Members peedenmark7 Posted November 15, 2007 Members Share Posted November 15, 2007 hi guys, I'm looking for some real feedback on the mesa f-100.last feb. I found myself in a store considering a mesa product which after 27 yrs of marshall-ing it is like the sun exploding. the amp I am looking at is the f-100 halfstack, bright orange tolex sure looks nice with my orange firebird !anyway, the store still has it and again I find myself thinking about it. the amp had plenty of high gain, cleaned up well, but sure seems to be voiced dark.... likely great with a true strat, my tele sounded great, but with a single hum shredder it seems very fendery. mesa claims you can whack it down to 60 watts and it gets a bit brighter.any tips? I have been running 70s master marshall combos for 25 years and after I sold my jubilee halfstack like a dip {censored} back in augusts downsizing haste [now pulling my hair out trying to find another] I have kind of given up on "quickly" replacing the jub and am thinking about this f-100 or maybe a slo. I really like my marshalls voicing, especially the jubs extra gain over my jmps [even though the jubs cleans was for sh!t, but was really used for gain only] would it be worth my time to simlpy pick up a soldano hot modand run that in my jmps for that extra gain ?and then will it give me that little bass boost, am lacking from jmp to jub? anyway, I am all ears guys. your thoughts and opinions would be greatly appreciated. thanks ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sixtonoize Posted November 16, 2007 Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 If you're a Marshall guy, I don't think you'll like the F-100 by itself. You'll need to put an EQ in the loop, and here's why: Great amp (I have the combo).One thing to remember, though, is that the only built-in EQ is pre-gain (as opposed to post-gain EQ like every other modern amp in the world).Although his works well for the clean channel, I personally don't like the way that it makes the amp respond to gain. There's too much natural mid in the amp for my ears, and if you cut the mids and boost the bass, the gain loses bite. This works if you're into really smooth tones (f'ing AWESOME lead sounds that way), but it sucks for hard rock/metal rhythm.The Contour channel is designed to take care of this, but I prefer to use it as a lead boost, so that didn't work for me.I was honestly kind of dissapointed with the feel of the amp, until I got smarter and figured out WHY I didn't like it. I finally messed around with cranking the mids and cutting the bass pre-gain, and threw a mid-cut EQ into the FX loop (post-gain), set to 100% wet.Once I got the 3 EQ's (Clean vs. Dirty vs. Loop) tweaked to my liking, the amp was perfect. Awesome biting crunch, boostable to saturated leads w/ the Contour, and Mesa's best cleans ever.I highly recommend the F-100, but not without an auxiliary EQ. Plan on spending the extra $100 or so to get a decent parametric unit, and I think you'll be stoked with it, too.Oh yeah...also take the time to wade through the 270-ish pages in the F-Series Lounge. The guys there seem very cool, and there's a TON of useful info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members peedenmark7 Posted November 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 we are of the same mindset.... curious , if I were to run that parametric eq, it would mess with the effects I am running through correct ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members relva3 Posted November 16, 2007 Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 are you talking about casio interstate? ironically i have the Mesa F-100 after selling my Marshall, and I too love that marshall sound. I also own an Orange halfstack. Anyways... The F-100 does have a 100/60 watt selector. Mine sits on the 60watt. You can get some pretty good marshally sounds out the amp, especially at lower gain. Its taken me some months to really get the most out the Mesa, but now that I have it I love it. I too thought it was a dark amp, but have gotten better at dialing it to sound great. I am still looking to buy a Marshall, maybe a JCM800 or DSL, but I plan to keep the F-100. The Mesa is a great amp, it has a lot of versatility that is different from a Marshall. I'd say it sounds like you like the amp because it is different from what you've had and like that it still covers (at least somewhat) the territory you like in the Marshalls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members peedenmark7 Posted November 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 yep, the orange one at cascios...I love that look.... it matches my gmp firebird perfectly !obviously more to it than that though... I was out there in feb and messed with it for about 3 hours...I ran 'er hard... I loved the gain for soloing, gobs of ringing sustain, yet very articulate.the headroom clean was very nice, a bit dark and modern fender to me. fender type clean to me is a vintage concert, black face super reverb or a vibro king, and this was a bit twinny, I hate twins... yet for some reason I could live with this as it was still not total fender sounding....I realize 10's vs. 12's are at play here as well. the f-100 bass clean or full gain really punches you in the chest, but yet differently than my marshall jubilee gear. so you are correct, I liked it for all the short comings I feel my old marshalls have, but hated the pronounced mids...couldnt seem to dial them out .it sounded great with one of my teles and likely the same with a true strat... but with my single hum shredders other than for soloing it simply blew for chunking chords. chads always been very fair with me, so this isnt an initial investment issue... its just that i dont wanna spend for such a "pretty amp" that I may end up hating and then lose coin on in the fire sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members eddie.perez Posted November 16, 2007 Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 Hey man, I myself own a F-100 amp head with a rectifier 2x12'' cab. The reason I love this amp is because it's really versitile, you can play anytype of music withit. If your into Heavy Metal than your also taking the right step into buying this amp. If you