Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier Roadster 212 Combo

Purchased new in April 2009. This is a Four Channel Amp that has a massive number of tools for adjusting tone. My combo is sitting on top of and is also driving a Mesa Dual Rectifier 4x12 cabinet. My favorite feature is the solo function to boost volume during solos. My main amp for 15 years has been a 100 watt Marshall JCM 900 half stack. After many years of testing tubes and tweaking this Marshall has incredible lead tone but the cleans are still not so good. I also have a Fender '65 Twin Reverb Custom 15 and that has pretty good cleans but I havn't found a distortion pedal yet that can make it purr. I purchased the Roadster 2x12 combo to see if I could have fantastic cleans, warm rich distortion and raging Dual Rectifier aggression in one amp.

My main guitar is a Gibson 1960 Les Paul Standard VOS but I sometimes switch to a Gibson SG Custom VOS with Maestro, PRS Santana III or various Stratocasters. I prefer lower output humbuckers for their tone and natural sustain. I usually don't use effect pedals except for a touch of chorus. My musical style goes from Peter Green and Gary Moore through Kim Thayil and John Petrucci.
My first impression of this amp was that I had made a big mistake. The clean and semi clean tones were the best that I had ever experienced but the distortion channels were terrible. Everything that I tried seemed to result in Dry, Brittle, Boomy, Fizzy squeeling noise. I knew that this had to be operator error on my part but I was very frustrated. So I selected one test guitar, backed the Amp controls way down and very slowly dialed it back in. In Channel 3 & 4 the presence adjustment, Gain, Master and Output controls seem to be interactive. A little too much of any one of them and the whole tone pallet gets twisted. Once I got the perfect Les Paul tones then I switched to a Stratocaster (which sounded dark at first) further refined the adjustments to get the maximum tone from those single coils. Then back to the Paul to make sure that the tone was still solid. This took me three weeks!!! With my hard fought settings it now sounds fantastic no mater what guitar I use. Note: I pulled out an old Boss Metal Zone distortion pedal, dailed the distorlion level almost off and use it to push the rig to Carlos Santana and the land of infinate sustain.

I picked it up from the local factory authorized retail store (1 hour from my home). It was new and sealed in its Mesa Boogie box. When I got it home, down a flight of stairs, into my music room and set up...there was no sound at all! So the next day I packed it up and hauled it back to the store where they replaced a faulty tube. Back home again only to discover that the Reverb was not working on any channel...Damn! Back up the stairs, into the car and across town to the store (this thing is way heavy). This time I left it with them to go over it completely and get it right. I picked it up a week later and they told me that a wire had come off in the reverb area. It's back now and I am pretty sure that there will be no more issues.

I had my communications with the retail store and their staff. All businesses are good when everything goes well but you can really tell who the great ones are when something goes wrong. The staff at my Mesa store were respectful, concerned and professional. I am satisfied that I was treated fairly and all issues were resolved to my satisfaction.

I bought this because I wanted an amp that could do georgous cleans, great medium gain rhythm and fluid high gain solos. This combo gives me everything that I was hoping for. Just be aware that with this level of adjustment complexity you will need to spend a long time unlocking your perfect tone. There may be a Marshall "like" setting in there somewhere but I have not yet found it. That's OK with me because I still have my Marshall half stack for those tones. This amp provides a whole new sonic pallet to play with.

2009 Model. 4-channels that do every sound except a Marshall. Which isn't a bad thing. This amp does it all. Any sound, any venue, any guitar. It has every feature someone could want in an amp. Probably more than some people desire. I counted somewhere around 50 tone/sound shaping switches and knobs. And that's just on the FRONT of the amp. It is very hard to get a bad sound out of this amp. The effects loop is clean. The reverb is quality (even though I don't really use it). I like having 2 clean channels and 2 gain channels. It allows lots of exploration for lack of a better term. The very slight delay in channel switching is the ONLY downfall.

