Mesa F-series Lounge. Come on in and share your secrets. - Harmony Central Musician Community Forums

Dann'sTheMan · 03-19-2005, 09:28 AM

Hey Brothers,

This is a thread for those interested in Mesa's stealth amp, and wondering how to get the most of them live, when recording or at home.

Tommi Inkila has been wowing everyone with his fantastic clips, and he suggested that such a thread would be cool to exchange production ideas, have a tube-discussion and especially hear experiences with the F-series in a live situation.

So share your experiences, and help the brothers (and sisters) here get the very best out of the Mesa F-series!

Big smiles,

Andy.

P.S. The F-series Lounge is already a one-stop shop for information, now it's a one-stop shop for clips too!

Dann'sTheMan · 03-19-2005, 09:35 AM

Let me kick off with a tip that may be useful Live for integrating an F-series into a MIDI set up. I've posted this information before, but this thread is certainly a good place to document this.

I have made up a custom cable to allow me to switch my Amp and my FX Unit with one stomp on my MIDI footcontroller. I used it to switch live, for example, from a clean tone with fat chorus, to a thick crunch tone with Delay and Chorus - all without tap dancing.

Check out the cable diagram here. The F-series also uses a similar 5 pin DIN, but the pins are wired slightly differently - they are:

Pin 1 - Ground
Pin 4 - Channel 1/2 toggling
Pin 2 - Contour On/Off
Pin 5 - Reverb On/Off
Pin 3 - Not Used

They work like this, whenever a "Function" Pin is connected to Ground (Pin 1), the function of that Pin is selected i.e. to toggle between Channels 1 and 2, connect and disconnect Pins 1 and 4; to switch Contour On and Off, connect and disconnect Pins 2 and 1; to switch Reverb On and Off, connect and disconnect Pins 5 and 1. You can check this yourself by pulling the cable out of the Mesa footswitch, and connecting these pins, two at a time, with a piece of wire (you aren't likely to harm anything).
At the other end of the cable, I don't have a stereo jack (Tip, Ring, Sleeve), but rather mono jacks (Tip, Sleeve). I suspect it will be the same connection on many MIDI Switchers. All of the Sleeves must connect to Ground (Pin1). All of the Tips will connect to the Function Pins (4, 2 and 5).

Back at the other end of the cable, I used a 5 pin DIN socket so that I could simply unplug the Mesa cable from the footswitch, and plug it into my custom cable instead. You can see my custom cable here:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2251/...6fc69179_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2404/...045d3988_b.jpg

Big smiles,

Andy.

F-series Miscellaneous Tips

Tommi Inkila · 03-19-2005, 10:40 AM

Wow, this thread started quickly... I was just imagining that something like this would be cool... and now here it is

At this point I would like everyone to participate, F-owner or not.

Here's my findings so far (a week with F-50) ...

Andy's instructions are really handy... I managed to do that cable right on the third time... mostly the problem was that I wasn't paying enough attention and the cable I was soldering had different colors on the cable.

I'd like to also address that F-series is 3-channel amp in real-life. The contour switch is so carefully tuned that the tone controls don't need any altering... at least in live situation where little tone alteration doesn't bring much in to the sound like in studio situation.

Then some findings about tubes... beforehand I were told that the stock tubes aren't really good on Mesa... at least on F-series that doesn't show to me at anyway. Still, I'm an experimentalist so I had to put in JJ electronics 12AX7 on V1 that supposedly does wondrous things on Mesa amps... especially in Rectifier series. The JJ tightened the sound, gave more defined high-end and increased the gain (and hum slightly). I can imagine that those qualities are something to thrive for in Rectifier series. F-series doesn't necessarily benefit on those aspects, because I find it to be more defined than recto. Of course JJ gives meaner sound to F-series, but the amp might lose some of it's fatness that appeal to many. I'll be getting some tested Svetlanas (Billington Gold) and chinese tubes (Golden Dragon) next week... I'll update you on that once I get some results that are saying-worthy, it may take a while.

Production: I've received many thanks about my production quality, big thanks for that... for a year I have studied recording all the time, but my findings are somewhat sad truths.

1. quality amps and instruments
2. quality recording equipment

After that you don't have to be the a magic engineer for capturing great sounds (of course that helps).

I may sound quite harsh, but I'll take purposefully a little bit aggressive approach to this subject so please bare with me

There has to be some differences between, let's say, a 60-bucks rec-preamp (actually ART Tube MP on that price range has great value) with a 1000-bucks machine.

Somewhere there's a point where the price/better sound -ratio comes quite bad, but to a certain point spending more money to the equipment is well worth the money. Just like in guitars... I'm getting sidetracked

Anyway if you are really interested in recording, some of the money you wanted to spent on guitar gear should be spended on recording gear instead. This way your recording equipment grows along with the guitar equipment and you are able to capture the real sound of the amp finally.

How to change the overall sound with other stuff

1. mic choice
2. mic placement (took 3-4 hours for me)
3. the mix (there can be done some magic, but this shouldn't be the place where everything happens... fix it in the mix, I wouldn't sign on that)
4. tube choices, but this starts to get in to the territory of nit-picking

My SM57 is straight on axis directly to grille... 4" from left of the cab's edge and 6" from the bottom (bottom left element on my 4x12").

Bonus... if you want a massive guitar wall... double-tracking (or even super-stereo, 2 tracks on left and right) is a necessity. This takes some skill, because the playing has to be tight... it's also very effective way to improve your playing.

I think also that compression is a must for that guitar wall... at the moment I'm using freeware VST plugin from www.kjaerhusaudio.com called Classic Compressor... their other plugins are good too, like the limiter. My settings are normally something like this:

Threshold: -20dB
Ratio: 4:1
Soft compression
Attack: around 7-8ms
Release: 70-90ms
Gain: set with taste

Also it's wise to listen your mixes through monitors you're familiar with... with two different volume levels. If it sounds good quiet, it sounds great louder

Listening through headphones is also recommendable.

It's often considered that a tube amp should be recorded with almost full volume and volcano-hot tube. With at least my F-50 that's not true. I recorded my latest clip with volume at 9:00 o'clock. Of course, the sound will most likely get even better when I turn the amplifier louder, but didn't find this as effective as I assumed.

There's some of my thoughts... quite long text, hopefully there's something usable within those lines. I'm happy to elaborate if I can

Oh, here's my latest clip: http://koti.mbnet.fi/ojakola/Tommi I...g The Mood.mp3

Tommi Inkila · 03-20-2005, 03:33 AM

One point about mic choice:

I have completely tested two dynamic mics for guitar recording and live use: Shure SM57 and Audix D3.

