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Vogelsong

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I have recently decided that I need to get rid of my LSS for an amp that is running 6L6's. The character of the EL84's just don't suite me.

I want an amp that has more than 2 channels. I was at my local GC the other day and played an Egnator Tourmaster. It sounded so good I immediatley went home and got my guitar to try it also. With the exception of my bandmaster, my guitar never sounded better.

So I went and played a friends LSC, same thing. I defenitley need 6L6's.

So any way I was researching the Egnator just out of curiosity, and found a lot of good things on Harmony Central, however there are just enough bad service and reliability stories to make me gun shy. The reliability stories aren't too bad, the service stories are herendous.

So any way, my question is this...

Should I go with a Mark V which will involve more cash, or it sounds like I may have an oppertunity to pick up a Mark IV with little cash outlay in a swap deal with my LSS.

I can't play either of these amps but I trust you guys, and it being Mesa I know the tone will be there.

I like a real clear clean channel, and then I like to set my gear so that it just gets more driven with each step of the pedal, from mild blues drive, to strong sustaining lead.

What to do?
 
I would definitely recommend that Mark V. If you liked the LSC, you pretty have one in the Mark V. It's miles ahead of the Mark IV.

As for Egnater, I've had my Rebel 30 for almost a year and I haven't had a problem. It seems kind of luck of the draw. But the Tourmaster doesn't seem like their best offering. I would much rather have a Renegade.
 
I agree--sounds like a Mark V would suit you great. You get everything you mentioned (crystal cleans, driven blues, sustaining leads), plus so much more. There are so many options in the Mark V that you will still be finding an abundance of tones much later on down the road. On another note, and for alot less cash-- I wouldn't toally dismiss the Mark IV either. You'll get everything your looking for in there as well--but being an older amp it may need some service..maybe not. Just something to always take into consideration. But, if you can find a nice clean Mark IV, you truly won't be disappointed..that's a fact. Also, having that Simul-class option (which Mark series have) mixing 6L6/EL34s (or half power switch with just 6L6s) gives the amp such a nice 'thump' that just gets better the harder the power section is hit. It'll give you the 'willies'. Either way, I think your on the right path with the Mark series from which you describe. Good luck on your decision!

~Nep~
 
theroan said:
I would definitely recommend that Mark V. If you liked the LSC, you pretty have one in the Mark V. It's miles ahead of the Mark IV.

As for Egnater, I've had my Rebel 30 for almost a year and I haven't had a problem. It seems kind of luck of the draw. But the Tourmaster doesn't seem like their best offering. I would much rather have a Renegade.
Click to expand...

The amp I was actually playing was a renegade as a matter of fact. I liked the mix knob on that amp for mixing the 6L6's and el34's. They didn't have a tourmaster so I played the renegade just to get a sense of what the eganoter would be all about.

Your right though, it was a very nice sounding amp.
 
Neptical said:
I agree--sounds like a Mark V would suit you great. You get everything you mentioned (crystal cleans, driven blues, sustaining leads), plus so much more. There are so many options in the Mark V that you will still be finding an abundance of tones much later on down the road. On another note, and for alot less cash-- I wouldn't toally dismiss the Mark IV either. You'll get everything your looking for in there as well--but being an older amp it may need some service..maybe not. Just something to always take into consideration. But, if you can find a nice clean Mark IV, you truly won't be disappointed..that's a fact. Also, having that Simul-class option (which Mark series have) mixing 6L6/EL34s (or half power switch with just 6L6s) gives the amp such a nice 'thump' that just gets better the harder the power section is hit. It'll give you the 'willies'. Either way, I think your on the right path with the Mark series from which you describe. Good luck on your decision!

~Nep~
Click to expand...

The one thing I really like about the tourmaster is the powere grid thats breaks down each channel from 100-10w.

I hate decisions like this.
 
Vogelsong said:
So I went and played a friends LSC, same thing. I defenitley need 6L6's.

What to do?
Click to expand...

I'm a bit confused here as I believe the Lonestar Classic is a 6L6 amp. Did you just not like the amp?
 
