Sell my Mark IIA to buy a Lone Star?

[breogan]

Hi there,

I am having one of those GAS attacks and I would like to ask for some opinions.

I have a 1979 Mark IIA, 60W, EQ, EVM12L, non reverb combo. I bought this like 5-6 years ago and I have been working really hard to remove all kinds of strange noises out of it. I even modified the Lead Master section and now it can be played at moderate levels at my flat.

I love the clean and lead tone, and I am allways amazed on how many tones I can get out of it. This is trully a special amp.

Now enters this LSC, version 1, 2x12 in bronco blue that is selling for a reasonable price by a guy near my hometown. I go and arrange a meeting to test it and, sonically, I didn't found it better than my Mark IIa. I totally loved the cleans thought, not as flat eq as the Mark IIA, but with more character. Then I tried the lead tone, but I have to say here the Mark IIA was the clear winner both in tone and versatility.

However the LSC's dual channels, with independent controls, is much more convenient than the 7 knob, do-it-all, Mark IIA. Also the reverb is trully amazing on the Lone Star, and has a tube buffered effects loop. On top of that one can run 6V6 and EL34 on this amp, it has casters and is much sexier looking.

I thorn between the two. I prefer the Mark IIa tones by a marging and I find the Lone Star a much much versitile amp.

What would you do? :mrgreen:

 

[plan-x]

You've come to the Lonestar forum to ask this? Well of course I say do it. That Mark is getting old and will need a re-cap soon. There's a mod in the sticky section here to change the LS's drive ch character that I found to be an improvement. The LSC has a very warm clean ch, impressive headroom, best reverb, superb loop, and the track casters are the bomb.