Road King sounds bad!!! Help!!

[Fwank]

Hi all. I have some questions regarding the sound of my RK. First of all, here are my settings:
(Basically just like JP's from the pics I have seen)
CH3
Master 11:00
gain 3:00
treb 12:00
mid 10:00
bass 10:00
pres 7:00 (off)
4 6L6
recto tracking
output 9:00
vintage mode
Ch 4 looks the same except it is on modern mode. All of this is running thru a standard recto 4x12 and a recto 2x12
My thing is, the distortion seems to sound buzzy/fuzzy and a little muddy. Turning the gain down just seems to make it lose dynamics but not much fuzz. I am not sure if this is typical or if I have an issue with the head. I also own a Mark IV and while I realize they have different tones, the dist. on the Mark is much "smoother" and not buzzy or muddy at all. If anybody that owns one could chime in here, that would be great. Thank you

 

[Fwank]

Well, I just got done messing with this thing for an hour, and I am convinced that there has to be something wrong with it(Road King) because it just sounds bad. To give you an example, it sounds just like I am playing thru a serverely blown speaker (its that furry/fuzzy), and, no, none of my speakers are blown I just refuse to believe it is supposed o sound this way. Any suggestions? I may just need to call Mesa.

Thanks!

P.S. I saw a thread where somebody had and issue with their foot controller, so I disconnected it and it mad no difference

 

[screamingdaisy]

When my power tubes wear out the gain sounds all fuzzy, the clean sucks, and no matter how far I turn the bass down it sounds like a muddy wet fart.

I retube with Svetlana's (Mesa 454), sounds killer.

 

[Fwank]

I just retubed with Mesa tubes to see if that was the issue, but it didnt help. Crap. Well, I really think there is a problem now. I noticed if I set ch.3 and 4 exactly the same, (both on vintage and master volume the same, pres. all the way down) that channel 4 is has a substancial volume increase over ch.3
I know this is normal to go from vintage to modern, but they are both set to vintage(for the sake of trouble-shooting). It may be time to call Mesa and see if they have any ideas. Thanks for the help guys! :x

 

[overture2005]

..... cannot help you. my roadking sounds awesome IMO, even better than my dual recto.

 

[mloiaco]

Are you sure that the Speaker A/B switches are all correctly set to mach your actual speaker configuration. Also, are the ohms matched up correctly?

 

[Fwank]

Are you sure that the Speaker A/B switches are all correctly set to mach your actual speaker configuration. Also, are the ohms matched up correctly?

Yes and yes

 

[LOOPJUNKIE]

Ok so i dont want to be anoying or anything but i am a fellow road king owner, i tried the setings from jp the ones on his site they float around there, anyways i think that they sound like ***. (just my openion) I dont know if he has a very diiferant sounding guitar or what but they sounded muddy and just all together sucked. I personally have had real good progress adapting other deul recto settings with experementing with the extra controls, also start from a baseline one of the manual settings and start tweeking, the road king sounds awsome you just need to get it dialed in.

 

[overture2005]

To try some different pups, you will be impressed. I used EBMM JP with the roadking and got the settings from JP before, sounded like *** you metioned. I just swapp the stock pups with the DiMarzio Breed, sounds awesome. Right now my roadking can beat my dual recto like a piece of cake, coz the roadking has more dynamic, low end and headroom and the perfect high gain~ especially the vintage mode, holy ****!

 

[LOOPJUNKIE]

I have lindy frailin pafs in my 92 les paul clasic and they sound freekin sweet but not with the JP settings :lol:

 

[jbird]

I would agree, those settings just look like they would'nt sound very good! Too much gain causes buzziness! All of your tone controls seem too low also, make them a little more interactive, say everything up a couple notches. :idea:

 

[mloiaco]

With highest respect to JP, +1 to JP's RMA settings sounding like crap. However, from what I understand, the acoustics in the room which he was playing in were quite strange. Hence, the strange settings.

Anyway, here are some of my personal Road King sounds. I'll post the exact settings in the DB by the end of this week, but for now, try these:

1) Channel 3 + Spongy + Tube Rectification + 2xEL34s + Closed Back Cabinet = pure Brown Sound Bliss. Presence is around 9:00. Set EQ to taste starting with all three controls at 12:00. Gain is between 11:30 and 2:00.
2) Channel 1/Tweed/Spongy/Open Speaker Cabinet/Low Gain/High Presence/Tube Rectification/2x6L6 = the best clean that I've ever heard...even better than the Lone Star IMHO.
3) Channel 4/Bold/2xEL34 (Pentode)+2x6L6/Mids at 5:00/Treble at 2:30/Presence at 12:00/Bass at 9:30/Gain at 2:30/Modern Mode/Closed Back Cabinet = (Dare I say) Comes quite close to the Mark IV / Mark IIc+ Metallica high gain focus.

These are with a Road King 4x12 Cab and an Ernie Ball John Petrucci Music Man 6 string (Neck pup is similar to DiMarzio Air Norton, and Bridge is similar to Steve's Special).

 

[NoGlassNoClass]

I just retubed with Mesa tubes to see if that was the issue, but it didnt help. Crap. Well, I really think there is a problem now.

When you changed power tubes did you also change the phase inverter (V5) (V6 in the RK i think...at any rate its the last one)? Throw a fresh 12ax7 in there and see what that does.