Mesa/Boogie Road King Head

See other reviews or go to mesa's web cite to many to sit here and type them all out, but with that being said it's over the top!

Currently playing a shecter C1+ w/ stock P/U's, yes I know it seems kind of stupid to play a $500 guitar on a $2600 amp, but this is my second Boogie and the way I see it, It's better to buy a great amp and skimp on the guitar untill I can aford to buy a great guitar (the amp put me in the pore house). Not that the shector is a bad guitar it just needs a little help in the electronics department. Tone wise this amp seems to be very good, Im still working with it and so far I'm happy with what I have found tone wise it's definitely not a one show pony. I have come to know the color of confusion when trying to shape the tone of this amp it is very different from a Marshall or fender or any other amp for that matter and probabley not a fair compairson eather but there is so much that you can do with this amp it is mind boggling and will take time for me anyhow to realy be fluent in - shall we say tuning this amp. But the bottom line is the sound of this amp works for me I wanted somthing that was different then anything else out there and it had to be a tube and it had to be versatile and it had to be of great quality. I think this amp has all of thoes listed, the Clean's are warm and the distortions can be thick and brutal if needed.

I have talked to mesa reguarding the first boogie that I had which was a simal 295, I called it the brick because it weighed so much, it was built in 89 and was still going stong when I sold it. This amp I suspect is going to do the same. Everything that boogie builds is rock solid. Allthough I do have reservations about the little switches on the back of the amp but this is kind of petty.

Out standing - they return rour E-mails in a timly manner and they actually have time to talk to you on the phone, considering how many professionals use boogie I like the fact that that they have time for the little guy.

I have played for 30 years now on and off and I have owned this amp now since April of 03 and I have used it every week consistly since than and have had no problems. I think if I were to recomend an amp to someone I would have to know what type of music that they were into. Every amp is different even the same type, as far as sound and tone and everyone has there owne taste so it all boils down to what YOU like. So to dog another amp in favor of another is purly ones opinion and we all know the old saying. So hers myne This amp works for me and I like the Versatility and the tone that it provides I play Rock, Hardrock, old Metal and Blues I don't like the price or the weight but you do get 4 chanels each w/3 voices and a grip of power configuerations....not bad! if it were stolen I don't think I would drop the cash for another.

I bought my roadking last year novemeber in 2002 it does have a built in fan to keep everything cool,of course it has alot of features its a 4ch amp that has 2 effects loops,2el34s 46l6 tubes and 2 rectotubes. it pretty much has everthing the diezal amp has except for the midi thing. ooh yeah the roadkink also has progressive linkage,the most impotsnt thing and I almost forgot.

This beast sounds awwwwsome, I use to have a tripple recto until I traded it in for the roadking. you can get so many good sounds out of this amp,it was money well spent. I use to run the amp threw a 5150 cab and it didnt sound bad,but when I got the recto cab it sounded 100% better so I give the Recto cab a 10. my set up is pretty simple just the way I like it. I use a peavey wolfgang with emg85 as my main guitar, a dunlop 535Q wah. the only fx I us in my amps fx loop are a 7band eq just for a tad more bass,and a delay for my clean ch thats it.

I know for a fact that my road king was built like a tank cause just last mounth I accidentaly tipped over my half stack. My roadking feel face first on the floor I all most shit my self. I picked my amp up thinking to my self im fucked. I plugged it back in and everything was fine just like the day it came out of the box thank god.

I havent had to deal with mesa yet

This is a damn good amp, not only does it sound good but it can also take a beating,

2003 Road King Head. Features have been covered however I want to comment that the newest Road King amps have improvements incorporated to resolve issues brought up in previous reviews. I received mine in the beginning of October and came with the factory installed fan. The fan is very quiet and does an amazing job of cooling the amp. I usually play the amp for approx. 3 hours at a time and when I go to turn it off it always amazes me how cool the chassis and tubes are. The reverb must also have been improved because mine is way sufficient in volume and can get very dense when turned up... it also sounds very good on all four channels. Channel switching on this Road King head is also much much quieter than on the 3-channel dual and triple rectifier models currently being made... If I can base that on the fact that I compared this head to three triple recto's and one dual rectifier in the store and the Road King after one static discharge channel switch did not produce any further popping. The other recto's continued to produce the very loud popping noise when switching channels.

