Road King Vs. Roadster

[clutch71]

OK, I'm still think w/ my existing 2X12 Recftifier extension cab that I want to try either a Road King or a Roadster combo. Thus creating a half stack without having to purchase a head and 4X12 cabinet and saving me $$$.

In reading about the Road King's progressive linkage it allows for selection of all or different power tube combinations per channel. If I select either 2 6L6's or 2 EL34's I'm assuming that either of these two combinations cut's your power down to a 50watt wife approving volume.

My questions...
1) Am I right on the wife approving volume?
2) Thoughts on the Road King vs. Roadster combo's?
3) What am I going to gain switching from the Single Rec Como to one of these combos? Asside from higer wattage of course.
4) Does either allow multiple loops or a loop stage between each channel?
Not much Knowledge of loops but trying to keep the tap dancing to a minimum.
4) Never owned an amp w/ EL34's. Benefits?

Thanks for your time!

 

[jbird]

1) Not sure it's "wife approving", but it sounds good!
2) No thoughts? One has progressive linkage, able to employ EL34's, nice!
3) Selectable Rectifiers, Selectable Effects Loops, 4 channels w/3 modes each, Tuner out, Selectable power.
4) EL34's are cool, little different flavor than the 6L6's! Think enhanced upper mids, tighter bottom!
Are the Roadking's features worth the extra $$$? That's for you to decide!

 

[fredster]

My questions...
1) Am I right on the wife approving volume?
2) Thoughts on the Road King vs. Roadster combo's?
3) What am I going to gain switching from the Single Rec Como to one of these combos? Asside from higer wattage of course.
4) Does either allow multiple loops or a loop stage between each channel?
Not much Knowledge of loops but trying to keep the tap dancing to a minimum.
4) Never owned an amp w/ EL34's. Benefits?

If your Rectoverb's 50watts is wife approved, so would the RK/RD combo. You will gain better cleans, Tweed and Brit mode, much better reverb, two more channels and different loop options depending on which. The RK has twop loops, the RD only one. Remember that the Rectoverb combo uses a C90 speaker , and the RK/RD have a v30 and that makes a big difference!

 

[clutch71]

Thanks guys I appreciate the comments. By "wife approving volume" the 50 watts saturates better at "bedroom" volume. That's all I meant there.

I guess I should have added this...Am I going to see an improvement to the Vintage and Modern Gain settings? I know I'll have the ability to up the wattage but 50 watts is already too much in the house, er well just for the wife, never heard the house complain.

My SRC does have a C90 in it and my extension cab is a 2x12 rectifier cab w/ V30's and I run all three speakers at once. With the Road King or the Roadster I'd look into the 2x12 combos. Would this give me a half stack effect?

Can anyone give me an example of a modern gain song that uses EL34's in a Mesa? Might be a dumb question but I'll try it. Are the EL34's more associated with Marshalls? Never found one I like.

The hardest thing is finding a place where I can sit down and try either one out. Only one Mesa dealer in town and they never seem to have a RK/RD in.

 

[parsky1]

I use EL34s on my high gain rythmn channel. They are a little tighter, so you don't get the standard recto sound that everyone is used to. No it isn't marshall sounding really, but it has a brit vibe to it.

 

[mrd]

Here, I recorded three clips for you just now on my RKII w/ 4x12 recto cab. Excuse the shoddy playing, I was just about to head up for dinner when I did them so I was in kind of a rush hehe.

Recorded with EMG 81s, channel 4 modern with the fuse on bold with an e609 and SM57 mic. Only pedal I used was my buddy's home-made tubescreamer (TS-808 replica).

EL34.mp3 and 6L6.mp3 should be self explanatory. Both.mp3 is all 6 power tubes running on the RKII which means 4x6L6 and 2xEL34. Running the channel in vintage mode more or less makes your presence knob less apparent, and it tones down the bass as well as a few other things. Makes for a better band/recording tone I find, but if you're just at home rocking out, then modern mode is the way to go

Here's the links, I played a familiar tune:

EL34s
6L6s
Both

Hope it helps. I realize el34 and 6l6 clips sound almost identical lol... but they are different 8)

 

[clutch71]

MRD Thanks for taking the time and recording those clips! I think the RK will offer what I'm looking for by offering multiple loops, 12 modes, different tube combinations, different power settings. I like the way my SRC saturates for the High Gain nicely, so it looks like I won't lose anything there. No I don't "play out" but I do have access to an auditorium where I can let me SRC roll a little bit, would be fun to have a little more wattage to push the tubes with.

Two quick things. Why push the amp with a distortion pedal? Recommended gain settings when doing this? I planned on taking this to the effects forum but since you brought it up...

Recording - to record and play back my tone I'm using a sony digital HD camcorder (the wifes starting to get tired of me taking up her GB space on the cameras hard drive) you mentioned "e609 and SM57 mic" haven't looked in to this stuff . Where is a good place to look into recording stuff? If I'm looking into a RK within the next 6 months to a year I need to stay cheap.

Thanks again

 

[mrd]

I don't always use the TS, but when I do it just helps to keep the sound tighter. Rectos are kinda low-end heavy... they track pretty **** well but the TS just gives it that extra touch. I would liken it to a compression pedal but with a nicer overall sound. I don't even use my compression anymore since my bud made this one heh. But yeah I don't even use the drive knob on it. Turn drive to 0, volume max, and fiddle the tone to liking, and it does its thing. It's definitely not an essential pedal, but it is a nice thing to have as an option for your sound.

As for gain... I usually run it anywhere from 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock at the most. The more gain you have in your signal, the less effect the bass/mid/treble/pres. knobs have which basically means your signal is dry. When I record I usually turn the gain down even more, near 10 o'clock.

For recording... not familiar with that Sony deal but my guess is that the microphone is designed to be extremely sensitive. And it would most likely be designed to accent vocal frequency ranges. Getting proper microphones designed for recording music and singing is pretty much a must if you wanna make decent sounding stuff. But that's another few hundred dollars for that stuff, cuz you'd also need a mixer, etc, etc. So maybe the camera mic wouldn't be a bad idea if you're on a bit of a budget.

I'm not sure where a good place to look into recording stuff is. I learned everything I know by just searching Google for tips and experimenting with different micing techniques myself and seeing what makes the best results.

 

[KoolAIDMan]

For recording guitar, I picked up a DigiDesign MBox-Mini from GC. They had them on sale for $199 at my local store. I went with this one, as ProTools-LE is an excellent audio editing package and the thing works great!


http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/product/Digidesign-Mbox-2-Mini-?full_sku=104132287

 

[clutch71]

I actually don't have a distortion pedal anymore. Cruising through this site I've seen various people mention distortion pedals w/ the Mesa's and my thoughts were "why?" Your explanation now makes since. I never found a compressor I liked, they always seemed to get a little squealy and noisey. Maybe I'll pick up a dist pedal. New Boss Metal Core sounds cool. I had the HM-2 for years and they are a dime a dozen.

The camera actually has a pretty good mic. I've been thinking of posting some stuff on youtube for folks to evaluate my tone. I want something that's hand held and I can download the tracks to a PC. I'll do some research.

Thanks again guys! I love this site. I don't know that many Mesa players so it's nice to have knowledge base to go on. When I post some clips please let me know what you think.

 

[Nick_cor]

Hey, have you thought about a dummy load? so you can crack the master and get teh most out of your tone but yet not be affected by earth shattering volumes