Mesa/Boogie F-30 112 Combo

30 watts, 2 channels, reverb, contour (lead boost), 1 X 12 speaker.
Nothing fancy, juat a great small amp.

Great

No Problems

No problems

I have had mine for almost 4 years and still love playing it. For years I played with as little equipment and effects as possible. But in the last year or so because of having to play more variety of music I put together a nice pedalboard that wound up being stereo out. I now run the F-30 along with a Deluxe Reverb RI that has had quite a few upgrades. Those two amps work together like nothing I've ever heard. I can turn them down to dinner music level or crank them to glorious sweet singing guitar heaven. The two clean channels compliment each other very well because of the different voicing and if you switch to the gain channel with just a little drive then "clean" sound of the fender still cuts through and adds great definition to the sound. If you are able to try this set up - do so - you will love it.

Hi , I am back from my 2004 review. Go-a-head and scroll to #4. This F-30 is the **** if you are looking for a small light weight amp with features you need if you play out a lot. Great for you blues players with a push pull gain to take it from reg fender to deluxe. Great for you Metal MoFo's that want to throw your hair ( or the lack of, like I ) around in circular motion. I really dig the chan switch from clean to dirty. If you have a Strat you will really appreciate the tone in your mid switches. Heart warming for me with harmonics like no other. If you play on a an SG or Les you may have to roll off some of the gain and tweek a tad, but that's fun too..... right? It also has a "push over the cliff" (if you will), with a switch that takes the regular dirty to down right high end Monster-y ( if there is such a word) . I highly recommend lining 3 up in a store and plugging into each because they are all close to hand made still. Each one will sound different. ( Maybe one has been on the sales floor too long, good thing, or bad thing, use your ears.)

Keeps up with any amp under 100watts. Lot's of different tonalities can be obtained. Great distortion and lot's of it. Great amp for seasoned players. For you new-B's with $$$$ , this is a great buy, trust me

Very reliable , have had mine for 3 years and not a problem. It's a Mesa.

Never needed it

30 years playing in real bands

www.zipperheadrocks.com
www.rolloverrocks.com

Yes I would call my insurance company to replace if had to.

This amp is for the player that uses their vol knob on the guitar. If you do not know what I am talking about and just use your guitar full tilt all the time, don't bother with the clean chan. Use the the distortion chan.

Do you know what year the amp was made in?

No. Probably in the mid to late 90's.

Is the amp versatile enough for you and the styles of music you play? What are those styles?

I play straight up rock, blues rock, folk rock, roots rock. I find it to work well. It lets the guitar retain its woody tones very well. That's what I need. Nice tones. Breaks up nicely. Usual good amp stuff.


How many channels? Does it have channel switching? Effects loops? Headphone jack?

3 channels, foot switcher, reverb on it, too. EFX loop yes. Headphones yes. Silent recording switch on back.

The channels are a clean, crunch, and contour. I am mainly interested in the clean channel, but with much tweaking of EQ, volume and gain, I found the crunch and contour channels to be useful as well. At first I didn't like them. I had no use for that much distortion. But I learned to "tame" them by turning them on and cleaning them up as much as possible. That leaves just the perfect amount of distortion for what I need.

What features do you wish it had? Why? Are there features you never use?

Wish it had tremelo, but that's a Fender.

Where do you use this amp? Does it have enough power for you?

Use it in my home studio. More than enough power. Worry about neighbors at times!

Feel free to enter any other features (stereo, tube or solid state, etc.).

It's a tuber. When used in "stereo" with my Marshall or Fender solid state amps, I get a great FULL BALANCED sound! Probably everything the guitar has got to give comes out that way. (I rarely use one amp on its own anymore!)

What guitar and pickup styles are you using it with?

I usually use it with single coil Telecaster and Strat type guitars. Also Les Paul and Epiphone semi-hollow humbucker types.

Is it noisy? On what settings, and in what environments?

I think this thing is made with the studio in mind. It is very quiet for a tube amp. Just a little hiss that you can't hear once you start playing.

What kind of sounds can the amp make? How much variety?

Not a lot of variety. Just a warm reproduction of what your guitar has got. The contour and crunch channels give it that Boogie hard rock sound.

It's got a reverb tank. Can even get some surf sounds with it!

Is the clean channel distorted at high volumes? In what settings?
How brutal is the distortion?
Breaks up well. Nice warm overdrive for leads. Crank it and it howls! The crunch and contour channels give a poor man's Rectifier sound I guess.

Can you depend on it? Would you use it on a gig without a backup?

I had a Boogie Studio 22 that gave up the ghost after about 15 years of service so I know it's probably not immortal. This one still soldiers on after ten years or so. I use two amps at a time anyway, so no worries about backups!

Just gotta keep spare tubes around.

Great reputation, but no personal experience.

How long have you been playing?

Off and on for over 30 years. Seriously in the last seven or eight years.

What other gear do you own?

