Soon to be NAD: Rivera TBR1

[Dave L]

I had one of these beauties years ago and have always regretted selling it. They´re kind of rare here in Sweden, I only think I´ve seen one out for sale except my old one since 2010, so when this popped up for a fair deal I decided to give it a second shot.

It´s a standard from about 1989, and these have the best and most versatile clean channel I´ve ever heard bar none. The lead channel on the standard version is sort of a medium or low gain affair, more related to the modded Fender circuits Rivera did for the session players in the late 70s to the mid 80s. It´s not a heavy rock sound and not very Marshall-ish, which I guess can throw you for a loop if you´re not expecting it, but a tasty vintage voicing with plenty of sustain and grit when you need it. Think early Lukather or guys like Jay Graydon or Larry Carlton. It´ll fill out the stable nicely, since I have other amps that cover anything heavier.

 

[fek]

I loved all 3 of the Rivera's that I have owned. And I agree, the Rivera clean channels are my vote for the best overall tone and most versatile.

 

[Dave L]

We´ll see how it stacks up to my current clean choice, the Custom Audio OD100. That one is more of an ideal blackface Twin, and I remember the TBR having a bit more going on.

 

[Racerxrated]

Is yours the TBR1 M? Or SL? I had an SL, used to be owned by Jason Bieler of Saigon Kick. I sold it to my old drummer who also has a TBR 1 M, which is more the vintage Marshall style while the SL is much higher gain. Those amps have a ton of tone shaping options, and can run EL34s or 6550s or a combo of both. Great clean channel, loop and does the modded Marshall thing with a ton of low end available. Built like a brick house. Those Notch/Slope controls really shape the tone. Rare amp for sure.

 

[Dave L]

It´s actually neither the M or SL, it´s the original model from before the other two voicings turned up. The SL is a Marshall killer, for sure, never had the pleasure of trying the M but I hear it´s like a turbo charged version of this original. Both those have plenty more gain.

 

[Racerxrated]

It´s actually neither the M or SL, it´s the original model from before the other two voicings turned up. The SL is a Marshall killer, for sure, never had the pleasure of trying the M but I hear it´s like a turbo charged version of this original. Both those have plenty more gain.

The M had some gain, but short of a JCM 800 to my memory. It's been a few years, but I borrowed his M to possibly gig with and I needed 2 boosts to get near what i would need to cover the material we played. Still a great amp. The SL needed just a slight boost to tighten up the lows but no additional gain needed. Plenty. I remember when I got the SL from Jason it came with all Vintage pre and power tubes, Siemens 34s and Chinese pre. The footswitch was a pain though, the cord kept popping out of the back of the amp. Lol
Congrats on the TBR!

 

[Dave L]

I'm thinking it might be a smooth sort of distortion going on in the M. I remember Paul calling it an amp made for contemporary RnB, and I'm pretty sure David Williams used one with Michael Jackson. Paul Jackson Jr too.

 

[ChurchHill]

That looks great!! Congrats!!

 

[trashedlostfdup]

Nice amp. cheers.

I am also a fan of the rivera cleans, hard to beat imo.

 

[Dave L]

Well, it turned up yesterday but I didn´t have time to do much more than hook it up and check that it works. Feels like meeting up with an old friend after not having a TBR for almost ten years, the warm electronics even smells like the one I had. Sorry for the fuzzy pic!

 

[Bronco]

Nice amp. cheers.

I am also a fan of the rivera cleans, hard to beat imo.

Rivera cleans are ridiculously underrated.

 

[Bronco]

Well, it turned up yesterday but I didn´t have time to do much more than hook it up and check that it works. Feels like meeting up with an old friend after not having a TBR for almost ten years, the warm electronics even smells like the one I had. Sorry for the fuzzy pic!

Congrats on the score! I have a TBR 1SL and also an RM 60 (same DNA, just not quite the wide range in mid scope). Great amps!

 

[Dave L]

Well, it turned up yesterday but I didn´t have time to do much more than hook it up and check that it works. Feels like meeting up with an old friend after not having a TBR for almost ten years, the warm electronics even smells like the one I had. Sorry for the fuzzy pic!

Congrats on the score! I have a TBR 1SL and also an RM 60 (same DNA, just not quite the wide range in mid scope). Great amps!

Great amps, for sure! I think this will be a nice addition and handle lots of work in the clean and slightly dirty territories.

 

[ChurchHill]

That looks great!! Congrats!! (Love that TC 1140, too!)

 

[Dave L]

I finally had time to play it properly last night, and it´s better than I remembered. Or rather, I´m a different player these days and digging these tones more. The cleans are sublime, I´ll need to do some proper A-B testing with the OD100 but I´m thinking the TBR might have the edge there. That semi-parametric mid control does a world of difference.

The lead channel basically is another beautiful clean voicing to begin with, and it adds some very natural grit and compression when you turn it up. It´s hard to pinpoint the tone due to the Slope control, since it moves around the mid characteristics, but it definitely is a "vintage" voicing either way but with a full set of (still) very modern features. It sounds like 1980 rather than 1987.