Vogelsong said:
Neptical said:
I agree--sounds like a Mark V would suit you great. You get everything you mentioned (crystal cleans, driven blues, sustaining leads), plus so much more. There are so many options in the Mark V that you will still be finding an abundance of tones much later on down the road. On another note, and for alot less cash-- I wouldn't toally dismiss the Mark IV either. You'll get everything your looking for in there as well--but being an older amp it may need some service..maybe not. Just something to always take into consideration. But, if you can find a nice clean Mark IV, you truly won't be disappointed..that's a fact. Also, having that Simul-class option (which Mark series have) mixing 6L6/EL34s (or half power switch with just 6L6s) gives the amp such a nice 'thump' that just gets better the harder the power section is hit. It'll give you the 'willies'. Either way, I think your on the right path with the Mark series from which you describe. Good luck on your decision!

~Nep~
Click to expand...

The one thing I really like about the tourmaster is the powere grid thats breaks down each channel from 100-10w.

I hate decisions like this.
Click to expand...

Were you looking to buy new? If so, maybe call Egnater and express your concerns and see what they have to say. You could ask what kind of warranty the amp comes with and if the amp would have to be shipped back to them to be repaired or if they would cover repair through a local tech or whatever. From there you can make the decision whether you want to chance things or not.

The other option obviously is to keep looking and see if you can find something better or just as good as the Egnater. I'd say give the Mark V a test run and see if it is a promising option for you. Personally, I've never been into the Mark Series myself but they are very good sounding amps and may suite your needs well.
 
GuitarGuy503 said:
Vogelsong said:
So I went and played a friends LSC, same thing. I defenitley need 6L6's.

What to do?
Click to expand...

I'm a bit confused here as I believe the Lonestar Classic is a 6L6 amp. Did you just not like the amp?
Click to expand...

Now Im a bit confused, which amp are you referring to. Stick with me here, Im looking and talking about so many amps Im sure my confusion is selfinduced.

If your talking about the LSC, I like it but I want a true 3 channel amp, hence looking at marks or the TM.

However upon futher investigation one of the complaints I had read about the TM was that one quit and had to go to the shop.

Upon inspection from the tech he was not impressed because a lot of the components inside that failed were cheap chinese components. He ended up going through and replacing all the chinese stuff. So upon looking into it, it seams these amps are imported apparently from china.

On the one Egnator board I was reading the TM club was referred to as the "ever shrinking" TM club.

I definetley want to stick with U.S. built stuff for a lot of reasons, but particularly quality. So just based on that alone, what ever amp I buy it won't be an Egnator TM.
 
Ive never been impressed with the egnator stuff other than the modular gear.
 
Vogelsong said:
GuitarGuy503 said:
Vogelsong said:
So I went and played a friends LSC, same thing. I defenitley need 6L6's.

What to do?
Click to expand...

I'm a bit confused here as I believe the Lonestar Classic is a 6L6 amp. Did you just not like the amp?
Click to expand...

Now Im a bit confused, which amp are you referring to. Stick with me here, Im looking and talking about so many amps Im sure my confusion is selfinduced.

If your talking about the LSC, I like it but I want a true 3 channel amp, hence looking at marks or the TM.
Click to expand...

Not sure how you are confused when I quoted you regarding your Lonestar Classic comment AND indicated that I was talking about the Lonestar Classic in my post. Not sure how much more clear I could make it buddy..... lol
 
GuitarGuy503No reason to be confused on your part. I quoted you regarding the Lonestar Classic and indicated that I was talking about the Lonestar Classic in my post. Not sure how much more clear I could make it buddy..... lol[/quote said:
Got it. :D

Thats what I thought but wasn't sure. I could make a LSC 3 channels technically. I did it with my LSS, I just don't want to have to.
Click to expand...
 
I (at one time) wasn't "allowed" to run a Mesa rig for a gig I was playing for. (major touring act) I looked at Egnator stuff for probably the same reasons you are now. I owned a 100w Lonestar which I got for the gig, and wanted the Renegade for the tighter crisper tones. I also am a firm believer in buying all American gear. It was never a conscious decision of mine, just seemed that the USA stuff lasted way longer, felt more "rugged" for the most part, and seemed to (at times) sound better/louder/clearer/whatever.

A Mark V or IV is going to run complete circles around anything Egnator makes. Egnator amps are not bad, or bad sounding...however, they are foreign made and for sure built from parts that meet the lowest price point. They have nice features, but I must say, when you crank a Mark amp next to something like an Egnator there is no comparison. I really don't think it's necessarily a 6L6 thing as much as a quality and tone thing. If it was simply a power tube issue, you'd be asking about a Fender Super Reverb. (which btw is a very fine, pretty sounding clean amp)

After I first played a new Mark V in the store for an hour with my own guitars, I totally saw why Mesa released it. It is literally the amp that can cover anything at all. Country, Rock, Jazz, Metal (obviously) Blues, Fusion, Funk, R&B, whatever. There are sounds in that amp that you wont even discover until years down the road when your ready to like them. Thats the kind of invention that amp is. It is far and away everything the hype made it out to be and more. Having played Dual Rec TOVs since '96...for me to lust and drool over another Mesa product like that...I gotta tell you-If you can handle the price, you wont regret getting a Mark V.

