Lone Star Clips?

[mbrown3]

Anyone that has a Mesa Lone Star (Classic or Special, but preferably Classic) who can post some clips? Hopefully just guitar into amp so I can get some feel for the basic sound of the amp. It would be much appreciated.

I'm toying back and forth with the idea of either the LSC or the Egnater MOD50. I LOVE the tone of the Egnater, but it's quite a bit more expensive. The Egnater is likely more versatile with the various modules, but it also seems to break up easier, and a lot of times I need lots of clean headroom that I'm not sure there is a module for with the Egnater (yet). Thoughts?

Any clips would be awesome. Thanks.

[guitarzan]

I played the LSS for a year before selling it in favor of the MOD50. I spent a year before that playing the LSC and LSS at a local store. (They were nice enough to let me hang out there regularly, plugging into the LoneStars and scrutinizing them for hours with no intentions of purchasing one.) I cannot say enough good stuff about the Lonestar amps. They play great and feel great. I feel like they do a great job with their clean tones, the drive is very smooth and gave me the Robben Ford tone I was searching for at the time. They sounded great with any pedals I'd use with them (and I was going to into the front end instead of diving into the versatility of the FX loop). Some argue that they're voiced darker than other popular amps, but I felt like they were just right. They never felt too dark and stage volume and a very responsive set of tone controls were able to dial in as much high end as somebody would need.

ON THE OTHER HAND...
Now I'm about 15 months into regular use with a MOD50 and I only miss a couple of insignificant things about the Mesa. I feel like the Mesa handled front end delays a little better (which I'll explain in a second) and I liked the look of the little Lonestar shorty head on top of a 1x12 cab turned sideways. It's what Tonelounge called my "yardsale rig" because it was pieced together with different pieces of gear with different colored tolex and such. But no amp does everythign perfectly, so sometimes you just have to chose your battles. On the whole, though, the Egnater has been a dream amplifier. I live on the BMAN and the SL2 modules, both of which have 2 channels and both of which have a similar EQ voicing. So, in essence, it's like having a 4 channel amp that takes a grip load of tube varieties (6550's, EL34, 6L6, 6v6, etc.), has a half-power switch that really changes the response of the amp (lo-power adds a sponginess and sag that sounds great with mid-gain and a strat... it's like having a Jimi-In-A-Box setting. Hi-power is crispy and responsive and really tightens up the bottom end.), has a totally bitchin and versatile FX loop, and still has neo-vintage looks that give it a well-rounded visual and sonic presentation. I changed out the Celestion speaker that came stock in the combo (a Classic Lead 80, I think) and replaced it with the Celstion C90 Black Shadow that was in my Mesa cab, just to help me deal with the transition and wean me off of the LoneStar (it was tough). But now I often use one of Egnater's oversized closed back 1x12 cabs (with a Vintage 30) and it sounds like thunder. It's just great. Where the combo sounds great for r&b stuff with a strat, if I unplug the combo speaker and just use the extra cab, it sounds like good ol' rock n' roll, with a thundering closed back sound (minus the thundering back ache). Every now and then, if the hiring artist and/or stage accommodates a more egotistical rig, I'll stack the combo on top of the extra cab and use both the open and the closed and it's just beautiful.

Regarding the tones, I'd say the MOD50 offers dramatically more versatility, especially if you're an amp flipper or GASser. If you want Marshall, they offer a handful of options. If you want Fender, they offer a handful of options. If you want high gain, same thing. If you want Voxy, same thing. Big cabs, little cabs, (everywhere a cab cab, Ol' Eganter had a farm...) they have lots of options. My pedalboard used to be a PedalTrain Pro, and I still carried sidepedals in a tub- so LOTS of pedals. Now my pedalboard consists of the Line 6 Green Machine delay (DL4), the MOD50's 4 button channel switcher, a compressor, and a custom fuzzy OD that I call the Crimson Emu (just go with it). The amp has all the flavors of gain and drive that I ever want. The Crimson Emu gets used maybe a few times a year, and the delay is only used for ear candy stuff on lower gain settings. Since I get all the gain from the amp now, the feedback of the delay unit is much louder and overdriven in some settings- making it difficult to set "standard" or "go-to" delay levels, since it's going into the preamp like it is. I've had success with delay in the loop (L6 Echo Pro) , and it sounds great, but I like the convenience of the auto-swell feature of the Green Machine and I use it at least once per gig. But that's really the only place where I can fault the amp, and that's not really exclusive to the Egnater. The delay would give me similar problems with any hi-gain amp.

Anyway, bigtime thumbs up with the MOD50. Any time you can convert a total gear flipper and pedal junkie into a guitar > delay (sometimes) > amp guy, there's something great about the amp involved.

I hope this helps. Lemme know if there are specific questions I can answer about either amp.

