Mesa Lonestar Special opinions???

[holLoWskull]

I recently purchased a Peavey Classic 50 for a blues\rock project I'm working on (small-med. indoor venuees mainly) because the price was right and the thing sounded GOOD (ie. bang-for-the-buck was good). Recently however I got to try out a Dr Z Maseratti Sr., a Mesa Lonestar and a Lonestar Special and must say while I didn't care for the Dr. Z (great cleaner tones but not enough gain for my needs), I liked the Lonestar 2X12 combo and am really liking the Lonestar Special 1X12 combo alot (reasonably small, well laid out, and not too heavy; plus I thought it sounded great!...unlike the Peavey Classic 50 I have which is a tad on the heavy side, effects loop is kind of placed wierd, and sounds good, not great IMHO). I'm liking everything but the price of the Mesa that is...$1700 seems like a lot for a non-boutique amp. My question is do any of you here own a Lonestar Special (or even a regular Lonestar, I liked that too just not as much as the Special) or have had a chance to play them? I'm trying to get as many opinions on them and even to see if anyone has some recommendations of other combo amps to check out before I bite the bullet and sell some gear (including a 2 month old Classic 50) to put a Lonestar Special in the stable. I usually play hard rock\metal but already have my Peavey 5150 head\Mesa Recto 4X12 set up for that. I'm looking to get an amp small enough for home practice but big enough to hang with a band un-miked at practices\miked through a PA for gigs that captures a nice clean tone but can get a thick SRV-esque distorted sound. The Lonestar Special sure does seem to fit the bill with it's 5\15\30 watts Class A power, but like I said I'm interested in opinions from you guys (and girls) too.

[silentman]

A buddy of mine owns one of these. We A/B'd it with the regular lonestar, and the special blew it away. The clean on this amp is incredible, IMO. It also likes pedals and can get mean sounding with a Mesa V-twin in front. The gain side is a little light for my tastes, but sounds good with a Les P*ul or Str@t. Good for classic rock tones - not modern at all. I think it sounded the best when I ran my 82 special thru it. If you check the hamer museum (amp section I think), ToneJunkee has one and his review is there. He loves em.

Now are they worth the $1700? I think so. I almost went out and bought one myself, but it would only be for the clean side so that cured my gas. I can just borrow my friend's anytime. Had I known you were itchin for one, I would have brought it to ceebs for closer inspection.

Edited to add, my friend owned a classic 50 for about a week before returning it in favor of the special. The classic 50 is nice, but it's not in the same league as the special. The classic 20 is really nice amp if you can find one. Peavey always discontinues the cool s#it.

[HamerHokie]

A buddy of mine owns one of these. We A/B'd it with the regular lonestar, and the special blew it away. The clean on this amp is incredible, IMO. It also likes pedals and can get mean sounding with a Mesa V-twin in front. The gain side is a little light for my tastes, but sounds good with a Les P*ul or Str@t. Good for classic rock tones - not modern at all. I think it sounded the best when I ran my 82 special thru it. If you check the hamer museum (amp section I think), ToneJunkee has one and his review is there. He loves em.

Now are they worth the $1700? I think so. I almost went out and bought one myself, but it would only be for the clean side so that cured my gas. I can just borrow my friend's anytime. Had I known you were itchin for one, I would have brought it to ceebs for closer inspection.

Edited to add, my friend owned a classic 50 for about a week before returning it in favor of the special. The classic 50 is nice, but it's not in the same league as the special. The classic 20 is really nice amp if you can find one. Peavey always discontinues the cool s#it.

Interesting. I take it compared it with a Lonestar with stock 6L6s. Can you differentiate the tones from the two?

I swapped out the 6L6s for EL34s and I like the tone, but I would like to try the Special. Tone and volume would be the two main factors I'd consider, because it looks like the Special has the same feature set.

[silentman]

I'm bad at describing tones. Let's just say I didn't think the the Lonestat sounded that lively compared to the special. As far as volume, even at 5 watts the special is loud, it just breaks up sooner. The clean chamnnel still has lots of headroom at 5 watts though.

[dzeitlin]

I had a LS but had technical issues with it, so I returned it. I've had the LSS for a while now, and they are two toally different amps. The cleans on the LS are very Fendery, and the LSS (in clas A mode) is Voxy. The LS drive channel has move drive. Those are the big tonal differences I notice.

[atquinn]

The classic 20 is really nice amp if you can find one. Peavey always discontinues the cool s#it.

Classic 50 = 50 watts

Classic 30 = 30 watts

Classic 20 = 15 watts?!?

Maybe they discontinued it because it confused the hell out of people! (although that hasn't stopped Hamer )

-Austin

[holLoWskull]

Too bad I wasn't looking for one at the time Lou, otherwise I would have definitely asked you to bring it. Anyway, I think the amp is a winner and I agree, it is loud even at 5 watts! Interesting enough though, unlike dzeitlin's experience, I actually thought the Special had more gain than the regular Lonestar I A\B'd it against. Maybe I had the regular Lonestar in 'Tweed' mode or something, but the tone of the Special won that contest and I totally think it's the sh*t (meant in a good way!) for sure for anything short of metal (and even then I could coax enough gain out of the Special to do a decent Van Halen immitation at the music store). I still want to compare it to some of the Rivera amps and Genz Benz stuff before I decide though (unfortunately most other boutique amps I'm curious about like Bad Cat and Diezel are out of the price range I'm looking to spend in)