Rivera Knucklehead Tré 120W or 5150III 6L6 50W?

I guess most classic thrash is a 2203 with a SD1 or similar in front, like just about everything from the 80s is? In that case the Tré is pretty modern sounding in comparison, lots of gain and bass and not very classic at all. I´d guess boosting the middle channel of the 5150III might be your best bet out of those two.
 
Yes, Marshall is quite a standard, just I want to try something a bit different after a serie of Marshall and Engl amps.
 
Out of curiosity, why would you not look at the 5150 III 100 watt version?

I've owned the Rivera Knucklehead 55, the M60 and three M100s. Riveras have a certain tone to them. You either love it or you hate it. I will say that they usually sound really good in the context of a band mix. I have also owned a 5150 III 100 and a 50 watt Stealth. For what I do, I'd go with the Original 5150 III 100 watter. It has more bottom end punch than the 50 and cuts better that the Rivera. But that is really personal preference. Both are quality amps.
 
I have a possibility to purchase them for a really good price, so it's tempting. Maybe I will pick them both, no problem to sell in case of disappointment.
 
I've had both, currently have the 50 watt EVH.

The Rivera is a complete beast. Its very, very loud and the volume taper goes from 0 to paint peeling with the smallest of adjustments. I found the funny thing about that amp is that it delivers a ton of gain, and then it has a gain boost that is completely unnecessary. In any event, it was a cool amp and I sort of miss it. The EVH is a great amp all-around. I'm sure from a quality point of view, the Rivera is a few notches up the scale, but then again I've had quite a few EVHs and none have failed.

If you can get them both do it.
 
Yeah, the Riveras probably are some of the last modern amps made with that 70s-80s design philosophy, where the taper isn´t that important since you need to get it up to fairly loud gig levels before it really sounds right anyway. 3,5-4 is the magic number for the master on all these.
 
He’s changed the master’s with the few newer amps of his to surface on the boutique amplifier market.
One in particular, the Stage VI,
-has a decent master volume for a Deluxe Reverb killer’ type of amp.
It’s a great amp man.
Believe it or not, the Eminence EV clone speaker is on champion levels with this amplifier.
A nice cozy’ Reverb & groovy’ Tremolo.

One of my secret atomic weapons is a Diezel
Herbert preamp pedal in the loop return of the Rivera.
So you get that thick Marshall/Tweed Rivera roar
with Diezels high-fidelity, divine levels of high gain,
& HERDS of monstrous mutes’
mega-punching the gruntz.
Dude, it is RUTHLESS.
 
So, guys have arrived. First impressions of Rivera are mixed. I expected it to be something different from what I'm used to and it's still something completely different :). I'll see if we get used to each other.

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I had a Tre and I'm still fixing the cracks in the walls from that beast. Unless you have an attenuator or something like a PS-2/100 it's really not usable at home. But it sounds pretty damn good.
 
So far I've only tried the Tre through React:IR and headphones. I'll take it to rehearsal on Wednesday and see what I can get out of it. I am not used to boost amps, but in this case it seems to be necessary, to stiffen the low end of that bass heavy bastard.
 
Yes, I prefer diagonal grill as well. Horizontal one reminds me of Engl Fireball and Powerball. BTW, that pink is so sweet :)
 
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