Thinking of Rejoining the Club: Recommendations Requested

My current band calls for a clean tone 90% of the time (We do early to mid-sixties rock and soul) . My preference is for an edge of breakup, "hot clean", with a good bit of my playing being on the neck pickup of either my Strat or Jazzmaster. I like that quintessential Fender woody and spanky tone when using the neck pickups and I like for the bridge tone to cut your head off. We also play at fairly low volumes, as with this band, the singer is the star. Without fail, if the band starts to get too loud we start hearing it.

I've got a fantastic amp that gets me the tone I love at low volumes, a SamAmp. If you don't know, SamAmps have an innovative system using appliance light bulbs to reduce current and voltage to the power amp tubes. My amp allows you to select from 45/30/15/5 watt settings. For my rhythm playing, the 15w setting is the stuff, and at a few gigs I've even gone down to 5w.

And here's my problem - at 5w or 15w there is absolutely no headroom to step above the band for solos. 15w isn't as bad as the 5w setting, but it's still not enough, IMO. I could, or course, use either the 30 or 45 watt settings, but then I have to lower the volume of the clean channel and my rhythm tone starts to get a bit "plinky" for my tastes (the clean channel is non-MV).

So I started think about Mesa again and how a good number of the amps these days allow for different wattage per channel, whereas with my SamAmp it's only globally.

I guess my choices are:

Lonestar Classic
Lonestar Special - How is the low-end on these? I always seem to end up with 6L6-based amps for that bottom. I'm guessing like any Mesa, the 30w setting will hang with just about anything?
Mk V - Overkill for this band, but the 10w setting sure makes it usable. Lockbody still likes to rawk sometimes, too.
Mk V 25 - Man, this amp looks like the stuff, but I wonder how the clean channel would hang if the volume went up for an outdoor show, or for any reason for that matter.

Also, is there any noticeable lag when changing channel and going between wattage settings? My Roadster was bad regarding this, but it was the only Mesa I've owned where this was an issue.

Thanks in advance!

I think you're on the right track...you should be good with any of those.

I'd recommend Lonestar, Electradyne or Blue Angel.

I think that the Blue Angel + Rolling back the guitar volume would give you a world of clean and lead tones that would suit '60s-era music very well. It is a great-sounding amp that just shrieks when you turn it up. I think of it as a much better version of the 1965 Deluxe Reverb I used to own.

If you MUST have channel-switching, the Electradyne is fabulous. It is also very loud, but tame-able. An alternative if you want to change headroom per channel would be the Royal Atlantic.

lockbody said:

I guess my choices are:

Lonestar Classic
Lonestar Special - How is the low-end on these? I always seem to end up with 6L6-based amps for that bottom. I'm guessing like any Mesa, the 30w setting will hang with just about anything?
Mk V - Overkill for this band, but the 10w setting sure makes it usable. Lockbody still likes to rawk sometimes, too.
Mk V 25 - Man, this amp looks like the stuff, but I wonder how the clean channel would hang if the volume went up for an outdoor show, or for any reason for that matter.

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Honestly, any of those amps will get you there. The Lonestars will tend towards having a fatter, darker sound while the Marks will tend towards being a bit snappier. Seeing that they're Mesa's you can dial in a bit of drive on the cleans without needing to really push the volume.

Another amp you might find cool is the ElectraDyne, although I'd probably try to steer you towards a LoneStar based on your description of needs. Check out Arrested Development's JJ Boogie as he's using a pair of LoneStars.

Also, is there any noticeable lag when changing channel and going between wattage settings? My Roadster was bad regarding this, but it was the only Mesa I've owned where this was an issue.

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I haven't had any issues.

Thanks guys.

Elvis, I had forgotten about the Blue Angel. Good comparison with the '65 DR. I had a '66 DR, but I must be one of the 10 people on earth who aren't a fan of that amp.

I tried out a ElectraDyne at home a few years ago, and while I dug it, I think it would be a little too loud for this band.

Honestly, any of those amps will get you there. The Lonestars will tend towards having a fatter, darker sound while the Marks will tend towards being a bit snappier. Seeing that they're Mesa's you can dial in a bit of drive on the cleans without needing to really push the volume.

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The first amp I thought of was the Lonestar. That "fatter" clean would work exceptionally well with my Jazzmaster, which has Lollars that are a bit bright. I played with a Lonestar when they came out, but have never even seen a LS Special here in town. Unlike a Mk V or V25, I don't think I could pull the trigger on one without playing it first.

lockbody said:

The first amp I thought of was the Lonestar. That "fatter" clean would work exceptionally well with my Jazzmaster, which has Lollars that are a bit bright. I played with a Lonestar when they came out, but have never even seen a LS Special here in town. Unlike a Mk V or V25, I don't think I could pull the trigger on one without playing it first.

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I had an LSS. It was a sweet amp. At 30w it "gives up the goods" a little easier than the LSC, and if you were to tell me you wanted to play southern rock or blues I'd tell you you were looking at the right amp.

But you're telling me you're playing funk and soul so I'm going to recommend the LSC.

screamingdaisy said:

I had an LSS. It was a sweet amp. At 30w it "gives up the goods" a little easier than the LSC, and if you were to tell me you wanted to play southern rock or blues I'd tell you you were looking at the right amp.

But you're telling me you're playing funk and soul so I'm going to recommend the LSC.

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Good info, thanks.

Definitely go and play a mark V. I personally don't play clean stuff much so my opinion of the clean channel may not matter in this case. However the versatility of the Mark V is amazing. You could set up each channel at 10, 45, or 90 watts. I have never played the 5:25 but that would be worth checking out too.