New Lonestar owner...now...pedals??

Hey, I just snagged a great looking Lonestar for $1300 (hope that was a good deal) off a guy on Craigslist. First off, he bought the amp from the original owner 2 weeks ago. He had a Bassman and decided he liked that better, so I took it off his hands. Now, I want to know about warranty information so that he can figure it out from the original owner. I cannot find a serial number on the amp. Is there one??

Next, I'd like to get some pedals that will complement this thing. I am almost positive I don't want a multi-fx unit. I've had a Digitech GSP2101 Artist for years, and I much prefer getting good individual pedals than an all-in-one. Besides, I prefer to twist knobs than surf menus. The main pedals I would like are:

1.) Noise Gate/Noise Supressor - I would preferably like one pedal that does both.
2.) Chorus - I'm looking at the TC Electronic Stereo Chorus. What do you think?
3.) Digital Delay - I'm looking at the Boss DD line. I'm not sure I want tap tempo. What I really need that for? I also don't need it to loop. I'm looking for basic stuff, maybe the DD-3?
4.) Overdrive/Distortion - I would like something to get me a nice creamy sound like Eric Johnson/Steve Vai, but also a killer blues like SRV. I was thinking of the Xotic BB. If I get this overdrive, should I combine it with channel 2, or just throw it over channel 1? Or both? Also, I do occasionally jam out on the really heavy metal, and I have a killer metal tone out of my Digitech, but the problem is, it's not true bypass, so when I bypass to get back to the Mesa tone it sounds like garbage. I basically have to unplug the Digi out of the loop of the Mesa. I could just shut the loop switch off, but that kills some of the punch, and I also then cannot use the Solo function.

For a pedal to truly be worth anything it should be true bypass, is this correct? I don't want my pedal board eating up tone either when on or off. Right now I have 3 main pedals: Digitech Whammy, Morley Bad Horsie 2 Wah, Ibanez Mostortion (supposed to be like a Tube Screamer...dunno if it is, don't really use it).

I was also thinking of getting a compressor. I'm big into funk and country, and the Mesa really seems to deliver in that area, so I'm wondering if a compressor would really be necessary?

Also, if there's anything else you can think of to guide me with this new toy, let me know. I looked at the Reeder mod, but I'm not so sure I want to mess with anything on the amp right now.

Thanks!!!

Welcome to the board, and congratulations on the new amp!!!

polishcomedy said:

Hey, I just snagged a great looking Lonestar for $1300 (hope that was a good deal) off a guy on Craigslist. First off, he bought the amp from the original owner 2 weeks ago. He had a Bassman and decided he liked that better, so I took it off his hands. Now, I want to know about warranty information so that he can figure it out from the original owner. I cannot find a serial number on the amp. Is there one??

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The serial number should be on a tag glued to the underside of the chassis, at the rear edge, in the general region of the power cable connection.

polishcomedy said:

Next, I'd like to get some pedals that will complement this thing. I am almost positive I don't want a multi-fx unit. I've had a Digitech GSP2101 Artist for years, and I much prefer getting good individual pedals than an all-in-one. Besides, I prefer to twist knobs than surf menus. The main pedals I would like are:

1.) Noise Gate/Noise Supressor - I would preferably like one pedal that does both.

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'Noise Gate' and 'Noise Suppressor' are two different terms for the same thing. I don't have any recommendations for one, as I've never needed one, but they all do pretty much the same thing, as far as I can tell. I'll leave this part to someone else.

polishcomedy said:

2.) Chorus - I'm looking at the TC Electronic Stereo Chorus. What do you think?

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I've personally never liked the TC stuff all that much, it's all kind of tinny and canned sounding to my ears. If you're going to run it in stereo with another amp, that might not be a problem -- to me, even the cheapest chorus pedals sound good in stereo (and, conversely, even the nicest analog chorus pedal sounds bad with only one amp).

polishcomedy said:

3.) Digital Delay - I'm looking at the Boss DD line. I'm not sure I want tap tempo. What I really need that for? I also don't need it to loop. I'm looking for basic stuff, maybe the DD-3?

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I have a DD-6 that is okay with my Lonestar. It sounds a little better in the loop than in front. I like an analog delay a little better, but that's me -- if you're going for a digital delay sound, one of these will probably work nicely for you.

polishcomedy said:

4.) Overdrive/Distortion - I would like something to get me a nice creamy sound like Eric Johnson/Steve Vai, but also a killer blues like SRV. I was thinking of the Xotic BB. If I get this overdrive, should I combine it with channel 2, or just throw it over channel 1? Or both? Also, I do occasionally jam out on the really heavy metal, and I have a killer metal tone out of my Digitech, but the problem is, it's not true bypass, so when I bypass to get back to the Mesa tone it sounds like garbage. I basically have to unplug the Digi out of the loop of the Mesa. I could just shut the loop switch off, but that kills some of the punch, and I also then cannot use the Solo function.

