F-100 Lead channel "harsh"

Just bought it.. Love the clean channel...leads are hot......but a power chord sounds like melted aluminum looks...not pleasant at all. Will new tubes help?

Yeah, the F-series has a very crispy upper-midrange. I liked that about the amps, which is why I have owned two. Really nice punchy transients, cuts through the band incredibly well.

You can always dial it back a bit, but it is the characteristic of the amp, so it will only go so far. JJ tubes tend to be pretty dark, so that may help. The contour mode also smooths out the tone a bit. For leads I would throw on a BB Preamp for more liquid Mark-tone.

It may also help to run the amp a bit hotter. Try pulling two power tubes and crank it up a little. There is not so much preamp saturation that the power tubes are buried.