Proud new Roadster owner! some questions though... halp!1

[JimAnsell]

so i bought a roadster today brand new from GC.
i've spent about 5 hours tonight tweaking with 2 different cabs, and what not.
and so far i love this thing and i'm really glad i bought it.

anyway, i've found 2 quirks about this amp
im getting absolutly no reverb on channel 4.
its strong on the other channels though.
also, with the master beyond noon on channel two, when i turn the fx loop on, i get some bad tone suckage. it sucks the highs out bad. but only on that channel, and only with high master volume settings.

anyone else experiencing this?
i haven't tried swapping tubes or anything yet because the fx loop stuff doesn't effect anything but channel 2 when the master is up high, and the reverb is strong everywhere but channel 4.

also, what are some good tubes for this beast besides stock?
anyone tried kt77's?

 

[alex1fly]

i really like Mesa's NOS Semiens EL-34s. They added a lot of crunch, made the highs more pleasant, tightened the amp up (i have a roadster too), and just generally made the amp more authentic sounding and more responsive. the manual says el-34s make the amp thinner and brighter, but thats just in comparison... mine is still huge and crunchy and awesome.

 

[Skunknugget]

I also own the Roadster head. Mine is w/ the Recto 2x12. I actually regret selling my old cabs (an old beat up 4x12 and a rare Marshall diagonal 2x12) just to buy the Recto cab ($450).

The Recto cab is what the regular duals and triples are voiced for, so the only sound that is superior with this cab is channel 3/4 chunkage...which I must say sounds wonderful. I believe the official "Roadster Cabinets" has a smaller enclosure to reduce boominess. I'd say channel 1/2 sounded better with the old cabinets, and channels 3/4 sound better with the Recto cab.

As for your reverb issue, mine does not do that. It may be a flaw. Actually one of the few things that sold me on this amp was the fact that it had reverb, but once I played it at home I realized the reverb isn't terribly useful. On mine, when I put the master volume of any channel past 12:00, the reverb gets ultra-intense and abrasive, so I have found the reverb is only useful in small doses. No cave-like Brian Setzer reverb in this thing. So if I were you, I wouldn't sweat the reverb since its not great anyway.

As for your channel 2 tone suckage, I'm not sure if I've noticed this since I use channel 2 as my thrashy Ride the Lightning Marshall sound so the treble knob is always cranked. It actually adds a little bit of breakup when you have the treble at 3:00 and up. I actually have the FX loop enabled on all channels because it alters the EQ in a way that I like. Now, if I EQ mine just like yours, I'm sure I will hear the same thing. I was also working with a 10-band EQ in the fx loop and that did a good job of adding some mids back in.