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I haven't tried the Xotic BB with the LS personally, but a lot of guys on here love the combination. Listen to the Andy Timmons videos on the Mesa homepage for a demonstration of what it sounds like -- it sounds **** nice to my ears. It's very easy to dial a nice, slightly grainy SRV sort of tone on channel 2 of the LS without any pedals -- use the neck pickup on a guitar with single coils like the very nice Telecaster in your picture, Normal voicing, Drive engaged and set between 10:00 and 12:00, Gain between 12:00 and 3:00, Bass and Middle on the low side or off, Treble and Presence on the high side.

polishcomedy said:

For a pedal to truly be worth anything it should be true bypass, is this correct? I don't want my pedal board eating up tone either when on or off. Right now I have 3 main pedals: Digitech Whammy, Morley Bad Horsie 2 Wah, Ibanez Mostortion (supposed to be like a Tube Screamer...dunno if it is, don't really use it).

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Don't fall for the hype -- a pedal doesn't have to be true bypass to be good, it just has to sound good to you. For example, I know a guitarist who owns a music store, and as such can use pretty much any overdrive pedal he wants to; he likes a cheap Arion pedal the best, so he uses that.

Also, a true-bypass signal chain will suck all sorts of tone unless you're very careful with your cable lengths, and keeping your total length under 15 feet or so is just about impossible when you have a pedalboard with a few pedals on it; you end up with two six-foot cables connecting guitar->pedals and pedals->amp, and almost no mobility. It's like this: a shielded guitar cable consists of two conductors separated by a non-conductor, i.e. a capacitor. Capacitance in your signal chain will change your tone if it is in the proper range. The average cable has a capacitance in the range of a handful of picofarads, very small. However, at high impedances (like those of unbuffered guitar signals) the capacitance of the cable can edge down into the audio range and start to roll off high frequencies (the formula for this: Resistance = 1/2 * Pi * Frequency * Capacitance). This is why buffered-bypass pedals are so common, and so useful -- the buffer converts the signal to a much lower impedance, moving the center frequency of the cable capacitance to a range irrelevant to audio signals, and making your total cable length irrelevant for practical purposes. Personally, I like to keep a buffered pedal early in my chain somewhere, so I don't have to worry about this. The only way you're going to get much tone suck with buffered pedals is if you have four or five Boss pedals or something like that with cheap buffers.

polishcomedy said:

I was also thinking of getting a compressor. I'm big into funk and country, and the Mesa really seems to deliver in that area, so I'm wondering if a compressor would really be necessary?

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The LS sounds a lot like an old Fender. At least to my ears, old Fenders often benefit from a little compression up front, and the LS is no different. I have a BYOC OptiComp that sounds very nice with it. The other guitarist in my band has a Barber Tone Press that also sounds quite good.

polishcomedy said:

Also, if there's anything else you can think of to guide me with this new toy, let me know. I looked at the Reeder mod, but I'm not so sure I want to mess with anything on the amp right now.

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The only thing the Reeder Mod modifies is the tapers on two pots, so if you use your ears when setting the Gain and Master controls on Channel 2 rather than your eyes, the mod isn't strictly necessary (not that it's a bad mod; changing the channels to react similarly certainly has its uses). I've noticed that I can generally dial Channel 2 to sound exactly like Channel 1 by keeping Channel 2's Gain control about 30 degrees behind Channel 1's. The LS manual has a suggested setting called 'Clean Clones' that shows this -- you might try that out.

The only other advice I can offer you is to use your ears rather than your eyes, and spend a fair amount of time with the amp, as Mesa amps are known for taking a while to dial in the way you like. Also, play it loud -- it won't sound all that good at bedroom levels.

I don't really think there's much need for a noise gate with such a small setup, as well as with this particular amp. It is extremely quiet and noise free even at the highest gain settings (just don't sit infront of it, cause that noise comes from pickup feedback). While higher gain amps and really large rigs (John Petrucci-style, etc.) generally will require a noise gate.

Thing with buffers is that the cheaper ones (Boss, etc.) will affect your tone, no matter if the pedal is on or off. While true-bypass benefits you of having the signal "clean", so to speak, when the pedal is off. But that doesn't mean the pedal itself is better. Generally, I'd say you get what you pay for. If you have a really long true-bypass chain, I'd perhaps invest in a good quality buffer, such as the Axess Electronics BS2.

When it comes to pedals, I tend to like the thought of all-analog with this amp, but that's just me.

