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

[Scottg]

I want to try an MXR eq, sounds like it will add a lot to my F-50 combo. I currently use Hal's fx volume mod in the loop and love it. The 6-band doesn't have a volume slider, so I'm assuming if I put this in the loop, I will lose use of Hal's mod. So I'll have to put the 6-band upfront. Will it work as well up front? Cld the addition of the EQ make up for losing Hal's mod? Or is it better to spend more and get the 10-band that has the volume slider, so it can be put in the loop and I can then have EQ + equivalent of Hal's mod by using the volume slider?

Suggestions?

[Scottg]

trying to have the benefit of an eq AND Hal's volume fx loop mod.

so to expand my question: used in the fx loop, would ANY eq pedal that has a volume slider be a suitable replacement for hal's volume fx mod? i see cheap ones with good reviews like Danelectro Fish n Chips. maybe I dont need to splurge on the MXR 10-band?

[Bijl]

Originally Posted by tech21man

For your recto refference, this amp has sag but not that big bass response. But I hate the recto type of gain deployment which more versions are characterised by flubby bass all over and easily lost pick attack until you boost (which, generalizes it a bit and loses that big bass).

My experience with the gain channel is that the distortion can be very sharp and harsh in the top end regardless of boost being engaged. Using something like a Maxon overdrive or Tubescreamer rounds it out real nicely and keeps lows from getting too flubby without having to use the lead boost of the amp. Engaging boost and having a tubescreamer in the front is high gain heaven to my ears, sustain and feedback really sings with a tubescreamer in the front.

I also noticed that the standard speaker is not quite able to handle the low end. I put an Electro Voice EVM12L in it, frontloaded, otherwise it hardly fits in the combo housing. That makes a huge improvement.

The best way to manipulate the sound of your F50 though is with the guitar itself. Scale, wood, pickups, you immediately hear what it does with your sound, it's that responsive. I can plug in a basswood/maple superstrat with a seymour duncan Invader and you have instant Cannibal Corpse grindcore. Leave high gain setting on the amp the same and plug in a mahogany/maple 24.75" scale guitar with a Seymour Duncan JB and there's a huge drop in low end and shift to higher mids tightening things up.

[tech21man]

I've been saying the exact same thing all the time. Very sensitive front end. Draws from the mark I according to randall smith. One of the best les pauls who sounds great with a lot of amps sounded like fuzzy {censored} through my f-30! Pluggin a p90 sg was perfect. Metal guitars just made the amp sound like a more rich sounding less tight mark...

[vbshredder]

Great info in this thread!! I picked up an F50 about a month ago. Contrary to what i hear about Mesas, I find it very easy to get the tone i'm looking for without alot of knob tweaking on this thing..

my "set and forget" settings....
Clean
gain 10:30
treble 3:00
mids cranked
bass noon

Distortion (heavy rock/metal sound)
Gain 11:00
Bass 9:00
mids cranked
treble - 3:00

I find a mid-humped EQ out FRONT of the amp to overdrive it with these settings gives me two more useful tones - on clean channel, the EQ pushes it into surprisingly convincing SRV OD territory with a strat. I never expected that tone from this amp! For distortion, it tightens up the low end for more chuggish type metal nicely. An OD could serve the same purpose, but i'm preferring the EQ lately to keep my tone intact better.

Throw in the contour button for leads and i've got everything i need. I think it's been weeks since i touched my amp EQ.

[JerEvil]

Sorry for this but I am looking to swap these out with someone if interested. Love my F-50, just want to switch to a head format. I would of course include the speaker as well.

Let me know.

[hahavishnu]

UK only i am selling my F100 head and 2x12 3/4 back c90s cab...mint as the day it was born,ungigged/unplayed

 

pm me if interested....Glasgow(ish) area

[Adacto]

Just got a 2nd hand (although, seemingly, mint-condition) F30 head. It's rather nice, may I join the club?

