Roadster owners - please give your honest opinion

[Geiri]

yeah, I tried one and I'm sure that it's something I just have to have :twisted: I also tried many Engls, Riveras etc, but it's not my pair of shoes 8)

I look for midrange heavy, dark sounding amp, so to my ears Roadster is just perfect. Engls are to bright, yeah Engls are tight as hell, but stiil to bright. Riveras are ok, but bass is beyond my control, also Rivera lacks midrange to my ears, at least frequencies I like.

I really heard a horror stories how Mesa unreliable is, so I ask you

If midrange dark gain is your thing then you should be looking into the mark series of the mesa family, and malmsteen and petrucci it's a no brainer mk4 all the way. I'm on my 5. boogie and no problems so far. And on reliability my mk4 is 18 years old and still sounds better than anything I've heard. I haven't played the V yet but I'm sure it's brilliant as well.

 

[JJones74]

Please all Roadster owners give honest opinion about Roadster reliability.

I'm reading this forum all the time and I really want to buy Roadster, it is awesome sounding amo, just like I always wanted. But reading all topics I see many things broken in all Rectifiers, many of them can be fixed by easy tube replace, but sometimes amp stopped responding without any sign of life
Is Roadster reliable?? It's almost top line/most expensive Mesa amp and I think it should be.
Living in Poland I have to pay almost 3000$ for Roadster and in that price I just can have all amps expensive in US like Diezel, ENGL etc, but those not my dream sound like Mesa, but when I have to pay such amount of money I need that amp to be reliable as much possible. Also I have read a lot about Rivera amps, where its reliablity is the best in market I thinki, I found none complains about that amp minus broken tubes.

So please share your thoughts
Thanks in advance

Well, I've had a very bad experience with my roadster (see my last thread)..
I received the v1-v3 tubes, installed them.... And no luck, same problem..
Call the dealer and told him that didn't fix it..
He then sent out new power tubes and rectifier tubes...
Installed them.... No luck, same problem..
Called the dealer again to tell him the amp is coming back to him and he can deal with it..
He received the amp and trouble-shot it too..
His conclusion DOA!!!
He proclaimed he has never had a bad MESA amp in over 20+ yrs..
Which could be true, but I got the bad egg.. So, after 2 weeks of problems, I am again ampless..
Maybe my case is just a fluke, but who knows..

Jason

 

[Apophis]

thanks for info.
and that's my main concern - cause as I see we have here two types of problems - tube/fuse related - easy fix and that bad ones - completely bad amp with problems that no one knows solutions for

 

[Fixxxer]

Please all Roadster owners give honest opinion about Roadster reliability.

I'm reading this forum all the time and I really want to buy Roadster, it is awesome sounding amo, just like I always wanted. But reading all topics I see many things broken in all Rectifiers, many of them can be fixed by easy tube replace, but sometimes amp stopped responding without any sign of life
Is Roadster reliable?? It's almost top line/most expensive Mesa amp and I think it should be.
Living in Poland I have to pay almost 3000$ for Roadster and in that price I just can have all amps expensive in US like Diezel, ENGL etc, but those not my dream sound like Mesa, but when I have to pay such amount of money I need that amp to be reliable as much possible. Also I have read a lot about Rivera amps, where its reliablity is the best in market I thinki, I found none complains about that amp minus broken tubes.

So please share your thoughts
Thanks in advance

I have not had any issues, and I have owned it since 2007. Used pedals, rack gear, etc. killer.

I just wish it had 2 8 ohm jacks.

I would reccomend it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hands down!

:twisted:

 

[Apophis]

Thanks for info

 

[kryho]

Hi, another Roadster user from Poland
Hello everybody! New one here, with pleasure.
Now, I've bought mine in winter used and had some problems with poping while changing channels, reverb on\off, loop on\off. I don't know if it's a common problem, but, for example my friend from London has no problems at all. I don't play it very often and loud since I have no band now, I play it ocassionally on some gigs or jams...
Great sound, all channels! 8)

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

Hi, another Roadster user from Poland
Hello everybody! New one here, with pleasure.
Now, I've bought mine in winter used and had some problems with poping while changing channels, reverb on\off, loop on\off. I don't know if it's a common problem, but, for example my friend from London has no problems at all. I don't play it very often and loud since I have no band now, I play it ocassionally on some gigs or jams...
Great sound, all channels! 8)

When you have the Roadster turned on and in standby mode, just engage and disengaged all the buttons on the footswitch. When you turn off standby, the popping should go away. If it doesn't, it could be the preamp valves...

 

[Fotis]

I own a Roadster since May 2007. Great amp, sounds killer for a variety of sounds. I have had a few tube issues and just once the known problem of volume swells with the loop engaged and no cables in the send/return jacks. Never happened again, though.

