Mesa/Boogie F-30 112 Combo

Dont' know year of manufacturing, think 3 years ago, before the Express era anyway.
versatile enough, 2 channels, bright switch on clean and a contour on the drive/gain channel.
Way enough power boys & girls... no more >100 watts for me, cooking a low wattage is the way to go...

Les paul, classic with a SD JB in the bridge and a 59 in the neck (no great match IMHO, but that's another story)
In a classoc rock/pop cover band. Amp has to be versatile..
And, here's the story, what a sound, what a distortion. Smooth and brutal. Is this possible ? Yeaahhh it is. This is a marshall sound at its best. Balanced, light crunch to good singing solosound. I also recently purchased a Marshall silver jubilee, but its gotta go. ice pick marshall rubbish, why o why do i even try. Boogie for me, all the way. Really boys and girls, this is the sound for me.oh, almost forgot, thsi baby sounds terrific on low volumes. I also had a month with the MB express, forget it. The F30 blows 'm all away...

I'ts a boogie, i'm not expecting any problems, but you never know.
none thusfar. Only a month under my wings so don't really know.

never dealt with Customer service.

As i mentioned, also got a people's favorite, marshall jubilee. forget it, ice queen trebly, yak.
Mesa is king, all the way, versatile and only concerned with one thing, SOUND. And value for money, buy 'm now...since the express came out, these baby's are a steal

Features are pretty straight-forward with this amp; gain, treble, mid, bass, reverb, and master volume for each of 2 switchable channels. The amp has a clean channel, a drive channel, and a contour channel, which increases the gain and scoops the mids. A parallel effects loop, with a level control is available via the back pannel. The amp is 30 loud tube watts, which is certainly enough power for me, and the stock 12" speaker sounds great. This can be a very versatile amp, and could easily do anything from country to metal, and anything in between. It may not provide enough gain for EXTREME metal, but it has more than enough for anything I play; the gain knob is usually at about 9 o'clock, and rarely ever gets past 11 o'clock. About the only thing that I think would be a good addition to this amp would be the ability to switch it to a lower wattage setting, like 5W or even 1W for lower volume environments.

I use this amp with several different guitars with both double and single coil pickups (Gibson '58 Les Paul reissues, Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion, Gibson EDS-1275 doubleneck, PRS Custom 24, Fender '52 Tele reissue...) and a few effects (volume pedal, wah, chorus, phaser, and flanger in the front, and an RSP intelliverb in the effects loop) and it does a great job with everything I plug into it! I play a variety of different styles of music, but a lot of classic and progressive rock, and this amp is very well suited for those styles (and many more!). There is some slight operating noise at high volumes, but nothing out of the ordinary for an all tube amp. The clean channel can range from being very clean to being quite crunchy with the gain control increased. For me, this works out well, but for a player who needs a very clean sound at a very high volume, the headroom may not be there. I love the drive channel! If I set the gain at about 9 o'clock, I get get a great crunchy overdrive sound that will clean up when the guitar's volume control is backed off on. Another thing that I like about this amp (and the main reason that I decided on the F-30) is that, although it sounds best with the master volume half way up or more, it also sounds very good at low volume levels. This is an area where a lot of all tube amps that I was auditioning did not do so well. All in all, a fantastic sounding amp!

The amp seems very well built. I have had the amp for several years now, and have never had to do anything more than change the power tubes. Seems, so far, like this amp will last a long time. I would have no problem gigging without a backup.

I have only needed to deal with Mesa/Boogie once. Shortly after I got the amp (within a month), the volume started dropping here and there, and the sound became very "fizzy". When I decribed the symtoms to the Mesa rep, he had me check the appearance of the power tubes (one of which was glowing red, much more than the other). He determined that I had a bad tube and proceeded to send me a new set of tubes. The tubes arrived within a matter of days and the problem was solved and has never occurred again. The rep was friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. If I ever have another problem with this amp, I would feel very confident about dealing with Mesa/Boogie. It appears that they are genuinely appreciative of their customers and stand behind their products.

I have been playing for more than 30 years now, and I have owned a fair bit of gear over the years. Ironically, this is the first all tube amp I have ever owned. I had searched for a tube amp that sounded great at both high and low volumes for a few years before comming across the F-30. I also had a hard time finding an amp that could produce the kind of overdrive sound that I liked - thick, rich, and big sounding, but not fizzy/fuzzy and overly distorted. I wanted to be able to play chords with intervals other than roots and fifths and have it sound clear and pleasant. This amp does everything I need it to do. Unfortunately, this model has been discontinued, so, I guess I will have to find a used one if I ever need another!

Features have been covered enough already, but I'll just say that everything I would want out of a gigging amp is there. It doesn't have a billion different knobs and sliders, but it doesn't have to.

This is an excellent sounding amp, to say the least. You can get some really pristine clean tones out of it, as well as some really MEAN sounding distorted tones. All in all, this is an excellent all around amp. For the stuff that I play (classic rock, hard rock, old school metal), this is easily one of the best sounding amps I've worked with.

Volume wise, the amp is plenty loud, and cuts through the mix really well. I've gigged quite a few times with the F-30, and have not had any volume issues at all...except being told to turn down at times. :)

As a side note, I've tried using the amp with an attenuator, and found that the amp actually sounds just fine without one. As with any amp, it doesn't really come alive until the speakers are pushing some serious air, but it doesn't need to be cranked to sound good. The stock speakers also sound just fine, and I don't feel the need to change it.

I bought the amp used, and while it came with quite a few dings and dents, there were no functional issues save from bad tubes. I think that speaks volumes about the build quality. :)

Bought this used, so did not have to deal with Mesa Boogie directly.

I've been gigging on and off for almost 15 years, and while I don't consider myself a professional, I am very serious about my music and my gear. I've researched and played through at quite a few amps before settling on the F-30 as my main gigging amp, in big part due to the solid tone that it produces, and the built quality, versatility, and light weight helped sealed the deal.

2004 model: clean,lead and contour channel, reverb. effects loop, recording out, 2x el 84; 4x 12ax7, quite not a feature-monster, but pretty versatile though.

first thing: the distortion is really,really,really ultra. you can get a brutally insane overdriven sound. problem is: the amp gets darker and sweeter and mid-heavy if you run the distortion flat out, so don't expect any mid-scooped metal in here. (the contour channel only makes the sound fatter and louder). reminds me somewhat of the fender hot rod deluxe...
nonetheless: the sound is really brutal and fat, just not the scooped-metal-kind. if you're expecting a rectifier you will be pretty disappointet, though the f 30 definitely has some rectifier genes.
to get that typical metal sound, i'm using an equalizer, and...here goes the metal !
the clean channel is very sweet, warm and vintage-sounding, no hi-fi sparkling clean, but nice fat and crunchy with a little gain dialed in. in combination with power tube distortion a very nice classic-rock sound, works well with the guitars volume (also in the od-channels)
one thing left: if you dial in bass to about 3 o'clock the sounds becomes flabby and muddy, so be careful with the bass pot!
this amp can get seriously loud, it's quite not as loud as my mesa roadking, but a little louder than my hughes and kettner edition tube 20, which really screams (and is tonally the total opposite, but also VERY nice)
i'm using this baby mainly with my prs-guitars, but it also sounds good with some of my cheaper guitars - yamaha, epi and ibanez,
very nice amp.

the amp has some noise, though it's not as noisy as some of the revievs said before (try changing the preamp tubes;) ) but even if i run it flat out, there have been no issues with it yet. though i must admit i'm a little concerned because of some of the earlier reviews, so we'll see.

the company always has been VERY helpful to me, great customer support.

a very nice amp, if you can get one on ebay or so, it's worth quite a bit of money, matches well with my other amps, (mesa roadking and hughes and kettner edition tube 20 ) i like the fat overdriven carlos santana attitude of this thing very much, if it would be stolen i'd definitely try to get another.
another word on that: don't go for the express series amps, they are a rather bad choice in comparison with the f series imho.

Features have been fully covered by other reviews. If I could design it, about the only things I would add is a tremolo and a separate reverb for the clean and dirty channels.

This is where this amp shines. I have a Gibson Les Paul Studio, Gretsch 5120, Dean Strat-wannabe, and my kid's junior strat and they all have a unique voice through this amp, and you can find some sweet tones for all. I have owned several amps in the past and have never heard such a difference in my guitars. I play anything from classic rock and blues to hard rock to rockabilly to metal, and this amp can cover it all. The cool part of this amp is that each knob really does something, you can't just max out all the bass, mid, treble and gain and hope to get a good sound from it. One of the sweetest aspects of this amp is the clean channel, give it some gain and it breaks up in a way I have not heard from many amps. Using the tone controls you can take it from a tinny crunch to thick syrupy tone heaven. Turn the gain down and it has some wonderful jazzy smooth tones. On the distortion channels, you want to keep the gain at or below about 12 oclock or you get really muddy and lose all the character of your guitar. I keep the gain around 7 or 8 oclock and just turn it up and let the amp breathe and let my humbuckers do the work. This amp is capable of very "metal" tones without the gain maxxed out.

For some reason, one of the retainers for the tubes is too tight. If I clip the retainer over the tube, it pulls the tube to the side and makes a bad connection and it makes a horrendous farting noise. I just leave the retainer off that tube and never have a problem. I guess if I were moving it around a lot i would look into that. Other than that, no issues with the amp at all.

Only called once, to order new tubes. Responded to my email that day.

I think this is a great amp. Seriously good tone if you dial it in. As with any good amp, can sound crappy if you set it crappy. Definitely not a "one trick pony". I have been playing off and on for 12 years or so. Had a Marshall AVT 150, Fender Princeton Chorus, couple other junk amps. Some day soon I am going to build it a Flame Maple case and redo the grille so it will look as good as it sounds. I wouldn't sell it and would hunt down and kill the perpetrator if it were stolen or lost.

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.

Great features available. The reason I bought this amp was for the features. 2 channels plus a contour switch for 3 footswitchable sounds. Reverb, two sets of EQ yadda yadda yadda.

Awesome! I use this for blues with my stratocaster, rock with a music man axis and metal with my Epiphone Junior (emg-81 does it). This is a very versitile amp. I put gain at about half way for my stratocaster, gain all the way for the music man, and gain all the way with contour on for metal. Its not very noisy with humbuckers but the single coils are a little buzzy. At high volumes it sounds very good but as others have said, a closed back cabinet is a little nicer for bottom end.

No problems yet and not expecting any based on mesa's reputation

Haven't needed them

Great amp! For thsoe who say it isn't a metal amp, try hooking it up to a guitar with an EMG-81 or another active pickup, that helps boost the gain and sustain to unbelievable levels.

I bought a 2006 model of the F-30 112 combo. It's got 2 channels, and channel 2 has a mean switch on it (contour). All channels are footswitchable. This amp is great. It can do anything. I play it clean and it sounds as good as a fender with a little more grit to it. Channel 2 is awsome, it needs a lot of time spent with it to get it right, but the end result is out standing, contour is over the top. It's not quite recto but close enough. The amp a lot of natural low end so keep the bass to a a very low amount. I personally play a heavy southern rock style of guitar so this amp sounds great for me. I also play jazz and blues from time to time and this amp will do it. The only thing it wont do is heavy, heavy metal. It's just not big enough to get that tone. The tubes in this amp is more british than modern american. For most styles of music this amp is great if you spend some time with it. Hard core and metal just require bigger amps. This thing is as close to an all in one amp as i've ever seen. The 30 watts is loud as all. I play in a church band and we have a huge 600 seat sactuary and this thing fills it. We mic the amp but most of the time never need it. This amp can play anywhere, it just needs to be miced in big venues, but so do big amps. This thing has all the power I will ever need, but play it. You may need 6L6 tone, i like EL84 tone. Play around. You may not like it. That doesn't make it a bad amp. you just have a different sound in your head.

The F-30 sound great. All the channels are great and produce the sound that I need. It creats the sound in my head. Again, It has EL84's. It's going to be more AC/DC and not PANTERA. It all depends on what you want. If you want more modern sound go with the F-50 or F-100. If you want more modern than that go with a recto. It sounds great for what it is, but all amps do different things and will sound different. Again, play with different stuff you may like it, you may not. It just depends on what you want. It will get noisy at really high volumes, but hey it's a tube amp. What do you want? When played at recording/ practice voulems there is no noise. When turned up to about 10:00 there is a litle noise on the distorted channels, but that's to play live. You will be miced,and it's nothing to get your pants in a bunch over. Again, it's a tube amp.

This thing is built very sturdy. It hasn't let me down so far.

They are great. I called to see what other tube options there are for the amp. They called me back and told me that because of the way the amp is biased the only tubes that will work properly are mesa tubes. The bias in all mesa amps is a permanent bias. You will never have to pay someone to do it. Saving money is good. Their tubes are actually very good on the price, and they work great. They also took the time to explain how to properly retube the amp (one at a time). That's great customer service if you ask me. They took the time to explain things to a new commer to mesa products.

I've been playing for 10 years and always went with solid state or marshall. Boy was i wrong. They aren't any more expencive than a good marshall. My advice is to play as many amps as you see fit. You may not like this amp. You may like it after some tweeking. This amp truelly does take some time to get it to sound great, but it does. It's not really expancive, and it gets the job done.

2006 model, I play just about all styles of electric guitar, rock, jazz, blues etc. Two channels plus, has channel switching etc. I use this amp as a professional guitarist and it has PLENTY of power for me.

Sounds fantastic at just about every setting, very subtle controls in a nice way. The clean channel isn't too clean, can do everything a nice Fender can do and more, we really don't want too clean a channel and if you want it will do "sterile" clean too. The overdrive channel is stunning also, sings from the lowest amount of gain to overkill gain. Of course I like the less gain since I use .o11 strings and get sound from my hands. I use four warmoth strats, a warmoth tele and a new Les paul VOS. All of the guitars have been Pleked. Most have lindy Fralin Pickups

No problems with reliability. Don't use a backup amp

Yes, they are very customer service friendly. 5 year warranty

Jeez, I'm giving this a 9.5. I've been playing since childhood ( about 36 years ) I'm a guitar tone nut and own about $15,000 worth of vintage narrow panel tweeds, plexi Marshalls, Supros, etc. My amps and I are on plenty of records/ CD's. Plus I've loaned them to many a great guitarist to record with. This Mesa F 30 is an incredible amp that I wish I had for most of my career. Its so easy to use and get GREAT sounds. One of the best sounding amps I've ever used considering its price, newness and ease of use. Stacks up very favorably against just about anything out there.

2005 f30 1x12" combo, 2 channels, clean + dirty, w. a contour-mode on channel 2, loop, reverb, footswitch included, you know the features. Playing rock, hardrock, metal, and alot of other styles. Mostly using it at home for practice, but take it to rehearsals once in a while.
Well, for features it has got what i wanted when buying it. Knew what i wanted. And not missing anything, so it got to be a 10 here.

Using the amp with fender telecaster deluxe (single coils), patrick eggle(humbuckers w. split-switch), and an ESP(humbuckers). Sounds good with all the guitars. Can do cleans very nice, crank the gain on the clean channel, and there is some very nice bluesy tones there. Channel two have that vintage, liquid voicing that boogies are so famous for. NICE! Push the contour-button, and you almost enter the rectifier-area: a lot of crunch and metal sound, but it is NOT a rectifier! Close, but only almost!
The amp can be a little noisy on channel two at very high volume settings, but not that i didn't expect that from an amp driven by only two el84. That being said, this amp can be insanely loud!!! If you are playing rock, blues, or anything not involving "chugga-chugga", i think this amp will deliver. Haven't used it live, but at a gig where everything is miced i think this amp will do it. Only "negative" thing i can think of is it can sound a little thin at high volume, it hasn't got the low end when being pushed. Nevertheless, amazing how it holds up in a band-sit anyway! Plug it into a ext. cab, and you got the bottom end. Tried it with a mesa boogie 2x12" 3/4-back cab, and the sound is just BIG! Nothing missing in the low end!!!
For the noise at high volume, and the missing low end in a high volume band sit., i give it a 9 here.

Well, when i bought it the tubes were rattling a bit. Tried to get it fixed, but they "couldn't figure it out...the amp sounded fine to them!".....well, on my way home from the repairman i dropped by another music instrument store, thinking "hey, wonder if the repairman ever tried other tubes!?"......bought a couple of new tubes (groove tubes, btw)....and no more rattling! Fixed it myself. Other than that, it has never let me down. giving it a 8 for the rattling factory-tubes.

Never dealt with them

I have been playing the guitar since 1983, mostly rock and metal, but also some cover-bands, a little blues and such. I own a lot of gear; pedals, guitars, studioequipment, cabs, and yes: even SOME cables! :-) Did compare it to the marshall 601 combo, and what a disappointment! The marshall sounds like you are playing into an empty can that has been holding cat-food! Well, maybe not, but i love the mesa sounds, have had some triaxis/2;90 setup, have a single retifier, so i knew that i wanted mesa....maybe not fair enough for the marshall..... If it was stolen i would get it again if i had the money. Mesa Boogie is really expensive here in europe!
The amp sounds really good, with the "exceptions" mentioned earlier, low end missing on high volume...but that is expected with a 1x12" combo with an open back design rated at 22 watts! Other than that, i can't complain, and think it is one of the most versatile amps i have ever had, have ever played, and have ever wanted. I have had a lot of different amps, guitars, pedals, rack-setups, a.s.f. in the past, and nothing of it has been as versatile as this little devil. well, maybe the triaxis was a little more versatile, but when it comes to "grab-and-go", nothing (that i have tried!) beats the f30. The triaxis is capable of a lot of different sounds, but to find them you have to go through a lot if parameters to get there. I had the triaxis for about 7 or 8 years, sounded good and all, but got tired of tweaking. Too many options, when all i wanted was to play the guitar :-)
Overall I think this is a very fine amp that can do almost every genre. Some better than others, but it does a pretty good job overall!! For that, I will give it a 9.

