Royal Atlantic Bliss

[bandit2013]

It has been a while since I fired up the RA100 combo. I have been running the half stack more so since getting a Multi-watt Dual Rectifier which prompted me to get another 412 cab to go with it. Before that I was using the 412 that I normally run with the RA100 head. My other 412 cab was rebuild with EV speakers which works great with the Roadster but not as ideal with the MWDR or Royal Atlantic. Also I have a horizontal 212 cab that was not getting much use. Moved the Rectifier amps to the other side of the room out of the way, set up the RA100 half stack and brought out the RA100 combo and horizontal 212 cab. To complete the tone of the Royal Atlantics on the blue and red channels is the change in preamps for V1 and V2. Mullard CV4004 in V1 and Mullard reissue 12AX7 in V2 keeps the mud out when pushing the gain on the red channel, and to bring it into 3D sound, a quad of Mesa NOS STR442 =C=EL34 in both amps. Those power tubes are ideal in the Royal Atlantic. OMG it is heaven. At 50W or 100W, using the Multi-soak or not, there is nothing that sings like the RA100 with the organic flavors. Tripple Crown TC-100 with stock tubes very similar but not as organic to the RA100 with the change in preamp tubes and choice of power tubes. The next big thing in this set up is the Mesa Switch Track so I can run one or the other or both amps at the same time. Connected the Strymon BigSky reverb pedal with both FX loops of each amp on a separate channel. What is cool about the Bigsky is that it will send the reverb reflections to the other channel so I can select either RA amp and still have a stereo sound or even better press the both switch on the switch track and enjoy soulful sound from both RA100's. The two Stratocasters in the image have similar pickups. The one on the right has the Zexcoil hybrid juicy5 z-series set and the Warmoth Stratocaster on the right has the Zexcoil signature legacy set. The Fender strat on the left is a Mexican Dave Murray strat that originally came with Seymore Duncan hot rails in the neck and bridge with a JB jr in the middle. That arrangement was not bad at all but a bit too rich for my style of playing. Out came a knife, solder iron and new pots (changed the 250k to all 500K pots) and pickups. Reason for the knife, that was to trim the shielding that I added to the pickguard and copper foil tape I added to the cavities. Thing about multi-layer pearloid pickguards is they generate static. Having a full shield on the back side coupled to the foil tape that is grounded in all of the cavities as well as overlap to the area the pickguard meets the body basically eliminates the static issue. Tone controls for mid and neck shared and separate tone controls for the bridge. I used an Orange drop 0.12uF cap for the mid and neck and a good quality oil filled 0.22uf cap on the bridge. Also added a 1degree shim between the neck and body so I can raise the bridge up a bit for more upward travel (was not fond of the bridge resting on the body as it is not cut out for the Floyd). String action is perfect. Similar appointments to the Warmoth guitar. Also needed a 0.5degree shim under the neck to improve string height even though the bridge is recessed into the body. Mate either of these axes to the Royal Atantic 100 with nice reverb affect and it is total tone bliss. Sure there are many different pickups you can choose from. My one favorite is the Seymour Duncan "everything axe" set that I have loaded into a Carvin Bolt C. My other Carvin Bolt C is a beast as I opted for a full sized Seymour Duncan Frankenstein pickup for that and have the single coil sized '78 bridge pickups in the middle and neck positions. Nice for blues but switch over to the bridge and rip out some heavy riffs.

 

[bandit2013]

My pair of Royals definitely surprised me when I got my first 7 string guitar. OMG does that sound incredible. I am surprised how tight the amps sound on the red channel with the low b string. The tubes I am using are working out great. I have gotten some NOS tubes in after posting the original thread. Both amps are using the following: V1 = NOS RFT ECC83 and V2 = NOS Ei CV492. Rest are stock tubes. For the power tubes, still have the Winged C EL34s (Mesa STR442). The RFT tube sounds similar to the Mesa 12AX7 but will become more aggressive with more gain applied than the JJ tube. The Ei tube is a long plate design similar to the mallard I was using but has a bit more musical character to it. Since the tone stack of the RA is on the last gain stage before the FX loop the Ei tube works well in that position. The Mullard CV4004 and 12ax7 tubes were great too, you can easily substitute the Tung Sol for the CV4004 if you so desire. Loving the NOS tubes a bit more. :shock:

 

[danyeo1]

Still using Creambacks in the combo? I just grabbed a used Royal, it really wakes up at loud volumes and the V30’s to me sound ok but when I listen to clips when they’re directly compared I always think H75’s sound better.

