Mesa or Fender for ultra cleans

[knotts]

I actually put EL34's in my Lonestar to try it out and I ended up liking it better. At 50 or 100 watts there is still a ton of headroom and the cleans are dynamic and very articulate. It did give it a slightly more British edge which worked for what I am doing right now. It wasn't a marshall, but versatile.

That's why I'm a big fan of my Roadster. You get pristine MESA cleans which are better than fender cleans IMO, you can get some british voiced sounds, and that's with channels 1 and 2. After that you have all the power and sounds of a dual recto on tap with channels 3 and 4. It doesn't get much more versatile than that.

 

[Jared Purdy]

For cleans my LSS beats out my stock 75 Fender PR. No comparison.

 

[vanceen]

Just another data point...

I love the cleans on my LSS, especially with an extension Celestion Gold.

But when I compare it to my 1964 Super Reverb... Nope, sorry, the LSS just isn't in the same league for cleans. But I've never heard an amp that is, apart from some Twins.

But another observation - these purist tones we seek when playing at home often don't translate to recordings, and live gigs are another thing altogether. I don't gig that often, but when I do I have to fight to keep the LSS from sounding thin, while at my house it sounds anything but thin. I have no doubt that I can nail a fantastic live sound with it, because it's just so versatile. Still, when the drummer comes in, a lot of the subtle differences we hear from NOS tubes, capacitor upgrades in the guitar wiring and the like just can't be heard.

It's still fun going for magic tone. But I've decided to focus more on playing and less on tonequest.

 

[djw]

Just another data point...
But another observation - these purist tones we seek when playing at home often don't translate to recordings, and live gigs are another thing altogether. I don't gig that often, but when I do I have to fight to keep the LSS from sounding thin, while at my house it sounds anything but thin. I have no doubt that I can nail a fantastic live sound with it, because it's just so versatile. Still, when the drummer comes in, a lot of the subtle differences we hear from NOS tubes, capacitor upgrades in the guitar wiring and the like just can't be heard.

THIS is an excellent point. And the Mesas I've had are not the only amps to fall victim to this potential pitfall, really any amp can fall into this.

One rule I've found helpful, to me at least: play cleaner at gigs than you would normally at home. That will allow you to punch through the mix a little, and bring in some of the lows and mids that might be missing and in turn making things sound thin. And if the gig is the kind where you can turn up even a little more than you would at home, that can often make up for whatever warmth you might lack playing at lower volume, but with more hair dialed in (like I tend to at home).

 

[BoogieDown]

FWIW, sometimes people get thrown off because the LS series (like many Mesa amps) has two rectifiers in it (solid state and tube). That doesn't make it a part of the "recto" lineage though.