Basic features, you have heard it all before. Got rid of the amp before I had a chance to use the direct out for recording. Used it at one gig and let a friend borrow it for another. Seemed to do the job but required a bit of tweaking to dial in the sound in both cases. It's plenty loud but noisy even for a tube amp.

Nice clean sound but cranking up the volume and the gain causes the noise to become a little overbearing. Channel two has a lot of grit but the distortion is not all that pleasing. I have other el84 amps that sound much better when being driven really hard.

Hey, it's a Mesa, should last forever if you don't trash it. Mine was an early issue and was on it's third owner when I picked it up. It was a little more noisy than new ones in the store but I think it had some need for recapping. Way to many crackles and pops even after I replaced with all new tubes. I'll give it a 7 because it was old.

I called Mesa about the noise. They recommended a local tech for any repair work but I sold the amp before doing anything more with it. The guy at Mesa was very nice and had a great deal of patience.

Overall, a nice little amp. I could see myself purchasing another if the price was right. It's a very compact little amp that is great for bedroom and very small venue but I'd stick it on top of a 2x12 at least for a club to broaden the sound a little.

* Year: 2006 240VOLT Version
* Play Everything from Jazz to Prog-Rock to some NuMetal (with more notes added... jk;) )
* 2 actual Channels, but acts like a 3 Channel, great pedal but wish the pedal-cable was longer or an extension was available.
* Has the effects loop, recording out, silent speaker shut-off, headphon jack etc.
* I bought this amp on a whim because I had a gig to do in Italy and planned on taking my hot-rodded Laney combo as I have done for the past 20 years... unfortunately as of the beginning of this year (2006) the lazy-ass baggage handler sissy-bitch union won't allow checked baggage over 70pounds, so i had to get someone to come to the airport, pick up my amp, jump on the flight to Italy and Hope that I could find some high-gain amp in Rome within the 4 days before the gig. Since I have other boogie amps (dual recto/rec pre/v-twin etc), I called mesa, got the distribuitor's name/phone in italy, called and all they had was a dual rectifier full stack and an F-30... hmmmm the dual-recto full stack was (get this) 4700 EUROS, yes folks that's $6345 American Dollars... cough..cough... and the F-30 was 2100 Euros (2835 U.S. Dollars)... cough cough... why does my rectum hurt???.... with not many options and time running short I went down to Cherubini (the only place in Rome you can get a boogie)... cranked up the f-30 and... much to my amazement, it sounded awesome... ok... i'll buy it... fortunately the employee in the amp dept. was a fan and had tickets to my show and I only paid 1400 Euro (that's still $1890, almost exactly double of the list price here in the US)... played through the gig... perfect,perfect,perfect... more gain and more sustain than even my hotrodded Laney....

* I use a variety of RG Ibanez guitars, most have dimarzio X2N pickups at the bridge and superdistortions at the neck...
* This little F-30 turned out to be much better suited to the songs I play as it acts like a 3 channel, versus the Laney where I was using 2 channels plus pedals (basically I've done away with all the pedals except the weeping demon for gigging in Italy, and am actually right now looking for a used F-30 on eBay for here at home in the US also)
* The F-30 "Mic'd properly" can actually do a modern recto sound... but requires that you or your mixer guy how to get that sound if you need it. but it does do hellacious distortion, definitely creamier than my recto for leads and tracks very very well for high speed lead work.

* I would only assume its reliability is the same as my other mesa stuff, basically bulletproof... no issues ever... (I take care of my gear, so i'm not sure if i'm a good measure of how much any gear can withstand abuse)

* Mesa Customer Service is the Model of Proper Customer Service, the guy I talk to (just questions usually, especially when I was in a jam with the recent italy gig thing)... since EL-84 tubes are hard to find in Italy (and because someone at the store turned on the amp before removing the plastic foam tube protectors which melted on the EL84s)(Cherubini didn't even have them), Mesa sent me a bunch (free), just to keep at home in italy as spairs... not that's what I call customer service!!!

* Never hesitate to call Mesa, even if you think the issue isn't due to a defect...

Playing since I was 13, own tons of gear... if the f-30 was stolen or lost, I would have to track down the culpable party, tie his head with his ear facing the speaker to the f30 and let the howling begin... if not, i'd still replace it.

* in US prices, there is simply nothing out there under a thousand with this much tone period!

I bought my F-30 new in the December of 2005, when I wanted to move from modeling to tubes. Beforehand I just used a POD XT for my tone and plugged into various amps. There was also a more growing need to bring my own amp for the gigs (I used to borrow one always, even at the rehearsals).

I use both channels, but the lead channel contour stays always on, and I don't need the reverb or effects loop. I could use a second distortion channel though. There's more than enough power in this small beast. These are very loud 30 watts. Must be the combination of the EL84 tubes and V30 speaker. I've played shows without PA and the volume has never been past halfway.

One complaint for this section is the safety grill in the back of the amp, which blocks the access to the footswitch jack. I've had the plug come off and it's really hard to get it back in. I hope it won't happen during a gig.

I play a Gibson SG and PRS Santana SE into a POD XT Live (for effects) into the front end of the F-30. The XTL boosts the signal a tad, giving the distortion more clarity. My band Jermaine plays a mix of soft post hardcore and indie rock. The other guitarist plays mostly just powerchords with a dark tone and I play chords and octaves higher with a more mid-heavy tone. In many cases, the bass player is the only one defining the chord progression.

The clean channel does what it should and the lead channel with the contour gives me my basic drive tone, which is very controllable with playing dynamics and volume knob/pedal. I don't find much use for the non-contour lead channel. I could use a third channel for a light overdrive though, but like just mentioned, I can do that with a volume pedal.

I can't really get a metal tone with this amp. This amp sounds best when the gain is way below halfway. Even then, there's much of it. Also, the distortion channel eq's don't seem to do very much. I have to turn off most of the mids and bass and turn the treble high, but then again, that gives me my tone.

A major complaint is the hiss on the distortion channel. No matter what I do, it just stays there. I wonder if it would go away with changing tubes.

Mesas are known for reliability, but I've had a Mesa power amp blow fuses and know two people with Rectifiers having constant trouble. My F-30 has been good for me since the beginning, but I won't trust any amp 100% ever. 6 months of playing and nothing gone wrong yet.

I'm halfway of my year-long warranty and I haven't had to deal with that yet. On my previous Mesa poweramp, I got it fixed when it broke down, so I can tell they do their job well.

I've played now for 11 years and this is almost the perfect amp for my current situation. It gives just the sound I want and fits the band, and my playing style. Like mentioned, I could use a third channel, but I can live without it, and it's not typical for combos of this size anyway. I hope I don't get a GAS if something like that comes around.

I think I tried an Orange AD30 combo and a Marshall TSL before making my decision. Marshall lacked in tone, Orange in versatility. The F-30 just felt best with its great tone and compact size. A huge discount for Mesa products in the shop at the time helped a bit, too.

2006 model, blond Taurus with tan cane grill. Very loud, with really fine clean tones, rich and sparkly. The clean channel is all I need, as you can get some gain with it, however lots of gain on channel 2 if you want it. I wish they made a 2x12 combo. The clean channel is cool for blues and rock.

I use a cheap Strat and a cheap PRS soapbar. Classic rock, blues, some country. There is some noise, but it is not intrusive on my amp. The clean channel is very fine, and has real good body and richness without being muddy. For me, its great, very soulful.

too new to rate

I wish they answered email.

Playing since the 60s, so far very satisfied with this amp, only time will tell. Will probably get a 1x12 extension cab for it. I would probably replace it if it were gone. I had a Marshall JTM 30, which is also a 30 watt 1x12 combo, 10 years old, and I like this amp quite a bit better, has more guts and bottom end, and I think it is made much better, but it is more expensive, too. I considered this amp and a new Marshall dsl-40, decided on the Mesa due to its superior clean tone. The Marshall was nice, too. I think Mesa is trying to do its best work, and is giving the player a very good product at all price points. At this point in my life, I buy affordable, good sounding guitars, and am trying to put my money in the amp.

Bought used, it's a 2005. The amp is actually more versatile than I would normally need. I play a mix of styles from country to metal to jazz. Whatever pays. It's a 2 channel tube amp (EL84's) with a contour switch for more aggresive gain. 30watts and LOUD for it's size. It blows away the EL84 equipped fender blues junior which is actually a little smaller but not nearly as loud. I usually prefer a good single channel tube amp since I use my pedals to sculpt the sound after I have a good beginning tone so I probably won't use the 2nd channel at all.

I'm currently playing a Gibson ES-135 with '57 classic pickups and a Hamer USA Daytona (strat) with Lindy Fralin vintage hot pickups. Channel 1 sounds great (clean) and breaks up nicely at high volume. You have to play with the EQ though. These things are BASS heavy. With both guitars I have to run the bass at 3, the mids at 7 and the treble at 9. The second channel is even more bass heavy. The second channel I have to run the bass at 1 or less, the mids at 5 and the treble at 9+. The distortion settings on both Channel 2 and Channel 2 + contour are pretty muddy. Notes don't ring cleanly but I didn't buy the amp for the 2nd channel. The first channel rocks and that's all it needs.

Boogies have always been very rugged for a "boutique-like" amp. They use a hefty circuit board and good tube sockets. Of course with any tube amp you have to have a backup just in case something drastic happens on the way to the gig (mine's a Peavey Bandit, sounds like crap but NEVER breaks). Amp has never broken down and shouldn't. I take very good care of my equipment.

Never dealt with them and never want to. If they're as snotty about their customer service as they are about sales then I would never, ever, deal with them.

I'd rate it pretty high overall. It's a great little amp, that's loud, easy to carry and has great tone on Channel 1. It's all I need. There are and always will be better amps than this one out there but I believe there are few under it's price. Maybe a couple of the Fenders, particularly the '65 reissue deluxe or maybe a good twin reissue but the only other better amps cost a lot more. Try one of these, you'll be surprised.

I'll skip this and go straight to my verdict.

I've been playing for 16 years now, and I've had the same ideal guitarsound in my head, but never found it in any amp. I think I've been through the most now. Marshall, Peavey, Crate, Engl, Bogner, Matchless, Vox, Fender, Orange, Egenater, CustomAudio, Diesel, Carvin, Line6 and many more. I've spent a fortune on racksystems, stacks and combos in my quest for the ultimate guitarsound. There's allways been something missing untill I tried tha F30 for the first time 6 months ago. I actually started to cry because I was so glad. This amp is just me! I can't think of anything that I don't like with it. It's perfect!!!!

Never had any problems with Mesa in the past.

Mesa customer support is very good, but I've never had to complain about anything.

Well as I've allready mentioned, I've bee through the most of them, but never found my sound. Most of the amps I've had are really good, but they didn't have my sound. The F30 is perfect for me, so my rating would of course be 10.

This is a 2006 Mesa Boogie F-30 with Vanilla Tarus and wicker grille. It has 3 channels(Clean, Lead and Contour. Two Sets of EQs(Gain, Treble,Mid,bass,reverb and master.) Comes with a footswitch to toggle between the 3 channels and to switch the reverb off and on. Mine was brand new, purchased from Local Music store here in PA, They are a mesa dealer and they have tons of other boutique amps. They had 2 f-30s one standard(black tarus with black grille and this one. They go for about 940. and I got mine for the same price as the black one. It was priced 170$ higher but the owner said he'll sell the custom covered on for the same price. (YEAH) Came with 5 year warranty and six month warranty on the tubes. You also get that cool "portfolio" with your babys papers and ***a STATE BY STATE repair guide" for qualified mesa repair. It's 30 watts, with a 12" Vintage 30 Celestion Speaker. On the back panel; you have a headphone jack, FX send and return with a Loop mix control. Has a mute switch for speaker for silent recording. 3 speaker inputs, two are 4OHMS and one is 8OHMS. As for Tubes, (4)12AX7s and (2) EL84s. This a Mesa so no bias will be needed*. EVER! This only applies though, if you replace the powe tubes with Mesa EL84s or ones with the same spec. Very simple layout. Easy to use, unless you have never played an AMP.

Well Im a different Soul here. Im 25 and I love CHICAGO(their older stuff w/ Terry Kath) I love that Jazzy Rock FUSION and Jamm they used to due(think Carnigie Hall Album) Blues, Classic Rock and JAmm bands. Some Cream, Some CCR(Love Fogerty), Phish, ALLMAN BROTHERS, EAGLES, and I will admit it but I dig some Journey too! (My girlfreind hates them)
I play an American Start(mostly the neck pickup) straight into this amp. Only 2 effects which i will expalin below. The clean channel is beautiful. It's responsive, bouncy, alittle brite, and warm at the same time. Setting Mesa EQ are diffrent than any other amps. (I will use #S instead of clock setting witch most people use here)So think 0-10 5 being MIDDLE! I keep the Gain around 4, Treble at 4.5, Mid at 5.5, Bass at 5, reverb at 2-3 and master on 2. This gives me great cleans for rytham or even blusey jamming. For Lead I use Gain at 2.2, Treble 4.8, Mid 3.8-4.5 and bass at 4.5, reverb at 1.5(it's strong) and Master 2. Now you can crank the the master to 3.5-4 for Live jamming. YES it will play over drums at that level. I don't belive anyone here is playing at stadiums, but if you need it, there is enough volume here to go around. IF you go louder than 3, you may want to adjust your eq, as you are opening up more head room. I play at cafe's and small bars once in awhile. (I used to have a bad where we palyed every weekend.) I enjoy jamming and oce in awile small gigs. The countour channel is too much gain for me, but if I use it, I do yo boost a crunchy rythm or very dirty solo.

Oh I do use my Classic Dunlop Wah and Small Stone Phaser thoough it. Both sound great. I play some Pink Floyd (dark Side of the moon) and the reverb does well at half way with my phaser.

I have had tons of amps before this. I settled on this because I loved the way i can get a wrm sound from my clean and a smooth creamy sound from the lead. I spent a good week tweaking it.(which i think is fun if you really love gear and music) to get my sound. I also lowered my neck pickup on my strat on the treble side for a more mellow sound. It was a VEY BITTING at first. But you just have to mess with the eq. Im used to seeting Fender amps with High mids,(7-8) Bass at 7 and treble at 5 to get a bluesy jammy sound. But you can't do this with the F-30. I love this amp! I rate it 9 because it does have some background hum. When i first purchaed it it did not. I think most amps(especially TUBE AMPS have this. You can't hear it when you play. I think im just being alittle silly., but for 1000 bucks i thought it shouldn't do this.

Well MESA is awsome on the phone. I have the 5 year warranty. No problems beside s that humm, but this is a high gain amp. And Im using it for non High gain. Sometimes I don't even hear it. I have been thinng about getting some Lower gain 12AX7s for my musical taste and to see if it will trim some hum out. Other than that it is built well, seems sturdy, more than other amps. Hand built in CA, and it's BOOGIE.

Made one phoen call to mesa to ask about the hum. I they said it's almost normal for high gain amps. i wasn't really complaining. I was just kinda wondering if it was a big problem or not. I do my research and saw alot of happy f-30 owners have this hum and other amp owners as well. I have the 5 year warranty. So im assured. I also saw that on the repair list there are 3 shops within 30 miles that are Mesa qualified to repair it if needed.

I have been playing for 13 years now. I have owend a Crate vintage club 30(loved it but it died) Fender Twin reverb(great amp but I needed 2 overdrive pedals to get a good palete.) I did own an F-50 two years ago it was used and it sounded ok, but it went through power tubes , 2 fuses and it statred to sound very weak. Im like most of you that have cycled though tons of gear to find "your sound" This is probably not what most people who play my style would turn to. But i wanted a Brand NEW, WELL BUILT AMP that delives the goods. I have had all types of OD pedals. And I still may get a Maxon OD-9 or 808 just for the clean channel. I have had about 10 of them! I love them. But this doesn't mean im not satisfied with my F-30. I was just thinking I may want something to boost my clean channell so I can have 2 types of clean.
This amp would never get stolen cuz I take care of my MUISIC! I belive im set on this Mesa Boogie!

It basicly has 3 channels, 2 of which are overdriven (the channel 2 and channel 2 contour, the latter gives a more direct drive and has more volume and distortion, great for lead work). It's a pretty basic tube amp, having the 2 sets of controls: gain, treble, mid, bass, reverb and master; one for the clean channel and one for the 2 overdriven channels.
On the back, there is a separate chain for an effect loop (existing of a send and a return jack) with a knob for adjusting how much effect you hear.
2 Switches, one to turn it on and one for stand-by, very usefull (explanation a bit below).
Then a switch to change between the 3 channels, a footswitch is included. Makes no noise whatsoever when switching.
So, besides the reverb no other built in effect, which I like. I like my amp to be simple and ready to go.