 

[CoG]

I just put a Swamp Thang in a 2x12 with a V30 for my Tremoverb and the Royal really likes it too. Gives Vintage Lo a little more balls if I'm trying to use both Vintage Lo and Vintage Hi at once. I find that I don't really like Lo until the gain's past 2 o'clock but I don't like Hi much past noon; with the ST/V30 combo I can compromise around 1:30 Vintage Hi sounds pretty heavy/modern with this setup, depends what you like.

 

[danyeo1]

I keep the gain about 1-2 Oclock then use an OD pedal or 2 just to tighten it up. I threw a Redback into an ElectraDyne combo and YES, that speaker sounds killer. The speaker had a loose dust cap which I'm trying to fix but I could tell the tone is really huge, ballsy, smooth, but still cuts. I may just get another Redback and stick one in the Royal combo for a V30/Redback combo.

 

[bandit2013]

Still loving my two Royals. I may not be much for the 7-string guitars, but the Royals seem to work well with extended range. The other amp that works well with extended range is the Badlander. I ran the RA and BL together, that was fun. Interesting that with a GEQ in the FX loop of the RA, I can almost get a similar grind characteristic to the Badlander. Not as aggressive but similar. the RA is more dynamic, so I tend to favor that amp over all of the other Mesa Boogies.

 

[Eevil]

Had some deal yesterday and found myself with RA head

Swapped power tubes to Mesa 6L6 and it sounds awesome. The amp had one blown EL34 in it so no idea what it’ll sound with those

have to get it cleaned and somehow get the stench away as it has strong cigarette and sweat combination on it.. this is the part I hate when buying used stuff

 

[rarebitusa]

Had some deal yesterday and found myself with RA head

Swapped power tubes to Mesa 6L6 and it sounds awesome. The amp had one blown EL34 in it so no idea what it’ll sound with those

have to get it cleaned and somehow get the stench away as it has strong cigarette and sweat combination on it.. this is the part I hate when buying used stuff

Full report is required. RA GAS over here is rising. How does it compare to a Stiletto?

 

[Eevil]

Full report is required. RA GAS over here is rising. How does it compare to a Stiletto?

My stiletto went to trade over year ago so this will be reflecting with memory.

Clean sounds and feels great in both. RA doesn’t have different modes but tone controls are pretty powerful.

Crunch tones are a bit stiff in RA - unless cranked yet the tonality is a bit more pleasing than in stiletto. I still remember getting great crunch tones out of stiletto so it’s a bit different yet great.

Lead tones in RA have easy going feel in them. Effortless would be proper term. Tonality itself is balanced and has enough edge in it to be heard in band mix. Stiletto was harder to tame but it was doable: tone controls worked wonders. Treble and presence were key players.

Both have different means to change the power amp feel. Yet personally I steer towards most headroom power amp configuration. With 100w and no attenuator or tube rectifier

Both amps have (IMO) better feel and more pleasant tonality than recto and tone controls in RA/Stiletto actually works as advertised..

 

[bandit2013]

Are you running all stock tubes? Just curious.

Trying not to write a book, again, too late. Sorry for the long post.

It has been quite some time since I ran stockers in mine. I got hooked on NOS tubes with the RA.
RFT 12AX7A in V1 and Ei CV492 in V2. This is the complete hi/lo gain preamp. The clean channel runs V4 and V5. V3 uses a 12AT7 as this is the FX loop circuit that is always in the circuit path. Choice on the V3 tube can make it brighter or darker. The stock Mesa 12AT7 (was Chinese originally) Mesa has changed to Tung Sol 12AT7 as that was what was in my TT-800. I should try one of those. I also have some other NOS 12AT7 to try out.

