Mesa Fans Any Thoughts On This ?

[spawnofthesith]

But...Does it chug?

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Unfortunately….. no

 

[metropolis_4]

This is what has me scratching my head, as supposedly the “lonestar clean” is the circuit used in the roadster and mark V, and both have amazing clean channels, particular the mark V. Like I would say the mark V has the grail clean tone that no other amp I’ve played can surpass

I’ve heard that too, but it confuses me a bit because I thought both the Lonestar and the Roadster sounded terrible while the Mark V sounds great. The Mark V doesn’t sound like a Lonestar to me. It sounds like a Mark.

I love Mark clean tones, but for me nothing Mesa ever made even comes close to a Matchless or a Bad Cat for clean tones. I would take the cleans from my /13 JRT over cleans from any amp Mesa has ever made

 

[newholland]

But...Does it chug?

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i think ola would give it the stinkeye worse than me.

ime, the thing can barely muster an acceptable krang, but if the question was 'does it splork?' or 'does it mustang sally?' the answer is a resounding 'maybe?'.

 

[EOengineer]

I’ve heard that too, but it confuses me a bit because I thought both the Lonestar and the Roadster sounded terrible while the Mark V sounds great. The Mark V doesn’t sound like a Lonestar to me. It sounds like a Mark.

I love Mark clean tones, but for me nothing Mesa ever made even comes close to a Matchless or a Bad Cat for clean tones. I would take the cleans from my /13 JRT over cleans from any amp Mesa has ever made

To be fair, the Matchless/Bad Cat is a VERY specific, opinionated clean, and those amps can’t do what a Mark does with saturation.

The Transatlantic series might be the closest Mesa has ever come to the Vox/Matchless thing.

 

[newholland]

I didn’t like it either, i tried many of them over the years and always found them to be dull, flat, uninspiring amps. They’re sort of like a really bad blackface Fender.

I think this was a bad era for Mesa in general. When I first played a Mark V I thought the clean was 1,000x better than any Lonestar I ever played



It’s not

yeah- exactly. i just remember feeling like i was playing with a blanket made of saddle leather draped over the speakers on every one i tried. in fact, a guy i was playing with at the time bought one, and we practiced with it several times. three guitarists in the room, and NONE of us could get any decent sounds from it with any guitar because it was so dark and sludgy sounding in any setting. zero teeth, like a mark with the presence on zero. maybe the old guys who want vowely noodles a la santana dig it. but yuck.

 

[Eagle]

If you did like it you could definitely find it cheaper.

 

[Funk Soul Brother]

i think ola would give it the stinkeye worse than me.

ime, the thing can barely muster an acceptable krang, but if the question was 'does it splork?' or 'does it mustang sally?' the answer is a resounding 'maybe?'.

 

[laxu]

But...Does it chug?

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I mean, kinda...sorta. It has a lot more gain than you think on the 2nd channel so crank the drive and preamp gain, watch the bass and it can do more than you think.

But no it's not really a metal amp.

This is what has me scratching my head, as supposedly the “lonestar clean” is the circuit used in the roadster and mark V, and both have amazing clean channels, particular the mark V. Like I would say the mark V has the grail clean tone that no other amp I’ve played can surpass

I haven't been able to try them at the same time, but what I remember from the real LSC is that it has a different feel to the Mark V. The Mark V even with the tube rectified 45W mode is still relatively immediate, whereas the LSC is maybe more loose like more old school amps?

It's just a difference in design. Looking at the schematics the Mark V 90 Clean/Fat and the LSC ch1 are almost identical for the preamp circuit so I expect the real difference is in the poweramp.

 

[newholland]

funny part is, im like the opposite of metal guy and play a mark iib on purpose BECAUSE it has good clean sounds, and i still dont like the LS- but i also dont like c90s for similar reasons, so theres some traction to laxu's assertion that its speakers.

if be interested to try it through something a LOT brighter to see if it stuck. i think this amp might like t75s or h30s/golds just to extract some life from it.