This amp is not noisy. At really high volumes the only sound you hear is your fingers holding the strings. Especially with quality pickups. The clean channels break up real easy at high volume. With the tweed mode on channel 1 you have what is essentially a vintage Fender amp with a tad more gain. This is probably my favorite sound on the amp and this is a HI-GAIN amp. Channel 2 is my sparkly clean. It has lots of mid-range in fat mode. Lets the guitar shine through. Channel 3 and 4 are almost identical with channel 4 having more treble frequencies. The distortion this amp produces is very nice and very controllable. I usually hate guitar tone words like 'creamy' and 'organic', that one really erks me. So the best words I'll give you about the distortion is:
Beautifully overdriven signal.

I've never heard of a well-taken care of Mesa having problems.

Never dealt with them

I've played for 13 years. If later down the road I decide I want something different then I'll get something different. But I'll never get rid of the Roadster. There are other amps out there. NOT better amps, just other ones. It gets a 10.

been listed before, but 4 channels, 3 modes per channel, bias selecter, 50/100 switchable, v30s, independent reverb on all 4 channels, can assign fx loop on/off for each channel, fan-cooled... etc

the second most versatile amp out there, the first being the road king series II. this is a mini roadking.

i'm using an old school Fender Jag-Stang, nothing special by far,normally a very thin sounding guitar, but who has money left over after buying these amps?

i do not find this amp noisy AT ALL, i had all the volume knobs maxed (has to be done at least once!) and had very little feedback, which surprised me.

this amp is versatile! channel 1 has the cleanest cleans out of all the rectifiers. they are Lonestar cleans, and can get anywhere from a fender twin reverb to a bluesy clean. channel 2 mimics Marshall's british tone. channel 3 and 4 are your high gain monsters (very ballsy, doesn't sound tinny or like a can of bees)! each channel has an individual eq which is great. the reverb on this amp is fantastic too!

my only issue with this amp is that i find it to be a tad boomy, which is only an issue when playing clean-light gain/bluesy stuff. but the presence knob can help bite some of the boom, as will a 10 band eq i assume.

it's about 8 months old, and i bought it used off the original owner. it is built like a tank, and looks to be in great condition. hopefully all goes well. but it is safe to assume that this can be gigged without needing a backup.

5 year transferable warranty. with my luck something will happen 2 days after my 5 years are up haha.

i guess i'll deal with customer support when the time comes, but i've heard they're decent.

i have a 1974 fender twin reverb 210, a fender jag-stang and an epiphone acoustic electric. i also have various effects, like a multi-effect pedal, and a dunlop 535Q wah.

this is my dream amp! i had originally wanted a Marshall JVM410 head but when the sales guy told me to try this i was blown away immediately. it is MUCH more versatile than the marshall, is entirely american made, and has MANY more features. my main stipulation for buying an amp was that it HAD TO HAVE AMAZING CLEANS. if i was going to to shell out huge ammounts of money it must be as versatile as humanly possible, as i play anything from metal to pop rock covers. this amp does it all!

i had been wanting this amp for a year, until i bought it used (8 months old and in MINT condition) for $1500 CDN. it goes for $2800 new.

if it was stolen i'd get the head and a 4x12, just because insurance would cover it.

I am an idiot. Ignore the previous post.
After all that bull****, we finally tracked it back to a bad Carl Martin Delay in my effects loop. As soon as I took the delay out and added another one the pop and volume issues disappeared!

I recently retubed with Eurotube Goldpins in V1-3, and V6 and a matched set of powertubes and new rectifier tubes. The mesa tubes weren't bad, but these really smoothed it out!

Carl Martin Delay...bad...Mesa Roadster...good.

nothing is perfect

after figuring out you are the idiot not the amp, I'd say a 8. There is still a pretty noticable pop when engaging Channel 3 the first time (a common problem with the roadster) and the tuner mute pops load when you engage it.

If you are reading this you probably know the features. I really love it thats why I bought it.