The minus of SM57 is that it starts to cut the frequencies already around 400Hz so it has to be carefully placed if you want the full bass frequencies created by the proximity effect. That's one of the reasons why I prefer it directly on the cab's cloth (grille)... in live situation 1"-2" away could be reasonable if you don't want to lose the bass by turning the knobs on the amplifier. This may be something that you have to fight with the mixer/engineer if they have they own preferences.

The plus of SM57 is it's upper-end "snap" quality that is often desired... also it gives the guitar some vocal qualities.

Finally, I'm not sure if I remember the numbers correctly, but it gives you some clues what I'm talking about:
If you happen to use SM57 and a cab with Celestion Vintage30's you get side-effect that can be good or bad. The resonant peak of V30-cab is somewhere around 2.8kHz and the resonant peak of SM57 is around 5.7kHz... that's close to having to octaves "ringing" at the same time (2.8 * 2 = 5.6 ~ 5.7) ... so those frequencies are emphasized with SM57 and V30 -combination. It's always present and very hard to get rid of if wanted. To some people this actually is the magic tone characteristics that they thrive for.

Audix D3 is more hifi mic with it's frequency range (about 50hz-19kHz). The sound is quite balanced and full already so it's not so critical to place. This mic could be a solution if you have some problems in getting the bass out of the traditional SM57. In live situation Audix is quite easy to work with because it doesn't pickup other instruments easily like drums from behind. Also the even response is a nice feature, because it gives more room to mix-man to work with. Sometimes in live situation SM57s snapness may come quite annoying to the audience, therefore Audix is nowadays quite common equipment in gig-places around here.

Hopefully I get to use some other mics so I can form some thoughts about them

jrc6 · 03-20-2005, 11:28 AM

Great post tommi,

I like to mix and match different mic's when recording as well. I prefer to use condenser mic's on the rhythm tone, and dynamics with leads. The condenser's preserve the low mid & fullness of the guitar tone. The dynamics help sharpen the tone, and allow the lead to cut through.

I have both the Shure 57 & the audix d3. The D3 can easily take an SPL beating, even without a 10 db switch. I find the low mids are recorded better with the 57. The D3 is very clear, much clearer than a 57, but it has a unique flavor that I don't prefer for rhythm guitars. I think the low end is left out.

I have been experimenting with different speakers. I find the celestions are better for the F50, since they have more midrange punch. The F50 is fairly dark, and once the 6L6's kick in, it gives you a more balanced mid range tone. Therefore a speaker with a lot of mids (celestion v30, cl 80, green backs) will balance things out, and allow it to cut through the mix.

I have been trying the patriot series speakers (black powder & screaming eagle). It definitely offers a different tone, more dark & warmer. With both speakers, the F50 takes on more of a fender tone. You lose a lot of the nasal buzz of the celestions. The black powder is a great speaker with a heavy dose of low mid punch! Better suited for the F50 open back, as the close back has too much low mid punch & sounds too dark.

The screaming eagle, on the other hand, works much better. It is very, very bright, and helps better define the F50 high gain. It may be too bright for some people, but records like a dream. It makes the clean channel even more "poppy," and "bell like." It definitely has more of a fender vibe, bright & snappy.

The countor is a great channel, but I think there is too much bass!!! I typically back off the bass eq to about 10 O clock, crank the mids to 3 o clock, and crank the highs to 2-3 O clock. The high gain tone becomes much more clearer. This is especially true if you are cranking the amp, and pushing those 6l6's!

I hope to explore more with tube options as well. I am looking into the THD yellow jackets. Perhaps I can get an F30 sound out of the F50. I will post results in the future.

sorry for the long post

jrc

Tommi Inkila · 03-20-2005, 12:23 PM

Don't be sorry for long post jrc! I like those long texts

Few comments to your text... nothing negative

I will be having two mikes on the cabinet when I start to record our upcoming. Shure SM57 and one condenser (Rode NT-2A most likely).

That combination gives me the full tonal range... I'm a little bit worried though, because condenser will take some of the rooms sound and I like that "in your face" type of sound... well, we are going to see how that will sound

BTW, your perception of feeling that dynamics will help you cut may come from the "snappiness" I mentioned in SM57.

I slightly disagree with you about the D3, but this may be caused by seeing the thing from an different angle. D3 is so even that it makes it feel to lack some bass and on the other hand it makes it so clear at the same time.

I personally prefer SM57 over D3 when used with F-series voicing... my former amp (now as backup), zenAmp, sounded much better with D3. So that's really case sensitive.

Experimenting with the elements would be cool, but it's out of my budget at the moment and I'm very pleased with those v30's... I'm glad you wrote about your experiences, now I know more, and if I have some questions sometime, I know who to contact

Overall I think ie. Nomad is even darker amp from Mesa. Actually I find F to be very bright Mesa. Anyway I have my bass knob set at 11:00 so we are not so far off

Let us know how those THD's work. It sounds very promising.

Let's have long posts on this thread and allow all the ideas and perceptions come out

Tommi Inkila · 03-20-2005, 01:52 PM

Hei! (finnish hello)

Just wanted to ask something about tubes... a minor thing that's been bothering me.

With the original tubes on my amp I started to get some really strange and loud "squeek" right after note that had a pause after it. Then suddenly the clean side was completely mute, dist was working fine. I put in JJ and the problem was cured.

Today, on practise I thought I heard same, but nanosecond long "squeek" once. It didn't happen for another time or I'm not sure if my ears were tricking me.

I presume this type of thing has something to do with tubes or components related to them. Do you think that it was the tube or could the problem be in the barrels (is that the correct term?) in which the preamp tubes are connected? Can someone describe how it sounds if one of preamp tubes sort of disconnects in the middle of playing. Also, I was wondering if these problems occur when the resonance causes some rumble to the amp and tubes...

Thanks in advance for your thoughts

Dann'sTheMan · 03-20-2005, 04:33 PM

I use an SM57 also, utilising one of two miking techniques.

The first is the popular on-axis approach, perpendicular with the speaker grill. I keep the mike on axis and move it between the centre of the dust cap and the edge of the cone until I have the right balance of treble and bass. I used this approach for many years both live and recording...

However last Spring, I learnt another technique from a respected Australian sound engineer that was flown in for a satellite TV show I was recording. He positioned the mic near the centre of the speaker, but with the capsule pointing back towards the edge of the cone. The barrel of the microphone making perhaps a 30 degree angle with the speaker grill. I've found this approach results in quite a balanced tone, but perhaps there is less proximity effect. The TV show mixed the audio live before broadcasting 24 hours later, and I was very pleased with the results of this approach.

I certainly recommend experimenting with these approaches,

Big smiles,

Andy.

