Road King: First Impressions

[123thefirst]

I picked up my Road King II with the 4x12 Road King cabinet today and spent nearly the whole day test driving it. Like most everyone else I was pretty taken with channels 1 & 2. Unlike the Recto Pre (and RK 1 I assume) I can dime the gain and treble in Clean mode and get no real breakup, just a really nice hot, diffused sound that's irresistable to play. But actually I like the Clean mode on the Recto Pre just as much.

I think my favorite mode so far is Tweed. Dynamics are fantastic! There's such a great response to various pick and string articulations that it's very inspirational. Brit in comparison seems squashed and has very hyped highs. So much so that I heard various clinking glass sounds from my Telecaster and just couldn't dial them out. Switching to the open back cabinet helped a lot to tame the Brit voice though.

The open back cabinet feels very mellow in comparison to the V30's in the closed chamber. My first inclination is to find new speakers to replace the C90's that punch out some serious highs. Then I A/B the RK with my Fender and the C90's were very similar sounding to the Fender speaker/cabinet. But compared to the V30's the mellowness made it seem that only the Clean and Brit modes wanted to be played thru the open back chamber.

To get reasonably close to the Fender clean (with the controls nearly dimed) in Clean mode I used these settings:

Master: full
Presence: 2:30
Bass: none
Mid: 8:30
Treble: 1:30
Gain: 8:30

Set that way the Mesa was more even sounding but clearly lacked some special magic the Fender had. The Mesa reverb too pailed dramatically next to the exquisite Fender reverb. Mesa's has too long of a decay and starts feeding back on itself if you set the level too high. But even the Tweed and Brit mode could be set to have audible reverb.

EL34's? Yes, a success in my opinion! They took away a certain determined milkiness that the 6L6's had and smeared the sound and attack in a way that makes high gain soloing a lot more conducive and malleable to ways you'd like to explore on the fretboard IMO.

More to come no doubt. Miking and recording the cabinet should create a bunch of new impressions.

 

[Koreldyre]

Brit is an interesting mode - its character changes pretty drastically depending on where the gain is at. Turn the gain down more and you might just find what you're looking for. It has one of the most beautiful Marshall-ish "shimmer" tones I've ever found, big and shiny without saturation. The weird part is it nails the cranked JTM sound while being dead silent.

It's become my next favorite sound to the ultra-saturated madness on Ch 3 and Ch 4.

The only complaint I have about the RK is I wish I had 8 channels to store all the "keeper" sounds (hint hint Triaxis II)

 

[123thefirst]

Okay, I corrected some major problems with my setup. One was that the plugs on the new uni-directional cable were installed backwards which made everything tiny and very, very dull sounding. What I have to say now is Oh My God what incredible sounds! This is the amp I've been dreaming about all my life!

Vintage in both 6L6 and EL34 flavors turned little mild-mannered me into a raging beast! I quickly zeroed in and nailed the tone on "Cliffs of Dover". All manner of palm mutes and pick attack sound so full, tight and powerful. Suddenly I can hear, imagine and implement solos and lines like never before. Improvising feels effortless. Notes sustain and ring like there's no tomorrow. No problem at all with feedback at high volumes. I'm in guitar heaven!

Yes, the Brit mode is now very magical. Reverb on all channels and in all modes sounds perfect. More subtle than Fender reverb but more luxurious somehow too.

The way to get 8 channels is to buy 2 RK heads! One for each chamber in the cabinet. Mixing Brit mode on one side with Vintage on the other for instance would be a sound beyond any other.

 

[rizboog]

congrats on your new road king. I have the same set up and have discovered lead voices on this thing are monstrous and quite beautiful. The following tip will also be posted seperately so others can learn . USE THE BEST CABLES IN THE WORLD AND YOU WILL BE SHOCKED HOW MORE INCREDIBLE YOUR ROADKING WILL SOUND. i JUST BOUGHT TWO MONSTER SP1000, 3 FOOT SPEAKER CABLES and the Mogami platinum guitar cable. Holy crap, read the warning on the Mogami, it goes like this:
warning, you may have to adjust your gain and treble due to the dynamic response. Whoa!!!!!!! this thing sounds like a Boogie Mark series if I want it to, yes Virginia it can be done!! enjoy, you have one of the best amplifier setups in the world, and as it breaks in and gets warmed up, forget it, it cant be touched, youll see. it just sounds better and better!!