I'm a collector. Junkie? Six acoustics. Seven electrics. Four basses. Five keyboards. Electric drum set. About 50 analog pedals and 10 rack units. Three Boogie amps (Mark II, Studio 22). A Marshall Valvestate and Lead 12. A Fender Acoustasonic and Quad Reverb! Ashdown and Fender bass amps. God I'm sick!
Everything's old. Everything bought used in Pawn Shop raids or new in megasales in music stores. I ain't rich but I do invest a lot of time in the hunt!

If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?

I would consider it a sign, and resume the hunt for another Boogie of some sort! As long as it's in the same ballpark, it really doesn't matter if it's exactly the same kind or not.

what do you love about it? What do you hate?

I love it because it's a Boogie. One of the finer things in life! I would like a little more headroom, but I am smart enough to understand that this is the low F on the totem pole. Play a good song and who cares if it's good or junk? Good music sounds good even on AM radio!

I bought these amps about 4yrs ago. I play classic rock, blues, country, country rock, raggie etc. The amp has two channels, effects loop and a speaker off switch. I use the amp in big and small rooms, it has more then enough power.

The clean channel (channel 1) is the only one I use, the overdrive channel (channel 2) in my opinion sounds really nasty so I don't even bother with it, but the clean side is very nice. I can cover just about anything except super hard rock with this amp. All I can say is the amp sounds so good I get compliments almost every night.

The only thing I've ever had to do with this amp is replace the power tubes other then that it keeps on going night after night. I might add that I do have to replace a handle on one of the F -30s but that's a pretty small price to pay.

I've only had to buy tubes from them and they got them here in a hurry. Never had to deal with repairs.

I've been playing for roughly 40yrs and I've went thru a bunch of equipment in my days, everything from double stacks to transitor crap. If these amps where ever stolen I would buy another one in a heart beat. What I love the best about the F-30s is what the sound guys say about it and the crowds. The only flaws that I can see in the F-30 is the reverb is wimpy and the distortion side just sucks but I didn't buy the amp to play metal, I just love the clean channel

Made in USA, two channels + contour. About 50lbs. Stealth design and looks. Built like a tank.

I play a custom shop strat with SCs. It is perfect for ANY style music. The amp can get kinda noisy, but that is typical of amps that can achieve such massive amounts of gain. I can get fenderish cleans and marshall type gain. Awesome. The clean channel breaks up at high volumes but in a good crunchy kind of way. And the distortion kind get brutal in contour mode without have to crank the gain up.

Changed pre-amp tubes. No problems.

Awesome amp. Period

2+1 tube amp. All Pointed out by all the others
30W SO LOUD!!!

There are 2 kinds of amps: the ones with a thousand options and sounds and the ones with their own voices. This little big amp DO HAVE his voice! And what a voice!
Very well crafted, Beautiful (but not Fenderous) Clean channell. I love the countour channell (I know, is not a "channel", but the sound is so different with it!). When I try it I was toughtfoul about the non-countour distorted channel. But now I like it very mutch.
It hasn't got a metal distortion, but if you play LOUD it goes wild!
Obviosly is a single cone combo, so you can't have the sound of a good cabinet, but the bottom end of the F30combo is impressive.

a little Noisy like a good tube amp would be

I think you can hear it on line on my band internet site for march 2008 (we're mixing the new album): www.lastazionedeipensieri.it
I play a Schecter C1 Classic wuih Duncan's pu.

I bought it used, I think it has 4 or 5 years but is almost new and perfect.

dunno

It has ONE sound x channel. But I like'em a lot.
try before you buy. But if you buy you'll be satisfied.

The amp is a nice lightweight 1x12 combo with dual channels for lead and clean. It has a seperate drive bass mid and treble, reverb and volume control for each cahnnel. These can be footswitched with the supllield footswitch. It must be noted that the footswitch is really nice and chunky with 3 bright lights on it one for rythm, one for lead and one for contour (this is an extra boost facility that lives on the lead channel). There is a pull bright on the rythem channel. Around the back of the amp we have a send and return which has mix control as well as extra speaker outputs. The footswitch input is tuced around the back too. There is also a silent record out put and speaker kill switch. Typical boogie they've thought of everything!

Wow. I have to say that this amp is a perfcet pro gigging amp. It is not too expensive and there are loads around 2nd hand now for not too much. It is relativly lightwieght so it is easy to carry upstairs or to practice or whatever. It is easy to shuffle in front of the support bands gear when you take the stage etc. It is loud enough for pub gigs with great power tube break up. Cracking crispy vox crunch. The overdrive is very thick and 'classic' and the boost on the contour gives the top end a bit extra for the odd solo. For decent gigs it always mic'ed up and there is plenty in the amp for stage volumes. If I ever get to Wembley then I will have to plug it into a 4x12 I suppose!
The overall sound is very valey very classic and nice and thick. Impressive stuff.
Unlike the earlier reviewer I find the reverb a bit too long which can sound a bit 'splashy'. This is of course purely subjective. I suppose I could change the reverb tank if it really bugs me in the long term.

Boogies I have found to be very reliable but we shall see. Class A amps have a habbit of frying so we will see.

I am very pleased with this amp I have gigged it for 6 months and its perfect. Ligt loud and fullsome. What more can one want for...

(sorry for my bad english... i'm french) I got this amp since more 2 years. I bought it cause i got a 5150 for repetitions with my band and gigs and i would like to found a sound similar in a little amp to play in my flat. Well, my choice goes normaly to Mes/boog.
My F30 was built 3 years ago. It has 2 channel with an "coutour extension", that you play like a third channel (with your footswitch).
The tunings are simples (like on 5150), gain bass mid treble, reverb, master. ok, same for the second channel, there is a non-adjustable fx loop. There is a headphone jack. I use it especialy with an Ibanez S540 LTD with EMG 81 and 85 pickup, i use and Dean DS 92 with Dimarzio superdiso in bridge and Hot Rails Seymour Duncan in neck. I use this amp only at home and it has too much power for what i do with it. 30 tube power watt (it kicks all ass). It is easy to use, it's some kind of plug and play, that i want (remember 5150)...

i play first metal (thrash metal exactly) and then some blues/rock.

Clean :
from a pure and fine clean to a grass clean with some crunch in the back (i can get the same sound as on the intro of ... and Justice for All - Metallica). If i turn the gain to the max i get a pure hard rock sound that i can turn with the neck pickup in bluesy disto.
So 11/10 for this channel.

Crunch, is a little bit limp, flabby, but with powerful pickup it's ok. You can get easely marshall sounds (cause, in part, of the EL84), you can play some old 80's Slayer.

with the contour option, you have kind of Metallica Black Album sound ! it's enough at home. I have record with it some tracks for my thrash metal band and the result is pretty good !

contour channel is a little bit noisy with my EMG pickup.

it's a solid amp, the name mesa/boogie is a waranty ! I just have a tube prob (but i'have experimented something with 3 cabs...).
You can blindly depend on it.

never deal with them, so i can answer.

It's a very good and versatile amp, with classic sound but very good sound. At this moment i hesitate to sold it to buy a Mesa express head 5:50 but i can't choose for this moment.

Features are ok,clean,distortion,crunch channels.
Brite switch on the clean channel.

Clean channel is great.
distortion is ok if you like classic rock.
Not enough for metal.
You would have to go with a rectifier for that.

Didn't have it long enough.
Played it for about a month and took it back.

Did call them and they were very helpfull on the phone.

I have played everything from solid state to tubes.
I cannot afford a rectifier. So i an getting a soild state for
now.

2 channels, foot switchable (also 'contour' and reverb are foot switchable as well). 30w all tube combo, 12" speaker. 2 EL-84 power tubes, 3 12ax7 pre-amp tubes. Bought it brand new, came with all the goodies incl the cover which I think is kinda cool. This amp is HEAVY and for 30 watts it is LOUD. Actually has a headphone jack (which I've always found odd that lots of Mesas have this feature?), FX send and return. Bass, Treble, Mid, Gain, Vol and Reverb for each channel, a feature I really like.

One thing I REALLY wish: has this contour switch which is a little bit of a boost and some sort of mid-scoop only for the hi-gain channel. REALLY wish it just had a simple boost foot switchable capability that worked on each channel. Also, the channel and contour buttons each have a light, but the reverb foot switch doesn't. ??

Main feature it has that I like? TONE, and lots of punch. The clean channel gets a little hairy when you get the gain up around noon and the vol past 2 o clock or so. It's a sweet clean--it's not Fender clean, it's Mesa clean, and I think it's beautiful in it's own right. The reverb on this amp is really good too, unlike a Mesa DC-5 I had before, the reverb was worthless on it.

This is a great, giggable amp if you play rock and roll. I will say, the span on the gain control for "rock and roll" type rhythm work is narrow; go much past 9 o clock and you're into Mesa type gain, which is awesome in my opinion. But there isn't a lot of Rolling Stones type gain on this amp. The clean side with the gain close to dimed is close to that, but not really. Again, it's nice in it's own right, but different. You'll have to try out, see if you like it.

What this amp does really well is badass crunch, with lots of bottom-end. One thing I should point out, I use the amp as a combo at home, but run it into a Marshall 1960A cab for gigging, and it has PLENTY of low-end and PLENTY of hi-gain crunch which sounds really nice live. VERY punchy too--you can hear yourself up there, even with Bonzo over there on the drums (that's our drummer, like John Bonham incarnated).

The clean is acceptable--nothing like Fender sparkly clean, but as I mentioned above, good in it's own right. Maybe a little more like Voxy clean that has a little edge to it. Works for me!

I hate to rate this without years of gigging it behind me, but I will say this. I had a microphonic tube right off the bat--this amp had set at a dealer for well over a year and probably got played a lot in the shop. I contacted Mesa, spoke with a knowledgeable tech/engineer whatever, and he is sending me 2 power tubes and two preamp tubes for my trouble--nice!!

See above, from everything I hear and have seen in my short span of ownership, they're the BEST.

This will be the amp that I use the rest of my gigging career, probably through at least 2008. I'm a satisfied customer.