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s a teenager growing up on Long Island, NY I was surrounded by music...Zeppelin, Rush, Ozzy
and Van Halen cranked over the airwaves, there was a band in every other garage on my block and
everyone played guitar. Rock and metal was taken very seriously throughout the east coast suburbs
and oftentimes it was the word of an older ‘seasoned’ player that was taken as scripture. It was, in fact, how
I was initially turned on to the players who would ultimately have the most profound influence on me as
a young guitarist, such as Steve Morse and Al DiMeola, and it was also how I first heard of MESA/Boogie.
I’ll never forget visiting a local music store (where I would eventually end up being employed as a guitar
teacher) that one of these respected ‘elders’ said to me; “If you want to try a real guitar amp, play through a
Boogie.” I was immediately intrigued by the funky name and just as instantly turned into a Boogie fanatic
when I plugged my guitar into one at the store and heard the magic roar of the American-made, all-tube
rig in that tiny music store fill every corner of the room. I’ll never forget it. What the hell was this thing?
Made in Petaluma? Where was that? It might as well have said it was made in the North Pole by Santa’s
elves. Maybe there were tone elves living in Northern California’s wine country who toiled over work-
benches covered in tubes and circuit boards and built these life-changing sound machines. Who knows?
Regardless of my naïveté, from that moment, I kept having serendipitous encounters with Boogies in so
many different settings and circumstances.
Experiences like hearing the God-like tone of a local guitar hero and discovering that he was playing
through a Boogie. Or seeing Pat Thrall play with Jack Bruce in a nearby mainstay and being blown away
by the cascading tone coming from this little head on stage with the name ‘Boogie’ across the front. Or the
big moment of being completely enveloped in the massive guitar tones on Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’
for the first time only to find out that it was none other than the fabled MARK IIC+ that I was hearing.
Needless to say, I became a fanatic of all things Boogie and not only would I end up being somewhat of a
collector, but unbeknownst to me, the very style that I developed as a player would be forever entwined and
associated with that ‘Boogie sound’. I can’t begin to describe the impact that this discovery has had on me as
a player ever since.
There has always been something magical about getting a new Boogie and cranking it up for the first time. In
fact, I still recall after having placed my first substantial order for a Quad Preamp, 295 Power Amp, Midi Matrix,
Abacus midi controller and Shock-Mount rack, waiting for the delivery and seeing that Roadway truck pull up
to my house. It really was like Christmas!
As it turns out, it wasn’t just the awesome MESA/Boogie gear that screamed quality, workmanship and
artistic integrity that hooked me, it was also the immediate, and subsequent care and service that the small
California company extended to me, even as an unknown and not-yet professional young guitar player. I still
remember my first tech call with none other than Doug West, who treated me as if I was in Metallica and
not just some kid from Long Island with a new amp. That call and the relationships with Doug, Randy, Jim
and the entire Boogie family that would develop far into the future, meant everything to me.
Fast forward to me and Dream Theater being fortunate enough to turn that youthful passion into a full-blown
career in music and those moments of kindness, service, loyalty and tonal discovery worked their way into my
life as a professional. So much so that you can hear a MESA/Boogie amp on every DT album ever recorded,
live or studio, as well as on my 2005 solo album ‘Suspended Animation’.
In fact, nothing demonstrates the signature commanding presence of an iconic MARK IIC+ better than the