F-30: Speakers and cabinets.. what have you guys tried?

Hey, dudes. I've been thinking about spending some cash to expand/enhance my home F-30 experience. I'm contemplating ordering up a Mesa extension cab or swapping the combo speaker. Not a lot on the net concerning F-30 speaker swaps and cab usage and I know if there's a good venue for such a discussion it's this one. Eh?

I have the f30 combo. Bought a new mesa thiele cab to sit under it. HUGE sounding, compared to the combo by itself! Highly recommended!
b.r. andershoeg

cool. I was actually taking a look at that cab. one thing I read about it in some reviews was that it seemed to focus and project the sound forward in one direction, which I'm not sure I'd like.. however, it seems to me like a ported cabinet would beef up the low end, which I WOULD like.

I use a pair of Mesa Thiele 1x12 cabs with my F-30 head, and i love the sound. You do have to stand about 15 feet away from the amp to really get the full impact of the sound, though. A combo + Thiele is probably a great combination, or if you're into the closed-back sound like i am, a pair of Thieles is an amazing and compact rig.

I have tried a couple different speakers, my favorite right now is a G12H, which knocks a little of the honk out of the dirty channel, and really sweetens up the clean comp. to a V30. The MESA C90 is a little darker sounding, and for kicks I tried a WGS Veteran 30 and was pretty cool. The most dramatic difference would be a thiele cab, you will get a bunch of bass that is missing from the combo cab, plus it is a little easier to haul than a 4X12. Hope this helps.

I also tried a marshall AVT 4x12 which is an mdf mediocre cabinet with no name speakers...Cheap all in all. But it was good that in a way it enhanced the bottom end. I have to say that I run it parallel with the internal speaker and as a result the v30 got more wattage and volume than any of the marshall speakers. But it did fill out the "missing" bottom end and increased the spread. Kinda makes me want to try other wierd combinations.

i used to have an f30 combo once upon a time. i swapped out the v30 speaker for a c90 and thought it sounded much better! The v30 was too bright and harsh for that amp IMO. The C90 was much smoother and tame.

You know I am thinking of having both. The v30 may be kinda harsh, but with the mids crancked on contour mode, it absoluteley cuts in a live situation easily...The thought of adding a nice thiele c90 loaded on the bottom is what I am thinking.

How did you like the dc-3 compared to the f-30? The preamp patent is the same, and smith says the design is pretty much the same, but the gec is preset in the conotur mode and I would prefer adjustable as on the dc. Other than that I noticed you actually prefered your dc-3 to a lot of mesa's?

giorikas81 said:

You know I am thinking of having both. The v30 may be kinda harsh, but with the mids crancked on contour mode, it absoluteley cuts in a live situation easily...The thought of adding a nice thiele c90 loaded on the bottom is what I am thinking.

How did you like the dc-3 compared to the f-30? The preamp patent is the same, and smith says the design is pretty much the same, but the gec is preset in the conotur mode and I would prefer adjustable as on the dc. Other than that I noticed you actually prefered your dc-3 to a lot of mesa's?

Click to expand...

No comparison really. The DC-3 is a much tighter, more tube-like amp. The F-30 sounds like solid state in comparison! The cleans were slightly more fenderish with the F-30, but the lead channel is MUCH better on the DC-3 IMO. The F-30 is closer to a Recto and the DC-3 is closer to a Mark (very close actually). And, yes, I really liked my DC-3! I would have kept it if I could afford it! I wouldn't mind to have a DC-3 combo to transport easily, but doubt that will happen.....

I also have the triaxis and studio preamp.

Regarding that the dc-3 and the f-30 might use the exact same dynawatt power amp, and a v30 speaker? I find that though the studio's lead channel and the triaxis lead 2 yellow mode sound more mark-ish and are more capable for justice metallica and petrucciesque style tones, I much prefer the f-30's internal preamp distortion wise.

I also gigged a single recto and I didn't find tham really similar...basically without beeing night and day they were not in the same ballpark...

Another interesting thing is that dc's and f-series are kinda the same preamp!!! Same patent number, altered design (well the f-series are supposed to be closer to the old studio series according to smith...sometimes the little changes are the ones we're after).

All in all whenever I heard andershoeg's clips with an f-30 I kinda stuck on this one...

http://www.soundvenue.com/artist/mandenmedhegnet

he shreds through all styles and his petrucci clip shames people that -loud cough- here have mark IIC+'s and are supposed to emulate you know who!!!

8) JUST SOLDERED IN A NEW EMINENCE CANNABIS REX THIS MORNING,REPLACING VINTAGE 30.JAMMED AWAY A STRAIGHT TWO AND A HALF HOURS.STOCK MCCARTY.WOW!SMOOOTH,TOOK GRAININESS OUT.W/ V30 I HAD MIDS BARELY CRACKED,TREBLE A TOUCH MORE.NOW THE MIDS ARE 9 O'CLOCK,TREBLE 12.LESS BOXY.AND THIS IS NO BREAK IN,RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX.LOVIN IT!!