end up buying it, visit the F-100 series lounge and you'll learn alot more stuff about this amp. Marshall amps are nothing compared to any mesa boogie amps period. Don't run any eq's in the fx loop, just let it be. don't need it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members relva3 Posted November 16, 2007 Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 i have a fender twin, and i usually have a love/hate relationship with it. its funny because part of the reason i don't use it much now is the F-100. the F-100 can dial in a similar twin sound, as well as a more rounded out clean. I tell people its like a full-figured fender with a bit more punch, but you can also get some decent crunch out of the clean channel too. also, if you run the gain channel with almost no gain, i find it nails a great crunch tone that i imagine is similar to what you want. with the countour it still has a nice lead. i also believe that casio has the F-series on some sort of discount due to the subways being out, or at least some of the models were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members greg apocalypse Posted November 16, 2007 Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 All I can say is I got mine yesterday. Sounds good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members peedenmark7 Posted November 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 armed with the info I read on the f series lounge [loop mod and gain setting chart in my pocket] I am gonna go and play it again this morning, so we'll see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LithiumZero Posted November 16, 2007 Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 I had an F-50 and while is was a good amp my DC-10 is much better. I would try to snap up a used DC-5. You'll spend less money and have a better amp IMHO. They can be had pretty cheap and are easy to find for sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LithiumZero Posted November 16, 2007 Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 Here's a good deal on a nice DC-5 head. I would get the original footswitch though so you can switch channels and switch the EQ in/out. Mesa still sells the footswitch on the website for about $60 http://cgi.ebay.com/MESA-BOOGIE-DC-5-DUAL-CALIBER-50-WATT-ALL-TUBE-HEAD_W0QQitemZ300171905949QQihZ020QQcategoryZ10171QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members peedenmark7 Posted November 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 well.... just got back....first impressions do last a lifetime.I thought my not liking the '70s mesa mark-1 was all me back in the '80s... after playing with this f-100 for a total of about 4.5 hours, its clear to me its not. I tried the effects loop mod , which by the way is VERY cool trick.I eq'd it... and brought 2 inherently brighter guitars along this time. the cleans were great. I love the amp clean, tried the settings advised on the f-100 lounge, and cant say enough good... its bouncey, sparkley and everything else you'd want. I like how touch sensitive it is. but the gain section stinks plain and simple...the mids are far to pronounced .and if you find a sweet spot playing with the gain, master and loop mod, she squeels with any real volume. drop the mid all the way and whack the bass up, it sounded like an AM radio..put the bass over 4-5 and it only adds to the mids... channel 2 needs either a presence or a pull bright. and even then not sure it would make much difference. my '70s marshalls have a much better transparency clean and when pushed, plenty of quality gain. the bottom is just a bit flubby. the f-100 might be right for many... some have suggested I try the f-50 which may indeed be a different animal...but after messing with the 100 twice ,I am now quite comfortable closing the book on mesa engineering. I can live with a flubby marshall bottom end ... but uncontrollable mids I cant. I think the f-100 would be a great amp to A/B with , just for its clean . I am gonna try some mods on one of my '70s master marshalls, & continue looking for another jub... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Joeytpg Posted November 16, 2007 Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 sounds to me you are a Marshall guy man hehe, it's ok, I have a Mesa F-50, and I love it. You can do ANYTHING with it, (hmmmmmmm maybe it's kind of loose for speed metal) but if you play progressive metal, hard rock, rock, alternative, blues, pop, jazz........it's GREAT. I believe it's a VERY nice overall ROCK/Hard Rock amp. But again, if you are a Marshall guy then almost any mesa will sound too dark. Remember the F-50 and F-100 (same amp only Wattage difference, one 50 watts, the other 100 watts) are 6L6 amps, meaning they sound more AMERICAN, the F-30 sounds more british, since it uses EL84's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members peedenmark7 Posted November 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 yea , I felt bad today... I had hoped the tricks I got from the guys here would have solidified something for me.... again , LOVE the cleans... but the gain section wont cut it. I wonder what it would sound like with el34's ?? I use either ge or rcs 6550s in my 70s marshalls ..so until I bought a jub ,an el34 didnt even exist in my world... well... life goes on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kelly Posted November 16, 2007 Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 I dont like the F series Mesas, either, so dont feel alone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Joeytpg Posted November 16, 2007 Members Share Posted November 16, 2007 it's like that buddy. Sound is SOOO subjective! I went through the SAME only inverse, i used Marshalls for almost 10 years and got SICK of the sound. Now I'm in love with the Mesa. that's life hehehe anyways, give the F-30 a try if you like El34, it uses EL84 but it's VERY bright. Go to the F-series lounge (it's in my sig) and you'll find some lots of clips of the F-30 in the front page. The F-30 has almost the same cleans as the F-50/F-100, maybe a little bit more bright due to the EL84 brightness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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