A great amp overall! Just play it loud!

 

[Metaltastic]

When you have the Roadster turned on and in standby mode, just engage and disengaged all the buttons on the footswitch. When you turn off standby, the popping should go away. If it doesn't, it could be the preamp valves...

Interesting, can you elaborate? You mean just step on each button twice? (on and then off)

 

[Silverwulf]

I've owned 65+ Mesa amps over the last 12 years and never had a single problem with any of them.

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

When you have the Roadster turned on and in standby mode, just engage and disengaged all the buttons on the footswitch. When you turn off standby, the popping should go away. If it doesn't, it could be the preamp valves...

Interesting, can you elaborate? You mean just step on each button twice? (on and then off)

Just change channels and turn on and off the other switches pretty much...

 

[MesaGod666]

There is not a thing I don't like about the Roadster. Buy it TODAY!

 

[kryho]

Hi, another Roadster user from Poland
Hello everybody! New one here, with pleasure.
Now, I've bought mine in winter used and had some problems with poping while changing channels, reverb on\off, loop on\off. I don't know if it's a common problem, but, for example my friend from London has no problems at all. I don't play it very often and loud since I have no band now, I play it ocassionally on some gigs or jams...
Great sound, all channels! 8)

When you have the Roadster turned on and in standby mode, just engage and disengaged all the buttons on the footswitch. When you turn off standby, the popping should go away. If it doesn't, it could be the preamp valves...

So I did, I'd heard about it before but the popping seems quieter, not disappear :?
I see two disadventages: Brit mode ch2 is not british enough, I like it more on H&K Triamp, and ch3 and 4 to my ear are the same - there's only amount of gain that's all. But...I know I can make them different changing the mode or diode\rectifier...
by the way - I don't use footswitch anymore, one brand made me midi interface since I use rack system along 8)

 

[Melodyman]

So I did, I'd heard about it before but the popping seems quieter, not disappear :?
I see two disadventages: Brit mode ch2 is not british enough, I like it more on H&K Triamp, and ch3 and 4 to my ear are the same - there's only amount of gain that's all. But...I know I can make them different changing the mode or diode\rectifier...
by the way - I don't use footswitch anymore, one brand made me midi interface since I use rack system along 8)

On mine switching to channel 3 it will always have a small pop but it is minimized. At loud band volume I can't even hear it, but at bedroom volumes I can.

To me the Roadster is really a 2 channel amp with two clean and two gain channels duplicated with a few minor differences.

It's not like a true 4 channel amp in the sense that each channel is drastically different.

I do make use of all 4 channels though and like having the options. Channel 2 brit mode was tricky at first but I just (near)dimed the EQ knobs to 3:00 and then set presence and volume to taste and it was useable and quite good to me, even better with a boost if you need more gain/sustain.

If the brit mode had just a bit more gain in it, it would be even better imo.

 

[thejay]

I would agree that it's more of a 2 clean channel 2 distorted channel amp although that is exactly what I wanted. I use the FAT mode on 1, BRIT on 2, VINTAGE on 3 and MODERN on 4 - couldn't be happier. I could always use a real sparkling clean channel too though but why not just buy another amp FAT works great for me though, I can always adjust in the studio. The Roadster has tons of tone and options; its wonderful. Takes a bit of time to dial in what you are looking for but the journey is fun.

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

Ugghhh, the Triamp is like dry humping. The mids are hell dry as. I prefer the Brit mode on the Roadster. It sounds a lot like a Marshall Vintage Modern, only fatter and better sounding... :mrgreen:

 

[kryho]

Ugghhh, the Triamp is like dry humping. The mids are hell dry as. I prefer the Brit mode on the Roadster. It sounds a lot like a Marshall Vintage Modern, only fatter and better sounding... :mrgreen:

if only Triamp 2A \marshall bluesbreaker like\ had more bass... it lacks and that's pain in the back. Besides that, it's great amp...except for its weight :shock:

 

[Bobby_E]

I've had the Roadster head since early 08, and I take it touring pretty routinely, and I've never had any isssues, not even tube issues.

Though, I do keep mine in a pretty heavy duty ATA case, but it gets moved around, plugged and unplugged, on and off, and run for hours at a time pretty extensively.

No problems.

Again, no one is really going to make a thread, "Man, my Roadster works perfectly every day! How about you guys?"

You are just going to see, "Roadster problem, tube problem, popping issue" etc. on here.

 

[thejay]

Again, no one is really going to make a thread, "Man, my Roadster works perfectly every day! How about you guys?"

You are just going to see, "Roadster problem, tube problem, popping issue" etc. on here.

well said

 

[Apophis]

yes, that's true, but most topics are always some kind of "problems" or issues

But I can only thank you all people for you opinions, cause as I see Roadster is a great amp :twisted: