Road King II vs Dual Rectifier

[Tekneek]

So I just recently purchased a Road King II, after joining a new band. I read that you can get the exact circuit of a Dual Rectifier on Channel 4 with modern mode. I set it to Ch 4, tried both diode and tube rectifier, and used 4 6L6 mode. The other guitarist thought it didn't sound as "nasty" as other Dual Rec's he's heard...so I decided to do some research. The Dual Rec has, I believe, 5 12ax7's and 4 6L6's. The Road King II has a total of 6 12ax7's and can do 4 6L6's. I read the entire manual, and it says that if you bypass the effects loop system, it takes two 12ax7's completely out of the circuit....I talked to Mesa and was told that one of them is for reverb. Is the other one for the effects loop? Or is it running all the time? Does it have anything to do with the solo function? Basically, my question is: are there particular settings on Channel 4 that will *exactly* match the Dual Rectifier, or are there subtle differences? Sorry for being long-winded, and thanks for any help...

 

[aly44]

Hey:

I think you'll notice that the Road King is a lot darker and smoother than the Dual Recs. I have a Roadster, which is essentially the Road King, minus the Progressive Linkage and I noticed the same thing. I use all EL 34s in my Roadster now, but I noticed that the manual settings (for both the Roadster and Road King) give you a good rock sound, minus a lot of the notorious buzz and grind. What I have done is played around considerably with the presence and treble -- if you start there, you can really open the amp up and give channel 4 a little more brightness and cut. Then you can try playing around with your mids and bass. With the gain, I keep it somewhere in the sensible ranges -- if I do use it around 3 o'clock, then I tend to do the unthinkable and roll the bass up to 3 o'clock as well. I swear the grind sounds a lot better this way. Otherwise, with that much gain things have a tendency to get a bit muddy.

Also, while I love modern mode, lately I find vintage mode much more classic Dual Rec. Modern mode adds a little too much bass response and presence that things also get too compressed and loose.

Good luck.

 

[b0nkersx]

So I just recently purchased a Road King II, after joining a new band. I read that you can get the exact circuit of a Dual Rectifier on Channel 4 with modern mode. I set it to Ch 4, tried both diode and tube rectifier, and used 4 6L6 mode. The other guitarist thought it didn't sound as "nasty" as other Dual Rec's he's heard...so I decided to do some research. The Dual Rec has, I believe, 5 12ax7's and 4 6L6's. The Road King II has a total of 6 12ax7's and can do 4 6L6's. I read the entire manual, and it says that if you bypass the effects loop system, it takes two 12ax7's completely out of the circuit....I talked to Mesa and was told that one of them is for reverb. Is the other one for the effects loop? Or is it running all the time? Does it have anything to do with the solo function? Basically, my question is: are there particular settings on Channel 4 that will *exactly* match the Dual Rectifier, or are there subtle differences? Sorry for being long-winded, and thanks for any help...

Bypassing the loop doesn't remove the reverb tube. In fact, the reverb tube is the only tube difference between the Dual and RKII. In any case, you should be able to dial in a sick metal tone.

My favorite way to run the RKII on channel 4 modern is like this:
Bold, diode, all 6 tubes, loop hard bypassed on the back
Settings (clockface, 7-5 o'clock)
Gain: 1-2
Treble: 1-2
Mid: 3-5
Bass: 11-2
Presence: 9-12
Master wherever it works. Needs to be at least 9-10 o'clock to sound great though. I play an EMG 81/85 loaded guitar.

Really unorthodox settings. They aren't exact (obviously). They vary between the range depending on what guitar I'm using/what song I'm playing/who I'm playing with/the room I'm in.