Mesa F-series Lounge. Come on in and share your secrets.

[Dann'sTheMan]

Yeah, I'm the same person. I lost the email to CatsGoMoo (which bugs me. I had 4k posts on that screen name and 14k on this one before things got cleared). I use this amp in an electric guitar ensemble, mainly. We transcribe and arrange pieces of classical music (well, classical art music. That's everything from the classical era to 20th century even) for eight electric guitars. This season our concert consists of a bunch of halloween music, and I'll be doing an arrangement of BWV 565 (the toccata in d-minor). Previous years we've done everything from Fanfare to the Common Man to pieces composed by members of the group to George Crumb, Phillip Glass, Bach, Night on Bald Mountain. All kinds of stuff. I'm sure it'll work really well in there. Today's my first rehearsal with that amp, so we'll see. Our concert is next week. I'm sure I'll have video/audio of it. Aside from that ensemble, I play a lot of composed electric guitar music. There's not a lot out there, and I feel it's kind of necessary. I want to make the electric guitar more legitimate as a "real instrument" and seen less in a popular music vein (as it's always been seen). Here's an example of a piece I played last semester, composed by my composition teacher, John Kiefer, called Asterism. I'm into very modern stuff. It's got this wicked string skipping pattern at the end that is pretty damned difficult, but really fun to play once you get it under your fingers. The sound effect at the end is achieved by fiddling with an analog delay pedal. http://www.box.net/shared/lx5ugxa6y7

Hi EvilMeow,

I thought I recognised you! I certainly remember you posting as CatsGoMoo and also as EvilMeow before that. Did you contact the mods and ask them to reinstate your post count?

Regarding the music and link you posted - loved it, you're a talented musician! It's great to find someone looking to stretch electric guitar music in a new direction. I look forward to hearing how your F-series records in your work. How did it work out at rehearsal?

Big smiles,

Andy.

[gregv]

Hey,

Well I am new to the forum here and I finally got my new F30 combo amp today and am pretty excited. So I was just wondering if you owners out there had any help or tips with getting set up and familiar with the amp. A couple questions I had were.........

1. What are the two Fx inputs in the back and how do they involve effects pedals?
2. I am not that familar with playing with the EQ controls, is it difficult to find good tone or how would you approach adjusting the controls.
3. Lastly, I ordered this amp off ebay from a music store in the states and everything seems to have come in good shape. The only thing I was wondering was right behind the two tubes is this long screw that sticks out and attaches up top where all the electronics are. Is this normal as it seems to stick out and look out of place???

Any help or additions would be much appreciated as I want to get as much out of this amp as possible!

[Will Cyrier]

Hey, Well I am new to the forum here and I finally got my new F30 combo amp today and am pretty excited. So I was just wondering if you owners out there had any help or tips with getting set up and familiar with the amp. A couple questions I had were......... 1. What are the two Fx inputs in the back and how do they involve effects pedals? 2. I am not that familar with playing with the EQ controls, is it difficult to find good tone or how would you approach adjusting the controls. 3. Lastly, I ordered this amp off ebay from a music store in the states and everything seems to have come in good shape. The only thing I was wondering was right behind the two tubes is this long screw that sticks out and attaches up top where all the electronics are. Is this normal as it seems to stick out and look out of place??? Any help or additions would be much appreciated as I want to get as much out of this amp as possible!

 

Congrats on your purchase and welcome. I'm relatively new around here also but have had my Mesa F-30 for almost 2 years now.

 

to (try to) answer your questions;

1.) The FX loop is a parallel loop that allows you to set the mix or level of your inserted FX along with the Mesa's pre-amp signal (correct me fellas if I'm wrong on this). If you don't plan on using it, it can be used as a master volume (see Hal's signature or http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y34/afraiddave/hal9000F-SeriesMixPotMasterRevB.jpg ). Pretty cool either way.

 

2.) I haven't found it difficult and it depends on what you're after. Sounded great to me since I first plugged into it at GC.