P.S. BTW, Tommi, I've never experienced the squealing and silence symptoms that you described but then I've never touched the stock tubes in my F-50. It may be a "shorting" problem - I was wondering if maybe any of the tube socket contacts might have been damaged when you were experimenting with different tubes? If it happens again, it may be worth having the amp looked at properly so that you can have piece of mind (fwiw, my F-50 has been totally reliable).

Guerrilla · 03-20-2005, 06:13 PM

i dont have any secrets.... i rely on you guys.

Tommi Inkila · 03-20-2005, 10:49 PM

Thanks Andy for your experience on miking!

I'm also familiar with that miking technique... haven't really used it, but I guess that position works nicely on live situation especially. It's easy position, because it's easy to measure where to put the mike.

Thanks for your insight on the tubes... I was really careful when changing the tubes. I think that the bad tube may be the source of the problem most likely and hopefully. Well, there's always a warranty so I have much time to invistigate if there is any real problem. Because Mesas are known to be very reliable and my F-50 is brand new I refuse to believe that the problem lies inside the F-50. That would be too typical (bad luck) for me

PS. guerrilla, I hope we are worth of your trust.

-=MYK=- · 03-20-2005, 11:05 PM

Hey Tommi, where can I find some more f-series clips?

Tommi Inkila · 03-21-2005, 01:33 AM

Hmmm... I have made these two clips.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/ojakola/Tommi I...eak Peaker.mp3
http://koti.mbnet.fi/ojakola/Tommi I...g The Mood.mp3

Dann'sTheMan has good clips on his signature ... hal9000 have some... and few other guys on this forum. I guess a search is in order to do here in the forum.

When I was searching clips of F-series, googling didn't do much for me.

Dann'sTheMan · 03-22-2005, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Guerrilla
i dont have any secrets.... i rely on you guys.

Maybe I should have entitled this thread, "...share your experiences"?

This thread is meant to be more a relaxed Lounge than an academic exercise. If you have anything to share: settings, anecdotes - then please do. Even if you don't expect it, I'm sure others will find the posts valuable - I've already learnt some new things from both Tommi and jrc6!

Big smiles,

Andy.

Guerrilla · 03-22-2005, 10:30 AM

one thing i would add, although i'm sure it's apparent to anyone who's spent more than half an hour letting the 50 roar, is that you cant fine tune the amp at high volume levels while standing right next to it.... gotta adjust, step away 10 ft, then repeat.

yourguitarhero · 03-22-2005, 10:35 AM

it's a fucking hassle to change pre-amp tubes without taking the chassis out of the head cabinet.

the footswitch and power cord jacks are difficult to access.

Dunno if this is just for me or not:

The footswitch.

no led for reverb.

if on clean - 1 green LED
if on lead - NO LEDs
if on contour - 1 red LED that is only on when you access the lead channel.

so it looks weird if I'm rocking out because there are no lights, but there are when I'm on clean.

If I forgot whether I'm on contour mode or not, I can't find out til I turn on the dirt - kind of annoying for live use.

Anyone else getting this or is my footswitch broke (I bougth used)

Loving the amp though, but these are my quibbles.

Craig

Tommi Inkila · 03-22-2005, 11:11 AM

I don't have those problems with leds... must be annoying problem.

I agree with you about those tube replaces. The cables are attached firmly for a reason, but I have also felt that they could be differently connected.

I still think that those tubes are easier to replace without dismantling the amp. Takes some nerves though and you have to know in which direction the sockets are. So far the best way for me to change those tubes is to put the F on the floor so that it's frontplate is facing to floor. One tube can be replaced in a minute at the worst... specially the V1 and V2 because they are behind the transformer.

hal9000 · 03-22-2005, 12:17 PM

I’ve had my F-100 2x12 combo for over two years now and it has been a great ride. In that time I have played tons of gigs and I’ve never had a problem. First, I’d like to share my audition settings even though I post them all the time for people thinking about an F-series amp (check out the printable and blank versions in my sig):

In my band Afraid Dave which is alternative rock, the lead singer and I write all the songs. I need everything from ultra clean through blues, classic rock, vintage high gain and modern high gain, which is why I chose the F-100. Many would ask, “Why does anyone ever need a 100 W tube amp?” Well, I wanted a ton of clean headroom and boy do I get it. Since I’m in a two guitar band, cutting through the mix is paramount, especially for lead guitar, so I usually have my mids at 1-2:00 on the OD channel. I use the contour function as a solo boost when I don’t feel like hooking up my homebrew FX loop solo boost. This leads me to my second image, my gig rig:

I mainly use effects out front into the clean channel and I run the OD channel almost dry as the effects just get lost in a live venue anyway. The Guv‘nor 2 pedal gives me a boost on the clean channel for dirty solos, and the EQ boosts for clean solos. BTW, I use the little triangular stickers from an office supply store to mark my clean and OD masters for equal volume. I find they stay on very well, and are completely removable. That way, I can have a consistent volume and always get back to home base.

If I only take my F-100 to a gig as the gig rig shows, then I employ a combo stand (Quik-Lok BS-317):

This stand is great and I can get away with more volume since I’m the only one in the bore sight of the speakers. Otherwise, I run my amp with an Avatar 2x12 extension cab with Vintage 30s (Closed Back). I really love the combination of the 3/4 tuned-back of the F-100 and the closed back of the 2x12 since I get airy open clean and sucker punch bass at the same time. IMO, this setup is easier to move and sounds better than a single closed back 4x12 cab. Also, my backup rig is the PODxt Live, plus a Carvin DCM 150 SS PA. Should my amp ever fail, I use the combo as a 2x12 cab, the PODxt Live replaces my floorboard, and the Carvin produces the muscle.

As far as recording, I use an SM57 close to the grill on one side, another SM57 about 3-4 inches away on the other speaker, and the line-out through a DI box. Surprisingly, the speaker emulated output of the amp adds a lot of bass to the signal, which when added to the mic’ed recordings creates a monster sound. You have to be careful of phase of course, but if you get it right the results are great. I have also been experimenting with an Audio-Technica AT3035 condenser for a room mic about 10 feet from the amp, time corrected of course, to get a more airy feel to the sound. I can’t get too huge with the recorded sounds, because I have to leave room for my other guitar player, but for test recordings the sky’s the limit.

I’ve found that using the Hot Plate gives me a final master volume, which is nice at gigs since I can get equal levels for both channels and then turn the whole amp down for practice. I don’t really use the Hot Plate to crank my amp up to ridiculous volumes; it’s more so I can open the amp up to between 10:00 and 11:00 on the masters depending on the gig. I usually leave the attenuation set for -12 dB, which is the most I’m willing to go tone-wise. Obviously, there are lots of other uses for the Hot Plate, which leads me to my wet/dry setup:

Oh, man, there’s some fun to be had here; all the goodness of the F-100, with crazy FX post-power amp. I also like to run the same setup with the Hot Plate set to load for a low volume alternative with the DCM 150 driving both 2x12 cabs for full wet stereo.

