Bottomdweller said:
I have a Rectoverb combo that I like alot, but I wish it had a little better clean sound and reverb. From all the reviews that I've read it seems like that's what an F50 is. Am I wrong? I know the F50 doesn't have the toggles on the channels (vintage/modern, clean/pushed) but I really only use clean and vintage anyway. I don't live near a Mesa dealer and haven't played through an F50 yet. Thanks for your input![/b]
Well, I have a Tremoverb and an F-100, so I might be able to help.
I think the reverb on both the F-series and Rectoverb is roughly the same, with a little more level available on the F-series. You'd really have to move into the Lone Star to get deep, lush 'verb. As for cleans, the F-50 is very hard to beat. I personally think that the F-50 only gives up the lush 'verb to the Lone Star, but otherwise the cleans are very similarly excellent. So, I think it's safe to say that while the Rectoverb's clean channel is good, the F-50's is excellent. I certainly don't feel the need to run out an get a Fender Blackface Twin anytime soon.
As for overdrive, the F-series can cop most of the tones of vintage high gain, but regular channel 2 is more like a Mark IV with its fat solo sounds. Once you move into Contour, you'll recognize some of the aggression of the Recto Modern mode.
The overwhelming bass on Rectos isn't there on the F-series, but the F-50 has a tighter bass response. The tightness of bass on either amp doesn't bother me at all, but for some people it's a drop dead feature. Also, the tone controls on the F-series are in the middle of distortion production in the preamp so they have a different response to the Rectoverb's EQ. Basically, on the F-50, the EQ affects the feel and texture of distortion, whereas on the Rectoverb, the EQ affects the overall frequency content in the output signal. So, if you wanted really tight bass on the F-50, turn the bass knob down below 9:00. Then, to recover the low end, you can put an EQ in the loop. On the Rectoverb, you'd need a bass-starved boost pedal, EQ, etc. to drop bass going in, and then use the on-board tone controls to replace the lost bass.
