My New LSS.. How long does your amp take to get sweet?

I've finally joined the Mesa club, after buying a pre-owned Lone Star Special (I've been wanting one for 6 months now). This amp had some pre-amp tube issues:

• - Microphonic squealling on Ch2 with Reverb On (replacing V4(reverb) seemed to do it)
  
  - Auto Gain on both channels when I hit certain "A" and "E" notes with the gain up. If I hit the note hard and held it the amp would shift into overdrive, kinda doubling up the note. It would've been cool if I could control it and have it happen on any note. To stop it I'd have to hit some unrelated chord or switch channels which seems to mute temporarily. Fixed this with V1 (input/ch2 drive), also found that the first JJ 12AX7 that I used was very noisy in this position, I currently have a GT in there and its pretty quiet.

The both problem would go away after warming up for a hour or two.

Anyway....

After getting the tubization to my liking I've noticed that it seems to take at least half an hour before everything settles out. It's certainly playable after a few minutes (1 minute in standby then playing for a while). But I now know that I shouldn't touch any of my settings until its been played for a good while. Once it gets warmed up I can keep in it standby and come back and get the tone right away.

This is my first experience with a tube amp with this much gain and so many tubes (1-rect, 5-preamp, 4-power), my previous experience has been with small amps (Pro-Jr).

I'm interested in finding out how long it takes for other people amps to hit the sweet spot.

Some interesting effects there...

My LSS may sound a little sweeter after a half-hour or so, but it is subtle. No dramatic changes like you are seeing.

OK, played with it a bit more tonight, I'm using a Fat Strat w/Texas Special Single Coils in the neck and middle, S.Duncans Humbucker in the bridge. During that initial warm up period it seems to be overly sensitive to the Humbuckers in the Channel 2, seems like there is more gain for that first half hour. I don't hear the same effect with single coils, and if I back off the guitar volume it improves.

I'll have to pick up a couple new tubes and play around with the combinations.

tubes are usually the first thing I'd try..
My Lonestar has a noise it makes, but I'm fairly sure it's the reverb tank rattling.. I love that amp on Channel A with the Tweed mode engaged..
I'd really like to get my hands on a set of AlNiCo drivers for it though..
I have the standard Lonestar 2x12... not the special..
the Studio .22 I have is EL-84's and 5 12AX7's..
The cleans sound pretty good, but this amp has some issues.. or I simply don't know how to use it/use it enough.

Brian

hey botty guy
my experience though limited ....since I am in week two of lss ownership
but like tiger roach said..."My LSS may sound a little sweeter after a half-hour or so, but it is subtle. No dramatic changes like you are seeing."

I too have found it fairly stable...and not dramtically different....
though I turn on my amp and leave it on stand by while I tune for a bout 3 to 5 mins before firing it up...

and I too am using a double fat strat...with similar pick up set ups...
and they are definitely hot hummbuckers....in the bridge position..
I too back off the volume a bit...

I have been only using the tone set ups in the manual so far and have liked most of them....
purr and grind and pass the sauce...etc....for high gain stuff

tonight it was two hours of clean tones(lonestar state clean) with an 8ohm 35 watt speaker set up...on 30 watts
pristine clean....and lots of definition...

the stock answer is tubes,,,,,but I have very limited experience with the model of amp...

let us know how you make out...

still jammin
L'auger

As far as warming up to hit "the sweet spot" after least a half an hour warmup is common among AC30 Vox, Matchless DC30 according to EL84 guru Mark Samson formerly of Matchless, Bad Cat and now Star amps.

LoneStar Special power stage section are design similiar to these amps. :wink:

Let's not forget that this is a new amp...the transformers won't be well broken in until you hit about 40-50 hours of operation. The sound of the amp will change over this "break in" time. Just something to keep in mind...

It depends on how many beers she has...

Be aware you may also be experiencing some taming down of the tone over time due to speaker fade. Sometimes, depending on the speaker, you may hear this 'fade' almost right away, or after an hour or more... depending on how loud you are playing.