Mesa Roadster.....Pros and Cons?

[rlord1974]

I have been using a Tremoverb for years but have recently been thinking of picking up a Roadster. I could use the 4 footswitchable channels in the band I'm currently gigging with.

Aside from those of you that simply don't dig Mesa Rectos, are there any serious cons/disappointments to the Roadster that I should be aware of? For example, lags/delays or dropouts when channel switching?

Of less importance but still a point of interest, are there any major pros to the Roadster you care to share?

Thanks!

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

I love my Roadster. VERSATILE like no other. The range of AWESOME tones (not just decent) I can get out of this amp is really great. I recommend dropping some EL-34s in it as soon as you get it though.

Some have complained about channel switching lag, etc. Mine has been perfect since day one.

If you have any more specific questions, feel free to PM me.

Eric

 

[Random Hero]

IMO...
Pros: It sounds better than some amps
Cons: It doesn't sound as good as a lot more amps




Joking aside, I had one at my house for about a month and just didn't gel with it. I used to own a few Rectifiers and have gone off them but I think for the money - especially here in the UK - I can get something to better suit my personal tastes. But that's me.

If you like Recto tones, you will most likely love it. Pretty good clean, Recto high gain which to my ear was closer to the 2ch than the 3ch. The mid-gain is very so-so and bland but it does the Recto thing pretty excellently. I noticed some channel switching lag on the one I had but nothing too major, nothing you'd really notice in a mix unless you're switching back and forth mid riff.

 

[Les Zombie]

I had one for a year and it was a nice amp, i liked all 4 channels.
My biggest issue with rectos is that i only like them boosted. I hate them without a boost, they feel much better to me and i think it makes them sound better.

 

[Shiny_Surface]

I have been using a Tremoverb for years but have recently been thinking of picking up a Roadster. I could use the 4 footswitchable channels in the band I'm currently gigging with.

Aside from those of you that simply don't dig Mesa Rectos, are there any serious cons/disappointments to the Roadster that I should be aware of? For example, lags/delays or dropouts when channel switching?

Of less importance but still a point of interest, are there any major pros to the Roadster you care to share?

Thanks!

It's a great amp if you like the Recto tone. The first thing that struck me when I first plugged into my old Roadster was that it had a darker tone than my old 2 and 3 channel Dual Rec's. If you don't like an even darker tone than the rest of the Recto line than stay away, or you will find yourself cranking up the highs/presence. I personally liked the dark tone because I'm relegated to basement duty these days, but if i was in a band situation I might have a different opinion.

The cleans were great. I tried to get a half assed Marshall tone out of channel 2 brit, it was alot brighter than the gain channels and you had to crank the gain to get any clipping out of it. Boosted it sounded pretty good though.

The reverb swell bothered me to the point where I stopped using it and used a delay/reverb pedal instead. Sometimes the channel switch lag bothered me as well, it's not as instant as your Tremoverb.

 

[155]

el34's for sure , great amp, needs some tweeking but your used to that with the mesa anyway, killer cleans and gets insane too. go for it!

 

[rlord1974]

The reverb swell bothered me to the point where I stopped using it and used a delay/reverb pedal instead. Sometimes the channel switch lag bothered me as well, it's not as instant as your Tremoverb.

These may in fact be deal breakers for me - especially the channel switching lag.

OK, so if not the Roadster, how about another great 3 or 4 channel head in the same price range (used)? I'm open to suggestions......

 

[rlord1974]

Sometimes the channel switch lag bothered me as well, it's not as instant as your Tremoverb.

Help me understand this "lag" issue. Is there really that noticeable a lag? Does the signal itself cut out for a moment, or does the channel transition just not happen instantaneously when you press the footswitch?

And WTF can't they just make it so there is no lag? My T-Verb is instant, so was the Quad preamp I recently had (which, BTW, was 20 years old but they could still make it instant back then!)

 

[Shiny_Surface]

Sometimes the channel switch lag bothered me as well, it's not as instant as your Tremoverb.

Help me understand this "lag" issue. Is there really that noticeable a lag? Does the signal itself cut out for a moment, or does the channel transition just not happen instantaneously when you press the footswitch?

And WTF can't they just make it so there is no lag? My T-Verb is instant, so was the Quad preamp I recently had (which, BTW, was 20 years old but they could still make it instant back then!)

There was a thread on Rig Talk about this very topic (early 2009 I think) comparing the LDR's used on the older models to the relay's used in current production. Even Mike Fortin chimed in on it.

If I remember correctly from that old thread is that relays in and of themselves work fine for channel switching, it's how Mesa implemented them in the design that is the cause for the slight lag in the switching.

All I can say is it may bother you or it might not, depends on your individual tolerance level to it.

Check out the stickied thread in the Recto forum on the Boogie Board about how to reduce the lag. That trick didn't really fix it completely for me though.

 

[droptrd]

Very versatile. Has its own sound compared to the other rectos. If you like recto tones - you obviously do with your Tverb - youll probably like it. It has a better clean channel and more features. It is IMO darker sounding than the Tverbs.

 

[Motorpud]

I'd try to track one down and give it a test drive. I've acquired a lot of amps despite others complaints and a lot of the time I find that it's either exaggerated or nit picking, either that or it doesn't doesn't bother me as much as other people Then again the only way to know if you can tolerate it is to check it out

 

[stratotone]

I liked mine ok, then bought a friend's first year rackmount rectifier head and the Roadster just didn't do the high gain mayhem as well as the rackmount head. Sold the roadster soon after.

However, it was a very versatile amp and had a ton of different options. Clean channel was decent, the 2nd channel was kinda bleh, 3rd and 4th were pretty good. If you hate rectos, stay away, because it does have the recto 'flavor' through and through. Just doesn't sound as good IMHO as the older amps.

Pete