So I might be trading my Mesa F-30...

[DanDetora]

... for a Rectoverb combo. Here's the story:

About a week ago I put my Mesa on craigslist to see what type of response I'd get, and yesterday I got a trade offer for a RoV. I agreed to throw in some cash in the deal, but apparently the guy just had it retubed with Mesa tubes and had a new fuse put in. He's is supposed to bring his amp over on Friday afternoon; no one will be home and the neighbors should be gone, so we'll have a chance to crank the amps and put them through their paces. Truth be told, I DON'T want to get rid of the F-30. I just can't afford to own both at the moment.

I'm about 95% sure I'll make the trade, and the guy is pretty set on my F-30 as well. I'm not sure why he's wanting to swap amps, but that's irrelevant I guess. My only concern is a lot of people on craigslist can be a bit flakey IME, so I'm trying not to get too excited as he may just bail on me. But never the less, I'm looking forward to A/Bing my F-30 and the RoV. I've been having some severe Recto GAS lately...

[darren]

Should be an interesting comparison!

I'm really loving my F-30. It's been a long time since i just plugged straight into an amp, and i've never had an all-tube setup before. I'm blown away with how well it responds to playing dynamics and to the volume control on the guitar. It's got more than enough gain for me, and with the modded TS7 in front, it helps to really focus the low end and gives me more options to push the clean channel into a gritty purr when i really lean on it.

I'm sure the RoV is a different beast altogether, with gobs of gain on tap. Should be fun!

[Drew]

The RoV isn't actually that much gainier than the F-30, in my experience. It's a different character of gain, true, but they both put out a ton.

The biggest difference is with all the knobs and switches on the Rectoverb (and the unusually interactive EQ even for a mesa), you can cover a lot more tonal ground.

[DanDetora]

@ Darran: There are 2 main reasons I'm not dead set on keeping the F-30:

1) EL84 tubes. At first, I loved them. I still do, but to a point. At loud volumes running uber high gain, they get a little funky on the extreme top and bottom ends of the spectrum. But they do sound amazing at more moderate volumes when I'm not pushing them too hard. That said, you can really get some incredibly cool vintage tones on CH1 with the master at noon and adjusting the Gain for volume.

2) CH2 Tone stack. Or, the lack there of. I've spend hours upon hours tweaking my F, and while I love the voicing, I'm just looking for more options. I think the design is unique and simple, but at the end of the day, the F-30 isn't the best amp if you only have 1.

@ Drew: Honestly, your clips over on ss.org got me really thinking about getting a Recto. I was very impressed with the variety of tones you managed. Sure, 80% of the time I'd be rocking out in Modern Mode, but I write some instrumental stuff and need a lot of variety for recording.

Anyways, the guy just emailed me today and it looks like Friday is a go. He's looking for an amp that's more portable and with less balls ( his words not mine... the F-30 is the ballsiest 22watt amp on the face of the planet). He uses a BB Preamp and needs only the clean channel. So it seems we'll both be happy with the trade.

[noodles]

I'm 90% sure you're not going to want to own the F-30 after playing the Rectoverb. Not to hate on it, but the midrange just sounds...congested by comparison. The higher end Mesa amps just obliterate the budget models, and this comparison will be no exception.

[darren]

The tone controls are definitely not the most versatile, i'll give you that.

It would be amazing if some of the different voicing modes on Mesa's 2-channel amps could be footswitchable.

[Xan]

Originally Posted by darren

The tone controls are definitely not the most versatile, i'll give you that.

You know, I've noticed that on my F-50 as well.

at F-30 owners.

[DanDetora]

Originally Posted by arnoroth661

You know, I've noticed that on my F-50 as well.

The preamp is similar design-wise to the Mark series. In that the tone stack is pre gain so it changes the gain structure rather than function like a 'normal' tone stack; e.g. a Marshall. I find it really cool, because I don't need to use a TS to tighten up the low end. I just turn down the bass, which in turn feeds less bass into the circuit. Down side is that you can't really change the voicing too much. You either dig it, or you don't. I suppose an EQ in the loop would do the trick, but I never tried that.

[darren]

They may not do much, but i find i don't need them to... the tone is pretty amazing without much EQ, and i liked the tone of the F-30 better than the F-50 when i tried them both.

I'm just working out the schematics to rebuild my pedalboard. I'm going to be modding my F-30 to have a switchable series/parallel effects loop, and will be incorporating my GT-6 into my rig using the four-cable method. It'll go like this:

Guitar -> Blend pedal -> Strobostomp -> GT-6 in -> GT-6 send to TS7 -> F-30 in -> F-30 send to GT-6 return -> GT-6 out to Decimator -> F-30 return -> speaker(s)

So i'll be able to use compression and wah before the TS7 and preamp, then apply EQ and time-based effects in the loop. Plus, with the flexibility of the GT-6's effects placement, i can put some fucked-up effects before the preamp if i want to. I'm trying to decide if i want to make it even more complicated by incorporating an Axess CFX-4 to allow me to switch the F-30's channel and contour modes via MIDI.

[Drew]

Originally Posted by DanDetora

@ Drew: Honestly, your clips over on ss.org got me really thinking about getting a Recto. I was very impressed with the variety of tones you managed. Sure, 80% of the time I'd be rocking out in Modern Mode, but I write some instrumental stuff and need a lot of variety for recording.

Hell dude, 95% of those clips were cut with Modern Mode. Even that single mode has a stupendous amount of flexibility, and once you've run through it you have two more to play with.

I'm with both of you on the F-30 EQ - it doesn't really fundamentally reshape the tone, true, but it's a tone that also doesn't need much fundamental reshaping. Plugged in with minimal tweaking, and you've already got something that sounds pretty good for rhythm AND lead.