I was looking for something simple to replace my Marshall TSL... F30 definitely succeeds there. Soundwise, it's better in every regard.. and I don't see why I'd have any problem gigging it, it seems to compete quite happily with the Marshall in terms of volume. Replacing tubes will be cheaper. Overall, very happy. Only problem is I now want the Mesa vertical 2x12 cab to match...

Jon

[tech21man]

Great amp I enjoyed it a lot when I had it, good buy!!! It can be sweet or mean depending on your mood actually...have fun. Try a thiele beneath it!

[fuzzface84]

I am selling a clean F 100 head and an American made Orange PPC412 cab. I've owned this set up for around 7 trouble-free years now. Everything is in excellent working condition with a few tiny visual imperfections. I love this amp and the tone it produces but am selling it as I downsized to the 50 watt version of the same head and a 2x12 cab.

The head includes the original foot switch. The tubes are older but show no signs of letting up. The foot switch cable has a spot where electrical tape was use to cover a small tear in the outer casing but otherwise functions fine (they're also easily replaceable from Mesa). Includes original tags and demo settings display.

The cab has nicely broken-in V30s. There are no major issues with the amp or cabinet; only normal light wear from respectful use.

I'm in Madison, WI. I would prefer not to ship but I am willing to do so professionally at the buyer's expense.
$700 for the head
$650 for the cab

I will consider certain trades towards either piece. Squier (standard series and up) and Fender guitars (teles/hard tails a plus), certain effects, amp heads, ect.


(The 2x12 is not for sale.)

[tlasol]

A newcomer to the brotherhood here! Just got the F-50 head and couldn't be happier.


One question to you G-Major owners: Would it be clever to mod the fx loop back to original parallel state? My head's loop is modded to series and I'm most likely going to use it with G-Major only, perhaps an EQ later on. Opinions are welcome!

[MesaF50]

Hi everyone, 

I have an f50 head in the mail.  I spent the entire weekend reading this thread.  Hal9000,  what would my amp look like with the knobs from a fender super champ xd and a silver grille cloth llike the one on a black face fender amp?

 

Thanks all

[TheGB]

Hi folks, complete newbie to both the group and Mesa here - I've used Marshalls and Fenders for years until last week, when I switched to a F-50 head, through a Marshall 1936 2x12 cab.

 

I love the sound of my friend's Nomad, through a compact Marshall 4x12 - but by comparison the F-50 is sounding slightly harsh and raspy. I've done three gigs, playing classic rock-type tunes, and the amp sounds good, but just looking to take some of the brashness away. 

I'm generally using a Gibson LP with Burstbucker Pro's, sometimes a Fender Fat Strat.

 

Having scoured many of the pages here in the lounge, I'm thinking I need to spend some good time tweaking the EQ (and have just got Hal's settings to look at later), but wondered if anyone else out that had coupled an F with a Marshall, and if they had any feedback on upgrading speakers etc?

 

Great place you got here guys!

 

GB

 

[MesaF50]

I have a 212 cabinet that I have loaded with a WGS Retro 30 and a Eminence Cannabis Rex.  Sounds pretty good to me.  

[Bowen1971]

When I first got my F-50 I played through a Mesa straight 4x12 as that was all I had.  A couple years ago I picked up a couple Marshall 4x12s, 1 standard 1960 and one Vintage series 1960.  After trying out all 3 with my F-50 I found I like the Marshalls better, especially the Vintage series cab.  They have more high end sparkle and do not have the harsh bassy thump that I notice the Mesa cab makes. 

It's weird, but I found after poking around inside all 3 cabs that the Mesa cab is much better built and seems to have a lot higher quality materials, including actual Celestion Vintage 30s where the Marshall cab I like best has Gibson's copy of a Vintage 30.  So I would say if you want to mess around with different speakers you might try a Marshall Vintage series cab or switch out to their vintage 30 copies.

The problem with Marshall cabs is they are either 16 or 4ohms mono, 8ohm per side stereo. So I set them in stereo mode and run a speaker cable into each side out of the dual outputs on the back of the F-50 for running into 2 8ohm cabs.

