Low Gain Overdrive Pedal with LSS or LSC?

[Resonator]

I'm thinking about buying a Barber LTD Pedal for the Lone Star. I'm in the middle of auditioning both the LSS and LSC. Both are great amps.

Is it necessary to go with a OD pedal like the Barber LTD with either of these amps? Can a similar low gain OD be achieved on either of these amps on their own?

Thanks for your help, Res :?

 

[Mountain Fever]

I have the LSS. One of the main reasons I bought this amp was being able to get that mildly overdriven sound at a moderate volume. It will go far dirtier than that. IMHO, the whole idea of getting something that might be considered a boutique amp is to get a certain sound from the amp...not from a string of pedals.

The LSS sounds so good and does it's thing so well, it seems un-natural to think about running a OD pedal into it. I have yet to throw my comp pedal in, as I really don't think I need to, but I feel some experimentation might be justified.

On the other hand, I had to use a Boss Blues Driver and a ProCo Rat to get anything overdriven out of my VibroKing as it was too clean for that sound...hence the purchase of the LSS.

I did not audition the LSC with its new 10 watt setting, but the 5 Watt on the LSS coupled with a "Drive" control and a gain control gives me everything I need.

 

[Resonator]

I have the LSS. One of the main reasons I bought this amp was being able to get that mildly overdriven sound at a moderate volume. It will go far dirtier than that. IMHO, the whole idea of getting something that might be considered a boutique amp is to get a certain sound from the amp...not from a string of pedals.

The LSS sounds so good and does it's thing so well, it seems un-natural to think about running a OD pedal into it. I have yet to throw my comp pedal in, as I really don't think I need to, but I feel some experimentation might be justified.

On the other hand, I had to use a Boss Blues Driver and a ProCo Rat to get anything overdriven out of my VibroKing as it was too clean for that sound...hence the purchase of the LSS.

I did not audition the LSC with its new 10 watt setting, but the 5 Watt on the LSS coupled with a "Drive" control and a gain control gives me everything I need.

I totally agree with your assessment of why you would go with the LSS. I feel the same way. That's why I was asking the question. I was under the impression that you can pull some really nice low gain crunch out of both of these amps.

I"m going with the LSS over the LSC. I took the LSC back this afternoon.
After getting deeper into both of these amps, I discovered the LSC can't hold up to what I can get out of the LSS with my Baja Tele and American Deluxe Strat. The LSC did a little better with my Gretsch Nashville with TV Jones PU's, But I play the strat and tele a lot more than the Gretsch.

I'm just getting into the second channel for a little OD. I haven't figured it out yet. Any suggestion on settings would be appreciated.

Thanks, Res

 

[Mountain Fever]

I have to admit, I'm not the best at sitting for perhaps hours and running every possible combination of tone, volume, and gain settings. And, after getting the LSS and having it reveal some things, I really think I have to get a better understanding of volume and tone settings on the guitar. I did actually take the time to read the owner's manual, which addressed the controls for Drive and Gain.

In a nutshell, they seem to think that the gain should normally be set higher than the drive level. They suggested setting the gain somewhere around 2:00 to 3:00 and then experiment with increasing levels of Drive.

Again, the thing that is so great about a quality piece of equipment is, especially where Mesa is concerned...the amp is going to perform very well inside it's intended build characteristics...and in my opinion, the LSS is all about getting the type of sound that is just 'furry' enough to have a little attitude, but you still can distinguish intonation to a large degree, and for me the best part is that you don't have to blast out the windows to get it there.

Based on some of my tweaking the knobs, you can get a pretty distorted sound out of the LSS, but I would be pretty sure that it would not be what amps designed to target that sound can deliver.

For the first time maybe ever, it is pretty cool to think I have an amp that will eventually allow for a sound that I like that is not some copy-cat of someone else.

Anyhow, good luck in getting your sound dailed in.

 

[plan-x]

Res, the easiest thing to set up on the 2nd ch is the clean clone of ch1, just add a little gain to it and you've got a low gain knock off. The manual usually has those settings. Gain is a funny thing in a tube amp. the more you use, the less the frequency response and tone knob control. Hence the loss of bottom and top as compared to the cleanest sound the amp can get. A pedal on the other hand doesn't suffer from this problem and can put out some really superb bottom end as well as top end.