Mesa/Boogie F-30 112 Combo

2003/ 30watt/2 channel/ EL84 Dynawatt------ This is the loudest 30 watt amp I have ever run across. I bought it for practice to back up my F-100 which I play live. The F-30 would actually be loud enough on it's own for smaller venues. Very basic and easy to use.

I play both Ibanez with Dimarzios Breeds and Fenders with regular or seymour duncan pickups. For classic rock, blues rock, or pure blues this amp is wonderful. It's not really dark/clean enough for jazz or bassy enough for metal. The gain channel had a little preamp noise until I upgraded the preamp tubes. The clean channel will start to get crunchy when the gain control gets to around 4 1/2 and gives a sound that seems very much like a fender Bassman. The distortion can be pretty high gain but it has a very smooth quality to it.

I've had it just over a year and so far it's never needed any type of repair.

Never needed it for either Mesa amp I own

Playing for 43 years. For a 30 watt combo this amp fits me like a glove. Very smooth high gain, I prefer to crank the vintage instead of using the higher gain contour voice, I like mids, and the clean can be clean or give that bassman crunch. I don't plan on having to replace this amp. It is well made and sounds good.

brand new, Sept. 2004 I find it has all the features I need, but I would like a tremolo circuit. Used to having one, and miss it. Otherwise perfect.

I use the basics- Strat, Tele, LP. I like rock and blues, and this amp is wonderful . It has the best and most versatile clean channel I have ever heard. It is the first non-Fender amp I have had, and the first time I have had an amp with EL-84 tubes. The sound is not as squeaky clean as a Fender, but it has way more soul and body, even with no gain dialed in. I dont use the distortion too much, but it is there in spades in ch. 2. Amp is VERY LOUD. The best sounding amp I have ever heard, period.

Too new to tell, but I am mostly a play-at-home person now, so I dont push it very hard.

Same as above, However, Mesa includes a great manual, very useful and informative. Fender's is a joke, compared to it. From reading about the company, I have all the confidence in the amp. Mesa is proving that a production oriented company can still build a first quality product. All you have to do is try. Very satisfying product to own, and I feel good about the purchase, like I have something special.

Been playing since 1965. Maybe the single most satisfying music product I have ever owned. Worth every penny!

I bought this 8/2003. This thing has Vintage 30 speaker, channel switching, independant tone stacks, a bright switch (clean channel), reverb, a boost called contour, active effects loop, line-out/headphone jack, speaker mute switch, external speaker connection, 3-button foot switch, small & portable and it's loud as hell. In my book for FEATURES, that's a 10!!!

I use mostly Strat's, though occassionally my Guild Starfire & Martin Electric Acoustic. Play mostly originals + 60's, 70's classic rock/blues. This is my 3rd one. The first two I brought home were both "open box." They must have been floor models, and were obviously abused, because they were ungodly noisy, and had other problems. So I took them back, and decided to order an sealed box from MESA. Worked out perfect. Only a little noise, and a tube change a few months later took care of most of that. I don't gig anymore, just home recording now, didn't need (or want) some large & powerful amp. I use a Weber MASS Attenuator to allow me to get the tubes screamin' without waking the whole neighborhood. This has an excellent fender-y clean channel, and vintage boogie overdrive (think older boogie, not recto). Does the sparkly, almost glassy "clean thing" quite well, and the overdrive does the Bluesy, Crunchy, thick-creamy "overdrive thing" quite well too. Reverb is good, but it's not the amazing fender reverb. Stays clean to about 11:00, the starts to saturate (you change this with different tubes). I use the Countour mode and bright switch only at lower volume levels. Higher volume levels don't need them.

I have had no problems, and don't expect to. Mesa has an incredible reputation for quality & reliability. I had an old MkI about a hundred years ago, and I beat it to death on the road. It NEVER failed me. Boogies are VERY DEPENDABLE.

I have spoken to them several times. They are knowledgable, are not afraid to tell you truth, and genuinely want to help. My only complaint is that I wish there more of them. Getting live person is not easy. They are very good about calling calling.

I've been playing since the mid Sixties. I'm down to 4 guitars, a bass and 2 amps. I would definately buy it again. It's not the "end-all" of amplifiers, but it does about 85% of what Fender & Marshall are famous for, in one box. It's probably the most versatile amp I've ever owned. At $800, it's not cheap, but it's 1/3 the price of most "boutique" amps, and does about 85% of what they do also. A dependable, versatile, very good sounding amp, that won't break the bank. Nice Amp!

