Mesa Lonestar Classic VS. Egnater Renegade

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theroan

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Hey all,

I'm going to be downgrading from the Mark V somewhere in the near future. Hoping to free up some money for a PRS.

The two amps that have really caught my eye are the Lonestar Classic and the Egnater Renegade. I know there will be some recommendations for the Electradyne, it's not my thing.

How do these compare in build quality, sound, features etc.

Thoughts, experiences, preferences welcome!

Thanks!
 
Funny....that's how I came to have my LSC. I traded it with a guy who wanted a Renegade. Both amps are great. The Egnater has the tube mix feature, but I don't think it makes a huge difference. Bruce thought of everything. Reverb and EFX loop are controlled in a footswitch. The Renegade also has an XLR out so you can go direct to a PA. That was a very handy feature when keeping the stage volume down!

But overall, I'm still happy with the LSC and happy with my trade. Despite less bells and whistles, I think the sound of the LSC has way more personality. Either way, both amps are very nice and you can't go wrong with either one. It's all about your tonal preference.

Goodluck!
 
I bought a renagade from guitar center and keep it for 1 day then took it back . It was to fizzy sounding for me . Also the external bias was so sensitive that I almost never got it biased like I wanted it and when I did the fizz was still there .
I bought a lsc and still have it and still love it . I did the reader and bias mods to mine though . But even stock its a better sounding amp than the renegade . As far as build quality there is no camparison , mesa all the way .
Just so you know I'm not a big mesa fan the lsc is the only mesa amp I own .
 
I used to own a Renegade head and 2x12 cab, as well as a LSC & a LSS. The Renegade had a very nice clean channel, but the OD channel was more of a "one-sound pony" - it did reasonably good higher gain and hard rock sounds, but couldn't get mid or lower gain to save its life. It also was a bit fizzy too, which you couldn't dial out. I also thought that the 6L6/El34 option was grossly over-hyped and only made a small difference. On top of that, I had some reliability issues right out of the box.

On the other hand, both Lonestars were warmer and had more distinct cleans and had more versatile OD channels. Twice the cash, but three times the versatility and tone!! I still kick myself for selling my LSS!!

Spend the extra cash on the Lonestars - you won't be sorry.

Matt
 
I used to own the original LSC (no 10W mode) and a LSS. Both of these amps are capable of excellent clean tones without question. However, I was never happy with the higher gain sounds achievable in channel 2 with either of these amps. I never got around to doing any Reeder modifications.....so that may make a difference.

Recently, I purchased a Renegade 212 combo....and I am very impressed with the variety of great sounds that I can achieve in both channels. I haven't experienced any "fizzy" sounds out of it whatsoever. I played it during rehearsal last night and all of my bandmates were very impressed with the great sounds I achieved. They don't impress easy either. :lol:

I definitely do not feel channel 2 of the Renegade 212 is a one trick pony at all. Set the gain low (8 - 9 o'clock) and you have a nice vintage slight breakup sound. Set the gain around 10-12 o'clock and you can expect excellent mid gain crunch / lead sounds with quite a bit of sustain without compression. Set the gain from 1 - 4 o'clock and you can expect ridiculous amounts of high gain sustain and compression. The higher the gain, the more compression.

Varying the "Tight/Deep" and "Bright/Normal" toggles make a big difference in sound as well for both channels. The tube mix knobs do make a noticeable difference, but only when playing the amp at fairly high volumes.

As others have said.....the clean sounds in channel 1 are beautiful, but channel 1 is also capable of some nice rock crunch sounds with the gain set at 3 - 5 o'clock.

As far as the reliability of the Renegade......only time will tell, but I sure hope it proves to be reliable because it is an excellent sounding amp with very useful features that I find offer tremendous flexibility in covering a wide variety of musical styles. I love this amp! :D
 
BTW.....while I love my new Egnater Renegade 212......my number 1 amp is still the MkV.

Just curious about why you are leaving the V? IMO....the V is very capable of achieving great sounds from many other MB amps with the exception of the rectifiers amps IMO. And no, not because some of the modes of the V are labelled as Mk1, 2,.....etc. I could care less what MB labels the modes........all of them have their place in my mind.

Personally, I was delighted to ditch my Lonestar(s) for the V because I was never able to achieve a high gain sound out of the Lonestars that I was happy with.

OTOH, I am able to achieve very nice clean and high gain sounds out of my Renegade....FWIW. To each their own! :)
 
I agree with you 100% about the MKV. However, the Egnater is much kinder to one's wallet :lol:

Matt
 
I have a Mesa LS and an Egnater Tourmaster. I have had plenty of playing time on the Renegade.
I like the Renegade for what it does and love the Mesa LS for what it does.
I dont see them as two amps that I would a/b against each other.
For what I want an amp to do the Mesa LS does it right. The Renegade would nearly fill another need/want.
 
mdortona:

My praises about the MkV are only because I understand how to get the most out of it in all modes of each channel and sound great! This is partially due to my experience with owning many MB amps over the years, and most specifically having owned and played a MkIV for many years (yes, I still own it as well). I find the V to be much easier than the IV to achieve the great sounds that I am after.......even thought the V has many more options....modes.

