Gimme the goods on the Rivera KR7 head

[Techdeth]

Any you own one or have ? What’s it remind you of ? What’s unique about it ?
Thanks Techy Toenails

 

[VonBonfire]

Hey nicky, you heard from omnipotent1 lately?

 

[japetus]

Any you own one or have ? What’s it remind you of ? What’s unique about it ?
Thanks Techy Toenails

I had the KH2 and it was badass. One of the amps I regret selling. Fender cleans, thiccc distortion.

 

[Rising Farce]

It's the best of the "K" line, but the Rivera distortion character is not for everyone. A pre-purchase play session is highly recommended.

 

[japetus]

One of the things I liked about the Knucklehead 2 was the great cleans. You could use it as just a great fat pedal amp and it would be amazing. The OD channel was great but, for high gain I would go for something else. They are built like tanks.

 

[harddriver]

I owned a K-Tre 100 and the low end could be flubby like a Recto even with that Foundation control so for anything tight you're gonna need to be clean boosted with something like an OD808 to keep things tight. I'm not sure how close the KR7 is to the K-Tre so how close they are I don't know. I liked the channel footswitchable boost on it. The K-Tre has this cool crunchy grind to it like the Rivera M100 I had but it also seems kinda smeared to my ears that you may or may not hear in the clips below.

I traded a 6505 straight up for it as I wanted to check out something that had that Saigon Kick, Skid Row tones and it did do that but in the end I still preferred my Marshalls but the K-TRE is different and cool in it's own right.

I agree with Rising Farce, try before you buy as the resale on them isn't great.

 

[Randy R]

Flubby and super loud

 

[Kagami]

Had one, got stolen and don't really miss it. I hated the middle channel, the 3rd channel was the one to use, have to use a boost and it's missing a depth control so somehow it's a bit bass light compared to what you would expect considering like how Randy said it's not that tight. The controls are also really sensitive and interactive which is good or bad I guess. Also having to use the loop to make the volume level reasonable was pretty annoying since you had to reach around the amp every time you turned it on.

From clips tbh the k-tre sounds a lot different and I think I'd like it more, Jon playing it sounds almost exactly what they have on their later shadows fall records.

This was the serial of mine in case you see it somewhere lol. R894 3E00734KR7

 

[angelspade]

I borrowed one for about a week while I let a studio use one of my Diezel heads. I found it disappointing. Based on the type / quality of amps that you prefer, I don't feel like it would work for you.

 

[angelspade]

Flubby and super loud

Yup...I couldn't get any tone or attitude out of it without absolutely obscene volume levels.

 

[Techdeth]

Hey nicky, you heard from omnipotent1 lately?

No . I tagged him

 

[Techdeth]

One of the things I liked about the Knucklehead 2 was the great cleans. You could use it as just a great fat pedal amp and it would be amazing. The OD channel was great but, for high gain I would go for something else. They are built like tanks.

Yiu know me . Idc about cleans
I maxed a 5150II clean tone works for years . Ugh it was terrible lol now anything is glorious

 

[Techdeth]

Had one, got stolen and don't really miss it. I hated the middle channel, the 3rd channel was the one to use, have to use a boost and it's missing a depth control so somehow it's a bit bass light compared to what you would expect considering like how Randy said it's not that tight. The controls are also really sensitive and interactive which is good or bad I guess. Also having to use the loop to make the volume level reasonable was pretty annoying since you had to reach around the amp every time you turned it on.

From clips tbh the k-tre sounds a lot different and I think I'd like it more, Jon playing it sounds almost exactly what they have on their later shadows fall records.

This was the serial of mine in case you see it somewhere lol. R894 3E00734KR7

I borrowed one for about a week while I let a studio use one of my Diezel heads. I found it disappointing. Based on the type / quality of amps that you prefer, I don't feel like it would work for you.

thanks man . You’re advice makes sense .

 

[Rayneman]

I had that amp for a very short while. I can't recall much other than I wanted it gone.

 

[RaceU4her]

Its amps like these that make me want a modeler to “try them out”.

 

[Dave L]

Yup...I couldn't get any tone or attitude out of it without absolutely obscene volume levels.

Yeah, all the Riveras I´ve ever tried need to be up at 3.5 or more on the channel volumes to start singing. Loud gig levels, basically. I´m guessing they´re old school enough to be designed for a bit of PI crunch.

 

[ZEEGLER]

The KR-7 is based on the 3 channel Knucklehead Reverb 55/100. It's not the same as the K-II/K-Tre amps. Nowhere near as much bottom end available. I had a KR-55 and it was good enough that I'm sure I could have lived with it if I had to, but the Head Master MIDI footswitch was close to useless, and my K-II is just a much better amp IMO. I now have a K-Tre as well, and I love it almost as much as the K-II.

I'd say if you can get a KR-7 for a good price, give it a try, but if you just want to try out something from Rivera, stick to the K-II or K-Tre.

Also, as some have mentioned, pretty much all the Knucklehead amps benefit greatly from a boost. However, dialed in correctly, you can get away without one.