Documenting my rig

[rabbittesticles]

I have had a lonestar special for a couple of months and though I love all the colors I can get out of it, I found that I preferred the sound of classic. Right now my rig looks a bit weird but I have a smaller size head shell on its way from mesa for my classic to fit into. I'll drop the special out of its combo shell and convert that to an extension cabinet. Then I'll put the special into the long black head cab and ebay that...hopefully it all works out, mesa did say it will take 4-6 weeks to get the smaller head cab sent out to me though..

 

[rabbittesticles]

I did a bit of work today switching my amps around.

First I dropped the classic out of its long head shell :

The belly of the beast :

Took the special's chassis out:

My soon to be extension cab...just have to figure out how I will fill the hole where the chassis was in a way that looks and sounds good:

And the special now inside the classic's head shell...I will post her on ebay sometime soon.

-More to come, once I get the shorter head shell in the mail..ups says it will show up tomorrow - can't wait.

 

[plan-x]

What is the other cab, an Avatar? What's in it? Selling the special as a head only without that beautiful combo cab? Are you the Frankenstein of Lone stars? :shock:

 

[rabbittesticles]

Yeah, the other cab is an Avatar with a Celestion g12h30 inside.. I had that cab before I got into the Lonestar series and it's speaker is 16 ohm; it doesn't pair well with the black shadow (g12h30 runs much quieter) but sounds ok by itself.
Ultimately i will swap out that speaker with something to compliment my black shadow...maybe the california, or a blue dog.. not sure what to get yet though..

Yes, I plan on selling the special in its new black head shell.

It's been fun working towards my dream rig. I'm going through all this because I like the cocoa bronco and tan jute style of the special but I preferred what the classic does for me sonically. In the end hopefully I'll have a Lonestar classic in the special's clothing that is easier to transport.

Today I have been working on filling the hole where the special's chassis used to reside.

 

[plan-x]

Yeah a couple of guys have done that around here, filled in the holes, Charles Reeder comes to mind. I really like the C-90 Black Shadow as the base tone of the Classic. The short head will look good on that Avatar.

 

[djw]

Just to add a few cents to the thread (as opposed to any actual sense) I converted to head + cab, but didn't dig the combo shell as speaker cab thing at all. I know I could have filled the holes, but I mothballed it because my goal was to get smaller, weight-wise for sure but also as much volume-wise (in terms of displacement, not loudness) as I could. So I've been working my way through some speaker cabs since then. I really like the Lone Star 1x12 widebody, which is the same width and depth as the combo but shorter by a few inches. Sounds great. I also have a Freda 1x12s and I have a Forte 3D112 on the way. I'm not sure which of the others will survive when I get the Forte, maybe all... but 3 1x12's might be overkill. :roll:

However, speaker-wise I've gone to the dark side, plan-x. I was happy with the C90 for a long time, but lately I've been branching out and I don't know if I'll go back.

Anyway, I've done some experimenting. I had a 50w Blue Dog Ceramic in my LSC for a while -- nice speaker, but with the LSC there was a high-mid spike that was a little too much for me, and the OD tones were pretty rough. I put it in my Fender DR and now it seems a little happier. Webers are so efficient that they can be harsh under the wrong circumstances. A higher wattage version of the speaker might have mitigated some of this. I have some demo recordings of this combo on my band's site (http://www.curtisbumpy.com). The studio tracks are with the Blue Dog.

Anyway, more recently I've really been digging WGS speakers. I have a Reaper HP in my Freda 1x12s, and just recently I put a Blackhawk in my LS 1x12 widebody cab. The Blackhawk will probably end up in the Forte when I get it. The Reaper is a high-powered take on a G12H30, and I really like it a lot. It has a lot of punch but a pretty even response, and no real spikes anywhere. It's pretty smooth overall. The Blackhawk is my first AlNiCo speaker, and what can I say? I LOVE it so far, it's definitely a keeper. I think it's a great match with the LSC.

And here's a tip: a good number of the sample clips on the WGS site use a Lone Star Classic.

I highly recommend speaker experimentation.

 

[plan-x]

Amen! Preach it brother! :lol: WGS huh?

 

[rabbittesticles]

I got a lot done in my laboratory today...things went well.

So I started with this :

I decided to cut a piece of wood to fill the hole, then recover it with tolex I stripped off one of the back panels:

I repainted the rear panel black and lucked out as the tolex had left it with some nice texture:

Here it is with the piece installed:

Just as I was posting this, UPS showed up with my short head. Looks great and all but turns out Mesa changed the color of the grille and they don't quite match each other :

I don't know if I really care about the matching that much..for now at least. If I did want to change the grille on the head I wonder if its still possible to get that original grille color I have on my cab....hmm

Here's my stack :

You know, maybe the slightly different color grille helps the avatar not stand out so much though...this might just grow on me.

I'll get more updates as I install the classic into its new home...and some speaker stuff down the road too - cheers

 

[plan-x]

That is looking alot better. :wink:

 

[rabbittesticles]

man, something happened to me today i did not expect.

i was listing the lonestar special on ebay, shot the photos, wrote the description and sorted everything out..was just about to press list and i got this urge to plug it back in one more time for a listen.

well..guess what. the tones i heard were seductive....man, really seductive..it's just so bubbly and alive.

