Trade my Axe fx std for Rivera knucklehead tre'?

[Trippled]

Hi everyone,

Well, I'm having a difficult decision to make regarding a deal that was offered to me
trading my axe fx for a rivera knucklhead tre'.

Pro's and con's from my sight as follows:

Pro's -

1. I bought my axe fx std 2nd hand for 1100$, the rivera costs 2100$ new,
obviously I'm not loosing any money here.
2. The axe fx will loose it's value through time while new and better units will come out,
not the case with tube amps that much.
3. I have a bogner Uberschall twin jet and miss a real good clean channel allot,
something the rivera definitely has.
4. While my bogner is my "sound", I always had some weakness to the tre's voicing.
5. I bought the axe fx mainly for doing the 4cm thing to get it's clean premps to the bogner power amp section, the problem is that it's really massy to operate with the 4 cables and also bringing the bogner, axe fx rack, the behringer fcb 1010 to control both and a guitar case is fairly a headache and takes allot of time to setup.
6. It's abit annoying for me not to have a "real" clean channel and I do feel the lack of dynamics and sound with my current 4cm setup.

Con's:

1. I'm a sound engineer student and there's no doubt the axe fx is being very handy for
silent recording at 02:00 AM and is very versatile.
2. My main issue with my current setup is the bogner not having a clean channel(I'd send it to bogner for a mod but I live in Israel and it would be super expensive), while the rivera somehow resolves that, supplying a great high gain channel and a great clean tone, I still won't have the bogner sound and bringing 2 amps for each gig is quiet a headache as well.
3. The axe fx pretty much supplies all my needs for fx of any sort.
4. Having 2 amps is pretty much an overkill visually (-: I'm afraid of thinking about it after a while
and realizing I don't have what to do with 2 tube heads.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?!

 

[mjtripper]

Well, I might be a bit biased as an owner of two k-tre amps, which I believe is one of the finest amps ever built, but I would trade it How do you like the uberschall model on the axe? If you like it maybe go axefx with the k-tre instead. The clean channel on the k-tre is very very nice and what pushed me over to it over the uberschall in the first place. No doubt the axefx is a fine piece of equipment and even if it devalues it will never sound worse then it does now. My normal recommendation over this topic is get one amp that you really like and then get a axefx setup. That way you have the best of both worlds plus you get an A and B rig which is handy for gigging if one goes belly up. Now, I didn't follow my own advice as I like the k-tre enough to get two and then for recording / silent practicing I use s-gear on the computer. I did go through a bunch of amps until I found the one for me though. Someday I'll get an axefx but I need to take care of some other things first.

 

[Trippled]

The uber is the best drive tone I've heard to date and is really the tone in my head,
I'm just abit unhappy from it's "clean" channel which is actually another drive channel.

 

[Heritage Softail]

The K Tre is not worth that much in the used market. I only gave 1K cash for mine 2 years ago. Prices have fallen more since then. If you don't care about dropping 500 in the transaction then roll with it.

 

[Trippled]

How would drop 500? it's a standard.

 

[mjtripper]

Around here the standard and a k-tre are pretty close, maybe +/-150 depending on the week.

 

[Chris O]

Not a trade I'd make considering all...

 

[Trippled]

Not a trade I'd make considering all...

Which means you'd keep the axe or jump on the tre'? lol
I'm still debating on this... 4cm is cool but can be very frustrating.

 

[bigdaddyd]

The K Tre is not worth that much in the used market. I only gave 1K cash for mine 2 years ago. Prices have fallen more since then. If you don't care about dropping 500 in the transaction then roll with it.

The Axe will be completely obsolete in a few years and worth very little soon. As is, the Axe is losing value rapidly to the 2 and the Kemper. The Rivera will hold its value more, but what's more important is that it will never be obsolete. It will always be an extremely well built, tube amp. The Rivera market fluctuates because most people don't even know what Riveras are....plain and simple. Bo and Luke from Po Dung Back Water Bumblefuck never heard of it and don't buy it....by they will by Marshall, Fender (both which are great, ) and many lesser brands with big advertising dollars.

Shit, that is how I got into Riveras (before the internet.) I knew them from Rudy's Music in NYC where they were huge, big dollar amps that I could never afford. I would see them at college in Delaware in tiny little hick shops used for $400. Why? No one knew what they were, thus they must suck. They didn't even bother to turn them on. I turned them on, drew a crowd and bought them. Most of them were shocked that they sounded like that. The others usually owned one. The market goes up and down on everything...but in the long term it usually works itself out. Technology is where you tend to get boned though....just ask all the Axe vs Kemper guys.

 

[Trippled]

I could really relate to your thinking, but then I'm not sure what I'll do with 2 amps.. it's abit of an overkill.

 

[bigdaddyd]

I could really relate to your thinking, but then I'm not sure what I'll do with 2 amps.. it's abit of an overkill.

Really? I think you might be on the wrong forum

 

[Jordon]

Hope this helps. Or doesn't All guitars were done with a Custom 22 through the Rivera with a boost for rhythms (2 tracks on each side), no boost for leads. 2 SM75's on a Splawn 4x12 with V30's.

FWIW, the K Tre Reverb that I have compliments my VH4 like you wouldn't believe. It's not insanely versatile, but the high gain channel is really unique and the clean is probably the best I've heard on a high-gain channel switcher.

 

[cardinal]

Tube amps may hold value long term betterthan digital units, but tube amps eat tubes over the long term, too; so it's a wash.

Lugging around two amp heads sounds much harder than your current set up.

 

[mjtripper]

If you are looking for more clips everything on my soundcloud link is my k-tre reverb combo recorded using a heil pr31 in a silent sister loaded with a k100.

 

[bigdaddyd]

Tube amps may hold value long term betterthan digital units, but tube amps eat tubes over the long term, too; so it's a wash.

Lugging around two amp heads sounds much harder than your current set up.

They both use electricity too, should he go acoustic? WTF does tube life have to do with anything? If amps are properly maintained, tubes last quite awhile anyway.

 

[cardinal]

Tubes cost money, adding to the cost of ownership of tube amps over time. You can think of it in a similar way to how the Axe will depreciate over time. In a few years, he'll make back relatively little on an Axe Std if he sells. The Rivera may hold it's value better if he sells in a few years, but the cost of buying tubes eats away at that.

Tubes last a while. Sometimes. Sometimes not. That's all I'm saying.

 

[riffy]

Hope this helps. Or doesn't All guitars were done with a Custom 22 through the Rivera with a boost for rhythms (2 tracks on each side), no boost for leads. 2 SM75's on a Splawn 4x12 with V30's.

FWIW, the K Tre Reverb that I have compliments my VH4 like you wouldn't believe. It's not insanely versatile, but the high gain channel is really unique and the clean is probably the best I've heard on a high-gain channel switcher.

Dang, that K Tre sounds killer to me there bro!

Gary

 

[shred-o-holic]

The K Tre is not worth that much in the used market. I only gave 1K cash for mine 2 years ago. Prices have fallen more since then. If you don't care about dropping 500 in the transaction then roll with it.

The Axe will be completely obsolete in a few years and worth very little soon.

Not that your statement is a bit of an exaggeration or anything....

 

[Trippled]

I could really relate to your thinking, but then I'm not sure what I'll do with 2 amps.. it's abit of an overkill.

Really? I think you might be on the wrong forum

LoL I think you've made a good point (-:

Well part of the problem is that in Israel you almost can't sell gear without loosing loads
of money since there aren't enough people with enough money and interest for gear.

Said but true )-:

So, having 2 amps is something I doubt will last allot of time..
I do change my opinion every other night about that trade though.. damn it.