To answer yourguitarhero,
“…no led for reverb, clean - 1 green LED, if on lead - NO LEDs, if on contour - 1 red LED that is only on when you access the lead channel…” Yes that’s the way it works, but you can see if Contour is on because during clean mode there is a faint red glow from the LED, which is easy to see when there isn’t a ton of light on the footswitch. It really wouldn’t be hard to mod the footswitch if you wanted different operation, such as switch for each channel. I’ve actually thought about moding the footswitch to always connect reverb, and use that switch to control my homebrew solo boost (with an additional LED of Course) I just haven’t gotten around to planning it out.

Finally, I made a fantasy rig just for all you F-series nuts out of a nonexistent F-100 head and 4x12 cab:

Tommi Inkila · 03-22-2005, 12:23 PM

Cool Hal... that was nice to read... and the picture in the end... I'd want one of those sets. Tan grille looks cool, but I've been dreaming having those cabs with pewter grille. Gold grille looks cool on paper, but I haven't seen any good real-life pics about it... not even on Mesas site.

Do the leds work like that? I guess I must pay some attention to them when I see my baby next time

hal9000 · 03-22-2005, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tommi Inkila
Cool Hal... that was nice to read... and the picture in the end... I'd want one of those sets. Tan grille looks cool, but I've been dreaming having those cabs with pewter grille. Gold grille looks cool on paper, but I haven't seen any good real-life pics about it... not even on Mesas site.

Do the leds work like that? I guess I must pay some attention to them when I see my baby next time

Like this:

hal9000 · 03-22-2005, 12:47 PM

This is the closest I could find for an F-50:

03-19-2005, 09:28 AM	#1
Dann'sTheMan Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: South East, UK - dissecting yet another Huff solo Posts: 4,775	Mesa F-series Lounge. Come on in and share your secrets. Hey Brothers, This is a thread for those interested in Mesa's stealth amp, and wondering how to get the most of them live, when recording or at home. Tommi Inkila has been wowing everyone with his fantastic clips, and he suggested that such a thread would be cool to exchange production ideas, have a tube-discussion and especially hear experiences with the F-series in a live situation. So share your experiences, and help the brothers (and sisters) here get the very best out of the Mesa F-series! Big smiles, Andy. P.S. The F-series Lounge is already a one-stop shop for information, now it's a one-stop shop for clips too! _______________________________________ *F-series Clip Library* *Clean* F-50 - Until You Suffer Some - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - Until You Suffer Some (Direct) - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - Amazing Dissonance - musicdog400 F-50 - Eminence Screaming Eagle Open back test - jrc6 F-50 - VIDEO: Soon and Very Soon - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - VIDEO: Overture - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - Clean Sample - Surfcaster F-50 - Blues - Surfcaster F-30 - Clean - Antti Loponen F-30 - Clean (Direct - PODXTL Cab+Mic Sim) - Antti Loponen F-30 - Stereo Clean - Antti Loponen F-30 - Clean - Roosevelt *Low Gain* F-50 - You're In Love - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - I Want To Live With You - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - VIDEO: Mary Had A Baby - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - VIDEO: The Trumpet Shall Sound - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - Sultans - Surfcaster F-50 - Koin - musicdog400 F-100 - Haunting - hal9000 F-100 - One Night's Sleep - hal9000 F-50 - Classic 6L6 Boutique Drive - Dann'sTheMan F-30 - Come Around - Bi-Polar F-30 - Strumming and arpeggiating - Antti Loponen F-30 - Stereo Noodling - Antti Loponen *Medium Gain* F-50 - Revelation - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - Is It Alright To? - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - Fisher Of Men - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - Ascension - Surfcaster F-50 - Medium Gain Sample - Surfcaster F-30 - Singing Lead - Takis aka Mr. Blues F-100 - Strong Woman - hal9000 F-30 - Feeling Free - Bi-Polar F-30 - Armchair Soldiers - Bi-Polar F-30 - Oblivion - Bi-Polar F-30 - Overdrive - Antti Loponen F-30 - Stereo Drive - Antti Loponen F-30 - Stereo Crunch - Antti Loponen F-30 - Stereo Lead - Antti Loponen F-50 - 647 Elm Street - musicdog400 F-50 - Voodoo Child - mangojeep66 F-50 - Purple Haze - mangojeep66 F-50 - Two Notes - musicdog400 F-100 - Recording Tests - snakum *High Gain* F-50 - From This Moment - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - I Will Be Here For You - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - Place In This World- Dann'sTheMan F-50 - So Help Me God - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - Downfall-like Crunch - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - Classic High Gain Mike Placement test - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - Midnight Jam (Direct)- Surfcaster F-50 - Deflep- Surfcaster F-50 - High Gain Sample - Surfcaster F-50 - Shut Up - Jacks Down featuring doggage5050 F-50 - The Plaque - mrelusive F-50 - Eastern 50 - mrelusive F-100 - Dig - hal9000 F-30 - Digital Times - Bi-Polar F-30 - Shredding with wah and delay - Antti Loponen F-30 - Drive (Direct - PODXTL Cab+Mic Sim) - Antti Loponen F-30 - Murder In A Tuxedo music page (CLING TO and ONE MINUTE are both F-30....) - Japetus F-30 - Dirty w/Contour - Roosevelt F-50 - Bury You ---- False Positive - John Denver F-30 - VIDEO: Drunk and having Fun - RonniePentatonic F-30 - VIDEO: Suhr and PRS Jam - RonniePentatonic *Metal* F-50 - Sneak Peaker - Tommi Inkila F-50 - Building The Mood - Tommi Inkila F-50 - Seveno - Tommi Inkila F-50 - Metal Riffin' - Dann'sTheMan F-50 - Exile - Surfcaster F-50 - Exile (boosted) - Surfcaster F-50 - Detuned Riff (Direct) - Surfcaster F-50 - Amp-on-loan Metal - Rock_Borg F-50 - Early HB Recordin' & Widdlin' - Dann'sTheMan F-30 - Various Metal & Hard Rock Clips - andershoeg F-100 - Sludge (direct) - hal9000 F-100 - Infinite War (direct) - hal9000 F-100 - It Is That Way (direct) - hal9000 *F-series Settings Archive* __________________ My chronological attempts at Home Recording my Mesa F-50... Comments? Tips? Advice? NEW! Dann'sTheMan NetMusicians Page... Video Clips from Gospel Gigs NEW! Dann'sTheMan YouTube Vids... Diagram of Main Rig. Piccie of Main Rig. The F-series Lounge. G-Major MIDI Controller Tips. Last edited by Dann'sTheMan : 12-24-2006 at 04:05 PM.

