Any thoughts on the Mesa F-30?

[DavidE]

I was offered one on a trade deal and know nothing about them.

Thanks.

[Jorge]

DavidE, I got one of those a few months ago. I had a DC-3 that I foolishly sold, and I have regretted that for years, and bought this one as reviews made seem the Distorsion channel "more Marshall, less Boogie" than the DC-3.

Well, probably, but in the first trials, not so much as to actually make me use that channel. I would probably need to invest time in tuning that channel with the controls, which of course I would never do.

But the clean channel, OH YEAH. The "verge of breakup" "classic rockers" and "bluers" love so much. For Distorsion, it is better to use a box anyway (IMHO).

So in summary, for the types of music that I mentioned, a great amp.

Mine is the Head version, I use it with a recently acquired Avatar 2*12 amp.

Good luck!

Edited for: South American Spelling Sucks!

[Craig S]

I tried one a while ago and thought is hade a lot of the same feeling as the Subway Rocket, kinda of boxey sounding. The 12' in vs. the 10' did make a little difference in the fullness however. I thought it was O.K. just not what I was looking for. Disclaimer: I never used to like Teles or Twin Reverbs either and that's all changed.

[Guerrilla]

the, the f-30's el84's makes it different from my f-50's 6l6's, but i can tell you it's still one helluva amp.

[silentman]

It's been my main amp for several years now. I like the clean tone alot and it sounds great pushed on the clean channel with a strat. The lead channel is good for metal tones if you crank the gain and use the contour switch. I run mine with the gain at about 12 oclock and it does a nice chugga-chugga chunk (how's that for descriptive). I find this channel sounds better at gigging volumes, but at practice I run it with the contour on all the time to shape the sound better. At gigs I add a mesa theile 1x12 and mike that cab instead of the combo.

Any specific questions let me know. I've had trouble adding an overdrive pedal to the gain channel. It has so much gain available that an overdrive won't do much there. They work great on the clean channel.

[Abaco]

Great amp. The Mesa F series are their best rock amps in my humble opinion. They are overlooked because they don't have the diamond plate b.s. or a scary name like "Rectalfire!" But, plugged into a 4x12 they rock really well.

[kselbee]

The other guitar player in our band has one and it sounds pretty good, but I must say 6l6s sound somewhat sterile to me. But for a 6l6 amp, I like it.

[Jorge]

It actually uses EL84, your friend might be playing the F50, cheers.

[tomteriffic]

I had the F50 for a good while, found the clean channel to have almost too much clean headroom, loads of gain in the burn channel. I couldn't get it dialed in to the 'edge of overdrive thing where you go from clean to mild crunch and sistain with yor guitar's volume control. Built like a tank, though, and power to burn.

Never did try the F-30 since I'm up to my eyeballs in lower-powered EL-84 amps.

[SteveB]

I've owned a subway rocket, which is basically the same thing. The "Clean" channel on those doesn't have much headroom at all, so if you like pristine clean at volume forget it. Its a good sounding channel though. The overdrive channel is "Mark-ish" and sounds best to me with the Contour engaged, otherwise it's pretty boxy. The F50 has loads of clean headroom.

[DavidE]

I had a subway Rocket Reverb. It was ok for a $300 amp, but very boxy sounding and I liked the lead channel only one way (can't remember if it was contour on or off). If the F-30 is basically the same amp, I won't like it.

[Abaco]

I had a subway Rocket Reverb. It was ok for a $300 amp, but very boxy sounding and I liked the lead channel only one way (can't remember if it was contour on or off). If the F-30 is basically the same amp, I won't like it.

I don't think it is. The F-30 I played was a head into a 4x12 cab. NOT very box-like.