This is a 2003 model, purchased new from dealer w/trade (Classic 30). I've waited well over a year's worth of gigging and rehearsing to review this amp, so that, despite so many other reviews, I might say something useful.
"Features" seems increasingly subjective to me. Lots of dials/knobs/channels? OK, lots of "features." Useful? Maybe. Sometimes.
The question of power is difficult. It's a LOUD amp, and on channel 2, it's a fast-saturating amp. That's what a lot of players want out of a Boogie, esp. a small combo Boogie, and that's what they get here. I'm giving it an 8 only here, because I don't really use the distortion channel as much as I had expected I would. (Isn't it strange, esp. you old guys know what I mean, that stomp boxes still do 90% of the tricks you need?)

I'm playing a 91 Strat Plus Deluxe w/Lace Sensorts, which is one of the most under-rated prod. guitars in the world, IMO. Also a Les Paul Studio Lite (cause I'm old and lazy) w/57 classic PU's; a '57 Vintage Strat goes through this F30 a lot, too, in fact, probably the most. Finally, a G&L Bluesboy for slide -- the best sounding of the combos here.

But here's the deal, for me. This amp sounds too much like a 'bedroom amp' most of the time. I play a lot of "house" gigs, coffeehouses, etc., and so it's FINE for that stuff. But it's NOT a genuine/worldclass/kick your ass in the right way kind of amp. As others have stated: too "saturated," WAY too much on the gain circuitry. I love Santana, but Jeez...
I do not agree with those who praise the clean channel/sound, here. With the '57 Strat, I've almost gotten to "France" here a few times, but most nights, not. Difficult to say.It's not a power issue, it's a combination-of-flavors issue.

No quarrels here. I respest Mesa's people & engineers.

Ditto here. (Not as in "Ditto Monkey, just ditto as in "agree")

I've been playing 37 years, twenty professinally or semipro. I own a 65 Super Reverb, and I suppose that does not help the F30's review here. I've also played Dual Rectifiers (ick); small Gibson combos; Fender Princeton Reverb (fabulous amp, jaheeezus); Fender Bassman, blonde. Peavy Classic, a great-sounding but ultimately undependable amp.
This F30 is somewhere only in the middle, to me. I'll admit: I get older, I get crankier, and pickier.

I think we all know the features, if not...see mesaboogie.com

Im using Les Paul Classics and PRS Custom 24 with it. Sounds great with my Parker Fly Deluxe too.

The reason I purchased this amp was that I wanted something good, but small. I already had a boogie single rect head that I love. But sometimes I just want to use something small for jam sessions and such. This is perfect for that, in fact...I would use this live. Given the right PA setup, this amp would do well. Despite its size, its heavy...nothing horrible.

Boogie makes the real deal for amps. Its built well and simple to use.

Never had to use it yet.

Just like all major purchases in life, try it before you buy it. I was almost sold on a used Mesa Boogie Maverick...but realized it was not the sound or setup I wanted. Dont get me wrong, its a great amp...but Im not much for the classic amp sounds.

The Mesa Boogie F-30 is great little amp thats easy to use. If someone stole this from me, I'd hunt them down and get it back. But then again, Im like that with all my equipment. Whatever it is you like, dont cheap out. Do some research, try it out, read the reviews and get what works for you. For me, this amp works...period.

Purchased new in 2004. Single jack with 2 channels that can be switched with the included foot switch or on the front panel. Bright switch for CH1 (clean) and "Contour" on CH2 (Lead). Parallel Effects loop. Recording / Phone output. 30 LOUD All Tube Watts. 1 x 12 Celestion Vintage Speaker. Individual Gain, Treble, Mid, Bass, Reverb and Master Volume for each Channel. This amp is used for small venue gigs and studio. This is a very loud 30 watts. Much Louder than my 60 Watt Crate modeling Amp. I actually would say this amp is too loud - I was looking for a small tube amp that I could get good cranked tube tone. This little beast makes my ears bleed with gain and master at 2 O'clock.

Looking for vintage sound with minimal processing. I play mostly 60s - 90s rock, BLues rock. Floyd, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Deep Purple. This amp can handle all styles except metal without much help from stomp boxes.

I play a Fender Strat (Humbucker in Bridge position) and '74 Gibson SG Custom. This amp really made my strat sing on the clean channel. The lead channels works great with both Strat (Bridge) and SG for Hard Rock and leads. Again I will say - This is a much LOUDER 30 Watts than I expected. To play at practice levels with live drums, I can barely take the master volume past 8 O'clock and the volume changes drastically down in this area of the volume pot...

I was about to get a THD power brake for practice and studio but came up with following Tube change to bring the volume to a managable level without losing tone. After experimenting with several preamp tubes in all 4 12AX7 positons, I found a beautiful and cheap alternative to the power brake. Placing a 12AU7 in place of the 12AX7A in V3 reduces gain by about 15dB. After a few EQ tweeks and cranking the volume up into a more linear range of the master volume pot (about 11 oclock), I was back in Tone Nirvana with acceptable practice volumes. Still enough room to crank for small venues. I can simply go back to the 12AX7A and make a few eq tweeks where more volume is needed. Note - Putting the 12AU7 in the V2 position also attenutated the signal by about 15dB but destroyed the sound of the Clean channel???

