F30 vs F50 Tone

[opunake]

Hi - I'm looking at getting either a F30 or 50 as my first tube amp. It will be used for gigging, miked up through the PA in medium size clubs. I've read some great threads on this site but would like to know the difference in tone between these amps, given the difference in power sections.

Thanks,

Pete

 

[TheRazMeister]

Pete, this is strictly a 10 minute observation but from a limited test it seemed like the 50 had a better clean tone(excellent actually!) and the 30 jumped out at you more in the gain section. Even with the contour on, I felt like the F-50 fought me when trying to rip notes out while the F-30 flowed with more usable saturation. I'm interested in other opinions as well as our Church is looking for a "house" amp and those 2 are in the mix. (**note- "Church" does not equal meek these days when it comes to worship songs 8) )

PS - give a listen to "Take my Life" by Jeremy Camp for an example of hard edged Christian rock.

Hi - I'm looking at getting either a F30 or 50 as my first tube amp. It will be used for gigging, miked up through the PA in medium size clubs. I've read some great threads on this site but would like to know the difference in tone between these amps, given the difference in power sections.

Thanks,

Pete

 

[opunake]

Thanks. I'll probably be using Channel 2 the most for mod/high gain rock (no metal), so the clean channel is not as important.

 

[Surfcaster]

I've told this story before, but can tell it again. When I bought my Mesa I actually was planning to buy the F30. However, the salesman said to try them both and then make my decision...adding that many ended up with the F50 after trying them side by side. I had a friend along with me who's got a great ear and we ran both through their paces side by side. Our conclusion was that the F50 had more clean headroom on the clean channel and that the gain on the lead channel on the F50 did NOT get as buzzy at the higher gain settings, nor did the F50 compress as quickly as the F30 (i.e., the F30 got squishy at lower gain settings than the F50). Mind you, the differences weren't huge, but they were noticeable to both of us. So I felt the F50 better suited my tastes on both channels. Volume wise, very little difference. Lastly, I prefer the Custom 90 speaker in the F50 to the Vintage 30 in the F30. The C90 has more bottom end and is less boxy sounding (which comes from the V30s accentuated midrange response). So in the end, I decided the for me it was worth the little bit extra the F50 cost.

Edit: Tone wise, they were very similar. My guess is that the difference made by the power amps isn't all that noticeable until you've really got the amp cranking...and both of these amps are so loud I don't usually crank them that much. I've got a Weber attenuator now, but I don't find that the amp sounds that much better with the power section really pushed hard, so I rarely use it like that. Mesas get most of their gain and tone shaping from the preamp (cascading gain and all). The power amp is kind of the salt...most of the flavor comes from the preamp, so that's probably why the two sound so similar despite the different power amps. Again, I expect the difference might be more noticeable at high volumes....but you'd better get some earplugs before you do that...and if you're mic'ing your amp at gigs, chances are you won't be pushing your amp hard enough for the power section to make a difference anyway...I never did when I gigged like that.

 

[TheRazMeister]

Surf....Just curious, did you use humbuckers or single coils? (I use hums) 'Cause honestly (and remembering that sound is subjective) the F-50 sounded slighltly lacking compared to the F-30 in the 2nd channel. This is now the 2nd F-50 I've tried that just did not "rip" as far as I was concerned. Don't get me wrong, it sounded fine....but I could see myself putting a pedal in front of it to get more aggressiveness when playing single notes. The F-30 brought a store clerk over to ask what amp I was using. He too made the comment that he didn't realize the F series could get that type of sound.

I've told this story before, but can tell it again. When I bought my Mesa I actually was planning to buy the F30. However, the salesman said to try them both and then make my decision...adding that many ended up with the F50 after trying them side by side. I had a friend along with me who's got a great ear and we ran both through their paces side by side. Our conclusion was that the F50 had more clean headroom on the clean channel and that the gain on the lead channel on the F50 did NOT get as buzzy at the higher gain settings, nor did the F50 compress as quickly as the F30 (i.e., the F30 got squishy at lower gain settings than the F50). Mind you, the differences weren't huge, but they were noticeable to both of us. So I felt the F50 better suited my tastes on both channels. Volume wise, very little difference. Lastly, I prefer the Custom 90 speaker in the F50 to the Vintage 30 in the F30. The C90 has more bottom end and is less boxy sounding (which comes from the V30s accentuated midrange response). So in the end, I decided the for me it was worth the little bit extra the F50 cost.

Edit: Tone wise, they were very similar. My guess is that the difference made by the power amps isn't all that noticeable until you've really got the amp cranking...and both of these amps are so loud I don't usually crank them that much. I've got a Weber attenuator now, but I don't find that the amp sounds that much better with the power section really pushed hard, so I rarely use it like that. Mesas get most of their gain and tone shaping from the preamp (cascading gain and all). The power amp is kind of the salt...most of the flavor comes from the preamp, so that's probably why the two sound so similar despite the different power amps. Again, I expect the difference might be more noticeable at high volumes....but you'd better get some earplugs before you do that...and if you're mic'ing your amp at gigs, chances are you won't be pushing your amp hard enough for the power section to make a difference anyway...I never did when I gigged like that.

 

[Surfcaster]

Well, I can't remember for sure. It was either humbuckers (Seymour Duncan JB, which I swapped out earlier this year for a DiMarzio Virtual PAF, which was a great improvement with the F50 IMHO, but both are lower output humbuckers), or else a Strat equipped with red and blue lace sensors, which are supposed to sound like humbuckers (red=hot and blue=50's PAF, with red in the bridge and blue in the neck).

But I dunno, that's what I remember, but it's been two years ago already. Obviously my friend and I both liked the F50 better, or I would have saved some cash and gone home with the F30, and we've talked about it again recently, that we both felt the F50 sounded better to us. But it could be that you and I are looking for different things. I'm not so much into the modern hi-gain thing...while I do that occasionally, my mainstay is more of an 80's hard rock sound, and then some medium gain stuff. It's very likely that it's these differences that attracted us to the different amps. Though, like I said before, I didn't find the differences to be huge...just worth the extra $100 (at least that's what it was at the time).

Surf....Just curious, did you use humbuckers or single coils? (I use hums) 'Cause honestly (and remembering that sound is subjective) the F-50 sounded slighltly lacking compared to the F-30 in the 2nd channel. This is now the 2nd F-50 I've tried that just did not "rip" as far as I was concerned. Don't get me wrong, it sounded fine....but I could see myself putting a pedal in front of it to get more aggressiveness when playing single notes. The F-30 brought a store clerk over to ask what amp I was using. He too made the comment that he didn't realize the F series could get that type of sound.

 

[no soul]

If we are talking about combos...

I prefer the powersection dynamics of the F50, but I dont like the speaker in it (c90) where as I do like the speaker in the F30, but I suppose buying the F100 took care of that :lol:

Between the two Id probably opt for the 50 anyway, Im a 6l6 guy.

 

[opunake]

Thanks for the replies. It doesn't look like there are any bad options. Unfortunately I'm living miles from the nearest Mesa dealer so I can't do a comparison myself.

Pete