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GregVDS

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Hi everyone,

I recently acquired a second hand Lonestar Special SN LS-003943. I asked the age of this amp on the Mesaboogie.com FAQ and had April 2007 as an answer. I asked too if mine was subject to Rectifier failure, and received this answer:

"That later serial number should be current with regard to Rectifier tube failures. That doesn;t mean that Rectifier tube failures don't still as, they are, after all, tubes. :)
That said, the reliability of Rectifier tubes was improved on Lone Star Specials well before your serial number. Hope this helps!"

If I understand this correctly (english is not my first language), I should be on the safe side of the rectifier mod, right or wrong?

Anyway, the amp seems to have stayed in some humid places, as it had some musky light stains and a kind of orange dust in some areas on the plywood. I decided to disassemble completely the amp to clean it and check it thoroughly, so I unscrewed the two back plates, removed the reverb bag and tank, unplugged all cables, removed the head/chassis amp after having removed all power tubes and rectifier; I end up unscrewing also the front plate, to be able to check the speaker. I brushed and cleaned and hoovered everything and reassembled all the parts together when everything had dried. Mildew was way less a problem than feared, every part of the case felt and seemed sound and good. This amp is really nicely made, easy to maintain as it seems.

I had a quick look inside the amp chassis, and all seemed ok to my eyes. I feared to see half-baked resistors, bad mods, traces of corrosion, but all was clean and nice. I noticed the silkscreen of the pcb is hand written, or is it the font they used?

Now it's working perfectly for a week or so since I bought it. We'll see in time if it develops the rectifier failure problem, as I currently like a lot the 5Watts setting.

Currently, my rig is like this:

Squier from '91 made in Japan, not that bad, directly to the amp; in send/return, Red Witch Empress Chorus, MXR Carbon Copy, TC Electonric Ditto Looper, Strymon BigSky. I mainly play at home for my pleasure, and am absolutely satisfied by the gorgeous tone I have currently. I want to take all my time to discover all the settings this amp can give before modding it (if modding is the way to go). Maybe at some point I'll check if some Wharehouse Guitar Speaker 12" ET65 or Celestion Cream Alnico 12" 90W could enhance the sound at low volume, but I rather go for a better guitar first. Next pedals will be Hartman Crystal Glass Si, and a kind of booster, Timmy maybe, TCE Spark, Xotic EP, still not sure; any advice welcome.

What I plan to mod at some point is to put a TRS plug in place of the reverb one (if not already the case) and have the drive switch on the ring or tip, the one not used by the reverb, and make a four switches pedal for channel solo reverb drive all in one. I'm currently searching if the reverb and drive switches could also have a led for them, as the channel and solo have.

Anyway, here I am, fresh new in the Mesa Boogie world, and very happy to be :)

All the best,

Greg
 

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