Again, outstanding. I really loved the 4 separate channels and multiple voicings on each. Clean to high gain and everything in between. Awesome flexibility but complexity comes with a price (reliability)

This is where it goes SOUTH! I owned it for about a week and had it dialed in to exactly where I wanted it. Then it started having an issue with the FX Loop. Everytime you engage or disengage the FX loop there was a load "pop". Second, if you engaged the FX loop it sounded nice, but as soon as you switched channels you would lose volume on the assigned channel until you disengaged the FX loop. Then the selected channel would return to the assigned volume. I tried a new cable, new footswitch, and hard assigning the FX to each channel. This caused decreases in volume with every channel switch. The only thing that worked was placing all effects in the chain before the guitar input. But this defeats the purpose of having an effects loop and assignable FX.
I took the amp back to a different Guitar Center and we found the same exact issue on the Roadster they had in stock. I couldn't figure it out! So it went back. I decided to go with a Lonestar while I work with Mesa to figure this mystery out. If we do then i would trade the lonestar back in for the roadster. i liked the sounds that much.

5 year warranty and a 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee from GC.
Guys at Mesa were friendly and called me back, but they couldn't pinpoint the issue.

Check out the "boogie board" online forum. There are several documented problems with "pops" and volume issues listed for the roadster. Mesa needs to figure this out. No reason a $2200 amp should have issues!!

Great features and sound, but who cares if it isn't reliable in a live setting?

great features, assignalbe effects loop to be on or of for which ever channel. assignable reverb and assignable 50/100 watts output per channel.4 channels. would be nice if the modes were footswitchable as well.

awesome. beautiful mesa boogie tone. great cleans, and goregeous distortions.

You can read other reviews for the features. I give a 9 because I would like to have 2 effects loops. But I guess I should have bought a road king to get that.

I think the sound quality is outstanding. I have not met an amp that you can do so much with and it does it all so good. Channel 1 is perfect, Channel 2 can use some more gain. Channel 3 and 4 are REALLY REALLY good. For my taste I would prefer to have a more tight bottom, it breaks up too much when you crank it. I just put a compressor between the guitar and amp to get that sweet tightness out of it. With the compressor I have met my holy grail tone.

Can't say yet, Owned for 4 months.

Don't know, never called

Been playing for 23 years, I have only owned a few amps. My main guitar is a music man axis. My workflow consists of MM axis, Dime bag Darrell wah, boss noise suppressor, BBE orange squash compressor, amp with Boss digital delay in fx loop. I compared this amp to a boogie road king (too expensive), EVH 5150 III, peavey 5150 (original) and a Marshall all tube halfstack (Don't remember which one). The only combo was the roadster. It does everything I want and lots of room for playing for playing around with my tone. I would without a doubt buy again, unless I find something I like better :)

Amp is loaded with features. 4 channels, solo function(to boost leads during solos, every amp should have this)reverb, effects loop(a problem area discussed later),footswitch to change channels(another problem discussed later),bias switching made easy, power switching from 100 watts to 50 watts,rectifier choices, slave out which is very effective.

Really have to explain this rating.Bought this Combo brand new from GC because of their 30 day satisfaction guarantee. When I tested at the store I fell in love with it's versatility and sound. But NOTHING sounds the same in the store as it does on stage!! Bottom line, this would be a great recording amp where you can add effects after you record! But for $2300 I wanted an amp that can pull off great live sounds as well as record, so I took it back. After a month of really testing this amp out at STAGE volume( something that's hard to do at a store, after all who wants customers playing at stage volume all day long)I found flaws in the sound. First of all, VERY boomy. I had to take the back off to reduce the Boominess(which helped). Running this amp dry, it sounds beautiful. But it does not take to pedals well. So you need to run them thru the effects loop which produces headaches. Now you can turn the effects loop off, which oddly enough makes the amp sound it's best, but you can no longer use the solo button feature(?)when doing this and you then have to run your pedals in front which we've already talked about. The other annoying part of this amp is the footswitch. There is a delay when switching channels which for a live application would be very distracting. It's only about a half-second delay(trust me, it's enough to make it annoying), but again for this kind of money it should be instant. But the basic sounds that this amp produces are killer. You can dial in any sound you want and they sound great when you use no effects and have time to sit there and fool with the knobs a while. Hence , the great recording amp.