Anyway, I do not wish to hijack the thread......so.....

I find the Renegade 212 combo to provide a wide variety of excellent sounds in both channels that I find to be very easy to dial in.......and yes, at a much lower cost compared to the V, Lonestars, EDs and even slightly lower cost than the Express series.

Does that make the Renegade better than the Mesa's.....not at all, but it does offer a cheaper option that may be able to provide the tones that one is after.

Regarding reliability.....Mesa is second to none in my book! Egnater Renegade.......only time will tell, but I hope so because it sounds great to me! :D

lostcause:
I agree with your post in general, but I do feel there is some common ground with the LS and Renegade in that both amps are 2 channel tube amps with a clean and high gain channel. I am able to achieve beautiful cleans in channel 1 of both amps. However, I find channel 2 of the Renegade 212 (with the gain set fairly low to medium) to be able to cop the sounds of the LS in channel 2, but the Renegade possibilities in channel 2 can also achieve very nice high gain rhythm and leads sounds (EVH for example) as well with the gain set higher (12 - 3 o'clock)......which the LS was never designed or intended to produce.

Is the extra high gain sounds offered by the Renegade in channel 2 important to you compared to the LS? Maybe not, but if it is......you may want to give the Renegade a test drive.

I am not dissing the LS amps because they are great in their own right......they just didn't work well for me in channel 2.
 
If you're going to seriously look at the egnater amps, try to find an Egnater Mod 50. It is modular and there are nearly a dozen 2 channel modules. An Egnater 50 with two modules (standard) has 4 channels. REALLY a lot of options and tones. The really killer modules are: D/D, VOX, Bassman, T/D, and SL2. BUT, if you are wanting to limit $$ damage, look at the Egnater Rebel 30....huge bang for the buck.
 
First off, I own the Mesa Mark V w/ 4x12 cab and I own the Egnater Renegade head w/ 2 - tourmaster 2x12 cabs.
I love them both. Having said that, here is my take on them.
The Mesa MKV is one of the most versatile amps I have ever seen/heard. it has amazing sparkly cleans that warm up nicely in the tweed mode raising the gain. Channel 2 and 3 are a little tricky to get dialed in, but can achieve some really super classic rock tones and modern high gain crush..... but ..... I found the bass control has to be set very minimally on these 2 channels. As soon as you start to bring some "beefy" bottom end into the mix, stop, any more and the amp starts to "fart" or "fizz" the low end notes, especially playing in the neck position humbucker pickup. The more gain you add the worse it gets on the bass notes. Great for scooped Metal and mid punch tones. Had a couple issues with it early on also. I had to have the footswitch jack in the amp repaired, it kept erratically changing channels or not letting me control the EQ, but that is fixed now. Then I had pre tubes go bad on me (V2 & V3) which made the amp sound sick, like a cheap wah half cocked. That is also fixed now.
As for the Egnater Renegade, I found the cleans to be very nice and well rounded. It can be clean / warm round and smooth depending on settings, not as sparkly as the MKV but it gets smoother than the MKV can. I do wish there was just a bit more gain on channel 1 though to push it to the "tweed" breakup of the MKV. But definitely smoother and jazzier. As for channel 2, nice thick "Santana, Gary Moore, Warren Haynes" type sounds. Deep Modern Metal High Gain tones, Classic Rock Vintage sounds, Modded Boutique roar, I am exceedingly pleased with this channel. One of the things that really grabbed my attention was the bass, mid, and treble controls work the way I think they are supposed to, each does not overly interfere with the other and all make noticeable differences. I wish this had 3 or 4 channels!!! ( don't mention the Tourmaster, way too unreliable and a different tone from Renegade). One thing I don't like on the Egnater is that the wattage selection switch does nothing! On the Mark V the wattage switch works exactly as expected.
Final Word: Love them both, both are versatile, Egnater Renegade is able to achieve thicker smoother tones than the Mesa MKV. The Mark V seems to have more High Gain and Sparkly Cleans.
Ps. I have a demo of the MKV and the Renegade on Soundcloud.
http://soundcloud.com/greg-spack/mesa-demo
http://soundcloud.com/greg-spack/eggie-demo
 
Hi GSX777,

Regarding the 1/2 cocked wah sounds from V2 and V3 on your Mark V, was it just bad 12ax7's or did Mesa have to fix it? I just picked up a 2013 V and I am experiencing that 1/2 cocked wah sound, it really takes away from the Classic Mark sound, can you tell me more about those fix's?

Thank you!

Edge59
 

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