Lone Stars Discontinued?

[user 35567]

Have the Lone Stars been discontinued? I noticed that Sweetwater has the Special listed as "no longer available".

 

[stephen sawall]

It's on the Mesa site.... Probably Sweetwater no longer has them.
Mesa removes amps from their site if discontinued.

 

[ranchak]

I was talking with one of the guys at Mesa Boogie Hollywood on Saturday and he said that it looked like the Lone Star was going to be discontinued due to parts availability. Other models are having trouble with parts availability as well. I’m not suggesting other models are being discontinued, just that there could be a wait for some models to be built again.

 

[Marco2073]

Currenty many amps are no more available in Europe... the JP2C too

it's probably because of the covid ...or problems with supply of electrical components (pcb, etc)

 

[ebagjones]

This is crazy, the Lone Star Special is, alongside the Fillmore 100, their best amp right now, IMO of course. I thought the Lone Star series was pretty popular too, I can’t believe they wouldn’t find a way to make it work.

 

[user 35567]

The Lone Stars are no longer on Mesa's website.

 

[jrperser]

Prices to go up on LSC and LSS. PRE Gibson and discontinued. Keeping both of mine for the duration.

 

[Nerd]

This is crazy, the Lone Star Special is, alongside the Fillmore 100, their best amp right now, IMO of course. I thought the Lone Star series was pretty popular too, I can’t believe they wouldn’t find a way to make it work.

They discontinued Fillmore cabinets too. Whatever is going on at Mesa, it's hard to understand

 

[relivingmyyouth]

Not selling enough of them I suppose.

 

[jsullivan2112]

They discontinued Fillmore cabinets too. Whatever is going on at Mesa, it's hard to understand

They're gone. They told me they were streamlining everything and getting rid of a lot of redundancies, which makes loads of sense to me. There was a lot of overlap, especially between cabs that didn't really set them apart from each other. So they've ditched a lot of them, kept others and just rebranded them as either Boogie or Recto, with speaker options. There's not much point in offering three "different" Thiele cabs when you can offer one and just switch the speaker or finish on order.

 

[ChuckD]

I' dig my Lonestar Special, thay are a tad heavy to lug around, but it ain't no Twin Reverb!

 

[Telemaster]

Still Rockin' with the LSC stack!

 

[c00lt0m]

I'm glad I bought my Mesa Lone Star Special in 2005. I've gigged with it and never had any trouble with it. Its a heavy mother though! Its been my number one for going on close to 20 years now. Still love it!

 

[tbonesullivan]

I picked up one recently, most likely as a replacement for my Maverick 2x12. Such a great amp design. I really like the Maverick, but there is really nothing that it does that the Lone Star can't do, and it does things the Maverick can't do, and also does a lot of things BETTER.

 

[rarebitusa]

Yea the Maverick is a nice amp. I played in a band where the other guitarist, who was a big Vox guy picked up a Maverick and I got to jam on it alot, a very fun amp to play. Since I had a LSS it was nice to compare the two. Both actually have alot in common, el84s, less inherent gain, straightforward dual chans etc. but IMHO the LSS has just a few extra features that set it apart, Drive, thick switch and the different wattage selections. Tonally the LSS has those lush cleans and with the Drive that lead chan is fairly unique. To my ears the LSS has a bit more character.

 

[tbonesullivan]

Yea the Maverick is a nice amp. I played in a band where the other guitarist, who was a big Vox guy picked up a Maverick and I got to jam on it alot, a very fun amp to play. Since I had a LSS it was nice to compare the two. Both actually have alot in common, el84s, less inherent gain, straightforward dual chans etc. but IMHO the LSS has just a few extra features that set it apart, Drive, thick switch and the different wattage selections. Tonally the LSS has those lush cleans and with the Drive that lead chan is fairly unique. To my ears the LSS has a bit more character.

Definitely. If I had the 1x12 version of the Maverick, I would probably just have kept it, but the 2x12 is really a beast. Also, I've always been kicking myself for missing out on a MINT LSS I saw at Guitar Center for like $1200, and I didn't get it when it was RIGHT THERE. IT was gone an hour later.

