Mesa's Lone Star: An Under-Appreciated, Still Solid, Amp

[László]

I recently saw on the web some wag dissing Mesa amps saying they stopped making them well in the early '90s. While the amps from that era did have chassis mounted preamp tubes with ceramic sockets, the newer ones with board-mounted sockets for the preamp tubes still hold up very well. Spoiler Alert: I have a 2016 Lone Star so I'm biased. My son has toured with a pre-2006 blue Lone Star he bought used in 2015 from a touring band.

Last night I happened on some pics of my son touring 8-9 years ago with one of the blue Lone Star 100 Silver Panel 1x12 combos. He toured the US with it several times; his band was on Warner Brothers Records, and they kept them on the road.

The blue/silver livery package was discontinued in 2006, so the amp is at least that old. He bought the amp in 2015. So I looked closely at pics from some recent concerts with another band he's been a touring member of, and sure enough, there was the blue Lone Star.

I was curious if it was the same amp and he said it definitely is. He's still using it in shows.

The reason for my curiosity is that I was asked in the Mark thread whether the Mark VII could get Lone Star clean tones. I have a 2016 Lone Star 100 white panel amp, and kind of rediscovered what it can do while I was messing around with it trying to match the Mark VII.

I had been idly wondering if this century's Mesas are still roadworthy.

Sure enough, there it was. In addition, both of the other guitarists in both bands had a pre-2006 blue Lone Star 1x12.

So he's been gigging a now-at-least-19 year old amp for a decade, no down time. So have two of his band mates. His amp has definitely toured the US and UK a bunch of times. I believe the other ones have, too.

The reason I bought my Lone Star is that I really liked the tones he was getting live. Though he's a higher gain player than I am, he was also getting really nice clean tones with it. The amp records well, and the lead channel can be dialed in to sound very nice. I run mine with NOS EL-34s and NOS RCA and GE preamp tubes because I'm that guy.

He runs his with EL-34s as well. I think it makes the lead channel sound less 'woofy' on the low end and focuses it more tightly, but it's subtle.

If you watch the 2016 WB video you see the blue Lone Stars - they're the amps actually used. The Marshall cabs were props. The video was shot to look washed out old school, I have no idea why.

In the pics from 2024 you'll spot the same amp at Wrigley Field (in the wide shot with the big screen pic, the amp is right under the 'M' at the back of the stage). There's also a shot in the UK where they rented two Lone Stars, and a stage shot of the Wrigley show where you can see the old amp still being used!

The Lone Star doesn't often get the attention I think it has earned the hard way - touring! I think they sound great and they're tough amps. Just my two cents. A oouple interesting things about Partybaby, the band in the WB video...the drummer was a young woman with a Master's in classical percussion from U of Oregon; Jamie's bandmate Noah (the other guitarist) was in Portugal The Man; Jamie has a BFA degree in music from U of Michigan.

And...they fucking rocked the house live - saw them quite a few times as you'd expect.

2016 Official Video from WB, Partybaby, two blue LS models, one has a band sticker on the front.



2024 Tour Pics at Wrigley Field, Chicago and in the UK (where I think the amps were rented); my 9 year old amp is in the middle of the studio pic.

 

[newholland]

man, that amp. i had a bandmate who bought one and neither one of us could get good sounds out of it, and id been playing a mesa at that point for 15 years. im not saying in the least that youre wrong, and i dont feel like i really fully got mesa dial in logic for ANOTHER 15 years... but i had better luck with calibers and marks by a longshot. i couldnt ever get enough top end outa that particular lonestar for some reason, and even dumping bass, it didnt get any ripping rock tones. i think laxu said the LS special addressed that- im glad yours and your sons get what ya need. ill never not vouch for the crazy roadworthiness of them!

did either of you ever struggle to get enough tooth outa them, or did that guy just have a total dog?

 

[EOengineer]

I got some godlike clean and dumbly edge of breakup stuff with a telecaster in the used pile at a small music store. I didn’t know much about it going in, was testing out the guitar and the LS was what was there. Definitely has some good sounds in it.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I've never tried any of the LS amps, but have always been curious about them. Seems quite a few notable players have been happy with them though.

 

[dbagchee]

Yeah Lonestars are awesome

 

[paisleywookiee]

Andy Timmons still uses them, I think. Been a big part of his sound, with dirt pedals for gain. They were great amps.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Yeah Lonestars are awesome

 

[DrewJD82]

Only having Timmons' tones as a reference, I'd definitely agree they're great sounding amps. I got a bunch of his albums just because I always love his tones in anything I see from him, before I even knew any of his songs. I considered trading my Electra Dyne for one a little while back.