The sound, clean and boosted, is massive. No muddy sound, no thin sound, just perfect. I use it with an epiphone les paul and a fender standard strat (2005) and with both, it sounds great...one little flaw is that sometimes you can hear it hiss, but it's nothing that a good noise gate won't solve.
I play all sort's of music, from jazz to metal and then back again for blues and this baby can manage it all.

So far the amp never broke down, the salesman warned me however to always let it warm up 2 minutes in stand-by before playing, this is where the stand-by switch comes in handy.

Haven't been forced to use it so far.

A very, very, good and powerfull amp. If it were stolen, I'd cry, kill the guy who stole it, kill myself, ressurect and buy a new one, right away. It's only my second amplifier (the first one being a fender champion 30 dsp). In the shop I compared it to a fender twin reverb, a Peavey classic 50/410 and some other amps but this one caught my eye and never let go...I fell in love with it immediatly, the sound compared to the others was just amazing and the clean channel even stood proud to the twin reverb.

I have a 2000 Les Paul Standard all stock, and a 1981 Fender Strat with a few updates like pickups and a new neck, but I mostly play the Paul, so my views are mainly from the perspective of a Les Paul man. I like my guitar to sound similar to artists such as Angus Young, Joe Walsh, Tom Petty, Brian May, and Solley from David Crowder (check them out; they have amazing tone!).

30 HUGE watts from four pream tubes and two EL84s. Two channels: clean w/ bright switch, and overdrive w/ contour switch. The countour switch basically boosts the gain and scoops out some of the mids. There is also an FX loop.

I can get a "tasteful" raunchy overdrive and dial that down to a nice jangly rhythm just by working my guitar's volume knob/s.

The clean channel on this baby shimmers. It's very Fender-esque but dialed back a bit as it is not as piercing. I play with the bright on, gain at about 1 o'clock, bass and mid at about 10 o'clock, and the treble at about 2 o'clock. I don't often play clean, but when I use this channel it does make me want to play it more.

The overdrive channel is what I usually use the most. I modify my sound mostly by working my guitar's volume knob/s. I put the gain at just a tad under 9 o'clock, treble all the way up, mid at about 10-11 o'clock, and bass at anywhere from 9-11 o'clock. For my venue I usally only have my master volume at about 9 o'clock and I mic it with a '57 perpendicular to the center of the cone. This gives me a nice overdrive that I can beef up to a dirty, harsh sound by really digging into the strings or back off by strumming lightly. I'd compare it to about an AC/DCish tone down to a Tom Petty rhythm-ic tone.

The contour channel gives a nice boost for solos or just a heavier tone with a little extra volume. I don't like having the gain up past 12 o'clock because it really smooths out the overdrive. If I ever want more of a power-chord rhythm sound, I'd use a stomp box.

I held back from giving a 10 because I don't like how creamy and smooth the overdrive sounds as you turn the gain past 2 o'clock. I also think it would be a good idea to have a bright switch on the overdrive channel just to add some punch.

In the back of my mind I'm always a little worried. After I had it for 6 months the tubes kind of pooped out on me. The tube started glowing abnormally bright and orange and the volume dropped to almost nothing. It happened twice, but has not happened in several months since I changed the tubes. This leads into my experiences with customer support.

After the stock tubes pooped out on me I called customer support to see if this was a normal thing. They sent me two brand new tubes and they were there within a couple of days. I've been very happy with their response.

I came into this after having a Marshall 100 watt valve combo. It was not what I had originally been looking for, but it has really grown on me. After I bought this I discovered I loved most players' tones who used Vox AC30s and Marshalls. So I did some more research and discovered that I liked the combinations this combo offers better than the others (except Bad Cats, but let's face it I will never be able to afford a Bad Cat). I would like an AC30, and a Marshall half stack, but I would never get rid of my F-30. And, holy crap is it loud! I'm always happy to answer any questions.

RESEARCH! Always read about and play products you're interested in!

As I am in it for the tone, I have been searching for a tube amp that would allow me to get that great tube tone and distortion without rattling the old ski bum's teeth down the street.

Since I bought the amp three weeks ago at Guitar Center down in Salt Lake City, I have been playing mostly AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers, and various rock and roll through the amp and love both channels' sounds. The search for my new tone has begun again with this new little Boogie. SICK!

For my tastes and budget, it gives me the feeling of a much pricier "boutique" amp, without the more than double the price range. This little tone-monster is just three weeks old and seems to be breaking in well. I have been playing it here at my house non-stop before and after work and also taking it to my buddy's house occasionally. It is powerful, tweakable, and yet very portable. It is almost too loud--as it should be ;) ;)

I really dig how it looks and did not get any special custom treatment (as in cabinet design or anything like that) This is the f-30--bare bones rocker, black on black.

Laugh if you will, but I am calling it "Darth Tonar" because it looks like something straight off the Death Star...

May the Tone be with you.

Since I have bought this amp, I have enjoyed playing my 1997 American Standard Stratocaster and 2005 Epiphone Les Paul Classic (with two Pearly Gate humbuckers) electric guitars, as well as a Martin electrified acoustic and an Ibanez electrified acoustic 5-string bass, each with stock Fishman pickups.

Each guitar shines through this amp making the proud owner smile from ear to ear. The Strat quacks beautifully on the clean channel and lays down the sweetest SRV swampy tones on the dirty channel. Each channel having its own controls is great or did I say that already? The channel footswitch comes with a long cord perfect for how I have my room setup and also has reverb and contour switches.

The Epi Les Paul really shines on the dirty channel and ala Duane and Warren, really kicks that Southern rock's ass. Great brightness with the Martin acoustic and the bass tones this little combo are very surprising. Diversity in a small package, to say the least. It sounds awesome loud or turned down. But again, I don't know what too loud or turned down means. This thing rocks my house!

It does have some *minor* background hiss/fuzz/noise when sitting idle. This gave it the 9 (it should be a 9.75) I need to make some more money after spending the loot to buy this amp. I am not fussing as all I wanted was Mesa/Boogie, and I got Mesa/Boogie and I am being SO F'ING NIT-PICKY anyway. So new tubes will wait...

Its only three weeks old, but hey, no problems here. I play it morning and night sometimes for a couple of hours at a time and it rocks. I do consider myself religious about the standby/warmup/warmdown and hope that helps in the long run. I would like to have this amp for the next 30 years.

I actually have traded emails and phone calls with Mesa/Boogie in the three weeks I have owned this f-30 and they were AMAZING and full of cooperation. I have nothing but the highest respect for that company and will remain loyal for that reason (and that their amps are the best.) I had to buy the t-shirt! ;)

I am a relative newbie player as I have only been playing over the last year or so but have gone off the deep end with no satellite tv for that entire time playing many many many times all day during the off season. From the beginning it was always about the tone. It still is. In the past few months, I have been researching tube amps and all things connected and decided to go with the f-30 after comparing it to several differently configured(above and below the price) amp heads, combos including Fenders, Hughes and Kettner, Marshalls, other Mesa/Boogies, and various smaller boutique amps. Even before I played guitar I knew about Mesa/Boogie. There are plenty of other amps that do more for less money. They are not Mesa/Boogie. I do not care for "modeling" amps and am only interested in a TUBE TONE that is real, not copied. While looking around on ebay as well as in the local guitar center and guitar shops, I would continue leaning towards a used Mesa over any new Fender or Marshall because on ebay I could get more Mesa for my hard earned Boogie that way. But I didn't feel comfortable getting my hard earned tone in that less than secure method and I suppose I went with the new one because of the warranty and the fact it was just gonna be MINE. I am greedy with my Boogie.

I guess if it were stolen, I would collect the insurance and save up for a Lone Star Special, as a few hundred more is easier to come up with than that 1700 list (or whatever it is today.) One day, I will save up and have something like a Lone Star Special, but for now, I am COMPLETELY SATISFIED with my f-30 and my search is over.

Features are the plus in this gear. Two chann with independent reverb for each one (long tank reverb)! as well as independent gain, mid, treble, bass and master knobs. Well made 3 button footswitch, headphone jack, a switch that cuts the speaker from sounding (silent record mute switch), parallel effects loop with mix knob, Celestion Vintage speaker, 6 tubes (4 12aX7 and 2 EL84), cover. All the knobs are very responding. I find the clean chann way more versatile than the dirty channel. More than the sound, I believe the features on this amp is what makes the price worth paying.

Plus:
Gtrs PRS, Tele, Les Paul. All sound very good with this amp, with preference for the PRS in my opinion. It suits rock, alternative and blues very well. Great responding EQ knobs. The mid feels like a compressor, treble is very responding and very much involved with the volume as well (if you have it at the minimum the amp doesn't sound at all even with the gain and master at max), tons of bass maybe two much, specially on the dirty chann. Reverb is good. Clean chann is very versatile from Fenderish to real Mesa tone. The clean headroom in this amp is awesome. Built extremely tough. Good access to the tubes, good looking amp, good investment since Mesa product seem to hold their value better than other brands, great sound overall.

Contras:
I don't know why anybody have mentioned about the headphones jack! It sounds acceptable for the clean channel but for the dirty sound is totally useless with Headphones. There is no decent setting on this channel when using Headphones. It is better to use only the clean chann or not use it at all unless you want to throw up for all the farting like tones.(Note: I use professional Senhaisser HP). Is not big deal unless you plan to use it mostly late at night at home.
A few guys have mentioned about the constant hiss with the dirty chann. It is true. It makes it difficult to record with it because of this flaw. More than a hiss the sound is like when there is a cable problem or dust in a circuit. But I won't change the tubes seems it seems to be normal.
The sound on chann 2 with the contour on is great but without it is not up to my expectations.
It is very heavy if you are looking for a light 30 Watt tube amp this is not it.
I can't rate it 10 because of the hiss and the sound with headphoes mode. Otherwise it is a great tube vintage sounding amp.

Tonka will like to check on the confection of this amp.

Haven't dealt with the company, but a close friend has and I can testify on the great service he received from the Mesa guys.

I've been playing for 20 years and have own quite my share of gear. I love the features, the clean headroom, how well it is made, the clean channel, the contour mode on the dirty chann, the reliability. If it were stolen I will like to check on a Crate Palomino 30 watts, the Peavey Classic 30 or the Vox AC15 so I can compare. If they don't match the F-30 with their own attributes, I would buy the F-30 again.

This is the most exclusive I can think for a two channel amp..Two different modes to tweak and set...A real great plus..The amp has headphones and a button on the back to use the phones or not. Has the typical (2)4 ohms and 8 ohms connections kind of nice compared to some of the other typical amps. The footswich is sufficient and a good tool to work!! Typical mesa type!! Amp is loud and very gainy with the gain and master volumes..You wonder can you really use all this amp can deliver? Nice cleans and mesa saturation to spare! bright switch and pocket in back for footswich. I get everything I want from tone sense from this amp!

Strat Lonestar '87 bunch of pedals mostly use the wah,phaser 90 and a looper, with the contour on. I like the heavy rock so this thing is well in the ball park for that. The cleans are very good makes you think how can this thing clean up this good with all the gain you also get from it..the distortion is real Mesa style, I tell you I can tell it is because on contour it is so close to my MK111 in the lead mode..People complain of noise..I have very little just a tad in contour which is expected with being in the high gain setting. No idle noise had it for 3 years!!


Oh have to say you will get noise with too much gain from pedals ..Like a graphic eq or some sort of extra gain...It will bring down the sound profile so you wont have the headroom if you just use guitar and amp..and you wont have noise!!!!

Had touble with it in the beginning...Needed the power supply update..Was playing with the headphones and all of a sudden it started to detune real bad ...Man I was really confused since it was new and I didnt think I would have a problem..Called MESA they said what is the serial number is it lower than 400 and mine was..They immediatly asked where I got and said bring it back and they would fix it..the shop did everything sent it to California.. took awhile but never had a problem since...One thing this amp seems to be tube sensitive so if you are having a strange sound happening change the tubes..Mesa says this runs real HOT an EL84 is made too.

These guys are cool always will get back to you and will tell you anything you want to know...Needed some parts for and older boogie so he looked around found them took my card # and sent them..I think this type of service is very far and few between.. You really will like dealing with these guys for anything!!! Why dont more companys treat there customers that way??

I like the size of this...Compared to the power you can get.. acts like a stack..If I lost or got stolen I would like another but would need to have funds...i have a MK111 and it is so close in sound though this is subjective I know..But the Mesa sound is broad in a sense ( REAL HIGH TUBE SATURATION) for distortion!! The footswitch gave me some popping once.. but it went away.. The way it works is the volume is turned of for a split second and than the channel changes.This is done inside the amp. I think it was because it sat around awhile once and didnt use it.. the more you play this the more sounds you can create..The threshold for feedback is real nice to play with..I have two other Mesas the MK111 and a Subway Rocket. I like playing this sort of the most because of the way it is voiced and the threshold of feedback and sustain seems more to my taste. This amp will not fall short of the Mesa sound and all the bad feedback I dont understand you get a 5 year warranty and they cant wait to help you! If it isnt right they WILL help GUARANTEED


I have been playing for 38 years seen lots of equipment cant beat a MESA for my budget!!!

I bought this amp used, The person I purchased it from states that he bought it new, and that the amp is only about five months old. From that I would have to assume that it is a 2004 / 2005 model.
If you are reading this review, then you are likely to have an idea of the features on this amp. If not, go to your local music store and check one out.
The thing that stands out for me as far as features ont his amp, is the channels. There is only one input on this amp, but available are two separate channels, Each has their own set of controls for bass, treble, mid, reverb, gain, and master volume.
That in itself makes it very easy to match volumes/timbres between channels, so that you get a nice, even transition when switching from dirty to clean, or clean to dirty.
I tried the headphone jack and it works more than adequately for late night practicing / recording etc.
I also plugged it directly into my Mackie and it sounds great going directly into the board also. Although the dynamics are a bit less than when you are playing the amp at a decent volume throught the speaker.
when practicing at home though, I turn the master volumes all the way down, and still can hear the amp through the speaker (on the distortion channel), which I love, because I still get a good tone, at this extreme low volume, and am able to practice with a little bit of the charactor of the amp.
As far as power goes, it has plenty, I dont have a 4X12 cab, but I sure would like to hear what this F 30 could do, hooked up to a 4 X 12.
It sounds fantastic through it's 1 X 12 celestion also.

If you have read reviews where the users are complaining about noise / hum, I would just like to say that my particular amp has no issues in this respect at all. There is a slight noise when the amp is turned up a bit, but nothing unusual. So CHECK IT OUT BEFORE YOU BUY !!
If this is something that you can't deal with, then add that to the "cons" column in your decision to buy or not buy.
I'm giving this amp a 10. because I really only play blues / rock type of stuff, and that is as versatile as I would ever need, and this amp does it absolutely perfectly.

I use both strat and les paul guitars.
Strats seem to be very easy to get a nice tone from ANY amp. so I dont put much weight on the fact that peole are getting good sounds from this amp when playing through a stratocaster, the les paul is the tough bird. (at least on the fender hot rod I have been using)
but on the mesa, very easy to dial in the setting I am looking for, easy to get that Warren Haynes type of sound. I use a les paul 'classic' and it just sounds great ! tons of sustain, and bite.
I cant really explain, because the perception of sound is very subjective, but what I'm saying is this amp does EXACTLY what I want it to. The pull bright on the clean channel, someone had said in an earlier review that it works nicely to 'clean up' the humbucker pickups on the leas paul which I agree with totally.
I am into Blues, Allman Brothers type of stuff, and as I said this amp does it perfectly.

Haven't had the amp long enough to know, but I have owned amps for over thirty years, tubes, transistors, etc, mostly fenders, (Had an old Gibson GA40 amp when I was younger that I wish I never sold) None of them ever failed in the middle of playing. gig or otherwise. These amps are hand built, and are proffesional quality. I believe them to be as reliable as they can be. I would and do gig with amp with no backup, and feel confident that it would be reliable.
I'm giving it a 5, only because I haven't owned it for very long.

N/A

Been playing 30 years
Absolutely!!! I would replace this amp if it were ever stolen, it would never get "lost"
I love everything about his amp, and hate nothing about it !!
This is the closest thing you can get to a boutique amp, without paying the boutique price. (even better in my opinion) I'd definately buy this amp again before spending $2000.00 ++ on a "bad cat" or something similar.
If you are looking for that great tone, that seems to be so elusive, check out the F-30.

I'm reviewing a 2005 new F-30 bought from a mega-music store.

The F-30 is a straight forward 1 x 12 high quality tube amp. There are two channels (clean and dirty) and a bright function hidden on the clean channels gain knob.

It's a loud 30-watts with enough power to play in a small club and with a "reasonable drummer". I bought it for studio work and for home play as I have other amps for the stage. It did not work for me in the studio or at home (see below)


It accepts pedals well but I use only a few (wah, od, delay, compressor) so maybe other pedal geeks will say otherwise

I bought it after 10 minutes of play using a Tele, a Strat and a PRS with P-90s. This amp works very well with a Tele.

With the amp on the clean channel (Ch-1) I was able to get a very convincing Larry Carlton tone with the Tele (tone rolled down some). Two salesman agreed that it was extremely close. It probably would have been closer with some more tweaking and if I was able to get Larry to come over and play it! It was okay with the Strat but nothing special about it. The PRS with P-90s was biting smooth. Like thick chocolate.

I didn't care for the high gain on Channle two but the lower gain on channel two was very nice. Robben Ford and Carols Santana was easy to dial in.

