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Only six knobs? Are you sure it's a Boogie?

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• Review

The last Mesa with just six knobs was the seminal Mark I, introduced way back in 1972. Since then the Californian company has proudly packed its amps with features to give we guitarists ever more flexibility. Alas, many of us are simple creatures and frequently bemoan 'over-complication': can't we just plug in and go? Welcome the Electra Dyne, then, a Boogie-shaped gauntlet for even the most the pot and switch-phobic.

The Electra Dyne's aesthetics have a welcoming old-school vibe, courtesy of the curved edges of the roomy 1 x 12 cabinet's cut-outs, the logo typeface and fifties cooker-style knobs. It's all in keeping with the simple-to-use ethos for which Boogie deserves big praise, not least because what's happening inside is anything but simple…

In the following video demo, we've referred to the Electra Dyne as a two-channel amp. Boogie bills it as single-channel with three modes, however, even though it has separate circuits and valves for the modes. You have three sounds at your feet: clean, vintage low and vintage hi. After that you get single treble, middle, bass and presence controls, which may suggest a settings compromise between modes, but they're in fact stacked pots, optimised specifically for each mode. Check it out:

One issue with having clean and dirty sounds on one set of controls is balancing their respective attacks and volumes. Most modern amps have at least some independent controls to combat this, but in the spirit of simplicity, Mesa has come up with two excellent new features.

The first is the clean level control on the rear panel, which regulates the clean mode's volume in relation to the vintage hi/low modes, so if the clean sound is too bold and punchy – which it often is, especially at lower volumes – you can turn it down in relation to the overdrive modes: neat.