I can't even remember the last time I turned my Electra Dyne on, close to a year now.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

If there was one amp I totally overlooked in real life, but have been away by with literally every single digital emulation I’ve tried, this is it. Just killer whether it’s in Helix, Fractal or NDSP plugins so can only imagine how awesome the real deal is.

If I was a rational adult, this is the amp I’d buy instead of all the amps I dreamed of when I was 14.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

When I was in India I used 2 Lone Star and a MkV and I loved all 3 cranked on clean. But boy did they spend more time being fixed than played. But that’s due to the crazy power spikes with the current there.

Funnily enough the T-verb I rocked from 94 til 2009 only broke once in those 15 years and the MkV25 I got almost a year ago so far is doing well.

 

[laxu]

I've considered buying a Lonestar Classic several times, but went with the Mark V 90 instead as its clean channel should be pretty close.

The Lonestar Classic is a modded Fender Twin with different speakers. The 2nd channel adds an extra gain stage and some switchable tone shaping stuff.

The Lonestar Special is the same thing with a different power section. I think it doesn't sound quite as good for cleans, but overdrive is easier to manage because it has less bass.

They are annoyingly heavy amps, but I don't think Mesa has made a true successor for them.

Anyone saying "brand X only made good amps in Y decade" is usually full of shit and ignoring things like increasing complexity of amps and production methods intended to make them cheaper to manufacture so people don't have to spend as much money. If they had their way we would all be spending $6K on handwired single channel amps, and 99% of us would never repair those ourselves anyway.

The problem with Mesas is not whether they have chassis mounted tubes, but that they are difficult to work on because of tightly packed components and lifting the board to get under it is often not easy. So expensive repairs if needed.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

I've considered buying a Lonestar Classic several times, but went with the Mark V 90 instead as its clean channel should be pretty close.

The Lonestar Classic is a modded Fender Twin with different speakers. The 2nd channel adds an extra gain stage and some switchable tone shaping stuff.

The Lonestar Special is the same thing with a different power section. I think it doesn't sound quite as good for cleans, but overdrive is easier to manage because it has less bass.

They are annoyingly heavy amps, but I don't think Mesa has made a true successor for them.

Anyone saying "brand X only made good amps in Y decade" is usually full of shit and ignoring things like increasing complexity of amps and production methods intended to make them cheaper to manufacture so people don't have to spend as much money. If they had their way we would all be spending $6K on handwired single channel amps, and 99% of us would never repair those ourselves anyway.

The problem with Mesas is not whether they have chassis mounted tubes, but that they are difficult to work on because of tightly packed components and lifting the board to get under it is often not easy. So expensive repairs if needed.

Well there are some additional things I’d rather not have like vactrols for switching, or screen resistors used as “additional fuse” for tube shorts.

 

[Tenebris]

I can't even remember the last time I turned my Electra Dyne on, close to a year now.

I had an ED for a month or two. It had to be *so* loud to sound good and I think it was meant as a state fair buttrock amp but came out too late.

My Tverb was a legit dog when I got it. it was in the shop three times in less than a year. One was because somebody had done half the LDRs (the tech said 'somebody did all the easy ones already'), and the next two were some big resistors in the power section that were aging out, they'd get hot after some action and then lift their traces because they were placed really tight to the board. The amp would lose 80 per cent of its volume but the tone wouldn't change. That one drove the tech absolutely nuts, because you had to actually *play* the thing for like 30 minutes before it started happening and then it would go away once the amp cooled down. He replaced them with a higher value (I wanna say he replaced 1W with 5W?) and put them on longer legs. Tech did tell me that if I wanted to replace preamp tubes to pull the chassis and support the board from below, but I'm not really into tube rolling.

Never gave me any trouble after and I hammered that amp, I must have put 1500 hours onto it the next six years, 90 per cent of that hooked up to a Torpedo.

My RA allegedly has the LS channel one as its clean channel. It definitely does sound like a Twin, it's almost impossible to drive and sounds great if it can breathe, but it sounds better with 6L6s in the amp that make the high gain channels sound worse.

 

[DrewJD82]

I had an ED for a month or two. It had to be *so* loud to sound good and I think it was meant as a state fair buttrock amp but came out too late.

Hahahah I’m not sure what state fair buttrock sounds like, but it does get a good chunk of dirt from the power section so naturally, it’s gotta be cranked.



You could also toss something with a Level control in the loop and make it work at apartment volumes-