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

[tech21man]

Usually is the magic word here. It just so happens that many parts of the manual are transferred from the older amp line to the next, for the f-series the first in line, that amplifies the signal and is a part for both channels is V2.

[steinberger2112]

Kind of funny actually, V1 seems to control the tone pots.

[Goldwing]

 

Originally Posted by Dann'sTheMan

Hey Brothers,

Long time....

P.S. I've got to share this with my fellow brothers - the Lead/Contour EQ setting I've been rocking recently (o'clock: G:12 T:10 M:1 B:8) was inspired by the gorgeous tones of Andy Timmons with his Lonestar in this great vid (08.25 in 1st clip; 00:13 in 2nd clip). Indeed these vids shows just what great sounds are to be had, both clean and dirty with both 6L6 and ELx4 Mesa amps:

 

Hi Dann..long time really.

I tried your setting and I advice to up the gain to 2 and the mids to 3-4. You will get and incredible fat tone great for leads with strat (no need to boost the mesa with a TS-type pedal) and with my PRS I can nail Porcupine Tree's tones absolutely great!!

[Pvt.Happy]

Man... I joined this thread five years too late.

I'm on page eighty or so. I just wanted to thank everyone who posted here. I've learned so much about my Mesa here.

I'll post pics of my rig next week.

Peace

Sean

[gdwill2u]

Hey guys

haven't posted on the F series thread in awhile so HI to everyone.

Still have my F-50 and still loving it, but I do have a need:

my loop does not work. I have tried cleaning it out with CLP (I think that is what the solvent is called), changing the tube that covers the loop and of course made sure it wasn't bad cables or pedals causing the problem.

Any other test or ideas would be appreciated.

thx

[gdwill2u]

 

Originally Posted by Dann'sTheMan

Hey Brothers,

Long time; I hope you're all having as much fun with your F-series as I am - including of course the new inductees to this amazing thread. 7000 posts and going strong. Thanks to you all for making this resource what it is.

A quick comment on the recent debate between 6L6 vs. ELx4. Put simply, there really isn't a debate to be had. Mesa, in their wisdom recognise there are fans of both sounds out there, and produce amps that are flavoured by both of these popular types of output tube. Furthermore, these tubes are "only" adding a flavour to what is very much a Mesa recipe - the F-series pre-amp.

One final thought on this - the sound of the amp, including the flavouring from its power tubes and speakers, is very much shaped by the type of guitar being used, and most importantly the attack and string control of the guitarist. God knows, I love the sound of a good Marshall amp, but I don't get on with playing them - a huge shame considering the cost implications here in the UK versus Boogie prices. My personal preference is for 6L6 amps, because both their tone and their feel works for me. Thankfully Mesa accommodate other players whose preferences lean more towards British sounding amps, and I'm proud to count them as brothers here in the Lounge.

Speaking of British sounds, I highly recommend trying out the Fulltone OCD pedal to the brothers looking for such a flavour. I love mine, and when mixed with my F-50, it still retains the firmness in the low end that I prefer with 6L6 amps. Check it out.

Big smiles,

Andy.

P.S. I've got to share this with my fellow brothers - the Lead/Contour EQ setting I've been rocking recently (o'clock: G:12 T:10 M:1 B:8) was inspired by the gorgeous tones of Andy Timmons with his Lonestar in this great vid (08.25 in 1st clip; 00:13 in 2nd clip). Indeed these vids shows just what great sounds are to be had, both clean and dirty with both 6L6 and ELx4 Mesa amps:

 

Dann thanks for the amazing thread, what luck to have started what has turned out to be one of the most prolific threads on the HCAF. I think it is due to the loyalty and love we F Series owners have for our amps. For me there is no better mix between value and quality than my F 50.

I too use the OCD pedal for those more British/vintage tones, does a great job with the F-50

I also have a Zendrive 2 which gets real close to Dumble tones, both pedals sond best played thru the clean channel.

[hahavishnu]

is it easy to change out the pre amp toobs on a F100 head?

had a quick look and it looks TIGHT in there

[steinberger2112]

Well on changing preamptubes. short of taking everything out, there is very little you.can do. Assuming you're talking about the F-100 head.

BUt, if you feel adventurous and are going to take the frame out of the wooden box anyway, you could jigsaw a slot 3 inches wide in the black board that is right behind the mesa/boogie logo holding plate ( have to remove that plate, of course ).

so next time you wanna swap, all you have to do is remove the logo holding plate and voila.

[Bijl]

I recently played a gig with my F-50 combo, and the venue had no P.A. for the guitars... Instead, they had a Marshall 4x12 cab. So I hooked up the cab in addition to the combo speaker, and turned master volume up to 2 o' clock.