 

3.) I have the same thing and have always wondered about it....

 

Peace,

 

Will

[EvilMeow]

Hi EvilMeow, I thought I recognised you! I certainly remember you posting as CatsGoMoo and also as EvilMeow before that. Did you contact the mods and ask them to reinstate your post count? Regarding the music and link you posted - loved it, you're a talented musician! It's great to find someone looking to stretch electric guitar music in a new direction. I look forward to hearing how your F-series records in your work. How did it work out at rehearsal? Big smiles, Andy.

 

 

Thanks! It sounds absolutely AMAZING! Perfect for what I'm doing! I've got a Halloween concert to give tonight with the ensemble, and during the performance I'll be playing Bach's Toccata in d-minor as a solo (BWV 565, the famous one. Just the Toccata, no fugue yet). I'll have video of it up on Youtube in a few days if it goes well.

[Dann'sTheMan]

Hey, Well I am new to the forum here and I finally got my new F30 combo amp today and am pretty excited. So I was just wondering if you owners out there had any help or tips with getting set up and familiar with the amp. A couple questions I had were......... 1. What are the two Fx inputs in the back and how do they involve effects pedals? 2. I am not that familar with playing with the EQ controls, is it difficult to find good tone or how would you approach adjusting the controls. 3. Lastly, I ordered this amp off ebay from a music store in the states and everything seems to have come in good shape. The only thing I was wondering was right behind the two tubes is this long screw that sticks out and attaches up top where all the electronics are. Is this normal as it seems to stick out and look out of place??? Any help or additions would be much appreciated as I want to get as much out of this amp as possible!

Hi gregv and welcome to the brotherhood. Will Cyrier has already excellently answered most of your questions, so I'll just elaborate.

1. The two sockets are the FX Send and the FX Return and comprise the amp's FX loop. Simply connect the FX Send to the input of your chain of FX (including potentially pedals), and connect the output of the FX chain to the FX Return. As Will rightly said, it's a parallel loop and consequently has an adjustable Mix control. Turn the Mix control up towards 90% to blend in more and more of the effected sound from your FX chain with the sound of your F-series. Popular effects to run in an FX loop include Chorus (and other Modulation FX like Flange, Phaser etc), Delays and Reverb. (FYI, Overdrive and distortion pedals are usually run between the guitar and the amp).

2. Just plough through this thread for lots of ideas for EQ settings and much, much more. The second post has some excellent graphics from our very own muse, hal9000 - and they include some great starting points for dialling in some sounds. The usual recommendation is to try and get the amp volume control up above 9 o'clock in order to really hear the F-series start to sing. (This can be unbearably loud, so check out the various tips in this thread for getting the volume down, whilst keeping the volume control up above 9 o'clock).

3. The long sticking out screw is perfectly normal. IIRC, it's a chassis tension screw that will help avoid creaks and vibrations from your over-engineered piece of Mesa art!

Big smiles,

Andy.

[Dann'sTheMan]

Thanks! It sounds absolutely AMAZING! Perfect for what I'm doing! I've got a Halloween concert to give tonight with the ensemble, and during the performance I'll be playing Bach's Toccata in d-minor as a solo (BWV 565, the famous one. Just the Toccata, no fugue yet). I'll have video of it up on Youtube in a few days if it goes well.

Very best wishes for the gig! I'm looking forward to that link already! Keep on rockin' in the free world,

Big smiles,

Andy.

[opultaM]

Congrats on your purchase and welcome. I'm relatively new around here also but have had my Mesa F-30 for almost 2 years now. to (try to) answer your questions; 1.) The FX loop is a parallel loop that allows you to set the mix or level of your inserted FX along with the Mesa's pre-amp signal (correct me fellas if I'm wrong on this). If you don't plan on using it, it can be used as a master volume (see Hal's signature or http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y34/afraiddave/hal9000F-SeriesMixPotMasterRevB.jpg ). Pretty cool either way. 2.) I haven't found it difficult and it depends on what you're after. Sounded great to me since I first plugged into it at GC. 3.) I have the same thing and have always wondered about it.... Peace, Will

Also, regarding the Loop, I agree with the manual that you should keep it at 100% wet. Then adjust the levels on your pedals for effect mix.

