F-50 feedback followup

[mikeyp]

So after messin' with pre amp tubes and then talking to a Mesa factory guy with my amp plugged in so he could hear it, he decided my amp is normal and it must be my powerful humbuckers :shock: .

I dont know but after consulting you folks it seems that I'm the only one that cant get the gain above 11 o'clock. For the most part I dont need to go past 9-10 o'clock 'cause I'm more of a classic rock guy but it seems I have alot of unusable gain.

If I get some time I'd like to go to GC with my guitar and my amp and compare it to one of thier F50's. That is if they have any left.

 

[plumptone]

I feel bad for you, man. It sucks when you get so stoked about an amp and it lets you down. FWIW, when I first took my F-50 home I loved it - took it to a gig the first time and was totally disappointed - not loud enough. I was convinced I had a dud, but like you, after a number of phone calls back and forth and swapping tubes etc., I decided the amp simply is what it is. The volume issue turned out to be a non-issue: I was just standing too claose to hear what the thing was throwing out. But to make sure I wasn't going insane, I also took the amp and my axe down to GC to A/B it with one in the store. It was fine.

Since then I have had 2 preamp tubes go microphonic, and I'm about to swap out my power tubes too - they died at the gig Friday night. This all within the first six months of ownership. When the pre-amp tubes went bad, I got a feedback thing going, but it was definitely microphonic tubes.

By the way - no point you lugging the amp down to the store with you. Call ahead, find out if they have an F-50 in stock, and bring your axe. You'll know immediately if it's your amp once you dial in your settings on the store model. If it feeds back, it's just your p'ups. If not, it's your amp.

Good luck!!!