Roadking II clean

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nathan28

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Hello guys I have had three recs and I have had my Roadking II for about 5 1/2 years.... its been a great amp, its high gain channel is second to none, but my god, mesa needs to learn how to make a good clean channel, my amp is supposed to have the lone star cleans, well i hope the lone star sounds better. I have battled the clean channels on this amp for 6 years, yesterday i play a $300.00 fender that sounds better. No wonder that 99% of professional guitar players always have a second amp for their cleans. MESA'S cleans suck!! For the $3000.00 i shouldnt have to buy another amp to get great cleans, this amp has usable cleans and that is it. sorry for the rant, im looking for a clean amp and im trying different ones out and i realize how much i paid for my roadking, i shouldnt be in this situation, upgrade the cleans in your roadking mesa, its a rip off at 2750.
 
Not sure what's wrong with yours, but my Roadster which is very similar to the Road King II has awesome cleans... :D

There could be a number of reasons why yours doesn't sound good. Have you tried replacing valves in your amp yet? Also depends on what you set it up as well I guess...
 
Sorry to hear your not happy with your RKII. I think the clean tones in my Roadster are great, and a huge improvement over the cleans in my previous Triple Recto. The cleans in my Roadster do not "suck" at all IMO.

What exactly is it that you don't like about the clean tones in your RKII? Maybe we can help. Be as descriptive as possible.

A great "clean" amp is the Roland JC-120.

I understand your frustration over the price of the amp. When I bought my Roadster I could not see how to justify an additional $800 for the RK's progressive linkage, cabinet switching & extra parallel loop.

Dom
 
To OP: Are your tubes the originals by chance? lol If not, how old are the tubes? The reason I ask is some people seem to think tubes last forever and ***** about how their amp sounds like ****. :) Having said that, perhaps it's time to retube your Roadking II. Maybe your tone quality has slowly suffered over the years because you've been running old tubes and it is showing particularly on the clean channels. I say retube your amp, rediscover it's full potential, and get back to us. Perhaps a certain combination of tubes will help the clean channel as well. You will have to refer to tube experts about tubes theyd recommend though.
 
To be fair Fender is known for their clean tone while Mesa Rects are known for their Dirt. Mesa is slowly getting better with the Recto cleans though. Fat Mode is by far my favorite clean mode. It chimes and has a good amount of body. :)
 
GuitarGuy503 said:
To be fair Fender is known for their clean tone while Mesa Rects are known for their Dirt. Mesa is slowly getting better with the Recto cleans though. Fat Mode is by far my favorite clean mode. It chimes and has a good amount of body. :)

Mesa cleans are just as good as Fenders in their current lineups IMO...
 
I made 1 tube change in my roadster, and I think the cleans in it are now great.

The bottom line though is that not everyone is going to like every clean. Doesn't mean they're bad, just means they're not to your taste. A multi-channel amp is always going to be a slight compromise. Case in point: You liked that $300 fender clean, but how was the dirty channel?
 
One thing I've done with the Rectos I've had is to run an effects processor in the loop for the cleans. I'll EQ the cleans the way I want, and keep the distortion channel stock.

TBH, I didn't buy a Recto for the cleans....it was the distortion channel that sold me on them.
 
mikey383 said:
...... TBH, I didn't buy a Recto for the cleans....it was the distortion channel that sold me on them.

+1, however as I mentioned earlier the cleans in the Roadster are very good IMO.

Maybe we are dealing with buyer's remorse?

We are still here willing to help you with this.

Dom
 
screamingdaisy said:
nathan28 said:
yesterday i play a $300.00 fender that sounds better.

How was that Fender's lead channel?

I'm going to bet like this:

fender.jpg
:shock: :shock:

But you know, some people like that too ..........

Dom
 
I sort of understand what you are saying Nathan28, but you have to realize much of the Fender clean tone appeal is about taste. Some players love Fenders, while others find that the Fender cleans aren't fat enough. Hence the popularity of amps such as the Lonestar. Of course, there are also companies that take that the signature Fender clean tones and try to make them better. Carr Amplifiers is a perfect example of this. If you are naturally inclined to love the Fender cleans and find their tone and response to meet your personal ideal, then you probably aren't going to be too impressed with Mesa cleans on any of their amps. Personally, I am partial to Fender cleans too, but appreciate Mesa cleans in a totally different way. Most newer Mesa have clean tones that have more sparkle on the top end and have HUGE low end capabilities with the EQ. I like that FAT tone a lot. Do I like it more or less? No. They are just different. You are comparing, unfairly, apples to oranges.
 
Well fellas, we've been here for a week now to offer our help, but there has not been another post here from the OP so I don't think he wants help.

This was most likely just a rant set off by his dissatisfaction with his RKII's clean tones and a case of buyers remorse.

Oh well, can't please 'em all I guess.

Dom
 
domct203 said:
mikey383 said:
...... TBH, I didn't buy a Recto for the cleans....it was the distortion channel that sold me on them.

+1, however as I mentioned earlier the cleans in the Roadster are very good IMO.

Maybe we are dealing with buyer's remorse?

We are still here willing to help you with this.

Dom


The way I see it, I can always come up with a decent clean via outboard processing, EQing, etc....but I can't do the same with the distortion. It's either there or it's not.

The way I had my 2 channel Dual Rec set up, I had a nice Fenderish clean and the trademark Dual Rec distortion, plus a good dirty tone. All it took was an old school Digitech GSP2101 wired via 4 cable method, a Behringer FCB1010, and tweaking time. I could come up with a multitude of "channels" depending on how I set the effects processor.

But yeah, I think we're dealing with buyer's remorse here.
 
I'm convinced that at least half the people who have problems with the clean channel on their Recto have the lead channel volume set way too high... then can't figure out why the clean channel is too quiet and lacks the headroom to match volumes with the lead channel.
 
screamingdaisy said:
I'm convinced that at least half the people who have problems with the clean channel on their Recto have the lead channel volume set way too high... then can't figure out why the clean channel is too quiet and lacks the headroom to match volumes with the lead channel.

+1

You can't have a lead channel set to Modern with the ch master at 11:00 and expect the clean volume to balance.

But, the OP never stated what his problem with the cleans were, just that they "suck".

Dom
 
screamingdaisy said:
Yeah... I figured we'd transitioned into carrying on a conversation without him 'cause we're bored.


Seems that way.
 
Lol...LOl...LOL...Dom you're a sick dude.....I can't stop laughing about the bowl shot...But thats the way Fender ODs sound..My cleans on my Boogie are great...
 
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