 

[EOengineer]

Aren’t there different versions of the lonestar? I’m not super familiar with them but I’m pretty sure there is a classic and a special.

I’ve only played a few and they aren’t my amp. I will say that while I agree with most here who found them kind of dull, I did play one at screaming loud stage volume once and it was stunning in that context.

It seemed like when it got cranked up there was a harmonic haze that made a guest appearance on the top end and everything clicked.

I prefer the older Mark cleans, and oddly the Mark V, which I’m pretty sure uses the lonestar clean channel.

 

[laxu]

Aren’t there different versions of the lonestar? I’m not super familiar with them but I’m pretty sure there is a classic and a special.

Same preamp, different poweramp. I've played both. The LSC is thick and fat, and the Lonestar Special is a bit leaner sounding which makes it easier to handle for overdrive (the LSC has a lot of bass) but IMO doesn't sound as good for cleans.

Our own @2112 has a nice video of the LSS.

 

[newholland]

Same preamp, different poweramp. I've played both. The LSC is thick and fat, and the Lonestar Special is a bit leaner sounding which makes it easier to handle for overdrive (the LSC has a lot of bass) but IMO doesn't sound as good for cleans.

Our own @2112 has a nice video of the LSS.

i just watched that- special is definitely a different sounding amp- i probably played a lonestar 'classic'- though it was probably a gen 1 lonestar, and i think its the case that that amp was just too thick- but potentially we didnt turn the bass essentially OFF. its the classic mesa mistake, i think, and probably the reason they get sold so often.

i think i should market a device for mesa that limits the bass knob from turning beyond 9 oclock. id be a bilionaire.

 

[laxu]

i just watched that- special is definitely a different sounding amp- i probably played a lonestar 'classic'- though it was probably a gen 1 lonestar, and i think its the case that that amp was just too thick- but potentially we didnt turn the bass essentially OFF. its the classic mesa mistake, i think, and probably the reason they get sold so often.

i think i should market a device for mesa that limits the bass knob from turning beyond 9 oclock. id be a bilionaire.

Yeah the bass controls on any of their amps seem to be "it doesn't go low enough" and "most of the 2nd half of the knob is tub city".

On my Mark V 90 some of the modes especially on ch2 do have useful range on the bass knob up to about 2 o'clock. And then there's the Mk 1 mode where bass on zero is still a lot of bass. Like you couldn't just make that mode leaner on the low end guys?

 

[metropolis_4]

To be fair, the Matchless/Bad Cat is a VERY specific, opinionated clean, and those amps can’t do what a Mark does with saturation.

The Transatlantic series might be the closest Mesa has ever come to the Vox/Matchless thing.

There are many different Matchless/Bad Cat models that all sound very different from one another. It’s not just one sound. A Clubman sounds totally different than a DC-30

But I would say Matchless and Mark amps in general are sort of polar opposites in the amp world and there’s very little overlap between them. Each one excels at things the other one isn’t great at

 

[DISTORT6]

It was good enough for Andy Timmons

He's so Naughty Naughty

 

[greatmutah]

Honestly, it you’re looking at an EL84 Mesa that doesn’t chug (so no mini Rectos or Marks) I’d look at a Maverick. Great clean channel and a damn good rootsy drive channel. Can still get pretty saturated too but it’s not a heavy amp.

Bad Cat can be a variety of things. Older Black Cats and Cubs are definitely in the Matchless/Voxy vein. Older Hot Cats are EL34 but Cathode Biased and kinda Marshall but not really. The Lynx has always been their higher gain amp. A band localish to me, Eva Under Fire, were using Bad Cat Lynx amps for a while. Still might be. Similar clean channel to the Hot Cat but the gain is tighter and higher gain. I just got a Black Cat and love it. It does the Voxy thing. And I kinda want a Hot Cat now. They’ve also done stuff based around the Bassman (Fat Cat) and even a Deluxe style amp.