So why the 7 rating?

There was a constant hiss that I couldn't get rid of and couldn't get over. No matter what I did to get rid of it, it was always there. I bought this for recording and for my home. It impossible to record a clean passage. I though maybe it was the tubes or the circuit or something in "this" amp ... but I tried a few and found the same thing in all of them. If you are gigging with the little gem you might not even notice it. But my recording engineer ears can't live with it so I returned it.

I'm bummed that this little gem didn't work for me in the way I needed it to work because the tone is so, so nice. Had I not needed the money to buy something else, I would have kept it!

Hiss? I don't know if it gets worse with time? Probably not. And Mesa is a great company with great amps so I'll just say that you can depend on them in most cases.

Been playing guitar since 1965. Lots of experience with lots of equipment. I bought it after 10 minutes of play which may tell you something about it. It sounds awesome (minus the hiss.) It didn't work for me, but it might work for your needs.

New on show room floor (2005). The 7 is misleading; for a combo tube amp it has what you need, but it doesn't have built in DSP, graphic eq, or anything like that. The recording out is a plus, along with two channels (clean and gain). Do not let the size or "studio" description fool you: this amp is LOUD. It is far too loud for bedroom recording, which is what I wanted it for.

I played this on the showroom floor with a hardtail PRS. The clean channel is good, not drool worthy, but good. It does not sound like a Fender A/B amp clean. Rather, it sounds more like a cross between a Fender and a Vox, which is probably from the EL-84 power tubes. As Fender goes it reminds me more of a Pro Jr. or Blues Jr. than a Twin or Deluxe. As the gain increases on the clean channel you get a little more compression and punch, up to a bluesy (but somewhat sterile) tone, to full on farty. On the distortion channel there is little range of sound, and it goes from a maxxed out tweed to nu-metal within milimeters. Again, somewhat farty and the tiniest nudge on the master volume will rattle the windows and make you wince with embarassment. The distortion does not sound like a Mark series or a Dual Rectofier, but if you've heard a decent EL-84 amp, then you know how this one sounds. Don't think I'm being rough; this is a good amp, but not my sound and NOT ideal for small studios or around the house.

Overall good amp, but nothing special and not suited for my sound or purpose. The amp promises on the name "Mesa/Boogie" and "EL-84", so if those terms get you excited give it a whirl. I did not purchase this amp, but thank you to the always friendly folks at Chris's Guitar Shop in Ashland, KY!

I think this is a 2005 model. I've had it for a few months now, and the more I play with it the more I love it. The clean channel is as close to a Fender clean as I've heard, and the hi-gain channel gives enough dirt to satisfy most people. Then there's the "contour" - essentially a boost you can put on the dirty channel - sounds awesome. The 2 EL84 tubes give you enough power to keep you happy - unless you're playing a big outdoor show - and you're not, so don't whine. Seriously though, since this is my first Mesa/Boogie, I was somewhat concerned whether 30 watts would be enough. Believe me, it is, regardless if you're playing to 10 friends at your first gig, or 1000 people opening for someone big. I've used it in a variety of venues of different sizes, some with better accoustics than others, and the amp always delivered.

I use an Ibanez Jem777DY, with DiMarzio PAF PRO pickups. I play anything from blues to rock to hard rock to metal to prog rock, and it's the only amp I need. It does have a darker sound, so obviously you must like that to appreciate the amp. I don't tend to use the clean channel as much as the dirty one, but both sound great, be it at home on low volume settings or at a gig on high. The only complaint I have is that sometimes there's a bit of a hum...can't figure out why. Maybe it just happens on Tuesdays.

Built like a brick shithouse. Never need a backup, but since I've only had it for a few months, time will tell.

Haven't had to deal with them yet.

Great amp. If stolen, I'd be getting another one the same day. I actually like it better than the F-50 and F-100. These two use 6L6 tubes instead of the EL84 which come with the F-30. I like the EL84 sound better, but it's a matter of preference. Just like most Mesa/Boogie products, it's not cheap, but the value is great. And don't let the fact that it's only 30 watts scare you. There's plenty of power there.

2003 model-bought used- third owner according to the second owner I bought it from off ebay. Mint condition, but second owner said he gigged with it several times over 18 month period. I won't repeat all the details of the amp, but I do wish it had a footswitch capable effects in/out loop switch so I could take my effects out of the loop when I am not using any- minimal change in tone,but it would be nice. This amp has got plenty of power for almost all venues except maybe a huge outdoor stage and even then it might be o.k. I'm the rhythym guitarist for a four piece classic rock/blues rock band, but we also do some jazz/fusion, country and worship music at churches-so a lot of diverse styles- it does them all. I've used it for 30 person coffeehouses to 600 person concerts with great results. This amp can be VERY loud,but sounds great at lower levels , too.

I use mostly two humbucker equipped guitars- Gibson Les Paul Studio, PRS Custom 24, Fernandes Ravelle Elite, but also a little Fender Strat work. It sounds equally good with single coil and humbuckers. I read all the reviews posted here before I bought the amp-and to be honest, I was a little nervous with the negative reviews from guys that talked about noises, poor sounding distortion, etc. But I tried an F-30 out at Make n' Music in Frederick,MD and it sounded fantastic, so I bought the amp off ebay and it sounds amazing. I know there are different flavours everyone enjoys and no two guitarists agree on everything, and I know woth an all tube amp there are going to be good ones and bad ones- but I have to say that most of the bad reviewes about noises or poor response/distortion have to be due to just an occasional poor model/bad tubes or someone who doesn't understand coaxing tone from an all tube amp- because this and the one I tried at the store has tone for days. The clean stays clean all the way to 3 o'clock on tthe gain ( which is at ear-piercing levels of volume)the distortion channel is a bit dark,but you can revoice the settings from the suggested ones to definitely brighten it up, the contour channel( high gain) is fantastic-it gives a very saturated,focused high gain sound -classic boogie- I agree with previous reviews that moderation of the gain settings are best-but that is true in general for all except die hard metal. I use the gain set at around 9 to 10 o'clock for bluesy stuff and then kick on the contour without changing the gain gets you right into high gain classic rock. I am a pedal junkie-but now with this amp I don't need much at all to get all the good sounds I used the pedals for. I still use occasionaly my Keeley Katana pedal (clean boost) set at about 4 it on my clean channel gives just a little break up that is fantastically pick responsive and with the knob pulled out ( high gain boost) still on the clean channel you get the great tube driven overdrive remaniscent of 80's hard rock. On the distortion channel or contour channel (high gain) the boost super saturates the gain to metal territory without having to adjust the amp- it's all about minimizing fiddling in a live setting!!!. I also occasionally use a Boss GE-7 equalizer to further eq the channels- it sends contour (high gain) channel into scooped mid metal heaven- once agin without having to touch my amp in live setting.

This is my second experience with mesa boogie products- I had a v-twin pre amp pedal I sold because I didn't use it live that much- Mesa is solid and built to last. I always gig without a back-up and we do between 25-40 gigs a year. I am just very careful with my equipment. No issues yet.

I have had no need to contact the company ever- no issues here

I have been playing off and on for over 20 years and have owned or do own way too much gear- I already listed some of my guitars- other amps have been/are Fender Blues Deville 4x10 ( clean tone great, i do not like fender's distortion tone at all) Marshall DSL50 head/4 x12 vintage cab ( great crunch tone but I'm not crazy about marshall clean tone at all and set up is way to big for average gigs for sure), Fender Blues JR ( not impressed with tone at all), Line 6 Flextone II 2x12 combo ( terrible tone), Carvin XV212 (fantastic tone-just way to powerful for average gigs at 100 watts all tube). For the money- especially buying it used at a good price and the portability/appropriate size and power for small and larger gigs with all the tone both clean to high gain this is the best deal around I have found- but like I said earlier there are different likes and dislikes everyone has to tone.

I play blues/jazz/classic-rock/roots rock.

To me this is a feature-laden amp. Channel switching, two channels, a mid control (wow!), dedicated reverb setting for each channel, contour/boost switch for hi-gain channel, effects loop, headphone out/recording out, etc.

Being an old-school type of guy who has only owned a few amps -- an early 80's Roland JC-120, an early 70's Fender Princeton Reverb (my reference amp) and a rebuilt 70's Deluxe Reverb (w/JBL) that has been "Blackfaced" -- I find the F-30 to be feature rich.

It is rated at 30 watts but is quite loud. I play mostly small gigs so the power is fine.

I don't feel it is lacking in any features (although the old Boogie Graphic EQ would be a nice and useful addition) but I realize this is a lower end model and costs needed to be kept down.

I use a '78 Telecaster and a reissue 1960 relic Strat. Both guitars sound great through the Boogie, each requires a bit of tweaking (both on the anmp and guitar) for optimum sound.

I'll cut to the chase here -- this amp's clean channnel does not really reproduce the Fender vibe -- lots of reviews below would have you believe this, but to my 28-years-of-guitar-playin'-ears it ain't so. Makes me wonder if people have really heard the old Fenders or are comparing to new Fender amps. The Boogie clean doesn't have the 3-dimensional and touch-responsive qualities of a good Fender amp. The Fender clean is more complex and alive. I have A/B'd them side by side. The closest I could get was with the channel 1 gain around 11 o'clock, bright engaged, treble around 1 o'clock, mid around 11 o'clock, bass around 1 o'clock. Don't get me wrong -- a very nice sound, but not Fender. The reverb is thin and pinched compared to the Fenders. I patched an EH Holy Grail (w/ spring setting) into the effects loop with very good results.

That said, it does have its own totally useable clean sound, albeit darker, flatter and more compressed than the Fender. Nice for smokey, bluesy stuff.

I love the hi-gain sound (channel 2). Here's where we have some fun. I was able to dial in an Eric Johnson-like singing violin tone in no time with my Strat. Kick on the contour and maybe dial back the guitar's tone a bit and you have even more singing violin tone! Me likes! Keep the gain around 10 - 11 o'clock -- never above 12 o'clock -- or it is just TOO much. Treble just above halfway, lower the mids a bit, add bass to taste. Lower your guitar volume for rhythm crunch, turn it up for a beautiful, warm, liquid solo sound. Tweak for best results.

Haven't owned long enough to know. Looks very solidly built.

Called to ask a warranty question and got a call back in an hour. Promising.

Been playing most of my life. I am very happy with this amp. I compared it to an F-50 and liked the way the F-30 was voiced much better.

If I were recording the ultimate clean tone, I'd use my old Princeton. But the F-30 can almost do it all and so will probably accompany me to gigs and jam sessions more often (along with an EH Holy Grail to patch into the effects loop for reverb.)

This is a very straight forward high quality tube amp; it is very simple to get a great sound.

It has two completely seperate channels and a "contour" function that is kind of like the old graphic eq (except on this one it's pre-programmed for a boost in gain and high mids).

I really like the bright function hidden on the clean channels gain knob (pull it out). It works really nicely to clean up humbuckers.

How much power do you need? How much stage volume can you have before the house gets muddy? As I don't typically play anything larger than auditoriums (admit it...neither do you...), I find that it is still loud as the amped-gorilla drummer and the drunk bass player. Besides the output to the PA works really nicely.

The guy below me has a whole bunch of complaints; I have none.

I use a couple of guitars: a Charvel with Jazz/JB, a Tele, Jackson Dinky with S/S/Bill Lawrence 500XL, Carvin Holdsworth Fatboy, and a Fender Celtic Esquire Custom.

I know that list sounds heavy metal, but I'm not into the chuga chuga palm mute death rattle...

As a matter of fact, I mostly play R&B, Jazz Fusion, Reggae, Bossa Brava. I live in Hawaii; we don't really have a vibrant rock scene (I could be wrong; but, after ten years, you'd think I would've heard of it...)

Anyway, this amp, on the clean channel, has all kinds of warm articulate sounds. People here have said that it sounds like a Blackface; I don't know; I've never heard a real one. I do have a Gibson Goldtone that has the same speaker that specializes in clean sounds and is often raved about for comparison (GA15R). The Gibson amp has more blossom and a thicker kind of clean; it's probably because that one is Class A.

Having said that, I am not trying to say that the F30 is inferior in any way. It's just different. It sounds harder, cleaner, and less grainy. I like it for R&B cause of its bite. Full on trad jazz is better on the Gibson (for example with the hollow body Holdsworth).

Now the often maligned distortion channel does have a darker eq as others have said here. I don't agree that that's a problem though. This amp sounds like a Mesa Boogie. Mesa Boogie amps always have this kind of distinct sound coming from their amps. I typically set the gain at 9 (as in "like a clock"). Anything more than that sounds too heavy metal for me. To make sure the highs are strong, I keep the treble at about 2 o'clock. This sound is pretty much about like a Scofield setting (Unfortunately, I can't play anywhere that well...)

All in all, it takes a little fussing to find your sounds in this amp. There are a lot of good sounds, and a few with warts as well.

DO NOT EXPECT TO PLUG THIS IN AT THE SHOP AND JUDGE IT IN 5 MINUTES (unless someone that has a clue played it before you)

I have had no problem in the 6 months I have owned this amp. It should also be noted that this was a floor model before I brought it home. I'm sure that it had its fair share of monkeys fingering it, flipping it on and off, moving it while it's hot...etc.

Take care of it and it will take care of you.

Haven't had to deal with them. I am happy that all of the manuals are well written and available as PDFs from their website.

I've been playing for years. I am not the biggest shredder nor am I completely clueless.

I like the Mesa sound and am happy with this amp. On the other hand, I have other amps and play them as well.

If this is your only amp, then you may feel a bit restricted as far as developing your jazz flow. If you're looking for fun, though, then this amp can deliver over and over, again and again.

I wasn't gonna review this beast, but june 05 guitar player is out, with a review of Mesa Boogie Deuce/Stiletto and I take strong exception to the writer's comments "MB's Randall Smith has more experience designing high-gain amps than anyone else on the planet;...". Whew! Lookee here folks, we got the F-30, a seriously flawed amp. Randall Smith is either terribly incompetent or he is having a big merry prankester acid trip laugh out of the prospect of us drooling idiots trying to make sense of his botched Messy Booger F-30 1x12 combo amp. First off the friggin amp is inconsistent amp to amp, and is inconsistent to itself. More on that later. The experience of trying to adjust the tone and volume on the F-30 is akin to watching The Hulk trying to manipulate a delicate drafting pencil after someone has spiked his juice with heavy downers. The treble control is botched, it hisses from around level 7/10, the Master Control on the overdrive channel 2 starts at screaming volume and proceeds from there. There is no slack, the F-30 does not provide us with any comfort level. I love the clean sound, what I can get from it, cause as soon as you turn up the Master Volume to get even a quiet decent level, more hiss is heard. In fact this amp is a "Hiss Monster", sticking its tongue out at every opportunity. The bass, mid, controls are just about useless after level 4/10. The overdrive channel sounds like a drunken gorilla farting in a box. The Contour sound is an elephant pooping in that same box after the gorilla has had its fun. The reverb sounds pretty cool at least to me, but only at moderate volumes. It turns ugly a little over 1/2 way up. I heard a new one at Long & McQuade and after a few minutes the amp started making noises like it was going to explode. Before that I got a cool sound, but not as warm as the one I tried at WestCoast Music, which has cool clean tone, but more hiss. I didn't get a chance to check out the hiss thoroughly on the 2nd F-30 I heard, cause like I said, the amp was making very rude dangerous aircraft engine noises, so the clerk came over and shut it down. I grabbed another new one, this one had a silver gray grille cloth, a newer model, and it had a real hard piss in your face clean sound, much unlike the F-30 I heard at WestCoast Music. The WestCoast Music F-30 sounds cool on clean, but the trick of this wretched example of engineering is to use a guitar with strong pickups so that some volume level can be attained before hiss starts in, without having to resort to turning up the Gain, which just ruins the rich sound, the only likeable feature on this amp. When I went back to WestCoast and heard the F-30 the 2nd time, the Hiss Monster was taking a break and I could play the guitar a little louder before the acid breath of the F-30 began to spray the room with venom. This was a little unnerving to me, "jeez not only do the 3 F-30's I've tried each have a different sound, but reacting display different degrees of enginnering stress on a whimsical basis.. " But all 3 F-30's tested exhibited varying degrees of engineering meltdown. So I give the Clean a 3/4, cause I do love the tone, even though I can only play certain guitars for any kind of satisfaction. Stock strats are out, need boosted single coil pickups or strong well-defined humbuckers. I give 0/3 to both Channel 2 and Channel 2 with Contour. THe bright switch on Channel 1 makes the sound even more obnoxious than it already is. This amp has many negative features, inconsistent model - no quality control, tube disaster, microphonic squeal, plenty of hiss, Master Volume with no smooth sweep, ugly sounding mids and bass, like the putrid thick air of Toronto on a hot humid stinky day. However I just love the clean tone when played with juiced full sounding pickups

I gotta give the sound a 3/10, but this rating is misleading, because I REALLY like the clean tone, it is alive, rich, responsive, but is it worth all the grief? Choice of guitars is limited, but who cares if ya can find one that sound cool? I found that finding the sweet spot, with its small grunularity of tolerance is like playing with a tennis racket that has a 2 millimeter sweet spot I do not like channel 2, with or without Contour activated. The overdrive on the F-30 is like having sex by clubing your woman senseless and performing necropohilia on her recently expired body. Indifferent to guitars, a big screaming crybaby of wanker tone. I love the reverb effect on Clean channel at low levels, have to turn treble, bass, mid to 3-4/10, anything more and humped up anti-transparent junk gets heaped onto the tone, creating a smell I don't like. This could have been a cool 1 channel amp, if the engineers at Messy Boogers had any jam and spent some time testing their amps, instead of jerking off to video games. What else can they be doing? How do you explain these fundemantal errors. Randall Smith, where are you baby?

zero reliability, squeal is guaranteed, hiss is guaranteed, some time some way, this amp gonna let you down

duh, they need someone to kick some butt at Mesa Boogie, How can they sell an amp, get negative feedback - check out other reviewers comments about the sorry story of the F-30 - and NOT DO ANYTHING. Customer support meens listening to your audience, Messsy Boogers is too stoned out, they gotta be cretins to release an amp without testing it (unless of course THIS IS A BIG MERRY PRANKSTER JOKE FROM RANDALL SMITH), and then DO NOTHING to fix it up. Email response, good luck to you, they might respond, and they might not.