03-19-2005, 09:35 AM	#2
Dann'sTheMan Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: South East, UK - dissecting yet another Huff solo Posts: 4,775	Let me kick off with a tip that may be useful Live for integrating an F-series into a MIDI set up. I've posted this information before, but this thread is certainly a good place to document this. I have made up a custom cable to allow me to switch my Amp and my FX Unit with one stomp on my MIDI footcontroller. I used it to switch live, for example, from a clean tone with fat chorus, to a thick crunch tone with Delay and Chorus - all without tap dancing. Check out the cable diagram here. The F-series also uses a similar 5 pin DIN, but the pins are wired slightly differently - they are: Pin 1 - Ground Pin 4 - Channel 1/2 toggling Pin 2 - Contour On/Off Pin 5 - Reverb On/Off Pin 3 - Not Used They work like this, whenever a "Function" Pin is connected to Ground (Pin 1), the function of that Pin is selected i.e. to toggle between Channels 1 and 2, connect and disconnect Pins 1 and 4; to switch Contour On and Off, connect and disconnect Pins 2 and 1; to switch Reverb On and Off, connect and disconnect Pins 5 and 1. You can check this yourself by pulling the cable out of the Mesa footswitch, and connecting these pins, two at a time, with a piece of wire (you aren't likely to harm anything). At the other end of the cable, I don't have a stereo jack (Tip, Ring, Sleeve), but rather mono jacks (Tip, Sleeve). I suspect it will be the same connection on many MIDI Switchers. All of the Sleeves must connect to Ground (Pin1). All of the Tips will connect to the Function Pins (4, 2 and 5). Back at the other end of the cable, I used a 5 pin DIN socket so that I could simply unplug the Mesa cable from the footswitch, and plug it into my custom cable instead. You can see my custom cable here: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2251/...6fc69179_b.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2404/...045d3988_b.jpg Big smiles, Andy. *F-series Miscellaneous Tips* __________________ My chronological attempts at Home Recording my Mesa F-50... Comments? Tips? Advice? NEW! Dann'sTheMan NetMusicians Page... Video Clips from Gospel Gigs NEW! Dann'sTheMan YouTube Vids... Diagram of Main Rig. Piccie of Main Rig. The F-series Lounge. G-Major MIDI Controller Tips. Last edited by Dann'sTheMan : 12-17-2007 at 10:43 PM. Reason: Updated links to custom cable

03-19-2005, 10:40 AM	#3
Tommi Inkila Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Oulu, Finland Posts: 1,042	Wow, this thread started quickly... I was just imagining that something like this would be cool... and now here it is At this point I would like everyone to participate, F-owner or not. Here's my findings so far (a week with F-50) ... Andy's instructions are really handy... I managed to do that cable right on the third time... mostly the problem was that I wasn't paying enough attention and the cable I was soldering had different colors on the cable. I'd like to also address that F-series is 3-channel amp in real-life. The contour switch is so carefully tuned that the tone controls don't need any altering... at least in live situation where little tone alteration doesn't bring much in to the sound like in studio situation. Then some findings about tubes... beforehand I were told that the stock tubes aren't really good on Mesa... at least on F-series that doesn't show to me at anyway. Still, I'm an experimentalist so I had to put in JJ electronics 12AX7 on V1 that supposedly does wondrous things on Mesa amps... especially in Rectifier series. The JJ tightened the sound, gave more defined high-end and increased the gain (and hum slightly). I can imagine that those qualities are something to thrive for in Rectifier series. F-series doesn't necessarily benefit on those aspects, because I find it to be more defined than recto. Of course JJ gives meaner sound to F-series, but the amp might lose some of it's fatness that appeal to many. I'll be getting some tested Svetlanas (Billington Gold) and chinese tubes (Golden Dragon) next week... I'll update you on that once I get some results that are saying-worthy, it may take a while. Production: I've received many thanks about my production quality, big thanks for that... for a year I have studied recording all the time, but my findings are somewhat sad truths. 1. quality amps and instruments 2. quality recording equipment After that you don't have to be the a magic engineer for capturing great sounds (of course that helps). I may sound quite harsh, but I'll take purposefully a little bit aggressive approach to this subject so please bare with me There has to be some differences between, let's say, a 60-bucks rec-preamp (actually ART Tube MP on that price range has great value) with a 1000-bucks machine. Somewhere there's a point where the price/better sound -ratio comes quite bad, but to a certain point spending more money to the equipment is well worth the money. Just like in guitars... I'm getting sidetracked Anyway if you are really interested in recording, some of the money you wanted to spent on guitar gear should be spended on recording gear instead. This way your recording equipment grows along with the guitar equipment and you are able to capture the real sound of the amp finally. How to change the overall sound with other stuff 1. mic choice 2. mic placement (took 3-4 hours for me) 3. the mix (there can be done some magic, but this shouldn't be the place where everything happens... fix it in the mix, I wouldn't sign on that) 4. tube choices, but this starts to get in to the territory of nit-picking My SM57 is straight on axis directly to grille... 4" from left of the cab's edge and 6" from the bottom (bottom left element on my 4x12"). Bonus... if you want a massive guitar wall... double-tracking (or even super-stereo, 2 tracks on left and right) is a necessity. This takes some skill, because the playing has to be tight... it's also very effective way to improve your playing. I think also that compression is a must for that guitar wall... at the moment I'm using freeware VST plugin from www.kjaerhusaudio.com called Classic Compressor... their other plugins are good too, like the limiter. My settings are normally something like this: Threshold: -20dB Ratio: 4:1 Soft compression Attack: around 7-8ms Release: 70-90ms Gain: set with taste Also it's wise to listen your mixes through monitors you're familiar with... with two different volume levels. If it sounds good quiet, it sounds great louder Listening through headphones is also recommendable. It's often considered that a tube amp should be recorded with almost full volume and volcano-hot tube. With at least my F-50 that's not true. I recorded my latest clip with volume at 9:00 o'clock. Of course, the sound will most likely get even better when I turn the amplifier louder, but didn't find this as effective as I assumed. There's some of my thoughts... quite long text, hopefully there's something usable within those lines. I'm happy to elaborate if I can Oh, here's my latest clip: http://koti.mbnet.fi/ojakola/Tommi I...g The Mood.mp3 __________________ www.scenerychannel.com - New "Hit" Songs! Mesa Mark IV and Single Recto tones. my Mesa F50 clips : First One : Building The Mood : Seveno my Vox AD15VT clips : Voices From The Mountains : 3xS : TWIBMPG new! links : My Rig : Mesa F-series Lounge Last edited by Tommi Inkila : 03-26-2005 at 09:06 AM.

