Best pedals in front of a Lonestar 2x12?

[ledvedder]

My band has been chosen to compete in a local station contest. At the competition, we have to use the venue's backline, which is a Mesa Lonestar 2x12. I've been considering 2 options. Either going straight into the front of the Mesa with some pedals, or going into the effects return with my Fractal FM3. It might be easier and less prone to issues if I go straight into the front with some pedals, which I could load up either in my FM3 or Line 6 HX Effects. I normally play through a 20 watt Marshall Origin head that I've modded to a bit of a hot rodded JCM800, or a 50 watt plexi. That's the tone that has always felt like me. Marshal Plexi or 800.

What pedals would work best into the front of a Lonestar to get me more toward that Marshall tone? Drive, delay, boost, or whatever else you think would work? Also, would I run them into the clean or drive channel. It looks like the Lonestar has a few different modes that I'm not familiar with.

 

[rarebitusa]

My band has been chosen to compete in a local station contest. At the competition, we have to use the venue's backline, which is a Mesa Lonestar 2x12. I've been considering 2 options. Either going straight into the front of the Mesa with some pedals, or going into the effects return with my Fractal FM3. It might be easier and less prone to issues if I go straight into the front with some pedals, which I could load up either in my FM3 or Line 6 HX Effects. I normally play through a 20 watt Marshall Origin head that I've modded to a bit of a hot rodded JCM800, or a 50 watt plexi. That's the tone that has always felt like me. Marshal Plexi or 800.

What pedals would work best into the front of a Lonestar to get me more toward that Marshall tone? Drive, delay, boost, or whatever else you think would work? Also, would I run them into the clean or drive channel. It looks like the Lonestar has a few different modes that I'm not familiar with.

Just one opinion... if you have a preamp model in the FM3 that provides you with the familiar JCM800/Plexi tone then I would use that into the FX return. Going with an OD to get you to the same tone is a crapshoot without experimentation. The LS is a great pedal platform, lots of head room but the preamp is voiced dark and bassy, Ch 2 with the Drive is very smooth but voiced like a blanket is thrown over it. It's gain structure is just not typically Marshall like and compared with your modded Marshall I suspect moderately less gain. The 6L6s (if it's stock) are going to be fatter/denser then the el34s. Now there are many way of shaping it, OD, GEQ in the loop, but in my experience that type of tweaking takes time. YMMV

The 1st few mins of this vid may give you some idea of the LS tone. Good luck

Timmons Lonestar Amp

 

[HollisPrince]

What a great amp for a backline amp! I agree it's going to be quite different than the Marshall that you're used to. But you never know, you may really enjoy the tone of this amp. It's a holy grail amp for many players!

 

[ledvedder]

I ended up using my Fractal FM3 into the Lonestar's effects loop. It worked out really well. We won the night. Now we're 1 of 3 finalists compete in the finals next week.