Lonestar vs. Electrodyne combos

[Scary]

Which combo do you guys think would be better to have around the living room. I want to get one of these to have downstairs for practicing. Is it possible to use the Electrodyne at low volumes and still get the majority of tones it's capable of? From the demo it seemed you need to crank it to get the higher gain tones.

Based on the FAT mode on my MarkV, which is taken from the Lonestar, I can tell i'd love the tone of one.
The simplicity of the Electrodyne makes me wonder if it's worth sacrificing versatility for pure tone. I'm planning on making a trip to a dealer soon, but i'm wondering what those of you that have played both amps think.

Thanks for the input!

 

[rabies]

Is it possible to use the Electrodyne at low volumes and still get the majority of tones it's capable of? From the demo it seemed you need to crank it to get the higher gain tones.

I'm interested in feedback on this question as well... it's a 45/90 watt amp. based on experience, most tube amps' sweet spot is 2-4 (out of 10) on the masters. mesas are more preamp distortion but the ED may be a little different?

 

[Scary]

28 views and nobody want's to chime in about their lovely lonestar special or electra dyne? :shock:

 

[primal]

The knob labeled volume should actually be labeled gain. The Master is the real volume knob. It can be confusing as when I first read about this amp, I couldn't find the gain knob.

I played on it for probably 30 minutes at GC. I never cranked it.

In fact at one point, a bunch of other guys were making a ton of noise, so rather then me getting into a volume war with them, I just went ahead and sat on the ground directly in front of the combo with my ear towards the speaker.

It sounded amazing at low volumes. I had it no higher then bedroom level and was just amazed by it.

I really can't comment on how it would stack up next to the Lonestar. The Lonestar is an awesome amp, but for my style the electradyne was a much better choice.

I guess depending on your style the lonestar could be a better choice.

The electradyne was definately tighter then any overdrive on the Lonestar, atleast that I could dial up. But I don't think tight is the lonestars purpose.

 

[Scary]

The knob labeled volume should actually be labeled gain. The Master is the real volume knob. It can be confusing as when I first read about this amp, I couldn't find the gain knob.

I played on it for probably 30 minutes at GC. I never cranked it.

In fact at one point, a bunch of other guys were making a ton of noise, so rather then me getting into a volume war with them, I just went ahead and sat on the ground directly in front of the combo with my ear towards the speaker.

It sounded amazing at low volumes. I had it no higher then bedroom level and was just amazed by it.

I really can't comment on how it would stack up next to the Lonestar. The Lonestar is an awesome amp, but for my style the electradyne was a much better choice.

I guess depending on your style the lonestar could be a better choice.

The electradyne was definately tighter then any overdrive on the Lonestar, atleast that I could dial up. But I don't think tight is the lonestars purpose.

Interesting! I can't wait to try one out. The combos look so cool!

 

[JAZZGEAR]

I've had several variations of the Lonestar (LSS 1x12, LSC Head, LSC 2x12, LSC 1x12)...great amps....

But the Electra has the mojo for me...no matter where I set the dial.

 

[rabies]

But the Electra has the mojo for me...no matter where I set the dial.

Maybe b/c the dials in the EQ stack "don't work" like the Marshalls and noon, noon, noon actually sounds good (whereas with Mark IV is a disaster setting)? Or they're a passive stack rather than active on the rest of the Mesa amps??

 

[primal]

But the Electra has the mojo for me...no matter where I set the dial.

Maybe b/c the dials in the EQ stack "don't work" like the Marshalls and noon, noon, noon actually sounds good (whereas with Mark IV is a disaster setting)? Or they're a passive stack rather than active on the rest of the Mesa amps??

Ironically I started with it set at noon noon noon and yes it sounded very good (and yes, it would sound like pure garbage on a Mark IV).

In the end I dropped the mids and the bass both to somewhare around 10:00 and brought the treble up to about 2:00 - 3:00 (it is a dark amp, like an orange but not as dark as the orange. with the Treble set at 2:00-3:00 you get plenty of high's)

 

[Finnster]

This is a great demo of the Electrodyne.
http://www.willcuttguitars.com/_product_40643/Mesa_Boogie_Electra_Dyne_1x12

This amp may bring me back to Mesa. I'm trying to decide on the combo or head.

 

[Chrissmoth]

That's such a cool demo - not just someone twiddling away for hours with rubbish video-cam mics

****! - now I want an Electrodyne... :roll:

 

[JAZZGEAR]

In the end I dropped the mids and the bass both to somewhare around 10:00 and brought the treble up to about 2:00 - 3:00 (it is a dark amp, like an orange but not as dark as the orange. with the Treble set at 2:00-3:00 you get plenty of high's)

Try the amp with V30s and it is not dark at all....I think the dark nature may be attributed to the C90, which is by default a dark speaker.

I played the combo again today for about 3 hours in a closed room...and went back and forth between the combo speaker and a 2x12 Recto Cab. Through the Recto Cab, I found myself dialing back the treble and presence...and the opposite through the C90 combo speaker.

 

[JAZZGEAR]

This is a great demo of the Electrodyne.
http://www.willcuttguitars.com/_product_40643/Mesa_Boogie_Electra_Dyne_1x12

This amp may bring me back to Mesa. I'm trying to decide on the combo or head.

