Thinking about a Rivera M-60 Head - anyone got experience wi

[Jimi D]

I've been looking at a used Rivera M-60 head at the local used guitar emporium lately. It looks to be in good shape, and sounds great within the volume/space confines of the store. Does anyone have any experience with this amp? I'd be using it through a Laney and/or Yorkville 2x12" with Celestion G75Ts, mostly for 80s rock and "metal" (like Metallica, not Deicide). Would also want to shred with it (as I learn how :biggrin *I think it's a little pricey at $1000CDN (about $600US), but I don't mind paying a slight premium over current market value if it's a solid amp.

thanks
Jim

[rgr]

I've got a S120 which is basically the same amp with the addition of another 60W output section so it's stereo. *I use it with a Marshall 2X12 cab with 75W Celestions. *I really like it! *You can dial in some really nice thick sounds with them, it takes some knob tweaking to find your tone though 'cause there's so many choices. *The clean channel sounds great too although it can get slightly dirty pretty quick. *

Wyldbill has one too that he uses with Rivera 2-10 cabs that he really likes.

Roger

[wyldbill]

YUP! Go for it!

Oh.... and for more info, check out Rivera's site . There's lots of *info (including on line manuals) and a decent forum there. Lots of tweaking suggestions.

(Edited by wyldbill at 3:55 pm on Dec. 20, 2000)

[Devine]

Hi-
* * In the process of searching for my amp, I tried a few Riveras. I don't really think of them as "metal" amps, per se, though if you drive anything hard enough it'll crunch.
Play through a bunch first before you decide.

-Devin

[wyldbill]

One thing to be aware of on the M when you test drive it is that there are two extras gain stages available on the lead channel, but you gotta yank the knobs out to get 'em.

[Jimi D]

Thanks for the tips, guys. I'm going to drag one of my cabs down to the store and give it a test flight tomorrow...

[rgr]

I agree with Devine, it's not a "metal" amp in the Pantera-ish vein, they are nice warm sounding amps, somewhere between a Marshall and Boogie to my ears. *I don't use all the gain available on mine, it can turn to mush, I have kind of a medium gain that I push with a DS-1 or SD-1 to get my solo sound. *The tone controls have alot of control, you definitely have to tweak them to find your sound. *

Oh yeah, they have a Triode/Pentode switch on the back which is a mode switch for the power tubes, Triode is warmer sounding but can get mushier and also runs the amp at ~30W, Pentode is tighter with more power, 60W. *The Standby is also a high/low power switch that regulates the Voltage to the power tubes, up is high power, down is low power, middle is standby. *In Triode mode and low power the amp is only running at about 8W. *Kind of a cool feature. *

Roger

(Edited by rgr at 10:05 pm on Dec. 20, 2000)