Welcome to the club. When I got my LSC, I went through a period of sheer amazement at how delicious the tone was all by itself... and very quickly I dropped all my Boss pedals and started assembling a minimalist chain of retro-sounding effects... which, granted, also reflected where I was going stylistically anyway. But the amp is so addictive and rich sounding all by itself that tone and spatial "enhancers" like chorus and delay started to feel superfluous. Anything that got in the way of the sweet, open tone just had to go.

But I still have my old Boss Chorus, Flange, etc. for when I need them... and they sound fine for what they are. The amp is very pedal-friendly, so just go with what sounds right for you. I will say that I've noticed my true-bypass Fulltone pedals (I use the Supa-Trem and Mini Deja-Vibe) really sound amazing in that they produce a nice, rich effect, but transparently so; at any setting, the original guitar tone is still present and sounds undiminished by the effect. I've got a small itch to get the Chorale-Flange because of this. I can't say if it's the true-bypass thing or not. But it's just like anything else: go with what sounds good to you.

The Xotic pedals are of course really popular with this amp (mostly because of Andy Timmons), but Barber pedals are a great match with it too. The Tone Press is a strong, transparent compressor. But Barber's real strength is that they make excellent, natural-sounding ODs; even the basic LTD just kicks butt. You can add a very tube-like light crunch to Ch1, and kick a medium-gain Ch2 into violin-style sustain with the same pedal, same setting. It's like adding 2 more channels to the amp. I'd recommend any of the Barbers for OD.

You won't need that noise gate.

Also, you can still use the Loop engaged with nothing in it, and just use it as fine level control AND for the purposes of keeping the Solo function handy.

Thanks guys. As far as I know, there IS a difference between the noise gate and noise suppressor. The gate cuts off the signal completely to silence when below a certain threshold, whereas the suppressor kills pickup hum and noise from pedals, etc. I do have some hum, so I would like to kill it. I like total silence. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll look into the Barber stuff.

+1 Barbers

One suggestion I could make with the 'creamy' OD would be to check the MI Audio Boost n' Buff pedal. While it is only a boost/treble booster, in conjunction with my LSS's Channel two, it really thickens it up and squashes it in a good way. Not real high gain-y like you mentioned in your examples, but in a great way.

The other great thing about the B n' B is that it has an amazing buffer, that is always on. I run mostly true bypass pedals with a few others but have the B n' B at the end of my signal chain. It helps negate any of the long cable length signal degradation. If the B n' B isn't in my chain, it sounds like there is a blanket on my amp with all the highs I lose.

Lately, I've been really digging the combination of an Xotic BB and a Hermida Zendrive together with chan 2 set to clean. And then you've got two nice options with either singularly. Nice looking LS you got, and 1300's a good price.

I agree with the opinion that you don't need a noise gate with this amp . For the delay that depends on taste , digital or more organic analog . If so, check out the Memory Man Deluxe , really nice analog delay . For the OD I like the BB preamp ,
but the Barber stuff it's really great also . Maxon makes good Tubescreamers. I would stay away from Boss OD , to my ears they sound to ' pedal ' always .The point to me with this amp it's not losing the sound of it , and use pedals that can add something without going somewhere different ( like turning it into a Marshall JC800 ) , for that I think it's better to buy a Marshall . What I really dig about the LSC it's that it has it's own tone , it's not a wanna be boutique amp trying to recreate a Vox or Fender or Marshall.

The reason I brought up the noise gate is because I play a telecaster, which brings in single coil hum. Also, once I start adding pedals, especially an OD, it'll probably add even more. I like a clean sound.

Steve 73,

I have been thinking about that Boost n Buff. In Australia they are about $160 compared the the Xotic RC which is $350 plus delivery from Canberra or Adelaide to Melbourne another $40.

I was going to push the button and by the Xotic and saw your post that the Boost n Buff thickens your tone. Is it the kinda pedal that you can leave on all the time clean or dirty to thicken your tone, a little break up on the clean is OK as my Tele is too clean on Channel 1 and a bit ice picky.

Would love to hear an expansion of your experience with this pedal.

Hey Leroy,

I think the B n' B with the LSS is a fairly transparent boost on the dial until it gets to about noon, then it gets into treble booster territory and thickens the tone. I just use it as a solo boost with the dial about 1-2 'o clock and it fattens up the tone and boosts the volume. It is too bad I don't have any sound clips with my Tele, maybe I'll have some time in the next couple days to make one.

I just got an RC Booster in trade and have gigged with it a couple times and didn't like it as much as the Bn'B, though the RC Booster is a more versatile pedal that I am just getting to know. First impressions anyway.....

You are right though, the Bn'B is real affordable. I got it mainly for it's buffer at the end of my pedalboard, but now I use the boost all the time.