30W vs 50W Opinions

I am just buying my first electric guitar. I have a very nice acoustic now but want to venture into the electric world. I've been shopping around and pretty much decided to get either a Mesa Boogie F30 or F50. I've only played the F30 in my local guitar store. It sounds really nice to me but... The F50 has received awards for it's tone and seems like the star of this amp lineup. There is not much difference in price between an F30 and F50 on eBay. I am just worried that I won't be able to get a good tone out of it because I will mostly be playing it at low-ish volumes at home. Don't want to drive my wife crazy you know. Is it overkill to get a 50W tube amp for home use? I'd love to get the more powerful better sounding amp because there may be times when I want to crank it up.

What would you recommend?

Thanks

--zbert

I have a F30, and it is a loud amp! Loud enough to be heard over a heavy hitting drummer and to play gigs where the PA was used for "vocals only." When I compared the F30 to the F50 in a quite room, they sounded identical to me. If you plan on powering an external cabinet, then the F50 might make more sense, but the F30 does a good job at being loud on it's own.

What is cool about the F30 is that it actually produces 4 pretty unique tube driven tones with the flick of a couple of switches (clean, clean bright, over driven, and over driven with contour). It is a good amp to run a modeler through (Podxt Live in my case) both from the front or through the preamp in. It gives the Pod a bit of tube warmth with plenty of power.... as well as a good amp to get pure tones with no effects.

In order to get a "better" amp in the Mesa Boogie range, you'd probably have to get a Lone Star or a Mark IV....and it doesn't seem worth the extra 50%+ for a few "extra" features. There are definitely better boutique amps out there for twice to three times the money or more (Badcat, Matchless, Marshall handwired), but the F30 is more than enough for my needs. It's probably the most versatile, great sounding amp under $1000. Definitely a workhorse amp live or in the studio. FYI, I paid $950 for mine.... and I've seen them as low as $900.

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Thanks so much for the comments. That has been the best feedback I've received from anybody regarding amps. My local store has also quoted me $950 for the F30. I figured I would check on eBay because the F series has been discontinued and, sure enough, there are a few to be had at a decent price. I thought I might pick up an F50 if I can get it at $950 or less. The F50 has won several awards and Mesa indicates in their Tube Guide that the 6L6 STR-440 tubes is their tube of choice for new models as shown below. I think the controls on both the F30 and F50 are the same so I should be able to operate the F50 just as easily.

The 440 is our very best overall 6L6 - It is a premium grade, US equivalent and our tube of choice in the production of all new Mesa 6L6
powered models - Remarkable bass definition, articulate mids and shimmering highs keep every note amazingly intelligible, with a smooth, creamy
character - Premium structural quality provides exceptional consistency and reliability - Rivals NOS (New Old Stock) durability and sonic character -
Amazing for all styles of music

Hopefully you can find a good deal. As I said, to my ears both amps sounded pretty much identical even at a decently loud volumes. The store I bought mine in (Gelb Music in Redwood City, CA) had some old stock as of last month (under $900 for the F30)... Also, the F30 model I bought from them was "custom" in that it had a different speaker (I think it was the same speaker that they use in the higher end Vox AC-30s?). You may want to call them and see if they still have the F30 or other Boogie NOS....also what the custom mods they had Boogie do just for them....it may be a wash with shipping cost if you don't have to pay California taxes.

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The difference to me is in the power tubes, EL84 (F30) to me are not as nice as the 6L6's (F50). If you can play and listen to both.

You know, I went ahead and bought the F-30 without ever trying the F-50. Probably ok for my purposes right now. I will make it a point to try out an F-50. If I like it, I can always resort to Ebay and probably not lose any money in the process of trading up to the F-50.

Thats great..I hope you enjoy..If you have it sitting on the floor try tilting it back and kind of point the speaker twords you face instead of your feet, it will sound better.

That's true. I've located my Vox Valvetronix 30-watt amp on top of a crate that's about 18 inches high, and the sound quality is better than when the amp was on the floor.

Given that the circuits are reasonably similar, the difference in volume will be less than you think. The human ear doesn't hear 25 watts as 1/2 as loud as 50 watts. The perception curve has been graphed and the ratio is 10 to 1. This means that your ear will hear a 5 watt amp as 1/2 as loud as a 50 watt amp. This is the whole reason for audio taper pots. What you should focus on is the tonal differences produced by the tubes and speakers (if they're not the same speaker). I, too like 6L6's better than EL84's, but let your ears tell you what YOU like best and buy an attenuator if you have to.

Grace and Peace,
Joey

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