Mesa Boogie Lonestar Classic Combo w/EL34 - Tighter bass?

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ebagjones

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I have been trying to get the Lone Star to work for me for about a year now. It's a classic amp, and the cleans are killer. I primarily use the amp as a clean platform for dirt pedals. I run a very simple setup. I generally use a Strat or Tele into a muff, usually a Ram's Head or Civil War era clone, into a Butler Tube Driver for overdrive, followed by a Boss Blues Driver for boost and a DD-7 delay. The problem I've had is that the bass always seems to prominent, and when I dial it all the way down it tends to 'dull' the tone. I've tried a lot of suggested settings, but never modded it. For comparison, I also run a Laney Lionheart 50h quarter stack and the same setup is unbelievable sounding. However, to get enough mids on the Laney, I have to run into the dirt channel with the gain dialed back and the volume high, which can limit my options where I need a ton of volume.
I've previously played the vintage Marshalls, and, like the Laney, they tend to have a tighter bass response than most 6L6 equipped amps I've used in the past. If I install EL34's in the Lone Star, will that tighten up the bass response on the cleans?
 
Also, I wanted to let people know that I did check the forums for any similar posts, but all of the information had to do with how the bass was affected on the drive channel, without any specifics on exactly how it impacted the clean channel, other than users saying they either liked it better or not as much. Thanks!
 
I have the early version Lonestar Classic 100/50 watt, Like many players I realized this was a great amp in the clean channel The first thing I did was mod my 4x12 rectifier standard cab. I made the top 2 Black Shadow 90s have an open back behind them, and closed in the bottom 2. This helped also but still not enough. Next came the EL34s, and to my ears this made the most difference so far. I like it better with the 34s. The clean channel is great up around 2:00 - 2:30, I would recommend you try the EL34s I don't think you will be disappointed.
 
Thanks for the detailed reply. I also contacted the Tube Store and asked them about it, they suggested that a 6CA7 tube, which is interchangable with the EL34, may be more what I'm looking for. Anyone try this out?
 
I haven't tried other than 6L6's tubes but I can tell you that changing the capacitor at the input at the drive stage like I did and explained in my posts will not change the clean channel at all. Yes, Lonestar classic cleans are beautiful but sometimes they lack that hugeness... My way of dealing with it is to use the EP booster. This the only pedal that I am thinking to incorporate inside the Lonestar to be accesible with a switch. That's how good it is. Give it a try, it will help the Lonestar get to THAT point. You'll see.
 

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