I've always gone out of my way to plug into them in music stores since they came out. I’ve wanted one since the first time I tried it. Well, shortly after they were discontinued in 2020, I picked one up thinking it was basically then or never, and now that I’ve got one, it’s not going anywhere. Love that amp.
The Lonestar is my favorite amp for big bold clean tones, easily. It’s also just really nice to work with. There’s a ton of low end available, the bass knob always has enough juice in the tank, so it will never sound too thin. Channel 1’s Gain pot, through the majority of its sweep, is more of a compression knob than a “harmonics/hair” control like it would be on a high gain amp, and it really lets you dial in the feel. At its highest settings, you can start to hear a tiny bit of breakup, but that’s about it. It’s a pure clean channel through and through. The Mid knob takes the amp anywhere from blackface to tweed. Treble and Presence take the amp anywhere between dark jazzy stuff to hi-fi, almost EL84-ish chime. Along with being the best clean sound, the Lonestar’s clean channel might be the most versatile clean channel I’ve ever used. And it always sounds good.
Listen to Andy Timmons up there. His tone pretty much can’t be beaten imo.
As for Channel 2, it’s not like traditional Mesa high gain tone. It’s more like something between a cranked Bassman and a cranked Plexi, but a bit fatter. BTW I’m not using “fatter” as marketing-speak to mean outright better. I’m saying there is more of a push in the lows / low mids. Think American heavy pushed blues. Some people like that, some people don’t, I happen to think it’s great. Channel 2 sounds and feels really great to me but I think it’s widely misunderstood. If I had to guess I’d say it’s because people plug into it seeing the Mesa logo and expecting a Recto or Mark style lead channel, which this channel very much is not.
If you have any interest whatsoever in huge tube-y cleans, to pushed cleans, to light-to-medium vintage overdrive sounds, I don’t know of any amp for less than like $6k that will come anywhere close to the quality of tones and versatility of the Lonestar. And even then, I’m not convinced any of those amps are outright better, just different.