 

[rarebitusa]

Definitely. If I had the 1x12 version of the Maverick, I would probably just have kept it, but the 2x12 is really a beast. Also, I've always been kicking myself for missing out on a MINT LSS I saw at Guitar Center for like $1200, and I didn't get it when it was RIGHT THERE. IT was gone an hour later.

Hey a bit off topic but how do the Stiletto Ace and the RA compare in your view? Just curious.

 

[tbonesullivan]

Hey a bit off topic but how do the Stiletto Ace and the RA compare in your view? Just curious.

They are Waaaayyyy different. Features, sound, feel are all significantly different. Honestly I like playing the Royal Atlantic more, because it's just easier to dial in, even though it doesn't have the gain potential of the Stiletto.

For me, as with many people, the "Crunch" mode on the Stiletto is the really divisive one. It's based on an early marshall type sound, which is actually quite bright, and with the Vintage 30 unless you are really blasting it, the sound comes out as shrill. The two other modes on the lead channel are quite high gain, so it's almost like there is an area of sound I want to play in sometimes that it doesn't cover. With the Royal Atlantic, it's much easier to get that "Nice" sounding overdrive sound with a "round" type of sound profile.

On the other hand, the Clean modes on the stiletto are freakin beautiful. The cleans on the Royal atlantic are good too, but the Stiletto in some ways is better.

In terms of features, it's a toss up, as both have some that the other doesn't. The Stiletto has switchable rectifiers, the bold / spongy variac, master and solo outputs, and presence controls. The Royal Atlantic has the 100/50 watt swich, but more importantly, the multi-soak like seen on the Triple Crown. It also has a bit of the Electra Dyne design by having three channels but some shared controls. It also has reverb, which like the Electra Dyne has only one level control, and a mode defeat switch.

I will say that with the Stiletto, speaker choice is key, and I personally don't like the Vintage 30 with it, as it accentuates the high mids. This becomes less of an issue if you play really loud, but at regular volumes I found a different speaker (Scumback J75-LD 65 Watt) was a better choice.

 

[rarebitusa]

They are Waaaayyyy different. Features, sound, feel are all significantly different. Honestly I like playing the Royal Atlantic more, because it's just easier to dial in, even though it doesn't have the gain potential of the Stiletto.

For me, as with many people, the "Crunch" mode on the Stiletto is the really divisive one. It's based on an early marshall type sound, which is actually quite bright, and with the Vintage 30 unless you are really blasting it, the sound comes out as shrill. The two other modes on the lead channel are quite high gain, so it's almost like there is an area of sound I want to play in sometimes that it doesn't cover. With the Royal Atlantic, it's much easier to get that "Nice" sounding overdrive sound with a "round" type of sound profile.

On the other hand, the Clean modes on the stiletto are freakin beautiful. The cleans on the Royal atlantic are good too, but the Stiletto in some ways is better.

In terms of features, it's a toss up, as both have some that the other doesn't. The Stiletto has switchable rectifiers, the bold / spongy variac, master and solo outputs, and presence controls. The Royal Atlantic has the 100/50 watt swich, but more importantly, the multi-soak like seen on the Triple Crown. It also has a bit of the Electra Dyne design by having three channels but some shared controls. It also has reverb, which like the Electra Dyne has only one level control, and a mode defeat switch.

I will say that with the Stiletto, speaker choice is key, and I personally don't like the Vintage 30 with it, as it accentuates the high mids. This becomes less of an issue if you play really loud, but at regular volumes I found a different speaker (Scumback J75-LD 65 Watt) was a better choice.

Thanks man for taking the time chime in. I appreciate hearing that. Why?? cause I do love my Stiletto Ace... alot... and I share many of the same sediments. But I've GAS'd for an RA recently, for the reasons you stated.

WRT the Stiletto... 1st yea speaker choice, totally agree about the v30. I pulled the chassis and moved the Ace to a head. Played with a few speakers but it was a Scumback M75 that sounded best, the MC90 was pretty decent too. Speaker choice is a big deal IMHO 2nd... volume yea it has to be up there, you can kinda hear where it starts opening up. 3rd that Crunch, I wanna like it but it is brighter then what I prefer typically, seem to end up with Tite Clean and Tite Gain. Also always run it Spongy, for some reason I like that with Diode mode on tite Clean and tube on Tite Gain. It's not the easiest amp to play but it goes really well with pedals and when it's dialed it.. it sings.