This could have been a cool 1 channel amp, if the engineers at Messy Boogers had any jam and spent some time testing their amps, instead of jerking off to video games. What else can they be doing? How do you explain these fundemantal errors. Randall Smith, where are you baby? Will I buy it, well I might in spite of all the crap, cause I got some guitars that sound cool on clean, pickups are strong enough to handle the Gain/Master Volume problem (turn Gain up to get a decent volume level and purity of tone is lost). Need a 5 year warranty, cause this amp needs a 24 hour on call doctor.

Features are very cool. I like the simple controls. less bells and whistles for me is better so I can focus on playing.

I like the small size for portability for small gigs and recording work. The direct out and speaker switch are nice features and unique.

I use this amp for recording and practice. I cant seem to get the full power out of the amp without some really nasty clipping. I wish it had a built in compression that would allow it to run full out and sing without clipping.

I mostly play with an 89 Fender USA with Lace sensors. Recently I have added an RG321MOL and use this as a baritone guitar. My standard gigging amp has been the Fender Prosonic since the late 90's. This amp does not even come close to the tones that I get from the Prosonic. It works best for me with a baritone guitar tuning because the amp is dark sounding.

The amp is not noisy at all. It has an incredible gain sound on channel two with the pre amp cranked and at low volume. When the master volume is cranked up, the amp clips miserably and the pre amp must be turned down to get a usable tone. This results in much less gain than I would like for solos. This is unlike the Prosonic that can run flat out with the preamp and results in a screaming compressed tone.

If someone out there knows how to run the F 30 full out and get a good tone, please let me know. I was hoping this small amp could be run wide open but so far this is not the case.

The reverb is cheezy compared to the Fender with long tank spring reverb.

The amp is as well built and reliable as any tube amp I have ever owned.

I did make a tube change under the warrantee and there was no questions asked. Mesa Boogie is a class act.

I have been playing for 25 years. I love the amp for its build quality, simple features, and pure tube tone. I hate the fact that at certain settings the amp does not have usable tones. When reading the Bruce Zinky interviews, he designs the amps so that there are no bad sounds at any settings. Apparently this is not the case with Mesa Boogie. The musician has to really work the controls to get a good tone. I hate getting bogged down and distracted with screwing with the tone controls during live performance.

If there is a modifciation that could be done to eliminate the clipping in this amp, I would do it.

I am a 45 year old rocker, studied classical guitar and dabbled in all variations of pop/rock/blues/jazz/country and have allowed all of those elements to creep in to a rock base. I have in the past owned Marshall JCM 800 and 900 50 watt heads w/4-12 cabinets, Boogie Mark IIA and Studio 22+, and several solid state pawn shop prizes by Lab Series and GK. You all know the features, my only wish is that there be a way to tweak the contour. Thhere is plenty of volume.

Les Paul Classic with ceramic pickups. I strive for a Jimmy Page type of sound that is more even and has a little more gain. I am basically a Strat player trapped in a Gibson player's body. The Fender Hot Rod DeVille could have suited me well here, but I wanted Eric Johnson or Holdsworth tones ready to go on a whim, and this Boogie seemed more suited to that. Noise is only an issue when the gains and treble are goosed. I learned very early on to use restraint here, especially with the ceramics. After playing with it over the weekend, I run the gain at 12 o'clock on the clean channel, if I tried getting a clean sound with lower gain, a natural compression kicked in which I found irritating. A little bit of break up in the clean led to a more dynamic sense of touch more me. However, even with the gain set high, the amount of break in the clean channel is hardly noticable, even at high volumes. Kind of unusul for EL 84's. This is hands down the best clean channel of any amp I have owned.
The drive channel is over the top. Just a crazy amount of distortion.I keep the gain a little below 11 o'clock, mainly because the more gain used, the less effective the treble control. The manual does state this. I have a Boss DS 1 I was going to take out of the chain, thinking what do I need another stage of gain for? After some experimenting, I found the contour useless in the bridge pickup, but very impressive with the front pickup. So for soloing, I will use the Boss to boost leads done with the bridge pickup, and the contour for soloing with the neck pickup. I was having doubts until I stumbled on this combination, but this way is covering all of the bases nicely. What is most impressive is I can get really good Hendrix/Trower/SRV sounds with the contour on, using the neck pickup, on a Gibson Les Paul! Very similar to Frank Marino, a very good thing in my book.
In the drive channel, with the gain dialed back to a moderate crunch, and then use the DS 1 with a little more volume and drive yields some nice Eric Johnson type sounds.

We will see...

On my previous Boogies, they were as nice and helpful as can be. Treated me the same as they would treat Carlos.

LP Classic=Cry Baby=Boss DS-1=Guyatone MD3 delay=Rocktron Tsunami Chorus=Mesa Boogie F 30, nothing in the effects loop, so I cannot report on it's ups and downs. I liked the Lone Stars a little better, but they were out of my reach, so if this one is lost or stolen, I would replace it either with the same or upgrade to a Lone Star. I do not _hate_ anything about this amp, but I had to work with it. I wish the contour could be tweaked, when it is engaged, the jump in volume and the amount of mids dropping right out is startling when using the bridge pickup, and it is just too harsh. This is the only factor in grading down to an 8.5, rounded up to 9 simply because I am enjoying it so much.

The F-30 is a 30-watt amp with EL84 power tubes and an Celestian Vintage 30 speaker. It is a 2-channel amp with a special contour setting for the high gain channel (channel 2). Each channel has a separate gain, EQ, reverb and master volume setting. The contour setting shares the same controls as channel 2, providing a mid-range boost when engaged. I found it very easy to dial in a number of settings and quickly get the tone I wanted on each channel.

The amp is being used exclusively for studio use. Being 30 watts, it may not have enough power for most live performances. But this is the first Mesa that I have worked with that I can get the tone I like at a reasonable volume.

However, my happy results are based on a tube swap, which I describe below.

I play a PRS Singlecut Trem. To love this amp, you have to be a fan of the EL 84/Vintage 30 tone. If you like Fenders, this amp will feel compressed and not have the clean or overdrive you are used to. This amp is darker.

The F-30 is noisy out of the box. But that is easily rectified by swapping the Mesa tubes out. I got great results with Electro Harmonix 12AX7s on slots 1, 2 & 4, a 12AU7 on slot 3, and Sovtec EL84s. The noise went away and I got a little more headroom.

With this amp, I can get great clean tones and distortion. Add a good overdrive pedal, like the Fulltone Fulldrive 2, and the palette increases even more. I really like using both the Fulldrive 2 on both the clean Channel and with a moderate gain setting on Channel 2.

I think the effects loop is a little noisy, however, but not so much so that it is unusable. It's not a big deal to me since I don't use it.

I bought it new, so we will see. However, it seems really well built.

I have been playing for 27 year years and have owned a number of cheap and expensive amps. After a very long journey, I have settled on the F-30 and an old silver-face Fender Princeton. With these amps, and a variety of pedals, I can produce a wide range of tones without compromise.

For my needs, this amp is the best Mesa I have owned/played. If you are looking for a recording amp, and like the EL 84/Vintage 30 tone, then this is it. I think it is superior to the Peavey Classic 30 and warrants the price difference. For the mission this amp is serving, the only other amp I recommend is a THD Uni-Valve and a 2-12 Mesa Rectifer cab. But, I think the F-30 sounds better clean.

This is a straight forward amp. So there aren't a lot of bells and whistles, but it delivers the Mesa/Fender Tone. All of the features have been covered already.

Reading some of the previous reviews some people may not like my application but for me it works. I run a PodXT as a pre-amp/effects into the clean channel. Why? I play for a recording studio and use a wide range of sounds...and when I have to play with the studio band...the clean power of the F-30 does the trick. I could have saved some money and bought and Atomic amp but I can use the F-30 as a tradional combo which is simply incredible for the money. My primary style is blues and jazz. Hissss? I don't seem to have the same problem as some other folks. My guitars include a Strat with EMG's and one without...Faded Les Paul Standard.

This will be my fourth Boogie...so far so good. 5 year Warranty! Tubes are tubes...they will go eventially, but I've blown a few solid state amps before...if it is made by man it will fail at some point. Rating is base upon 15 years of playing Boogie amps.

Excellent...this includes previous experiences. Plus the guys at the Local Guitar shop are real pro's (hint, not a national chain) really musicians make the difference.

I've been playing for 32 years I stared at age 8. Pod XT, Fender Tweed, 90' Fender Strat Plus, 89' Fender Strat Plus, Faded Les Paul Standard 05, Martin Back Packer, Blue Ridge BR-40.

Musicians especially guitarist spend a lot of time looking for the "Right Sound." I've done this myself. For me you can't go wrong with a Boogie...I went to the music store early durning the day and the guys let me play both the Lone Star Special side-by-side with he F-30...except for a few nice features I found for my application the F-30's Mesa Mojo was just as good as the LSS.

I believe this one is an '05. I purchased it recently new in-box from Guitar Center. I bought this amp for the purpose of home rehearsal, writing, and recording in the studio. I wanted a well-made, versatile tube amp in a small package, and that's exactly what I got.

While it doesn't have a bunch of different features, those it does have are quite functional. Two channels; clean and overdrive. The clean channel has a brite mode (as a push-pull switch in the ch.1 gain pot) and the overdrive channel has a "contour" mode which basically acts like the 5-band EQ on a Mk IV - activating it kicks up the gain and output, and scoops out some upper mids.

The one feature I'm a little underwhelmed with is the effects loop - I would have liked the ability to take it in and out of the chain from the footswitch, but alas. It's not a bad loop, just somewhat inconvenient.

Through this amp I've played a PRS McCarty, a SG Special with EMG 85's, and a Warmoth strat with a Duncan Custom in the bridge. I've been quite pleased with each guitar's character coming through the amp, even at immeanse levels of drive.

This amp, despite it's sparse (for Mesa) features, is actually quite versatile in the studio. The EQ is very expressive on both channels and the gain structure is laid out well. You can go from a very chimey, blackfacey clean to a warm, clipped just-on-the-threshold-of-distortion sound with minimal tweakage on the clean channel. Higher levels of gain with the bright switch engaged can even take you into overdriven Vox territory.

The overdrive channel picks right up where the clean leaves off in terms of gain, but does so with a slightly darker, more mid-focused presence. Adding more gain to this channel, while not truly sounding like an old Marshall, can achieve a similar responsiveness and vibe. Adding more gain and increasing the treble will get you to what I consider to be one of the highlights of this amp: a very thick, full, and articulate high-gain tone that is just as pleasing with heavy rhythms as it is with leads. Single notes retain their fatness, and if you're using a guitar with nice pickups, can become quite vowel-like and fluid in thier responsiveness to pick attack. Super cool.

The contour mode on Ch.2 is both a blessing and a curse for this amp. First the good: Solid, crushing gain. This setting can go toe-to-toe with any high-gain amp on the market in terms of tone and musicality. Extremely fast attack lets your palm mutes stop on a dime, and the sound is literaly awash with harmonics. It is really very satisfying if you're into metal like Lamb of God, Necrophagus, Opeth, etc. I would say that at best, this setting is both beefy and razor-sharp.
Now the bad: Getting the most out of the "contour" mode requires a compromise with the normal Ch.2 mode. Because both modes are not truly independant channels, they share the same gain, EQ, master volume, and reverb settings. It's just a switch - "contour" is either ON, or OFF. The problem in my opinion is that the contour mode adds too much high-end to the tone, forcing the player to move away from the Ch.2 "sweet spot" that I described above. While only a small adjustment in EQ is necessary to get the most from both modes, it can create an inconvenience in a live or rehearsal setting. Set Ch.2's EQ for the perfect chunky rhythm sound, and your "contour" mode becomes a bit harsh and overbearing. Set the EQ for the perfect metal thrash tone, and your normal Ch.2 setting becomes somewhat lifeless and muffled. Bummer.

This is not a big problem for me, since I'll be using this amp in the studio for the majority of it's use and have all the time in the world to make small adjustments to the EQ, live it could be a real b*tch.

I've got two more things to address but I'll try to make them brief. Building this amp with a single Celestion V30 was the right move for Mesa. The V30 is pretty much the quinessential guitar speaker so you can't really go wrong. As an experiment I took the amp to band practice and ran it through my GenzBenz G-Flex 2x12 cab and was extremely pleased with the output and cut the amp could deliver with a backline-sized cab. The tone was the same, just much louder. I could achieve a much higher amount of volume (enough for a full band rehearsal with another guitarist playing through a Mk IV) without unmusical speaker break-up. The only problem here is that feedback became a MAJOR nuisance when not playing. Enough that I had to run my noise gate at ungodly high settings. Again, immaterial in the studio, but not well-suited for my live shows.

Last is the reverb - just a small note - anything above 2 o'clock on either channel eats tone and sounds clangy. Everything before that sounds quite nice and natural, but you 80's shredders better watch that knob because it'll "sproi

No idea. Seems solid. Too soon to tell.

No idea. No problems yet.

I give it an 8. It's perfect for my needs, but would be even better if it had a swichtable effects loop, slightly re-voiced contour, and didn't feed back as much at high-volumes through an extension cab.

Depends very much on your bent for a 30Watt tube amp it has all you should ever need - independant 2 channel control that includes seperate master, gain and reverb (important!), parallel effects loop with mix level, DI output with speaker Mute, 12 inch Celestian speaker, Pull "bright" switch on the clean channel, 3 button footswitch and the all important contour switch...

Compared to modern day digital amps that model 20 billion classic amps have multiple onboard effects, midi switching, etc it rates as a poor second, however this amp has the ultimate feature "MESA TUBE MOJO"

It could do with a couple of things, however... a footswitch to drop out (bypass) the effects loop, a channel indicator on the amp (not just the foot switch) and some sort of reference to the "pull bright switch" in the manual...I mean hello! the manual goes into all sorts of detail about tube assignment, etc but fails to mention a fundamental feature on the clean channel. You should not need to find out about a feature on Harmony Central but thank god your here!

Constructive comments i hope your reading Mr Smith...

I use a Les Paul Gary Moore Signature with the original Burst Bucker pickups. I use this guitar with 10 - 52 strings and play with the tone and volume controls and rely on my fingers to "radiaclly" alter my sound.

This is where this amp shines.

On the Clean Channel, Bright off, neck humbucker, guitar volume 3 - 4, tone on guitar off...i get a really jazzy style sound, fat, warm, subtle. engage the bright, turn up the tone pot, kick in the reverb and we are in clean fender amp territory, shimmers, sparkles, nice...wind up the guitar volume pot and gain on the amp, dumb the reverb, we starting to sound like an old Plexi Marshall (not quite but it is close enough). Remember thats just the clean channel

Go to Channel 2, engage the bridge humbucker, 50% volume and tone on the guitar and we can get close to a JCM800 sound, again not quite but play in a cover band some GNR tunes and the punters will fall for it. Wind up the guitar volume and tickle the tone pot, hit Contour, step on a Ibanez Super Tube STL (the best of them all - sorry TS808 owners)and i can get so much gain and tone that James Hetfield from a certain band called Metallica would be impressed. I have read that the F30 wont do metal gain. Maybe not pantera style fizz but Metallica, Ramstein, Limp Bizket, Recto stuff...With a Ibanez STL to tighten the flab, no problem at all. Remember guys i am only using Burst Buckers in my guitar stick a high output humbucker in your guitar, no doubt you could go higher but for me thats silly and i would worry about loosing the clean stuff.

The sounds and versatility of this amp is 10/10

top that with the fact thah all these sounds have that ACE tube feel (heaps of headroom, warmth, etc) that really does feel better than playing a digital amp. Sure its kinda noisy due to the tubes (and it doesnt have an inbuilt noise gate like alot of modern amps do) but the technology is like 80 years old and still used in high end amps. Why stick with something so old? because it is ace.

The key to this amp is subtle adjustments. Each of the tone stacks needs to be set between 10 and 2. Dont just wind everything to 10 or push a button and expect instant quality. This is were modern (digital amps) excel (instant gratification). If you want to hit a single button and go from a fender black face sound with stero chorus, panning delay and plate reverb to a over loaded 4 x 12 stack with a distortion pedal in front of it, go buy a Line 6 product. Long term though digital will lack feel. this amp feels right...

No issues - Is built like a brick shithouse (australian slang for like a tank) and as a electrical engineer that peeked inside is very well layed out.