Blam! What a blast! I never heard such thunderous distortion sound from a tube amp before in my life. I'm happy that I've had the rare opportunity to do this I got lots of compliments on my sound too.

[gillmanjr]

Hello all. So I've wanted an F series since the day they came out, just could never afford it. I finally got one a few days ago. I got an F-100 in almost mint condition! And I only paid $600, an incredible deal if you ask me. It included all the original hardware, footswitch, cover, manual, etc, I couldn't be happier with it.

[hahavishnu]

 

Originally Posted by steinberger2112

Well on changing preamptubes. short of taking everything out, there is very little you.can do. Assuming you're talking about the F-100 head.

BUt, if you feel adventurous and are going to take the frame out of the wooden box anyway, you could jigsaw a slot 3 inches wide in the black board that is right behind the mesa/boogie logo holding plate ( have to remove that plate, of course ).

so next time you wanna swap, all you have to do is remove the logo holding plate and voila.

 

since it is Sunday i thought i would give it a go........best way to learn right?

no need to remove anything, other than the power valves, to swap out pre amp tubes on the F100 head

[hahavishnu]

i notice that all 4 of my pre amp tubes in my F100 head are 12ax7-a Russian 2 mesas.......ya think if i put good quality replacement toobs in there it would cut down on the clean CH hiss?

[steinberger2112]

Doesn't it make more sense now when you wanna change preamp tubes? I am so happy I did mine. I just looked at the hi-priced mesas and they're all ventilated or open up front. I have no ideas why they went that route with the F series. I mean 2 solid boards.

[hahavishnu]

 

Originally Posted by steinberger2112

Doesn't it make more sense now when you wanna change preamp tubes? I am so happy I did mine. I just looked at the hi-priced mesas and they're all ventilated or open up front. I have no ideas why they went that route with the F series. I mean 2 solid boards.

 

what i meant to say SteinB is......... there us no need to mod/jigsaw the F100 head. the pre amp toobs are perfectly accessible just by removing the power tubes!

ya tube

[mynameistaken]

has anybody replaced the LED in their footswitch? My green one went out.

[mynameistaken]

I think the hiss will always be there to some degree. when I changed mine i think it reduced it some but its still there.

[Surf-53]

Hmmm, just got an F-30 combo, has a V30 in there sounds really good just as reviewed...found the clean channel amazing

My only hesitation is that the overall tone sounds a bit loose, and I was expecting more of a tight recto-esque distortion. I bought this knowing it wasn't going to be a recto, but still the dist seems awfully muddy and loose. I t sounds good, but not GREAT and I was just wondering what anyone on here might have done to fix the same problem. Admittedly, I am playing through a MIM Mexican Strat at the moment and saving up for something with either active pickups or humbuckers, and in the meantime am considering changing my pickups. But otherwise, i thought I would either run an OD or an EQ in front of it but can't decide between the two, although I might do both because I could use the OD as a solo boost on top of the contour channel.

Would re tubing help? I didn't look at the tubes in there right now...only briefly. And I did notice that only two of the power amp tubes are visible. I don't see any of the smaller preamp tubes...I'm new to tube amps so don't laugh at me here, but I don't think it would be running at all without the preamp tubes so they have to be in there???

Any help or advice would be wonderful

[araneida]

 

Originally Posted by Surf-53

Hmmm, just got an F-30 combo, has a V30 in there sounds really good just as reviewed...found the clean channel amazing

My only hesitation is that the overall tone sounds a bit loose, and I was expecting more of a tight recto-esque distortion. I bought this knowing it wasn't going to be a recto, but still the dist seems awfully muddy and loose. I t sounds good, but not GREAT and I was just wondering what anyone on here might have done to fix the same problem. Admittedly, I am playing through a MIM Mexican Strat at the moment and saving up for something with either active pickups or humbuckers, and in the meantime am considering changing my pickups. But otherwise, i thought I would either run an OD or an EQ in front of it but can't decide between the two, although I might do both because I could use the OD as a solo boost on top of the contour channel.

Would re tubing help? I didn't look at the tubes in there right now...only briefly. And I did notice that only two of the power amp tubes are visible. I don't see any of the smaller preamp tubes...I'm new to tube amps so don't laugh at me here, but I don't think it would be running at all without the preamp tubes so they have to be in there???

Any help or advice would be wonderful

 

I think you better get an humbucker in the bridge if you want a tighter distortion.

To make the amp sound more like a rectifier you need to keep on the countour all the time

and not exceed with the gain. With the gain knob at 10-11 o'clock you will get a nice tight gain.

ps The preamp tubes are covered by a metal casing to prevent overheating.

