New (to me) F50 - its really quiet?? Reverb ??

[six20aus]

Well I picked up my F50 tonite, dont have a cab so wired it into a marshall valvesstate combo (twin 100w 4ohm goldbacks wired in series should be 8ohm right ?). I thought this head would blow me away in volume - I read about people not being able to turn their nomad55's past '1' at home...yada yada... Nope..

I didnt think this was loud at all, on clean channel I couldnt turn the gain up past 11/12 o'clock without ugly breakup. Master on 12 and it was loud but certianly no louder than I'd play at home - then turning master to max didnt make much difference to final volume. I think any 6yo drummer would completely drown this amp out...

Obviously the gain channel+contour were alot louder but even then they didnt blow me away, could comfortably play with gain on 2oclock and master on twelve o clock and nobody would call the cops until later...

Could the power tubes be dead ?? Valve amps are all new to me.

The reverb is just rubbish from what I heard - its noisy as all hell past about 11oclock and barely noticeable on the gain channel.

Tell me this amp will grow on me when I pick up a vox AD212 cab tomo... (hey it was stoopidly cheap)

 

[rockhound76s]

Congrats on your new amp, the F50 is a fine one!

It sure sounds that you may have worn tubes. How old are the current tubes? Was the amp purchased new or used? If used, I would highly suggest doing a full retube for best results. Tubes wear over time, and are almost always the culprit when it comes to insufficient volume issues with any tube amp.

Good luck!

 

[Surfcaster]

Yeah, somethings got to be seriously wrong, my F50 1x12 combo is stupid loud!! I rarely turn the master up past 9:30 or 10:00, and if I leave it at that volume too long my wife will complain...mind you she has to come downstairs and tap me on the shoulder because I can't hear anything but the amp!

My clean channel doesn't start breaking up until I'm about 3:00 oclock on the gain, and then it's pretty smooth, even cranked all the way.

I will say that the reverb on this amp is nothing to write home about, but it has kind of grown on me over the years.

It is probably worth checking the tubes....if you have a spare 12ax7 you can switch out the preamp tubes one at a time, making sure you turn the amp off to switch them out. It's very unlikely that all of the preamp tubes would be bad, so this will allow you to isolate an individual tube. On the power amp tubes, it's best to replace both at the same time.

You might also want to fool around with the FX Loop Mix control on the back...while it shouldn't affect anything with nothing plugged in, it's easy enough to just turn the knob back and forth while you're playing to make sure that's not part of the problem.

If none of that helps, you'll probably need to have a technician look at it, because you should be getting some serious volume out of that amp.

 

[plumptone]

I have to chime in here. I had exactly the same experience. I got my F-50 so that I wouldn't be driving my trusty DC-3 so hard - thinking I'd be getting gobs of extra clean headroom.

First gig out I was playing with the clean channel gain at noon and the output at 3 o'clock and felt like I was getting totally lost. Needless to say, after dropping over 1700 clams on this thing (I got the wood and wicker) I was seriously concerned. I swapped out the pre-amp tubes one by one with known good ones, and no difference. I suspected bad power tubes as well, but didn't have any extras. My next gig I plugged it into an open back 2x12 and was very satisfied. Shortly after that I tried it again just using the internal (I have the combo) and was disappointedonce again.

Here's what I did - and I suggest you do the same if you have this option. I packed the thing into my car and went out to the local GC to a/b it with one in the store. Guess what - no problems at all. It's just the way the amp is.

I've found that any discussion of volume is probably subjective. If you're playing/living in an area where you have to watch yourself, the amp's going to seem loud. But it's really not that uncontrollably loud the way some people make it out to be. (But note, the overdive channel is VERY loud, and probably can give you as much output as you would ever need in a venue not requiring a full mic-up.)

The clean channel's very sensitive up until 12 0'clock on the output master, but after about 2 o'clock there's little apparent volume increase - more power tube saturation and compression, which can be nice if you play around a bit with the gain.

But here's the kicker - if you really don't think it's loud, set the clean channel gain at about 1 o'clock, treble at noon, mids at 9, bass at noon, output master at about 2 o'clock, and step out in front of the amp about 20 feet. Trust me - it's loud! You have to get out in front to really hear what this thing can do - it throws a LOT of sound out front.

I'm back to gigging with it without the extension cab - I'm more confident now. The amp is what it is. What it will not do is rip your face off in the clean channel. But the tone is awesome.

 

[six20aus]

Okay, this morning I took the head down to the local music shop and tried it thru a marshall 1936 2*12 cab. Big difference, lots more bass and tight bottom end owing to the closed back cab. Everyone in the store said it was LOUD and sounded awesome..

I think I will give up on any discussions of loudness. They are totally subjective. I dont think its loud in channel 1. Channel two yer it gets loud.

I picked up a Vox AD212 cab this afternoon for $325(AUD) - what a bargain - its been beaten about a bit and the tolx is scuffed and torn but the speakers are in good nick and it sounds AWESOME with the F50.

Think the F50 will grow on me.