NAD: Mesa Lonestar Classic - now with video demo of SRV style sounds

allen

As a home player a 2 x 12 100 watt amp might be considered overkill, but there you go...

fretmeister

Nice! 

allen

I've spent an hour or so on it so far.

First impressions as follows:

1. You can definitely play this at home/bedroom levels no trouble at all. Not only does each channel have a master, but the effects loop has 2(!) volume controls. Super easy to control.

2. The clean channel is well known for doing blackface/twin kind of thing and that is right.

3. The drive channel is well known for being bassy, muddy and sounding like a blanket has been put over it. I haven't really found that though. I can make it sound like that, but it mostly doesn't. There is quite a lot of variety in the drive channel and I have got loads of sounds out of it. I haven't really got that perfect 'SRV' tone out of yet though.

4. The 'thick' and 'thicker' switches are wrongly named imho. They bring on degrees of upper mid frequency focus.

5. The reverb is subtle as far as I can tell, but because the knobs are round the back I haven't twiddled them much.

 6. Yes, it is massively heavy!

I plan to rehouse this into a hardwood and wicker head and 1 x 12 cab - might take some time!

ecc83

"I plan to rehouse this into a hardwood and wicker head and 1 x 12 cab - might take some time! "

I don't know your level of knowledge ampwise Allen but do be careful with regard to airflow!

Dave.

allen

I have no more knowledge than any other nerd and plenty less than some.

Someone is going to build the headshell for me and the loose plan is to copy Mesa's own dimensions for the head version.

It does have a built in fan if that helps.

ecc83

allen said:

I have no more knowledge than any other nerd and plenty less than some.

Someone is going to build the headshell for me and the loose plan is to copy Mesa's own dimensions for the head version.

It does have a built in fan if that helps.

The fan will help until it gets clogged and I hope it is a quiet one. With a little thought it is easily possible to make a 100W head with perfectly adequate convection cooling. Might I cite the Blackstar Artisan 100 and several other high power models?

Dave.

Winny_Pooh

Great amps, the lead channel is perfect if you like a darker EJ tone. Otherwise just put a good overdrive into the clean channel.

JohnCordy

I think this is my favourite Mesa amp still, how's your back feeling though...

I feel like a Lonestar head might be a good candidate for the "just one amp" type philosophy?

prlgmnr

Is the drive channel on these similar to "Mark 1" mode on a Mark V?

JohnCordy

@prlgmnr it's definitely Mark flavoured, particularly in "thicker" mode

allen

Here's an SRV style video demo