Re: G.A.S Attack... Mesa Lonestar !!!!
I owned a blue angel head for a couple of years, and gigged it regularly into a mesa recto 2x12 with celestion v30s (the combos use a much more efficient celestion that I like less).
The coolest thing about the BA is it is so unlike any other mesa. Most mesas are basically some complication (some would argue a dilution) of a fender princeton circuit. The BA departs from the standard mesa formula of class AB, 6l6 'fender with extra gain stages' blueprint in several ways.
Firstly, it's class A, running 6v6 (fender deluxe) and EL84 (Vox AC30) tubes either seperately or together. The idea behind this is that each set of tubes work together to negate certain weakness when overdriven. 6v6s can get ratty in the top end, and el84s lack bass, so run them together and the sound fattens and evens out.
So you can get a couple of quite different flavours of amp tone, and combine them if you need to fatten things out or want more headroom.
Another cool thing about the amp is that it's simple to use. One volume, ones set of tone controls, a bright switch, a power tube selector (on the front-cool!) and reverb. No endless tweaking. More importantly, much less circuitry than the average boogie, meaning less drain on the amp's intrinsic tone. And the best reverb I've heard in a mesa.
One weakness is that with 38 watts class A max, it doesn't have the kind of clean headroom that a 50watt class AB amp has. That's the main reason I went to my vibrolux. Still, that's an advantage if you want power stage overdrive at a low level. Great club gig blues amp.
It's no longer in production. I'll definitely get another if I spot one at the right price.