[Larcos_Unal]

 

Originally Posted by Surf-53

Hmmm, just got an F-30 combo, has a V30 in there sounds really good just as reviewed...found the clean channel amazing

My only hesitation is that the overall tone sounds a bit loose, and I was expecting more of a tight recto-esque distortion. I bought this knowing it wasn't going to be a recto, but still the dist seems awfully muddy and loose. I t sounds good, but not GREAT and I was just wondering what anyone on here might have done to fix the same problem. Admittedly, I am playing through a MIM Mexican Strat at the moment and saving up for something with either active pickups or humbuckers, and in the meantime am considering changing my pickups. But otherwise, i thought I would either run an OD or an EQ in front of it but can't decide between the two, although I might do both because I could use the OD as a solo boost on top of the contour channel.

Would re tubing help? I didn't look at the tubes in there right now...only briefly. And I did notice that only two of the power amp tubes are visible. I don't see any of the smaller preamp tubes...I'm new to tube amps so don't laugh at me here, but I don't think it would be running at all without the preamp tubes so they have to be in there???

Any help or advice would be wonderful

 

Back off the bass and the gain, putting the gain past noon gets messy. I've got my gain at around 10/10:30 and the bass around 10. an inexpensive overdrive pedal like a bad monkey or a SD-1 will really tighten up the low end and add chunk...an eq through the loop can help scoop the mids and boost the bass you're decreasing from your tone controls.

It's a real tweaker's amp the f-30, it took me almost a year to get the tone I was looking for.

[tech21man]

Ok, first of all I don't think at all that rectos are tight, but if you expected a tight AND sort of recto-esque distortion out of the f-30 you can try, unorthodox settings that usually work for me especially in high volume.

like,

Gain 10 o'clock

bass 0

mids full

treble right about 10 o'clock.

or

Gain noon

bass at about 9 to 10 o'clock

mids 10 o'clock

treble 2 o'clock

which are more conventional

If you do have a tight cutting guitar on its own, bright to be more specific, you can try

Gain 10 o'clock

Mids full on,

bass treble to zero.

All of these are for high volume, where the natural distortion of the EL84s start to thicken the sound.

For lower volumes I have found that the volume in the loop trick does some weird out of phasing tricks that tightens the sound anyway and I liked it.

Also don't dismiss the normal, not contoured channel,

I like it with gain full, bass 0, mids 0, treble full. It reminds me of old metallica with the volume in the loop fx mix trick.

I have sold the f-30 to a very good friend of mine who adored it. I usually play with it on his home studio from time to time but I needed a discrete three channel gigging amp unfortunately and he wanted the f-30 badly. I still think the f-30 is one of the best amps I've heard and I see another one in my future, maybe the same, who knows!!!

[Surf-53]

Has anyone tried an EQ or an OD in front of the dist channel, with or without contour?

I was also considering throwing a nasty ass dist pedal over the clean channel...like the Suhr Riot

[tech21man]

 

Originally Posted by Surf-53

Has anyone tried an EQ or an OD in front of the dist channel, with or without contour?

I was also considering throwing a nasty ass dist pedal over the clean channel...like the Suhr Riot

 

When I had the amp, I loved a danelectro cool cat drive drive V1 in front of the already maxed clean channel. This pedal is more or less like the OCD v1 but with differences in the buffers. Anyway, I was not using it as a boost, more or less like xtra crunch switch on a crunchy channel. Incredible dirt, really...

Eq wise I used an eq before the amp to cut some bass to tighten it up and worked great on gain channel, also on gain channel plus contour. But I eventually found the f-sound fuller on its own.

[twolfe278]

I use a danelectro 7 band eq in front of my fx loop,unbelievable boost of overall sound. I would not gig without that pedal! Mixes great with my f-100

[Bijl]

Hi, some time ago I posted my F-50 was seriously lacking bottom end since I changed guitars and added a Ibanez TS808.

The problem was the TS808, no matter what settings, cut some lows that the F50 can't compensate for.

Now I'm considering a Digitech Bad Monkey, does anyone have experience with this pedal, especially for a high gain setup?

[Bijl]

 

Originally Posted by Surf-53

Has anyone tried an EQ or an OD in front of the dist channel, with or without contour?

I was also considering throwing a nasty ass dist pedal over the clean channel...like the Suhr Riot

 

The F50 is a great high gain amp, but if you want tight metal tones it's a bit too loose. You can use an overdrive pedal in front of it to tighten it up. Make sure that the pedal can cut AND boost, both lows and highs. Especially if you don't use an external closed back cabinet.