Treated myself to the Roaster and OMG I'm in love

[Quadzilla4425]

OK I know everyone on here already probably knows just how amazing this head is. However, for me it my first real head and certainly a huge step up from my Marshall Valvestate 8100. I'm still tinkering here and there to get all the cool sounds and to find my sweet spot.

So here my question . . . is there a dedicated link where everyone can post there cool tones or is it just here and there?

If NOT well feel free to post any cool settings you what here . . OK back to playing with my new toy . . . . mmmmmmmme happy!!!

 

[screamingdaisy]

Usually people just tell us what they're looking for or what they're having a problem with and we give advice.

For the most part, I usually tell new Recto owners that if they can push the master output up around 11:00 to 1:00 range they'll get a better understanding of how the amp is supposed to sound/respond.

 

[Quadzilla4425]

Usually people just tell us what they're looking for or what they're having a problem with and we give advice.

For the most part, I usually tell new Recto owners that if they can push the master output up around 11:00 to 1:00 range they'll get a better understanding of how the amp is supposed to sound/respond.

Ah ok I see. Just didn't know if there was a link where people posted "heres a cool AC/DC tone I made" type of thing.

Well I have no issues to report.

My band usually plays classic rock and some Blues.

Bands like Cream, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin.

Well time to make my morning coffee then back to tinkering before practice

Thanks again

 

[screamingdaisy]

I set my amp up:

Channel 1 - Tweed/tube rectifier/100w... Gain up enough to get an overdriven amp sound

Channel 2 - Fat/tube rectifier/50w... Standard blackface Fender sorta sound. 50w helps it from sounding too "big" when switching between clean and high gain.

Channel 3 - Vintage/tube rectifier/100w... Gain up around 1:00 and I work the guitar's volume for less grainy crunch tones whist having enough on tap for lead.

Channel 4 - Modern/diode/100w... I use it for scooped metal type stuff, but you can get some good rock sounds by dropping the gain way back.

As a heads up, channel 3 and 4 have different presence knob values. Channel 3 is optimized for raw and vintage while channel 4 is optimized for modern. What this means is that if you want to use channel 4 for raw or vintage you need to run the presence nearly wide open to get it to sound like channel 3.

 

[Quadzilla4425]

I set my amp up:

Channel 1 - Tweed/tube rectifier/100w... Gain up enough to get an overdriven amp sound

Channel 2 - Fat/tube rectifier/50w... Standard blackface Fender sorta sound. 50w helps it from sounding too "big" when switching between clean and high gain.

Channel 3 - Vintage/tube rectifier/100w... Gain up around 1:00 and I work the guitar's volume for less grainy crunch tones whist having enough on tap for lead.

Channel 4 - Modern/diode/100w... I use it for scooped metal type stuff, but you can get some good rock sounds by dropping the gain way back.

As a heads up, channel 3 and 4 have different presence knob values. Channel 3 is optimized for raw and vintage while channel 4 is optimized for modern. What this means is that if you want to use channel 4 for raw or vintage you need to run the presence nearly wide open to get it to sound like channel 3.

SWEET!! I'll try these suggestions later. The presence info was also very helpful, TY

 

[jb's 52]

Congrats!

 

[bandit2013]

The Roadster is an awesome amp. Once you get used to it, you may think it either sounds too dark or may not blend in with other instruments in the mix.
Trick for waking up the Roadster with stock tubes (drop in gain control) will help to brighten up the tone in either of the Modern voices of CH3 or CH4.

Many have changed V1 to a Tung Sol. I have tried that but found it took away part of character that I found pleasing. Also depends on guitar in use. I have several to choose from : stacked single coil strat type guitars to neck though with humbuckers. My Roadster is the first amp I plug into. (sometimes the RA100 gets the attention) I do like my Mark V once in a while, but never ended a session without plugging into the Roadster (unless I am playing the drums or Bass).

 

[Quadzilla4425]

The Roadster is an awesome amp. Once you get used to it, you may think it either sounds too dark or may not blend in with other instruments in the mix.
Trick for waking up the Roadster with stock tubes (drop in gain control) will help to brighten up the tone in either of the Modern voices of CH3 or CH4.

Many have changed V1 to a Tung Sol. I have tried that but found it took away part of character that I found pleasing. Also depends on guitar in use. I have several to choose from : stacked single coil strat type guitars to neck though with humbuckers. My Roadster is the first amp I plug into. (sometimes the RA100 gets the attention) I do like my Mark V once in a while, but never ended a session without plugging into the Roadster (unless I am playing the drums or Bass).

Again thank you for the suggestion. YES the guy I got it off of suggested I turn the Masters down and the output up and control it from the guitar itself. Gives it a meatier sound. . . I do have other tubes I can drop in but for now I'm seeing what I can get out of these puppies.

I usually play Classic Rock . . . today's task is dialing in a twang for Sweet Home Alabama . . if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.

