Mesa Lone Star

[bluesman69]

Has anyone tried this amp. I've had mine about 2 months now and it is the best sounding Mesa I've ever played.

From Mesa's site:
Comes standard with blue bronco vinyl and pewter grille
Channel Assignable Power Section allows you to assign either 2 or all 4 Power Tubes to each Channel for Power Ratings of 50 or 100 Watts of Class A/B Power / 4x6L6, 5x12AX7, 1x5U4
Bias Select Switch (6L6/EL34)
Manual or Auto-Select Tube Rectifier or Silicon Diodes
2 Fully Independent Channels each with Gain, Treble, Mid, Bass, Presence, Reverb & Master Controls
Channel 1 is dedicated to Boutique Vintage Clean/Breakup
Channel 2 is switchable between Clean/Breakup (Cloning Channel 1) and Cascading High Gain
High Gain Mode on Channel 2 activates separate “Drive” Control (Multi-Stage Cascading Gain Circuit)
Thick/Normal/Thicker Voicing Switch (Channel 2)
All-Tube, Long Spring Reverb with Bright/Warm Reverb Tone Switch
Output Level Control (over all channels)
Footswitchable Solo Level Control (patent pending)
All-Tube FX Loop with Send Level Control and True “Hard” Bypass Switch
Full Power/Tweed “Variac” Switch
Slave Out w/Level Control
Fan Cooled
External Switching Jacks for Channels 1 / 2 & Solo
All Aluminum Chassis
2 Button Footswitch (Channel 1 / 2 & Solo)
Slip Cover

[benb]

I'd love to hear you elaborate on the sounds your getting out of the amp...i.e. what style do you play, why does it work so well for you, where does it really excell etc.

[bluesdoc]

There's a lot of discussion about this amp on the other side. Here's one fairly illuminating thread:

http://63.151.115.106/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29774

jon

[benb]

Thanks for the link, it's easy to miss stuff over there.

[workrelease]

I've had my LS about two weeks now and man, I love this amp!!! Mine is the 1X12 combo.

I play mainly blues and R&B, but we do some jazzy stuff too.
Here's what I like about the LS...
Great versatility. Go from a super nice clean on Ch1 to a thick, meaty crunch with cascaded gain on Ch2. Switch between 50 and 100 watts, and tube or diode rectifier. The treble, mid, bass controls actually control, and combined with the gain and presence along with the other 'switchables' this amp covers a lot of ground. That's important to me.
Great warm or bright reverb.
I used it last week at rehearsal for the first time. Played with no effects and on a Swamp Ash. The way this thing just sliced through the mix was crazy, and I don't mean volume. It was just so alive!

What I don't like...
The price!
The weight!

All in all, the LS is a monster amp with exhilarating tone. I intend to use it to replace my Marshall DSL2000 50-watter 1/2 stack for gigging. The Marshall is sweet, but it can't keep up with the LS (IMHO)... in any category...clean, crunch, versatility, presence.

-work (Phil)

[Christopher Wade]

Switch between ... tube or diode rectifier.Phil,

Can you explain a little about the tonal differences of these options. I know nothing about it.

[workrelease]

Phil,

Can you explain a little about the tonal differences of these options. I know nothing about it.Chris,
When the amp is in the 100 watt mode (in either channel), it automatically selects the Diode rectifier. This setting gives lots of headroom and a tight, bright response and attack. If you switch either channel to 50 watt, you can use the Tube rectifier feature. This combination gives a looser, saggy kind of sound. Pretty nice for old-school bluesy leads, and a bit darker than Diode.

When the rectifier selection is used along with the Tweed/On switch, you can get a wide range of responses. And man, this doesn't even take into account all the tones you can dial in with the other knobs. Even the Presence control changes the tone dramatically. It's almost a 'shaper', and changes again with the Diode/Tube rectifier selection. Again, versatility is important to me 'cause we do a lot of different stuff (Blues, Jazzy, Santana, Funk) and the LS really delivers.
I've only been playing the amp for a couple of weeks now and one of those I was all jet-lagged out from a trip to Italy. I'll put up more reviews as I get to bond more with this thing. But I can tell you right now that for me, it's a keeper.
Wanna buy a used Marshall??:)

Seeya,
Phil