Members KjStrat62 Posted January 30, 2007 Members Share Posted January 30, 2007 Anyone know much about these amps?? Thinking about trading my Fender amp for one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members daniel2001 Posted January 30, 2007 Members Share Posted January 30, 2007 I love the cleans on the Mesa F-Series amps, easily as good as a Mark III or IV. The overdrive for some reason made me think of the words "grated cheese". To me, it seemed like an 80's style distortion, it could do a nice mild overdrive, but I couldn't coax a nice smooth sound from it. I liked the reverb a lot, very nice. The real jem on the F30 is the cleans, they are excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paydirt Posted January 30, 2007 Members Share Posted January 30, 2007 I would agree with Daniel on the cleans. The F-series amps that I've tried the 30 & the 50 have cleans to die for. I don't necessarily agree with the gain channel however. The F-30 is EL-84 based and does have an 80's "feel" to it, but I really loved it's straight gain sound. Hey, we all have different tastes, if we didn't there woulld only be 1 or 2 dirt pedals out there instead of 1000's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wood Chuck Posted January 30, 2007 Members Share Posted January 30, 2007 I would agree with Daniel on the cleans. The F-series amps that I've tried the 30 & the 50 have cleans to die for. I don't necessarily agree with the gain channel however. The F-30 is EL-84 based and does have an 80's "feel" to it, but I really loved it's straight gain sound. Hey, we all have different tastes, if we didn't there woulld only be 1 or 2 dirt pedals out there instead of 1000's. I liked the one I tried, and found that on the clean channel I could dial in some vox AC 30 type grit, although I ended up very happy with my MAZ JR! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1DZReverendDavidLee Posted January 30, 2007 Members Share Posted January 30, 2007 Hey - I've got an F-50 - I haven't played through that one for about 6 months. I'll go plug it in here in a bit and wail What is your main guitar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1DZReverendDavidLee Posted January 30, 2007 Members Share Posted January 30, 2007 Hey - I've got an F-50 ..... and a Heartbreaker, a Rocket 440, two Solo 50 Recto's and a Nomad... I have an illness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1DZReverendDavidLee Posted January 30, 2007 Members Share Posted January 30, 2007 Oh wait - I just saw your sig - 50th Anniv Strat and a silverface Twin Reverb - is the Twin Reverb what you're wanting to trade for an F-30? Have you tried an F-30 with your Strat yet? Just curious what gave you the gas... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paydirt Posted January 30, 2007 Members Share Posted January 30, 2007 Hey - I've got an F-50 - I haven't played through that one for about 6 months. I'll go plug it in here in a bit and wail What is your main guitar? Go get those tubes glowing RED REV! Let the neighbors know the power of the F-50. SWEEEEEET amp IMHO!. Hey Rev, is the SG your main axe? The've had one like the one in your avatar at my local store for over a year now. It is my favorite one, but no one seems to buy it. I'm hoping to make them a great offer on it this year. I think it's the best looking one in the store. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members squareking Posted January 30, 2007 Members Share Posted January 30, 2007 and a Heartbreaker, a Rocket 440, two Solo 50 Recto's and a Nomad... I have an illness Man, I want a Heartbreaker so badly... :love: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members KjStrat62 Posted January 30, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 30, 2007 Oh wait - I just saw your sig - 50th Anniv Strat and a silverface Twin Reverb - is the Twin Reverb what you're wanting to trade for an F-30? Have you tried an F-30 with your Strat yet? Just curious what gave you the gas... Yea was possibly looking for something a little smaller that packs some punch. Just wondering if this amp can deliver?30 watts and almost looks like a practice amp but maybe I am off base. It is a boogie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fernmeister Posted January 30, 2007 Members Share Posted January 30, 2007 really impressive cleans. i don't think the dirt is anywhere near as interesting as most other non-rectum boogie amps. but a really impressive, punchy and full clean sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CS Posted January 30, 2007 Members Share Posted January 30, 2007 really impressive cleans. i don't think the dirt is anywhere near as interesting as most other non-rectum boogie amps. but a really impressive, punchy and full clean sound. I had one for a week and sent it back. Cleans were way too clean and the dirt was unusable. All IMHO and again IMHO the amp hissed so much it was no good for low volume playing/practice at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fxrs Posted January 30, 2007 Members Share Posted January 30, 2007 F-30 is actually closer to 20 watts, and I'm not sure the dirty channel will play nice with your strat. (my DC-5 doesn't get along with Fender style singles). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jack Dotson Posted February 26, 2008 Members Share Posted February 26, 2008 I'm a 50 year old who has been playing for over 30 years and have been through a number of amps. I play country, folk, rock, jazz, etc. Metallica is about as hard as I get and most of the time I stick to the classic stuff, i.e. Zeppelin, Floyd, etc. You know, the standard stuff most guys my age seem to like. I'll also mention that I'm a singer first and play primarily rhythm guitar with a few licks thrown in here and there when necessary. So this is where my review/opinion is coming from. I've had my F-30 for a couple of months and have used it with three different Fender Strats (50 and 60's classic Players and new American Standard), a Schecter Tempest with HB's , a 72 reissue thinline Tele HH, and an American Standard Tele. It takes well to all types of pick-up's and will readily show you the difference in sound between each. I guess this thread is a good indication of just how different opinions can be. To me the dirty channel is the strong point of this amp. Not that the clean is bad, becuse it's actually very good, but the distortion channel is very nice and the better of the two IMO. It's not a metal amp. Period! However, for blues, classic rock, jazz, etc., it's very good. You can go from a nice fat blues OD to an all out full, creamy distortion. No hard, metallic, raspy noise from this baby. Not for Schredders, but you can dial in just about anything else. Gets very close to recto territory. I've also owned a dual rectifier and IMO the F-30 is better. I never could get the DR dialed in to my taste. I was constantly tinkering with the tone controls, drove me nuts. Boogie's tone controls take some getting used to and allot of people don't use them properly. They're very interactive and it's kind of a mixed bag when making adjustments. One control effects the others and you have more control from 0 to 12 o'clock than most amps have at full turn. These amps are also very midrange prominant so you really have to back off of the mid's to get a nice balance. It's kind of a PITA to get it dialed in, but once you get it figured out you will be rewarded nicely. I also need to mention that I do not play out. Just at home with a couple of buddy's in the house or garage. You can get some nice distortions at lower level's using the guitar's volume and amp gain while barely turning up the amp volume. Used like this it's pretty quiet and decent, but to get really good distortion these amp's really do deserve to be worked. Having said all this, I will also tell you that mine will be going on the block. Not because it's not a great amp, because it is, but at the end of the day this is not for a bedroom wannabe. These are serious amps and seriously loud. Whoever said they're more like 20 watts, I'll have to ask where your getting this info from? Mine is one of the loudest 30 watt amp's I've ever played/heard and even louder than some that I've had which were rated at double this power. Boogie's are loud! Can one gig with these amps? Yes. And they will cut through with no problem. However, because they are such a high gain amp they're also a bit noisy and this is where I have trouble for home use. To get a nice glassy clean I back the gain and guitar volume down and turn the amp volume up and the amp gets a bit hissy. Probably only an issue at low level home use, but they are a bit noisy, as are most high gain amps, which is what this is. If your going to be using this amp for home use only I would say look at some other alternatives, but if you are going to play out then it can serve a dual role and is an excellent choice IMO. I'm kicking around the idea of just getting a pair of Epi valve Jr. half stacks or maybe the Gibson Les Paul Jr. GA-5's which are a more practical choice for home use. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members willburford Posted February 26, 2008 Members Share Posted February 26, 2008 really impressive cleans. i don't think the dirt is anywhere near as interesting as most other non-rectum boogie amps. but a really impressive, punchy and full clean sound I agree with this... I had one for about 6 months and liked it a lot but it didn't take dirt pedals very well at all IMO and I wanted an amp that could do that. So I sold it, bought a 73' pro reverb and I'm really happy. Even better cleans and it takes pedals fabulously. It's also easier to set up. I found the gain channel on the f-30 to sound very modern, which is cool sometimes, but not what I was going for. When I say modern I mean post-2000 as well. Could just be me though. I also thought it had more gain on tap than anyone in their right mind would ever need. It was ridiculous. For 'master of puppets' I turned it up to about 11:00-12:00, and it actually worked really well in that regard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Alchemist Posted February 26, 2008 Members Share Posted February 26, 2008 I've had mine as a head running into a 4*12 supersonic cab for over two years now, I enjoy it quite a bit..... The clean is very nice, and with the gain control, and by pulling the gain knob to go brighter (a lot of people dont seem to know you can do this), you have quite a bit of range. It plays nice with my single coils, and can do a nice jazzy humbucker tone, and is fairly responsive to picking dynamics. The dirt channel is pretty nice, but it has A LOT of gain on tap, some "metalheads" seem to insist this amp cant do more than classic rock, but I think thats rediculous.... can easily get into heavy metal territory. What I use it for is mainly fusion, and for that it has a nice smooth and dark tone, kinda santana-esque, but not quite as smooth as say a mark series because of the EL84's... overall its a nice amp, and I dont forsee getting rid of it at any point..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Josh S Posted February 26, 2008 Members Share Posted February 26, 2008 I had one on loan for a year while my Fender combo was being repaired (yes, a year - damned warranty work). In that time, I used it to record two albums, and took it on a cross Canada tour. I played roughly fifty shows with it. In all that time, I was never disappointed. Its clean channel is fantastic. I was running pedals into it, though, so never used the dirty (which sounded horrid). Basically, the only complaint I ever had is sometimes (barely ever) it didn't have quite enough clean headroom for me. That is my only complaint. I wish I had it back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members duderanimous Posted February 26, 2008 Members Share Posted February 26, 2008 I have a Mesa/Boogie DC-3.... 30watt, 4 x EL84 amp. All I can say is if you have a Mesa amp and want even BETTER cleans, plus a smoother - more usable lead channel, then pop a couple of JAN 5751's in the 1st TWO preamp tube positions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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