 

[bandit2013]

One thing to remember: V3 and V5 have cathode follower circuits which will cause premature failure on most preamp tubes. So far, the Mesa (or JJ) 12ax7 and a few of the Chinese tubes (Penta-Labs, Ruby, Preferred Series) will operate quite well in these two positions. Tubes manufactured and marketed by New Sensor (Tung Sol, Sovtek, Mullard, EH, and many others) will not do so well and will fail in V3 and V5. Explore with your hearts content with any tube in V1, V2, V4, V6. I found that the overall tone of the amp can be modified with just a change in V1. V2 will also influence the character but not as much as the primary or first stage tube. However, I have experimented with a JAN/GE 5751 in one or the other positions and found the end result is interesting. I did not notice much of a change between the Mesa (JJ) or Chinese tube in V3 and or V5. Note that the tone controls are post gain (V3 tone stack).

As for power tubes, have fun. I am currently using the Ruby version of the Mesa 6L6GC tube, as it seems to have a different gain characteristic with a bit more presence than the Mesa sorted tube even though they are essentially the same tube (or are they?). I have tried Tung Sol 7581 (not bad but the tubes were used up in my Mark V), TAD6L6GC, and SED 6L6GC. I actually liked the TAD6L6GC in the Roadster, but yet the saturated gain character of the Ruby or Mesa tube is good too. I actually like the darker tone of the Ruby or Mesa tube than the brighter SED 6L6GC. To each their own when it comes to character and tone that you desire. I have also tried EL34's and their variety (GL KT77, TS EL34B, Mullard EL34, SED EL34, Mesa EL34, and a few more I forgot what they are.) Since I have a Mark V and RA100, I have many tubes to try out (assuming they are still any good, the Mark V seems to eat everything up quickly except for the SED 6L6GC).

For classic rock, the Vintage or RAW modes might be where you want to run the amp. Try experimenting with the tube Rectifiers too which seems to reduce the bass a bit. I am not all out for Metal but generally stay in the Modern voice settings on CH3 and CH4. There is also CH1 Tweed or CH2 brit, with the gain maxed out on those two channels, you can get some really great crunchy tones there.

 

[Quadzilla4425]

One thing to remember: V3 and V5 have cathode follower circuits which will cause premature failure on most preamp tubes. So far, the Mesa (or JJ) 12ax7 and a few of the Chinese tubes (Penta-Labs, Ruby, Preferred Series) will operate quite well in these two positions. Tubes manufactured and marketed by New Sensor (Tung Sol, Sovtek, Mullard, EH, and many others) will not do so well and will fail in V3 and V5. Explore with your hearts content with any tube in V1, V2, V4, V6. I found that the overall tone of the amp can be modified with just a change in V1. V2 will also influence the character but not as much as the primary or first stage tube. However, I have experimented with a JAN/GE 5751 in one or the other positions and found the end result is interesting. I did not notice much of a change between the Mesa (JJ) or Chinese tube in V3 and or V5. Note that the tone controls are post gain (V3 tone stack).

As for power tubes, have fun. I am currently using the Ruby version of the Mesa 6L6GC tube, as it seems to have a different gain characteristic with a bit more presence than the Mesa sorted tube even though they are essentially the same tube (or are they?). I have tried Tung Sol 7581 (not bad but the tubes were used up in my Mark V), TAD6L6GC, and SED 6L6GC. I actually liked the TAD6L6GC in the Roadster, but yet the saturated gain character of the Ruby or Mesa tube is good too. I actually like the darker tone of the Ruby or Mesa tube than the brighter SED 6L6GC. To each their own when it comes to character and tone that you desire. I have also tried EL34's and their variety (GL KT77, TS EL34B, Mullard EL34, SED EL34, Mesa EL34, and a few more I forgot what they are.) Since I have a Mark V and RA100, I have many tubes to try out (assuming they are still any good, the Mark V seems to eat everything up quickly except for the SED 6L6GC).

For classic rock, the Vintage or RAW modes might be where you want to run the amp. Try experimenting with the tube Rectifiers too which seems to reduce the bass a bit. I am not all out for Metal but generally stay in the Modern voice settings on CH3 and CH4. There is also CH1 Tweed or CH2 brit, with the gain maxed out on those two channels, you can get some really great crunchy tones there.

Yes I have so many new things to play with I usually set aside a day where I just tinker and don't practice . . . I'm a total newbie at real gear so I have only just begun my learning curve. Taking her slow and following all of the suggestions . . . hell it only took me 45 years to finally treat myself don't want to blow her up on a stupid move someday. All I know is I'm oh so happy with my purchase even if my band mates think I'm crazy lol . . . I think they are just jealous hahahahahah

 

[silentbob]

I set my amp up:

Channel 1 - Tweed/tube rectifier/100w... Gain up enough to get an overdriven amp sound

Channel 2 - Fat/tube rectifier/50w... Standard blackface Fender sorta sound. 50w helps it from sounding too "big" when switching between clean and high gain.

Channel 3 - Vintage/tube rectifier/100w... Gain up around 1:00 and I work the guitar's volume for less grainy crunch tones whist having enough on tap for lead.