Tube amps can drop their lunch very quickly though so if your want 100% reliability go solid state or digital, not tube. This is just the downside of using a tube amp ANY tube amp. Gotta learn to live with it.

Gave it a 5 because it is what it is. This is NOT a refelection of this amp just tube amps in general

I live in australia, Long way from where these are built. MESA refers me to thier local agent and they are very good. They have spares, their local and they care

Its expensive, it uses old world technology, its noisy BUT it is the best AMP I have ever owned. In the past i have had a Marshall Town and Country 2x12 combo (look it up!), JCM900, Peavy Classic 30, Marshall DSL401, Line 6 Flextone, Line 6 spider 2 and also done the POD, Digitech, V-amp thing through studio monitors. All of them were good but the ONLY amp i use now is the F30. Honestly take the time to play with the thing.

If stolen - i'd get another one without doubt but remember it like everything does have its downsides (now where are those spare tubes???)

Features already posted...won't waste your time on this.

Fender American Deluxe Tele, Gibson Les Paul Studio w/Alnico V's. Finally, the amp I've been looking for. I've been looking for the best of all worlds in one amp, and had given up...until I found this little baby. Beautiful cleans to nice and bluesy, and the distortion's...wow!...what I was looking for in a Marshall TSL 602 and couldn't get. Great depth to the sound. This is truely a little wonder amp. Don't be fooled by this little amps 30wt's of power, IT'S VERY LOUD. Very simple controls, READ THE MANUAL. Very minor adjustments do alot. And the order of the controls makes a big difference.

Haven't had long enough to give an honest answer but, judging by it's tonal quality, and the fact that it's built like a tank, I'm sure it will hold up well.

I haven't had to deal with them, but I'd like to meet and shake the hands of the designers.

I'm not a great guitarist, have only been playing around six years now. I'm 45 years old. BUT, one thing I do have is an ear for sound. I've been listening to music since I was a kid...all types... I'm very picky when it comes to sound. My home stereo cost me in the line of $5000.00. I know some of you are probably thinking B.S. but put a Natalie Merchant CD in and close your eyes, you'd think she was sitting in the room with you. Enough said, if this amp were lost or stolen...heck, I'd like to have another one anyway, never mind if were lost or stolen... But yes, if it were lost or stolen I'd go right out and buy another one...wouldn't even go try anything else...it would have to be replaced. The price is worth every penny. I love the distortion, it's great clean, and everything in between. I like the simple controls, it's size and weight. Most of all I love the sound...all the depth of the sound. Take the time to learn and adjust it...don't get me wrong, I can make this thing sound pretty flat, like a majority of other amps sound at their best, but this thing, when tweaked properly, sounds incredible. Good luck on your quest!

I?ve owned many amps in my life, and my experience has usually been the fewer the knobs, the better the sound. There are a bunch of knobs on this amp, but they are all useful and easy to understand (unlike some Mesa models that resemble the control panel of a commercial airliner). One ?feature? that I definitely don?t care for is the fact that the reverb cuts out for about three seconds when you switch channels. I know the intent is to keep reverb from the overdrive channel bleeding over when you switch to clean, but I think this does mare harm than good.

It?s frustrating, because this amp has so much potential, but the problems are hard to ignore. The clean sound would be wonderful, if there wasn?t so much hiss. You can reduce the hiss by raising the gain and lowering the master volume, but that sound isn?t nearly as exciting. I switched power tubes to el-84m, which is a cleaner tube used by hi-fi aficionados. This gave a slight increase in headroom and a tighter sound, but it didn?t do much for the hiss. The overdrive channel can make some great tones, but they?re hard to dial in. There?s a very narrow sweet spot between where the notes start to sing and where you get garbage if you play more than one string at a time. I don?t use the contour sound-it?s too harsh for my ears.

SO far, no problems.

I've never dealt with Mesa/Boogie.

The longer I have this amp, the less I like it. When I decided to buy it, I loved the clean sound and thought I could live with the hiss. Now I'm less enamored with the sound and more bothered by the hiss.

Just bought this amp Dec 2004. I have been playing on a Line6 Flextone II+ ( nice amp) in the smaller clubs but have been missing that tube tone/feel/life. I am use to my 1968 Superbass, 1974 MKII, 1978 MKII Marshalls in a 1x12 75watt cab in the studio & 4x12 live ,but luggin the heads & cabs around to gigs is tough. My styles are Clapton/Jeff Beck/Hendrix/Blackmore so I guess I am classic rock. I have been playing in bands for 29 years. I am currently in an a band on the airwaves. I LOVE THIS F-30. I have read all of the above crits and I can tell most of them do not know what they are doing with the guitar. Enough said. The Shhhhhhh sound you hear in the clean chan is called tubes, yes a tad louder than any of my tube amps I have but that's what you get in a small "tweeked" little amp like this. What is so great is to go from chan 1 "glassy" clean ( blackface) to chan 2 over the top creamery of distortion in such a small package--this sold me. Then to top it off that Contor switch adds the vol!!! Anyone who uses thier guitar vol knob to "adj the vol" will get this amp. I put it up against the Marshall DSL 401 Superlead 40 w2aqtter and nope-sorry- Anyone who has a Marshall and is looking for a Boogie too round out thier collection... buy this. It's worth the $$$

I use Fender Strast/Tele/Gibson

yes

29 years

See below

I found the clean channel's tone to be absolutely brilliant. One of the best sounding cleans I've ever heard from any amp. But there was way too much noise in this channel to make it useable. I tried out 3 separate F-30's and they all had a major "shhhhhh" going on when this channel was set at medium volume levels. Too bad. Without the noise I'd give this channel a rating of 10 - but because of the noise I have to go with a 4. I would never gig out with an amp that produced that much noise IN THE CLEAN CHANNEL!

The drive channel was pretty poor and unuseable. Very loose, muddy, and unfocused to me. There's plenty of gain there....it just doesn't sound good to me. It's fat and round (like my DC-5) but the definition is very poor IMHO. I tried to think about how many songs I could use this channel in with my current classic rock band's set list.....and I counted maybe 2 or 3. That won't do. I give this channel a rating of 2.

So 4 + 2 = 6. So overall rating: 6/2 = 3.

Let me just say that I'm a HUGE Mesa Boogie fan...have been for years. On that note, I've been playing for 30 years and I've played thru roughly 30 or so different tube amps during that time. I record and play professionally...I'm into classic rock, jazz, fusion, blues, funk, and metal.

I've got several tube amps including 3 Fenders (Hot Rod DeVille 2x12), Deluxe Reverb RI, Blues Jr.), a Marshall 1/2 stack - JCM2000 TSL60 head, a rack rig highlighted by a Rocktron Voodu Valve preamp and a Mesa Boogie 20/20 power amp, and a Mesa Boogie DC-5 head + 2x12 Mesa vertical cab.

I really wanted to buy this amp. Can't stress that enough. I'm looking for a smaller, ballsy, 1x12, 2 channel, portable combo and I thought I found it with the F-30. I checked out 3 different F-30's at 3 different stores over a 3 week time span. The last time I checked it out I went into a sound proofed room so I could hear it at normal band playing volumes. That noise in the clean channel really bummed me out...and the lousy drive channel confirmed my decision not to purchase this amp.

Well the search continues. I love Mesa gear but this amp is not for me.

2004 F-30 combo. One thing I really like about this amp is that there are different sets of tone controls for each channel. Very nice to be able to voice each channel to the tone you want. Pulling the clean channel gain knob engages a "bright" mode that really adds a shimmer to it. The tone controls are simple to use and like all Mesa's they cover a wide range. Very easy to dial in a tone. I really like the "Contour" feature for lead playing. The effects loop is awesome for dialing things in.

I play blues and classic rock. Les Pauls, PRS with soapbars and Fender Strat with Duncan Vintage neck, Duckbucker middle and Pearly Gates Plus in the bridge (Best sounding and versatile Strat combination in my opinion). This amp uses EL84's for power tubes. The clean channel is beautiful. Bright and bluesy with the Strat with the gain turned down. Very close to my Bassman with less bass. The "Bright" switch feature will take it over the top if you want or need more brightness. The clean channel will get noisy as you turn it up. I like the gain at about 11:00, treble at about 2:00, bass at 2:00, and middle at about 12:00. The tone controls are senstive and make it easy to dial in a tone. The reverb is very nice and thick.

The overdrive channel is typical Mesa/Boogie overdrive. Very smooth distortion through the EL84's. Not a lot of power (25 watts?) but it will get very loud with great tone and distortion. Moderation is best here, Gain at about 11:00, Treble around 2:00, Mid about 11:00, Bass around 10:00. Easy to put too much bass or mid in and muddy it up, due to the EL84's.

The Contour feature is one of my favorite things about Mesa's. Just kick it on and you have 3db more volume and re-EQ'd to project you out front of the mix. Great feature. Sounds great left on all the time too.

Power output is more than enough in channel two to use on stage playing rock with drums and bass (higher gain). The power is marginal on the clean channel however, unless you plug in an extension cabinet. I tend to run it at close to full volume on the clean channel (use a fan to keep things cool!). I will probably upgrade to the F-50 in the future so I have more headroom.

The amp has plenty of power for practice and quiter blues jams. This is where it really shines. Great blues amp. EL84 tone is unique and the distortion is very smooth. My blues rig has the F-30 A/B'd with a Fender Pro Junior (cranked up) which I kick in to get a unique lead crunch tone and blends well with the F-30 crunch. Try it!

No problems. I own and have owned several Boogies over the years and they are built like tanks. I like to run a fan on tube amps just to keep things cooler.

Great bunch of people. I called them a couple of times and they were great.

I have been playing for 30+ years and have owned many tube amps. Currently I have a Boogie MKI, Marshall JTM45 and JCM900 (going up for sale), Fender 59' Bassman reissue, Bassman silverface headand 4X10 cabinet, Pro Junior and Cyber Deluxe (stage backup amp). This is the fifth Mesa I have owned over the years. The F-30 is one of the finest amp combo's out there. Mesa makes great stuff and they hold their resale value very well.

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.

This is the best part of the F-Series ? classic Mesa personality with no bells, no whistles, no modes, nothing except two channels with independent gain, treble, mid, bass, and reverb controls. You can also pull out the clean gain knob for bright. That?s it. 20-ish watts, Celestion Vintage 30, Dyna-Watt power amp, contour setting, in a short combo chassis. Wish list? A solo boost feature

I play primarily a Hamer Artist semi-hollow with SD Seth Lover pickups. The band I?m in plays modern rock with a vintage nod.

Clean channel: This channel is simply stunning. Deep, bouncy, chimey, and rich. I don?t know how Mesa managed this, but it sounds like a Class A circuit ? it has the same articulation, girth and breath. On top of all this, the V30 is not the greatest speaker for cleans ? I imagine it would be nothing short of orgasmic with a good clean speaker. Mesa really got this channel right ? past Mesas have had disappointing cleans. This is far, far better than the clean channel of my Nomad. The EQ is effectively voiced and covers a wide range of tones. I also has a lot more headroom than you would think for a pair of EL84s. You can also crank the gain and get raunchy crunch tones with a British personality and punch. I have nothing but praise for this channel.

Dirty channel: This channel is classic Boogie gain with a twist. There is a bunch of gain on tap, but don?t expect a little Recto (I think a lot of people play these expecting them to be a little Recto, which it isn?t). There is the classic syrupy-sweet Boogie burn and singing, but with a little more transparency and focus. Again, it sounds like a Boogie high-gain front end grafted onto a great Class A circuit. The mids are as thick as a milkshake, the lows have just a touch of looseness around the edges, and the highs are clear and focused but sweet. The tone is simply killer. The obese mids cut through a band mix and lend a honey-sweet fatness to the mix. The only qualm I have is the EQ ? it is subtle to say the least on this channel. Don?t expect any big tonal changes from this tone stack (not that it matters much because the basic tone is so good). This is with the Contour off.

With the Contour on, it?s a bit of a different story. It scoops and reduces the midrange presence, increases and tightens the booty, and pumps up the treble. It sounds more modern and aggressive with a mean edge. It sounds to me like a highly hot-rodded vintage amp. For my style, I rarely use the Contour mode, but I can see how it might be the ticket for some folks.

The reverb is good. Also, don?t let the rating fool you. This amp kicks like a mule and is capable of some very serious volume. Keeping up in a loud mix with a heavy-handed drummer is no problem at all. I used to laugh at the whole ?Boogie watts? thing, but I believe it now. The volume of this amp can be punishing

I bought mine used, and before I committed to the purchase, I called Mesa with the serial number to confirm that it had the updated power supply design. I wanted a clean bill of health to make sure I didn?t have the same issues as some noted below. That?s the problem with the hand-drawn circuit boards that Randall Smith does ? they maintain the artisan aspect of amp design, but unlike CAD programs they won?t tell you when you have foolishly spec?d 300 volt caps in a circuit running at 500 volts. Sounds like they did right by the people who had early versions with these design flaws.

Excellent support, especially considering their size and how busy they are. If you call them, they will call you back, usually the same day, and will make sure you are completely taken care of before they end the call. Great CS.

This is one of the best amps I?ve ever played, period (especially for my style). The low price point, small size and weight, and quality are all just gravy on top. I would buy another one of these in a heartbeat. They are reminiscent of the DC series, but with better tone IMO and far less circuit noise than their predecessors. I?ve alwys loved the Boogie tone but not the myriad tweaking options, and for me this amp is just what the doctor ordered.

2003 model........I use this amp to play mostly blues and jazz. I play gibsons and tom anderson's mostly. The amp really lets each guitar's individual "talents" come out. You can read the specs from the website........The amp is loud enough..........30 boogie watts is loud! I am a fender fanatic........I own a deluxe reverb and super reverb both from 1966. If I could afford or even find more vintage fenders, that would be all I would play.......however, this little amp gets about 99% of the sound(minus that fender "mojo") that my fenders get , yet it is way more versatile with its channel switching and low volume gain options. remember "BUY THE JJ/Tesla's-----Boogie builds cadillacs, but, its up to you to choose the "fuel" you put in them........boogie tubes(stamped boogie) leave something to be desired...

First of all, I loved the amp from day one, however, I am writing the review after having just installed JJ/Tesla el-84's in this amp..........unbelievable!!!!!! Its like a new amp.......Imagine a deluxe reverb with a tighter and more boomy bottom.....lots more headroom and the ability to achieve all types of tones at all volumes.......I was playing it first with a 2003 les paul standard with burstbuckers.......beautiful sound. Touch responsive, tight bass clarity.......on channel one you can turn the master up to 5 and the volume up to 3 and you can play some sweet tasty blues licks with your volume backed off.......turn up your guitar volume all the way and you are instantly pete towsend with those powerful "wont get fooled again chords" Do the same with the 2nd channel and you smooth things up just enough.......to get that Ted Nugent sound..........I also plugged in my Tom Anderson Classic (strat copy) and was able to get classic strat sounds....

My mistake when I first got the amp was to always crank up the volume channel while keeping the master volume low.......to achieve gain........you get gain , however, its kinda muddy and trashy.......which is fine because this amp is not really ideal for "metal"........I would say its more appropriate to back the volume down and focus on jazz blues and rock styles...jeff beck, Clapton etc....it does have a "contour" .channel but it gets pretty out of control when turned up to the volume that this type of music requires.........I think boogie just included this channed as a marketing strategy.......I must admit that I like this option for practice level, but, find it pretty useless for live applications.......this amp is ideal for a tube amp lover who is into tone...and tasteful licks........Larry carlton, Santana, Stevie Ray, Benson..you can easily cop all these styles........its got really sensitive controls and with a little care you can dial in amazing tones..........I think this is one of the best amps made now..especially for the money!

I bought this used and the reverb crapped out on me......had to have it replaced.......I was kinda unsatisfied with this, however, I would not hesitate to own Boogies because of this........I Have had my 4x10 Maverick for 5 years with no issues..

Great folks at Boogie!

I would kick ass if anyone stole this amp! I have been playing 20 years........in my teen years I always dreamed of owning boogies, but, could never afford them..now, however, I can! Thwe wait was well worth it! Their technology is outstanding now and for the money, you cannot beat Boogies........new fenders...yuck!!!! Vibroking..awesome but $$$$$$$$..boogie.....value and tone!

good basic tube amp: 2 channels w/a boost/mid-scoop on the gain channel, separate reverb control for each channel. Hidden pull-bright on the clean channel. 2xEL84's, 4x12ax7's. 30 watts. Other features: headphone jack, effects loop, speaker mute.

Clean channel can sound VERY much like a vintage Fender. Seems a little noisy at high volume, but that may be my AC source. The gain channel is great: provides crunchy rythm and/or smooth lead tones. "contour" mode sounds like your basic metal mode: scooped mids, slight vol boost. i haven't really had this "up" yet, but at lower volumes, it sounds quite good. The reverb sounds ok to me, but i don't care much for reverb anyway.

no comment: too new.

no comment: too new.

i've always wanted a boogie & am glad i finally got one. Pro quality in a small package.

2-channel all-tube Combo. Check out Mesa?s website for full details. This amp seems to be *very* well built. At least, much better than any other amps in this price range that I?ve found from Fender or Marshall.

