New Mesa F30 Owner needs advice!

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Hi,

I've just bought an F30 head in the UK on ebay (my first Mesa!), and am having a few problems with the clean volume - it's incredibly quiet! With gain and master set to 12 o'clock it's too quiet even for bedroom playing. I can crank it up a bit to get reasonable volume, but it is still massively quieter than channel 2, which sounds full volumed if a little muddy.

I've already changed the power tubes to a brand new pair of Mesa branded EL84s, which I did pretty much as soon as I bought it. It was delivered with the following preamp tubes:

V1. JJ ECC82
V2. Mesa 12ax7
V3. JJ ECC82
V4. Mesa 12ax7

I have tried swapping the preamp tubes around but this has made little difference to the sound. I do not know if the amp has been biased to the JJ tubes.

Is there normally a huge difference in the volume between the channels, and if not how should I go about remedying this?

Thanks!
Neil
 
The amp is fixed bias for the power tubes and does not need bias for the preamp tubes. At 12 o'clock you should be able to kill small animals leaving the bass pounding mark III colliseum to kill at a 360 degrees range the bigger ones including elephants.

Check the switch for silent recording at the back. Mine doesn't work great and could be giving problems. Does the lead channel do this? Next step. Take it to the shop...A possible faulty component could drown the first channel. Is the loop modified? Are all preamp tubes good?
 
thanks giorikas81!

That's great to know that the preamp tubes don't need biasing, I tried to look that up and found completely contradictory information. The quietness is only on the clean channel, and as I said I've swapped the tubes around so I don't think they're at fault. I'm going to open it up and have a look for any obvious loose connections, and use some contact cleaner on all the switches and pots to see if that helps at all. If not I guess it'll have to take a little trip to the tech!
 
well a couple of hours of tube swapping have revealed that one of the JJ tubes is definitely not helping at least. If I put that tube into my orange AD5 then it's barely breaking up on full volume, so that tube seems to produce ultra low gain for some reason. So I guess I need to get some new preamp tubes....

Any advice on what to get? Should I stick with Mesa's tubes or am I best to try something else?
 
Ecc82 isn't spec'd for the F30, not sure if they're "interchangeable" but I wouldn't think so. I use JJ's Ecc83s in mine and it sounds fantastic. Whatever you get, go with the ecc83s/12ax7.
 
With a functioning 2nd channel (including contour) it's likely a failed component other than a tube. I recommend you get it to a shop for service.
 
In the end I just gor four new Tung-Sol 12ax7s from the music shop around the corner. Slotted them in, sounds superb!
 
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