Channel 4 - Modern/diode/100w... I use it for scooped metal type stuff, but you can get some good rock sounds by dropping the gain way back.

As a heads up, channel 3 and 4 have different presence knob values. Channel 3 is optimized for raw and vintage while channel 4 is optimized for modern. What this means is that if you want to use channel 4 for raw or vintage you need to run the presence nearly wide open to get it to sound like channel 3.

I love the Tweed setting with the gain pretty high, sounds great for Foo Fighter type tones. I'm also a huge fan of the Raw mode as well. Hell, There are great tones available in every mode on every channel.

 

[knotts]

Congrats. I think your'e going to find that you have a lot of different tones on tap from all 4 channels. I play mostly classic rock with my roadster. I'm one of the few guys that will say brit mode on channel 2 can sound good. I agree with the suggestion to keep the gain knobs in the lower spectrum; especially for classic rock. Enjoy.

 

[bandit2013]

I wonder if any body noticed the Roaster in the original post. :lol:

You may call it that if you install EL34, it will get hot as those tubes could probably double as heating elements. I actually prefer the 6L6 over the EL34 in the Roadster (experimented with several types of EL34 (Mesa, Gold Lion KT77, SEDEL34, Mullard EL34, Tung Sol EL34B). Also tried a few different 6L6 tubes (Mesa, Tung Sol 7581, TAD6L6GC-STR, SED6L6GC, NOS Svetlana 6L6GC from 1990 (same as SED), Ruby MSTR (same as MESA but sound a little better). I did like the TAD but the Ruby has the grunt I like. The 7581 were also good but they were basically used up so hard to tell if new how they would sound. The amp will be a little brighter with other power tubes than the Mesa or Ruby. There is something about the gain structure I like with the Mesa/Ruby tubes over the others.

On the flip side, with single coil pups I generally boost the gain. I have two Carvin Bolts with Floyd Rose, one guitar has stacked Seymour Duncan YJM Fury (not bad) and the other has mini humbuckers (hard to call them single coil since they are not, besides, I am not fond of the 60Hz hum common with singles, even Lace Sensors are noisy but better than traditional singles). WOW, the Roadster can really scream, who said you can't use a strat type guitar for heavy metal? For the other stuff I push the amp with a Carvin DC400 Walnut with your standard tune-o-matic bridge. Perhaps my next guitar will have to be one of these with a Floyd. I play just about anything so heavy metal is not the only thing I pump though the amp.

 

[shatteredsquare]

I set my amp up:

Channel 1 - Tweed/tube rectifier/100w... Gain up enough to get an overdriven amp sound

Channel 2 - Fat/tube rectifier/50w... Standard blackface Fender sorta sound. 50w helps it from sounding too "big" when switching between clean and high gain.

Channel 3 - Vintage/tube rectifier/100w... Gain up around 1:00 and I work the guitar's volume for less grainy crunch tones whist having enough on tap for lead.

Channel 4 - Modern/diode/100w... I use it for scooped metal type stuff, but you can get some good rock sounds by dropping the gain way back.

As a heads up, channel 3 and 4 have different presence knob values. Channel 3 is optimized for raw and vintage while channel 4 is optimized for modern. What this means is that if you want to use channel 4 for raw or vintage you need to run the presence nearly wide open to get it to sound like channel 3.

you got this backwards. channel 4 presence goes to the stratosphere, so if you want to use CHANNEL 3 modern, you need to crank the presence almost all the way up to equal a channel 4 sound. paraphrased from the manual, "the entire range of channel 3 presence control can be found in channel 4's presence control in the ranges of minimum up to about 9-10 o'clock."

 

[brettsticker]

OK I know everyone on here already probably knows just how amazing this head is. However, for me it my first real head and certainly a huge step up from my Marshall Valvestate 8100. I'm still tinkering here and there to get all the cool sounds and to find my sweet spot.

So here my question . . . is there a dedicated link where everyone can post there cool tones or is it just here and there?

If NOT well feel free to post any cool settings you what here . . OK back to playing with my new toy . . . . mmmmmmmme happy!!!

Congrats on the new head! I'm completely in love with my roadster. I haven't found a bad tone out of it. I play a lot of metal, chugg-a-lugg stuff with some shred, and man I fall more in love with this amp every day.

 

[afu]

Dude, congrats. I know that feeling when you get a really good amp for the first time. I hope you have a ton of fun.

https://warpedmusician.wordpress.com/2015/06/20/classic-rock-power-tube-overdrive-and-the-mesa-3-channel-dual-rectifier/

That's my blog post for a 3 Channel Recto, but the general ideas will still apply to an extent. The Roadster is darker than my amp. Keep that in mind.

I have other posts about a pseudo-Jimmy Page, Supro tone with Raw; emulating Marshalls; clips of vintage-like tones; and other things. I hope it might help. On my amp, I can get really similar tones from Pushed and Raw, so you may be able to translate it to the Brit setting by a/b-ing the channels.

https://warpedmusician.wordpress.com/category/tube-amps/mesa-boogie-dual-rectifier/