The Boogie Board

Hello all, I am new to the board, how is everyone doing?

I been using a Marshall JVM410 for the last 10 years, before that, I had a Caliber DC-2 and a DC-5.

I am shopping for a portable head that I can use anywhere, form my basement, drummer's house, church, bars and casino gig.

I play Pop, Blues, Jazz, Classic rock and Hard rock.

Almost pulled the trigger on the Mark V 35, and the Cab clone will make my life a lot easier, until I watched Andy Timmons demo the Lone star special on youtube, now THAT is the tone I want!!!!

Too bad I can't find a Lone star to try around town, most of the info I found online tend to favor the Mark V, but more on the drive sound, but how about the clean sound? that big fat bold clean but sparkle and punchy at the same time!!

I use pedals, lot of it ( yes I am one of those guys from The Gear Page ) so if Mr. Timmons can make his drive sounds out of pedals, I could live with that too!!

However, the Mark V 35 is smaller, lighter, and along with the Cab Clone, it is just SO convenience for what I need, now, only if it can also do Andy Timmons clean!!!

Hopefully the real lone star owners can give me a hand.

You can hear a lot of what the 35 can offer in this Mark Five: 25 demo with Andy Timmons. Thanks!

https://youtu.be/i0p-ks5xlnY

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MESA/Boogie - Product Specialist/Customer Service - http://www.mesaboogie.com/support/index.html

A lot depends on how loud you want/need your clean sound to be.
The V:35 is a wonderfully loud amp, especially for 35 watts. The issue is the quartet of el84s which just cannot offer the headroom 6L6 offers.
Unless you need to be Gilmour loud and squeaky clean, the V:35 is EXCELLENT.
Happy hunting!

Thanks for the relies.

Yes I did watched that youtube, quite a few times, was one of the reason for me to consider the Mark V 35.

But until I watched this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWIZNQ0ZM0A

Do you guys think the Mark V 35 can do this kind of clean?

Keep in mind that Clean and Fat in the Mark Five, Five:25, and Five:35 all come directly from the Lone Star! The power section is different...but the preamp circuitry is all LS (which is modified MK1) Thanks!

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MESA/Boogie - Product Specialist/Customer Service - http://www.mesaboogie.com/support/index.html

You can get the mids, but the lows will not be as big and warm. EL84 vs. 6L6. Even at higher power levels, the EL84 sounds more like EL34 than 6L6. Even the LSS doesn't sound quite like the LS.

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Mini Rectifier blue LED
2x Recto 2x12 Vertical

I've owned the Recto-Verb 25 (2xEL84) and now i have a Lonestar Classic (4X6L6) head version. My personal opinion is that for great bold clean with lots of headroom and using drive from pedals high wattage is always better! The RV25 had great cleans on its own but with pedals it fell short. The Mark V (4x6L6) had also my attention but for my budget the Lonestar Classic does everything i need. I don't know the V35 but with less wattage and another power section i would not expect it will sound the same as the Lonestar series.

IMO, not even close.

Obviously the tubes have alot to do with it. If you want a warm amp Lone Star it is. I played one last week and I am REALLY wanting to get one. Wish it had more features like the MV35 but that warm tone in both the clean and drive channel sound amazing to my ears.

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Mesa Electra Dyne
Mesa Recto-Verb 25
EVH 5150 III
Bogner GoldFinger
Mesa 2x12 Rec Cab
Mesa 1x12 Open Back
Bogner GoldFinger 2x12 Cab
Mesa Cab Clone

PRS P245
Chapman ML-3
Epiphone Les Paul Custom
Fender Strat Custom Shop
Charvel Custom

Guys, the OP is asking about the Lone Star Special vs the MkV35, so the power tube stipulation isn't relevant. He asks a fair question because they both use EL84s.

Mesa's statement about the V35's Clean and Fat modes being based on the Lone Star is obviously authoritative but in practice it always seems like there's still some difference with other amps about which this is also true, or so I've long heard (I've never compared them myself). Having hung around here as long as I have now, it usually comes down to the Lone Stars having a little extra magic of their own that people miss once they "upgrade" to one of the Marks or an Express or whichever.

Personally, I think the LSS is an absolutely amazing midsize combo that handles pedals really well and has a clean that can only be beat by its big brother the LSC, and even then it's mostly just a question of trading off muscle for finesse.

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LP Std Gold Top | LP Special | AmDlx Strat | AmStd Tele | SG Std 60s | ES335 | FSR Tele
Lone Star Classic
Lone Star Special
Electra Dyne
Mini Rec 25
TransAtlantic 15
Lone Star 27, 23 & 19, RA 27 1x12, WBCB 1x12 Cabs
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