Hello. First time posting here as I just found this board. I've tried reading through the previous threads to find answers, but I thought it would be best to post a new one.
I own a F-50 1x12 combo that I bought new maybe 7-8 years ago. I guess it's later one because it has the badge or whatever. It says Mesa Engineering between the red power light and the channel toggle. This is my first tube amp as I played solid state amps for the about 12 previous years. Yes, I was young, dumb and didn't comprehend the sweetness of all tubes.
Anyway, I love this amp, but recently it has developed a vibration. At least I think that's it. It sounds like, as someone else put it, glass bottles vibrating together. My wife described it as 'like thunder'. It happens only on specific frequencies of sound. Most notably the G and G# found at frets 10 and 11 of the A string. It's very loud at those frets, but is also heard with less volume at octaves of those notes. I've eliminated my guitar as the culprit by plugging in a bass and reproducing the sound on the same notes. I'm pretty sure its amplified out of the speaker and not just a noise from somewhere else inside, but I could be wrong, its not entirely clear one way or the other.
I've also noticed the 'head' part is a little loose. It may have always been that way, I'm not sure, but when I pull the cord out of the jack on the front, it moves around some. I can move the whole thing with my hand a little bit, although it always moves back to where it was on its own. Is this loose head the problem or are they all like that?
Besides this noise, everything else seems fine. The expected tone and volume are the same as always.
I know tubes need to be replaced at at some point, but I haven't done any maintenance on this amp the entire time I've owned it. It kept working so I kept playing it.
It has been moved several times, twice across country, so its seen its share of bouncing around.
I tried playing the notes then putting my hand on different parts inside the amp, to see if I could eliminate the sound by stopping some loose thing from vibrating, but nothing I touched made any difference, even the loose head.
What do I look for now? I don't have any real experience in amp repair. Sure, I can see the preamp tubes there and the speaker, and I could take out and examine those, but I'm hesitant to mess around with stuff in the 'head' area as I don't really know what's what in there.
Are there some easier things I can check first before paying some guy a silly price to pretend to fix my amp? Like should I remove the preamp tubes and check the soldering or whatever? I read that in some other thread here. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Even if its 'dude you're in over your head, just take it to the shop'.
Also as an FYI to some questions I saw on using this amp as a head for cab. I bought a Mesa Roadking 4X12 a few years later and have used the F50 as the head by disconnecting the combo speaker and using only the cabinet through one of the 4 ohm outputs. I think it sounds awesome.
I own a F-50 1x12 combo that I bought new maybe 7-8 years ago. I guess it's later one because it has the badge or whatever. It says Mesa Engineering between the red power light and the channel toggle. This is my first tube amp as I played solid state amps for the about 12 previous years. Yes, I was young, dumb and didn't comprehend the sweetness of all tubes.
Anyway, I love this amp, but recently it has developed a vibration. At least I think that's it. It sounds like, as someone else put it, glass bottles vibrating together. My wife described it as 'like thunder'. It happens only on specific frequencies of sound. Most notably the G and G# found at frets 10 and 11 of the A string. It's very loud at those frets, but is also heard with less volume at octaves of those notes. I've eliminated my guitar as the culprit by plugging in a bass and reproducing the sound on the same notes. I'm pretty sure its amplified out of the speaker and not just a noise from somewhere else inside, but I could be wrong, its not entirely clear one way or the other.
I've also noticed the 'head' part is a little loose. It may have always been that way, I'm not sure, but when I pull the cord out of the jack on the front, it moves around some. I can move the whole thing with my hand a little bit, although it always moves back to where it was on its own. Is this loose head the problem or are they all like that?
Besides this noise, everything else seems fine. The expected tone and volume are the same as always.
I know tubes need to be replaced at at some point, but I haven't done any maintenance on this amp the entire time I've owned it. It kept working so I kept playing it.
It has been moved several times, twice across country, so its seen its share of bouncing around.
I tried playing the notes then putting my hand on different parts inside the amp, to see if I could eliminate the sound by stopping some loose thing from vibrating, but nothing I touched made any difference, even the loose head.
What do I look for now? I don't have any real experience in amp repair. Sure, I can see the preamp tubes there and the speaker, and I could take out and examine those, but I'm hesitant to mess around with stuff in the 'head' area as I don't really know what's what in there.
Are there some easier things I can check first before paying some guy a silly price to pretend to fix my amp?
Like should I remove the preamp tubes and check the soldering or whatever? I read that in some other thread here. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Even if its 'dude you're in over your head, just take it to the shop'.Also as an FYI to some questions I saw on using this amp as a head for cab. I bought a Mesa Roadking 4X12 a few years later and have used the F50 as the head by disconnecting the combo speaker and using only the cabinet through one of the 4 ohm outputs. I think it sounds awesome.