For effects, I have an Ibanez rotary chorus and Boss digital delay plugged into the effects loop. On the from end, A crybaby wah and Carl Martin Hot Drive n' Boost. I can get every classic rock sound I need from this rig.

BONUS - Plugged in my Seagull Acoustic set for 90% Piezo / 10% Mike into the clean channel. Cut right through - GRREAT sound.

Minor note - I noticed that the output signal attenuates a bit as you turn the effects mix towards 100%. This happens even with an open jack in the effects return. Pull the jack out ant it returns to full volume.

I have only had it for 2 months but it has been played hard since day 1 and has not exhibited any problems. It's a tube amp . . . . always have a back-up when gigging.

I have only heard good things about Mesa support but have never experienced it for myself. The F30 has a limited 5 Year transferable warranty (3 Years on Speaker, 6 Months for tubes).

I have been playing for 30 years. I have owned Marshall 100 lead and 200 Watt stacks, Fender Blues Jr., Crate Modeling Amp, Ampeg V9, Ampeg Gemini II. This is by far the best amp I have owned. I compared the F30 side by side with a Marshall DSL 401 before purchasing. The F30 clean channel smoked the Marshall. The Lead channels compared favorably but I thought the F30 had nicer dynamics to it. If this amp was lost or stolen, I would get another one immediately.

This is a 2003 model. It's a very versatile and portable amp. It has two channels with a bright pull switch on the clean one and with a contour (EQ) switch on the second one. The reverb effect is nice and soft. The amp's appropriate for hard rock and blues, with other possibilities but some limitations (see below). For a 30 W amp, it's extraordinarily loud - if you value loudness. My band (a pop-rock outfit) didn't need this much volume for rehearsals or gigs. Part of the loudness is due to the high gain tubes, which are, supposedly, the best in the business (but one of my power tubes shorted on the first day - an omen).

I play with a 1977 Stratocaster (with original pickups except for a Seymour Duncan blade in the bridge position) and some delay effects. The amp suits my pop-rock style but might be a little dark. It can be muddy if you let it, and on high gain distortion, the articulation or definition of notes is slurred or blurry. However, you can dial in some great clean, soft-clipping, elastic sounds and some sustaining Santana-esque sounds with ease.

My big criticism is the hiss. The amp has white noise in ample quantities. In my mini home studio, I could not record any jazzy guitar stuff because of the hiss. I was so disappointed that I traded the amp for a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Limited Edition, which I'll review once I've played it for a few months. The Mesa / Boogie customer service people (who seem very helpful and understanding) say the hiss is totally normal for such a high gain amp. You can dial out the hiss by dropping the master volume and raising the gain, but this reduces versatility (causing a darker, tighter, flatter sound). Some people recommended switching the power tubes to JJs, but I was disappointed and didn't want to mar the Mesa / Boogie sound with other tubes - I only wanted a no-hiss amp. By the way, the hiss wasn't generated by my Strat. The amp hissed on its own.

I rate this as a 5, but it could be a 10 without the hiss.

A tube went on the first day and then a carbon buildup on the circuit board built up and caused more noise. My amp tech fixed both problems. I would say this compromised the reliability, but the tech said they were both flukes and I believe him. However, I won't rate this because I only had the amp for three months.

The fellow at Mesa was friendly and helpful, but the hours of business made it impossible for me to do anything other than play phone tag, leaving messages (as he did for me). Mesa / Boogie has a 5 year warranty and a long 6 month warranty on the tubes.

I've been playing for fifteen years but this was my first tube amp for guitar (though I have a nice old Traynor bass amp that's good for some guitar applications, too). I loved the F-30 but hated the hiss. The overall disappointment was amplified by the awesome potential of this amp to be a gigging and recording ace. It can gig but recording wasn't possible for me (and no, using gates didn't work for me - I couldn't clamp the hiss without affecting trailing soft sustain).

I think you can get this info elsewhere. I just today learned about the pull switch on the clean channel, however.

I use a Gibson SG and Les Paul (both recent studio models). My band plays mostly rock and hard rock type stuff. A little punk here and there too. Got this in November, purely on reviews and whatnot. Basically, I wanted something that was easy to carry around (I live in Manhattan). I got it on ebay, retubed with JJ/Teslas, and brought it to a gig. Very good sound. Clear, punchy on the high gain. I had to back off the bass setting a little, as I had the amp cranked. It was getting a little flubby.