Generally speaking, reading the manual will help out ALOT.

[opultaM]

Question for all:
Anyone using the FX Loop on your F as a Power Amp In? If so what are you feeding into it?

[hal9000]

Question for all: Anyone using the FX Loop on your F as a Power Amp In? If so what are you feeding into it?

I have, and it was a Vox Tonelab. It sounded good to me. Just make sure to add a dummy cable to the FX Send jack so you disconnect the preamp. Otherwise, it will sound as if a blanket has been thrown over the speakers.

[Will Cyrier]

 

Question for all: Anyone using the FX Loop on your F as a Power Amp In? If so what are you feeding into it?

 

 

I'm using a Vox Tonelab SE and it sounds killer. When I get bored with that, I go straight into the Mesa through my pedal rig. Both sound great.

[opultaM]

Cool. Maybe I'll give it a shot with...something... I don't really have anything that would work though...

[Will Cyrier]

I would recommend the Vox TLSE or TLLE based purely on personal bias. I heard the Zoom G.9.2tt is pretty cool. The new Pod might sound good too.

[mrelusive]

so i just dug out my old Digitech RP2000 multi-effects unit and was considering selling it... But then i was wondering if i could use it to get some more mileage out of my F-50.

the rp2000 has a decent eq system that lets you pick what three frequencies you wanna boost/cut and some halfway decent effects... but isn't the f-series FX loop pre-distortion? Any suggestions to make some of this work, or should i skip the headache, sell the rp2000 and buy somethin worthwhile.

[ShizzelDizzel]

I'm back in the brotherhood! I had my first F50 Combo about 6 months before this thread started but then I changed gears and switched to bass for the last few years. Now I'm back starting a cover band project and I knew right where to go for my tones. So right now I have an F50 head into a Crate 2 X 12 cab with the ToneTubbies. I'll have to check out some Mesa cabs but for right now this is working out great. My current setup sounds bigger than the combo I had as you might guess with the closed back 2 X 12. Anyway it's good to be back and I will probably be looking into a G Major as well and possibly an MI Crunch box for in between tones. I have the amps setup on contour mode exclusively and the clean for sparkling cleans. Using a Godin Freeway Classic for strat tones, looking into a Shecter C1 Elite for tuned down stuff. And now you know the rest of the story....

[hal9000]

so i just dug out my old Digitech RP2000 multi-effects unit and was considering selling it... But then i was wondering if i could use it to get some more mileage out of my F-50. the rp2000 has a decent eq system that lets you pick what three frequencies you wanna boost/cut and some halfway decent effects... but isn't the f-series FX loop pre-distortion? Any suggestions to make some of this work, or should i skip the headache, sell the rp2000 and buy somethin worthwhile.

The FX Loop is post distortion, so most time-based and EQ effects would traditionally be placed there. I really like my G-Major, but I've had good luck with DigiTech delay and reverb pedals and a PODxt in the loop.

[eddie.perez]

Hello brothers , I've owned a F-100 for about year and a half now and have no complains what so ever. Really good :thu:sounding and versatile amp.

I currently run a Boss gt-8 ( which I use for light effects) into a BBE maximizer in the fx loop of the amp, outputing to 2x12 rectifier cab into a sennheiser e 906 mixed with a shure SM57. I planning on getting a Decimator Pro Rack G for my rack to eliminate some of the noise and hum coming from my Shecter. Should I or should I not? I know it's really pricey!!

[Will Cyrier]

My wife and son left today to run some errands and I cranked up my tonelab through the FX loop...bedroom volume does not do this amp justice. What sounds semi muddy at low volume, cleans up nicely with some volume behind it. Patches that I normally wouldn't use my neck pick-up on suddenly sounded good with all pick-ups. I know there's some audiophile term for this, some curve I forgot the name of that-when you crank the volume-the bass frequencies are not a prominent relative to the others. Whatever it's called, my rig sounded awesome today.

