Mesa Lonestar

lucylespian

Long story, bought a Dual Rectifier a coupla months ago, liked it, but then bought a new guitar, adn sold teh reccy to pay for it, now my main amp, the H&K has just shit itself again just a week after coming back from workshop with dry solders, so now have no amp working for a few weeks till that gets fixed again, so have the complete shits and very annoyed at myself for doing the responsible thing and selling a great amp.
Note to self, never sell any music gear ever agin, only ever buy !!!!!
So, went to the stores today to see what options there were to fill the gap. Checked out some sensible cheap solid state options and promptly threw up.
Looked at the BAd Cat's, promptly passed out at the prices.
Now I know it is vile heresy on this board, but I like Boogies, not the least because of the no discount policy which retains the value, also my old fart purist tech is VERY disparaging about the design and manufacture quality of nearly everything, and while slagging the circuit board manufacturing method, will admit that they are at least worth considering, if falling short of actually recommending anything.
Since I've been playing a lot more clean lately, and I like the portablility idea of a combo, I checked out the Lonestar 212 combo, and I liked it.
Anyone here got any direct experience on which to base some comments ??
I also tried the Stilleto Ace and found a lot of sounds I liked, but overall the EL34's were a bit too sharp and bitey compared to the warmth and glow of the 6L6's.

Pacomc79

yeah they are pretty nice, I prefer the mavericks personally. I've liked the nomads, and then the heartbreakers too because I heart 4x10's. The blue angel is probably my favorite mesa of all time. Then there are the various mark 1's etc.

The lone stars are fine amplifiers, and in truth there are some very very nice circuit board amps out there, soldano, VHT come to mind. I tend to think they get a bit too complicated and feature full though, but you're talking to a single channel amp fan here. I just prefered the overdriven sound of the Maverick to the Lonestar personally. I'm not a huge mesa fan either but they are all very nice amps and I love the new and fresh ideas they come up with, it's just not generally my thing, they do have some wonderful tone depending on what you want and how much time you have to set them up.

I just think if you're going to play clean, check out the mavericks if you can find one they sound like heaven with greenbacks but you might want a stiffer cone for cleaner work I don't know.

Are you looking for a 6L6 or 6V6 or EL84 or EL34 type of tone do you know? A lot of the Matchless designs (and Bad Cat..DR Z etc) are using EF86 preamps so that might be something to consider.

I guess you're looking at maybe 1200 bucks and you want channel switching and an effects loop right?

Have you checked out Rivera? I bet you'd like several of his designs, the Chubster 40 is very reasonable and should be able to be had around 900. The 55 twelve is decent, and the Rake head is phenominal with a strat but they are rare and difficult to find these days. Good luck. I hope some of that helps.

armanHammer

Check out the Mesa F-series.. it's the only Mesa I've tried (F-30 combo), but the tone was absolutely incredible (not to mention bottom of the line price for Mesas)

lucylespian

Thanks guys, gotta say PAco, you could get a job in stand-up comedy in Australia thinking you can have ANY Boogie for $1200. The retail on the Lonestar is $4595, and there is a no discount poilcy with the distributor, though the guy says he may move a little.
Yeah, I'm after 6L6 sound, tried the EL 34 yesterday in the Stilleto Ace, great amp, but too bitey for me.
Yeah I want some channel switching, cos I don't own an OD pedal, my other amp is a H&K Triamp, so I am used to all amp OD. I like to plug'n'play, which includes setting up amps, cos that's not really hard.
Not fussed on effects loop, I just run a wah, and a replex reverb/delay up front. I like the idea of a clean with big headroom, tehn a nice blues OD, that I can wheel in, plug in, and not need pedals, effects, power boards or anything else. I spent a lot of time on pushed clean on teh dual reccy which will be very similar. Taking my Les Paul and Gretsch back this morning cos didn't really like the PRS I was using yesterday, and the Lonestar is microscopic on gear.
Arman, , have looked at the F30, wife says no cos it's an ugly black box, and that's that, but thatnks for the tip, I agree they are great value. Am really looking for a keeper rather than straight value at this point. They are also quite expensive here, $1800 on e-bay, $2200 new. HAve seen some Rivera Clubsters on e-bay for around $1400, but add $300 freight moslty, and I can't get to play first. I don't think there is a dealer for them in my area. The music shops here at the Gold Coast are not huge. I was surprised at the range the Boogie dealer carried.
I did glance at the BAd Cats yesterday but $6500 for a combo is too much for me.
I am planning to get another Dual Reccy, cos I miss it a lot, and it has an awful lot of rock'n'roll sounds in as well as the super high gain stuff, and want to out it on top of the Lonestar, eventually do a mod so I can run it through the Lonestar speakers, so will be nice and tidy.

Pacomc79

geez man they are killing you guys on the freight. wow.

MichaelMcKevin

I didn't feel this deserved it's own thread, so i went off this one. I've been looking into Hamer's lately. I thought about trying to find a used Artist or Studio, but tonight at Sam Ash, i played this http://www.hamerguitars.com/?fa=detail&mid=901&sid=185 . Great looking, felt extremely comfortable, but more low end than i was looking for. What I want to know is, will changing the pickups from Hamer Humbuckers to Seymour Duncan 59's (what the USA series Hamer's have) pretty much put that guitar near the USA series level, or will there still be some room to improve?

lucylespian

Pacomc79 wrote:

geez man they are killing you guys on the freight. wow.

Yeah, that was a rough guess, and it depends on where to where, but Oz is big. It cost $250 to send my rectifier head to SA, and combos are a lot heavier cos of teh speakers etc.
ANYWAY it doesn't matter, cos I just got home with my brand new Lonestar 212 Combo in custom TAurus black, threw in a Planet WAves breaker cable, and my gosh it is sweet. Th clean is clean, and the OD channel does let you get an SRV tone very easily, almost made my 10's sound like 13's.
Took my lesbian and wow, what a difference, sorry PRS, your 20th anniversary model is not a patch on my Les PAul !!! Just my unbiassed opinion of course !!!
And as I hoped, the speakers just plug into teh amp section like a head to a cabinet, so I can sit another head on top and use the combo like a cabinet if I want. Perfect !!!
So maybe one day I might try recording the sound and posting it, but I haven't got any gear for that, tbu I have a friend who has so who knows.

lucylespian

GivenToCarve wrote:

I didn't feel this deserved it's own thread, so i went off this one. I've been looking into Hamer's lately. I thought about trying to find a used Artist or Studio, but tonight at Sam Ash, i played this http://www.hamerguitars.com/?fa=detail&mid=901&sid=185 . Great looking, felt extremely comfortable, but more low end than i was looking for. What I want to know is, will changing the pickups from Hamer Humbuckers to Seymour Duncan 59's (what the USA series Hamer's have) pretty much put that guitar near the USA series level, or will there still be some room to improve?

That looks really nice, can't help you with the PUP question, other than to say, won't fiddling with EQ do the trick ?? I would say that in general upgrading PUP's is teh best way to improve tone by far. It has nice wood and looks like it has an ebony fretboard ( doesn't say in teh specs) so should be as good as the USA one once the PUPs are in.