F50 Too Bright...

[stanmuso1]

What would a person do to take some of the brightness out of a F50 combo? Even with the treble at zero it is very bright.. I think the clean is just a little TOO glassy... Would like to make a little more Fender like. Is it a matter of changing the preamp tubes or poweramp tubes? It has stock Mesa 12ax7a's and Mesa STR430's in it.

Many Thanks

 

[nemesys]

I've had a lot of luck with Mesa's 5881's (http://mesa.stores.yahoo.net/5881russian.html). They take a lot of the glassiness out of the sound, resulting in a much more even tone. They aren't quite as responsive to pick attack as the 6L6's, but that's to be expected -- it's partly a function of brightness. They seem to run a little hotter than the stock tubes, as well, probably because a 5881 is supposed to be biased a little colder than a 6L6. Mesa sells them as an alternative tube for any of their 6L6-based amps, so I doubt it's a problem.

 

[scotbot]

put a JJ in V1 in your preamp.

 

[Charlie]

I had the same problem and I switched out my preamp tubes to Tung Sols. The JJ's may also be a good alternative I haven't tried them.

I also switched to the 5881's.

The amp is still a little bright but this tamed it a lot AND it sounds better overall.

I think that amp is voiced to be used with the rythym pickup not the lead pickup when using the clean channel. I kept trying to get a good clean sound with my lead pickup and I finally switched it and was like... ahhhh!!! Every guitar is different but it's worth a try.

 

[NuSkoolTone]

put a JJ in V1 in your preamp.

+1. There were times I wasn't sure if I made the right decision with the amp. It's amazing how much tubes make a difference! I had a Mullard re-issue in there and it made it even more compressed and fizzy. Not recommended IME.

I put a JJ in V1 to tame the harshness, and an EH in V2 to give it a little more bounce. V3 I don't know if makes any difference if you're not running fx. I haven't tried messing with the PI yet this time around. A had a mesa SPAX7 there and it worked well (Quiet!) until it died.

I also have Ruby 6L6GCMSTR's in there that I had lying around. Also an improvement over the stock tubes.

When I play along with Records practicing for my cover band, the tone REALLY sits right in there!

I'm still interested, but don't feel like I HAVE to mod the Contour brightness anymore.

Hope this helps!

@Dopeman: How would you decribe the tung sols compared to JJ and the stock mesas? Thinking about picking a few up.

IME:
-I thought the Mesas were hard sounding in a headache kinda way and the JJ's were warm with a good pick attack.

-A Sovtek LPS was very lively but mushy and an EH was in between the the LPS and stock Mesa (Russian 2).

-Mullards were VERY compressed/mushy (but not quiet as lively as the LPS though mushier than the LPS lol) with a good bit of sizzle, warm bass and greasy subdued mids.

There seemed to be a correlation between the plate length somewhat in breadth of frequency response vs. attack and focus.(Though this is conjecture)Shortest to longest was: JJ, Mesa/EH(Equal plate length), GT, LPS.

 

[Charlie]

I haven't tried the JJ's so I can't comment on them.

I had a problem with flubby bass and ice pick highs on the clean channel with the stock Mesa preamp tubes. The flubby bass got worse if I turned the preamp gain up (on the clean channel). I've got the Tung Sols in V1 and V2 now and it really helped fix these problems.

Channel 1 sounds awesome with the preamp dimed now. It has a really good old school rock and roll crunch/overdrive type of sound. Also, the gain on channel 2 is a lot smoother as well.

I'm ok with Mesa's stock power tubes but I never liked their preamp tubes at all. I had them in my 800 when I got it and switched them out. My JTM45 was tubed with Mesa's when I got it and same thing there.

 

[willrock]

i changed the speaker to v30.. sounds orgasmic

 

[stanmuso1]

Thanks to all replies.. Might go with the Eurotubes JJ kit for the F50 to tame the icepikiness..

 

[rickc007]

What would a person do to take some of the brightness out of a F50 combo?
Many Thanks

make sure the bright switch is not on

I've played quite a few, I didn't find them too bright in normal mode at all