my roadking II report

[goneloco]

I bought the original rk two years ago and its been worth every penny(tone wise,reliabilty) the only issue ive had-is that channel 1 doesnt seem to have enough headroom unless you stomp on the solo switch.
well two years later, just mainly out of curiosity, I bought the rk II last night.
i wasnt planning on it, but my local dealer had one sealed in a box(the only way ill buy expensive gear) and i just couldnt resist.....I got her home, opened the box and stacked it on top of my rk I and starred at both of them for over an hour,didnt even plug it in. didnt need to, i was throughly enjoying the view.
well eventually I passed out and called it a night,the next day i spent another hour or so gawking at my newfound debt.......until my attention was disrupted by my wife walkin by and yelling at me to plug the damm thing in and get over with it. wew!!!! off the hook with the wife "she accepts it"
well the rkII does not dissapoint. The reverb is much better and channel 1 is got a alot more balls,yet crystal clean! everything else pretty much sounds the same. well 20 minutes of messing around with it and im back to starring at it. I guess thats what I enjoy the most

 

[tele_jas]

So would you say it's well worth the upgrade from a series 1 or if it ain't broke don't fix it type of thing?

I'm pretty happy with my RK, but I've come to realize I like my old Fender Deluxe clean tone better but the RK is pretty close and does what I need it to. I don't need a real thick reverb, but I do rely on reverb as pretty much my only time based FX. I'm chompin' at the bit to get one but it'll put a bit of a strain on the ole pocket book if I do get one.

Do you have a way to record any clips of the cleans on the series one and series II to compare the two on the same settings (like the Tweed)? I'd also like to hear the Brit mode on ch 2 to hear how different it is than the series one. Man, I'd be forever grateful if you could some how do that.

 

[daveythomas]

Ill try to record some clips of my series II as well. I Had the series I and made some clips so Ill try to use the same setting.

On your Series II, is the reverb on the clean setting of CH1 super swirly compared to the tweed setting on CH1? My Series II tweed setting seems like the reverb is cut in half compared to the clean setting on the same channel. If you can, put the reverb on full and test the clean setting, then test with the tweed setting.

 

[MetalMatt]

I have a series II. Yes, CH1 clean is swimming with reverb. Like you said tweed has about half.

 

[daveythomas]

Good and Bad.

Good that mine is not the odd ball out.

Bad because I wanted just a hint more reverb out of the tweed setting. The tweed has an up front, pow, tight sound that I cant get out of the clean setting. I am currently preferring the sound of the tweed over the clean.

 

[snowman3000]

I think this is just GAS. Dual Recto kinda clean is ok...I mean I could live with it... Who the hell uses extensively the clean channel (having a roadking) by the way?! If you buy a Roadking I'm pretty sure you're into the rock-metal stuff..! It's just a little upgrade, nothing more than that! I really don't understand guys that are selling their RKI just to get the RKII. :roll:

 

[tele_jas]

I think this is just GAS. Dual Recto kinda clean is ok...I mean I could live with it... Who the hell uses extensively the clean channel (having a roadking) by the way?! If you buy a Roadking I'm pretty sure you're into the rock-metal stuff..! It's just a little upgrade, nothing more than that! I really don't understand guys that are selling their RKI just to get the RKII. :roll:

I actually use my cleans about 40% of the time! I needed an amp that could do SlipKnot one song, Creed the next, AC/DC the next and Keith Urban the next (Keith Urban is a country music musician). So, the clean channel in an amp is almost as important as the distrotion. But I don't know if I'm ready to trade up unless the cleans are ALOT better.... At least not right now, maybe if not now then in a year or two when the used ones start hitting the market, or Da-bay.

 

[CudBucket]

I think this is just GAS. Dual Recto kinda clean is ok...I mean I could live with it... Who the hell uses extensively the clean channel (having a roadking) by the way?! If you buy a Roadking I'm pretty sure you're into the rock-metal stuff..! It's just a little upgrade, nothing more than that! I really don't understand guys that are selling their RKI just to get the RKII. :roll:

I thought this way too but have been surprised by how many guitarists into lighter music use Road Kings. With the better cleans on the Series II, I'd expect that to continue.

 

[mloiaco]

I think this is just GAS. Dual Recto kinda clean is ok...I mean I could live with it... Who the hell uses extensively the clean channel (having a roadking) by the way?! If you buy a Roadking I'm pretty sure you're into the rock-metal stuff..! It's just a little upgrade, nothing more than that! I really don't understand guys that are selling their RKI just to get the RKII. :roll:

The clean channel (especially Tweed) and channel 2 (Brit) were the reason I bought my Road King. If I only used recto-distortion, I would have bought a dual or triple rectifier.

My playing style varies so much (From Nightwish to Dream Theater to SRV to Albert Lee) that the RK was the only amp that I could find that suited my needs.

 

[MetalMatt]

The clean channel (especially Tweed) and channel 2 (Brit) were the reason I bought my Road King. If I only used recto-distortion, I would have bought a dual or triple rectifier.

My playing style varies so much (From Nightwish to Dream Theater to SRV to Albert Lee) that the RK was the only amp that I could find that suited my needs.

YES! Nightwish! OOOOFFFFFFFFFF!
I really really like the clean channel. I needed an amp to "do it all". I'm a sucker for clean guitar work and bluesy solos. I also like really heavy rhythms and searing solos. The Road King naturally found its place, my playing style is kind of like Opeth but add old school death/black metal(Atheist, Death, Immortal, Bathory). Although my technique is no where near perfect the Road King fits me perfect.

I think this is just GAS. Dual Recto kinda clean is ok...I mean I could live with it... Who the hell uses extensively the clean channel (having a roadking) by the way?! If you buy a Roadking I'm pretty sure you're into the rock-metal stuff..! It's just a little upgrade, nothing more than that! I really don't understand guys that are selling their RKI just to get the RKII. :roll:

I think if people are selling their RK1 and getting a RK2 then Mesa fixed something. (From what I read) Take the Stiletto "stage 1" owners. They had to get that little mod and it made it sound better. Now mesa has the Stiletto "stage 2" and maybe they fixed what the Stiletto1 owners disliked about the amp. So the Stiletto1 owners might go out to try/buy the new stiletto2. That might be the case for the RK1 owners moving to RK2's. It just a thought.