As for the clean channel preamp, not much effect in tube rolling. Thought the Stock mesa (JJ ECC83) was best. I have tried other 12AX7 of different plate lengths. Still sound about the same. The clean channel is a bit on the beefy side so dialing back on the bass and pushing the treble sounds great. Max out the gain and you have a third crunch channel. The gain structure is a bit different than the lo gain setting. There may be some degree of overlap there.

Hi/Lo channel. The tone stack is a shared set of controls as is the gain control. You do have separate masters for Hi and Lo gain. Note that the gain pot is a stacked pot. Lo gain is a bit thinner voice compared to the hi gain. Mostly due to the extra gain stage that gets pulled in on Hi gain vs Lo gain. I usually boost the bass control, set midrange to noon or a bit higher and use the treble control like it was a presence feature.

I found with the stock preamp tubes, the Hi gain was a bit swamped in the low end. That is where the RFT 12AX7A chimes in. Just a point, the RFT 12AX7A is a bit darker toned than the JJ ECC83 at low to moderate signal level. However, with increase in signal level it becomes more aggressive than the JJ EEC83 without getting darker in tone. Takes that stiffness out of the soundstage. The JJ ECC83 had more of a flat response such that its gain characteristics were more linear than the RFT. Another tube choice is the Mullard CV4004 (current production). Not as musical as the RFT. Tung Sol 12AX7A is ok too if you wanted something a bit different than the Mesa stocker. I also found the long plate 12AX7 variety works great in V2 as this is also used as the tone stack driver. Mullard 12AX7A, Ei CV492 were good choices. I did try the JJ ECC803S just for kicks.

With all stock tubes in the preamp. Been so long since I had all stock tubes. Just for kicks, I may pull the chassis out of the head and mess around with preamp and power tubes.

Power tubes: The STR447 (EHx EL34) tend to have a harsh characteristic tone. The RA runs around 400VDC plate voltage. Perhaps that is the low side for the EHx tube to that may explain the harsh characteristic or it just may be the tube itself. Still, they sound epic in the Badlander100W. In the Triple Crown they are also good. Someone mentioned to me that the Triple Crown runs at 450VDC. Perhaps that has some effect on tone with the power tubes. 6L6 sound a bit squished or underpowered in the RA, TC or Badlander.

What I found to be ideal: SED =C= EL34. Mesa had some in quantity but now sold out. STR442. Bummer.
I have tried Gold Lion KT77, Mullard EL34 (current production) Tung Sol EL34B, and Ruby EL34BSTR or something like that. The Mullards were decent. The others were just OK.

As for 6L6GC. The STR440 was not bad, seemed to reduce output level a bit and lacked that desired Marshall tone. Thinking on experimenting with a few options. I have a few sets of the alternate Mesa 6L6 tubes. STR443, STR425 and STR441. Since I got hooked on the =C=EL34, I gave up on trying out other options.

The only cathode follower circuit in this amp is the FX loop. As for the other preamp tube positions, no fear, just about any preamp tube in the 12AX7 family will work. Clean channel is not very tunable but the Hi/Lo channel is. (where the TC series fell short, preamp tube swaps will make no difference).

 

[Eevil]

Are you running all stock tubes? Just curious.

there is at least one TAD tube in the preamp otherwise haven’t had any reason to swap anything else..

 

[rarebitusa]

My stiletto went to trade over year ago so this will be reflecting with memory.

Clean sounds and feels great in both. RA doesn’t have different modes but tone controls are pretty powerful.

Crunch tones are a bit stiff in RA - unless cranked yet the tonality is a bit more pleasing than in stiletto. I still remember getting great crunch tones out of stiletto so it’s a bit different yet great.

Lead tones in RA have easy going feel in them. Effortless would be proper term. Tonality itself is balanced and has enough edge in it to be heard in band mix. Stiletto was harder to tame but it was doable: tone controls worked wonders. Treble and presence were key players.

