Mesa Road King mk I 2nd channel-other amp with such voicing?

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zerot0lerance

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I've been looking for some specific sound and I found it in the 2nd channel of the Road King. I'm mainly playing stoner/doom/yougettheidea and I wanted some kind of Corrosion of Conformity (Delivernace) feel in my sound. I dig the 2nd channel (fat mode) of Road King mk I for that but I don't need the WHOLE road king. So, is there any other Mesa amp that has a channel with such voicing? I don't need Road King features (I played using two 6L6 tubes) nor two Recto channels. I know that Roadster is simplier but still too much for me. Many of you will probably suggest a Lone Star, but I read that mk I Road King wasn't voiced using Lone Star circuit. Suggestions? Maybe Mark series?
 
I believe the Roadster is just the little brother to the Road King but without the progressive link (lacks the EL34, however the amp can use EL34 tubes if needed). If I am not mistaken, the Rectifier series was spawned off of the Mark III (blue stripe) but with major circuitry differences and design of the tone stack and where it sits in the gain chain.

If the CH2 on the RK is similar to the Roadster, then I would have to say you can get something very similar with most Mark series amps. JP-2C clean channel is basically that but you will not be able to drive the gain for break up as it stays clean over the entire sweep of the gain control. It does have a little spice but not as much as you would get from Mark V or the Roadster. The Mark V will sound a bit different as it used an extended Class A at the 45W mode (push-pull vs class A/B). I would not rule it out though as the Mark V has a very sweet clean channel (with similar voicings as the RK and roadster).

If you are looking for a 50W version. I would definitely check out the TC-50. You can use EL34, 6L6, and even 6V6 power tubes. There is also the Mesa Express 5:50+ but I have no experience with that amp to comment. However, that one in particular can only use 6L6 power tubes.

There may be other options to consider, I can only reflect on what I have played though (with the exception of the 5:50). Hopefully others will respond to your question with better recommendations.
 
zerot0lerance said:
I've been looking for some specific sound and I found it in the 2nd channel of the Road King. I'm mainly playing stoner/doom/yougettheidea and I wanted some kind of Corrosion of Conformity (Delivernace) feel in my sound. I dig the 2nd channel (fat mode) of Road King mk I for that but I don't need the WHOLE road king. So, is there any other Mesa amp that has a channel with such voicing? I don't need Road King features (I played using two 6L6 tubes) nor two Recto channels. I know that Roadster is simplier but still too much for me. Many of you will probably suggest a Lone Star, but I read that mk I Road King wasn't voiced using Lone Star circuit. Suggestions? Maybe Mark series?

The cleans on the multi watt ("reborn") dual rectifier are based on the Lone Star and are spectacular. I liked them better than any of the cleans on my Road King II.

Some people regard the reborn recto as overly fizzy/bright, but if you stick with channel 2 for rhythms and channel 3 for soloing it sounds spectacular. To me.

What the reborn recto doesn't have is built-in reverb, it's a stripped down, potent, amp. I put a Holy Grail Reverb Nano in the fx loop and was happy as a clam.

There are a lot of amps that I've owned that I got rid of, including my Road King, but my reborn recto is probably never going anywhere. I can't quit it.
 
dlpasco said:
zerot0lerance said:
I've been looking for some specific sound and I found it in the 2nd channel of the Road King. I'm mainly playing stoner/doom/yougettheidea and I wanted some kind of Corrosion of Conformity (Delivernace) feel in my sound. I dig the 2nd channel (fat mode) of Road King mk I for that but I don't need the WHOLE road king. So, is there any other Mesa amp that has a channel with such voicing? I don't need Road King features (I played using two 6L6 tubes) nor two Recto channels. I know that Roadster is simplier but still too much for me. Many of you will probably suggest a Lone Star, but I read that mk I Road King wasn't voiced using Lone Star circuit. Suggestions? Maybe Mark series?

The cleans on the multi watt ("reborn") dual rectifier are based on the Lone Star and are spectacular. I liked them better than any of the cleans on my Road King II.

Some people regard the reborn recto as overly fizzy/bright, but if you stick with channel 2 for rhythms and channel 3 for soloing it sounds spectacular. To me.

What the reborn recto doesn't have is built-in reverb, it's a stripped down, potent, amp. I put a Holy Grail Reverb Nano in the fx loop and was happy as a clam.

There are a lot of amps that I've owned that I got rid of, including my Road King, but my reborn recto is probably never going anywhere. I can't quit it.

Not to discredit what you hear, because you hear what you hear, and there's nothing wrong with that. But the Road King II cleans are also based on the Lonestar circuitry
 
I don't feel discredited it at all :)

They're both based on the same Lone Star cleans, but I'm guessing that mostly the preamp - lots of other stuff besides that can be different.

