like the of a tube is what limits
clutch analogy, it’s the slippage con- its power capability much
verting energy into dissipated heat more than the useable
that kills it, not the power flowing power that can pass
through it when it’s fully engaged.
Long before Class A power be-
through it.
came sexy in the retro-vintage sense
that we all dig, the direction of amplifier technology was
to deliver more power with greater economy. There was no
mystique about Class A, only an awareness of its shortcom-
ings and a desire for more clean horsepower with less waste
heat.
Other classes of tube operation were developed to do
just that. Class B and Class C are both highly efficient and
cool running, and work great for radio transmitters where
vast amounts of power are required. These classes are bi-
ased so there is virtually no idle current, and nearly all of

Dissipation 23
 the juice passing through the tubes is converted to useful
output.
Unfortunately, those classes aren’t suited for audio: Too
much distortion caused by that “turning on and off” phe-
nomenon. So designers in the late 1930’s started to come
up with an exciting new configuration that helped over-
come the waste of a Class A operation and the distortion of
Class B. It’s the “push-pull” we’ve been talking about and
it makes possible Class AB operation with high efficiency
and low distortion.

CLASS AB
H ere’s where “class” and “configuration” really work to
each other’s advantage. The push-pull configuration
with its balanced operation makes Class AB possible, and
what a great thing that is. Here’s why: We’ve discussed how
single-ended Class A requires that the tube be biased to
conduct 50% at idle. We talked about how a push-pull pair
of power tubes running Class A should be biased so each
one conducts 50% at idle (so there’s no real advantage in
terms of power or dissipation.) And we’ve mentioned Class
B where there’s no idle current or dissipation because the
tubes are biased to cut-off, generating too much distortion
for audio.
What Class AB does is fill in the “gap” in the middle of
Class B push-pull operation. It eliminates the cut-off by in-
suring that some current flows during idle and throughout
the transition from one side of the push-pull to the other.
Earlier we used the shower faucet analogy with sepa-
rate Hot and Cold valves to illustrate how current flows in
push-pull. Well, now imagine that you can link the valve
handles together with a rod so both valves turn when you
move the rod back and forth.
Let’s say moving the rod left increases the Hot and de-
creases the Cold. Shoving the rod right does just the oppo-
site. Class B push-pull would be set up so that with the rod

24 Class A – Exposed & Explained

in the middle position, no water
would flow. Pushing it left would
turn on the Hot and have no ef-
fect on the Cold, since it’s already
off. As you moved the rod back to
the right, all flow would stop mo-
mentarily as you passed the center
– that’s the idle point – then the
Cold would start flowing. That
Here’s something you can try at home if you
dead spot in the center represents have the right kind of opposite-turning valves.
the distortion caused by cut-off.
For Class A push-pull, picture the Hot and Cold valves
each turned half-way on before they’re linked together.
Now moving the rod back and forth doesn’t vary the total
volume of water, it just changes the mix of Hot and Cold.
The fact that you can no longer turn off the water repre-
sents the waste of Class A dissipation.
And for Class AB push-pull, both Hot and Cold would
be on a little bit in the center position but able to dramati-
cally increase the total flow when the rod is moved far to
the left or right. The dead spot is eliminated and waste
water is greatly reduced. These are the advantages of AB
push-pull operation.
In electronic terms, Class AB push-pull is like two
a-symmetrically biased amplifiers that mirror image each
other. At idle, both are turned on around 10% to 30%,
as determined by the bias setting. Because they are biased
closer to OFF than ON, they run cool. They also have the
potential to turn ON much more than they can turn OFF
because at idle, they are nearly off already. For small signals
they work just like a Class A amplifier: merely modulating
the idle current flowing through them, neither turning off
nor requiring an increase in input power.
But as you play louder, the Class B a-symmetry be-
gins to show. Each side of the push-pull alternately turns
way more ON than off, causing the current to increase

Class AB 25
 first through one side then through the other. And as the
opposite side – the one with the diminishing current –
approaches cut-off, the ”on-going” side has already entered
its linear region and can take over while avoiding the distor-
tion around cut-off. Providing such a Class A zone of over-
lap between the push and pull halves of a Class B amplifier
allows the transition to occur smoothly by eliminating the
“dead spot” in the middle. And the reduction of wasted
dissipation is huge. Check out the waveforms shown below
to understand the concept of “a-symmetrical” operation.
Figure 9A shows a Class A output
right at the maximum clean possible.
The circuit is “biased about the mid-
point of its linear region” as we’ve said
before and current fluctuates sym-
metrically between +50% and -50%
for a total 100% of what’s available.
Biasing at the midpoint means the
tube is running hot and wasting most
of the power except when driven to
max. The waveform of 9B shows the
same amplifier driven beyond max
and into clip. It’s input signal is telling
the tube to conduct more then 100%
and since it can’t do that, it distorts.
The dotted lines show the “clipped”
sections that are missing. The circuit
is still symmetrical, being biased to
operate around that midpoint.

