F-50

hey guys

I have a question maybe you guys can answer.

I'm looking at a F-50 series amp.
buying used.

ive watched a load of demos on this amp off of youtube.
killer tone, some cool features, honestly whats not to like right?
ok so I called around and asked a couple repair guys on their opinion
of this amp. one shop that I talked to didn't out right bash the amp
but he did say that they don't hold up to well to gigging or hard use.
remember hard use, not abuse.
he said he has found that these amps wear out pretty quickly and I should consider
the MarkV series. that's kind of a no brainer but there is 1K difference too in the amp prices.

so what are your thoughts on this amp and my warning I received about this amp/series?
this amp I'm looking at is priced right I think. not to low but not to high. appears to have been
cared for. I don't know the guy I'm buying from personally but he seems pretty cool. he showed me
this web site too so I could come get opinions/thoughts.
this would be my first ever Mesa so I don't know much about the line except they freakin rock. lol

nobody?

ok this is getting weird.

I had one for about a year. I bought it used, it was about 10 years old.
Not long after buying it i had to have it looked at by a tech because it was humming pretty bad, i retubed it and it was fine for the rest of the time i had it.
I gigged it loads, and only moved it on because i fancied a Mini Rec. If i could have i would have kept it. Overall a great amp, awesome clean channel with headroom for pretty much any gig.
Channel 2 to me seemed like a cross between a MK series and a Rectifier. It def has it's own thing going on and i found the eq controls didn't really change anything that much. Almost like 'this is what i sound like, you can fine tune me but thats about it'. Definitely not as flexible as the Mini Rec i now have but it did sound great.

Overall a good amp, and typically for a Mesa it was built like a tank. Very heavy and gave off an aura of quality.
I would say though that they are all getting on for over 10 years old now so if you get one you may need to get it looked at by a tech at some point, as good as Boogies are nothing is infallible.

finally a reply lol.

did you find the amp very usable at lower volumes, like home use?

Yes but for channel 2 i did the modded patch cable trick (google it) or you could use a simple volume pedal in the loop. It sounds good this way but when you get to crank it it sounds awesome, however the volume level when it really comes alive is pretty **** loud!

I should also add that it takes pedals really well too. i used to use a Throttle box and a Guvnor 2 into the clean channel and it sounded great. I also used to put a 7 band eq in the loop and that really enabled me to get loads of different sounds out of it.

I would say definatley try one if you can, preferably cranked up if possible, they are monstrous when at gigging volume.

is this forum usually this dead?
I figured I would get a few replies on this
but I haven't.

so do you think I could set this at home with normal
volume and still be happy tone at said volume.

This forum can be quiet yeah, but also i found there don't seem to be many F50 owners on here.

I would say yes, you can get good tones at home volume. Cleans you will have no problems, channel 2 you will need a volume pedal or eq in the loop, or the modded patch lead trick.

I do miss mine and kind of wish i hadn't sold it, if i ever get a chance to get another i probably will.

whats this patch cable trick do?

Basically turns the effects loop level control into a master volume. Its got a nice taper on it, you can turn the channel volumes up quite a way and tame it with the effects loop control. Works really well.

Nick79 said:

Basically turns the effects loop level control into a master volume. Its got a nice taper on it, you can turn the channel volumes up quite a way and tame it with the effects loop control. Works really well.

Click to expand...

holy shiot no way!

Hi,
I have posted several times here about the F-Series. I have owned 2 F-100's, and an F-50 so here is my 2 cents.

The good:
Wonderful clean starts at that lively fender blackface vibe and then as you increase the gain it gets warmer sounding until you start getting into garage rock area. Channel 2 with contour is my favorite high gain tone ever, thicker than a Mark series but a little more growl than a recto. I lug this amp from my instrumental surf band, to an Elvis cover band, and then to my crust band and the tone is perfect for all three. The two extremes on this amp are awesome.

I think the F-50 sounds better than the F-100. It has just a hair more attitude.

Its personal preference but I really like the tone controls, no presence control so the clean channel has a little more of that vintage fender vibe but with master volume. For the distortion channel it's super easy to plug in and play. Some people say that the tone controls don't do much but I disagree they are just setup different than other amps so they enhance rather than sculpt.

The Bad.
The F-50 always powered down when playing at concert volume with the preamp gain cranked. All of these amps burn through tubes like crazy. I buy in bulk now. Mesa techs also claim that the gain shouldn't go much past 12'o clock in which case there is not nearly enough distortion for what I play. Clean channel never gave me an bit of trouble.

The mid gain rock n roll crunch is not that inspiring. I can totally play garage rock to 70'/80's punk rock n roll type stuff but my jaw isn't hitting the floor because of how great it sounds. For that sort of tone the Mark V, and the DC-5 or 10 kill the F-Series.


The whatever.
Parallel FX loop, which doesn't seem like a big deal until it is. You can easily mod the amp for Serial and for high gain its almost essential to run a noise gate and for those crazy down tuned djenty (is that still a thing?) guys a graphic eq.

The clean channel doesn't do what I consider "metal" clean which is the Dream Theater or Metallica ultra clean. The F-50 has more color than a typical modern high gain amp.

Overall I still own my F-100 it does what I need and it does it very very well. Some days I really miss having that punch you in the face mid gain crunch and think that I would rather have a Mark 5:25 with a dual recto running parallel instead of the F-100. But then again I think of how much more expensive that would be just to have it sound like the F-100 90% of the time. Also no one ever looks cool playing a bar or basement gig with a stack of expensive amps.

I went ahead and shelled out the $600 for the amp.
I love it. add a slight dirt pedal and I can go any direction I want with this amp.
it was bought for a more classic rock/blues type thing and seems to fill that
space rather well.