I owned the special originally and then got to reading online about the classic, and when the classic arrived in the mail i played the special less and less, telling myself that the classic had more of what i needed.

well whatever my reasons were for wanting to own the classic have just been overpowered by what I was hearing out of the special; and the fact that i was getting these tones with such little volume was blowing my mind.

i'm really torn at the momentl, but i really don't want to make a decision i'll regret here. - glad i decided to just give it one more try.

i feel like i partly talked myself into the classic though. the headroom higher wattage and warmth, very convincing...and even though i played a gig or two with the classic (and it sounded great at volume), i feel like most of the time i would just be craving those luscious tones from my amp at a reasonable volume at home..



**** IT...so...indecisive...must...force....ears..to...make....decision


i guess i'll have to A B these two amps for a few more weeks at least until i'm at a point where i am truly comfortable selling one of them.

 

[djw]

Man, that's a tough one. Can't keep them both?

Personally, I think you can't go wrong with the Classic. The headroom issue is a big one in my book, especially for gigging in a variety of circumstances. Not that the LSS is terribly lacking, but having 100 watts when you need it is a tremendous plus. I can't stand it when I need it to punch, and my amp goes soft on me. Again: I have not heard that the LSS ever does that, but I know that the LSC does not unless you dial up some dirt. And you can get sort of close to LSS territory with the LSC + Yellow Jackets (I know -- not quite the same thing, but it's an option that the LSS doesn't have: tube variety).

Then again, I'd be stoked if I could afford to keep an LSS around the house and just haul out the LSC for gigs.

 

[rabbittesticles]

i know it's been a while but i have a bit of an update for my thread here.

Shortly after my last post in April I blew a resistor in my lonestar classic and had to bring it to an amp tech for repairs. It took him 2 months to finally get it back and I played entirely with the special during that time. Now that I have had it back for a few weeks I feel like I can really discern the differences between the two. I also realized that the prior tests were not fair because the classic had old worn out tubes. I ordered the mesa boogie lonestar kit from dougs tubes and she sounds very beautiful to my ears now. The sound seems much rounder and 3 dimensional, very cool.

I also decided to do a little side project and change the jute grille cloth on the head and cabinet to better match the nice beige jute of the combo cab I previously converted. I did a lot of research and found that the closest thing I can get to that beige jute is what mojotone.com provides.

separating the baffle from the front plate:

here is the new jute being stapled together next to the old color I removed:

installed :

I am completely reworking my avatar cabinet to match also, here it is stripped and sanded:

lining up the jute :

stapling, (frustrating)

I am having a much harder time installing the new jute on the large baffle. It is a much bigger area to cover and I am getting runs in the cloth. I tried following a few different posts I found on the topic, one on harmony central, (which instructed me to staple in a stretcher board for even tension) and one post on this board by charles reeder who used a different method. If anyone has any tips on installing the grill cloth I would greatly appreciate it; I can't seem to get it stretched without causing noticeable runs in the fabric.

 

[plan-x]

Hey Testie's, I made a grill once. I think I glued it to the front of the frame first so there was very little stretching involved. I used bricks to weigh it down flat. After it dried I stapled and glued the sides cutting the grill with a blade where necessary to get it to lay flat on the sides. As I recall, the sides were the most difficult to lay them flat.

 

[rabbittesticles]

yes, gluing is something i am considering now. i am not sure what type of glue I could use that won't show through the jute once dried.

also, if anyone knows where one can obtain the leather corners that mesa uses on their amps, I would love to know!

 

[plan-x]

I used a flooring glue for linolium I think. It drys fairly clear and tacky so it can be reapplied to reactivate the glue. Basically the same stuff that can be used for tolex.
Leather corners here. About half way down the page, no pic, just a yellow star that says "new".
http://www.vibroworld.com/parts/tech9.html

 

[handyandy]

I had a hard time with grill cloth also,
After I changed mine I came up with an idea I wish I tried.
It's only a theory but I think if you were to soak the cloth in water for a few hours then staple it on it will become tight when it dries out.
It's an old joiners trick for putting hardboard on walls!
I can't see why it wouldn't work.

 

[rabbittesticles]

Finished a few things today with the cab.

I used some 3m spray adhesive and weights to get the jute to lay flat. Then stapled. (worked out very nicely)

now to retolex the cab:

Piping, corners and an eminence commonwealth are all on the way but for now I am very content with the near final product. Hopefully this will inspire someone else who is considering performing cosmetic mods on their amp knowing that I had 0 prior experience going into these projects.

 

[plan-x]

Great job Testies! It looks so much better than the original pics. I did a similar project with another amp of mine as you saw. Building a head and cab from scratch. I've decided not to embark on that type of project again. :wink: It'll look really sharp with the piping and corners. I'll look forward to the finish pics.

 

[ziehmrd]

How much does MESA charge for the LSC medium headshell? Also, I assume the reverb tank fits fine?

 

[rabbittesticles]

I don't remember exactly, it was around 300 hundred though