[picnic]

I have had both the LSS and LSC. Clips ar hard to find on the net, but ceck the boogie board and you can fnd some.

I bought my LSS from GC and it went dead after two weeks. There are several posts on the Boogie Board of members having the same issue. GC gave me a new one in a couple of days and I test drove, gigged and played it for a month. Beautiful amp but the clean headroom was lacking. I took it back and wound up with a LSC after testing two Fenders.

The LSC is my favorite kind of amp except for maybe the weight. But it's a
2x12, so 70 pounds is normal. Fender cleans like my old TRRI. Gritty breakup up like my DRRI only better. Reverb is well within Fender quality. I like the ability to switch channels from a Twin clean to a Deluxe Reverb grit.

Penty of power or low tweed power option. I don't use pedals with it, don't need them. A very versatile amp on several levels. Suits my style playing rock, bluesy rock and alt country. My TA's are loaded with single coils and they can be clear, chimey, dirty and gritty thru this amp.

Very nice match of guitar and amp.

[FFOGG]

I agree w/ Picnic ..great matchup for a Singlecoil TA ..I liked the LSS be/ of low wattage breakup

[mbrown3]

Lemme know if there are specific questions I can answer about either amp.

I have two questions about the MOD50. How does it handle pedals? Does it take them well (other than delay)? I've got a number of pedals that I'm not about to give up, but I want to make sure the amp will like them. Also, there are times when I need lots of clean headroom and a pristine, rich clean tone with no breakup...will the MOD50 do that? Thanks!

[guitarzan]

I have two questions about the MOD50. How does it handle pedals? Does it take them well (other than delay)? I've got a number of pedals that I'm not about to give up, but I want to make sure the amp will like them.

The amp takes them very well. With the higher gain modules, you're obviously staging gain into gain, so expect the same as you'd expect from using chains of overdrive pedals in series. What you're also gonna get more of is the sag and squish that comes from slamming the front end of an amp. But if you're using a low to mig gain setting or module, expect the pedals to do what they would with any other amp.

Keep in mind also that you're able to change the eq of the preamp section by swapping various modules in and out. When you change modules, you're changing circuitry and therefore changing the EQ curve of those two channels as well as the gain characteristics of the amp. I'd guess that certain pedals of yours sound better with certain amps and not quite as magical with others. I'd expect the same from the MOD50. A Deluxe module is going to receive a Red Llama differently than a Bassman would.




Also, there are times when I need lots of clean headroom and a pristine, rich clean tone with no breakup...will the MOD50 do that? Thanks!

I spent some time on the phone with the folks at Egnater last week and spent a considerable amount of time talking about the different modules. What you're describing is the Twin. It's "pristine clean" as they called it, and doesn't really break up. The other two clean-ish modules would be the A channels of the Deluxe or the Bassman (which they called the "warm clean") but the Twin is their cleanest module. It shows off modulation pedals really well.

[mbrown3]

Nice, I've been leaning toward the Twin anyway, if I do go with the MOD50, which is what I'm thinking. I love the Bassman, but the two seem very similar, and while for its basic tone I tend to prefer the Bassman slightly, I think the Twin would be better for my applications, and it's a great tone too. Your thoughts seem to confirm this. I know that my second module will be the VX...what a nice sound.

[guitarzan]

Nice, I've been leaning toward the Twin anyway, if I do go with the MOD50, which is what I'm thinking. I love the Bassman, but the two seem very similar, and while for its basic tone I tend to prefer the Bassman slightly, I think the Twin would be better for my applications, and it's a great tone too. Your thoughts seem to confirm this. I know that my second module will be the VX...what a nice sound.

I think you'd be surprised at the difference between the BMAN and the TWIN modules. The Bman is a little woolier and has a rootsiness to it, where the twin is surgically clean (but still warm).

Funny about the VX module as your 2nd module. Some guys have been asking Bruce to build them a Twin/VX module that is a Twin with a Vox EQ curve. Sounds like it might be like a Matchless flavor? Sounds liek a great pairing, regardless of if it's in one module or two.

Good luck, and let us know what you decide.

[GaryMcT]

For what it's worth, the Randall version of the Egnater modular stuff is quite good if you are on a budget. They are typically half the price of the Egnater version. There were some problems with some of the modules early on that required user modification to fix, but I think they have most of that sorted out now. The only other amp I would consider right now is to get the Egnater version. I really wish I knew someone locally that has the Egnater version. . .I don't want to spend that much money without knowing that it is going to be a huge improvement over what i have already.

I currently use the 50-watt combo (RM50B) with an RM4 preamp into the effects-loop return so that I can have four of the modules to choose from. I could get 2 more from the combo with some switching, but 4 seems like enough. The Randall modules will work in the Egnater amps and vice versa, but you'll only get the first channel of the Egnater dual-channel modules in the Randall amps.