The Badlander, MESA/flagship Boogie’s high-gain guitar amp line, now comes in a 25-watt head and combo version. The Badlander 25 offers a more manageable 25-watt platform while sporting comparable livery to its 50- and 100-watt siblings and being just as capable of weaponizing a powerchord.
For recording or smaller performances, you can lower the power to 10 watts. There isn’t always a need to blast the bloody doors off, at least not constantly. But don’t worry—she has plenty of boost available, a variety of tone settings, and all the features you’d expect from a modern tube amp.
Fundamentally, the Badlander developed from the modern classic Rectifier by MESA/Boogie, with the recipe modified to give its voicing a faint British accent. If the Rectifier virtually invented modern metal guitar tone with its slightly scooped midrange, power, gain, and ferocity, the Badlander fills in those mids, tightens up the bass, and has what MESA/Boogie calls a “refined top end.”
However, don’t picture tweed suits and country clubs when you hear the word “refinement”; rather, picture high-end that provides even more information so that you can hear everything that is happening in the mix.
The Badlander 25 is a two-channel amplifier with three-mode channel cloning, just like its bigger siblings. This allows you to assign Clean, Crunch, or Crush voicings to either channel and, of course, flip between them using the footswitch.
Additionally, the CabClone IR technology from MESA/Boogie expands your possibilities when connecting directly to a DAW or mixing console.
This Badlander has all of the same Rectifier closed-back and Boogie open-back cabinets that are available on the other Badlander. There is a USB connector for uploading extra IRs, and these IRs can be channel-assigned.
Gain, Treble, Middle, Bass, Presence, and Master controls are available on each channel, along with toggle switches for the aforementioned channel modes. Additionally, there are power and sleep controls, a toggle switch for choosing between 25 and 10 watts of operation, and a 1/4″ footswitch input right next to the instrument input.
The effects loop, headphones output, and all the connections and controls you need for the CabClone features are located around back. There are also three speaker outputs and direct output with ground lift.
A Celestion Creamback 65 is installed in the 1×12 combo and is housed in a marine-grade baltic birch cabinet. On the website, a number of bespoke finishes are offered. By default, it comes with black jute grill fabric and black bronco vinyl, and it looks… Well, all pretty badass.
The head weighs 19 lbs, while the combo weighs 40 lbs. Both are now available, with the Badlander 25 Head costing $1,599 and the combo costing $1,849. For more information, see MESA/Boogie.