Roadster User Give Me Your Throughts !!

[woody]

Hi
I looking to upgrade from the F-50 amp to the Roadster, I was thinking about getting the 2x12 with closed back. My local store gave me a price of $2199. I play classic rock 70’s, 80’s 90’s with some rockabilly county mixed in, Roadster users is the amp worth the extra cash or would the stiletto ace be a better choice? Please give me your thoughts on this and the roadster amp

Thanks

 

[LnTh]

I have a Roadster head. Want my opinion?
Roadster and Road King II are the best rectifiers ever made.

8)

I owned lots of Mesas till today. MKIV, Roadster and Triaxis are my favorites.

I posted this a while back on John Petrucci forums. It's a comparision between my favorites. Take it for what it's worth.


For Cleans:
1) Roadster
2) Triaxis/2:90
3) Mark IV

For Slightly Overdriven Sounds (Low gain bluesy stuff):
1) Roadster
2) Mark IV
3) Triaxis/2:90

For Straight fat Mid-Gain / Hi Gain Rhythm sounds:
1) Roadster
2) Mark IV
3) Triaxis

For Leads:
1) Triaxis/2:90
2) Mark IV
3) Roadster

Versatility:
1) Triaxis
2) Mark IV & Roadster both pretty **** versatile and can do any genre. Roadster's versatility comes from # of channels and many options. Mark IV's main versatility comes from graphic EQ. Tons of sounds in there.

Price affordable to expensive (2 and 3 very close and keeps changing according to ebay/craigslist):
1) Mark IV
2) Roadster
3) Triaxis/2:90

Tightness:
1) Triaxis/2:90
2) Mark IV
3) Roadster

HUM issues (best to worst):
1) Roadster
2) Mark IV
3) Triaxis

 

[lockbody]

I sold my Roadster to buy a Stiletto Deuce II.

The Roadster was nice and all, fantastic reverb, the first two channels (tweed clean and brit crunch, in particular) are excellent, and while the second two are more than just "Dual Recto" there's no getting around the basic tonality of the amp. It's kind of dark too, IMO. You either like that sound or you don't. Eat your Wheaties too, as that is one heavy combo.

Of course, the Stiletto is Mesa's take on Marshall and Marshall is the sound of classic rock. I like it far better than the Marshalls I owned in the past (800, 900, and Jubilee). Great cleans and crunch on ch1 - I keep my gain turned up on "crunch" and control the amount of overdrive with my guitar's volume, and excellent high gain sounds on ch2. Sounds good at bedroom volume and superb at stage volume.

I've yet to pull a bad sound out of it.

 

[jdurso]

you might want to go with a Road King..... i think the Brit mode on the road king is a more true el34 sound since you can use el34s..... the brit mode on the roadster is very cool too but dont expect the same tone as a marshall or even the brit mode on the road king...... i think for the tones you mentioned you should either go for the road king or the mark iv.... anything you can do on the roadster is attainible on the road king with the addition of el34s and 6l6s and the cab switching capability.... but the mark iv tone wise might be the right fit.... basically looking at the road king or roadster you have to be into the recto sound because half of those amps are that sound.... the mark on the other hand might be more you style

best thing to do would be to play a roadster or road king (or even a rectifier just to see if you dig that tone).... i'd say if you dont like the tones of channel 3 and 4 i'd just go with a mark or even a triaxis

 

[jdurso]

also you may want to check out the dual rec maverick or a nomad.... i saw the rockabilly thing and remembered seeing this guy in boston who had a both amps and covered everything from jimi to zep to metallica and even a little setzer.... the guy ripped and his main amp was the nomad for most anything and everything sounded great... he had the 55 watt combo ontop of a stiletto cabinet... awesome tone

 

[jgk723]

I had a Roadster for a while.

I had a hell of a time trying to get the cleans to not break up once I boosted the volume. I'd get it almost perfect, but once I passed a certain level of volume there would still be a slight edge of breakup that drove me nuts. I tried everything except changing tubes. (It had the stock Mesa tubes.) I know that you can try a lower gain preamp tube in socket V1, but I never got around to it. Isn't it supposed to sound good with the stock tubes?

The other thing about the Roadster that I didn't like is that no matter what you do, even on the more vintage-like channels, the gain is fizzy like the 3 channel Rectos. Because of this layer of fizz, I could not get a satisfactory lead sound out of it whatsoever. One thing that might fix this is an overdrive pedal such as a Tube Screamer or Maxon OD808. They will hit the preamp harder and allow you to use less of the amps gain. They also warm up the whole amp overall. I traded my Roadster for a Revision F Dual Recto and I couldn't be happier. Sure, I don't have the fx loop on/off, rectifier select, and wattage options for each channel, but the warm lead sound I get out of this older Recto was not ANYWHERE in the Roadster. You could turn knobs and flip switches all day with the Roadster and it still didn't sound as good as the 2 simple channels on my older Recto. Though the clean channel on mine isn't as warm and chimey as those on the Roadster, mine stays cleaner at high volumes.

I'd recommend looking for a used Tremoverb. They were the "bells and whistle-filled Rectos" of last decade and sound awesome. The clean and blues channels on the Tremoverb are better than anything I've ever heard the Roadster do. You can find a used Tremoverb head for around $1200 or less.