 

[Dann'sTheMan]

Hi TheGB,

 

Hopefully you're already sorted, but my suggestions would be to try the loop attenuation trick (see hal's diagrams, or run an FX unit or volume pedal there); also make sure your valves/tubes aren't worn out.

Great photo of your rig btw - absolute rock!  Welcome to the brotherhood TheGB!  Where do you gig?

Big smiles,

Andy.

[Razsan]

Well gents, I tried for the 3rd (or 4th, can't remember) time to buy an F50....Had an opportunity to buy a head in the $400 range. You all seem to get some great sounds out of it, but the hiss on the clean channel and the Fender-y nature of the gain was a deal breaker for me. I think I'll chalk it up to "it's not you, it's me!"

Ended up with a mini-rec and am pretty happy...

 

[matrixman397]

Dear Mesa F50 owners,

 

Looking to upgrade the tubes in this amp which are all stock since I purchased the amp. Interested to hear what other F50 users have upgraded their tubes to and how the tone compares to the stock tube?

 

I'm looking for a high gain tone, that's smooth, got clarity and punch.

 

I was looking at purchasing all JJ tubes for both the preamp and power section. Please could anyone who has done this post their opinions of how this sounds in the F50? I heard all JJ's can sound a bit muddy?

 

Was also thinking of alternatively buying a Tung Sol for V1 and maybe V2. Any opinions of people using Tung Sol's would also be much appreciated!

 

Thanks

 

[matrixman397]

Anyone Please??? 

[Murdermachine66]

Hi all! I have an F-50 combo amp. I'm looking to add a little more gain/sustain/beef to my distortion sound. Any pedal suggestions? I was actually looking at the Wampler Triple Wreck, it's supposed to be a killer pedal but I feel it may be way too much, just want to put it over the edge and kick it up a bit.

I'm brand new to HC so if I'm not posting in the right place or in the right way, apologies! Thanks!

[Steve2112]

---

Murdermachine66 wrote:

Hi all! I have an F-50 combo amp. I'm looking to add a little more gain/sustain/beef to my distortion sound. Any pedal suggestions? I was actually looking at the Wampler Triple Wreck, it's supposed to be a killer pedal but I feel it may be way too much, just want to put it over the edge and kick it up a bit.

 

I'm brand new to HC so if I'm not posting in the right place or in the right way, apologies! Thanks!

---

 

Hello Mr. Machine! Welcome to the forum...you are posting in the right place. Feel free to create your own thread for things like this.

Most people would be looking at "boost" pedal rather than distotions. Something like this:http://www.rocktron.com/mega-booster.htmlhttp://

There is a BBE boost pedal...and lots of others you get the idea.

You may want something with a little more control. Some people use delicate overdrive pedals too, maybe ts9? Easy on the gain control. Other people find EQ pedal to work well, even in the FX loop. Search our forums "EQ in loop".

There could some experimentation on your part, somethign might work for others but not for you. If you like the basic tone of your amp, I'd steer you more toward "boost" than distortion. Good luck and let us know what you find.

[Goldwing]

Try an Xotic bbpreamp or a TS style pedal. It depends what's your purpose with the gain channel. I like those 2 pedals for soloing. The EHX Soul Food works great for rhythms and soloing too.

[Cassini]

Hi all, I recently obtained an F 50 Head, just wondering if this thread is still populated at all?

 

[Nick79]

Hi guys, this thread was started a long long time ago, anyone still rocking their F's? I'm 6 months in to ownership of an F50 combo and loving it, this thread has been a great help in unlocking some great tones and it would be cool if it carry on - Surely all these great amps are still going strong??

[bluesy_marquee]

I'll try to resurrect this mammoth of a thread once more.

First things first, a big shout out to Andy and Hal9000, thank you so much guys, I hope this finds you well wherever you are. You really helped me get the most out of my F-50.

Speaking of which, I adore the clean channel but don't need that much gain on channel 2. I read about taming the gain by swapping preamp tubes but I've never done it. Thoughts, impressions? 

Thanks!