Front panel: controls & features, Continued) gain: (continued), Treble – Mesa/Boogie II User Manual

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FRONT PANEL: Controls & Features

(Continued)

GAIN: (Continued)

bottom end response. Not yet fully saturated, this region is the easiest place to get a great sound in both

channels. This region contains many of the

Lone Star Special’s best sounds...especially for soloing due to the crucial blend of an

expressive attack combined with ample sustain.

High (2:15 - 5:00) Saturates the signal, enhances and expands low and low mid fre-
quencies. While this region provides the maximum saturation and therefor sustain, it also
compresses and softens the attack characteristics. For this reason we suggest using this
higher region of the

GAIN control sparingly and only when maximum sustain is needed.

NOTE:

NOTE: Due to the Lone Star Special’s extreme gain potential, the highest regions of the

GAIN control may possibly push the pre-amp tubes past what they can handle, producing
microphonic squealing. While we screen and test the tubes your ampliﬁ er was shipped with
and the tubes in your amp passed our rigourous testing, we can’t predict how the tubes

will respond over time exposed to extreme gain settings. Your tubes are warranted for a period of 6 months under normal use, but you
can save yourself the present and future inconvenience of having to deal with annoying microphonic tube problems by simply using

a little common sense...Use the Gain sparingly at the higher end of its range!

If you must for a speciﬁ c part or at very low volumes, back down the TREBLE and PRESENCE controls. The

Lone Star Special was

designed to provide amazing gain and tone at less than extreme settings removing the need for you to crank everything all the way
up. If you are not able to achieve the sound you want at sensible settings on any or all of the controls, your problem may lie elsewhere
in the signal chain, i.e. pick-ups, cabinetry, processing etc. Keep in mind you can always call on one of our product specialist Monday
through Thursday and seek some advice should you ﬁ nd yourself struggling to get the sound you want.

2.) GAIN - In conjunction with the Tone Controls - Basically, a simple rule applies...as the Gain is increased the Tone control string
has less and less effect on the signal until at 5:00 the signal is so saturated that you are getting mostly Gain and very little Tone. Again,
this is the reason we suggest using the

GAIN control in its middle region. Here the Tone control string is very active and provides

maximum shaping power - allowing you to dial virtually any sound you desire.

TREBLE:

As in most tube guitar ampliﬁ ers, the

TREBLE control (in both channels of your Lone Star Special) is the most

powerful of the rotary controls and is next in line only to the GAIN control as a shaping tool. Because it is ﬁ rst in the signal path of the

tone controls - and from here the Middle and Bass receive their signal - it is
by far the dominant tone control. For this reason the setting of the

TREBLE

control is very important for equal representation of the three frequency
regions to appear at their respective controls. Like most of the controls on
your

Lone Star Special, there is an optimum region of the TREBLE control

where ample top end is mixed in and yet enough signal is still passed on to
the MIDDLE and BASS controls.

As you might surmise, here is the sweet spot

sweet spot

sweet spot There are deﬁ nitely great sounds

above and below this middle region (11:00 - 1:30), but the balance between

the

TREBLE control and the other two tone controls is compromised.

The

TREBLE control can be used to dump extra gain into the mix. This is especially effective in Channel 1 and Channel 2 with the

DRIVE bypassed. When doing so, use the PRESENCE control to roll off some of the more than ample top end for a more compressed
feel and fatter voice. As you might surmise, the BASS control’s effectiveness will be reduced, so you may have to run a much higher
setting than you are used to seeing to achieve a balance.

INPUT

FT.SW

DRIVE

CH 1

CH 2

THICK

THICKER

CLEAN

MAL

GAIN

NOR