My setup consists of a Reverend Strat, Gibson Faded SG, Japanese Custom Tele, and a Epiphone LP. I mainly play straight-ahead rock like Hendrix, AC/DC, Van Halen, GN?R, etc. First, I should say that I bought this amp solely for the clean channel, which I am more than impressed and amazed with. In the past two years I?ve gone through several amps looking for ?tonal nirvana? including a Reverend Hellhound Half stack, Fender ?Evil? Twin, Fender Hotrod Deluxe, and finally a Line6 Flextone II Plus combo with a 1x12 extension cab. Before playing the F30 the Line6 was actually my favorite of the bunch believe it or not. But after several months of playing I found the Line6 lacking in dynamics, presence, and feel. Also, it was impossible to dial in anything remotely clean like a Blackface sound, but the distortions were nice.

Back to the F30, the first thing that blew me away was how nice the clean sound was. This amp smokes any Fender clean that I?ve heard that weren?t vintage (read, expensive). All of the tone knobs actually do something and have great tone shaping ability. The amp is also very dynamic and responds amazingly well. The amp tends to be a bit on the bright side, but EQ helps and I?m sure once the amp is a bit more ?broken in? that this will change. Another plus is the reverb. It?s very subtle and doesn?t wash out your sound or add noise like a Fender HRD. I A/B?ed the F30 to a Blues Jr. and the F30 was much cleaner and smoother sounding. Not mushy at all like the Blues Jr.

The lead channel is a bit of a weird beast. First off, it?s loud as all f**cking hell and trying to record with it in your bedroom is a bit painful. FWIW, I?ve never been a fan of the Mesa Rectifier distortion sound. But with the F30 the lead channel is very cool for stuff like Queens of the Stone Age and more modern sounds. However, I doubt I?ll be using it much for the type of music I play. I spent the better part of a weekend trying to dial in sounds with my SG, LP and Strat that suite my playing style, but I was unable to find anything. I don?t think this is the amp if your trying to do Hendrix, AC/DC, GN?R, etc., After reading other reviews I might try swapping the tubes out. I ended up picking up a Tonebone classic pedal and now I?m a happy camper in the distortion world. What a great pedal! Going from a digital amp to an all tube signal path has been the best thing I ever did for my playing!

I have no experience with Mesa yet, but I?m confident that in the rare cirumstance that this tank of amp breaks that I?ll be taken care of.

See above

I would give this a 10, but there are few areas that I?d like to see improved on. First, I would like some type of LED indicator on the amp that shows the current channel being used. Second, I?d like a more traditional sounding lead channel. Otherwise, this amp is a real winner. After playing through a Line6 and looking for a jack of all trades I have finally seen the light and accepted that most good amps do one thing well. Coupled with a Tonebone, I think I am finally closer to achieving ?tonal nirvana?.

Already exhaustively discussed. I'll give it a 9.

Unlike some of you, I think it's too highgain dirty for humbuckers, at least in Channel two. But to each his own.
I like single-coil-fed distortin clarity better anyway. But especially in a Boogie combo.

Takes the backseat/stage/bar banging around quite well.

Here's an incident I like. Tom from Boogie called and left me a message within a week or two of purchase. Just to say hello; we'll be here any problems, etc. Jeez -- wouldn't you like that from Fender, or even another "boutique" company?

I like combos, and I like EL-84-types WAY better than these ear-wrecking "high headroom" monsters. Maybe I'm gettin old.

Brand new bought in the UK.Twin channel + contour boost 1 x 12 combo that built like a tank.

I wanted a back up for my 4 x year old Boogie 1 x 12 class A Maverick which really shines in the O/D department but only has an average clean channel.I expected the F30 (as its the bottom of this budget range)to fall a little short especially as its considerably cheaper and in anycase they dont make to single speaker Mavericks anymore.Wrong !.The F30 more than matches the Maverick in this deptartment and the clean channel is one of the best Ive heard (think the best Fender youve ever heard).
Again,because its a boogie it will peel paint at a 1000yrds in the volumn department if required.
The tones/sounds available are huge and it will cover everything from Jazz/country to heavy metal and Rock.
Fantastic.

Its a boogie so apart from the odd valve change every couple of years or so there shouldnt be a problem.
Ive heard a few people having problems with microphonic valves but thats easily sorted out.
.

Vey well served in the UK by Westside distribution.
The main Mesa webside should havean e-mail address for people outside the US though.

Have owned used tons of stuff (Marshall/Hiwatt/Vox/Fender etc).This little beast is an absolute gem.
If you want a small portable versatile amp that is built like a brick outhouse and covers every tone imaginable with the power to blow the back windows out then buy this amp.
You wont be sorry, really.

paid too much!-about 1200 $ incl. vat... shitty prices here in germany, but still was a good deal (maybe mesas are shipped seperately with a first class ticket belt on a seat, served by a big titted stewardess).
versatility is a main point why i bought this amp... you can do everything with this little amp, except really good blues crunch... maybe i didn`t tried to set the eqs properly.

i mainly play a fender std strat '97 which is feature-wise my shittiest guitar as i play a gibson sg std '96 and a wonderful patrick eggle berlin std '93 handbuild guitar. i must say shittiest, as i found out later that fender (usa!!!) veneered the bodies at that time, so mine looks like a two piece body... unfortunately it could be a fake and it could be a up to 5 piece body, which sucks big time! also the pickup-routing is this goddamned infamous swimming-pool type... i thought usa guitars were the best!!!(to compare things: my sg's body is a two piece and my patrick eggle a one-piece honduras mahogany with a carved one-piece maple top!!!)eggle-wise: fuck prs guitars twice and look around for an eggle berlin!... fuck fender also but the feel of the neck is to die for. last but not least i've started to play the eggle more and more... sorry fender!

back to the amp: my baby is about 4months old and this thing blows my marshall jtm612 all-valve combo away...BUT for good ol' vintage crunch this marshall beats the too distorted crunch of my mesa. and i like a well temprered crunch for some tunes... i can say that i almost play everything, though my main influences are neurosis (like tool, only dirtier, heavier, at the same time softer and not that sterile like tool), ozzy's sabbath era, but also red hot chili peppers, the "older" cure and radiohead. as you see a good clean sound is inevitable for my style and the f30 is as good as god's own mercy when it comes to clean sounds which seem to breath! channel 2 is a mid gain crunch... not really crunch but also no high gain. very uselful for rhythm. switching to contour mode things change. this is the most lively high gain sound i've ever heard. especially when played with a singlecoil strat...kill me, but that's sound i was looking for! of course for scooped rhythm work i would propably take one of my humbucker guitars... but i play mostly single note melodies, combined with a bass string "e" or "a", sometimes distorted open chords and even superb humbuckers tend to get things muddy.
reverb is a bit clanky on high settings, really nice when set about 10 o'clock... just like the other settings... don't be too radical... this ain't no marshall's useless control knobs!

bullet proof, this box is built to last... but have this only for a few months so i cannot say if this tries to fall apart.

very very kind and helpful peolpe... they've even send me their catalogue to germany for free and answered my emails !!! best i've ever experienced... try this with marshall and you'll know what i mean.
I didn't have to contact them because of guarantee issues and i hope i do not have to one sunny morning... but people seem to make good experiences with mesa when it comes to problems.

i won't have to buy another amp... with this baby i've got everything i'll ever need (with the help of my marshall vintage crunch). i don't play effects (only a little reverb in the clean channel), so i can report nothing about the fx-loop... ooh one bad thing: my amp pops around, especially when i switch from dirty to clean channel but this seems to appear only for a few minutes after hitting the standby switch. i've read this is nothing unusual for tube amps, but my marshall does't pop when switching! i would give a 10 but damnpop 9... this isn't ok

This is a 2002 model.I opened the factory sealed box at Towson, MD. Guitar Center. with the F-30 you know the specs are there. My friends are happy for me. I just got it tonight, but have been 'Jonesing' for this amp ever since I played one a few months ago. I look forward to Sundays [smile] Peace, Michael Pappas (Rev.)

It should be quite an addition to my American Standard Strat, Epi Les Paul with Schecter humbuckers,and Martin D1 with Fishman Gold onboard mic set!
I will use it in church mostly. I play 2 weeks of the month. We play the worship style but tailor the songs with rock, disco, country and all kinds of settings. We meet in a movie theatre and the acoustics are unique. I love the presence, & when I get my Roland GT-6 Guitar Processor going into it the tone and clarity should improve dramatically. It has a great deal of bass but it can be tweaked as the manual settings show.

It works well and let's keep it goin!

1 & 5 year.

32 yrs. since 1970. I have a crate 30 watt amp. The F-30 blows it out of the water! It has more than I will ever need. I now own the best overall small amp available.

Brand new 2003 model. @ channels plus contour switch. I play herd rock/progressive metal and hard rock covers. Effects loops, headphone and recording outs. Silent switch too. I bought this amp for low volume rehearsals. Well...this thing is LOUD! 30 watts...I barely get it up 1/4 volume and I'm loud enough to be heard and felt! All tube, 12ax7's and el84's.

Brutal crunch...wicked sweet lead tones and great clean. Very good reverb....fendery....

Seems to be built really well. Time will tell but I expect no problems.

The best. I call them, they call back and seem to really be interested
in what you do. I have a RectoVerb and they help alot with that unit.

10 all the way...you can't go wrong with this amp!

This is a follow-up to the previous review I wrote. After reading a great review about various tubes that is posted at: http://www.rru.com/~meo/Guitar/Tubes/MooksTasteTests/ I purchased a matched pair of EI EL84s for the F30. All I can say is amazing! These are by far the best EL84s I have heard! They completely smoother out the Lead channel, getting rid of all the remaining honky mids. I am now done tweaking this amp and am totally in love with it! I am now just enjoying all the great tones I can get from this little monster! Also, everyone that has heard it has been very impressed with it!

Two channel: independent gain, bass, mid, treble, reverb and masters. Adjustable effects loop as well.

I use various single-coil and humbucker guitars. I tried the F-30 out at the store and was intially impressed by the clean channel--very Fender-like with nice shimmer on the top and harmonically rich. The distortion channel seemed good; typical Boogie saturation that i am familiar with. I was impressed that it came witha Celestion Vintage 30 for a $799. This intial audition never got the masters above about 8 to 9 o'clock. I had been looking for a good little amp for taking to jams and one that would alow to get good tones without having to resort to pedals. I bought it a couple of days later. I actually stopped by a friend's house that i jam at on the way home and set it up and turned it up. What I realized immediately were two primary things: 1. The EL-84 power tubes saturate pretty quickly, and seemingly almost exponentially, as the masters go up. This is not a bad thing but it gets real distorted (on both channels) real quick. 2. The lead channel has a decidely hump in the mid-lows that translates to flabbiness that didn't want to go away dispite tone know twiddling. Overall, I still liked the amp but was starting to wonder if it was going to be another "almost" amp relegated to the Amp Museum room. This is where the story gets a little tweeky, and, I offer a discalimer that I indeed have never been able to leave anything untouched--for better or worse. I still thought the F-30 had a lot of potential but it needed some work. I got busy, The first thing i did was try different pre-amp tubes. The amp comes with (4) 12AX7As. tube 1 and 2 are definitely clean and lead respectively. tube 4 is definitely the phase inverter/driver. I am not totally sure of tube 3s total integration purpose. Anyway, i started by changing out tube one with a JJ/Tesla 12UA7 and was immediately impressed! Things cleaned up tremendously and the clean channel had more sparkle and much more headroom before saturation (more on this later). I liked what I heard and moved on to replace the lead channel tube with a 12U7A as well. This was much, much better to my ears! With a 12AX7A, the lead channel got very distorted at about 8 o'clock and hyper-distorted above about 12 o'clock. With the 12U7A, there was more usable "dial-in" before things turned to a wall-o-distortion. The flabiness was unfortunately still there. Let me say at this time I found, for my tastes, the best way of setting gain and tone settings. If you turn all the tone controls (on either chhannel) "off" there is no signal passed. If you start this way and turn the gain up first, then start applying tone (treble and mid seems most active) you get a really good feel for their respective range and overal affect on the gain and character of the channel. The next thing I tried was the 4th tube, the phase inverter/driver. By replacing the 12AX7A with a 12U7A, i thought the amp was operating in a more controllable fashion...it seemed to have a more gradual master volume sweep. I found more usable tones in the sweep of the master (the master was very active up to about 2 o'clock where as with the 12AX7A, nothing much happened above 12 o'clock). As an aside, I wound up changing the 3rd tube to a 12AU7A and, though not as noticble as the others, made a positve contribution to tone in my opinion. Basically, by replacing the 12AX7As with the 12AU7As, I reduced the gain characteristics in each stage by approximately 30%. And, given the assumed cascading nature of (at least) the lead channel, this brought it more under control. At this point, I decided to tackle the flabiness of the lead channel that was unfortunately still there. One thing that struck me as a bit odd with the amp is that there is a bright switch for the clean channel but not for the lead channel. Hey, it was 2am, what the heck, I opened it up and put the chassis on the bench. I should mention that the layout is very nice. Actually it is top-notch! It is a mcuh cleaner layout than its ancestors like the Studi

My first Mesa/Boogie was purchased in 1980 and I have never experienced a break-down due to workmanship or design.

Back in the old days, it would take up to six months to get your Boogie (factory only sales) and I used to bug Mike Bendinelli every week until it shipped. He (they) were always willing to talk and truly made you feel special. I haven't called them for a long time but I am confident that this attitude is probably still what you would encounter.

If this amp were lost or stolen, I would probably immediately get another one. Although I have slightly modified the amp, I feel that is inherently a great product! I am sure that many, if not most players will find it amazing straight out of the box. But, if you like to tinker, the F-30 is accomodating. I would like a better reverb circuit, but, given the price point on this amp, I don't see how they could have done it so I don't consider it a detraction.

Hmm, let's see. My amp was made in 2003, it was the 24th F-30 made according to the model number. 30 watts, all tube. Fully independent EQ and reverb for the clean and dirty channels. Also, a "contour" mode that boosts the gain and cuts some mids in the dirty channel, for a total of 2.5 channels.

Keep in mind that I haven't had this amp for long. Just the time I got to use it in the store, and the few hours that I got to play through it before it started blowing fuses. More on that in a sec...

I'm using an Ibanez SZ520 with dual humbuckers. I really like this combination. I play mostly rock and some classic rock and blues (Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, Incubus, etc.) I've been really impressed with the sounds this amp can make, especially the clean channel... it's just really magical sounding. But again, I haven't been able play it much as mentioned above. Also, this is my first tube amp.

Here's why I'm writing this review. After playing my amp for about an hour, it blew the fuse. This actually happened while it was on standby, not hile playing. I got some fuses for it and it blew the new fuse in about 30 seconds. Therefore, the amp is unplayable.

I called Mesa and descibed the problem and they told me that the amp needs a power supply update. One of the other reviewers mentioned that this amp demands too much power from one of the capacitors in the power supply and he is right. Apparently this capacitor will be replaced with a network of three others. This of course will be done under warranty for free.

Mesa was great on the phone. They told me where to take the amp for repair (about 50 miles away.) That in itself is no big deal. I called the replair place today and they told me that it would be three weeks before they could even look at it. This is very disappointing as far as I'm concenred. I waited for 6 weeks on my guitar to come in and then I only get to mess with it for an hour before the amp blows. My local music shop is trying to hook me up with a local guy that works on Boogie equipment to get the problem resolved more quickly.

This power supply issue seems to apply only to early-model F30's. As I said above, I have #24. However, I don't know what model number they began correcting this problem at the shop. I also don't know if this issue applies to the F-50 and F-100.

I am of course upset about this problem. If it is so widespread, I wonder why Mesa simply didn't issue a recall?

I will write a follow-up after I get the amp repaired and have more of a chance to play with it. But for now, I'm going to give it a low reliability rating.

See above. I called Mesa and left a message, and a tech called me back within a couple of hours. It was hard to hear him because his phone was cutting out but he was polite and knowledgable.

The warranty is 5 years, and 1 year on tubes (I think).

Points taken away because of the backlog at the service center and that I am repsonsible to taking it there and back. I shouldn't have to wait 3+ weeks to get my amp fixed when it blew after the first hour of use.

I've been playing sporadically for about 8 years. I play for fun. I've been in a couple of bands but am currently flying solo. The Ibanez SZ 520 and Mesa amp are all the gear I own, except for an old acoustic guitar.

I did a LOT of comparison shopping when I bought this amp. Nothing else its price range came close.

I'd still buy it again because it sounds so damned good. Just make sure that you get one with the power supply update. I haven't heard of any other problems from these. My rating here is based on the optimistic expectation that I can get this thing fixed rather quickly and that I have no more problems with it.

The F-30 has two channels, with a "psuedo" 3rd footswitchable voicing of the overdrive channel, reverb with seperate level controls for the clean and overdrive channels, and an effects loop. My amp is a 2003 model. I tend to use three basic amp sounds: clean, overdrive, and lead. I use a pedal to boost for my lead sounds.

I use this amp with my Strats (single coils), Les Pauls (hot humbuckers), and my Washburn HB-35's (semi-hollowbodies). All three types of guitars sound excellent on each channel through this amp, both in the studio and in live performance.

i think this amp is well built but... I ALWAYS bring a back up!!!

Two year warranty. i am happy!!!

I own Fender, Marshall, and Peavey. This Mesa Boogie is now my first string "gig" amp AND recording amp. When I specifically need a Marshall, or a Fender, I'll pull it out, but this Mesa does everything I need it to do. It doesn't look like "Mission Control", the knobs all actually do something, and it sounds like the gods!!!

