is an f-100 right for me? help needed first time buyer

[chasinmichigan]

I am currently bidding on an f-100 on ebay (less than $1000). the reviews ive read so far which have been very few are mixed so i would like to know if there are any mesa owners that can help here. I need loud and clean which i know the thing can do well. but am also concerned about the touchy volume knob that ive heard this thing has. i have also ordered a full behringer stack to hook it up to (2 4x12s) i can always get better speakers later if i dont like them. as far as distortion i havent heard alot but i'm hoping for crunch. the sounds/tones i'm looking for are srv "lenny" to van halen "little dreamer" to sabbath "war pigs" to jimi "star spangled banner". i would also like to know what kind of distortion pedals work well with these heads. if i dont win the f-100 i'm leaning towards a nomad 100. i notice there are not alot of posts about the f-100 and i'm wondering if i have made a mistake. please help!!!

 

[meemawuk]

I'm quite a fan of the F-series. The cleans all sound brilliant but particularly good on the f-50 and f-100. With contour engaged you can get some meaty dstortion tones too. Having said that the Distortion sound isnt that great to my ears on it's own (not to my tastes). You might be able to get some better tones by pedal driving but I've never seen/heard any such clips of a pedal driven f series.

I dont think you'll be disappointed overall. Under $1000 sounds like a good buy to me.

 

[chasinmichigan]

thnx man i appreciate reply breathing a little easier now

 

[Alivefor5]

Here's a link to the Mesa F Series lounge:
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=885856&perpage=100&pagenumber=1

Lots of happy users, lots of problem solving, etc.

 

[cliff hetfield]

the f-series amps are just great tube amps. i love f-50 rig.

side by side with the rectoverb head, into the same cab, the f-50 was warmer and tighter sounding. with a much better clean.

the clean on my f-50 is wicked. i crank the master up and use the gain to controll the volume. its chimey, warm...almost magical.
the distortion is good. i go for a warm, punchy, woody tone...similar to metallica's load and re-load's tone. especially with single note stuff, it nails it.
i have to say, the speaker upgrade really made a huge difference in my tone. i had 4 old celestion g1270s. last year i got the avatar hellatone 60s...wow! HUGE improvement. unbelieveable!! the rig sounds SO much better!

 

[cliff hetfield]

id also like to say that with my 500t humbuckers in my les paul, the distortion gets very heavy. absolutely a 'modern' type of distortion tone with the gain up around 1 oclock.
that amp gets some nice brutal metal tones plugging directly in with no pedals.

 

[Snakum]

I gigged an F-100 head and Recto 2x12 for a while and I loved both the clean (of course) and the Contour channel. For classic rock, blues, and jazz an F-100/F-50 with a Bad Monkey and a good delay pedal can't be beaten for the price, imho.

I'm gigging an F-50 combo now. Love that little thing!

 

[chasinmichigan]

thnx for the link wow i'm home

 

[meemawuk]

Tommi Inkila's F-50 tracks from the previous link are stupidly good. I almost bought an F-50 because of them. When it came down to it I decided that the distortion wasn't as refined (in any direction) as I like. Not as brutal as a rectifier, or as tight as a mark. I wasnt on a tight budget so I decided to go with rack gear instead. If my budget was lower I'd have definitely went with the F-50/100 and i doubt I'd have been disappointed.

 

[powerlord]

I play a schecter C-1 with a dimarzio Dsonic in the bridge and a Breed in the neck and I can go from creamy leads to all out metal chaos with my F-100 212 combo,it smokes the green stripe I had in every aspect.Flip it on 100 watt,raise the treble,contour,volume=watch the hell out! And that's just straight in,tube screamer = ungodly high gainage!!!

 

[chasinmichigan]

Well, I did it, actually my wife did it. She bought it last night. She won the auction for $851 + $60 for shipping. Comes with the footswitch and the roadcase. Thanx everyone for your replies and advice. The old people next door have no idea what they're in for hehehehehe. I guess its time to move lol.

 

[meemawuk]

dont forget to let us know what you think of it once you get going!