IF YOU DO BUY ONE the one and only thing you need to remember is to give yourself time to adapt yourself to it. It's not really an instant gratification kinda amp like Rectos are to guys that like high gain. It took me about 10 minutes to "decide" how I wanted to set my clean sound (ie: which mode to use, EQ or No EQ, wattage setting, more treble less presence or the other way around?, etc") So having said all that, I am definitely getting a Mark ...like REALLY SOON! :)

btw, Vogelsong...you have some mighty fine gear there sir.
 
Allow me to stir up some trouble. but i think you are going about this wrong. IMHO I believe you should not be thinking "I need an amp with 6l6 tubes" and go from there; many mesa amps are set up for interchangable with tubes, but honestly i dont think the change in tone is drastic. while many people on the board have mark V (including me) and prefer one tube or the other for various reason, like el34s make it a little british, it certainly does not make it sound like a marshall.

you need to define what you want as a base tone, and saying prestine cleans, nice crunch and a liquid lead isnt well defined... you are best off saying i want a clean like a fender deluxe reverb; and the crunch of a marshall jcm 800; and the lead sound of a stilleto (say andy timmons)

with well defined tones you will be able to find the amp much easier. As has been said many times "use your ears not your eyes"

what tones specifically do you need?
 
vitor gracie said:
btw, Vogelsong...you have some mighty fine gear there sir.
Click to expand...

Thanks Vitor, Im a very lucky man. Had I needed to buy the vintage stuff for real there is no way I would have it. My Grandfather was a great man.
 
dmcguitar said:
you need to define what you want as a base tone, and saying prestine cleans, nice crunch and a liquid lead isnt well defined... you are best off saying i want a clean like a fender deluxe reverb; and the crunch of a marshall jcm 800; and the lead sound of a stilleto (say andy timmons)

with well defined tones you will be able to find the amp much easier. As has been said many times "use your ears not your eyes"

what tones specifically do you need?
Click to expand...

Vogelsong said:
I like a real clear clean channel, and then I like to set my gear so that it just gets more driven with each step of the pedal, from mild blues drive, to strong sustaining lead.
Click to expand...

First DMC, your not stirring anything up I like the discussion. Unless you meant provoke thought which is also a good thing.

Secondly DMC I like your thoughts on the whole listening thing I've been doing that for a long time hence the reason I just can't get satisfied with the LSS. If it weren't for the fact that I couldn't get my strat with Texas Specials to my liking through it I may have sold my Comanche thinking it was the problem. Thankfully I didn't go down that road, I just love that guitar.

Have you had a chance to play an LSS yourself? Just wondering.

For the past week I have played more amps than I can count and one thing is for certain the LSS is not for me, I have played amps with 6l6's, EL34's, El84's (this only reinforced that they're truly not for me). And every amp I play that I truly enjoy either has 6l6's or EL34's.

So based on that, wanting more than 2 channels, and wanting to stay with Mesa I'm gravitating towards the Mark series.

Now about the tones specifically, I can understand maybe my idea of clear could be differant from someone elses.

As for clear clean channel, I want it to be bell like. Sort of like this clip here at 7:08...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljVVFKjN0Dc

For the more driven sounds just pick any SRV rocking blues these are my favorites...

Little Wing at 2:40, And it really gets rocking at 5:17 and again at 5:56 when he goes to the neck pickup. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljVVFKjN0Dc

For what is probably the most driven sound blues wise I'd say that would be Wham.

Although he doesn't really step on it till :55 in...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVZSXssE8uY

And of course Texas Flood which is pretty driven all the way through but at 7:33 he puts it through the floor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWLw7nozO_U

For the high gain stuff Just think ZZ top, Van Halen.

Now I know that an amp, any amp won't produce those tones exactly. But an amp can get close and I don't need it to be exact.

Stevies tone at the end of Texas Flood just sounds like a caged animal coming unglued. It sounds like something is gonna come out of that amp and just devour the crowd and thats what I want.

I call it the run for the door or we'll die tone.
 
