Sacrilege

[Heritage Softail]

If I had to do it over, a part of me thinks it is cheaper to be 93% as good for some amp models. I know this is the boogie board but I have not found anything to model the 3D feel of the SLO. Even other Soldanos don't get it. THe Boogie Holy Gail IIC+ is another amp like that IMO. Boogie can't even get that original tone back in the MKV no matter what the MKV manual says. I like the IIC+ mode but someday...... I will geta IIC+ non-EQ and feel the love. An old amp with the high end components is the sh!t.

Part of what I like about the Axe is that is does all the effects and has preset doses of each in a professional level mix. I am not an expert in mixing effects like that. It will be funny if I do get an Axe and have it just for effects. My buddies would shi!t a brick to see one of those in my rig. Only drawback is that it seems to attempt to fit the tone in a box instead of letting it naturally bloom, with the normal ragged edges. That is the 7% I feel that keeps me at bay for a solid state generated tone.

On the OP Roadster. With Actives in a Schecter or ESP, I like the nu-metal shreddy leads in the old school style. Not the classic rock or blues style. Roadster is just such a great riffing amp. To my ears it is 100% for that purpose at world class levels. Dark, evil, chugging. For a Zep lead, look elsewhere. Like a tele in a Vox... or Danelectro.... What a serious tone source liar Page was.... quite clever.



Time to go push a mower in the 100 degree heat.....

 

[giantstepjoe]

Anyways..tone is a moving target- and only you know whats best for you. And if Roadster isnt it- put it in the hands of someone whom it was made for and find your own tone elswhere....life is too short to continually "chase the dragon"

I agree, although I approach it from a slightly different angle. After having gone around the block a few times on amps and come back around to the beginning I now try to hold on to amps I clicked with. That way I (almost) always have myself covered as my tastes swing.

^^^

Solid advice above, both posts. Key to my happy tone life. I seriously love the Boogie tone. I don't have a roadster but if one pops up cheap from somebody needing bail money, I will have one. I have learned also to keep amps. This train of thought came up in another conversation this week I had with another part time gigging player.

He was going on about the excellence of his Axe. And it does sound great, do a zillion things...... But I want about 6 or 7 tones. Really.... 2 good cleans, one jazzy clean and one sort of pumped and rounded attack clean. About 5 main gain voices, SLO lead and crunch, Rivera high gain compressed, the non-master volume, the MKV has the IIC+ and IV voices I love and the MK1 I am getting to love. For what I want, I dont need an Axe. Just a few good amps and a few good effects. Gotta keep amps to build your own amp rack!

Thanks for the good advice. I've been dialing again this week and getting some great tones so at least for now I think It stays. I think I need aquire several different great amps so that when I am sick of the tones of a particular amp I can refresh myself with another and come back to it renewed. I like The Roadster enough that I would probably miss it if it were gone. I'm still definitely getting a Mark V I just need to save for a while. BTW for a while I was using channel three as my lead channel but had forgotten that my initial impression when I got the roadster was that channel four in vintage mode was the best sounding lead channel to me. I'm now running channel three as my high gain rythm sound and channel four as my lead and I have the eq in the loop again. I'm much happier with both the crunch tone and the leads .

 

[YellowJacket]

This is too true. If you like the amp, keep it and get something else if you are bored of the first because chances are, you will come back to it later. I wonder if some bands run a separate heads for lead, crunch, and clean tones?

 

[giantstepjoe]

It's instant Kirk Hammett, isn't it?

LOL- only if you don't know how to dial it in. I've never understood how Hammet manages to get some of the worst tones out of the best sounding amps. I know there is a lot of Metallica love here and inevitably some will flame me for this comment but so be it-I just think his tone either sucks most of the time or is incredible mediocre and forgetable. It has almost no personality to it; like a bad cliche of a wannabe shredder who never bothered to learn how to play anything fast on more than the high e string. Seriously get some new lines man!. All that being said I'm actually a fan of the band and think that Hetfields tones WERE great at one time. Now getting the the point -the archetypal Mark tones for me are Petrucci's

 

[scott7d]

On the V, Mark IV mode is the best soloing tone I've ever had. (C+ and Extreme are great too, just like IV mode the best)

I've owned a Recto and a Stiletto, and neither of them touched the lead sound on the V. But that is my opinion for the style I play.

 

[MesaGod666]

On the V, Mark IV mode is the best soloing tone I've ever had. (C+ and Extreme are great too, just like IV mode the best)

I've owned a Recto and a Stiletto, and neither of them touched the lead sound on the V. But that is my opinion for the style I play.

I blend both the IIC+ and IV settings to get my tone. I have another Mark V on order so I can recreate it live.

 

[spawnofthesith]

I don't own a Roadster (would like to one day) but before I got my Mark V I tried one out extensively. I would say that the two amps complement each other very well, the Roadster being a heavy rhythm sound monster, and the Mark V being an angelic singing lead machine. I would love to run the two of them together, that would be the ultimate mesa rig, imo.

 

[dbsens03]

I say just save up for the Mark V or a Mark IV and add that to your collection. Run the Roadster and Mark __ in stereo and you'll have fantastic Recto tone as well as fantastic lead tone from the Mark. Even if the Roadster doesn't provide the lead tone you're seeking, it has a wide range of tones which are unique to the Roadster. Luckily I'm primarily a Rhythm player so the Roadster fulfills my needs, but I'm a lead player in training so I really hope to pick up a Mark series amp before long. They are a great combo. If you've got the funds to do this I think you will be very happy!