 

[chasinmichigan]

you bet i will. hopefully i can finger out how to post pictures. this will be my first mesa. i'm also excited to find out how it will act with the 2 behringer 4x12s i bought for it and a univibe just for fun.

 

[sixtonoize]

AND...this is a BIG one:

Give yourself some TIME with the amp. I had my F-100 2x12 for several months before it really sounded good to me. And, now that it's finally grown on me, people are asking to buy it.

I don't get it.

But, whatever you do, don't expect to twiddle the knobs for a day or two and find your ideal tone. It can be a tough amp to tweak, so don't give up on it too soon!

 

[chasinmichigan]

since ive had it i am still struggling to get a good distortion sound for leads. i also noticed that the mid knob acts like a volume whats that all about. id like to add some distortion to the dirty channel but am not sure what would work.

 

[NDRU]

since ive had it i am still struggling to get a good distortion sound for leads. i also noticed that the mid knob acts like a volume whats that all about. id like to add some distortion to the dirty channel but am not sure what would work.

They say that the Mid acts like a gain above a certain level, like 11:00 or so. But really all the tone controls are gain/volume, because it's all just the amount of signal that goes through the system. Mid is perhaps most noticeable because that is the fundamental range of guitar tones.

So what is your impression other than that? I own an F30. I have a love hate relationship with it. Sometimes it sounds a little boxy, other times it sounds great.

 

[MJ Slaughter]

As with any Mesa amp be sure to read the manual. They give a good description of all the controls and good starting points for settings. Using higher treble and mid settings you can get a nice edge/hair on your clean channel.

I would be more concerned with your speaker selection than the amp. What model speaker does Behringer use in their cabinets? If you find yourself unsatisfied with your tone take your head to where you can demo some different cabs. It's been a long time since I've seen anyone play with a double stack. Do you take your full rig to clubs? I do miss the wall of sound vibrating my internal organs though.

 

[NDRU]

LOL I missed that it was 2 4X12's! That's a lot of speaker.

I agree that a quality 2X12 might be better than a questionable 8X12. But haven't heard the Behringer, so I can't say that's the issue he's having.

 

[chasinmichigan]

first off let me say thanx for the reply MJ and NDRU. I know a full stack sounds like a bit much but they sound incredible the top slant stack has jensens and the bottom has bugeras. i can knock a bird out of the sky with my rig. back in the day i played with a full stack and always got a great sound, alot of compliments from the people i played for about the sound and alot of disapproving looks from the sound guy. the clean channel is definitely not the problem as it is perfect as is, think lenny by srv. the dirty channel sounds good too especially for metal rhythms, however i was looking for a way to boost the dirty channel maybe with a mild distortion or tube screamer for some extra gain and sustain for my solos. do these pedals work good for this or am i barking up the wrong tree? i just dont want to buy one and have to sell it and buy another one blah blah blah just to find out which one does the job. i have also heard tell of a pedal called the sonic maximizer and am curious about that one too. i can tell you after retrying my theory of the mid knob, that it is another gain/volume control. i tried turning the mid all the way down and turning the gain and the master volume all the way up on both channels and i had no significant volume until i touched the tones and then pictures flew off the walls and the cats scattered. usually if you have the gain and the volume cranked your busting windows no matter where your tones are. this is my first tube amp so i'm attributing to the tubes which opens up a whole other world to me. i love my f-100 and i know it is the best amp for me. i just need a little extra gain and sustain and want to pedal drive it.

 

[MJ Slaughter]

Many people find that an EQ pedal used to push the lead channel works well. Keep the gain lower and push it hard with a pedal. Sorry you're having the trouble finding your tone. Do you know how old the tubes are? You might try speaking with Doug at Dougstubes.com or, forget his name, at Eurotubes.com. Tell them what you're looking for and they may be able to suggest a different tube combination. Wish I had experience with the F series other than just checking them out at Guitar Center.

Maybe it's not the amp for you. I've gone through a number of different Boogies until I settled on the DC-10. A lot of people are happy with the F series as well so it may just take some experimenting.