Both have different means to change the power amp feel. Yet personally I steer towards most headroom power amp configuration. With 100w and no attenuator or tube rectifier

Both amps have (IMO) better feel and more pleasant tonality than recto and tone controls in RA/Stiletto actually works as advertised..

Eevil Thanks!!!. BTW. I recall from a Zilla vid with the RA, Stiletto and the Road King they make a similar comment WRT to "Effortless". Agree on the tone controls too. What cab/speakers are you currently running with the RA?

 

[Eevil]

Eevil Thanks!!!. BTW. I recall from a Zilla vid with the RA, Stiletto and the Road King they make a similar comment WRT to "Effortless". Agree on the tone controls too. What cab/speakers are you currently running with the RA?

Currently I have Stiletto 1x12 (oversize style cab) and 2x12 Recto Compact. Compact has OEM V30 and 1x12 has Chinese V30. Would’ve liked to test with 4x12 but alas there’s not enough space in my home for that anymore as remote office equipment takes too much space..

With both cabs running there’s enough low end but not too much with RA.

With same cabs the ED will push some serious low end

 

[bandit2013]

Thanks for the reference on the Zilla cabs video. That was great.

 

[bandit2013]

I did need to replace the FX tube as I noticed the tone was a bit off. Removed the Mesa Chinese 12AT7 with a JAN Phillips 12AT7. That brought the amp back up to par.

Considering I found the Triple Crown to be sterile, Figured I would try the same thing. Replace the Chines 12AT7 with the JAN Phillips 12AT7. Well that was a game changer. I at least fixed the sound level issue. TC now sounds like a 100W amp. The dynamics improved considerably on the HI/LO gain channels as well. You can't tune the preamp gain stages with alternates like you can with the RA. However, it seems that the Chinese 12AT7 was holding the TC back too much. Will have to try this trick with the TC-50 and see what happens. The Triple Crown 100 has gained some respect from me now. Still, the multi-soak works differently but that is not what sold me on the TC-100 in the first place.

Will this replace the RA100? No. That amp is too much fun to give up on. Just thought I would share this in case one of you has both RA and TC.

 

[Eevil]

I did need to replace the FX tube as I noticed the tone was a bit off. Removed the Mesa Chinese 12AT7 with a JAN Phillips 12AT7. That brought the amp back up to par.

Considering I found the Triple Crown to be sterile, Figured I would try the same thing. Replace the Chines 12AT7 with the JAN Phillips 12AT7. Well that was a game changer. I at least fixed the sound level issue. TC now sounds like a 100W amp. The dynamics improved considerably on the HI/LO gain channels as well. You can't tune the preamp gain stages with alternates like you can with the RA. However, it seems that the Chinese 12AT7 was holding the TC back too much. Will have to try this trick with the TC-50 and see what happens. The Triple Crown 100 has gained some respect from me now. Still, the multi-soak works differently but that is not what sold me on the TC-100 in the first place.

Will this replace the RA100? No. That amp is too much fun to give up on. Just thought I would share this in case one of you has both RA and TC.

Just ED and RA would love to check the TC at some point.. yet this side of the pond hasn’t got new Mesas since 2021

 

[bandit2013]

Just ED and RA would love to check the TC at some point.. yet this side of the pond hasn’t got new Mesas since 2021

I can understand. Trying one is different than owning one. It has some interesting character to it. There is more gain but that does not always mean it is better. Even though the TC is based on the same DNA as the Royal Atlantic. It is still and apple vs orange comparison. As for the ED, not sure how its preamp is structured. It may be identical to the RA but with 6L6 Simul-class output stage. I was fond of the ED but opted for the Royal.

 

[Eevil]

I can understand. Trying one is different than owning one. It has some interesting character to it. There is more gain but that does not always mean it is better. Even though the TC is based on the same DNA as the Royal Atlantic. It is still and apple vs orange comparison. As for the ED, not sure how its preamp is structured. It may be identical to the RA but with 6L6 Simul-class output stage. I was fond of the ED but opted for the Royal.

I enjoy the ED simplicity yet has tremendous tone. And with proper boost will cover the higher gain tones..