Rivera K-TRE.........

[J.R.B.]

Anybody try one?
Opinions?

 

[prs1999]

Yesterday I went down to a local shop. They had one I was demo'ing pedals with. That amps a monster of choice tones and just total in your face volume. Lead channel was sweet,volume just barely cracked open at 1.5 to 2 with the gain at 4 and the amp was screaming LOUD. Not as compressed sounding as my Trident and a totally different gain structure. I liked it ! High and low inputs will calm this down but man,to get it to reall bark out of the EL34's you have to crank it a bit. Definatly not a practice bedroom amp.
Cleans were so-so(heard better) good...little less in your face with the volume as the lead channel,but able to blend to an extent ,just pump the volume more.
I wasnt there to look at amps,but that was the closest they had to a kick *** EL34 amp for me to try out pedals with.
I'm not even sure what the price was.

 

[J.R.B.]

Thanks for the reply. Great info!

I've read it's a 2 channel but I'm wondering if channel 1 is clean only or can you dirty it up a bit for rythym?
Also, how responsive was the EQ?

 

[prs1999]

Yes,it is a 2 channel amp,with a boost button ,channel switching & FX loop ingage on the floor pedal if I remember right(it wasnt hooked up).
The clean channel didnt seem to have any balls...aka distortion,but then again I wasnt dicking with the knobs that much. I know it had pull shift this,pull shift that,,,very typical Rivera . I had a TBR-I head and all the interactive knobs,bells & whistles all had a purpose and just not window dressing.
This head has to be the most gain from a Rivera I ever heard. I never liked Knuckleheads but this one was a real kick to play. Notes(in a chord) had alot of harmonics and single notes sustained GREAT.
Tone section seems to be touchy,and able to dial in some good Strat tones.
A guy walked in after I was done using it, and pulled off some real nice Hendrix,Robin Trower licks with it using a Tom Anderson Strat. But he was there (as I was) to try out a few Fulltone pedals as well.
The clean channel with a Fulltone Soul Bender in front of it did Hendrix justice & when he switched to a OCD pedal,went into channel #2, he nailed Trower.
Just goes to show you that even a great amp can use some help.
All in all,running the amp dry,it had **** nice tone and enough distortion to rip paint off the walls. REMEMBER though,it's NOT over saturated metal tone distortion(very thick,fat and tons of balls)but I can see it putting a smile on alot of faces. VERY different distortion compaired to my Trident or my 3ch.D.R.
I think it could be a keeper.