colinboy said:
Hey guys,
im new to these boards also and am from ireland.mesa boogie amps are much more expensive in europe compared to the usa but i was considering getting a roadking with head and cabnet.im looking for alot of different tones from an amp and think this will cover my bases.
would you guys highly recommend one thos of you who actually own one as its alot of money to buy one like i said so i want to be 100% sure before i make a decision.
cheers,
Colin
Hi there !
I received my RKII 2 weeks ago and I'm still experimenting !
Yes, it is worth it, in my opinion, though it's so expensive in Europe (I live in Luxembourg)
Personnaly, the features I like best are :
- Cleans (Tweed and Brit voices)
- Power section (6L6/EL34 choices)
- Cabinet switching
Vintage and raw voices in channel 3 / 4 are nice to have.
I don't intend to use "modern" voice...
I think this amp is a very good way of learning things about gear in general. You can experiment the way a change of a single component may affect the tone.
For example, experimenting with speakers is easy and then you realize how the effect of speaker / baffle on the sound is overlooked when choosing gear.
If you match preamp, power amp and speakers you actually get close to classic tones (fender / marshall dichotomy)
The tweed and brit voices allow you to dial "almost clean" tones and you can add pedals in front in a classic way : it works very well (I tried SD9, fulldrive II and RC booster). It responds well to guitar's volume pot changes.
The features I'm not sure to use are : RECTIFIER TUBES !
Well, it may seem a bit odd but I'm used to a dynamic tone with attack ! I think that the dyamic is too compromised with rectifier tubes...
The spongy feature is cool because it seems to help playing at "bedroom" level (a level at which this amp is not intended to be played !!!)
Let's summarize :
Pros :
Classic tones available (even if purists won't agree)
Not so complicated to use in my opinion
Unique feature of mixing and matching preamp / amp / speaker
Unique amount of features in a single package (not digital modeling)
Metal-ready (I don't play this music but others say it's okay)
Good and usable reverb and fx loops
Very good for people wanting very different tones and ready to experiment. Pros, Semi-pros or rich persons !
Cons :
Complicated for some (there are so many features) and it makes you experiment instead of playing
Maybe "vintage" voice does not make the gain voice like dream theater fans would like it does (not Mark-IV-ish)
Tones are nice as-is but require sometimes to have pedals in front if you don't want to compromise cleans or to make the gain channels more liquid (if you're of that kind...)
Instead of buying the RK 4x12 cab which is a fantastic choice, I prefered a Roadster 2x12 and I've added another 2x12 with weber speakers to make a more fenderish tone with the clean 1. I prefered this solution because it makes 2 cabs at about 22 kg more portable then a single 50 kg cab.
I hope it will help...
Got my Dual Rectifier not too long ago and I'm still infatuated with this amp! I don't see the honeymoon being over for a long time. And to think I almost purchased a Line 6. :shock:
