NAD: Back in the fold

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lockbody

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Several years ago I joined an instrumental surf band and needed a "proper" amp for it so I sold my Mk IV to get a '74 Super Reverb. Say what you will about the wisdom of it, but I've got to admit that SR ranked right up there as one of the finest sounding amps I've ever owned.

As long as you could turn it up, that is.

Fast forward a few years and we've added a singer and started to do a wide range of covers. Now, I have a SamAmp, which is bad to the bone in its own right, but it has two independent channels like an old Fender and no effects loop. And while you can step the output from 45-5 watts, it's global, which, depending on the club, can be difficult to balance the two channels.

A couple of months ago I purchased a G System and decided it was time for the Super Reverb to move on to a new owner and for me to get a more versatile amp, so I put a WTB on my local Craigslist for a Mesa.

Two days ago I got an email with an offer and today I picked it up.

Dude kept the original shipping box.

IMG_2652_zpshw41syby.jpg


And what's in said box?

Why, a just over one year old Lonestar Special in a beautiful red cabinet.

IMG_2653_zpsigpticla.jpg


In a perfect world, it would be emerald green like one that's on feeBay right now so it would match my SamAmp and its matching 1x12 extension cab, but I do dig the red.

Right now I've only had a chance to hook it up to my G System and play a little bit through it. I'm getting some okay tones out of it at the moment, but it being a Mesa, I know I've got plenty of dialing in to do. Especially with making my G System control the channel switching and solo boost for my presets. I haven't hooked it up in 4CM, either. One thing I didn't research enough before purchase was that you can't switch the reverb off. I remember a trick from my old Mk IVa regarding grounding the RCA jack to the reverb to disable the reverb, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do that yet. It's too early to tell if the Reeder mod is in its future, too. Anyway, it's still under warranty, so I'm doubt I'm going to futz with that right now, anyway.

I'll probably look at an extension cab in the future. 1x12s always sound better with one to my ears. I really wanted a LSS that Guitar Center has, a 4x10, but it wasn't at my store and I sent them an email asking for pics since they were "coming soon" and/or a description and I would buy it. No response. I even sent my store an email asking about it, but no response from them either. Now I know I could have called, but not responding to emails stating I was ready to buy left a bad taste in my mouth. No wonder they're in financial trouble.
 
jmontgomery said:
I believe there's a jack on the bottom of the chassis to plug a footswitch for toggling the reverb.

Right you are! I had just looked at the tube layout diagram in the manual, which didn't show the jack, and didn't read the reverb section itself.

Thanks!

I had a chance to hook it up in 4CM and man does it ever sound sweet. I knew I shouldn't have sold my last rack, because now I want to rack my G System's brain to make make all the cables shorter and neater.
 
djw said:
Nice! Welcome back to the Mesa fold!

Thanks! It's nice to be back, although, the past few days I've really felt like a Mesa noob, because I only had about an hour to really mess with it before practice on Sunday and my tone was okay, but uninspiring to say the least. Like many before me, I was questioning the wisdom of buying it because my other amps were so easy to get great tones out of them.

Then last night I spent about four hours nudging the treble here, bumping the mids and low there, modding my G System patches (What's cool? stepping on the Boost switch on the GS and having the solo function on the LSS engage!), and trying different combinations of wattage/gain/master vol/output until I was cross-eyed. It's closer to ideal now, but while it's no MK IV, I figure on several more 1-on-1 sessions with it to really get it singing.
 

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