03-20-2005, 03:33 AM	#4
Tommi Inkila Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Oulu, Finland Posts: 1,042	One point about mic choice: I have completely tested two dynamic mics for guitar recording and live use: Shure SM57 and Audix D3. The minus of SM57 is that it starts to cut the frequencies already around 400Hz so it has to be carefully placed if you want the full bass frequencies created by the proximity effect. That's one of the reasons why I prefer it directly on the cab's cloth (grille)... in live situation 1"-2" away could be reasonable if you don't want to lose the bass by turning the knobs on the amplifier. This may be something that you have to fight with the mixer/engineer if they have they own preferences. The plus of SM57 is it's upper-end "snap" quality that is often desired... also it gives the guitar some vocal qualities. Finally, I'm not sure if I remember the numbers correctly, but it gives you some clues what I'm talking about: If you happen to use SM57 and a cab with Celestion Vintage30's you get side-effect that can be good or bad. The resonant peak of V30-cab is somewhere around 2.8kHz and the resonant peak of SM57 is around 5.7kHz... that's close to having to octaves "ringing" at the same time (2.8 * 2 = 5.6 ~ 5.7) ... so those frequencies are emphasized with SM57 and V30 -combination. It's always present and very hard to get rid of if wanted. To some people this actually is the magic tone characteristics that they thrive for. Audix D3 is more hifi mic with it's frequency range (about 50hz-19kHz). The sound is quite balanced and full already so it's not so critical to place. This mic could be a solution if you have some problems in getting the bass out of the traditional SM57. In live situation Audix is quite easy to work with because it doesn't pickup other instruments easily like drums from behind. Also the even response is a nice feature, because it gives more room to mix-man to work with. Sometimes in live situation SM57s snapness may come quite annoying to the audience, therefore Audix is nowadays quite common equipment in gig-places around here. Hopefully I get to use some other mics so I can form some thoughts about them __________________ www.scenerychannel.com - New "Hit" Songs! Mesa Mark IV and Single Recto tones. my Mesa F50 clips : First One : Building The Mood : Seveno my Vox AD15VT clips : Voices From The Mountains : 3xS : TWIBMPG new! links : My Rig : Mesa F-series Lounge Last edited by Tommi Inkila : 03-20-2005 at 05:30 AM.

03-20-2005, 12:23 PM	#6
Tommi Inkila Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Oulu, Finland Posts: 1,042	Don't be sorry for long post jrc! I like those long texts Few comments to your text... nothing negative I will be having two mikes on the cabinet when I start to record our upcoming. Shure SM57 and one condenser (Rode NT-2A most likely). That combination gives me the full tonal range... I'm a little bit worried though, because condenser will take some of the rooms sound and I like that "in your face" type of sound... well, we are going to see how that will sound BTW, your perception of feeling that dynamics will help you cut may come from the "snappiness" I mentioned in SM57. I slightly disagree with you about the D3, but this may be caused by seeing the thing from an different angle. D3 is so even that it makes it feel to lack some bass and on the other hand it makes it so clear at the same time. I personally prefer SM57 over D3 when used with F-series voicing... my former amp (now as backup), zenAmp, sounded much better with D3. So that's really case sensitive. Experimenting with the elements would be cool, but it's out of my budget at the moment and I'm very pleased with those v30's... I'm glad you wrote about your experiences, now I know more, and if I have some questions sometime, I know who to contact Overall I think ie. Nomad is even darker amp from Mesa. Actually I find F to be very bright Mesa. Anyway I have my bass knob set at 11:00 so we are not so far off Let us know how those THD's work. It sounds very promising. Let's have long posts on this thread and allow all the ideas and perceptions come out __________________ www.scenerychannel.com - New "Hit" Songs! Mesa Mark IV and Single Recto tones. my Mesa F50 clips : First One : Building The Mood : Seveno my Vox AD15VT clips : Voices From The Mountains : 3xS : TWIBMPG new! links : My Rig : Mesa F-series Lounge

03-20-2005, 11:28 AM	#5
jrc6 Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 119	Great post tommi, I like to mix and match different mic's when recording as well. I prefer to use condenser mic's on the rhythm tone, and dynamics with leads. The condenser's preserve the low mid & fullness of the guitar tone. The dynamics help sharpen the tone, and allow the lead to cut through. I have both the Shure 57 & the audix d3. The D3 can easily take an SPL beating, even without a 10 db switch. I find the low mids are recorded better with the 57. The D3 is very clear, much clearer than a 57, but it has a unique flavor that I don't prefer for rhythm guitars. I think the low end is left out. I have been experimenting with different speakers. I find the celestions are better for the F50, since they have more midrange punch. The F50 is fairly dark, and once the 6L6's kick in, it gives you a more balanced mid range tone. Therefore a speaker with a lot of mids (celestion v30, cl 80, green backs) will balance things out, and allow it to cut through the mix. I have been trying the patriot series speakers (black powder & screaming eagle). It definitely offers a different tone, more dark & warmer. With both speakers, the F50 takes on more of a fender tone. You lose a lot of the nasal buzz of the celestions. The black powder is a great speaker with a heavy dose of low mid punch! Better suited for the F50 open back, as the close back has too much low mid punch & sounds too dark. The screaming eagle, on the other hand, works much better. It is very, very bright, and helps better define the F50 high gain. It may be too bright for some people, but records like a dream. It makes the clean channel even more "poppy," and "bell like." It definitely has more of a fender vibe, bright & snappy. The countor is a great channel, but I think there is too much bass!!! I typically back off the bass eq to about 10 O clock, crank the mids to 3 o clock, and crank the highs to 2-3 O clock. The high gain tone becomes much more clearer. This is especially true if you are cranking the amp, and pushing those 6l6's! I hope to explore more with tube options as well. I am looking into the THD yellow jackets. Perhaps I can get an F30 sound out of the F50. I will post results in the future. sorry for the long post jrc

03-20-2005, 01:52 PM	#7
Tommi Inkila Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Oulu, Finland Posts: 1,042	Hei! (finnish hello) Just wanted to ask something about tubes... a minor thing that's been bothering me. With the original tubes on my amp I started to get some really strange and loud "squeek" right after note that had a pause after it. Then suddenly the clean side was completely mute, dist was working fine. I put in JJ and the problem was cured. Today, on practise I thought I heard same, but nanosecond long "squeek" once. It didn't happen for another time or I'm not sure if my ears were tricking me. I presume this type of thing has something to do with tubes or components related to them. Do you think that it was the tube or could the problem be in the barrels (is that the correct term?) in which the preamp tubes are connected? Can someone describe how it sounds if one of preamp tubes sort of disconnects in the middle of playing. Also, I was wondering if these problems occur when the resonance causes some rumble to the amp and tubes... Thanks in advance for your thoughts __________________ www.scenerychannel.com - New "Hit" Songs! Mesa Mark IV and Single Recto tones. my Mesa F50 clips : First One : Building The Mood : Seveno my Vox AD15VT clips : Voices From The Mountains : 3xS : TWIBMPG new! links : My Rig : Mesa F-series Lounge

