NAD: Mesa/Boogie Fillmore 50

I've been eyeballing one of these for quite some time and was about to pull the trigger before everything went sideways. Luckily, we've been fortunate enough to be largely unaffected by all this, so I went back on the prowl. Opened up the local CL and, as if a cosmic sign, there sat a Fillmore 50 in factory new condition for $1300. Did the weird mask, gloves, and distance meet up to check it out and it was pristine - the seal on the plastic casing holding the inspection tags, manual, etc. was still intact as well as the factory tie on the footswitch cable.

Apparently, the dude selling it has been a big Mesa/Boogie fan for a while and got one to check out the different direction of its design and decided he preferred the more EL84-bent approach of their other products. I just got lucky and snatched a prime deal, it seems.

Here it is sitting under its little brother, my Recto-Verb 25 head.


Time will tell if the head finds a new home, but ideally the Fillmore would be a do-it-all amp for my sounds and I could greatly reduce my gear situation and get it all into the hands of players needing stuff to love and ample time to do so.

All sanitized and ready to roll, this thing sounds fantastic and the EQ controls on it are powerful, it's a very immediate response to knob twiddling and has thus far been extremely versatile. The only thing it's missing is some of the ultra-tight heavy crunch the Recto-Verb offered up, but that's not my main sound or something I've spent much time trying to chase out of this amp. Again, time will tell if I can truly become a one amp player, but the Fillmore seems determined to convince of such.

 

If by big boy you mean power output, I'm sure it'd have you covered, but it does feel like a very tame 50 watts. I find it much more manageable for home playing than my 25 watt head, and that's in the full power mode. The clean mode is extremely easy to keep at pretty much any volume - which not be ideal for people needing massive clean headroom. I've not had a chance to run it wide open with current situations.

It's an odd clean channel, but in a very good way. The gain-volume knob relationship is pretty standard until you get the gain to maybe 1:00. That doesn't stay squeaky clean, but just adds a touch of edge to the sound. But keep running past that and it gets snarly in a really nice way. I almost think of the gain knob as Blackface on 0 and Tweed on 10 in the clean setting.

Also, if you have a Strat, this amp loves them. It's a very special combination pretty much any way you set the amp. And it can absolutely get that super bright tele tone that will slice your head in two, no problem.

 

Yeah, the situation did makes things a bit different. But, the guy I bought it from was extremely kind and was also being very careful with regards to the health situation. We actually met outside and he placed the amp on his tailgate and stepped away to let me test the amp using the 120VAC power outlet in the truck's bed (real fancy stuff I'd never seen). Truth be told, the actual NAD was a while back, but letting it sit to allow any potential fungus to die off and then a careful wipedown were clearly in order.

It takes pedals extremely well, though I've been really moving away from using any aside from a tuner for the last 3 months or so. It gets some really cool Billy G-esque not-quite-fuzz tones with the gain dimed on the clean mode and then running a Swollen Pickle Mk II with the tone and scoop knobs all the way up and the crunch at about 3:00, with very minimal sustain and at unity volume. Very happy to finally be able to get those sounds after so long. And I was able to almost immediately dial in my personal "holy grail" tone - the lead from Jesus Just Left Chicago.

You are not wrong about the odd settings, though. Knobs are getting putting in some strange places, but making fantastic sounds. Obviously will wait until I'm well outside the honeymoon phase to make definitive judgements or move the little Recto. But, I'm certainly going to be keeping the Fillmore I believe. It's a real killer amp.

 

That is super punchy, I dig that sound. What pickups are you sending through that?

 

I bet that is a sweet setup indeed. I was fooling around with that setting with a P-rails equipped tele in P-90 mode and digging it. Some volume and tone knob fiddling and lots of Duane and Dickey was coming through. Not a bad place to be at all.

How do you like the extension cab? I've never used any of Mesa's own cabs, but I've only ever heard great things about them.

 

Pretty much my thoughts exactly. It's not going to be a Marshall replacement, if you're looking for another way to that exact sound. But, it can definitely serve the same purpose while being sonically distinct in my opinion. And as @Frodebro said, pedals can get you there easily. I love the cleans on it, it's actually the main thing that made me start looking into the Fillmore over my little Recto. I personally like the lack of surfability in the reverb. I dig surf and all, but I'd much rather be able to crank the verb up and get really big swimmy sounds without it getting overly bouncy. Which this seems to happily serve up.