Lonestar Classic - too much bass on drive channel - SOLUTION

[guitarvc]

Its funny. I never had any problems with tone once I saw a video with Andy Timmons explaining how he eq's the amp. The Mesa Eq is different than that of say a Marshall or Fender. Each tone knob effects the way the others sound. So in short, I have the Treble at 1-2 O'clock,Mids and Bass at 9O'Clock. Presence at Noon. In a band setting this amp just kills, and I get nothing but compliments on my sound. Also, when I play straight ahead blues, I take out the drive stage and leave the settings the same. No mine is a 2016 model, so perhaps they changed the amp components.

 

[guitarvc]

Here it is.
The track is recorded in the following way:
PRS Custom24 HFS treble and Vintage bass - Lonestar - Suhr Reactive Load - Apogee Duet - Logic Pro with Torpedo Wall of Sound plugin. The plugin is an impulse loader. I loaded a Mesa 4x12 from Ownhammer.
https://soundcloud.com/adrianni/mesa-drive-mod

How does it sound in a band mix?

 

[guitarvc]

Also, as an experiment, who could I send my amp to so I can try this out?

 

[diddlydan]

Its interesting actually.I picked up a LSS a few months back ,mostly for cleans as id had one b4 and wasnt too keen on the gain channel.Never actually tried it in a band the first time.But since getting this second one ive been using it a lot.funny thing is its cutting through fine.A lot better than my royal atlantic too.I dont have the gain and drive up beyond noon/1 oclock though.Also im using mr timmons bridge pickup which really suits this amp.Maybe that has something to do with it.There is without question too much bass on the drive channel but i like the overall character of it.I may try a mod down the line but dont feel an overwhelming need to at the min

 

[The Lo Lands]

I've read this 'issue' before but when i look at the frequencies within my DAW when playing channel 2 on my LSC i see lots of activity within the low/mid frequency range which you can't dial out with just the LOW or MID EQ knobs on the amp. You can only add more treble to balance it out. Its mentioned here before, if you don't want to modify your amp you could for example buy the Mesa 5-band EQ pedal and place it in the amp effects loop. When lowering the 240Hz slider you easily get rid of the quickly building up low/mid frequencies which i think is because of the cascading drive design of these amps!? It works great for me and it gives you a much tighter drive if desired. You don't even have to lower the 80Hz slider that much which made me realize the real low end is not the biggest problem here. I think the best upgrade on the Lone Star amps would be a 5 band EQ stack but i think this is not gonna happen so a EQ pedal is your best solution to sculpture your 'perfect' drive sound on the Lone Star without a mod!

On a side note you should also consider another (Mesa) amp if the Lone Star series doesn't provide you the sounds you are after. Its imo the same as wanna make a Les Paul guitar sound like a Stratocaster or vice versa.

 

[user 35567]

+1 on the EQ in the loop instead of the mod. I purchased an MXR 10-Band EQ pedal due to me not getting along with the drive channel of the LSC. Placing it in the effects loop really tightened things up and saved this amp from being sold. Glad I tried it.

 

[cigarguy]

I am new to the board but have owned a few boogies and the most recent is the Lonestar Classic. As with several other posts here I love love love the cleans. I really like the drive but have always found that it has too much low end and as a result sounds woofy or muffled. After watching several videos i find that the sounds seems to be different in each. In some its very clear and articulate as well as having a thick quality to it. In others it's very muffled and sounds like it's being played through a giant marshmallow. I assume that some of this has to do with the recording and how it was done.

I have actually noticed it being different, on occasion, from day to day in my place. I chatted with an electrician friend who has wired several recording studios and is also a player and he mentioned that the power coming in from the house can often have an effect. It makes sense when he explains it to me. I have not attempted to change to a dedicated circuit just for my amp because that seems a bit extreme.

I am going to try an eq pedal both in front and in the loop to see how i like it. I did want to ask though, what was the cost to have the capacitor mod done? I have THD and Soldano amps within a couple of miles of me, so I'm sure I can find a good tech to do the work but thought I would ask since you already did the mod. (Listened to the audio clips and have to say that the drive channel sounds amazing after you modded it). Thanks for the post and for the info.

 

[Kokkari]

Hello

I bought a used Lone Star Classic and the amp already had two modifications.

On channel 2, the first drive stage capacitor 0.005 uf (on the right side, circled in red in the photo below) has already been changed for 0.001 uf for less bass.

There is another mod: both 100k resistors (on the left side, circled in red in the photo below; it's not a photo of my amp) have 240k resistor soldered in series for a total of 340k of resistance each. Additionally, there is a mini capacitor over 240k resistor.
Can someone help me understand what the purpose of this mod is (another resistor in series)?
Does a higher resistor value affects the input signal (maybe less gain or less bass) or something else? Which channel is affected?
Thank you, regards, Viljem

https://imageshack.com/i/pnX1WhKPj

 

[jrperser]

Hello,

Sorry about the length of this topic but I think it's worth reading it.
Here goes:
My Lonestar Classic - short head, beautiful cleans but unfortunately I was never able to bind with the drive channel. It was simply not possible to reduce the bass as much as I felt it would have been necessary. The perceived sound was without enough drive, pick attack was not there, everything that too much bass can damage was there. As a result the amp didn't get too much play.

However, I have a friend who told me that he modified his Roadster specifically for this reason so I thought I might as well ask the guy if there is a solution for my Lonestar. He called me back and told me that unlike the Mesa Roadster which has a 22nF capacitor at the drive stage entry (which he needed to change because the value was too much - hence too much bass), the Lonestar has a 5nF capacitor at the entry in the drive stage. Nevertheless, he said we should try to change that capacitor for a 1nF. I agreed but not before I told him I don't want the clean channel to be messed with. He told me that capacitor is only for the drive channel, nothing will change in the cleans. Ok.

So I brought the amp to his shop. I tested the amp for the unmodded sound, we agreed that it was way too much bass. Then we changed the capacitor. The original capacitor was the orange type that you see in the Mesa amps, we took it out and put a ceramic 1.5nF, not a 1nF because the guy was afraid that 1nF may be too small. Anyway, time for testing. Plugged in the guitar and... MAGIC!!! With bass between 11 and 12 o'clock, the sound was perfect.

Took the amp home to test it on my cabinet and most importantly with my Suhr Reactive load. Before the mod, I might or might not have lived with the bassy sound through a cabinet but through the Suhr reactive load the sound was simply not ok, it was all over the place, couldn't use it.
After the mod not only the sound is too good to be true, but the perceived drive is bigger. I mean like 50% bigger. The pick attack is to die for, the palm muted notes sound incredible. The guy explained me that if too much bass enters in the drive stage, then the harmonics which get amplified even more will cancel one another resulting in a lifeless tone with a low perceived drive. I am not an engineer, I can only attest for what I hear and feel. Let me tell you it is a different ball game.

Now the amp sounds like in the clips that we all see on youtube, the clips that made many of us want to buy a Lonestar in the first place. I know this happened to me. The BIAS mod didn't do it for me, other mods - the same. But simply changing this insignificant capacitor made may amp sound like the one Andy Timmons demoed on youtube.

To all the guys that have any technical knowledge about this stuff, chime in. It's the 5nF capacitor that on the schematics sits at the entrance of the drive stage in front of two resistors, a 200K and a 1M.

Regards, Adrian

Don’t forget that Andy has EL34s in his amp and to my knowledge has not done that mod. I’ll try and find out. He uses the drive channel sparingly and mostly relies on pedals in the clean channel. I wonder if this is the same mod I heard about done on the LSS drive channel. It sounds like a simple enough change if the results are that rewarding.