The Watering Hole

Shipping from Mesa's Hollywood store later today, should deliver Monday or Tuesday.

The drama is over, and now.......tone.

Chewbacca like this almost as much as...




Congrats DBM!!!  Can't wait to hear some clips of this puppy once you get used to it!!!

Thanks, I am planning a shootout between the HRD and stomps and the Lonestar all by itself.

Awesome! Congrats, enjoy it. (^8=

Thanks

Congrats DBM ! Good choice !! :)

Ciao!
Marco

awesome.

By the way it is already on its way across the desert. Last tracking info was Cerritos Cali which ain't far from the origin. I don't know if the roll on Saturday but if so it should be out for delivery no later than Tuesday.

Gear wait is brutal, no? Hate it myself, lol!

Nice amp. I have been wanting a Lonestar combo for a while.

Kabala I can wait, no biggie.

Yep Spaivxx once I played one I knew that is what I have been looking for since I began playing in 1964. I never thought I would buy another Mesa Boogie amp in this lifetime but one play through the things and wow. I had sweet dreams of that thing night times.

Rescheduled Delivery:         04/21/2009

Cool bro, congrats! Can't wait to hear it. How much did you end up paying? (if you don't mind)  :-[

cgtrox  8-)

$1,799 plus $50 shipping. They don't move on Mesa Boogie Products. That is retail and I hate to pay retail. In fact my Jewish Merchant friend in New Jersey tells me "goya it is a sin to pay retail" so I guess I am a sinner on this one.

It woulda been a bigger sin if you deprived yourself of it for any longer!  ;)

      04/20/2009         3:01 P.M.         ARRIVAL SCAN

I'm so nervous, I can't wait! I feel like I'm getting it!!  ;D ;D

cgtrox  8-)

PHOENIX,
AZ,  US      04/21/2009      6:23 A.M.      OUT FOR DELIVERY

You are doing a great job of making us all excited about this, Dave...

I hope you really love it.
Tripper

Congrats DBM!

Tripper — Apr 21, 2009
I hope you really love it.
Tripper

The thing has good tone, It is not even exciting me that much truthfully. I wanted it and I got it coming, but it is no real biggie at this time. It is not much better than my HRD with stomps, but it has one thing the HRD does not have, I can go out with it and play any room without fear of the thing breaking down, and I only need the on board capabilities of the amp. So no extra pedal board needed. I only bought it because I am thinking about getting together with some other old hippies and playing a one night a week gig somewhere. Now all I gotta do is find those old hippies and off we go.

DreamTheaterRules — Apr 21, 2009Congrats DBM!

Thanks Howie. Now all I gotta do is test it, and write the check when the CC bill comes due. I have the money in a separate bank account already, just waiting until the bill comes in a few days.

Hey man, just a quick heads up.  When Mesa amps come in, they will have little red covers on the tubes (I call them tube socks).  Just make sure to take those off and you're good to go.

Oh yeah, did you get plain black or some exotic animal skin in an unatural color? You know, like a purple lizard.  ;D ;D ;D

cgtrox  8-)

Dearthian: — Apr 21, 2009Hey man, just a quick heads up.  When Mesa amps come in, they will have little red covers on the tubes (I call them tube socks).  Just make sure to take those off and you're good to go.

Thanks

cgtrox — Apr 21, 2009Oh yeah, did you get plain black or some exotic animal skin in an unatural color? You know, like a purple lizard.  ;D ;D ;D

cgtrox  8-)

It had better be the plain black, if it is green or red, back it goes. Blue is great, or purple or snake skin, but green or red, back it goes.

The Eagle has landed. It's tone is way different than anything I have experience with, nothing like my Mark II C+ or the Mark IV, or the Quad Pre with Strategy 400 all from Mesa. Very mellow at low volumes, almost too much so. but I am tweaking very nicely and will have a handle on the eq'ing within the next few sessions.  At higher volumes it sings, still very smooth/silky and a little different than what I expected, but in a better way, as I only spent a half hour in total in my two trials at music stores.

I have it hooked up to my two 1-12 cabs with EVM 12L's in them. The HRD is safely in its road case out in the shed. The pedal board and GNX2 are all wrapped up in their cases also in the shed and the Valve Jr head found a home in the shed as well along with my Fender Frontman 15 G and the Gallien Kruegar ML250 Micro Lead. All but the HRD/pedal boards are for sale.