My F30 is new and this is my second review of this product. It is mostly in response to an earlier review that talked about the amp being solid-state. This simply is not true. There are two power amp tubes and four pre amp tubes. The individual simply needed to look in the rear of the aqmp to see these components.

My F30 is brand new. I bought it as a back up for my Nomad 55. The controls are very straight forward. I use it at home to practice with but I know if I needed to I could use it at the small venues we play.

I play PRS guitars, Hollow Body, CU22 and Santana III. The amp sounds wonderful and demonstrates the differences between each model. I play a large variety of styles and it seems to suit each one. I am still playing with the controls discovering new tones all the time. I'm not able to play at high volumes because I live in an apartment.

Haven't had it long enough for any problems. I doesn't have any noise in fact it is quieter than my Nomad.

N/A

I think this is more of an amp than most people think. Even though it is
tauted as an entry level Mesa I think it is more than that.

I bought ths thing at my local Guitar Center. I traded in My Marshall AVT 50 half stack and a Fender Princeton 112 plus for it. It is a 1x12 combo with 2 footswitchable channels and a footswitchable Contour mode that gives this little combo alot of tonal range. Both channels have individual gain, treble, mid, bass, reverb, and volume controls. Has a mini toggle switch for channel selection and two toggle switches for Standby and On/Off. Very simple layout for people like me who like simplicity. The rear pannel has 1 8ohm speaker jack and 2 4ohm speaker jacks, and a footswitch jack (comes with the three button footswitch). It has a Parallel Effects loop with mix control, and a direct recording out that doubles as a headphone jack.

For a 30 watt combo it is very loud. I cranked it up in my basement and my wife came down from the second floor to tell me that she couldn't hear herself talking on the phone. The Celestion Vintage 30 speaker is perfect for this amp because it give great versatility. I play a 1968 Fender Strat reissue with stock pickups in the neck and middle and a Seymour Duncan Hotrails in the bridge. I also play a PRS Santana SE. The cool thing with this amp is that it allows the tone, feel, and character of the guitar to shine through. This is something very hard to accomplish with a solid state amp. I play mostly rock and blues and this amp suits both styles PERFECTLY! I've always wanted a Boogie but somehow I always put it off. This little amp is ALL BOOGIE. Let just say that I have always owned SS amps and even tried the POD and the VAMP but NOTHING COMPARES TO A TUBE AMP! specially a Mesa Boogie.
The clean sound on this amp is bright and full, the gain on this amp is unreal. I don't understand how some people did not like the gain channel on this amp. You get get very nice mild gain with that great "Tube" tone we all love, or if you switch on the Contour you can get this blow you head off high gain very similar to the Dual Rectifier. I wonder how this amp would sound connected to a Rectifier 4x12 cab Hmmmmmmm.......
One things with this amp is that the tone controls are very sensitive, if you move the treble to the right just a little bit you will hear the difference hence, it will take you some time to find the right tone for different applications. You can "dial in" so many different sounds I still keep finding new ones.
Eventhough I love the way this amp sounds, I think everything can be improved so, I ordered some JJ tubes. When I get them in I will post an update and let you all know how it sounds.
One last thing, the "Recording out" on this amp is Excellent. I record in to a BOSS BR-532 and the quality of the tone that comes through is amazing. I have had other amps that had recording out jacks, but they all sucked. This amp is a 2 in 1. It's an amp and a recording amp. WOW!

This thing is built like a tank. It is mildly heavy and very solid. Hey! It's a Boogie!!!
I would never gig without a backup, things happen you know, and when you have 100 or so drunk people waiting for you to play and you cant because some jackass poured a bear right into you amp, well lets just say, It's Not Good.
By the way, I would really hurt someone if the mess with my Boogie.

I called them once to ask if the amp came with a slip cover or not. I left a message and the guy got back to me within an hour. He was very friendly and professional.

I have been playing for 19 years. I have owned a lot of gear in that time but this is my first all tube amp. If it were stolen or lost I would collect the insurance and get my self another one. I love it cause it is small portable amp with plenty of power. It's clean when it has to be but it really roars in the gain position. I compared this side by side to my own AVT50 (a nice amp in its own right) and other Boogies. This thing hands down sounds way better than the Marshall and it hold it own against any other of the high end Boogies. Just one note the Fender Hot Rod's can't hold a candle to this amp. An amplifier should have its own character, with its own unique tonal qualities. It's nice that an amp can sound like another amp but ultimately what you want is an amp that can help you get your musical statement accross with clarity and feeling. This amp has that ability. I highly recommend this amp for anyone wanting a tube amp at a budget price.

Made in 2003. This amp is versatile - that's the bottom line. I'm able to get shimmering clean sounds from my strat and ice pick sounds on the clean channel from humbuckers. The second channel is great - nice low end punch and crunch. And everything in between. There is an effects loop, but the best part is the seperately eq-able channels. The foot switch also gives you great control. Another nice feature is the contour - adds punch to the second channel. I just wish it were a tube rectifier.

1999 Strat with Bill Lawrence pickups, Rickenbaker, Ibanez RG series, Heritage Les Paul... I've tried almost every kind of guitar on this amp. I like using its overdrive channel mostly, but the clean channel is also, well, very clean. It tends to be very tight and responsive - unlike my Fender which I can coax into a nice loose and mushy sound. I play all types of rock and funk - old Hendrix songs, Joe Walsh stuff, Jethro Tull pieces, and even some Metallica. I'm also a fan of blues and jazz works and play them on a Guild Starfire IV. This amp can cover anything my Fender can't and then some. No, it's not an Orange or a Soldano, but it's much more versatile in it's class. I really don't know what the issue is here with the bad reviews - I've gotta think they could have fixed his problem, or at least explained how bad his house current is. The other guy who hates the distortion channel - strange thing. Apparently bought it anyhow! Gosh, I'm thinking he could have found one to try first. I really like the distortion sound - just right for what I wanted.

Don't know yet - but the 5 year warranty meant something to me when I bought it.

Don't know

I've been playing for several years - about 25 to be vague. Having played so many amps in the past, I've played some real cool vintage stuff. This one has the Mesa sound. I had played it against a Soldano and an Orange but chose it for it's reverb and 2 channel design. The Orange will be my next amp, but this Mesa filled a spot in my arsenal that needed filling.

Very simple to use and dial in "TONE". Two EL84 power tubes. Four 12AX7 preamp tubes. 30 watts. One Celestion Vintage 30 speaker. Record output. Speaker mute switch. Compact, resonable weight. Pleanty of volume for studio and small gigs.

I play Jazz,Rock(Modern/Classic), Fusion. The sound is incredible! This amp literally interacts with my LesPaul and becomes an instrument in itself. Patience and understanding of any amp is the key to achieving great tone. Also tone comes from ones personality and attitude towards your instrument and amplifier. For me, this amp(and I spent many days and countless hours researching and playing a variety of amps)gets me to where I play my best. A simple, compact amp. I was tired of trying to get everyone elses sound. Digital,Simulator,Sounds just like... "Find your own self". This amp lets YOUR style shine through. Very musical on both channels.

I would never gig(every night) without a backup period. No matter what brand of amp I use. I do trust it. The construction is unbelieveable. Mesa is, in my opinion, the best manufacturer of amps out there.

In my reasearch of amplifiers I spoke directly with Mesa and was very satisfied with their personel. They were knowledgable, helpfull and always friendly. I spoke with them several times before making my amp selection.

I have been playing guitar since 1973. I have played through many brands of amps combos,stacks etc. My favorites have been Ampeg svt22, and a Guild 66J (like the tweed deluxe).
In the new amp market, the Mesa/Boogie F30 is becoming a very strong amp for me. I love the F 50 also. It just had more power than I need for my applications. I give this amp a 10 for simplicity and tone. The longer I play I realize that a guitar player finds his/her tones from within their soul. A great amp like this one really lets your sound come through as true as it can possibly be. I could have spent less, I could have spent more. I can't put a pricetag on "my tone". This amp gives my the tone I was looking for. The value of this amp is measured in its expressiveness. I would buy it again if something were to happen to it.

2 channel 1-12 combo. 30W; 2 EL-84's Good Mesa Boogie construction/ plywood cab. Celestion vintage 30 Speaker. Mfg'd 2003. Bought for use as practice amp

Excellent clean sound, but very noisy. Suprised at this because of the favorable reviews about low noise. After getting it home, noise was objectionable for practice. Went and auduitioned other F series and found them about as noisy. Swapped the V1 tube and that helped some, but ultimately took it back for refund. Intolerable with gain and master set each set above 9 oclock. Hey Randy.....it sounds great, but some attention needs to be paid to reducing the noise!!!

I am asure it is very reliable except for tube selection........I don't like the tube sockets being in the circuit boards...........

Usually good, but I am tied of being their tube QC. I also don't like being put on hold just to leave a message.....

Great build quality and sounds......clean channel noise ruined it for me.............

This is a f30 combo,treble ,mid,bass,gain,reverb,master volume--2 independent channels with independent eq sections.has effects loop on the back with variable send level control and opions to use different auxillary cabs with 4,8,16 ohm jacks,effects loop

Humbuckers, loud as you like with an SG. Crunchy yet mellow, and v.loud. No noise on any channels at any volume, not even humming, which you expect at loud volumes. No popping or clicks or hums as the amp has built in transistors, not totally tubes. Vartiey of sounds is very impressive. When practising with this amp, I get used to one sound and then find another one that I like. A plethora of sounds, and no end of different combinations. You can keep twiddling the knobs, because this amp will do what you tell it to.

Telecasters sound mean on this amp, Strats too ES335s SGs no doubt Les Paul rips your ears off, but all of the above guitars sound how they should sound, with this amp. Way better the anything Fender has to offer. Tried HOT ROD Deville 410, and it is pants compared to this, no way near the quality or volume, for an amp this size. Not even that heavy, 30kgs or something like that. I want to try the bigger Mesa stuff now, listen to how mean that is. I also like how plain and understated the amp looks. No designation of amp model is seen anywhere apart from the back and the footswitch.
GREAT!!! 5*

30 Watt tube combo, two channels, each with volume, treble, middle, bass, reverb and master. Class B power amp design with a pair of EL-84's, 4 12AX7 preamp tubes, parallel effects loop, solid state reverb. I give this amp a 9 for features, it basically has everything you'd need for a gigging situation. Very straightforward design, easy to dial in your sound. Plenty of power for garage-band blues-rock jamming, or gigging in small clubs.

I use this amp for straight ahead jazz, using an Ibanez George Benson model archtop, and for Blues-Rock in the Allman Bros., Robben Ford, Clapton style, using a Fender Custom Shop Tele with texas special single coils. When I first bought it, it was really noisy, due to a power supply design problem ( more on that below ). I finally got the power supply modified, and it was still a bit noisy. So I replaced the power tubes with JJ EL-84's. BIG IMPROVEMENT! For Jazz, the clean sound on this amp is excellent. With my Benson, the sound is Fat, warm, delicious! The reverb could be smoother though, I wish they had used a tube reverb circuit. For blues and Rock using the Telecaster the clean sound is again very good. Even at low volumes I can get a sweet, sparkly, slightly compressed tone which is useful for rhythm or lead playing. The distortion channel on this amp just sucks unfortunately. The second channel, even with the contour switch engaged is just unusable for any lead work. Randall Smith must have been on acid when he designed this one. I have owned the following Boogie products in the past: Mark IIC, Studio 22, Quad Preamp, Mark IV head, and Maverick 1-12 combo. All of them had much better overdrive sound than this amp. Fortunately, you can use a Fulldrive II pedal in front of the amp and get a good lead sound this way, just using the clean channel and ignoring the channel switching. So I give the amp an 8 for the clean channel, and a 2 for the distortion channel, for an overall rating of five.

Bought this amp used on eBay. When it arrived, it worked for about two days, then started making horrible farting noises and a nasty snapping sound from inside that made me think it was going to electrocute me. Shit! I'm an electrical engineer, so I pulled the chassis and found that the primary filter cap in the power supply was arcing and getting really hot to the touch. BAD SHIT! I measured the power supply and found the transformer was putting 495 volts across the 450 volt rated cap. DUH! So I called Boogie Service and they told me they knew about the problem and there was an upgrade required to 500 volt capacitors. I finally got the new caps installed and the problem is fixed but I'm worried about what else might happen with this thing. I don't think I could rely on it for gigging at this point.

As described above, I had to call Boogie for advice about the power supply problem. Everyone there was actually very helpful and easy to deal with. The support guy called me back the same day! I wish they would make the warranty transferable though, to protect people like me who get an almost new amp, bought used.

I've been playing guitar for 30 years, and like I said above I've owned a lot of amps through the years. This is not one of the better ones unfortunatley. If it was stolen I would not buy another. My favorite amp was probably my Mark IV head, which I sold cause I was tired of lugging around a separate head and cabinet. At this point I'm probably going to sell this amp and suck it up and pay out the big bucks for a high end amp like a badcat or a carr or two rock. Even for $600 I think there are much better choices out there.

Mesa F-30 1-12(vintage 30) tube combo made in 2002. 2 channels - clean and dirty with contour on dirty channel. Reverb, effects loop, footswitch included, indivdual tone controls for each channel. Also a neat feature is the "silent recording feature. This will kill the speaker to record in silence, so your neighbors don't kill you. For a so called "basic" Mesa it has more than enough features to cover all the bases.

I mostly play Rock, jazz and blues. The more i play it, the more i like it. This amp is a welcome change from my Duel Rectifier, not so much as feature wise, but a different flavor of tubes(EL-84 vs. EL34's) and obviously power (30 watts vs 100 watts). I play a Les Paul Standard, Ibanez AS-120(think 335), and a cheap Kramer tele copy that puts any american Fender to shame (sad but true). This amp likes both single coil and Humbuckers. The clean channel is by far the best i have ever heard - bright and warm reverb is nice also, very smooth, very easy to get a great tone. The Dirty channel does take some coaxing to get right, but after fiddleing for a day or two I found the "sweet spot". You will not get the Rectifier sound out of this thing so look else where, but you will get a realy nice Santana-like lead with the contour engaged, as well a a great crunch for rythym work.

This is my second Mesa and I absolutly swear by them. I also own a Duel rectifier Solo Head with a 4-12 cab from 1996 that has seen a lot of stage work and never had a problem with it - only replaced the tubes still sounds great today. I am positive this amp will stand the test of time. It's built like a tank

I have dealt with Mesa in the past for different questions regaurding specs and such, and have always been called back in a day or two - they stand behind their product. No complaints here

I have been playing since 86 and have been through just about everything- Marshall, Fender, and others. I feel that Mesa Engineering is on top of the game when it comes to tube amps.
This is a solid amp that does a great job of producing very musical tones.
If it where lost, would most likely get another one.

2002.....2 channel (switchable with foot control).....with contour on channel 2.....30 watt.....complete set of controls for each channel....celestion vintage 30.....

play a stock rickenbacker 360 through it....cahnnel 1 clean is about as good as it gets......am considering selling my blues junior (which i bought specifically for the clean)....channel 2 leaves something to be desired, but add the contour and you have a really nice (and easily adjusted), distortion......

the first f-30 that i took home was the floor model, and the clean (#1) channel never worked.....guitar center exchanged ....no questions asked......only had a short while so the jury is still out on this one....

initial reaction is that the build quality of this amp is second to none......there is nothing about it that was skimped on.....don't forsee any problems but have heard that the customer service is very responsive....

been playing off and on for 30-some years....playing the rick 360 through it....have a blues junior which will now collect dust (or i could use it as an extention speaker with a back-up amp built in!)
the 2nd channel without using the contour seems a bit thin but how many strong points can one amp have......great clean sounds, and very nice distortion which comes on nicely as you roll on the gain....the reverb is very nice....not as strong as the blues junior but that was overkill anyway.....plenty of reverb for any setting......will update this review after a few months.....

Simple, 2 channel amp. Minimum controls (for a Mesa), clean and lead with an added "contour" switch for the second channel which works pretty well. Effects loop, which seems more complex to adjust than it should be, my Mark III had a plug and play effects loop that I much preferred. Reverb is nice, and has separate controls for each channel.

I was actually Les Paul shopping, and happened to plug one into the amp, I was done. The clean channel sold me. It is really nicely voiced, I brought it home and plugged my Gretsch in, and it sounded really nice. I have had Fenders, VHT, Mesa Mark III (loaded simul/ev) and a tremoverb and am currently playing a Trainwreck Climax. I was not really amp shopping, but the idea of having a nice little 30 watt amp for studio/small venue just made sense. The clean channel is really nicely voiced, and the lead channel is a little questionable. I would have bought this amp in a single channel and gladly put pedals in front of it...

My Mesa's have been the best!! The amps have been perfect, not so much as a tube failure since 1989.....I do however follow the warmup and cool down steps religiously....

Probably one of the best in the business, a real person actually answers the phone. They have answered several questions and were very helpful.

I have a lot of confidence in Mesa products and service. The other 2 amps I have had from them were built like tanks, and were really dependable. I think that this amp will be a lightweight, compact versatile amp covering sounds from light jazz tones to classic rock. If I was looking for super high gain, I might look elsewhere, but have found in the past that not very many amps cover both clean and high gain very well. The Mesa Tremoverb probably did the best job covering the most territory, and the VHT did the best overall high gain...but was a little clinically sterile in the clean dept. I will most likely use only the clean channel (with pedals).