Mesa Boogie Rectifier: Road King vs. Roadster

[AznGuitarist112]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all your inputs earlier on my amp question. I have decided to settle for a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier combo of some sort. I really like the clear articulate high gain sound that really cuts through. One question though. I heard that the Roadster is a simplified version of the Road King but pretty much the same thing? What does the Road King have that the Roadster doesn't have?

Also, is the clean channel on the Roadster combo more clear than the clean channel on the normal Dual Rectifier head as I have been hearing?

Thank you everyone, and keep rockin'!

[gu1tar]

The Roadster is sort of a simplified version of the Road King.

The latest Road King (Series 2) has a better clean and fat channel - it's basically the Texas LoneStar clean and fat channels which are very highly regarded. Also the Road King has many more controls and settings than the Roadster to dial in many more sounds - more knobs than you can shake a stick at. You can assign power amplifiers (EL34 or 6L6s or a mix of both) to each channel as well as control the wattage output. Also you can select from 3 preamp modes.

Go to the Mesa site and you can look at the front and back panel of the Road King and see all the combos the switches allow.

It all boils down to how many different tones (or which specific tone) you need. The Roadster may be all you need and the Road King is more expensive. Then again, with all the tones you can dial in with it, I can't imagine anyone couldn't find a tone they like with it.