I wrestled with the Head/Combo decision as well....in the end went with the head. I am getting too old for the combo weight....though didn't think the 1x12 was all that heavy. I went for the head mainly because I felt the amp really shines with additional speakers in the 90 watt setting. It sounded so much better in this power range with the 2x12 Recto cab.

 

[chipaudette]

Rabies,

I'm confused by your statement that most Mesa's have an active tone stack. If by "tone stack" you mean the Treble, Bass, and Mid knobs, then that tone stack is passive in all the Mark series amps and in the Rectifier series. I believe that it's passive in the caliber series as well. The tone stack is in a different circuit location in all of these amps (like in the rectifier it comes after a cathode-follower stage at the end of the preamp), but it's still a passive set of tone controls in all of these examples.

The only active tone controls that I know of are in the Mesa graphic EQ.

As for the electrodyne, it likely uses a passive tone stack as well. What I do believe is unique about the electrodyne is that I've heard that it uses stacked pots so that the the tone stack can be different for the different channels even though there's only one set of knobs. That's an interesting idea. I've heard of a few other amps using stacked pots (the volume pot on the Tiny Terror), but never as a way to form a 2nd complete tone stack. I can't wait for the schematic to find its way onto the web eventually.

Chip

 

[JAZZGEAR]

This is a great demo of the Electrodyne.
http://www.willcuttguitars.com/_product_40643/Mesa_Boogie_Electra_Dyne_1x12

This amp may bring me back to Mesa. I'm trying to decide on the combo or head.

It's actually on the Mesa Site, in full size video

http://www.mesaboogie.com/demo/ElectraDyneDemo700.html

 

[CaymanSMC]

The clean channel on both are excellent but beyond that the ElectraDyne blows the Lonestar away. Unlike most of the other Mesa amps that require tweaking to the nth degree to get that sound the Electra is almost impossible to get a bad sound out of.

Don't let the simplicity of it fool you into thinking you will not be able to get the sounds you want. I believe if you play it you will be totally surprised with the sound and the flexibility of this amp.

 

[rabies]

Rabies,

I'm confused by your statement that most Mesa's have an active tone stack. If by "tone stack" you mean the Treble, Bass, and Mid knobs, then that tone stack is passive in all the Mark series amps and in the Rectifier series. I believe that it's passive in the caliber series as well. The tone stack is in a different circuit location in all of these amps (like in the rectifier it comes after a cathode-follower stage at the end of the preamp), but it's still a passive set of tone controls in all of these examples.

The only active tone controls that I know of are in the Mesa graphic EQ.

As for the electrodyne, it likely uses a passive tone stack as well. What I do believe is unique about the electrodyne is that I've heard that it uses stacked pots so that the the tone stack can be different for the different channels even though there's only one set of knobs. That's an interesting idea. I've heard of a few other amps using stacked pots (the volume pot on the Tiny Terror), but never as a way to form a 2nd complete tone stack. I can't wait for the schematic to find its way onto the web eventually.

Chip

i had a feeling i may be wrong. but it must be different from the Marshall EQ stack.

Anyways, the stacked pots I don't quite understand. What does this mean?

 

[lamadalton]

download the Electra Dyne manual from the boogie website...it explains how the amp works...not technical though, but it does refer to different taper levels for the modes, I'd guess it's a deal where various settings on each of the controls are not 'really' what the appear to be, ie noon on the treble control for the clean mode will really be something else for vintage lo, so that when you switch it will sound good, much like you would change controls from channel to channel on a multi channel amp, so if 2:00 on the presence control sounds 'best' on vintage hi, but noon on clean and lo, then the pot for vintage hi is rotated or set to be 'at' 2:00 in that mode when on the face of the amp it's at 12:00...

As others have reported, you really can't make this thing sound bad...

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

Quite the apples vs. oranges comparison I've found. The LoneStar was more Fender like in tone, whereas you could dial in many British like tones from the Electradyne...

 

[JAZZGEAR]

Quite the apples vs. oranges comparison I've found. The LoneStar was more Fender like in tone, whereas you could dial in many British like tones from the Electradyne...

The cleans on the Electra sound like Fender to me...granted a slightly diff variety from the LSC, but indeed Fender to me, YMMV

 

[toneguy86]

Quite the apples vs. oranges comparison I've found. The LoneStar was more Fender like in tone, whereas you could dial in many British like tones from the Electradyne...

It has appeared that way to me as well, although with EL34s and certain settings the Lonestar can have a sort of British vibe.

Here's what it looks like to me (and if this isn't the case others can set me straight). The Lonestar treble knob seems to be the dominating EQ control whereas on the Electradyne it looks like the bass control is more dominant. If I remember right, this is true with the Stilletos as well. This would certainly have a tremendous influence over the overall sound. Mylespaul forum had a great video from youtube posted of a guy sitting in a music store cranking on an electradyne going through a 412 cab. Sounds really heavenly and very Marshall like. Again, I have some settings on my Lonestar where I can get close to that, but not without a lot of messing around. The Lonestar is dark also, but definately with a more Fenderish vibe.

Nice discussion.

Mark