What I do know is that I'd play around with Fat Mode on my RK II for a bit, and then switch to something else, but that I'd spend a LOT more time with the reborn's clean channel - it was just more enticing to me. Don't know why.
 
Side note: my tastes in cleans have changed a lot since I got my JP-2C. But the reborn's cleans still make me happy, too.

I check every once in awhile :)
 
Hmm, The only thing I am aware of being borrowed from the Lone Star was the Reverb circuit..... Not trying to stir the pot as I never really kept up with Mesa between 2000 and 2012.
 
bandit2013 said:
Hmm, The only thing I am aware of being borrowed from the Lone Star was the Reverb circuit..... Not trying to stir the pot as I never really kept up with Mesa between 2000 and 2012.

For the Road King?

(Checks manual) - wow. In the manual it says that Fat Mode was actually based on the Mark I Boogie. I had apparently misremembered that. The word "lone" appears nowhere in the documentation.

Oops.
 
Interesting, Will have to see if I can dial in a clean tone in Mark I mode on the V and see how it compares. Unfortunate that I have not had any experience with the RK original or even the series II. So tempting to get one but the Roadster is enough for me.

For the Lone Star, this clip sounds great....

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=mesa+boogie+lone+star&&view=detail&mid=9E0C228172D41004C9BE9E0C228172D41004C9BE&rvsmid=61E8AE728A7236D5714361E8AE728A7236D57143&fsscr=-1320&FORM=VDFSRV

Then there is this....
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=mesa+boogie+lone+star&&view=detail&mid=D293F6C3D095DE62858AD293F6C3D095DE62858A&rvsmid=61E8AE728A7236D5714361E8AE728A7236D57143&fsscr=-1485&FORM=VDQVAP

And now for something completely different: This one surprised me....
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Mesa+boogie+road+king+II&&view=detail&mid=60EA7FCAEBF60CE2189B60EA7FCAEBF60CE2189B&rvsmid=CCBE77030CFF43862120CCBE77030CFF43862120&fsscr=-1320&FORM=VDFSRV
 
dlpasco said:
Side note: my tastes in cleans have changed a lot since I got my JP-2C. But the reborn's cleans still make me happy, too.

I check every once in awhile :)

How's about the clean mode? Just curious of your thoughts as I do own a Roadster head as well. Basically the same preamp as your Road King II. Personally, I dig both modes for different textures and flavours if you will
 
dlpasco said:
bandit2013 said:
Hmm, The only thing I am aware of being borrowed from the Lone Star was the Reverb circuit..... Not trying to stir the pot as I never really kept up with Mesa between 2000 and 2012.

For the Road King?

(Checks manual) - wow. In the manual it says that Fat Mode was actually based on the Mark I Boogie. I had apparently misremembered that. The word "lone" appears nowhere in the documentation.

Oops.

For all we know, the clean modes on a Road King could be a mixup between the Lone Stars and the Mark Is. IMO, the cleans on Mesas improved very much so after the introduction of the Lone Star series

A bit of a sidetrack since I noticed that you own a Mark V. I too own the head version. To me, when I engage the fat mode on channel 1 and give it a bit of a push, with my eyes closed, it really sounds like a pushed Princeton through a 12" speaker and with more midrange punch
 
Sorry to hijack this thread..... :roll:

For me it is a toss up..... I love both clean channels on the Roadster as there are 3 distinct voicings. My favorite would be the tweed setting on CH1 for classic rock, however I seem to use the FAT voice on both CH1 and CH2. At least have one using the tube rectifier vs diode.

JP-2C may seem limited in its tonal pallet on the clean channel (lacking different voicings) but it is very sweet and very close to the Fat voice on the Roadster. It does have that almost at breakup sound but yet remains focused and clean with lots of overhead. There is not one thing I dislike about the JP-2C other than it can be extremely loud but that too can be tamed and managed easily.

As for the Mark V, I converted from head to combo to get a different character on the clean channel since it was the clean channel that is the reason why I still have it. I basically replaced the role of the Mark V Head with the Roadster head as my main amp. That was until the JP-2C entered my life.

I cannot say all this without making comment on the RA100's that I have. Clean channel can be bold and juicy and dialed in to some saturated clipping that definitely sings out early classic rock tone to me. The RA100 sound great on the clean channel despite I am using EL34's as those tend to alter the clean channel tone if used in the Roadster or Mark V.

Back to the OP... assuming that the RKI is not that far off from the Roadster (with the updated circuits shared with the RKII) what sounds very close would be the JP-2C. Very pleasing to play though. Unless you like your clean on the dirty side, the JP-2C needs a little external help for that..
 
For me on my Roadster, channel 1 alternates between clean and fat modes. The second channel is predominantly stuck in Brit mode 8)
 
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