Tones are volumes. Turn them down and you've got no volume!

The reason I bought Boogie and not Fender is because I hate that glassy top end spike. Boogie don't do it. I like the Blackface sound without that glassiness that Boogie do. You get it by turning down the mid. And try using the contour too. It's a lot better than the Fender clean. It's rounder, warmer, softer, sweeter. It's not like a razor across the face like Fender clean.

The problem I find it that for some mad reason, the tones are volumes. If you turn all the tones down, the volume is off.

Turning down the mid to about 8 or 9 oclock and turning the bass down to get the sound I want means there's hardly any volume! You can easily talk over it and be heard no problem. When you turn up the gain and master volume to try and get it to at least bedroom level all you get is loud mush.

I tried to record and even though the mic was on the grill and the amp was up over halfway hissing it's head off, I STILL had to turn the mic input up almost full to get a level to record with.

I've got an F50 and 5.50. They're both like it. I'm thinking of selling them both.

Yes they are very active tone controls especially the treble. They advise setting you treble and gain first and then adjust bass and mid. Mine are all set between 11-2 and then use contour and sliders to fine tune as the come just before sending to the power section.