The clean is decent as well, although I generally have the gain on the clean channel pushed a little for the chunky style chords.

Why a 10? Well, this Saturday I let my friend from work borrow it (hey Dave). He plays more of a blues style, with a strat. Low gain on both settings. It was his first gig with this band, first time playing the amp, and very little tweaking. We just set it up, turned down the gains, and cranked the main volumes (he did a little bass knob adjustment as well mid-gig). I was floored by how good the sound was.

On any specific sound I imagine this amp would get an 8 or 9, but the fact that we were able to get such different sounds at such a good level with so little tweaking (first time played at a gig for both of us) says a lot.

Had it since November. Can't say much, other than it feels solid.

Never had to talk to them.

You can pretty much count on this amp to give you what you need, and its easy to move around. I bought this as a smaller gig and practice amp, but it has pushed out my Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 50w(with 2x12 Carvin Legacy cab) and Mesa Rect-o-verb combo to become my main gig amp. Does it sound better than both the others? Not exactly. I like the dirty crunch "clean" on the Marshall better, and the other Mesa does the heavy distortion better, but overall, the little guy beats them. Especially because I can easily fit it into the trunk of a taxi.

Good, but basic features for a small combo amp.
Two completely independent channels, with a "Contour Boost" on the Distortion Channel
Effects Loop, footswitch.

Man, I tried and tried and tried really hard to like this Boogie F30. But I just could get the sounds I like. I spent wo full days trying to tweek the tone controls to perfection, but it only got to "barely acceptable".

I had **ASSUMED** that I could get the sound I like out of any reasonably high-quality amp if I tweaked long enough, so I admit that I really didn't do a good listening test in the guitar store. I just heard that it sounded loud & clean and took it. After all, Boogie has a great reputation, right ?

Big Mistake !
The Boogie clean is always too "hard". If you turn the treble up high enough to be "crystaline", then it becomes so "hard" that it feels like you are getting hit in the side of the head with an aluminum frying pan ! If you turn the gain up on the clean channel, it just gets "ratty", without ever having a "smoothed over edge" to the "ice-pick-in-the-ear" treble.

On the distortions, the opposite is true. They are so "brown" sounding, that it sounds like the speakers and amp are entirely made of cardboard. some might call it "warm" and/or "complex"...I call it "dull".

SO I TOOK IT BACK, and pleaded with the store owner (who is a great guy) and he let me trade it for a Fender Blues Deville, 4-10s !

I took the Fender home and within about 5 minutes I was in tone heaven. I guess I didn't realize what a fussy tone-nut I really was.

No real opinion, but the supplied power cord's ground conductor pulled off the first time I pulled it out of a socket. No real reflection on the Amp's intrinsic reliability...but a bad omen. :)

The DEALER was great !
Eric "The Guitar Czar" in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I have been playing 40 years, and have owned a lot of amps by nearly every manufacturer. For reference: for me, the "gold standard" of tone is "Voodoo Chile" (the slow version) by Hendrix. I think he recorded that on a Fender Bassman. During the time I was gigging and touring, I was always able to get a great tone from my Carvin (X-100) gear.
So I like Blues and Classic rock with some "distortion", but not the sataurated type.
I don't want to be too harsh on the F30's rating, because it was obviously a very well-constructed amplifier. Maybe people who like a different style would like it. But to me it was a very dull, harsh, and uninspiring tone. I tried really hard to tweek it and like it, because I didn't want the embarrassment of having to return it. But in the end I just had to.

Bought new last week so it was made in 2003-2004, I don't know exactly when. I play a lot of classic rock and jam-band stuff a-la Gov't Mule, Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies, Blues Traveller type stuff. This amp really smokes for recording, rehersal, and small venues. Heck, big ones if you mike it. It has two channels plus a contour feature on the lead channel and a pull bright on the clean channel. There is an effects loop, 3 band tone stack for each channel, reverb, and a Celestion Vintage 30.

I use an American Telecaster refitted with Lace Sensors with a Strat single coil in the middle like a Nashville Tele, an American Strat, a Les Paul with 57's, and a Strat with Texas Specials. I really dig the clean channel. It has the old Fender Blackface clean thing going on in a big way. It's a good thing you can't patent a tone because Mesa would be sued. Yeh, it's that good. The dirty channel is really smooth when turned up. You can nail Billy Gibbons tone, plus a few more. Kick the contour switch and it really gets mean. This amp smokes. I can't say enough good things about it.

It's new, so far so good.

Not needed so far.

I have been playing since 1982 and have owned just about every type of amp including a few "botique" amps and very few can touch a Boogie for Tone AND Versatility. There are a few one trick ponies that can get up there in tone but lack in versatility but this amp has both and then some. If it were lost or stolen there would be a fight, some cryin', and then some buyin'. Another F30.