Enjoy the candy store kid. ;)

So, did you get it in purple snake skin like you wanted?  :D

Jam on man!!

A couple other things; Mesa says 'one must use Mesa tubes to keep it under warranty'.  That said, if you get tube frisky, I'll share some observations.  I do NOT like JJ preamp tubes in my Mesa.  They tend to scalp the highs too much  for my taste and it's most noticeable when played clean.  Boogies tend to be on the darker side and don't need any more help.   ;)  Tung-Sol 12ax7's sound awesome.  The gold-pin 12ax7 in V1 is amazing.  Cleans sound awesome with the gold-pin.   JJ 6L6's sound great.  I also keep hearing that TAD 6L6's sound great in Boogies.  

Can't wait to hear some clips.  

CraigBert — Apr 22, 2009Enjoy the candy store kid. ;)

So, did you get it in purple snake skin like you wanted?  :D

Thanks it came in black which is what I did want.

Dearthian: — Apr 22, 2009Jam on man!!A couple other things; Mesa says 'one must use Mesa tubes to keep it under warranty'.  That said, if you get tube frisky, I'll share some observations.  I do NOT like JJ preaamp tubes in my Mesa.  They tend to scalp the highs too much  for my taste and it's most noticeable when played clean.

The Lonestar is taking some getting used to, I got used to the tone of the HRD with stomps. Surprisingly the overdrive on the Lonestar is more to my taste than both my tube stomps. So I packed them up on top of the HRD which is in my shed in it's road case waiting for jams to occur. I will leave the Mesa Tubes in the thing for the foreseeable future. I know their policy on the mesa tubes but after a bit when I am sure I am keeping it (I have 5 days to return it)( I am already sure I am keeping it unless it blows up in the 5 days) Anyways after a bit I may call Bob and see whet he thinks about re-tubing it a little hotter than Mesa might like. That is some many months down the road as I am liking the tone on the thing a bunch already.

I'm sure you're enjoying it, nothing like new amp luv when its working/sounding the way we envision it (which is rare, lol).

I've become addicted to gear porn, wish we could see a shot of your prize in its new home! (=

Dearthian: — Apr 22, 2009

Can't wait to hear some clips.  

DAW is in shed, Lonestar is in house. Unlikely I will record the thing unless I absolutely need that tone on a recording. I always record direct through my Tonelab Tabletop, now that the pedal board is in the shed, I can break it out easy enough and put it through the Tonelab easy as pie. In fact the fact that the pedal board is in the shed already, may inspire me do some recording, although I have completely lost interest in recording lately.

Kabala — Apr 22, 2009wish we could see a shot of your prize in its new home! (=

Will do easy enough amigo. I have to go out today for a KUB X Ray after bidding a few masonry jobs, then when I get back, it is off to the gym for my workout, then after that a picture of my handsome LoneStar on top of the two 1-12 cabs, although the head is 8" wider than the cabs. I have to reposition the rubber feet on the head after the 5 days return date are past. Right now it is up on a couple of 2x3s.

Big Head pict

http://www.tonefarm.net/index.php?topic=2412.new#new

Killer! Looks as fine as it sounds, not surprised, they knew they had a winner on their hands with that thing.

Makes a capital 'T' for tone I reckon.  :)

I ain't carrying a 4 -12 cabinet no matter how weird it looks. If I play it out, I would put the 2 cabs side by side on the floor (which I would do if I had more room where the amp is).

All that said I am dialing it in, the EQ is far different than anything I ever used before. I have the bass all the way off on the overdrive channel. (3 on the HRD) Trebs at 2:00 (10:00 on the HRD) Mids at 10:00 (2:00 on the HRD) Presence on 0 like always same with the HRD. I have the drive and gain almost all the way up. On all of my old Fenders I would turn everything on 10 but the bass and verb on 3. The clean channel is EQ'd way differently as well Trebs on 1:00 Mids on 10:00 and Bass on at 9:00. Presence just a touch on. The thing is silky smooth yet is has the balls to rock out if turned up. I like the hundred watt setting on the lead channel and 50 watt on the clean with Recto Tracking on which means the clean is tube rectified and the overdrive is silicon diode.