Figure 9C shows the tube biased far away from that

hot midpoint. It can still conduct the same total amplitude
(height) of waveform but doing so a-symmetrically causes
it to run out of excursion in one direction and clip early.
Any signal above plus-and-minus 10% is going to drive
the lower half of the waveform into clip. This is the price
you would pay for running the tube nice and cool with

26 Class A – Exposed & Explained

very little dissipation at idle! It’s
almost as bad as what a single-
ended Class B waveform looks
like and you can see why it’s no
good for audio.
But if we add another tube in
its mirror image for push-pull,
we can combine the waveforms
as shown in Figure 9D. The zone
from plus-ten to minus-ten per-
cent represents the Class A por-
tion where current flows through
both tubes. Signals beyond that
level will drive each of the tubes
alternately into cut-off with
the remainder of the signal be-
ing amplified by the other tube,
again at the A-440 or whatever
frequency.
Now, if you’re still with me,
here’s the real big benefit. Since
we’ve reduced the idle current
(amps) by biasing the tube away from that midpoint, we
can now substantially increase the voltage and still keep
the dissipation at a level well below what it was for Class
A. And as the voltage on the tubes increases, so does the
amplitude or amount of clean power they can conduct. It
can go way up.

POWER AMP DISTORTION

D istortion in an amplifier increases dramatically when
the input signal is so large it tries to tell the tube to
conduct more than 100% or less than 0% of the current
available in the high voltage supply because, of course, it
can’t do so. This type of overdrive distortion can, and does,
occur in power or pre-amp circuits when they’re driven

Power Amp Distortion 27

 FIGURE 11 shows a simplified push-pull amplifier. Compare the resistor values in the
pre-amp and phase splitter tubes. In the pre-amp the ratio of 1K cathode to 100K plate
would give a theoretical gain of 100 times. By using identical 50K resistors in the phase
splitter’s plate and cathode circuits, there is no amplification “gain” but rather signals of
equal amplitude and opposite phase appear at plate and cathode to drive the push-pull
power tubes. High voltage DC is fed to the power tubes through the center tap of the
output transformer. A separate bias supply enables the tubes to operate “asymmetri-
cally” for Class AB. Performance would be as shown in waveform 9D. When clipped,
the waveform would be the same as shown in 9B.

hard and especially when they’re equipped with extra gain

to provide intentional overdrive. A typical overdriven and
clipped waveform is pictured in Figure 9B.
In power output stages, what usually happens before the
power supply runs out is that the power tubes themselves
reach maximum capacity, literally running out of room
on the insides of their plates. So much current is flowing
that the entire inner surface is saturated and the extra elec-
trons arriving there have no place to “stick”. This is why we
can raise or lower the output capacity of the amplifier by
switching additional tubes in or out.
Authentic retro tone is all about power and the way it
clips. Yet in any given amp, the sweet-spot of power clip is
inseparably tied to its wattage and playing loudness. The
two Lone Stars smash this age-old limitation by giving you

28 Class A – Exposed & Explained

distinct and switchable power configurations, each with
its own window of wattage for genuine power tube clip,
beginning at 5, 15, 30, 50 or 100 watts, depending on the
amp and its setting. And these are channel-assignable, so
each can be tailored for the tone and power you want.
Switching out pairs of power tubes is something I first
came up with around 1969 for a Marin County band
called Flying Circus. Bill Graham’s “3-Band” policy for the
Fillmore was that the opening band had to share their gear
with the second band to avoid lengthy stage changes. Cir-
cus had just put new JBL’s in their Twins and worried that
the hard-rock band that followed them would blow up the
new speakers. So they asked if I could come up with a way
to secretly reduce the power before their rivals took over.
And turning off one pair of 6L6s on each amp via switches
I had hidden under the chasses did the trick. We later dis-
covered the musical virtues of power tube switching (be-
cause they forgot to turn all four back on!) and have used it
in many different amps since then, finally making it chan-
nel assignable in the two Lone Stars (patent pending).

