By Bob Tekippe
MESA BOOGIE WAS ESSENTIALLY THE FIRST BOUTIQUE AMP BUILDER. The California-based company was founded and operated by Randall Smith, who grew up in a musical family and early on learned an appreciation for great musical tones. He also learned about tube amp design, and while in high school repaired a bandmate’s Sunn. Soon after, he opened a shop (Prune Music) and quickly discovered a demand for his repair work. Before long, his list of clients included a who’s who list of Bay Area acts like Santana, Big Brother, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Steve Miller, and others.
One day in 1969, Smith was in a particularly playful mood. As a prank, he modified a Fender Princeton belonging to Barry Melton, guitarist for Quicksilver Messenger Service, converting it to 4x10" Bassman specs. It just so happened that Carlos Santana heard Melton playing, and loved his tone. Smith was soon modding nearly every Fender Princeton in the area before the idea struck – why not build an amp from scratch that will sound like a modded Princeton, but with some unique touches. Thus, the Mesa Boogie amp was born (and is this year nominated to enter VG’s Hall of Fame).
Through the years, Smith has tweaked and twiddled with various subtle changes in the design of the Boogie (which, by the way, was reportedly named by Santana), and has never failed to stay on top of the game. We recently took for a test run Mesa Boogie’s newest amp, the Lone Star Special.
A class A-design 2x12" combo that uses a 12AX7/5Y3 tube preamp section coupled with EL84 output tubes in its power section, the Lone Star Special features two independent channels with Gain, Treble, Middle, Bass, Presence and Master controls, and separate reverb controls for each channel with a Bright/Warm switch. The long-spring reverb is tube-driven. The second channel also uses a switch to activate a multi-stage cascading drive control with a three position (Thick/ Normal/Thicker) switch. Both channels boast a three-position output-power switch that allows a player to adjust output from 30 to 15 to 5 watts, as well as a Solo control that engages a pre-set volume. The back panel has access to an all-tube effects loop with a true-bypass switch, a slave out with level control, a fan switch, and external speaker jacks.
The Lone Star Special uses two Celestion G1280 speakers. The cabinet is available in five finishes with a host of custom options. The cab is well-built and flawlessly covered, with unique leather corner protectors and heavy-duty leather handle. It all makes for a great retro look. The LS Special is available as a 1x12" or 2x12" combo, as well as separate long and medium heads, a short head, or a compact 1x12" combo.
To see what the LS Special had to offer, we used our favorite 1972 Fender Stratocaster, a ’59 Fender Esquire, and a ’79 Ibanez Artist with humbuckers.
Starting with the Ibanez and the amp’s first channel on the 30-watt output setting (set to clean with the master volume and output level controls turned up, and gain down), we immediately began to grin as we were greeted with a full, fat punch that was extremely responsive with a sweet high-end typical of EL84 class A circuits. Low-end was plentiful and tight, and could be pushed hard to the point of overbearing. Every pickup position sounded very nice, and as we pushed the gain, we got a nice breakup for blues and light rock. Pushing the gain all the way and backing down the master volumes also produced nice gain, albeit in smaller quantities. We switched to the lower wattage settings and naturally lost a bit of punch and clarity, but the amp never stopped producing great tone, even at reduced volume. And the Solo preset works better if the output level is set lower than the solo volume; this is a great feature.
Next, we plugged in the Strat and, with a little tweaking, got a huge Strat tone with lots of sparkle and big, tight bottom. It was some of the fullest Strat tone we’ve heard, with nice breakup when the gain was pushed. We plugged in the Esquire and again got that sweet class A full, fat Tele tone – great for modern country pickin’.
Switching to Channel 2 (which is identical to Channel 1 except for the drive option), we set the Drive control to 4 o’clock and the Gain on 3 o’clock. We got plenty of gain, fat, smooth, and punchy, and with ample low-end. Sustain and harmonics? Gobs.
We played with the Thick switch, which adds a subtle upper-midrange fatness. Using lower wattage settings, we pulled back the Drive and Gain and got a perfect balance of drive and clarity. With the Strat, we dialed in a Strat tone that was so full and aggressive you’d swear you were playing a humbucker. With the Esquire, we could dial up a tone as fat as a Les Paul Junior. The Lone Star Special’s reverb can be as huge or subtle as you want, and it blends nicely.
The Lone Star Special is an exceptionally sweet-sounding amp that covers all frequency ranges. Its overall tone is incredibly fat and full, with gain to spare, and exceptional clean tones. In fact, “exceptional” pretty much defines this amp in an all-around sense. But then, have Smith’s amp designs ever been anything less?
| MESA BOOGIE LONESTAR SPECIAL |
| Features |
Hand-built all-tube class A design, switchable output, independent channels with Gain, Treble, Mid, Bass, Presence, and Master volume controls, Solo volume preset control, cascading high-gain drive, all-tube long-spring reverb w/separate controls, two Celestion Black Shadow speakers, tube effects loop. |
| Contact |
Mesa Boogie, 1317 Ross Street, Petaluma CA 94954 - 707-778-6565 - www.mesaboogie.com |
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