No love for Rivera Amps??

[Jeremy]

Nicely done!!

Thank you sir. How do you like the Seven cab? I was thinking of replacing the Splawn with a couple of those.

I like it alot. Rivera's cab build quality is superb. I find they can handle alot of power while keeping the lows quite tight. The "Seven" signature speakers in them have been the perfect solution for me. I play 7's & an 8 string through my rig and IMO it devestates the masses. When I bought my KR 100 I shoped it on a bunch of different cabs and it seemed to not jive with oversized cabs, mainly Marshalls and Mesa STD's. And I've always kinda hated V30's so these 100W speakers are great, nice even response with the frequencies.

 

[BSRIAudio]

I have a Knucklehead II and love it. Its got fantastic cleans and a great high gain tone with lots of low mids. I run an MXR 10-band in the loop for a little more midrange and bass tweaking. Definitely sounds fuller in my one-guitar band than a rectifier does and the boosts really work well in a live setting for making parts of a song stand out when needed.

 

[robertkoa]

Yeah, there´s always that awesome dedicated clean channel. I couldn´t imagine finding a better clean channel, certainly not in a channel-switching high gain amp. It´s really one of the best clean circuits out there, especially when using the low gain input for more headroom and a slightly warmer tone.

The Venus 6 is definitely more old school, the 5 has as much gain as the Knuckleheads but sounds a lot different due to the power amp. I guess it comes down to what you mean by smooth; for bluesy tones and more classic rock the 6 probably is the better choice, and for John Petrucci the 5 is the way to go.

Thanks and also thanks to Tonelover- I guess by smooth I mean Dialing up Timmons, Gilmour EJ type tones- would the Venus 5 or 6 be better for those ? Or piece of cake for either ?

I guess you're saying the 6- cool if it got a bit of Plexi Vibe on the gain channel but the warmth of 6V6s....

 

[Dave L]

I haven´t played the 5 myself, but judging from the other recent high gainers and the 6 I´d go for the 6 in your case... it´ll certainly get in the ballpark for Gilmour and EJ tones, and if you stick a BB up front you should have a nice Timmons too... I think it might lack a little compression and saturation for the high gain shred stuff. But then again the 5 probably is too aggressively voiced for the sweet EJ stuff, which is a lot harder to correct with a pedal.

I don´t know if the 6 is much of a plexi, but it definitely has Marshall-ish mids and if you run the master high and the gain low it might get something that sounds a bit similar. The EQ is really powerful, too, which should help.

 

[rabies]

I've had a love/hate relationship with my S120 (currently love with Maxon OD808 - thx to mightywarlock!). I use the ch 1 OD 2 the most and don't think the ch 2 cleans are stellar. I like to run the amp in pentode one side and triode the other side. Brutally heavy for hard rock and metal and retains tonal definition on jazz chords (e.g. E7#9) better than a Peavey 6534 for example. I've had the amp for several years now and yes it's a great deal used. No issues at all other than it's a major pain to pull the chassis for re-tubing.

witness the "damage":

The amp sounds like a mix between a Marshall and Recto in OD2 when cranked. Mean sound and great for hard rock/metal lead and rhythms. Doesn't have the Marshall crunch even with EL34's but it does sound badass cranked. And what other amp do you know that goes from 8watts to 120watts?

Love/hate b/c the EQ actually works (unlike Marshall JCM 800 EQ's) and it really depends how you dial it in. Also, it has levels on send/return for EFX loop so I can actually get a decent sound at home (and you can run it mono as well).

I would buy another S120 in a heartbeat but honestly the carpet/felt tolex is a total disaster. I'd really like to try a newer Rivera (this one is from 1991) and yes I had it serviced in Burbank and they replaced 22 caps and re-biased (for a pricey $300). Those guys drive Audi's, that's why they need to charge a lot!

btw, I use my Elitist LP with this amp exclusively and it suits it very well. Don't like the Schecter SLS 7 string as much with it.

 

[rabies]

Little Feat uses/used my head:

Barrere: I’m still playing out of the Rivera combo 120, 50 watts per side, stereo. It’s got the stereo chorus built into it, which is based on the original Roland – remember that gray oblong box? And it’s just a wonderful sound. And then I go from that into a Marshall cabinet that’s wired stereo with Celestions: 4x12, 30-watt Celestions. And that’s pretty much it.

http://maildogmanager.com/page.html?p=000001XDDtjKE++sgUnwostz5BE6HmW8IVQKOH

 

[colimofsmoke]

played a newer Tre for a while, loved it. wish I still had it. Riveras are a bitch to sell, though.

 

[rabies]

so most guys like riveras once they have them (sounds like) but it's hard to sell. counter-intuitive. that's interesting.