I've seen some issues pop-up with the Roadster, but only testing for 30 days ,can't really rate.

Good reputation, but no personal experience.

After reading all the spectacular reviews here on HC, I decided to give the Roadster a try. After fully testing, I thought others out there should here some of the negatives about the amp. Again as a recording amp, I rate a 10. As a live Amp, I rate a 6 or 7. Just too picky in this area to be a great live amp. Plus it weighs a TON! So if you've got the money and time to fool with the knobs, you've found the ultimate recording Amp. But for this dough, I want an amp that does it all. Guess I'll keep looking.

Mesa Boogie roadster 2x12 combo, made in 2007, has 4 channels each of them with 3 different modes, this amp certainty has enough power to play almost anywhere. Talking about versatility, this amp has almost it all, it has a really nice clean sound kind of lone star tone and can reach to a true crunchy and punchy dual recto, except that the roadster distortion is less frizzy and a little bit cleaner than the recto giving it more clarity and definition both in harmonics and regular notes.

as sound quality you guys know that if you are looking for a mesa boogie kind of sound, you will most likely find it in the roadster.

* Channel 1: Pure cleanness, incredible bright tones, but if you push the gain a bit it also can be nice for low saturated blues.

* Channel 2: Nice cleans a little bit more aggressive, I almost never use the fat mode, but the brit mode is kinda nice, you can play some cool ACDC riffs there, and reach a nice organic Marshall voicing, I wish it had a little bit more gain though!!

* Channel 3 and 4:There you find the recto voicing, but you also can find a little bit of the nomad dirty sound if you keep your gain around 12 and 1 o"clock and use the vintage mode with your presence at 2 o clock and use the recto tracking at 50 watts.B ut going back to the recto sound, use channel 3 with your presence kicked in, (best performance for the presence knob) and put the channel 4 with diodes at 100 watts keep your gain between 6 and 8.5 and you will find John Petrucci kind of sounds as well Lamb of God and between the buried and me among a lot others!!

I dont gig that much but this amp was made to last for a long long time,
just take care of it, dont crank the gain all the way up, be careful with dust it is not good for your speakers or tubes!! dont hit it to much!! keep it clean, let it warm up for a minute before playing, dont keep it in hot humid places!!

I didnt deal with mesa boogie directly, but one of their dealers ( guitar center). Actually the first roadster that arrived had the whole left side torn open, you could even see the wood,it had a bunch of scratches on the sides and on top, came with a busted power cord and no manual or certificate whatsoever, but than the second came new in a box with everything ok, so my problem was not with mesa boogie but yes with guitar center!!

I have been playing for 8 years, I came from Brazil, so this is my first mesa, but I tested almost every mesa boogie such as ( triaxis, dual rectos, road king, DC, F,NOMAD, MARK( EXCEPT FOR THE IIC+) EXPRESS, LONE STRAR, STILETTO >>) I had a peavey bandit 1x12 with a boss gt 8 back in Brazil and I still have a Fender frontman 15 watt. Now i play with a Ibanez rgt 220 the roadster, a dd6 with a 535 cry baby and a earnie ball volume pedal.
I like the punchy and crunchy mesa sound, so this is one of the top amps for this kind of sound, of course you have Diezel, Heghes, Bad Cat, Engl and a lot others but for Dream Theater sounds which is 80 per cent of what I play boogies are the best!!

You know the features. That is why your here. You want to know what people are saying that own the amp.

I have tried everything to reach tone nirvana. Thought I was nearly there with my Marshall + Semour Duncan Mid boost + Voodoo labs Sparkle drive, etc etc. This amp is everything people say and more. I have a $1400 Fender and a $1,400 Gibson. Not to expensive but not real cheap either. I was completely shocked. I heard tones and harmonics that I did not even know were there. The tuner in feature is very very usefull. This amp actually has features that you will use. I have dialed in 4 great tones as I play in a bar band doing classic rock from 60's to today. This amp is worth every cent. Buy it if you can. I no longer use my pedals other than my waa and delay.

built like a tank

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