Mesa Boogie Roadking Dilemma

exoslime

Member
Nov 11, 2008
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Austria
my latest purchase: a Mesa Boogie Roadking Series II

Mesa4.jpg


it seems that the boogies here in europe are all crap, the first one i orderered was not working, we tried it in the shop, no sound, returned, a week later, got a new one..tried it in the shop, works fine, drove home, set it up, works fine, played 5 hours, in 3 sessions, all fine...
2 days later, turned it up, no sound out of Channel 1 and 2, and Channel 3 and 4 got a nice clean tone, in modern mode with Gain to max... whohoo, nice !!
seems that something in the preampsection is damaged or so.. the insert works fine,
i will return it again tomorrow, and hope, that the #3 that i get will work fine the next 20 years..:headbang:

its always the same with these cheap "handmade in usa" stuff... next time i get one from poland,czech,russia or indonesia :) :erk:

i was so proud of that.. and now such a dissapointment..:erk:
.. i took more than hundreds of pictures (i like to photograph...) so here at least, some nice looking pictures of a not working amp...

Mesa1.jpg

Mesa2.jpg

Mesa3.jpg

Mesa5.jpg


well, i have to admit, the 5hours it worked, it was like heaven.. and the different output configurations are killer...thats why i want again a new one, otherwise i would want my money back and never touch a boogie in my whole life anymore.

cheers
exoslime
 
the roadking is mono, but has two selectable outputs,
and the 4x12 roadking cab is
2x12 V30 closed back
2x12 C90 half open back

and you can each of the 4 channels configure to:
Output A, Output B, or Output A+B
 
yup, i also thought about the new mark v, but i also love the recto tone very much and it is kind of essential because of the recordings we plan to do with it.

i guess in about half a year i found the tone i want for the recording.. the possibilities are near endless, but on the other hand, that helps to get nice colors and variations in the recording. i made me a template where i write down settings i liked..

as soon as the mark v is avaliable here, i will try to play one...

all the best
exoslime
 
I almost bought one of those when I was looking for a new amp. I thought it sounded really nice and had a million options on it, but after A/B'ing it with the Uberschall, the Uber won. The Mesa had more versatility, but I liked the Uber's gain channel more and I only really need clean and rip your face off right now. I do want one of these in the future though. Was my fav of all the Mesa's I've tried out.
 
Looks fucking fearsome dude, though I would've gone for a fully closed-back cab myself...
you already got a fully closed back stilletto cab?
well, the cleans sounds really awesome on the half opened back, for distortion i also prefer the closed side.
someday, when i got the new "working" one, and i´m a little bit more experienced with the sounds and micing the beast, i will record some comparision tracks between closed and half opend side and present it here in the forum
 
I almost bought one of those when I was looking for a new amp. I thought it sounded really nice and had a million options on it, but after A/B'ing it with the Uberschall, the Uber won. The Mesa had more versatility, but I liked the Uber's gain channel more and I only really need clean and rip your face off right now. I do want one of these in the future though. Was my fav of all the Mesa's I've tried out.
the Uberschall was (and is still) on my list, amongst many others, like the VHT / Fryette Sig X, but there is no possibility for me to play or compare here.

also the Diezel VH4 was very close, still i havnt heard it in original, only samples.. but i already knew how the Dual Rec sounded and i love the tone..

for me a big +1 were the selectable tube output options each channel, so when the recto sounds are not enough, i can expand with a different preamp and have also the different output stages to color the sound.

cheers
chris
 
hmmm. strange! my ex guitarist had one of these amps, and it worked flawlessly! we gigged with it often, and i used it to record quite often! possibly shipping these bitches to europe and changing the transformer fucks with the amp?

not likely, it is most likely due to the fact that the amp sat in the shop for months (its expensive, not many people can afford 1) and too many dumb fucks played with it.

i have been in big guitar centers (l&m toronto in specific here!) and the guy who works there turns on a triple rec not knowing that the speaker cable is not connected :erk: keeps trying to get it to work, then i show him its not connected! they had the entire mesa line up, and most of them didnt work!!!!!! no sound! the funny thing is they insisted that I get there assistance trying out the amps lololololololol

then i went to the drum room and witness a set of tama starclassics (stacked with no gig bag) get dragged across a cement floor, and a hand full of zildians get thrown into a corner.

and wouldnt having 1/4 of the cab open back make it a 100 percent not closed back lol if that makes sense! I have always thought it was a really stupid design! the idea is you get a closed back and open back cab in one, but the closed back part is compromised by opening the back of the cab lol
 
Fuck, it would take like 4 days to figure out if one of the knobs were turned down or switched off.

Well the thing to realize is, it's really just a shitload of options/features combined into one amp, thus none of the individual ones are that complicated - case in point, those 24 main knobs on the front are really just 4 groups of 6, one for each channel - hell, Peaveys have more than that! (presence AND resonance) And I think the stuff on the back is just like FX loop toggling and reverb mix
 
overcomplicated stuff will break down more often than simple one!you can only have loads of features in digital format and still be relayable.
 
thanks for all your replies!!!

hmmm. strange! my ex guitarist had one of these amps, and it worked flawlessly! we gigged with it often, and i used it to record quite often! possibly shipping these bitches to europe and changing the transformer fucks with the amp?

not likely, it is most likely due to the fact that the amp sat in the shop for months (its expensive, not many people can afford 1) and too many dumb fucks played with it.

both amps (the first, and the second) came directly from the germany distribution center, and the amp was of course not exposed in the shop,
but i also think there is maybe a bad batch of export models..

overcomplicated stuff will break down more often than simple one!.
thats very true, good point, but still it shouldnt happen with an amp that costs so much from a quality known brand.

In Europe I've never had a Road King that DIDN'T break on me. If we sold one at our store we used to get it back within 3mths almost guaranteed.
that is very interesting to hear indeed.

Maybe I missed it, what orange axe is that?
its a forge embrace,
www.forgeguitars.de

and +1 on the lasers and fog generator for RKIII, hahaha.

cheers
chris