Hi all. I'm a proud owner of a Road King II, and I was just curious in what context you all use the high gain channels for rhythm/soloing/etc.
A little about me and my preferences. The tone I'm going for with my band in general is something akin to Coheed and Cambria, New Found Glory/modern pop punk, and grunge/90s alternative. Those aren't necessarily altogether on the same page, but basically what I try to get out of my high gain tones is enough beefiness for hard riffing and palm muted chugging, but at the same time enough clarity to be able to hear all the intervals of 3 and 4 note chords played with a lot of distortion.
I personally find that for almost all of my high gain stuff, I gravitate to channel 4 on modern. Maybe it's just the heavier bass that gets me, but the channel just feels more driving to me. For solos, I generally stay in channel 4, hit the solo switch and kick on a Memory Man delay I have that also has the level boosted a little bit. I have my 3rd channel set to vintage, but I almost never use it unless I'm playing covers of stuff like Pearl Jam, random 80s pop, or anything blusier, where that "modern" distortion just seems a bit too saturated and over the top.
Now, I realize that I'm probably not taking full advantage of both channels, even as far as my own needs go. I'm sure all sorts of users have their own way of achieving usable, great tones. Of note, I'm almost sure I'm not using channel 3 to its full potential; I haven't read many Road King reviews since I bought it a year ago, but as I remember most people asserted that channel 3 vintage was the real liquid soloing tone of the amp. However, I always feel like it sounds a bit tame clicking into it coming off the sustain and saturation of channel 4. If I choose to fool around with channel 3 for a prolonged period at a band practice or something and just let my ears adjust to it though, it does seem to have a certain cut and clarity that channel 4 doesn't. Maybe it's the boomy bass of channel 4 being a little muddier to my ears. Still, I can't seem to get away from the aggressiveness of channel 4 for both solos and rhythms.
So... how does everyone else play with these 2 channels? Particularly interested in anyone that spends most of their playing time with a band playing high gain, hard rock.
A little about me and my preferences. The tone I'm going for with my band in general is something akin to Coheed and Cambria, New Found Glory/modern pop punk, and grunge/90s alternative. Those aren't necessarily altogether on the same page, but basically what I try to get out of my high gain tones is enough beefiness for hard riffing and palm muted chugging, but at the same time enough clarity to be able to hear all the intervals of 3 and 4 note chords played with a lot of distortion.
I personally find that for almost all of my high gain stuff, I gravitate to channel 4 on modern. Maybe it's just the heavier bass that gets me, but the channel just feels more driving to me. For solos, I generally stay in channel 4, hit the solo switch and kick on a Memory Man delay I have that also has the level boosted a little bit. I have my 3rd channel set to vintage, but I almost never use it unless I'm playing covers of stuff like Pearl Jam, random 80s pop, or anything blusier, where that "modern" distortion just seems a bit too saturated and over the top.
Now, I realize that I'm probably not taking full advantage of both channels, even as far as my own needs go. I'm sure all sorts of users have their own way of achieving usable, great tones. Of note, I'm almost sure I'm not using channel 3 to its full potential; I haven't read many Road King reviews since I bought it a year ago, but as I remember most people asserted that channel 3 vintage was the real liquid soloing tone of the amp. However, I always feel like it sounds a bit tame clicking into it coming off the sustain and saturation of channel 4. If I choose to fool around with channel 3 for a prolonged period at a band practice or something and just let my ears adjust to it though, it does seem to have a certain cut and clarity that channel 4 doesn't. Maybe it's the boomy bass of channel 4 being a little muddier to my ears. Still, I can't seem to get away from the aggressiveness of channel 4 for both solos and rhythms.
So... how does everyone else play with these 2 channels? Particularly interested in anyone that spends most of their playing time with a band playing high gain, hard rock.
