A difficult choice...

[IanT]

Hello everybody.

Before I ask my question, I'd like to record my respect for the knowledge base that you are assembling here. Poking around over the last few days, since I stumbled across the site, I've learnt so much. I hope, over time, to be able to contribute myself.

I am in a rather fortunate position, and am looking for some advice. The sort of advice that comes from the experience that many of you obviously have.

After many years hard work, I've realised a little cash and am planning to spend some of it on myself for once. My wife and I play various instruments between us, so we're looking to set up a dedicated home studio / music room. My personal 'treat' will be a top flight setup through which to play my guitars, so I'm making some choices with regard to amps.

The options that are tempting me are;

1) A Road King combo
2) A rack based eg. Triaxis / 20:20 / 2x12 (or similar) setup
3) A Mark IV

I'd be interested in your views and opinions, particularly with respect to the following;

- which has the widest range of tonal possibilities?
- which will give me the most flexibility as my playing prowess develops in all the free time I'll now have? :wink:
- given that this for home use only, will each option work at reasonable volume? I have a THD Hotplate that I've used succesfully with combos in the past.
- what are the drawbacks / limitations of each option?
- what you would choose in my position and why!

By way of background information, I play an HSS Strat and a 1990 PRS Limited Edition. I like and play most types of music from bluesy noodling, through classic rock right up to modern pop and the tuneful end of metal / harder rock. I'm not a great fan of jazz, and I won't permit any form of country music in the house...

I do intend to find a way to try each option, but I think that personal experience leavened with knowledgeable advice tends to yield the best decisions. I do hope that you can help.

Thanks in advance.

 

[no soul]

MkIV by a long shot, but I hope you are willing to spend A LOT of time learning how to use it.

I think the Roadking is useless in a studio situation, because its designed so can switch sounds/options on the fly when playing live, which isnt needed for studio use. You just get a recto and reconfigure in between tracking.

I just dont like rack stuff much. The triaxis is a neat toy, but its not Mesas strong point by far.

 

[screamingdaisy]

- which has the widest range of tonal possibilities?

Road King, followed by the Triaxis, then the MkIV......though all three have a huge range of sounds.

- which will give me the most flexibility as my playing prowess develops in all the free time I'll now have?

Any of them. None of them are one trick ponies, so you'll be able to re-eq your sound as your tastes change.

- given that this for home use only, will each option work at reasonable volume? I have a THD Hotplate that I've used succesfully with combos in the past.

The Triaxis (depending on your power amp choice) and Road King have the lowest power options.

- what are the drawbacks / limitations of each option?

Road King
- None that I'm aware of. As long as you like the Rectifier sound, you should love this amp.

Triaxis
- While extremely flexible, it's intended for live use and isn't known for having the best studio sound. Most people prefer to use the original amps this unit is meant to simulate.

MkIV
- Shared mid and bass EQ on rhythm 1 & 2.
- Doesn't do modern high gain.

- what you would choose in my position and why!
For home use only? Either a Road King or MkIV, depending on your tastes.

 

[screamingdaisy]

I think the Roadking is useless in a studio situation, because its designed so can switch sounds/options on the fly when playing live, which isnt needed for studio use. You just get a recto and reconfigure in between tracking.

Bullshit.

And the Road King is capable of many sounds a standard Recto isn't.

 

[OneMoreAugust]

Bullshit.

And the Road King is capable of many sounds a standard Recto isn't.

I agree w/ daisy, the Road King is Mesa's self-proclaimed studio king. It has great flexability and is capable of many tube combinations. Just look at the back of that **** thing! It's like tube heaven. I think this will give you lots to play with in studio, as well as being able to reproduce it live. Which is, in my opinion, the most important part of recording...being able to duplicate it.
But I also found it hard to get that perfect sound without a lot of dialing in with the RK. There are a lot of adjustments, but that's good right?

As far as the others, I haven't much experience w/ them. But the RK will cover the types of music you like very well, it gets my vote.

 

[zekmoe]

I'd stay away from a MkIV. It's the antithesis of good tone IMHO, and certainly too finicky from gig to gig. Mesa fixed most of their tonal issues with the Road King for this multi channel amps. The Triaxis has it's own thing, and allows mix and match between power amps. Get a Boogie, or Marshall, or VHT power amp to tilt the overall sound one way or another.
Given this choice, a Road King.

Bob

 

[Timbre Wolf]

As an inveterate Boogie tweaker, and an owner of a Triaxis-20/20 rig that's tricked out to the gills with a variety of NOS tubes, here's my take: the Triaxis is incredibly versatile, as are other two M/B amps, but the versatility still resides within a context of the particular amp's circuitry. You can't escape the bounds of its character.

So buy any one of them that sounds best to you, but then save up for other small-wattage amps, such as those offered by Auble Systems ( http://www.auble-systems.com/main.shtml ), Electrosonic ( http://www.electrosonicamplifiers.com/index.htm ), Emery Sound ( http://www.emerysound.com/index.html ), etc. You'll find that the range of character will expand in ways you hadn't imagined. Couple those lower-wattage amps with a variety of speaker cabs, and you'll never want to sleep again, because you'll be in a manic rapture of tonal choices.

If you do go with the Triaxis/rackmount route, you can expand your tonal palette with NOS tubes (check out my replies in this thread: http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?t=749 ). Later, you could add other preamps, such as the CAE 3+SE ( http://www.customaudioelectronics.com/3_SE_preamp.htm ), or try out other power amps. By the way, the 20/20 is not a quiet amp, so don't think the neighbors are going to sleep through you recording that amp cranked when a song starts flowing through you at midnight.

Nice position to be in - sounds like you'll be having fun!

 

[tele_jas]

If I had my choice, I'd pick the Road King!! I love the Recto sounds (have a tremoverb and rectoverb).. Great cleans and of course the famous Rectifier sound and everything in between from blues to classic rock to even country and jazz (your two favorites). I hear it even has a channel voiced more towards the Marshall (British) tones as well. You can choose which tubes (EL34's or 6L6's) to use on any channel and how many tubes to use. The only drawback to this amp is if you're lugging it up and down the stairs, a combo weighs something like 120 lbs! My back and hands hurt just thinking about it.

Thats my $.02 worth

 

[IanT]

Many thanks for the replies and thoughts so far. I am in absorbing/learning/thinking mode, so keep'em coming...

 

[Michael]

Road King has my vote, if i had the $$$ i would buy one.

 

[TheRazMeister]

Ian, this may not be valid for what you want to accomplish, but all I know is that John Petrucci can afford any Mesa he wants and uses a LSC for the cleans (I'm assuming!) and Road Kings for the drive. When I buy an amp, the overdrive is where I start and work back to clean (although the clean MUST be high quality) with others on the board, they start with clean and work to overdrive....it's just personal preference. That being said, I'd probably get the RK.

Many thanks for the replies and thoughts so far. I am in absorbing/learning/thinking mode, so keep'em coming...

 

[Layne]

I'll put in a vote for the Road King! I've used these as part of a standard backline at several different venues and had great success. Mark IV's have typically been nightmares to work with in the past. Unless you have copious amounts of time and patience, I'd steer clear of them. As always, your mileage may vary and this is my honest opinion.

Sincerely,

 

[neantir]

I don't find mark IVs that difficult to deal with but I've owned a couple of marks and I know how they work.

If you asked me to choose between those three, though, I'd pick the road king. Its fucking cool ;> But I'll be its fucking heavy though.

 

[nocluejimbo]

I wouldn't say that any of the Mark series amps are more difficult to eq by any sense of the term. It just requires a different style and learning curve. Once you realize how the tone controls effect the sound differently than a "regular" amplifier, there is no issue. The Mark IV was easier for me to eq than my IIc because of the independence between the rhythm and lead tone stacks. It's a lot harder to make a totally shared amp sound good on both channels.

 

[no soul]

I think the Roadking is useless in a studio situation, because its designed so can switch sounds/options on the fly when playing live, which isnt needed for studio use. You just get a recto and reconfigure in between tracking.

Bullshit.

And the Road King is capable of many sounds a standard Recto isn't.

such as?

 

[no soul]

I think the Roadking is useless in a studio situation, because its designed so can switch sounds/options on the fly when playing live, which isnt needed for studio use. You just get a recto and reconfigure in between tracking.

Bullshit.

And the Road King is capable of many sounds a standard Recto isn't.

back it up then, cuz Im calling double bullshit on you

I hate to say it, but 90% of that thing is a gimmick.

So it has all these different power section options! Whoopdy fvcking do! Mesas make the vast majority of their sound through the front end! Anybody here ever heard of something called cascading gain?

Now make one with 4 completely different preamps, and then I might be impressed.

I hate to bad mouth a Mesa amp, but the RK is just a lot of same ****, different channel.

 

[IanT]

...for all the thoughts and comments on my question. After some thought and some trying out, I have today purchased a Road King combo.

Initial impressions are rather favourable. I've found a raft of good tones, mainly by working my way through the suggested settings in the manual.

Highlights?

I love the sound and the feel of the recto sounds on channel 4 modern. Spent a (sad!) hour doing the Linkin' Park / Evanescence thing this afternoon. Thump-thump--thump-thump...

E|---------------------------------||
B|---------------------------------||
G|---------------------------------||
D|2-2---2-2---2-2---2-2---------||
A|2-2---2-2---2-2---2-2------*3|| *Slight pinch
E|0-0---0-0---0-0---0-0---0-0--||



Also found some excellent sounds on channel 1 clean, especially with gain set for a little edginess...

Off to play some more.........!

 

[axwielding1]

I would think that the bank of tones from the RK would be huge.. For a versatile amp, That's the one...
ax. :twisted:

 

[nocluejimbo]

[I hate to bad mouth a Mesa amp, but the RK is just a lot of same sh!t, different channel.

It only is if you set it up that way.

 

[Michael]

Congradulations IanT, have fun with your new toy, remember don't lift it on your own LOL sounds like a heavy beast. Keep us posted on how you like your new addition.

Michael