Lonestar Special: My brother is running a Lonestar Special which he uses at church. He swapped the Celestion c90 speaker for a Celestion G12H Heritage which he says improved the amp a lot. The advantage with the LSS is that you can select between 5watts, 15watts, and 30watts which gives great versatility. My brother said a lot of the muddiness was mitigated by swapping the speaker, which gives the amp a more warm and vintage character. My brother does say that while the cleans are amazing, the gain channel really leaves a lot to be desired. For gain stuff, he uses a high gain head in conjunction with the LSS.
Electra Dyne: Well, this is basically the 'perfect' amp for massively awesome clean AND great gain tones. If you want a versatile and simple package, this thing is awesome!
One complaint which may be a HUGE one: This amp is incredibly loud for its size and it doesn't have the preamp gain on tap for dialing in phatter tones at low volumes. It doesn't sound bad almost off, it just doesn't have a huge amount of crunch and it is hard to balance the volume of the clean and gain modes at such a low volume, ESPECIALLY with the gain set high. I know that for working with a rock band / drummer this complaint is irrelevant but I have done enough church stuff to know that the Dyne is simply too loud for this sort of a venue.
(When I use my Dual Rectifier for church, I play with 2 Yellow Jackets / EL-84 tubes to knock it down to acceptable levels. I also can run it with 2 EL-34s with tube rectifier and spongy power band to get some tube breakup while the head is almost off. Definitely not ideal)
Caveats aside, I LOVE the Electra Dyne. The amp simply sounds awesome and it would be my top pick out of Mesa's current offerings BY FAR. My suggestion would be to rent the 1 x 12 combo and see if it works out for what you need it for. You'll lose less $$$s this way then if you buy it and try to flip it.
Another suggestion would be to have 2 2 x 12 cabs and a short head. Load the one 2 x 12 with Celestion v30s or the speaker equivalent from another company such as Warehouse Guitar speakers. (WGS products ROCK) Then you can load the other cab with celestion Greenbacks or the like. A lower efficiency speaker like a greenback will allow you to run the amp a bit hotter and give speaker breakup to thicken the sound. Great for church and much easier than hauling around a combo. The vintage vibe also rules! The other cab will be louder (Higher efficiency speakers) and it also will have a higher power handling capability so it will be suitable for jamming with the boys. When you need maximum projection, just stack both 2 x 12s for maximum mayhem!!
Personally, I use two different 2 x 12s. My 4 x 12 was much too large so I traded it for a bass guitar and did DIY cab projects for two fully customized units. Unit #1 is a theile cab which has a front vent and a closed back. This really is optimal for an even frequency response and is an ideal compromise between cleans and gain tones. This is the 'church' unit. Unit #2 is an oversized 2 x 12 with a center ported baffle. This one is optimized for crunch tones but there is an option to remove part of the back panel to make it a 3/4 back. I haven't tried this yet but I'm sure it will be awesome!
Anyway, if you want a combo you can go that route. I'm just an advocate of having a customizable layout. If I was gigging actively, I'd have a 1 x 12, a 2 x 12, and a 4 x 12. Different situations require different tools so I like to have whatever is necessary on hand.
I hope this post helps.