I play this with a Jackson USA PC1 (DiMarzio's) and a USA Dinky (EMG's). The amp sounds great with the PC1 for clean and mid gain tones and the Dinky sounds amazing on the high gain channels and settings. I don't understand many of the reviews that are so dissatisfied with the tones of this amp. I've previously owned a 2-channel dual and triple rectifier a Mark IV short head. This amp definitely covers all the tones available on those amps and goes much further in producing tones none of those amps could produce. Some settings and tones definitely sound better with the amp running open than trying to subdue it with the effects loop curcit on and utilizing the 'Output' control. If you don't like the tones of this amp then you don't like Mesa tones. If you do... this IS the holy grail of Mesa tones as advertised since they are all there. I can even get tones that sound exactly like the Maverick Class A tones in Channel 1 + 2. This amp however is also much much much quieter with the gain turned up when compared to the 4 other dual/triple models I tried.

I have every confidence that this amp will be extremely reliable. The cooling fan works wonders and keeps the amp from running hot. It is always just mildly warm. This should keep reliability very high. But, the amp does have alot of relays which can go bad every now and then so I will give it a 9.

I haven't spoken with them in a long time.

More than satisfied with this amp. It has all the Mesa tones in one amp and quite a few additional tones. All the extras come at cost of an extra $900 over the triple rectifier models. It is well worth it to skimp somewhere in your gear purchases to invest that cash in the Road King. The amp came with a 5 Year transferable warrantee. So I feel comfortable... and if I ever decide to sell it, I can arrange for my buyer to benefit from the remainder of the warrantee. This is a terrific point as it will help the new Road Kings keep there value by giving the second owner peace of mind.

This is a follow up to my other reviews. I have a Road King head; got it from Mesa Hollywood and those guys do a killer job of taking care of their customers and asnwering questions.

This amp is extremely versatile and I can get pretty much any sound I want out of it. The footswitch is big, but lets me select any of the 4 channels at the drop of a hat and bypass either of the effects loops. I think this is the closet you can get to a Bradshaw type system without talking to old Bob (not Terry, I'm Browns fan) himself.

My setup for playing covers is like this:
ch1 is used for clean, ch2 is used for that volume sensitive semi-clean from the Sheryl Crow, the Stones to SRV; ch3 is my rock overdrive channel and ch4 is the metal station.


Ch1: I just love this channel. The choices and sounds are mind boggling...I use 2 6l6 when I want a tad bit of drive on the clean channel and 4 6l6 when I want headroom and clean clean.

ch2: Best rolling stones overdrive and SRV tones I've ever heard. With a bridge humbucker and a little boost you get the ac/dc thing happening fairly well.

ch3: fat rock overdrive; think old aerosmith, bad co., and all the other classic rock stuff. To me it sounds killer.

ch4; High gain rythym...this is the best high gain sound I've ever heard, but, I have not played a Bogner so can't compare.

on all the setups above, I use a reissue Ts-9 to boost for leads and the amp loves that drive from the Ts-9.

I really wanna give this a rating of 8.5.

Well, I can't speak about anyone but myself. I've used this 2 nights a week, every week since April '03...many many 4 set nights have been kompleted with the king and I have no complaint. Inside, outside, 100+ Inland Empire temperatures and humid clubs and no problems so far. Nothing is a 10 though. I give it great reliability marks up to this point.

Again, the salespeople and amp guys at Mesa Hollywood are helpful and easy to deal with.

I love this amp. It takes time to get used to it and understand how to tweak the EQ. I find the bass setting needs to be 4 or less for my taste on all channels. You have to choose the right speaker cab based on your playing situation...for lower volumes and smaller clubs I recommend greenbacks and have had great luck with one of the reissue marshall cabs. For louder situations, I like the Legacy cab with v30s.

This amp has just about every feature known to modern man,mesa boogie's flagship all singing,all dancing gigging machine,just one important feature I wish it had-tone.

I used a variety of guitars through this amp,singles,hums,all sounded very average through 3 of the channels,the exception being ch.2 which sounds excellent in the brit mode with 2 el34's.When this channel is cranked it reminds me of a marshall 800,nice biting distortion with a bridge humbucker.Me being a classic rocker it brought a big grin to my face playing a few ac/dc riffs,nailed the tone bang on.
After working with this amp for 5 months and trying to gig with it,I have yet to find any useable sounds in channels 1,3,and 4.Ch.1 is the clean and sounds sparkly with s/c's at low volumes,but breaks up unmusically at gig volumes,the 2 high gain channels(3&4)sound thin and harsh to my ears.I am giving this a 4 because of a great sounding ch.2

never had a problem

dealt with mesa before with previous amps,they have always been very helpful

Been playing 25 years, had a shedful of quality amps including 6 other boogies which were all better than the roadking.
After paying a lot of hard earned cash this amp was a major disappointment,I thought mistakenly that this would be the ultimate gigging tool-how wrong I was.The only redeeming feature is ch.2 but you might as well buy a JCM 800 to get that sound and save a lot of cash.I really wanted to like this amp after spending so much time and money on it, but I finished up gigging and just using channel 2 set to crunch,backing off on the guitar to clean up and stepping on a fulltone pedal for solos.The footswitch is huge,totally impractical, and the amp is very heavy.
I have come to the conclusion that no amp can do it all and I am perhaps better off using 2 amps-one for clean,one for mean and using an a/b box to switch between them.The roadking is going to be sold.If it were stolen I would be very happy because I could use the insurance money to buy 2 or 3 quality amps with better tone.I am giving this category a 3 because of the one excellent channel it has.

