Rivera amps

[LushTone]

Just curious, does anybody here have a Rivera amp?

My Rivera thirty-twelve has been my only tube amp for a couple years. I noticed it is the cleanest amp I have played. Every other nice amp I play sounds like they color the tone in some way, whereas my Rivera represents my guitar almost exactly. With my Rivera, Emgs sound especially good, because they have less of a percussive effect than my other more traditional pickups (with stronger magnets).

Anyways, I'm just curious if anyone has had a similar experience with Rivera amps or Emg pups.

 

[Cagey]

One of my brothers has a Fandango and a Venus. They sound pretty sweet to me. Very high quality units as well. The tone controls seem to have a lot more control than your typical amp. There's a clip of him playing through the Fandango here.

 

[bagman67]

How does he like that Agile semi-hollow?

 

[Cagey]

He likes it a lot, although he was somewhat disappointed with the grade of curly maple used. You have to look at it in just the right light or you don't see it at all, and even then it's not very pronounced. The picture on the site showed something a lot more dramatic, so he feels like he suffered a bit of bait-and-switch there. He could have sent it back for full refund or exchange, but he hemmed and hawed around too long and the window for doing that closed.

Still, it's a very high-quality instrument, well worth much more than he paid for it. Sounds great, plays great. The tuners aren't lockers, so he'll probably change those pretty soon. He's only had it a couple months now, and he doesn't do anything fast when it comes to his instruments.

 

[LushTone]

That sounds good, and that Agile looks sweet! Yeah, I use the the eq a lot on my amp, is that what you meant by tone controls? It has a nice boost feature in both channels too.

 

[Cagey]

It actually sounds much better, as I'm sure you can imagine. But, that was recorded on a laptop using its built-in camera and speaker, so it's pretty pitiful.

And yes, I equate tone controls and EQ. They're both just filters, but one has more resolution than the other.

 

[alterbridgefan]

Mick Thompson uses these, right?

Not a huge slipknot fan, but I do like his sound.

 

[Death by Uberschall]

I have a K-Tre and it is damn good. Here is a review I did on another forum.

http://www.rig-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=44037

 

[Volitions Advocate]

I've been a Rivera User for about 6 years.  I use a Knucklehead Reverb 100.  It's actually the base model of Mick Thompsons signature amp, they did some tweaks and re-branded it the KR7 a few years ago.  I had never heard of Rivera until I went to True Tone in Santa Monica looking for a boutique tube amp.  I had planned on dropping my money on a Diezel or a Hughes and Kettner but fell in love with the Rivera in the shop and bought it that day (I was on a road trip, I actually live in Canada).  I found out later that Adam Jones actually used it in the studio too for Tools latest album.

For price, you can't beat it as far as the boutique selection goes.  the Diezel I was looking at was easily twice the price.  And 9 times out of 10, when I phone the factory, it's Paul Rivera Jr. that answers the phone.  Good service. great amps.

I've tried to sell it a couple of times thinking I wanted something different or smaller. and every time I it doesn't sell I draw a sigh of releif.  I'm never getting rid of this thing.

 

[mayfly]

I had a 55-12 for a while.

Just could not get on with that amp.  Sorry to say, I could not get the tones I was looking for out of it.  Not good on riding that edge between clean and distorted and switching between the two with touch response.

Nope - my 55-12 is long gone and I don't miss it.  Sorry to be a downer on the thread.

 

[LushTone]

I have a K-Tre and it is damn good. Here is a review I did on another forum.

http://www.rig-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=44037

Cool. Nice review!

 

[LushTone]

I had a 55-12 for a while.

Just could not get on with that amp.  Sorry to say, I could not get the tones I was looking for out of it.  Not good on riding that edge between clean and distorted and switching between the two with touch response.

Nope - my 55-12 is long gone and I don't miss it.  Sorry to be a downer on the thread.

I can understand that. I hated my thirty-twelve for a long time because its cleanest brought out issues I had in the tone of my guitars.

Speaking of which, I like Mesa amps because they sound so good. But, I noticed they almost always sound good (and with very similar tone) regardless of the guitar. This effect reminded me of how some people describe Emgs as 'sterile'. However, this never made sense to me because an amp has a preamp too, yet nobody describes an amp having its own preamp tone as being sterile. Different guitars show their differences better in my Rivera than they do in all the Mesas I've played.

But, that is why I appreciate the cleanness of my Rivera, because it lead me to Emgs, providing me with a consistent tone without a dominating percussive tone. Also, my amp has a great clean tone that's hard to find!

 

[Volitions Advocate]

It's interesting how different some products can be.  There are some amps in Rivera's Lineup that i would not use.  The K-tre was cheapter than the KR100 and has monster monster tone, but i didnt' go with it because the KR was more versatile.  Listening to Brian's experience is interesting too since what he wanted out of the amp is exactly what mine gave me.  In the end you have to do what I did.  Find a place with lots of amps and play them all until you find one you love.  And of course listen to the advice of the veterans, (mayfly knows his stuff) and then promptly ignore it and follow your guts.  :guitaristgif: