explain the Road King history, and debut of the Roadster

[user 16490]

I'm definitely no Mesa historian, so I have several questions about the time line of the above mentioned amps.

When did the original Road King debut?
When did the RK II replace it?
Did it introduce any new features, or just refine/fix issues with the original? (and what were those issues?)
When did the Roadster debut? (around the same times as the RK II ?)

I know I'm not getting a Road King, but I'm giving the Roadster very serious consideration. My only concern is that I don't want to get one and then a year later have the Roadster II show up, so that's why I'm trying to understand the time line of all the amps. I know the Roadster is viewed as a slightly scaled down version of the RK, so I was thinking that if it was introduced around the same time as the RK II that it would already have whatever refinements/improvements/fixes the RK II had.

Can anyone set me straight on all of this?

 

[user 16490]

Bump-ola

 

[Elpelotero]

boogiebabies knows a bit about the first 2 road king revisions. Roadster was introduced to offer the road king package with less buttons and switches.

 

[Boogiebabies]

IIRC, the RK1 came out in 2000 or late 2001. It had four versions. The RKII version 1 came out in mid 2006 and had one production run
before being replaced by the RK II version 2 in early 2007. I had all three. The Roadster came out in 2006.

There was never any real issue with the Road King's except the first 500 would arc from the plate voltage to a heater trace,
but this had only happened on a few amps. Mesa did a service bulletin/recall to modify them. The only other real issue was that some
of the channel switching systems would lock up when they got hot. RK's past 1800 and the RKII do not have this issue.
I've never had the need to even look at a Roadster, so I'm no help there but I am almost certain that the circuit board has been
revised for better reliability and a few tone tweaks.

 

[Bobby_E]

Roadsters came out in 2006, and haven't been updated since, and I don't think they will. The only "problem" they might issued with a Roadster V. II if they did make one, would be a solution to the lag switch delay without having the reverb button on. Other than that, you'd be safe to go ahead and get a Roadster.

The differences are significant yet slight between a Roadking II and Roadster. The Roadking II allows for progressive linkage of power tubes, meaning you could run 2 EL 34's and 2 6L6's at the same time. It also has two effects loops and more speaker outputs. Subtract those features, and you have the Roadster.

 

[MesaGod666]

There is no way that I would ever actually need a RoadKing. My Roadster is the BEST AMP ever made.

 

[user 16490]

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it very much. Even though I won't be getting a Road King, I'm curious about the different versions that were mentioned above. Other than arcing issue that Mesa did a recall to fix, why were there four versions of the RK I and two of the RK II ???

 

[Elpelotero]

In one of the versions they installed "Lonestar cleans" into the amp.

 

[Boogiebabies]

Constant changes, bug fixes and circuit revisions.

 

[user 16490]

Thanks. Have there been any version changes to the Roadster? I don't mean 'series'; I know there's no Roadster II, but have there been any of the smaller internal revisions like the Road King has had?

How would you know which version of Road King you had.... by serial number?