So i saved every penny i had for this piece of crap. Finally went to the local music store and bought it. What a huge mistake!

The amp has a wide variety of bad features. Here is some: The knobs on the back are cheesy and weak, the switches are delicate and this amp weighs a ton. The effects loop jacks squeal like crazy if you use professional heavy cables on them. I suppose it is versatile if you like loud annoying buzzing in between your playing on channels 2,3,& 4. I spent a good 6 months with this amp, tweakin over and over and it still suks. The idea was great but the execution/design is very bad. This amp is no where near live ready. Out of the past 6 times I gigged with it, I wanted to smash it 8 times. Noise Noise Noise. Try to trouble shoot 4000 buttons/knobs on a dark stage in the middle of the your set, when they are supposed to work in the first place. It took me 3 gigs to find out that the effects loops jacks squealed like hell when you applied pressure to them..i.e. a cable hanging from the input jack. See "customer support" for what mesa said! It has plenty of power..but what is power when the amp doesnt work right. I gave it a four for the four times I kicked it at my last gig.

I use a variety of axes including Ibanez Universe 7 strings, Washburn x series, a les paul, and even a fender American tele. I play a wide variety of covers and originals from heavy as hell to jazz/blues. This amp is so f***ing noisy on Channel 4 that I unplugged it and went direct on my last gig. I can not believe Mesa did not correct this huge, huge problem. Even with the gain turned way down, there was a huge buzz. This amp can make a variety of unpleasent and nasty sounds when you are not playing. When u are playing however, it sounds ok. Just ok though. The clean channel 1 is pretty good. No complaints here, but I'm sure it could be better. Channel 2 is ok too, I guess. 3 and 4 totally suk. It is a typical mesa distortion on 3 and 4, except with a noticable hum/buzz in the background.

Ehh...yeah...6 gigs...6 major complications. Do the math.

So i call them because of the effects loop prob and buzzing prob I was having. They were very knowledgable and friendly I must say. Go Mesa! But what they told freaked me out. They said in so many words "Yeah...sorry bout that...we know there is a problem...try suspending your effects loop cables when you plug them in, so the dont put downward pressure on the jacks." " And as far as the buzzing....try turning the gain down...but we know it buzzes quite a bit on Channels 2, 3, & especially 4 in MODERN mode."

I was like "Thanks for nothing!" I figured that out a month ago!

All in all the guy on the phone was cool and I can't blame him.
I give him, and all the other "I'm just doing what I'm told" employees a 10 for putting up with customers like me and dealing with a terribly designed product.

Suk Suk Suk!!! Im going back to my Rocktron Gainiac and my power amp.
I would actually pay someone to steal it.
The best thing about it is that it is worth so much, that i can get a complete rig of Line 6 stuff and hopefully be happy.
I hardly would recommend this amp to even the bands in my area that do the same thing as we do. (i.e. our competition) It was a collosal screw up, and will eventually show up on the History Channel on the show "Greatest Musical Blunders"

Feel free to contact me if you are gonna make a bad decision and purchase this amp! Peace.

This is my 2nd review of this head.
Please see my other review.

This is my 2nd review of this head.
Please see my other review.

I have to say that it is very quiet.

I've been playing around (small gigs) and rehearsing frequently with it. I either use Mesa 1x12 Thiele Cab, or Recto 2x12 Cab. It works very well with both.
I was told by Mesa Boogie that there are some updates to be done on these amps (mine is #000716).
1 of them is a small Fan that comes installed on the newer RK heads. As I live in Brazil, I'll have to install it myself. I never had a problem though, but it concerns me, because other owners may have had issues.

Deserves 11, 12, 13... never seen better Customer Service in my life. No matter the industry. Mesa's CS is one of a kind. Awesome.
Of course, being a foreigner, you have to speak good English when talking to them over the phone.
They sent me the fan (no charge) by mail with instructions (really simple to instal).

