Can I say once again, I LOVE your reviews. No nonsense, a true ear for discovering tone, great fingers and what feels like an honest appraisal of the machine, while still being full of the exuberance we're looking for when we're hungrily thinking about buy ourselves "that perfect amp".... Thanks for keeping us ever excited.
Lance could play anything, and it would sound great...But have to agree with everyone here. The Telstar is an absolute BEAST of an amp....and will be my next purchase.
I own this amp and it is freakin' phenomenal. There is not one tone in the Telstar that is not usable. The attenuator is the best attenuator I've ever seen on an amp....it sounds amazing even at speaking volume. Great demo of it by Lance!
I am hot after this amp. Wondering a couple things, many demos seem to have a lot of line noise/hum. Is the amp noisy? Or perhaps just some single cool hum? I also wonder how this thing takes pedals as far as delays, or a different flavor overdrive/booster, etc. when needed. Lastly, can you get a fair amount of pristine clean volume for some small intimate Jazz style gigs? Or does it break up too early for that. Thank you for any experience you have.
@@jonnyrocktone9020 the hum you are hearing in some videos is single coil hum and 60 cycle hum from it being demo'd in a guitar shop with lots of flourescent lights and such. It takes delays fine, I use a Boss DM-2w and a Dawner Prince Boonar with it and it sounds great. It also seems to do just fine with any non-mid centric boosts and overdrives. Just gonna have to set the gain on the amp and the pedals lower cause the Telstar starts breaking up around noon on the dial depending on whether you're using single coils or humbuckers. I run the Timmy V3 as a boost, and use a Nobels ODR-1 and Ibanez Mostortion clone with great results for different OD flavors. Any transparent low-gainer that is not centered on the mids is gonna sound great and blend well with the Telstar. It's a loud amp for 17 watts but it's gonna be hit or miss whether or not you'll have enough clean head room for a small gig. If it's an intimate jazz setting, I think the warm cleans of the Telstar would sound phenomenal. It doesn't have the sparkly cleans of Blackface amps and breaks up far earlier, but it might be fine for the type of gig you are describing. You could always mic it (shrugs). If you are intending to play only clean, the Telstar would not be my first choice. It is more suited for riding the volume knob all night and getting some harmonic overdrive at the top of the dial and edge of breakup around 7 or 8 on the guitar volume dial. Perfectly suited for that kind of playing. Hope this helps.
@@mikemoffatt6610 Thank you for this fantastic information. It is extremely helpful thank you. I currently have a modified Fender Blues Jr that I grew out of years ago, but have been lazy to upgrade. It’s a lovable little amp but many weaknesses. I honed a great tone with a couple pedals; OCD, various delays, Stereo Pulsar, and and to drive the OCD into lead I use either a Fulltone 2B clean boost, or a Fryer Treble Booster (for a very boxy focused lead) in front of the OCD. But from the videos, the Telstar does much of that tone already it’s so well done. So I probably only need the booster if anything, or something if I want any different flavors. It’s good to know it takes pedals well so I can experiment if need be. But I have a feeling the amp will be enough apart from some delay and tremolo. As far as jazz, I have not typically been a jazz player, but have been playing some to brush up for some small art show gigs...you know, off in the corner, no one paying attention, that kind of thing haha. It sounds like this amp would hit all my areas of jazz, Rock, blues, and instrumental electric. Thank you kindly for the information and I will be sure to comment back on how I like it if I pick one up. FWIW I researched tons of amps for quite some time now and when I heard this one my heart jumped. I guess that means it’s the right one. 🙂
@@mikemoffatt6610 fantastic overview. - thank you. Do you still have / use it? I’m thinking of trying one as the dry side of a wet/dry rig for small gigs (with a higher headroom amp to take the mod and delays).
@@onenotesolo256 I still have it and still love it. It's my only amp at the moment...it covers a lot of bases. The way you want to implement it would work great. I used the Telstar in wet/dry with a Marshall SV20 handling the mods and delays....it sounded exceptional. You'll get a lot of texture out of the Telstar for the dry part of your rig if you go that route.
@@LanceKeltnerMusicfor some reason this 17 watt amp feels louder than my 50 watt bogner. The Telstar is a really sweet amp but have to play it with an attenuator, my windows rattle without it and it’s not fun. Love your vids Lance. You are awesome
@@martigras87 yes you're absolutely right, but with the Merc V, the variation you are getting is early Plexi Marshall, j800 and 90's Marshalls with the boost switch, and a big mixture of the different tone shaping features of all 3 of these eras of Marshall. With the Telstar, it can pull off early and late Fender Tweed amps, early Blackface Fender amps, and early Marshall and Vox flavored tones by changing the grain structure and the tone frequency range and playing with the input volume and tone dials. To me that is a bit of a broader spectrum. But I absolutely think the Mercury V is one of the coolest and best sounding amps available as well. It just depends on what you're going for.
Hey Mike, I just watched a video of Austin Guitar House presenting the Telstar...and there it sounds fantastic! Maybe here it sounds poor because of the guitars used or due to the player???
@@MW47742 could be the mic'ing, the room it's being recorded in, and also Lance is using less gain than the Austin Guitar House demo. There are many factors. That's why music demos are not the end all be all of assessing gear.
Can I say once again, I LOVE your reviews. No nonsense, a true ear for discovering tone, great fingers and what feels like an honest appraisal of the machine, while still being full of the exuberance we're looking for when we're hungrily thinking about buy ourselves "that perfect amp".... Thanks for keeping us ever excited.
Thank you very much!
Lance could play anything, and it would sound great...But have to agree with everyone here. The Telstar is an absolute BEAST of an amp....and will be my next purchase.
Steve makes great amps. Great demo, Lance!
Got mine it’s the best tone I have ever had the opportunity to rip from my guitars
I own this amp and it is freakin' phenomenal. There is not one tone in the Telstar that is not usable. The attenuator is the best attenuator I've ever seen on an amp....it sounds amazing even at speaking volume. Great demo of it by Lance!
I am hot after this amp. Wondering a couple things, many demos seem to have a lot of line noise/hum. Is the amp noisy? Or perhaps just some single cool hum? I also wonder how this thing takes pedals as far as delays, or a different flavor overdrive/booster, etc. when needed. Lastly, can you get a fair amount of pristine clean volume for some small intimate Jazz style gigs? Or does it break up too early for that. Thank you for any experience you have.
@@jonnyrocktone9020 the hum you are hearing in some videos is single coil hum and 60 cycle hum from it being demo'd in a guitar shop with lots of flourescent lights and such. It takes delays fine, I use a Boss DM-2w and a Dawner Prince Boonar with it and it sounds great. It also seems to do just fine with any non-mid centric boosts and overdrives. Just gonna have to set the gain on the amp and the pedals lower cause the Telstar starts breaking up around noon on the dial depending on whether you're using single coils or humbuckers. I run the Timmy V3 as a boost, and use a Nobels ODR-1 and Ibanez Mostortion clone with great results for different OD flavors. Any transparent low-gainer that is not centered on the mids is gonna sound great and blend well with the Telstar. It's a loud amp for 17 watts but it's gonna be hit or miss whether or not you'll have enough clean head room for a small gig. If it's an intimate jazz setting, I think the warm cleans of the Telstar would sound phenomenal. It doesn't have the sparkly cleans of Blackface amps and breaks up far earlier, but it might be fine for the type of gig you are describing. You could always mic it (shrugs). If you are intending to play only clean, the Telstar would not be my first choice. It is more suited for riding the volume knob all night and getting some harmonic overdrive at the top of the dial and edge of breakup around 7 or 8 on the guitar volume dial. Perfectly suited for that kind of playing. Hope this helps.
@@mikemoffatt6610 Thank you for this fantastic information. It is extremely helpful thank you. I currently have a modified Fender Blues Jr that I grew out of years ago, but have been lazy to upgrade. It’s a lovable little amp but many weaknesses. I honed a great tone with a couple pedals; OCD, various delays, Stereo Pulsar, and and to drive the OCD into lead I use either a Fulltone 2B clean boost, or a Fryer Treble Booster (for a very boxy focused lead) in front of the OCD. But from the videos, the Telstar does much of that tone already it’s so well done. So I probably only need the booster if anything, or something if I want any different flavors. It’s good to know it takes pedals well so I can experiment if need be. But I have a feeling the amp will be enough apart from some delay and tremolo. As far as jazz, I have not typically been a jazz player, but have been playing some to brush up for some small art show gigs...you know, off in the corner, no one paying attention, that kind of thing haha. It sounds like this amp would hit all my areas of jazz, Rock, blues, and instrumental electric. Thank you kindly for the information and I will be sure to comment back on how I like it if I pick one up. FWIW I researched tons of amps for quite some time now and when I heard this one my heart jumped. I guess that means it’s the right one. 🙂
@@mikemoffatt6610 fantastic overview. - thank you. Do you still have / use it? I’m thinking of trying one as the dry side of a wet/dry rig for small gigs (with a higher headroom amp to take the mod and delays).
@@onenotesolo256 I still have it and still love it. It's my only amp at the moment...it covers a lot of bases. The way you want to implement it would work great. I used the Telstar in wet/dry with a Marshall SV20 handling the mods and delays....it sounded exceptional. You'll get a lot of texture out of the Telstar for the dry part of your rig if you go that route.
Got mine last week. Incredible
I'm gassing for a Telstar really bad!
How do you like the amp now that the honeymoon period is long over?
@@gbc77000 get a super bee ! That and a magnatone panoramic stereo are my only amps right now. Telstar was great but too loud for my home studio
Was interested in grabbing a Telstar for home use, but now rethinking it due to volume. Were you able to get it under control with the attenuator?
3:45 no clue how he’s able to play that loud, with those settings my walls would be shaking. I own this amp
Well when I was coming up we played 100 watt Marshall amps.
This is Loud but not that loud
@@LanceKeltnerMusicfor some reason this 17 watt amp feels louder than my 50 watt bogner. The Telstar is a really sweet amp but have to play it with an attenuator, my windows rattle without it and it’s not fun. Love your vids Lance. You are awesome
I own a telstar and i agree with you
He probably have some extra attenuation
That sounds awesome
Damn I like this idea but I have a 61 Princeton and a TK Gremlin But the Telstar seems to check all the boxes
Bloody good amp, I'm in the market for this or the dr z z plus which are kinda similar. Great video
Sounds tight!
I want all of your guitars !
This or the mercury v what’s your choice ? Love your playin thanks
rick flippin both.
@@CHIPDADDY1000 I know right lol I have option anxiety lol
Hot stuff Lance 👌
What is the price of this amp in europa germany ??????
3.000 € in Italy
Question: If you replace the 6L6 with a 6V6, does that halve the power to 8 watts?
Might be able to look that stuff online I'm digging it as is Might sell a few things and get this
Tell me how heavy is this amp weight plus u are amazing guitar player thank you for a super review
Why would 58 be blackface? Wouldnt the 53 be a small box tweed and the 58 be like a tweed low power twin?
Sheeeez Louise. Incredible.
Telstar, Skylark or Mercury V???
Telstar I played all 3 telstar is the best and most versatile
chris rocco more so than the Mercury V? Has a lot of features with the boost and series/parallel switch
@@martigras87 more switches and dials doesn't always mean more variation in tone
Mike Moffatt Yeah but we’re comparing Carr with Carr. If there’s a switch or a dial on one of his amps, Steve has thought long and hard about it
@@martigras87 yes you're absolutely right, but with the Merc V, the variation you are getting is early Plexi Marshall, j800 and 90's Marshalls with the boost switch, and a big mixture of the different tone shaping features of all 3 of these eras of Marshall.
With the Telstar, it can pull off early and late Fender Tweed amps, early Blackface Fender amps, and early Marshall and Vox flavored tones by changing the grain structure and the tone frequency range and playing with the input volume and tone dials. To me that is a bit of a broader spectrum.
But I absolutely think the Mercury V is one of the coolest and best sounding amps available as well. It just depends on what you're going for.
Lance is a bad dude
Sorry, but in my ears this amp sounds cheap and thin...no balls at all. By far the the least desirable Carr amp... 🙁
Are you listening with stock computer speakers or through your phone or something? I think if you played one in person you would feel differently...
Hey Mike, I just watched a video of Austin Guitar House presenting the Telstar...and there it sounds fantastic! Maybe here it sounds poor because of the guitars used or due to the player???
@@MW47742 could be the mic'ing, the room it's being recorded in, and also Lance is using less gain than the Austin Guitar House demo. There are many factors. That's why music demos are not the end all be all of assessing gear.
Yes Mike! It might also be the excessive amount of delay that Lance uses that I don’t like...maybe...
Rodney Rules; th-cam.com/video/qZ4Omky0zaU/w-d-xo.html