03-20-2005, 04:33 PM	#8
Dann'sTheMan Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: South East, UK - dissecting yet another Huff solo Posts: 4,775	I use an SM57 also, utilising one of two miking techniques. The first is the popular on-axis approach, perpendicular with the speaker grill. I keep the mike on axis and move it between the centre of the dust cap and the edge of the cone until I have the right balance of treble and bass. I used this approach for many years both live and recording... However last Spring, I learnt another technique from a respected Australian sound engineer that was flown in for a satellite TV show I was recording. He positioned the mic near the centre of the speaker, but with the capsule pointing back towards the edge of the cone. The barrel of the microphone making perhaps a 30 degree angle with the speaker grill. I've found this approach results in quite a balanced tone, but perhaps there is less proximity effect. The TV show mixed the audio live before broadcasting 24 hours later, and I was very pleased with the results of this approach. I certainly recommend experimenting with these approaches, Big smiles, Andy. P.S. BTW, Tommi, I've never experienced the squealing and silence symptoms that you described but then I've never touched the stock tubes in my F-50. It may be a "shorting" problem - I was wondering if maybe any of the tube socket contacts might have been damaged when you were experimenting with different tubes? If it happens again, it may be worth having the amp looked at properly so that you can have piece of mind (fwiw, my F-50 has been totally reliable). __________________ My chronological attempts at Home Recording my Mesa F-50... Comments? Tips? Advice? NEW! Dann'sTheMan NetMusicians Page... Video Clips from Gospel Gigs NEW! Dann'sTheMan YouTube Vids... Diagram of Main Rig. Piccie of Main Rig. The F-series Lounge. G-Major MIDI Controller Tips.

03-20-2005, 06:13 PM	#9
Guerrilla Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NJ Posts: 813	i dont have any secrets.... i rely on you guys. __________________ '91 Hamer Sunburst USA (SD '59 N & Alnico II Pro B) -> DB01 Cry Wah -> Digitech Whammy WH-4 -> Mesa/Boogie F-50 combo

03-20-2005, 10:49 PM	#10
Tommi Inkila Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Oulu, Finland Posts: 1,042	Thanks Andy for your experience on miking! I'm also familiar with that miking technique... haven't really used it, but I guess that position works nicely on live situation especially. It's easy position, because it's easy to measure where to put the mike. Thanks for your insight on the tubes... I was really careful when changing the tubes. I think that the bad tube may be the source of the problem most likely and hopefully. Well, there's always a warranty so I have much time to invistigate if there is any real problem. Because Mesas are known to be very reliable and my F-50 is brand new I refuse to believe that the problem lies inside the F-50. That would be too typical (bad luck) for me PS. guerrilla, I hope we are worth of your trust. __________________ www.scenerychannel.com - New "Hit" Songs! Mesa Mark IV and Single Recto tones. my Mesa F50 clips : First One : Building The Mood : Seveno my Vox AD15VT clips : Voices From The Mountains : 3xS : TWIBMPG new! links : My Rig : Mesa F-series Lounge

03-20-2005, 11:05 PM	#11
-=MYK=- I HAVE BEEN BANNED FOR POSTING GAY PORN Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 18,362	Hey Tommi, where can I find some more f-series clips?

03-21-2005, 01:33 AM	#12
Tommi Inkila Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Oulu, Finland Posts: 1,042	Hmmm... I have made these two clips. http://koti.mbnet.fi/ojakola/Tommi I...eak Peaker.mp3 http://koti.mbnet.fi/ojakola/Tommi I...g The Mood.mp3 Dann'sTheMan has good clips on his signature ... hal9000 have some... and few other guys on this forum. I guess a search is in order to do here in the forum. When I was searching clips of F-series, googling didn't do much for me. __________________ www.scenerychannel.com - New "Hit" Songs! Mesa Mark IV and Single Recto tones. my Mesa F50 clips : First One : Building The Mood : Seveno my Vox AD15VT clips : Voices From The Mountains : 3xS : TWIBMPG new! links : My Rig : Mesa F-series Lounge

03-22-2005, 10:30 AM	#14
Guerrilla Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NJ Posts: 813	one thing i would add, although i'm sure it's apparent to anyone who's spent more than half an hour letting the 50 roar, is that you cant fine tune the amp at high volume levels while standing right next to it.... gotta adjust, step away 10 ft, then repeat. __________________ '91 Hamer Sunburst USA (SD '59 N & Alnico II Pro B) -> DB01 Cry Wah -> Digitech Whammy WH-4 -> Mesa/Boogie F-50 combo

03-22-2005, 10:35 AM	#15
yourguitarhero Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Edinburgh Posts: 4,225	it's a fucking hassle to change pre-amp tubes without taking the chassis out of the head cabinet. the footswitch and power cord jacks are difficult to access. Dunno if this is just for me or not: The footswitch. no led for reverb. if on clean - 1 green LED if on lead - NO LEDs if on contour - 1 red LED that is only on when you access the lead channel. so it looks weird if I'm rocking out because there are no lights, but there are when I'm on clean. If I forgot whether I'm on contour mode or not, I can't find out til I turn on the dirt - kind of annoying for live use. Anyone else getting this or is my footswitch broke (I bougth used) Loving the amp though, but these are my quibbles. Craig __________________ Amp #1: White Matamp 1224 with the Bull God (inc glowing eyes) engraved on the face plate into the matching 2x12" Amp #2: Blackstar Artisan 100 into a 60s/70s greenback Marshall 4x12" Amp #3: Randall RM20 combo with Blackface & Grail modules.