[hinrich]

I know there are posts in the lounge on this but I don't know how to narrow a search to the F-Series Lounge so sorry for the repetitiveness of this topic.

I've had an F30 combo for a couple of years and my band and I agree that the sound of my old old Marshall Valvestate 8080 has a nicer distortion tone to it so the boogie has been collecting dust for the past year. I've tried the recommended settings as well as settings posted on this forum and they're just too loud for what I'm using it for. I heard several recordings of it so I know it's good amp.

I want to use it though, its newer and I feel more confident with it's reliability on stage. I recently tried out a 25 watt Mesa Boogie Express and I have to tell you, in 5 watt mode, it's a beautifully sounding amp and it wasn't hard to dial in any settings.

So I'm about to get an attenuator and this is where I was hoping for a bit of help. Does anyone have a Dr. Z Airbrake? I'm about to purchase one but I read that the higher attenuation sucks out the nice tone where the more expensive THD Hotplates are better at high attenuation settings. I'm guessing that it will still be too loud as you can only get away with dropping the amp's master volumes a couple of notches, which won't be enough.

[hal9000]

I know there are posts in the lounge on this but I don't know how to narrow a search to the F-Series Lounge so sorry for the repetitiveness of this topic. I've had an F30 combo for a couple of years and my band and I agree that the sound of my old old Marshall Valvestate 8080 has a nicer distortion tone to it so the boogie has been collecting dust for the past year. I've tried the recommended settings as well as settings posted on this forum and they're just too loud for what I'm using it for. I heard several recordings of it so I know it's good amp. I want to use it though, its newer and I feel more confident with it's reliability on stage. I recently tried out a 25 watt Mesa Boogie Express and I have to tell you, in 5 watt mode, it's a beautifully sounding amp and it wasn't hard to dial in any settings. So I'm about to get an attenuator and this is where I was hoping for a bit of help. Does anyone have a Dr. Z Airbrake? I'm about to purchase one but I read that the higher attenuation sucks out the nice tone where the more expensive THD Hotplates are better at high attenuation settings. I'm guessing that it will still be too loud as you can only get away with dropping the amp's master volumes a couple of notches, which won't be enough.

I don't personally feel the need for a power attenuator with my F-100 at practice and gig volumes. I get my master volume control from my G-Major which sounds great to me. So, perhaps try out the FX loop master in my sig, or you could use one of your existing FX boxes for loop attenuation.

That said, if I was shooting more for the mid-gain power stage saturation sound, the Hot Plate would be my first stop. I don't like to go beyond 12 dB of attenuation, but it's very good from there forward. I don't have any experience with the Dr. Z, but you might want to also look at Weber's attenuators.

BTW, it burns my eyes to read that a Marshall Valvestate has better tone than an F-series Boogie.

[hinrich]

BTW, it burns my eyes to read that a Marshall Valvestate has better tone than an F-series Boogie.

Either that or my amp is defective...

[eddie.perez]

Does anybody in this lovely forum know how to control the amp channels of a F-100 head with a Boss Gt-8 Processor. Can anybody give me some advice.

[eddie.perez]

Does anybody in this lovely forum know how to control the channels of a F-100 head with a Boss Gt-8 effetcs processor. Can anybody body give me some good advice.

[Dann'sTheMan]

Does anybody in this lovely forum know how to control the channels of a F-100 head with a Boss Gt-8 effetcs processor. Can anybody body give me some good advice.

Hi eddie.perez,

All of the F-series amps are controlled in exactly the same way. Check out the second post of this thread for the pin information for the Mesa footswitch cable. Then check out posts #4223, and #4621 (dumeril7's ideas are really cool imho) for some info on how to get things working with the solitary relay in your Boss GT-8.

Big smiles,

Andy.

