Mesa/Boogie

Rosette 300/Two Eight

- Art Thompson

AFTER NEARLY 50 YEARS OF CREATING stellar amplifiers for guitar and bass, Mesa recently turned its attention to acoustic instruments with the introduction of the Rosette 300/Two Eight combo. As the name implies, the Rosette packs a 300-watt class D power amp and a 2 x 8 speaker configuration with a 1" dome tweeter in a sealed-back cabinet. The unit is quite compact at 13.25" tall x 18" wide x 12.25" deep, and an easy carry at 30 lbs.

The Rosette’s channels are basically identical, except that the upper Mic/ Pickup channel carries both XLR (balanced, P-12 phantom powered) and 1/4" pickup inputs, while the second channel has just one 1/4" input. Derived from high-end recording consoles, Channel 1’s XLR Mic input uses a dual-discrete transistor pair for the differential input to provide lowest noise and optimal tone with low-impedance microphones. Conversely, channels 1 and 2 feature identical current source-biased FET input stages because high-impedance pickups require the noise voltage specification to be the first consideration for optimal performance and tone.