Thinking of buying a Mesa F-50 Head

[okbutjustonce]

Any thoughts? The clean channel sounds great, and I'll mostly be using pedals for dirt.

[Waxhead]

Originally Posted by okbutjustonce

Any thoughts? The clean channel sounds great, and I'll mostly be using pedals for dirt.

F-50 is a great amp going cheap these days. A buddy has one & I've gigged with it several times. It's strong point is it's dirt channel though. Mesa make better clean amps like the Lonestar and 5:50. My only prob with the F-50 is that it's parrellel loop. If I got one I'd mod it to Series.

[okbutjustonce]

bump

[Derelict]

great cleans and OD.

[155]

I have a combo and love the thing , awesome clean channel and theres alot you can do with ch2 and contour,definately a bargain now days.

[okbutjustonce]

Any thoughts on what I should expect to pay for a head?

[phyrexia]

Originally Posted by Waxhead

F-50 is a great amp going cheap these days. A buddy has one & I've gigged with it several times. It's strong point is it's dirt channel though. Mesa make better clean amps like the Lonestar and 5:50. My only prob with the F-50 is that it's parrellel loop. If I got one I'd mod it to Series.

Your experience is not the norm; The F50 got awards for its clean channel, and the LSC uses a similar circuit for its clean channel. The 5:50 is just an extension of the F50 anyway. Most people dog the distortion channel for being loose or muddy and love the clean channel.

I myself loved my F50. Except the reverb sucks. Express/Lonestar reverb is much better.

[HoboMan]

I just bought a 1x12 combo last week. Finally got to really give it a workout this weekend.
It's a GREAT amp.

I have a JCM800 combo and was looking for a replacement, something with a similar gain channel but a better clean channel and could be used at low volume.

The F-50 nails the JCM800 tone. At first it didn't but when I unplugged the speaker and used my JCM800 as an extension cab the tone was there.
I now have plans to change out the speaker with a CL80 (that's what I have in my JCM800)

My JCM800 has the gain around 4:00 but on the F-50 it only needs to be set around 9:00. I didn't go any higher.

Here's the good part. The F-50 can be used at bedroom volumes and it still sounds good. My JCM800 is useless at Bedroom volume.