DISTORTION CHARACTERISTICS
A nother kind of distortion occurs as a result of “cut-
off” (current ceasing to flow) at the transition be-
tween pushing and pulling. This “cross-over” or “notch”
distortion sounds fairly brash and searing; it’s comprised of
the higher odd-order harmonics.
A Marshall with EL-34s that is biased too cool will
produce much more of this notch distortion than will any
Fender with 6L6s, so part of it is the intrinsic differences
between the tube types. Decreasing the bias (making it less
negative) extends the Class A zone at the transition and will
usually soften or eliminate this situation at clip. However in
EL-34 amps, the notch may reappear when the power amp
is heavily overdriven as a result of the huge signal voltage
totally overwhelming the negative grid bias and actually

Distortion Characteristics 29
 driving the control grids positive. This is called Class AB2
operation. When it happens the control grids themselves
begin to draw current from the cathode, though it does not
become useful power to drive the speaker.
You may think that the reverence for Class A would sug-
gest that the lower you set the bias, (and therefore the more
Class A an AB amp runs) the better it will sound. Not true.
While the measured distortion will continue to fall as bias
is reduced, the sound for guitar amps, at
...all Mesa/Boogies come least, passes through a “sweet spot” and
with the bias perma- begins to lose its sparkle and liveliness.
nently wired to the This is one reason why all Mesa/Boogies
come with the bias permanently wired to
correct setting, to main-
the correct setting to maintain this sweet
tain this sweet spot spot within our range of power tubes.
within our range of One of the most interesting features
power tubes. of the Lone Star Special is that ability to
switch configuration from push-pull to
single-ended. (This is a lot trickier than merely turning off
more tubes. We have a patent pending on how it’s done.)
Don’t forget that push-pull, like balanced operation, can-
cels out anything that is common to both sides.
And that’s exactly what happens to the second distor-
tion harmonic: It gets cancelled out and disappears. “Sec-
ond harmonic” is the technical name for the distortion
component one octave above the fundamental note that
generates it, when clipping. Not only is it the most pre-
dominate distortion element produced by the tubes, but
it’s also the warmest and juiciest because of its simple musi-
cal consonance. However that second harmonic content is
entirely eliminated in push-pull circuits by the same can-
cellation process that eliminates noise from microphone
cables. In technical terms this was the original reason for
running Class A in a push-pull configuration, lower dis-
tortion. Any benefit in terms of power or dissipation only
occurs in Class AB push-pull. Looking at it all together,

30 Class A – Exposed & Explained

you can see why Push-Pull AB is the pinnacle of power
for audio: Huge increases in power and efficiency plus the
biggest component of the distortion spectrum completely
eliminated! Wow! Such a Deal.
In musical terms though, the distortion “Second harmonic” is
reduction is less significant because that
not only the most pre-
second harmonic is so musically consonant
that it doesn’t so much sound like a grating dominate distortion
crackle (like the higher order harmonics) element produced by
but more like a sweetening and softening the tubes but it’s also
of the original note since what is added, is the warmest and
the same note an octave higher, at some per- juiciest because of
centage (say 3% to 20% or so) of the fun- its simple musical
damental. A perfect example of technical consonance.
measurements being misleading compared
to sonic reality. (Meanwhile a small propor-
tion of 5th, 7th or higher harmonics is definitely notice-
able and sounds buzzy, thin and grating.)
The predominant distortion harmonic remaining in a
push-pull circuit is the third, which is an octave and a fifth
above the fundamental. This is still fairly consonant musi-
cally and can actually help the amplifier punch and sting
its way through a band’s mix. Switching the Lone Star Spe-
cial between 5 watts single-ended and 15 watts push-pull
will reveal these subtle but noticeable differences between
the distortion signatures of the two configurations. Five
watts is subtle, precious and nuanced – perfect for individ-
ual playing or recording. Fifteen watts push-pull is bright,
chimey and punchy – altogether better for cutting through
a band’s mix.

SIMUL-CLASS POWER
H ere’s something you won’t find in any textbooks, al-
though you will find it described in our US Patents
4,532,476 and 4,593,251. Simul-Class is a push-pull par-
allel configuration where the parallel pairs are dissimilar.

