rockabilly69

I have two close friends that are both, amp builders, and first rate repairman, and both of them recommend Tung Sol 6V6 tubes. I have used them in my Victoria Regal II, and my TopHat Club Deluxe, and I like them. My favorite 6V6 tubes are NOS Sylvania (I also love green label Sylvania 12AX7s) as it seems they last forever and sound great, but I could easily use TungSols and not feel like I'm losing any tone.

To be clear, not JJ regular 6V6 tubes I'm talking specifically about the 6V6S tube

If he put JJ 6V6S tubes in there, I can tell you from experience they do not sound like 6V6 tubes. They are way more 6L6 like. Whether you like them or not is comes down to the individual, and what they are looking for,and perhaps even the amp they are used in can make in difference. In my TopHat amp I did not like them one bit, and couldn't yank them fast enough. But that is the only amp that I gave them a try in, so maybe, it was just the way that amp reacted to them.

Did you buy the JJ 6V6S? Some people love them as they have 6L6 properties. I tried them in my TOPHAT Club Deluxe, they didn't work for me, they were very stiff sounding! I tried Gold Lions and they actually sounded pretty good. Most of my 6V6 amps though have NOS Sylvania or RCA tubes, and they always sound good.

Another thing a lot has to do with biasing which you can't adjust with the Mesa, that's why Mesa insists on using their tubes, as they fall within acceptable bias ranges for their amps. I know that some tube sellers can find non mesa tubes in the right range for Mesa though. The less musical tone and harder distortion tone of the JJs could just be cold bias.

Although I am fan Of Mesa Boogie, I could never find my tones in the Lonestar that I find so easy to get with the Fillmore. In this comparison I prefer the Cali Tweed. But although I like the tone of the Cali Tweed, I need two channels, as I'm plugging straight in on stage. And I need to get a good rhythm tone with the ability to switch to a good lead tone without pedals. That's why I love the Fillmore. The two identical channels make it easy to dial in a great lead tone that works with the rhythm tone. In the past all the mesa amps that I've used were voiced to middy on the lead channel. And I like the bigger 6L6 tone over the 6V6 tone. Which is funny because most of my amps are 6V6. My favorite tone in this video is the ES335 with a bit of reverb.

I also think it's cool that he found the right amp! I love the Fillmore but I can see why he likes the tweed. Got to give it up to Mesa for introducing better amps for us guys that like vintage style tones. Their other amps are pretty cool too but just a little too high gain for my style.

What is the depth of a Sweet Sixteen, and how wide is the waist and the lower bought? I'm wondering because I need a case for my Guild X175 and I was hoping a sweet 16 case would fit it.

Great looking guitar, congrats!

yep subjective, there's too many variables in what we all listen for.

I had an original Mark series amp, and I was always twiddling knobs to get a tone I liked. I just don't get along with that type of amp. I almost gave up on Boogies 'till I found a used Studio 22+ that sounded great, unfortunately someone stole that amp out of a club I played at (we were the house band and would leave our equipment there and I will never do that again). I tried a bunch of smaller Boogies (Studios, DC, Nomad, Blue Angel,etc) and wound up with a particularly good sounding DC2, which I still have, and that is the amp that I use when rehearsing with the band in my studio. I have a Weber 12A125 speaker in it and it really sounds great. But like most Boogies the dirty channel is just a bit too middy. But the Fillmore to me sounds lot different to me than any other Boogie. The middle position has the most wonderful tweed like sound and the reverb is great. You can get high gain out of it when you need (high as I need anyway), and the low gain position is scooped and does the blackface Fender thing. But the best thing is having two identical channels making it very easy to dial a lead tone that works with your rhythm tone. The best of any Boogie I've ever tried!

1/2 of a preamp tube shorted out and it took out a JFET in the reverb circuit. the repair was done in one day. I ran it pretty hot today and compared it to my Marshall it was a fun day of rocking. I've said it before but I think the Fillmore is the best amp that I own, and I own quite a few good amps (Victoria, Clark, TopHat, Marshall, Vox, Vintage Fenders, Dirty Girl, Ampeg).

Actually I didn't send it to Mesa. I wanted my amp back quick so I had a local guy (who is Mesa certified), fix it for me. The guy is a great tech, and immediately got to work on it. If I would have sent it to Mesa I would have never got it back in time for my next gig. Not that Mesa wouldn't have stood by their amp, it's just I wanted it back asap.

Congrats on the new California Tweed. I would like to try one of those too!!! Good news on my Fillmore, one half of one of my 12AX7s shorted out and a new tube fixed that. In the process though, a JFET in my reverb circuit was taken out. The whole repair only took two days and it's now good as new!

My Darkburst H150 is probably my favorite, It's just a great sounding, great playing guitar!

I can almost hear it from hear! Looks great!

Oh bad news, my Fillmore died today, first the reverb wouldn't work, then all the volume went away. Tried new tubes in every spot and nothing worked. It's under warranty, I hope the repair is solid and doesn't take to long. I'll talk to Mesa tomorrow. It's a bummer, because I was testing a guitar that I just got today, another Teye, a Fox...

That's exactly what I was thinking.

I've owned the Mesa Fillmore 50 combo for about a year and I can say the first position on the gain switch gives up the glassy tones with ease, the second position gives up the tweedy tones, and the third position is classic Boogie. Randall Smith has said he based the tone stack on the vintage tweeds, but with the mid control down low, and the gain switch at the 1st position you can easily get the classic Fender clean tones. Another thing these amps are louder the most people give them credit for.The problem is the most people are running the preamp gains too low. When they preamp gains are above the halfway mark which is still very clean on position one, and the master is cranked they are very loud. The volume on the master doesn't really come on 'till the last third, it's way different than most amps which develop most of their volume in the first two thirds of their travel. I have no problem getting clean above some hard hitting drummers.

This was the very first thing I noticed about mine. For starters, grab a single coil guitar, preferably a Tele, put the gain position switch into the middle position, gain about 6/7, and everything else at 5 (tailor the bass to the low e-string), and you will hear the sound of a Fender tweed amp with all of it's squishy-ness there that makes playing tweeds so much fun. But the Fillmore is even more fun than a tweed because it has a great sounding reverb!!! This isn't but it sounds very much like a hot Tele pickup...

No chance, it's on!!! There's a guy on the Gearpage "TAG" a Dumble owner, who swears his Fillmore 50 is one of the best amps he's ever owned. And when I first plugged into my Fillmore 50, I was checking out a bunch of guitars at Guitar Center, and I thought it was the guitars that were great, until I plugged them into another amp, and they were nothing special, it was the Fillmore. So I bought it on the spot!!! I wrote this song the day that I brought my Fillmore home. Check out my Teye guitar plugged straight into the Fillmore it's a tone that I was chasing forever, and from here on out will use for every live show I play...

I've owned so many amps I can't count them all, and I still own quite a few, and... I like my Mesa Fillmore 50 more than any amp that I've ever owned. My favorite amps are tweed amps and the middle gain position on the Fillmore shines for that. The low gain positions are also very useful, and the reverb is huge. You're gonna love your new amp!

nice looking top on that one Will!

I was, on one of my telecasters I used a heavy brass bridge plate and brass nut. They were made by mighty mite. And my L5 S Guitars got those big harmonica bridges, weren’t they made by Schaller?

no I just prefer the locker because it keeps the bridge on when your changing strings, same with their tailpiece