Please see my other review. Still very valid.
I have a Recoverb Head as well (bought new in July 2003) which is an amazing amp too.
The RK is still the best sounding amp I've ever heard. It is a multiple orgasm!!!! Very very powerful.

great features

channels 3 and 4 are awesome

this is the third road king head i have had in less than a year. they have sent me new ones but on channels 3 and 4 when played for a long period the amp starts cutting in and out. it is a problen that comes and goes and i dont think they have got it figured out yet

they have sent me new amps but the problem persists

i love the amp it sounds great but i am worried about it being so new there are problems yet to be solved and i hope as they find these problems, rich duvall from mesa boogie will call the customers that have had a record of these and will do a follow up to ensure that my $2500 for the head and my $700 for the cabinet was not a mistake. but when its there it dont get much better

Almost everything you could ask for.

Lots of clean headroom. From fender-ish clean to vintage marshall crunch to fat "brown sound" leads to brutal metal. All delivered quite well. The high gain sounds could have a little more punch. Sounds damn good straight out of the box without any effects. A sound guy told me a couple days ago that it sounded "freakin' huge, like a mountain."
Used with a Les Paul Standard with SD'59 in the bridge running through a pair of Mesa Recto 4x12 cabs.
Sounds great but for the price could be better.

I've had mine for like a year and a half and its broke down on me twice. Diodes keep burning up. This is unacceptable, especialy for an amp in this price range. A working musician does not have the time to deal with this crap.

One year limited warranty doesn't do much good. Closest authorized service center is three hours away.

Doesn't matter to me how good it sounds if you can't depend on it. Ironic that an amp called the Road King isn't road worthy. Also the covering isn't very durable and the switches on the back seem rather delicate. Sould have been called the Studio Queen.

I'm a marshall guy, specifically jcm800. So the other night at a show, when i went to turn my amp on the thing was just putting out static. My amp is a hotrodded one with features done by trace at voodoo amps and what happend was the gain switch that he put on it broke off... bummer.. so luckly i have a friend that ownes a roadking.. When i picked it up from him all i thought was jesus christ i'll never figure it out. If you have a decent knowledge of amps, you'll probably be able to figure it out because mesa did a pretty good job trying to keep it as simple as possible. But its got more features than i'll ever need and more buttons on the footswtich than knobs on my jcm800.

I play a gibson les paul studio with a jb in the brdige and i had this amp running through an old jcm800 4x12 cab. My band (www.theacademyrock.com) has a posthardcore sound but we use as much clean in our songs as distortion.For an amp at this price you'd expect it to sound like everything you'd ever want. It actually sounds really good but it also isnt all that. I think the 1st clean channel was a bit bright, and if ou put it on the fat mode it was just too muddy and i i messed around a little with the tube selection.. but i found it to be pretty good for that crunchy brite clean. I thought the 2nd channel had a pretty good clean, it was alot warmer and i thought had a little more balls to it. I kept it on the brit mode but with alot of mids and presence. The clean channels were pretty quiet though, i had both masters around 3 oclock and then the main volume at 6 or 7 and it was just loud enough for the show. I was a bit disappointed with the distortion. If you're a gain freak, you'll love this amp, but in my opinion the gain channels were not very musical. Both are VERY buzzy and you have to turn the gain waaayyy low to get rid of it. I actually liked the 3rd channel but i kept the gain at about 9-10 oclock but had the presence and mids way up so it'd cut through more. The 4th channel i thought just sounded waaayy too harsh. I play music in the genre of thursday and glassjaw, so we're somewhat heavy but i just thought the 4th channel was ridiculous. The amp is versatile, but almost too much, and a to me the 4th channel is useless

Mesa does really good at building their stuff to last. This amp is solid and i'm sure it'll stay that way until it blows up. These heads are really heavy, like really heavy. The only thing i'd be worried about is the tubes. theres sooo many tubes in there and if the amp fell off something or anyhing like that, you're looking at some serious damage. I dont even want to think about how much it would be to replace all those tubes. As far as construction goes, A+

i dont know. I know that they usually do warrenties though

I've been playing for close to 5 years and i'm in a pretty well respected upcoming rock band from chicago and i'm really picky about my sound. This amp is cool and all, but for the money i'd rather get something a little more worth while, like a bogner or a rocaforte. It really isnt a bad amp at all but again.. a little excessive. I'm not just all about jcm800s, i do like mesa stuff but i tend to think its a bit over rated and not very musical. If you're all about switches and knobs and gain, then this is your amp. I thought it was cool, but i'm not really all that impressed with it. It you want a mesa, get a dual recto solo or a tremoverb. If you have the money then go ahead and get the road king. But i really dont think its that great of a value, or that great of an amp