[pbognar]

I have, and it was a Vox Tonelab. It sounded good to me. Just make sure to add a dummy cable to the FX Send jack so you disconnect the preamp. Otherwise, it will sound as if a blanket has been thrown over the speakers.

 

 

HAL9000,

 

A few questions for you:

 

I have a love / hate relationship with the F series. I tried a used F-50 last week for $749, and the clean was great (tone controls very touchy thought), but on the overdrive side, I couldn't get rid of the frizzy high end - I like it to be more smooth for solos, and even crunch.

 

Could it be that I was playing the amp too quietly and not driving the power amp hard enough? That would be a problem too, because I don't want to have to play too loudly in a cover band. Would controlling the master volume in the loop help with this? Does the mod in the link you provide also make the effects loop behave like a serial loop, allowing a multi-effects unit to control the "master volume" and smooth things out?

 

Then, when you tried a Tone Lab (was it an SE or LE?) in the power amp in of the amp, did it ruin the nice clean sound of the amp? What amp model did you use for a nice clean sound? Also, did the Tone Lab have enough gain for you? Also, what model did you use for crunch and solo sounds?

 

It would seem to me that using a Mesa F-50 as the back-end for a Tone Lab would be over-kill. I would think that if it sounds cool with the F Series, it should sound good with some less expensive tube combos as well.

 

Finally, I'm wondering if there are any mods there to smooth the high end a bit on the overdrive channel - a tube or some other component replacement or adjustment which affects only the overdrive channel of the amp. The clean is great just the way it is.

 

Sorry for the long post...

[Dann'sTheMan]

HAL9000, A few questions for you: I have a love / hate relationship with the F series. I tried a used F-50 last week for $749, and the clean was great (tone controls very touchy thought), but on the overdrive side, I couldn't get rid of the frizzy high end - I like it to be more smooth for solos, and even crunch. Could it be that I was playing the amp too quietly and not driving the power amp hard enough? That would be a problem too, because I don't want to have to play too loudly in a cover band. Would controlling the master volume in the loop help with this? Does the mod in the link you provide also make the effects loop behave like a serial loop, allowing a multi-effects unit to control the "master volume" and smooth things out? Then, when you tried a Tone Lab (was it an SE or LE?) in the power amp in of the amp, did it ruin the nice clean sound of the amp? What amp model did you use for a nice clean sound? Also, did the Tone Lab have enough gain for you? Also, what model did you use for crunch and solo sounds? It would seem to me that using a Mesa F-50 as the back-end for a Tone Lab would be over-kill. I would think that if it sounds cool with the F Series, it should sound good with some less expensive tube combos as well. Finally, I'm wondering if there are any mods there to smooth the high end a bit on the overdrive channel - a tube or some other component replacement or adjustment which affects only the overdrive channel of the amp. The clean is great just the way it is. Sorry for the long post...

Hi pbognar,

I know your question was directed at Neil, but fwiw, here's my take. I suspect you didn't have the volume control up above 9 o'clock, and consequently, the lead channel voice is not fully developed and can sound harsh. Interestingly, many of the owners here have found that if you run something in the loop to reduce the overall volume, then you can get the "fully developed" voice at low volumes. Methods for doing that include the Mix pot master tip that Neil (hal9000) outlines, volume pedals, and running a line level Multi-FX unit in the loop. This latter method is the way that I usually run my rig (with a G-Major fwiw), and I can get smooth lead tones at low volumes.

If you get another opportunity to try the amp again at a shop, I'd suggest plugging a volume pedal (Ernie Ball seem pretty ubiquitous, and they work well in my experience) in the loop, setting the amp's Mix control to max (90%), setting the F-series' channel Volume control to 10 o'clock, and then controlling the overal volume level with the pedal. This will give you an idea of what to expect, and whether the distortion tones are going to work for your tastes.

Big smiles,

Andy.

PS. BTW, if you're after smooth, don't ignore the Lead channel (without Contour) with the channel volumes above 10 o'clock, and the gain up high.