Electric Guitar Review

A couple months back Guitar Player Magazine ran an in-depth review of Mesa Boogie’s new all-tube combo, the Lonestar Special, which left me absolutely drooling to get my hands on one of these retro-tan beauties. I’m happy to see they’ve now published it online as well (photos included, though they don’t look nearly as nice on screen as they did in the print version.)

And sure enough, the Lonestar Special is yet another modern Class-A guitar amp, though Mesa Boogie has apparently switched things up a bit by including an innovative power-stage that allows for switching between single-ended operation and push/pull. According to Guitar Player that means––

“…you can independently assign the Lonestar’s channels to operate at 15 or 30 watts in push-pull mode, or at 5 watts in single-ended (single tube) mode. Besides providing low-power operation, the single-ended setting preserves the second harmonic (an octave above the notes played), resulting in richer, thicker, vintage-flavored tone.”

Whether you’re in the market for a 1x12“ combo with all Class-A circuitry, or you’re just a perpetual (some would say masochistic) guitar gear window-shopper like myself, you’ll definitely want to read the entire review. As usual, those boys at Guitar Player get to have all the fun. But can you really blame them?