Mesa Boogie Roadster/Roadking owners...

[grunge782]

I currently own the Dual Rectifier Solo head, and love the red and orange channels, however I'm not sure if the clean channel is really doing it for me.

I've been thinking about switch over to a Roadster. When I played one I really liked it, and the clean channel was perfect for my style. I also really like being able to switch between 100 watts and 50 watts, something I can't do on my older model Rectifier.

So I have 2 main questions.

Do you think channels 3 and 4 on the Roadster can get close enough to the Solo head's red and orange channels? I usually run my amp with the spongy and tube rectifier, I'm not sure if the Roadster can get as loose and aggressive/present sounding. (yes I am unusual in that regard, I play much slower rhythm lines and I really like the sag/bloom of the Recto).

Also if anybody could describe to me what channel 2 is like on the Roadster, the brit/fat settings intrigue me.

 

[Beret]

The answer is yes. The Roadster has all of the fury of your Dual Rectifier and then some. In my experience, people prefer the orange/red channels of the Roadster more than their corresponding channels on the DR. I use the Brit voicing of channel two for a Vox partially broken up sound. The fat clean has loads of headroom and with the 'verb is gorgeous. My personal preference is to use Tweed in channel one for that though.

You can push channel two Brit into Plexi territory (keep in mind these are 6L6s though, it's not entirely the same). At any rate, I find all four channels good amps in their own right and I've never once regretted the decision to buy my Roadster. It's not light, but it's four amps in one and none of them suck - which is rare. Usually you have a channel or two that are awesome and you wished they would have left well enough alone.

There are plenty of heavy acts (Killswitch/Dillinger/etc) using it so don't worry about it not having balls. I don't play a lot of heavy stuff and I can assure you it's equally beautiful clean and overdriven as well as it is dirty. I play covers that are all over the place, heavy, jazz, gospel, etc, it takes care of them all.

~B

 

[Big Rich]

i had both the dual recto solo head and the raodster....the solo head is maybe a touch more in your face and aggressive

but either way it gets there dude, you wont be dissapointed at all....that roadster is one pissed off monster and the cleans were very nice....i still like my mark 5's cleans alot better though

the only complaint i had is that the 2nd channel is kind of unuseable, i could get decent tones out of it but nothing i would actually use.....great amp

 

[grunge782]

The answer is yes. The Roadster has all of the fury of your Dual Rectifier and then some. In my experience, people prefer the orange/red channels of the Roadster more than their corresponding channels on the DR. I use the Brit voicing of channel two for a Vox partially broken up sound. The fat clean has loads of headroom and with the 'verb is gorgeous. My personal preference is to use Tweed in channel one for that though.

You can push channel two Brit into Plexi territory (keep in mind these are 6L6s though, it's not entirely the same). At any rate, I find all four channels good amps in their own right and I've never once regretted the decision to buy my Roadster. It's not light, but it's four amps in one and none of them suck - which is rare. Usually you have a channel or two that are awesome and you wished they would have left well enough alone.

There are plenty of heavy acts (Killswitch/Dillinger/etc) using it so don't worry about it not having balls. I don't play a lot of heavy stuff and I can assure you it's equally beautiful clean and overdriven as well as it is dirty. I play covers that are all over the place, heavy, jazz, gospel, etc, it takes care of them all.

~B

That was the answer I was hoping for and fearing

I would be using kt77's which I think give me the best of both worlds. When I played one I was extremely impressed. Time to start saving, but I honestly think through all of my amp searching it will be the "one". I've stayed with my Dual Recto for the longest of any amp, and I still love it just as much as the day I bought it except for that darn clean channel.

Sounds like the Roadster will get me exactly what I have been looking for.

And another Dual Rectifier will be on the market

 

[grunge782]

i had both the dual recto solo head and the raodster....the solo head is maybe a touch more in your face and aggressive

but either way it gets there dude, you wont be dissapointed at all....that roadster is one pissed off monster and the cleans were very nice....i still like my mark 5's cleans alot better though

the only complaint i had is that the 2nd channel is kind of unuseable, i could get decent tones out of it but nothing i would actually use.....great amp

I bought the Dual Recto originally over the Roadster because of that reason. Though after hearing some recent clips I am starting to think people over exaggerated the differences.

It seems to me though that with some tweaking you guys think it will satisfy me.

Too bad about that 2nd channel, though I would have to give it a spin. I was hoping to use that channel as a real platform for pedals.

Most people playing through my amp settings would probably call it unusable

 

[roadifier]

Make sure to buy the roadster used to save some money, or if you buy it new, make sure its before december first. mesa's prices are going up 12/1/10 by about 5%

 

[grunge782]

Make sure to buy the roadster used to save some money, or if you buy it new, make sure its before december first. mesa's prices are going up 12/1/10 by about 5%

Yeah I just read about that.

I almost always buy used when I can. This would be no different.

 

[scottkahn]

Something else to consider... the NEW Dual Rectifier. It has the fantastic, upgraded clean circuit. It has improved high-gain voicings. It has selectable wattage on each channel -- 50W or 100W. It has a "clean" serial effects loop. We're almost done with our in-depth review of the new amp. Our senior editor owned the original Dual Recto and was very torn on whether or not to make the switch... suffice to say he sold the old one and bought the new one.

But the Roadster is even more versatile. You can read our in-depth review of both the Road King II and Roadster here:

http://www.musicplayers.com/reviews/gui ... adKing.php