Roadking Series 1 Cleans - What do you guys think?

A friend of mine wants to trade my Rivera and some cash for his Roadking 1 combo.
Looks like I could easily (not easy, but doable) mod the clean channel to get much closer to the Series 2 or Roadster cleans.

What do RK 1 owners think of the cleans? Are they the same as the Rectoverb, sterile and clean, or can you get some nice warm sparkly goodness out of channel 1?
If someone has great cleans out of channel 1, please share your settings!

I'm thinking:
Channel 1 - cleans for melodic parts
Channel 2 - gritty cleans for ska (that's the way I play it anyway...) and some older ZZ Top tones
Channel 3 - Marshall high gain
Channel 4 - Recto face melting gain

Or....should I sell the Rivera and get a Roadster?
I'm hoping that I can borrow the RK tonight and try it out.

Of course you should try it out. You'll surely answer all your questions.
I'm not familiar with either (any) of the amps you mention but I have a lot of (nothing but) tube amp experience and there are a lot of ways to improve the tone (clean or dirty) of an amp without doing any re-engineering or circuit mods. Of course, what you do to the clean channel or voice can also affect the other channels...like in the case of a speaker swap or a different guitar/pickup.
A nice old (or maybe even a different current production bottle) clean preamp tube in the clean channel's pre section can do wonders. Sometimes just a different manufacturer or vintage of a tube but also a lower gain (like a 12AT7 or 5751 instead of a 12AX7) can help.

I realize that a multi channel amp...especially one with THAT many channels is often to or to help get rid of a football field sized pedalboard but, while I have almost NO Mesa experience, the very few that I've played actually liked pedals.
Maybe you can "sacrifice" one of those lower gain crunchy overdriven channels' tones and use it as a clean with pedals? Or maybe some other scenario but....don't overlook the possibility of using a pedal or two.

The moral of this story though is....only YOU can decide which amp works best for YOU. You are lucky that you have the opportunity to test drive the amp before deciding.
DO IT! The test drive I mean...not the trade...not until you try it out first.
Please don't forget to let us know what you decide and why.
Good luck!

I tried out a RK1 before I bought my Roadster. The cleans are wayyyyy better on the Roadster. The rest of the channels are pretty much the same but the RK1 was a lot nosier too. May have been this particular one but I believe that is another of it's common gripes.

I love the cleans on my RK1. To start with, I have the Bold/Spongy switch set to Spongy. I have Channel 1 set to "Clean" using 4 6L6 tubes and tube rectification. You can set all knobs to noon and work from there, but most of mine hover in the 11 - 1 o'clock position. This gives me the best clean sound I have ever heard.

Channel 2 I set to "Brit" using the 2 EL34s. I also use an Xotic BB to dirty it up just a hair more than the preamp will provide and I get some awesome blues tones, especially with a Strat neck pickup.

Channel 3 & 4 I have been experimenting with. Scenario 1 I use a mid-gain British setting on 3 and stomp on the BB for a higher gain British tone. Channel 4 is set up for a saturated Recto tone. Scenario 2 uses the same setting for channel 3 as the previous scenario but channel 4 is the high gain British tone. I don't have much of a call for the full-shred Recto tone, so it's been a bit of a toss up.

The RK1 is a heavy beast, though! I don't use it as much as my Dyne because of this and the fact that the Dyne just fits better with the stuff I play now.

I have not noticed any noise with my RK1. Both it and my Dyne are pretty **** quiet!

Right on, thanks guys!
I brought the RK home to try out, but it was late when I got home from work last night. Have to give it a try this evening!
I've been studying the Roadster drawings. The RK1 clean channel is not that much different from the Roadster. It looks like I could have Roadster cleans fairly easily if I wanted.

I need to open it up anyway, the mode switch for channel 2 is busted off.
I worked on this amp a couple of years ago. The guy had busted a couple of switches off of the back panel and was unable to use channel 4. Other than that, and the fact that the casters are worn out, it looks to be in very good condition!

I love my RK1, I dont like super cleans so it works just fine for me.

I really liked the 2x6L6 and 2xEL34 settings!
I didn't really like the clean channels though, so I didn't make the trade.
I'll keep looking for a Roadster or RK2 when I have some cash.