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Mesa's all-black amp is an imposing and immaculately crafted beast.

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• Review
• Manufacturer's Description

Following on from Mesa's highly successful Stiletto Deuce and Trident EL34-powered heads that were introduced at the back end of 2004, Randall Smith's latest creation is the amp that completes the series.

Mesa's standard of fit and finish is consistently the benchmark other amp manufacturers have to aim for, and the Ace combo is no exception. This sample features the 'none more black' styling option - that's black everything, apart from the front and rear control panels, which are finished in a very tasteful antique gold anodised aluminium.

The detailing on every part of the cabinet is immaculate: Boogie's styling is so well-defined compared to the competition that you almost don't need badges of any kind to know this is a Mesa Engineering product.

Take a look at the size of this combo compared to a Mark Series Boogie and you'd be forgiven for thinking that someone had only put one speaker in where two should be. It's a large beast, to put it mildly, and it's weighty too, since the speaker enclosure is a proper sealed baffle design with a closed back and roof.

The intention behind this is to wring every last dB of bass response from the Ace's single 12-inch driver. Thankfully, the cabinet is fitted with Mesa's snap-lock castors and we think many guitar players will be grateful for that, especially as there's only one carry handle.

A box of this size and weight really needs two lifting points - it's awkward to carry single-handed and we wish manufacturers would give more consideration to players who have to lug their own gear around. It isn't fun playing gigs when you're hurting from strained back and arm muscles.

Because of the closed back construction, there's nowhere to stow pedals or leads either, although the footswitch still comes in a useful pocket.

Build

The aluminium chassis and its electronics are typical of Mesa's high build quality, which has been carefully streamlined over the years to improve production without sacrificing standards.

Like its bigger brothers, the Stiletto Ace is a dedicated EL34 design with two very flexible channels. Both feature a set of rotary controls for gain, treble, mid, bass, presence and master volume, but that's just for starters.

Each channel has a three-position voicing switch that enables you to preset its basic character, and a two-position switch so you can select silicon diodes or a 5U4 valve rectifier. These switches considerably expand the Stiletto's capabilities.

On the top channel, the voicing options are called Fat Clean, Tite Clean and Crunch. This last voice is duplicated on the lower channel, where the other two choices are called Tite Gain and Fluid Drive.

Between the tube/diode switches, there's a third mini-toggle that enables you to select channels, without having to use the footswitch. Towards the right-hand side of the front panel are the controls that most modern Boogie enthusiasts will be familiar with.