Rivera Knucklehead Tre'

That review of Ktre is pretty much what I got from it when we tried it out at Sweetwater. Played it thru several cabs w diff speakers n v30 were the best. For me at least. Took me only a few minutes to dial in an unforgettable Hi-gain tone.

I almost pulled the trigger on one of these..still wondering how it feels under the fingers..sounds really good

I just picked up another Rivera.

I've had the KII for years, and it's been my main amp since I got it. Lots of amps have come and gone and nothing has dethroned the mighty Rivera.

So I picked up this KR55 for stupid cheap. Very similar to the KII except WAY more gain available, not quite as much low end, and an extra channel.

It mystifies me that Riveras aren't more popular. I will admit they can be tricky to dial in due to all the tonal options available, but this is also what makes them so versatile.

I also generally use a boost with mine (but then I use a boost with pretty much all my amps).

ZEEGLER":k8byggnj said:

I just picked up another Rivera.

I've had the KII for years, and it's been my main amp since I got it. Lots of amps have come and gone and nothing has dethroned the mighty Rivera.

So I picked up this KR55 for stupid cheap. Very similar to the KII except WAY more gain available, not quite as much low end, and an extra channel.

It mystifies me that Riveras aren't more popular. I will admit they can be tricky to dial in due to all the tonal options available, but this is also what makes them so versatile.

I also generally use a boost with mine (but then I use a boost with pretty much all my amps).

Click to expand...

After messaging you a few weeks ago I ended up grabbing the KII (Knucklehead II) to go with my KR100. It's a pretty sweet amp. Great clean, the Ninja boost is a very cool feature. The Gain side has plenty of gain on tap and with the pull knobs on all the frequencies there's quite a bit of tone variety available. The KII definitely has an excessive amount of lows available! Boosted with my mainstay Maxon OD808 it sounded pretty good. Tried a buddy's Fortin 33 in front of it as well and it was pretty amazing. Those 33's do wonders for 6L6 amps.

Jeremy":vcnqusbb said:

ZEEGLER":vcnqusbb said:

I just picked up another Rivera.

I've had the KII for years, and it's been my main amp since I got it. Lots of amps have come and gone and nothing has dethroned the mighty Rivera.

So I picked up this KR55 for stupid cheap. Very similar to the KII except WAY more gain available, not quite as much low end, and an extra channel.

It mystifies me that Riveras aren't more popular. I will admit they can be tricky to dial in due to all the tonal options available, but this is also what makes them so versatile.

I also generally use a boost with mine (but then I use a boost with pretty much all my amps).

Click to expand...

After messaging you a few weeks ago I ended up grabbing the KII (Knucklehead II) to go with my KR100. It's a pretty sweet amp. Great clean, the Ninja boost is a very cool feature. The Gain side has plenty of gain on tap and with the pull knobs on all the frequencies there's quite a bit of tone variety available. The KII definitely has an excessive amount of lows available! Boosted with my mainstay Maxon OD808 it sounded pretty good. Tried a buddy's Fortin 33 in front of it as well and it was pretty amazing. Those 33's do wonders for 6L6 amps.

Click to expand...

Hey that's awesome! Mine are the opposite of yours. My KII has EL34s and the KR55 has 6L6s. I think I still prefer the KII at this point, but I've had it for years and I'm very familiar with it. I must admit it's taking a while to get used to the KR55. It's very easy to make it sound too fizzy and harsh, especially at lower volumes. It's interesting that although the basic character of the two amps is so similar, they can still be very different. The Headmaster foot controller is a whole new problem. The KII footswitch is simple. I have the manual for the headmaster but still haven't managed to make it do what I want. I called Rivera and the guy (Rich) told me to shoot him an email about it. I haven't heard back yet, but hopefully he can help me out.

I know I’m very late to the high gain party, so I’m gonna throw my 10cents in.
I recently had the chance to add a knucklehead tre to my amp list. All I can say is, it is one of the heaviest sounding amps I’ve ever had the chance play. I have a Friedman jj (awesome amp, and love Jerry’s tone), a Mesa mk4, a Mesa triple crown 50w, and have unlimited accesse to the Mesa dual & triple rectifier heads and Marshall JCM 800’s, 900’s, DSL, and all I can say is, I love the thickness and amount of gain on tap in the knuckle head tre. I occasionally us a ts9 HW in the front, but should try it with the fortin 33. The clean sound is also amazing.
I’m so glad I made this purchase. Best amp IMO