Hello from a new member.

[Mesaiolo]

Hello there,

I'm Danilo from Italy.

Make a long story short...I just trade (yesterday) a Music Man JP and a VHT Sig: X (amazing head) for a Road King I and a Lone Star 2x12 50/100. Already been a Mesa guy in the past (Triaxis-2:90-Abacus-Recto2x12) I think I'm really happy at this moment with the new babies in the house.

The Lone Star really shine on the clean channel, and shine too on the drive channel (maybe I'd like a little more drive).

The Road King is simply a...PC! So many features that I think I'll spend a year to understand every nuance it's capable to. From a quick test I think it does have some nice clean tones, and the most aggressive distorted sound ever played ( and without buzz... just turn up the volume and don't turn all the way up the gain, at 2 'o clock it's just enough to kill people).

And finally a few questions :

1- If I set a channel with just 2 power tube (6L6 or EL34) and choose diode rectification on the back, a 5U4 led will still light together the diode led on the front panel. Is this normal or not? I thought just the diode led have to light. The same if I set a channel with 4 tubes and the diode rectification...the two 5U4 leds will light together the diode one.

2- The volume on first and second channels are quite low compared to the third and fourth channels. For example, if I run all the knobs at 12 ' o clock, the first and second channels will have a nice volume, but the third and fourth will have a stadium volume!!
The drop in volume is really noticeable, the two clean channel sound too low compared to the distorted ones. Do you think it's normal for a RK or not?

So...glad to be here on this forum, hope to have some reassuring answers, sure I'll write again as soon as I will play the Road King or the Lone.
In the meantime, I will read some posts on this beautiful forum.

Thank you all.

 

[mrd]

Welcome! The RK is indeed a very cool amp, and it will likely take you a year or two to fully understand what is capable of, and even then, she'll still surprise you from time to time. I've never played a Lone Star so I can't comment on that piece of gear.

However, as for your questions:

1. Yes, it's normal for both lights to come on even when it's just diode rectification. Not too sure why it does this, but it is normal.

2. A lot of things can affect volume difference between channels, especially on the RK. The major two factors, besides channel volume (which is obvious), are gain and amount of output tubes. The best way to match all the channels' volumes is to just set the channel volume to whatever you need to in order to make it match the other channels. If you're playing very loud, you'll likely need the head-room of extra output tubes in the clean channel to prevent early breakup, so that your cleans can match the power of your distorted signals. Then, from there, adjust the overall volume of everything with the master output knob on the left side of the amp. Keep in mind you have to have the loop enabled to do this. If it's disabled, the master output knob and solo output knob are disabled and ONLY the channel volume knobs will affect volume. You can still match volumes though. Just tweak gain/volume/output tube configuration until all 4 channels match up. Don't be afraid to have greatly varying settings. That's why this amp is so great.

 

[mrd]

Also, keep in mind that when you switch a mode within a channel, there is a big volume gap as well. Especially from the "middle" mode (Fat on Ch1 and 2 and Vintage on Ch3 and 4) to the "highest" mode (Tweed, Brit, Modern, Modern).

 

[Mesaiolo]

Thank for the reply mrd!!

Well...you are right. The volume on the four channel are ok, it was just me (the first day with a RK can be problematic)
About the leds too, the 5U4 led just lights when two or four power tube are selected, so it's normal (I think)
when you choose the diode, to still see the 5U4 leds on.

After the RK impact, I think there's something wrong with the Lone Star (maybe I have to post this on the LS page)
the switch Thick-Normal-Thicker it doesn't seems to affect the sound. Someone knows if this switch really change the sound
or it's all about little and subtle changes?

Thanks you all!