I felt I should step in having owned an Egnater (yes its spelled er at the end not or!) Tourmaster Halfstack for just over a year.

Let me clear up some misconceptions about the amp.

China does not seek out cheap parts for these amps! I dont know who came up with the racist idea that any country building amps aside from the USA, England and Germany is using crappy parts. I can understand ho-hum electronic parts but even Mesa does in their lower end models and dont get me started on Marshall! Theyre not going to wreck your amp but they won't sound otherworldly like some high end amps. I personally took mine apart to inspect the parts used. Silver mica and poly film capacitors and 1% metal film resistors doesnt sound bad by me!

They ARE instant gratification amps. Mesa's make you tweak for years whereas no matter how I set the Egnater, it just sounded good. Not amazing but solid tones throughout. Unfortunately I got kind of bored with this. Came off like a doormat of tone. Also I noticed more compression overall than I thought should be there with a tube amp making it sound less "alive".

The power scaling thing is useless. I have the schematic for the amp and its not even in there. I tried many times to hear a difference and there is next to none. Don't let this be the main selling point for the amp!

The resonance and presence controls ROCK!!! This amp has frightening amounts of low end even with the resonance halfway.

I had one for a year and frankly just got bored with it and it was a pain to carry around because it was HEAVY!!! And it was just a head!

I traded it for my current Mark IV and I must say I love my Mark to death!

I still have the 4x12 which is a total steal btw!!!
 
lerxst88 said:
I felt I should step in having owned an Egnater (yes its spelled er at the end not or!) Tourmaster Halfstack for just over a year.

Let me clear up some misconceptions about the amp.

China does not seek out cheap parts for these amps! I dont know who came up with the racist idea that any country building amps aside from the USA, England and Germany is using crappy parts. I can understand ho-hum electronic parts but even Mesa does in their lower end models and dont get me started on Marshall! Theyre not going to wreck your amp but they won't sound otherworldly like some high end amps. I personally took mine apart to inspect the parts used. Silver mica and poly film capacitors and 1% metal film resistors doesnt sound bad by me!

They ARE instant gratification amps. Mesa's make you tweak for years whereas no matter how I set the Egnater, it just sounded good. Not amazing but solid tones throughout. Unfortunately I got kind of bored with this. Came off like a doormat of tone. Also I noticed more compression overall than I thought should be there with a tube amp making it sound less "alive".

The power scaling thing is useless. I have the schematic for the amp and its not even in there. I tried many times to hear a difference and there is next to none. Don't let this be the main selling point for the amp!

The resonance and presence controls ROCK!!! This amp has frightening amounts of low end even with the resonance halfway.

I had one for a year and frankly just got bored with it and it was a pain to carry around because it was HEAVY!!! And it was just a head!

I traded it for my current Mark IV and I must say I love my Mark to death!

I still have the 4x12 which is a total steal btw!!!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight. The review I read about the components was on Harmony Central if your interested. I agree about the resonance and presence controls, the renegade I played these controls were very effective. Although I think the one control was called something else. But your right it was instant gratification, as soon as you plugged into it a tweek here and there that was all it took.
 
I have both the LSC head and the Egnater TM 4100. I run both heads through the same cabs. Theyre quite different. I wouldnt have bought the Egnater if it sounded the same as the LSC. The clean channel doesnt sound like any of the fenders I have or had.
The TM seems to be well made and reliable so far. Its loud. Thats ok, I only use it in a situation where its turned up. The low volume home sounds are pretty average.
Ive found most reviews on the web are not inline with my experience with the amp. I just turn dials till it sounds about right.
It really is an easy to dial in amp, instant gratification as some one else said. Im not going to say its the be all end all. It is a really useful gig amp. Channel 1 and 2 are a bit to much the same for me. I think I could do without one of them.
Amps I considered while I was researching were the mesa roadster and mkv, marshall JVM and blackstar series one 100. The Egnater suited what I was doing better
I dont care where its made, Ive had new Mesa's, Fenders and a Marshall go down. Each one an inconvenience and I probably cursed the useless workers from each amps company in the heat of the moment.
Both my fender strat an PRS came from the manufacturer with simple qc issues.
I have replaced a preamp tube in the TM but I had to do the same with my mesa.
I like my LSC more than my TourMaster. The LSC has tones and sounds in it I naturally gravitate to, where as the TM has sounds I actually need more often than not.
Love my Lone Star and the TM is pretty cool and versatile gig amp. Also like my Fenders.
 

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