NAD: Rivera Knucklehead Reverb (KR-100)

[jwhitman]

........and I'm in LOVE! My god. It's still the morning after purchase, so I'm waiting for my glassy eyes to return to normal before I try to give a write up on this head that is better than OHMEHGERD over and over again..

I will say, the flexibilty of this amp is absolutely mindblowing. I've played it for approximately 4 hours now and I am still discovering tones with the endless combinations of power scaling, push pulling, boosting and reverbing that this thing has to offer. I've played anything from jangley cleans to out right death metal and everything between so far. My favorite two tones so far is the clean with the mids knob pulled (one of the two modes that I'll have to research), brights engaged and pretty much the eq nooned. It's a "Stone Sour - Bother" clean when you ad a touch of the built in reverb. Then, CH 2 using the built in boost sounds very Dual Rec with a bit more tightness in the bottom end while maintaining that KICK in the chest for a modern rhythm sound. It's got a wonderful "full" mid section to the EQ that I would say is primarily low mid, but can get nasally mids with the right tweaks. Also, the scoop function on the mids allows you to switch between the notch at 550hz for a classic sounding mid section and 750hz for that more modern roar. Add the midi functionality to this amp and I'm leanin towards it being a definite keeper!

I'll give it a few more days to find my bearings with it and do the proper research to correctly tell what I'm doing with it. THEN I'll try to give you guys an appropriate write up. For now, here's a few pics of my new toy.

Oh and this guitar PLUS that amp = TOAN SECKS...

 

[mjtripper]

Conrats! Those are nice, I'm a huge Rivera fan.

 

[jwhitman]

Conrats! Those are nice, I'm a huge Rivera fan.

Thanks! I had seen alot about them, but done very little research. I happened to be on a 3 day weekend trip with my lady and we stumbled into Sam Ash. I know a few guys there and this amp had literally only been there a few hours. One of their pro-audio guys had it in his studio and sold it to fund another purchase. I played it with a PRS Custom 22, an excellent R8 and a Strat Deluxe, end of story. It was put on the CC and toted to the house.

Fortunately for me, my lady reeled me in or an R8 would be costing me money as well.....

 

[Jeremy]

Congrads! I've had mine for over 4 years now and it ain't going anywhere. Love it.

 

[jwhitman]

Congrads! I've had mine for over 4 years now and it ain't going anywhere. Love it.

Thanks bud! You still run the factory tubes?

 

[bigdaddyd]

Congrats...I have a KHR 55 which I love. It is my main amp and it basically killed my amp GAS. Sure I still want some stuff, but not much and I don't need anything..except maybe a 1 watt. This thing does everything, and I do have another Rivera. They are awesome amps, and an awesome company. If you ever have any problems...call them. They will help you.

 

[Jeremy]

Congrads! I've had mine for over 4 years now and it ain't going anywhere. Love it.

Thanks bud! You still run the factory tubes?

I did/have. I think I lucked out when I bought mine as it came loaded with =C= EL34's. When I had a failure I just re-ordered my tubes from Rivera and got some Valve Art EL34's. They're OK but found them to be a bit rounder than the =C='s. Nice thing about ordering tubes with Rivera is you can tell them what # is written on the tubes and they'll send you a set to drop right in that are rated the same some you don't have to get your bias corrected. Pretty nice/handy. Haven't had to replace any of the pre's yet but have a back up set of Sovtek's from Rivera as well.

Truth be told I really am not all that into trying different tubes. If I could stick to the =C='s I would.

 

[PBGas]

There was one of these at my local store that someone traded in once. I wish I spent a bit more time on it. Great looking amp! congrats!

 

[jwhitman]

Congrads! I've had mine for over 4 years now and it ain't going anywhere. Love it.

Thanks bud! You still run the factory tubes?

I did/have. I think I lucked out when I bought mine as it came loaded with =C= EL34's. When I had a failure I just re-ordered my tubes from Rivera and got some Valve Art EL34's. They're OK but found them to be a bit rounder than the =C='s. Nice thing about ordering tubes with Rivera is you can tell them what # is written on the tubes and they'll send you a set to drop right in that are rated the same some you don't have to get your bias corrected. Pretty nice/handy. Haven't had to replace any of the pre's yet but have a back up set of Sovtek's from Rivera as well.

Truth be told I really am not all that into trying different tubes. If I could stick to the =C='s I would.

What was the difference between with winged Cs and the others tonally? I had the Cs in my Framus and loved them.