Yesterday, I suffered through an hour of music store warfare, you know the scene. Everything is pretty quiet throughout the store, so you take a chance and plug into an amp that looks promising, in this case a Lone Star Special, and start trying out the amp at very reasonable volumes, then right away, out of nowhere, there's a monkey plugging into an Orange half-stack right next to you, he even smells bad :lol: . And he seems hell-bent on blowing you away with his awesomeness (actually, the dude can hardly play but he doesn't know that apparently but he sure is loud). :wink:
Then, there's a girl that plugs a bass guitar in and starts playing the bass line to Queen's "another bites the dust" loudly for about fifteen minutes straight! (What's that all about?). And then some ***-hat at the other side of the store cranks up a synthesizer with a "banjo" patch of all things and he plays the same melody for about twenty minutes without a break. I don't know how the store employees keep their sanity! :mrgreen:
So as all of this B.S. is going on, I unplug and walk around the store for a bit and as I'm almost ready to bail, the noise calms down again. I go ahead and give it another try and within the next 10 minutes of trying out the LSS 1x12" against an Express 5:50 1x12" and a Mark V half-stack, I figured out that the Mark V might be too much for me. The Express 5:50 seems like a nice amp but there's just something about that LSS. It's just oozing with tone!
Bare in mind that these are being tested at volumes that you could talk over, so I didn't give it a really proper test. I wish that I could open her up for awhile and get a better idea. I know a couple of the guys that work there. Maybe I can get in there when they're really slow and get in a proper test without bothering too many people.
I have a question regarding the Express 5:25, the one with the EL-84s, would that one get into the Lone Star Special's sonic territory when you switch the 5:25 on to the 5 watt mode? It's in Class A mode at that point and is running the same tubes as the LSS.
Then, there's a girl that plugs a bass guitar in and starts playing the bass line to Queen's "another bites the dust" loudly for about fifteen minutes straight! (What's that all about?). And then some ***-hat at the other side of the store cranks up a synthesizer with a "banjo" patch of all things and he plays the same melody for about twenty minutes without a break. I don't know how the store employees keep their sanity! :mrgreen:
So as all of this B.S. is going on, I unplug and walk around the store for a bit and as I'm almost ready to bail, the noise calms down again. I go ahead and give it another try and within the next 10 minutes of trying out the LSS 1x12" against an Express 5:50 1x12" and a Mark V half-stack, I figured out that the Mark V might be too much for me. The Express 5:50 seems like a nice amp but there's just something about that LSS. It's just oozing with tone!
Bare in mind that these are being tested at volumes that you could talk over, so I didn't give it a really proper test. I wish that I could open her up for awhile and get a better idea. I know a couple of the guys that work there. Maybe I can get in there when they're really slow and get in a proper test without bothering too many people.
I have a question regarding the Express 5:25, the one with the EL-84s, would that one get into the Lone Star Special's sonic territory when you switch the 5:25 on to the 5 watt mode? It's in Class A mode at that point and is running the same tubes as the LSS.