Schweeeeeet.

I'm the same way with the rectifiers; silicon on dirt, recto on clean.  

silicon on dirt,
recto on clean.
a de nah nah da
it sound so mean.

UPS came and out the door it went

Back To Mesa Hollywood

The thing was defective or something, because it sounded downright awful with single coil pups or on any front pickup. It sang like a birdie on 5 of the 6 strings, however on the bass string it was muddy as hell. The Alchemist sounded way better than that thing except on the rear pups (Humbuckers only however) on the top 5 strings.

I think it had a bad preamp tube or something, but I was not taking the chance I had to have it out before the weekend or I would have had to pay a 15% of $1799 restocking.

I tried real hard to like it, I did everything I could think of except change the tubes and had no time to get new ones without the restocking fee.

I will tell you it did not sound anywhere near as good as the Combo's I played at the stores. Maybe it did not mate with the EVM12L's, the combo's had Celestians.

I don't know I think it was defective, because the ones at the stores sounded wonderful.

Are they going to look it over and send it back once they diagnose the problem???  I could tell you that is most likely the problem.  Anytime we've had an issue with a Mesa just out of the box it has been one of the preamp tubes.  We've had it happen on both a Dual Rectifier and a Roadster, but the problem was more glaring.  On both we had to replace the V1 tube because we were getting no sound at all, and this was straight out of the box.  Great amps but shitty tubes.  The ONLY Mesa tubes in my Roadster are the 5U4's.  Everything else is outta there.  

I hope you are just having them check it out.   :(

Man that blows, that would kill me actually, lol! I've heard numerous times that preamp tubes are notorious for being the culprit when amps are shipped and a problem shows up...course the combos in GC had to get there somehow and just like you experienced, the combos I played were perf, so who knows. Sorry it didn't work out for ya.

Dearthian: — Apr 23, 2009I hope you are just having them check it out.   :(

Refund, and I am done with it. Next time it will be from a local shop, tested with 3 guitars and my own speaker cab.

Kabala — Apr 23, 2009 Sorry it didn't work out for ya.  

I am sorry to the tune of 96 bucks, shipping each way, but at least I get my $1799 back.

I don't know, for $96 bucks each way I think I could have yanked a tube or three.  What's an hour of my time that might fix things vs. $96 bucks?   :-?

Well, what's done is done brother.  

desertbluesman — Apr 24, 2009[quote author=Kabala link=1239996853/25#41 date=1240531113] Sorry it didn't work out for ya.  

I am sorry to the tune of 96 bucks, shipping each way, but at least I get my $1799 back.


You thinking/reconsidering that Egnater Renegade 50 now, might be the ticket for you (6L6/EL34, variable wattage, etc)? I know I'm thinking about it still, mostly for the 6L6 doing cleans. Its due any day/week on shelves.

Dearthian: — Apr 24, 2009I don't know, for $96 bucks each way I think I could have yanked a tube or three.  What's an hour of my time that might fix things vs. $96 bucks?   :-?

Well, what's done is done brother.  

Ninety six bucks total $48 each way not too bad.

Kabala — Apr 24, 2009You thinking/reconsidering that Egnater Renegade 50 now, might be the ticket for you (6L6/EL34, variable wattage, etc)? I know I'm thinking about it still, mostly for the 6L6 doing cleans. Its due any day/week on shelves.

I will give the Renegade (now 65 watts) a serious look for sure.

Man, I didn't see this coming!  I thought that was your dream amp!   :o :o

And how did the Renegade go from 40 watts to 65???  (Scurries off for the latest info...)  

DreamTheaterRules — Apr 24, 2009Man, I didn't see this coming!  I thought that was your dream amp!   :o :o

And how did the Renegade go from 40 watts to 65???  (Scurries off for the latest info...)  

It must have been defective Howie, the thing sounded like crap with some guitars and pups. With the Ibanez RG it sounded great, but plug in a strat style guitar with singles and gawd it was pure yuk, same with the front pups on all but the RG guitar. Man it was less than stellar. So out the door she went. Maybe the amp did not mate with my EVM12L's, maybe it was defective, but whatever the case it did not sound very good unless I did a lot of tweaking per pickup and per guitar and with the single coils no amount of tweaking helped.