03-22-2005, 11:11 AM	#16
Tommi Inkila Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Oulu, Finland Posts: 1,042	I don't have those problems with leds... must be annoying problem. I agree with you about those tube replaces. The cables are attached firmly for a reason, but I have also felt that they could be differently connected. I still think that those tubes are easier to replace without dismantling the amp. Takes some nerves though and you have to know in which direction the sockets are. So far the best way for me to change those tubes is to put the F on the floor so that it's frontplate is facing to floor. One tube can be replaced in a minute at the worst... specially the V1 and V2 because they are behind the transformer. __________________ www.scenerychannel.com - New "Hit" Songs! Mesa Mark IV and Single Recto tones. my Mesa F50 clips : First One : Building The Mood : Seveno my Vox AD15VT clips : Voices From The Mountains : 3xS : TWIBMPG new! links : My Rig : Mesa F-series Lounge

03-22-2005, 12:17 PM	#17
hal9000 Hall of Fame Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Southern Maryland, USA Posts: 6,038	I’ve had my F-100 2x12 combo for over two years now and it has been a great ride. In that time I have played tons of gigs and I’ve never had a problem. First, I’d like to share my audition settings even though I post them all the time for people thinking about an F-series amp (check out the printable and blank versions in my sig): In my band Afraid Dave which is alternative rock, the lead singer and I write all the songs. I need everything from ultra clean through blues, classic rock, vintage high gain and modern high gain, which is why I chose the F-100. Many would ask, “Why does anyone ever need a 100 W tube amp?” Well, I wanted a ton of clean headroom and boy do I get it. Since I’m in a two guitar band, cutting through the mix is paramount, especially for lead guitar, so I usually have my mids at 1-2:00 on the OD channel. I use the contour function as a solo boost when I don’t feel like hooking up my homebrew FX loop solo boost. This leads me to my second image, my gig rig: I mainly use effects out front into the clean channel and I run the OD channel almost dry as the effects just get lost in a live venue anyway. The Guv‘nor 2 pedal gives me a boost on the clean channel for dirty solos, and the EQ boosts for clean solos. BTW, I use the little triangular stickers from an office supply store to mark my clean and OD masters for equal volume. I find they stay on very well, and are completely removable. That way, I can have a consistent volume and always get back to home base. If I only take my F-100 to a gig as the gig rig shows, then I employ a combo stand (Quik-Lok BS-317): This stand is great and I can get away with more volume since I’m the only one in the bore sight of the speakers. Otherwise, I run my amp with an Avatar 2x12 extension cab with Vintage 30s (Closed Back). I really love the combination of the 3/4 tuned-back of the F-100 and the closed back of the 2x12 since I get airy open clean and sucker punch bass at the same time. IMO, this setup is easier to move and sounds better than a single closed back 4x12 cab. Also, my backup rig is the PODxt Live, plus a Carvin DCM 150 SS PA. Should my amp ever fail, I use the combo as a 2x12 cab, the PODxt Live replaces my floorboard, and the Carvin produces the muscle. As far as recording, I use an SM57 close to the grill on one side, another SM57 about 3-4 inches away on the other speaker, and the line-out through a DI box. Surprisingly, the speaker emulated output of the amp adds a lot of bass to the signal, which when added to the mic’ed recordings creates a monster sound. You have to be careful of phase of course, but if you get it right the results are great. I have also been experimenting with an Audio-Technica AT3035 condenser for a room mic about 10 feet from the amp, time corrected of course, to get a more airy feel to the sound. I can’t get too huge with the recorded sounds, because I have to leave room for my other guitar player, but for test recordings the sky’s the limit. I’ve found that using the Hot Plate gives me a final master volume, which is nice at gigs since I can get equal levels for both channels and then turn the whole amp down for practice. I don’t really use the Hot Plate to crank my amp up to ridiculous volumes; it’s more so I can open the amp up to between 10:00 and 11:00 on the masters depending on the gig. I usually leave the attenuation set for -12 dB, which is the most I’m willing to go tone-wise. Obviously, there are lots of other uses for the Hot Plate, which leads me to my wet/dry setup: Oh, man, there’s some fun to be had here; all the goodness of the F-100, with crazy FX post-power amp. I also like to run the same setup with the Hot Plate set to load for a low volume alternative with the DCM 150 driving both 2x12 cabs for full wet stereo. To answer yourguitarhero, “…no led for reverb, clean - 1 green LED, if on lead - NO LEDs, if on contour - 1 red LED that is only on when you access the lead channel…” Yes that’s the way it works, but you can see if Contour is on because during clean mode there is a faint red glow from the LED, which is easy to see when there isn’t a ton of light on the footswitch. It really wouldn’t be hard to mod the footswitch if you wanted different operation, such as switch for each channel. I’ve actually thought about moding the footswitch to always connect reverb, and use that switch to control my homebrew solo boost (with an additional LED of Course) I just haven’t gotten around to planning it out. Finally, I made a fantasy rig just for all you F-series nuts out of a nonexistent F-100 head and 4x12 cab: __________________ Need custom rig graphics, band logos, CD art, metal or plastic nameplates? E-mail me: hal9000 Samples: NEW! Blonde Tremoverb \| VHT 50CL \| Blackface 2-Chan Recto \| Metal Logo \| Logo \| Andy’s Rig \| Logo 2 \| Bass Rig My Gig Rig \| My Band: Afraid Dave My Backup Rig \| My Wet/Dry Setup Mesa F-series: NEW! FX LOOP MASTER VOLUME \| Audition Settings (web) (printable) (printable blanks) F-100 Clips, Clean: Haunting \| One Night’s Sleep, Mid Gain: Strong Woman \| High Gain: Dig \| Sludge \| COC-Infinte War \| COC-It Is That Way Mesa F-series Owner’s Lounge Last edited by hal9000 : 11-07-2005 at 09:02 AM.

03-22-2005, 12:23 PM	#18
Tommi Inkila Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Oulu, Finland Posts: 1,042	Cool Hal... that was nice to read... and the picture in the end... I'd want one of those sets. Tan grille looks cool, but I've been dreaming having those cabs with pewter grille. Gold grille looks cool on paper, but I haven't seen any good real-life pics about it... not even on Mesas site. Do the leds work like that? I guess I must pay some attention to them when I see my baby next time __________________ www.scenerychannel.com - New "Hit" Songs! Mesa Mark IV and Single Recto tones. my Mesa F50 clips : First One : Building The Mood : Seveno my Vox AD15VT clips : Voices From The Mountains : 3xS : TWIBMPG new! links : My Rig : Mesa F-series Lounge

03-22-2005, 12:47 PM	#20
hal9000 Hall of Fame Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Southern Maryland, USA Posts: 6,038	This is the closest I could find for an F-50: __________________ Need custom rig graphics, band logos, CD art, metal or plastic nameplates? E-mail me: hal9000 Samples: NEW! Blonde Tremoverb \| VHT 50CL \| Blackface 2-Chan Recto \| Metal Logo \| Logo \| Andy’s Rig \| Logo 2 \| Bass Rig My Gig Rig \| My Band: Afraid Dave My Backup Rig \| My Wet/Dry Setup Mesa F-series: NEW! FX LOOP MASTER VOLUME \| Audition Settings (web) (printable) (printable blanks) F-100 Clips, Clean: Haunting \| One Night’s Sleep, Mid Gain: Strong Woman \| High Gain: Dig \| Sludge \| COC-Infinte War \| COC-It Is That Way Mesa F-series Owner’s Lounge

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