 

[simonich]

Okay, I corrected some major problems with my setup. One was that the plugs on the new uni-directional cable were installed backwards which made everything tiny and very, very dull sounding. What I have to say now is Oh My God what incredible sounds! This is the amp I've been dreaming about all my life!

Uni-directional cable? :shock:

 

[123thefirst]

Uni-directional cable? :shock:

Yup, a fairly recent development that's been known in erudite audiophile circles for a number of years...

I can't describe the technology myself and haven't really taken the time to study it but it seems to have something to do with the alignment of the crystaline metal molecules. I don't know if this is the be all/end all configuration of cables, but there is a *very* pronounced difference in the sound if you swap the cable end for end.

For what it's worth, though the high end cable gives you a radically more powerful signal, sensitivity and tone (like plugging into a boost pedal), the mid-range cables (Monster Jazz and Rock) I had been using sound sweeter and more guitaristic in general. More lovable, but that may change in time...

 

[simonich]

Yup, a fairly recent development that's been known in erudite audiophile circles for a number of years...

I can't describe the technology myself and haven't really taken the time to study it but it seems to have something to do with the alignment of the crystaline metal molecules. I don't know if this is the be all/end all configuration of cables, but there is a *very* pronounced difference in the sound if you swap the cable end for end.

Yes, I'm familiar with some of the physical advantages of the better instrument cables out there. I've experimented myself. But even on the extreme high-end stuff costing $8000 for a 2m cable I haven't heard of anything unidirectional. I'd like to brush up.

Do you have a link to a manufacturer that's currently selling these that I can go check out?

 

[123thefirst]

Usually manufacturers don't advertise about directionality, you often find that out after you buy the cables if the dealer doesn't mention it. The Monster Jazz cables are directional as are some Audioquest and Van Den Hul models. I'm sure there are many, many more.

Here's a general FAQ:
http://www.vandenhul.com/artpap/cable_faq.htm#3-12

 

[simonich]

Usually manufacturers don't advertise about directionality, you often find that out after you buy the cables if the dealer doesn't mention it. The Monster Jazz cables are directional as are some Audioquest and Van Den Hul models. I'm sure there are many, many more.

Here's a general FAQ:
http://www.vandenhul.com/artpap/cable_faq.htm#3-12

Thanks for the pointer!

Ok, reading that Q&A, sure I can see where the ground source could make a difference. I think that's different that a cable designed to be unidirectional though. All it's saying is that either due to (a) oddities with the connector contacts and/or (b) the ground source, the sound could be different depending on which why the cable is plugged in.

So I guess I'm differentiating between a cable designed for use in one direction only, which I would term unidirectional, and a cable that sounds different when reversed. The latter is certainly "directional", but not by design. If the reason for directionality is (a), i'd argue it's just a bad cable. I suspect this is why mfgs don't advertise about directionality. It's a bad thing!

If it's (b) then I think it's reasonable that it would sound different, and I suspect it would sound better if the shield is grounded at the amp jack.

 

[123thefirst]

That link doesn't discuss the most interesting third possibility of having an asymmetrical molecular geometry within the leads. Electrodynamics come into play there. But that's very difficult to study and the present state of technology is probably not mature. It seems best to choose purely on the basis of the sound and feeling as described by independent reviewers and be blissfully ignorant, but appreciative of the technology.

A bigger, more practical question I think is how high end do you want to go? As I've found out, it doesn't work to mix mid end cables with high end cables. The entire system should be matched or you'll get very unpredictable and inconsistent results, usually worse than the lower end of the match.