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They have a propensity towards being quite bright, and take a while to dial in when you're unfamiliar with the controls. There's so much treble on tap that they could kill you, frankly.
But dialled in, what an amp! It's the only closed-back combo I've ever played through, so much punch and thickness available, without being flabby or loose. Very loosely voiced like a JCM800, but with more of a Mesa midrange - so, more solid, holds together at higher gain levels. Unlike a Recto, it didn't need any kind of boost in front to tighten up - everything you needed was available from the gain & tone controls.
The fx loop & master volume were a *little* frustrating insofar as they worked well, but I always felt like the tone was marginally better and more focused when they were switched out of the circuit. Not enough to stop me using them, but when recording I didn't use them unless I had to.
The cleans were great, very fendery and rich & this channel took pedals well - one of my happiest memories of gigging was the end of a set, when I had a strat neck pickup going through a compressor & SD-1 into the clean channel. Such a touch sentitive, thick-bit clear tone.
Ultimately I switched the V30s out for some old early '80s G12-65s, to get more low mids out of it and bring the overall volume down a little. There were times afterwards I missed the midrange and treble of the V30s, but I think the '65s were a bit more versatile and smoother on the ears at high volume.
I can't comment on the Lonestar, but I think it's a very different amp, from what I've read and heard in demos - more compressed, very thick overdrive, lower gain.
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Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
I thought it was great . Solid build , looked fantastic , dripped quality , and a fantastic feature set .
I didn’t find it too bright . I wish I still had it as it was a great amp. I got rid of it because I wanted something simpler .
Cleans were excellent, in a Fender Blackface-type way. The reverb was outstanding.
Drive sounds were less convincing and (as with most Mesa amps) hard to dial in. Lots of options - but not many that I actually liked.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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2 Channels (that you can set to either clean/crunch on CH1 and varying amounts of gain on CH2), Solo Boost, FX loop - knocked my Bogner Shiva off top spot actually.
Plenty Loud but also completely controllable at home due to the great Master Volume setup.
Great sounding Marshallish amps - still has the Mesa thing going on though so don't expect it to be a Marshall in a Mesa box.
Lonestar I had a brief fling with too but couldn't do anything with it - flubby block of lard is the only way I can describe sorry (sorry to all the Lonestar users out there!!) finnicky and hard to dial in and really don't understand the love for them.
From my varied use with mix of guitars & pickups [SC, HB, P90, Fidelitron], here's the general summary of each by channel.
LS - Clean: chimey, full, clear / Drive: creamy, smooth, compressed, bloomy
SA - Clean: crisp, dry, stark, bright / Drive: bright, searing, scoopy, raspy
ED - Clean: rounded / Crunch: chunky, middy, hairy / Drive: meaty, thick, roar, grindy
[Wierd] Hammer analogy? LS - wooden mallet, SA - Ice axe, ED - sledgehammer. Sound dynamics change on amount of swing...
From the OP Dom's perspective, I'd say the LS is more organic and suited to what you're after, from your description. However, I'd definitely say try both with your own guitars and hear for yourself if you can. I suggest the LS also coz I want to collect all the ED's for myself...
There's one gig I'm watching where the red channel, set to the "tite" voicing, does both big wall-of sound power chords, and also chimes fantastically with single note arpeggios without ever sounding thin, even on a strat bridge.
Damn, now I regret a; selling it, b; that I'm not in a band so wouldn't be able to use it even if I had one and c; a global pandemic would have meant no gigs anyway.
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i thought I was leaning towards the Lonestar but I’m equally tempted by both! The Lonestar is probably more suited to what I’m after and what I play these days I think
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
(I can't remember which ones though, may have been Creamback neos)
I'm a fan of the Mk.V 90w as well.
For me, the best amp Mesa have ever done is the F50, beautiful cleans and crunch and a great lead channel. It's just a straight up great amp, not too many switches or eq's.