Lonestar Special 5-15 watt switch position not working

[flake]

Hello all,

Newbie to this forum.

I just picked up a Lonestar Special (1X12) Combo via Ebay (yeah... I know... I'm just asking for the troubles.)

Plugged it in... put it on standby... turned on and let it warm up. Turned on standby and turned up volumes and... nothing. Messed around with the amp a bit and eventually moved the wattage switches to 30 and finally things worked on both channels... but as soon as I switched back into 5 or 15 watts the sound slowly faded away to nothing.

???

I'm guessing a tube got damaged during the shipping but thought I'd check see if anyone around here had any answers. I'll be calling Mesa tomorrow (ever notice how this stuff happens 5 minutes after the place you need to call closes?!?) :roll:

Thanks for any help. Sorry to come in here as a newb and immediately being needy!

 

[Barracuda]

Hello all,

Newbie to this forum.

I just picked up a Lonestar Special (1X12) Combo via Ebay (yeah... I know... I'm just asking for the troubles.)

Plugged it in... put it on standby... turned on and let it warm up. Turned on standby and turned up volumes and... nothing. Messed around with the amp a bit and eventually moved the wattage switches to 30 and finally things worked on both channels... but as soon as I switched back into 5 or 15 watts the sound slowly faded away to nothing.

???

I'm guessing a tube got damaged during the shipping but thought I'd check see if anyone around here had any answers. I'll be calling Mesa tomorrow (ever notice how this stuff happens 5 minutes after the place you need to call closes?!?) :roll:

Thanks for any help. Sorry to come in here as a newb and immediately being needy!

Hopefully its not a big deal although I wonder ... if 30W (=> all tubes on) is operational then 15 and 5 should work too :? Unless you're not getting a full 30 out of it. Most likely its a set of bad tubes. It must be under warranty so you should be fine..soon. Let us know how it goes.
Good luck.

 

[Guitarbuff]

I had the same problem about a week after I took delivery of my LSS head. Your rectifier tube is bad. Replace the 5Y3 and you'll be back in business!

GB

 

[flake]

Well, after waiting a couple hours for Mesa to return my calls... no one was answering during their normal hours so they must have some Holiday we don't know about... I decided to muck about after all... turns out Guitarbuff was RIGHT ON!!

Wasn't getting any kind of glow out of the rectifier tube so removed and went down to the local guitar rip-off joint and bought a new tube...

Works like a charm... so beautiful to dirty up and crank 5 watts without totally blowing the eardrums!

Thank you so much for the help!!

 

[CoolRails]

I am really curious as to why Mesa didn't design the 30 watt setting to be selectable between tube recto and Silicon Diode (SS). I am addicted to the spank of the 30 watt channel but want a bit of sag in the sound too.

Does anyone else feel that the rectification on this amp should be selectable? Or does anyone know why it is not?

 

[Guitarbuff]

Hey Flake! Glad I could help. Enjoy your LSS. I love mine!

 

[Anthony50Cal+]

Dude.......

I own a LS Special but I have not experienced this problem. Although something similar happens depending on whether the footswitch is plugged in. IF you are not using the footswitch, make sure the front panel toogle switch is set to either "Channel 1 or Channel 2". If the toogle is set to "Footswitch" you may not be able to access the low wattage features.

Anthony50cal+