FW 11.01 TX Star Lead

To keep the Lonestar Lead clean in 11.02, I reduced Input Drive to 2.25 & Overdrive to 2.00, Master at 8.00. To get the level back up without clipping the output, I raised the Master Volume Trim to 4.014. Input Select is SUM L+R. That got me back to where I remember it. Fatter than the Twin with a little more compression.


Thanks. I hadn't thought to raise the trim so high, but it makes sense. On the other hand, I found some easily great results revisiting the 65 bassguy.

Prior to this I had I finally raised the courage to sell the rest of my tube gear and build back some cash flow. I've always used those as benchmarks for comparison and didn't anticipate such a change in a go to amp. That is the nature of the Axe though....Change! Once the amps are gone, I won't have my anchor and changes like this could cause me some serious headaches. Decisions, decisions...

I have to say the grit introduced by the drive knob is something to be explored for sure...sounds cool.:ugeek
 
4x12 Cali Lead 80s Mix (#104)

But wasn't aiming to copy Andy's tone exactly.
 
Got the clean tone back. What a relief!:pride:

I'm still flipping through other amps, but none of the other clean amps are doing it the way this one does it. That's why its been my go to clean amp for days. Fat, but sparkly and lots of punchy mids. More importantly this amp can be dialed unlike the others I've been trying. Can't match anything else to it so far. I'm trying.

We'll see...

As a wish list item, I would like to see the Overdrive knob bi passable, since you have to go way out of the way to compensate for it now.
 
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Got the clean tone back. What a relief!:pride:

I'm still flipping through other amps, but none of the other clean amps are doing it the way this one does it. That's why its been my go to clean amp for days. Fat, but sparkly and lots of punchy mids. More importantly this amp can be dialed unlike the others I've been trying. Can't match anything else to it so far. I'm trying.

We'll see...

As a wish list item, I would like to see the Overdrive knob bi passable, since you have to go way out of the way to compensate for it now.
I think bypassing it might only set it a certain value. How do you have to go out of the way? Doesn't the real Lonestar have a sort of overdrive knob?
 
This has become one of my favorite lead sounds now, it really has some fantastic singing qualities, you can really get that timmons sound now, and the bb preamp in front works as expect!

just plain awesome!

thank you cliff
 
I think bypassing it might only set it a certain value. How do you have to go out of the way? Doesn't the real Lonestar have a sort of overdrive knob?

+1

The real one has two "level/drive" controls. There's no dedicated clean channel on it. The manual provides examples of achieving clean tones with the two controls.
 
After further review, for "Clean" settings, you flip a switch on the front panel to Clean instead of Drive & that disables the Drive control & removes 2 stages of preamp gain (Page 1 of the manual).
 
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All of which makes me wonder if it would be possible for Cliff to add a "switch" under the Input Drive control that can be turned on & off with the Enter button (front panel - like the Cut, Fat, & Bright switches)) that would emulate switching the additional 2 preamp triodes & the associated Drive control in & out of the circuit.
 
After further review, for "Clean" settings, you flip a switch on the front panel to Clean instead of Drive & that disables the Drive control & removes 2 stages of gain (Page 1 of the manual).

It's a diffcult amp.

The "clean" switch applies to channel 2 only.

Picture on page 3 shows "clean settings" with Drive not greyed out.
 
All of which makes me wonder if it would be possible for Cliff to add a "switch" under the Input Drive control that can be turned on & off with the Enter button (front panel - like the Cut, Fat, & Bright switches)) that would emulate switching the additional 2 preamp triodes & the associated Drive control in & out of the circuit.

It'd probably be easier to model that mode separately.
 
It'd probably be easier to model that mode separately.

Agreed. This is a 2 channel amp and the drive is associated with channel 2, switchable of course. To be clear,the overdrive is dope. The cleans are equally as dope. Maybe we'll get lucky and see a TX Star Clean. One can hope...:encouragement:
 
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It'd probably be easier to model that mode separately.

You're right. Adding a switch under the Input Drive control would take away the modifier. And, nobody wants that! :)

Cliff, any chance you'd want to revisit this amp and have a TX Star Lead and a TX Star Lead+? One without the added gain stages & Input Drive and one with? I think you already said that the clean channel wasn't different enough from all of the existing Fender types cleans to warrant having it as a separate model.
 
You're right. Adding a switch under the Input Drive control would take away the modifier. And, nobody wants that! :)

Not at all. A switch would give the option to run the channel with or without the drive. It wouldn't take it away. In fact it would be true true to the actual channel. A reasonable solution I think.
 
Not at all. A switch would give the option to run the channel with or without the drive. It wouldn't take it away. In fact it would be true true to the actual channel. A reasonable solution I think.

When looking at the amp block basic settings on the front panel display, isn't the modifier "box" under the Input Drive knob (not at home to confirm)? That's what I'm referring to. If there were a "switch" associated with the Input Drive control, there wouldn't be a place to put it on the interface without removing the modifier box - which no one would want.

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Ah, I see.

Well, perhaps he could disengage it by setting it to zero like the Sag for Amp Sim. Right now it cuts the signal completely.

I went down to a local shop and played an actual Lonestar today. Low and behold I don't actually like the drive on that amp at all. I like what Andy Timmons does with it, but its just not my thing. I can see that single coils would be a favorable choice for the drive for sure. I also compared the two channels 1 and 2 clean. I was able to make them sound identical with the drive disengaged.

I can see why Cliff doesn't see any point in modeling the clean. Kind of pointless, but I still love this amp model for cleans over the fenders in the Axe anyway.

It sounds pretty much like a fender, and I haven't tweaked as hard on the fenders as I have with this model. It always seemed to be in the ball park up front more so than the others. I realize my view is subjective. If the popular consensus is that the TS Star lead is lead is redundant other than its drive character, then I'm probably gonna lose on that one.

Interesting to play the real thing though, glad I got the chance. Onward!!!:pirate:
 
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