Giving the Mesa Lone Star another chance
I was disappointed with my first experience with the Mesa Lone Star. It didn’t live up to all the good things I had heard and read about this amp of the various forums I frequent. And it certainly didn’t sound like this YouTube video.
While I was impressed with the clean tones, I thought channel two and the dirty tones were sorely lacking. The bass was flabby and not well defined, even rolled almost all the way off, and there simply wasn’t enough gain on tap to satisfy my newfound lust. The amp didn’t feel punchy and Fenderish as I had hoped based on what I read. It lacked upper-midrange kerrang for lack of a better tonal description. Rather than throw in the towel, I determined to give it another go. And, just to be on the safe side, I wanted to try a new one. (The amp at Alto was pre-2007 and had only 50w/100w power options, the new ones sport a 10 watt Class A power option as well. I haven’t read about any other changes to the design, but still….)
So after work today, I drove up to Danbury, CT, to pay a visit to East Coast Music Mall who had not only an older 2x12 Lone Star, but also a new 1x12, which is what I wanted to try. I’m very glad I made the effort because it sounded much better to me. Channel one sounded similar to the first one I played: big, round, complex notes and chords, aided with a bit of reverb. Very nice. But even in the clean channel, I noticed the amp felt punchier and more articulate in the upper midrange and treble. It wasn’t bright the same way the Stiletto Ace was, but it was very punchy. So far, so good.
Switching over to channel two is where I found the most difference between the amps. As with channel one, this sounded more articulate and punchier in the upper mids, and the bass wasn’t quite so flabby (but more on that in a bit). Maybe it was just me, but it seemed like the middle and bass tone pot could be used throughout more of their range without completely killing the sound. You could still dial in bad sounds, but it was more difficult.
Setting channel two to “clean” and dialing in up the gain produced some great edge-of-breakup to mildly crunch tones that were really nice. Kicking in the thick and thicker modes added more gain, perfect for heavier blues and cleaner blues-based rock. But engaging the drive circuit pumped the gain up even more. Before I go on, I’ll mention that there’s a trick to getting the most gain out of a Lone Star—setting the effects loop level above half-way up. Seems like the effects loop also acts as another gain stage, so rather than using it as a master volume (as you can with some Riveras), use it as an additional gain control. I had it between 12:00 and 3:00 and found it added a significant amount of gain. Coupled with the gain and drive controls on the front panel, I could dial in as much gain as I wanted. The Lone Star won’t do Triple Rectifier gain levels, or even Stiletto Ace, but it certainly does enough for nearly all blues and rock from the ‘60s through the ‘70s and it sound great. The gain structure isn’t the same as a Stiletto Ace, either. While the Stiletto Ace’s gain is decidedly crunchy, the Lone Star is a smoother. Not sure how else to describe it—fluid? How about more Fenderish, compared to the Stiletto Ace’s Marshallesque flavor. Both are great, but very different.
What was not great was a bit of sponginess in the lower midrange and bass. Turns out this was the reverb. I like reverb for clean and slightly distorted tones, but not for overdriven tones. Thankfully, the Lone Star has independent reverb controls for each channel so I could keep channel one more lush, and dial the reverb out of channel two. Problem sorted. I also set the reverb to bright, rather than fat, just to be on the safe side. (And, to be honest, reverb settings may have played a big part in why I didn’t like the first LSC I tried; I couldn’t get to the back panel controls easily and didn’t try to adjust them. Who knows, the first amp I tried could have been biased for EL34s rather than 6L6s.)
I’m glad I spent the time with the LSC, it deserved another chance to prove itself. Other than a noticeable popping when any of the switches were changed, it sounded very good. I suspect it could even be great paired with the right speaker; something brighter and punchier like an Eminence Wizard or Texas Heat (yeah, LSC + Texas Heat, should be a match made in heaven right?). Maybe if I can find a good used one on eBay….