Does anyone know why the F-Series was discontinued? Please advise if you know anything. There has been some chatter on the web that there were quality issues of some sort.
I have an F-50 (3 years now) and have been very happy with the amp. The clean channel is outstanding. It's my favorite channel. I've been disappointed with the overdrive in CH 2 & 3. They crank out but it just seems to be too fuzzy/undefined and not musical enough regardless of where I set the gain. My solution has been to use my MXR Distortion+ through channel 1.
Recently, I've found that I need to use different tubes (meaning not MESA tubes) to get good overdriven sounds from channel 2 & 3. I switched-out the mesa 6L6's and replaced them with GT 6L6GE (5 GT rating). This picked things up considerably but it was not the sound I was looking for. It was still kind of flat. I then replace the Mesa 12AX7's in V1 & V2 with New Sensor Mullard reissues and holy crap! What a difference! CH1 was still sparkly and clean (although I did need to dial the gain back from 1 o'clock to 10 o'clock to keep it from breaking up) and CH 2 & 3 are starting to sound like the amp I remembered hearing in the GC showroom. I've just ordered 2 more of the NS 12AX7 Mullards from the Tube Store for V3 & V4 and I also ordered a matched pair of the SED Winged "C" 6L6GC's for the power stage. I'm betting that the new tubage is going to make this F-50 scream. Mesa: Awesome amps, average tubes.
I have an F-50 (3 years now) and have been very happy with the amp. The clean channel is outstanding. It's my favorite channel. I've been disappointed with the overdrive in CH 2 & 3. They crank out but it just seems to be too fuzzy/undefined and not musical enough regardless of where I set the gain. My solution has been to use my MXR Distortion+ through channel 1.
Recently, I've found that I need to use different tubes (meaning not MESA tubes) to get good overdriven sounds from channel 2 & 3. I switched-out the mesa 6L6's and replaced them with GT 6L6GE (5 GT rating). This picked things up considerably but it was not the sound I was looking for. It was still kind of flat. I then replace the Mesa 12AX7's in V1 & V2 with New Sensor Mullard reissues and holy crap! What a difference! CH1 was still sparkly and clean (although I did need to dial the gain back from 1 o'clock to 10 o'clock to keep it from breaking up) and CH 2 & 3 are starting to sound like the amp I remembered hearing in the GC showroom. I've just ordered 2 more of the NS 12AX7 Mullards from the Tube Store for V3 & V4 and I also ordered a matched pair of the SED Winged "C" 6L6GC's for the power stage. I'm betting that the new tubage is going to make this F-50 scream. Mesa: Awesome amps, average tubes.