By Douglas Baldwin
 hile most manufacturers have
rushed to put some kind of digital modeling amp on the market in recent years, Mesa/Boogie
has continued to focus on building the very tube amps that have inspired all
those digital wannabes. Its new F Series of amps packs the Boogie magic into
a simple-to-use 2-channel format at a very comfortable price. Armed with a bevy
of guitars and comparable combo amps, we put the F-50 to work.
 AN “A” FOR
THIS F
Using the two channels of the F-50 is a breeze. Channel 1 handles the clean chores,
while Channel 2 dishes up the dirt. Each is regulated with a simple set of independent
controls; bells and whistles in the form of front and back-panel toggle switches
and pull-switch knobs are kept to an absolute minimum. Quick story: I was working
with a student on some ZZ Top tunes while using the F-50’s clean channel.
For giggles, my student leaned over to the amp, switched me to the high-gain
channel, and literally dialed up that gravelly Gibbons grind in about two seconds—it
was that easy to use.
And it was a surprisingly gnarly tone from the company that pioneered "sweet" sustain.
The music figure below perfectly captures this Boogie's boogie.
For those in need
of still more corpulence, Channel 2's Contour switch adds a midrange gain
goose that puts the F-50 dangerously close to Boogie’s own
Dual and Triple-Rectifier molten metal tones. It won’t quite nail the
hiss and thunder of a full-throttled Recto, but the front-end addition of any
good distortion box will easily push the F-50 into that mosh pit. And as with
virtually all Mesa/Boogie amps, the F-50’s rating of 50 watts is so conservative
it’s almost deceitful. This little combo will rattle the tables in any
500-seat venue, sans P.A. D E F F
Both channels of the F-50 have an edge-of-the-envelope quality, serving
different though complementary ends. Sure, we all love gobs of high-gain distortion
(and Channel 2 delivers it in spades), but the F-50’s clean Channel 1 is
this amp’s real secret weapon. It’s the closest thing to a Class
A amp I’ve ever heard in a Class AB design, delivering a jaw-dropping
high-end response that reveals subtleties of tone you never knew you had. Teamed
with an engaging midrange complexity as well as a tight and full bass response,
the F-50 feels like it’s ready to leap out of its own cabinet to actualize
whatever fancies your fingers and frets summon forth. How clean is Channel 1?
Here’s another story: While comparing the F-50 with some other amps for
stompbox friendliness, when the boxes were off I heard a disheartening low-grade
distortion through the F-50. Amazingly, a multi-meter revealed that one battery
had dropped to 8.95V, just .05V below spec, and I only heard it with the F-50.
The
F-50 generates such wondrous tone that criticism is almost subjective. The
F-50’s reverb, for example, is a bit cool and dry. Some players may
love it; I prefer the silver clouds of ambience surrounding a Fender Pro Reverb,
Ampeg V T-22, or Mesa/ Boogie’s Heartbreaker, for example. For those unfamiliar
with the amp’s functions, the silver-gray lettering on the black front
panel could be difficult to read on a dark stage, and the footswitch has no LED
for Channel 2 (the front panel has LEDs for both). And for the closest thing
to a boutique amp under a grand, the 6' AC power cord seemed a little short.
But for a 50W combo that can slay 100W giants while executing tone comparable
to a Zen watercolor, there’s little to compare with the F-50.
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