Just my 2 cents, Ive owned the f50 and it was a killer amp. Ive messed around with the f30 and the two seem very similar. I currently do not own either right now.
Three days ago I purchased a brand new 5:25. I brought it home and played it for about 3 hours straight. I loved the amp in all aspects especially being delighted that the 10 inch speaker can handle so much bass and really sounds pretty close to a 12inch. Great amp. Reverb is excellent too.
My problem with the amp started as soon as I turned it on though. I didnt notice this problem at the store so much. When I turned it on it had what I consider way too much background noise. The noise didnt increase with more gain,, just increased when I raised the master volume. I really dont remember the f30/50 being this noisy. My rectoverb combo which has loads of more available gain is extremely quiet compared to this amp, even when its dimed out.
I tried everything I could think of,, swapped tubes, tried different guitars, different cables, I never hooked up any effects at all,, just guitar, cable and amp. I played this amp solid for hours at about 80% maxed, hoping with any luck it would work itself out. No luck. I wound up calling mesa directly and spoke to a guy who ran me through a couple possible cures which I already tried to no fix. He wound up saying that this is an inherant trait of the express series. Whether or not this is totally true, I dont know. I found the noise to be worst on the 2nd channel blues mode believe it or not regardless of the amount of gain.
I only suggest really trying this amp out before you dish out $1100 for it.
Or make sure you can get your doe back. I wouldnt see it so much of a prob if it was a higher wattage amp made to be really loud. I bought it for home use and even at half maxed I found it to be very annoying with background noise. And I refuse to go out and buy a noise suppressor for a new $1100 small amp.
Other than the noise I cant imagine a better made, better sounding amp in this catagory. It really is a sweet amp if it wasnt for this noise.
Maybe they will fix this one day,,, I will own one then.