Simul-Class Power 31
 It’s really two separate and different push-pull amplifiers
that may be operated individually or “Simul-taneously”
each in different “Classes”, through a common output
transformer. One pair of tubes is biased to operate Class
AB while the other pair is biased to run Class A. The Class
A pair sets the sonic sound stage while the AB pair delivers
the majority of the horsepower. Not only does the Class
A pair of tubes go further in alleviating the “dead spot”
during the push-pull transition, it also extends the region
before current is cut off in the off-going section through
the output transformer.
Simul-Class sounds That notch distortion mentioned ear-
smoother, warmer and lier is exaggerated by the “back voltage”
generated by collapsing current in alter-
less punchy than our
nate halves of the output transformer.
standard Hundred Watt Here’s what that means: We’ve touched
power. In short, it has on how a transformer only passes fluc-
more of the Class A tuations in current, not steady-state DC
characteristics. flow. Well, when the power momentari-
ly and alternately shifts (again at A-440)
and all flows through one half of the output transformer,
current may be momentarily cut off for the other half
when driven hard. The magnetic field stored in that half of
the transformer iron from its DC current “collapses” when
that current suddenly ceases to flow, and as it does so, the
magnetism converts back into voltage. That becomes yet
another distortion component. (To return to the car anal-
ogy: The voltage used to arc across a spark plug is generated
the same way. When the charge is removed from the ig-
nition spark coil, the stored magnetism converts instantly
into a spike of output voltage which is used to ignite the
fuel mix in the engine.)
By now you know that Class A is only meaningful as
a combination of fixed bias and signal voltage (loudness),
so Simul-Class allows the push-pull amplifier to remain
above the cut-off point while handling a larger signal. Even

32 Class A – Exposed & Explained

though the Class AB pair have stopped drawing current,
the Class A pair continues to maintain some current flow
through the transformer primary, preventing a collapse of
the magnetic field and that resulting back voltage.
Many Simul-Class amplifiers also ran the Class A pair
wired for Triode operation. This means that the screen
grids of those two tubes are wired to the plates and are
functionally disabled. Think of the screen grids as accelera-
tor elements, working like a catalyst to increase the tube’s
sensitivity to incoming signals. With the screens disabled,
the resulting Triode response has a much more gradual re-
action (a lower “power sensitivity”) to incoming drive sig-
nals, causing a softer onset of clip. The sonic response is
somewhat comparable to using your fleshy thumb to pluck
a string as compared to the harder edge of a pick. The note
is still the same frequency and may be just as loud, yet
the harmonic content, and hence the timbre, is entirely
different. Triode operation also reduces the tube’s power
handling capability by about half.
Simul-Class is found today in our Mark IV and Stereo
2:Ninety amplifiers and has its precedent set in the hal-
lowed Mark II-C’s of yesteryear, some of Metallica’s favor-
ites. Simul-Class power sounds smoother, warmer and less
punchy than our standard Hundred Watt power. In short,
it has more of the Class A characteristics.

MILES AND COLTRANE

T his techno-rap could go on forever. It’s hard to know
how or where to end. In fact, it reminds me of a story
from the late days of the great Miles Davis Band when John
Coltrane would regularly play solos lasting 20, 30, 40 min-
utes or more. When Miles complained to Coltrane about
this, Trane replied, “There’s still more to say, man. I don’t
know…How do you end a solo?” To which Davis replied
slowly, “…You take the horn out of your mouth.”
THE END
(for now, at least)

Miles & Coltrane 33

 MESA PATENTS

Original Lead/Rhythm Dual Mode Amplifier 4,211,893

Simul-Class Power Amp 4,532,476

Simul-Class Power Amp 4,593,251

Lead/Rhythm Dual Mode Amplifier (Simplified) 4,701,957

Dyna-Watt Power Amp 4,713,624

Tweed & Spongy Power - Mains Voltage Reduction 5,091,700

Selectable Dual Rectifier 5,168,438

TriAxis Preamp – Programmable Midi Control of 8 Tube Modes 5,208,548

Progressive Linkage - Variable Power Tube Power Section 5,559,469

Parallel FX Loop with Mix Control 6,522,752

Mute Circuit 6,621,907

Solo Control – Pre-settable, Footswitchable Volume Boost 6,724,897

The Home of Tone, Petaluma, California – Good Ol’ USA
Mesa/Boogie Ltd., 1317 Ross Street, Petaluma CA 94954 Phone: 707-778-6565 www.mesaboogie.com Price: $1.00