 

[Tuckerbomb]

I've had a Knucklehead II, M60, Suprema 55, & a K55 over the last few years. So I really want to like Rivera amps, and yes the cleans are amazingly good, but I could never get the high gain rhythm tone I wanted.
I'm sure the right settings are in there somewhere, but I didn't have hours on end to dial it in, just to bump a knob later and lose it.
I would love to play a Fandango, but damn! Anybody selling one wants $12-1800!

 

[colimofsmoke]

so most guys like riveras once they have them (sounds like) but it's hard to sell. counter-intuitive. that's interesting.

yeah, they just don't have the name recognition on the used market. I recently noticed a guy on CL trying to sell a K-Tre mark it down hundreds of dollars over the course of a month or two.

 

[colimofsmoke]

I've had a Knucklehead II, M60, Suprema 55, & a K55 over the last few years. So I really want to like Rivera amps, and yes the cleans are amazingly good, but I could never get the high gain rhythm tone I wanted.
I'm sure the right settings are in there somewhere, but I didn't have hours on end to dial it in, just to bump a knob later and lose it.
I would love to play a Fandango, but damn! Anybody selling one wants $12-1800!

only played the Tre, but the high gain was awesome for modern stuff. tight and chunky. maybe a little more scooped in the mids than I'd like. couldn't really get a good organic/vintage gain out of it though.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

Rivera clean is legendary, improved fenders with tons of innovative options.

The dirty Channels are love or hate. The grainy scooped, compressed vibe is not for everyone.
Personally I hate it.

Last summer on tour I would go over to listen to mick slipknots kr7 , always seemed scooped grainy, overly distorted hash to me. It works for him though.

Walking back over to Jim's side was an epiphany and I'm not much of an orange fan either but man Jim's oranges slayed mick every night for my tastes.


All that having been said, we have a Rivera hammer 320 on its way here. Hoping it crushes my 2150 dead. Man it would if I stacked them, it's 78 lbs!

 

['63-Strat]

I love my rivera-era super champ, agree it can get some dumble-type tones on the OD channel. That said while I've played lots of actual riveras I was never a fan enough to consider buying one, just not my thing, and yeah usually because of the OD channel, the cleans are good as most have said. A good friend of mine uses a K-tre (or knucklehead reverb... I forget) in his band and every time he switches to OD I cringe.

 

[2tallmusic]

Riveras have still a very good reputation here in Europe. Used market is not too bad as well, people still get around 500-600 Euros for their thirst version Knuckleheads, K-100s or R-Series amps. Nevertheless I have the impression that in the last ten years the newer models got more sticky to the musicstore shelfs.

 

[aftec]

Rivera Jake/Rake and Fandango/Quaina are in the league of the most versatile and amazing sounding amps. I have a Fandango, It has an amazing Fender clean and a blazing "Marshall" channel from Plexi to modded JCM800. Boosts on both, a lot of options (tweed/blackface sound on clean), 2 downsides, heavy as hell (they are really built like a tank) and considering mine it's the loudest 1x12 ever. It can easily keep up with a 4x12.
Their customer service is fine, they send schematics if needed, but only by fax. I don't even have a land line since 2001
I was lucky and helped by a nice dude from another forum.

 

[Orren]

I owned a Rivera Fandango and K100. The Fandango was an excellent amp but I wants something higher gain. The K100 was it...really, one of the best sounding amps I've ever played. Unfortunately, I suffer from G.A.S. like so many of us and sold it to get another amp (which is since sold...) but I've regretted selling it for a long time. I still think of picking up a KTRE or other Rivera, I do miss being in the Rivera family!

Orren

 

[electrophonic.tonic]

K Tre bump

http://tonefinder.com/?section=id&value=11009

 

[guitarmike]

On the Rivera name: It may be age-related. The Paul Rivera Fender era set up his reputation for a lot of us, so the name Rivera = Great tone, quality, and design/engineering. Rivera has been one of those names that has been long respected in the guitar community.

The Rivera name makes me think Fender amps and I don't like Fender amps so I never gave Rivera's a second look. If I remember right, didn't some of Rivera's amps look like Fenders?

 

[electrophonic.tonic]

On the Rivera name: It may be age-related. The Paul Rivera Fender era set up his reputation for a lot of us, so the name Rivera = Great tone, quality, and design/engineering. Rivera has been one of those names that has been long respected in the guitar community.

The Rivera name makes me think Fender amps and I don't like Fender amps so I never gave Rivera's a second look. If I remember right, didn't some of Rivera's amps look like Fenders?

 

[mjtripper]

That sir is a nice collection of Mr Rivera's handiwork. I just finished overhauling my princeton ii and it's a great amp. I also have a k-tre combo as my main amp and a head for a backup so you can probably say I'm also a fan of his work