Rivera BM100-115E

Made in 1998. This was a closeout deal, hence the low price, but they usually sell for around $1500. This is basically an M100 1-15" EV speaker combo but as a Chris Duarte signature amp (the blonde tolex and brown fabric grill, brown panel and knobs makes this amp cosmetically beautiful). Same features as any M-series Rivera. 3 channels, Clean American, British Gain and solo lead channel. Many wattage setting, from 100 watts pentode to 10 watts triode. Very useful. More features than your average amp, almost like a Mesa Mark IV, but not as many. 4 preamp tubes, 4 EL-84 power tubes, single silicon rectifier. Two effects loops, one with levels, direct out. It's 100 watts so it should be plenty loud for any situation. I play it on triode mode (vintage) at half power (50 watts) and this is plenty of headroom for rehearsal and medium sized clubs. 100 watts shouldn't be much louder than 50 watts, it just gives you more clean headroom before the clean sound breaks up.

I use this amp with a 50's strat (maple neck) and a 60's strat (rosewood). I play anything from Top 40 to texas blues. This amp needs some knob tweaking before getting the tone, but once you find the sweet spot for your guitar, your get a beutiful tone. It'll give you anything you want, from shimmering clean (anything from transparent clean to warmed up tubey clean ) to rich overdrive or full gain drive. The guitar you play determines the caracter of the final sound. The clean sound is warmer than a Fender twin. This combo has a 15' Electro Voice speaker, which delivers more low end, making the overall sound very warm, full and balanced. No midrange extra punch as a 4-10". I disagree with the reviewer talking about inconsistency on Rivera amps. I've tried many, many Riveras and found little or none inconsistencies between them. As i said, Riveras require you to spend some time tweaking those knobs, and if you don't know what you are doing you will end up with the worst sound ever. There are some handy setting suggestions in the manual that gives you a base to get what you are looking for. Although this amp sounds a lot like Fenders and a lot like Marshalls, it does have it's own distinctive caracter, and it's a very good one. There is a third channel that mimics the effect of driving a small amp at high volume. This channel gives you more gain and changes the caracter of the sound to a compressed midrange with more sustain, suited for leads. Your leads will stand out, both in frequency and volumen (it's got gain and volumen levels and it's own effects loop). It's got more gain than a JCM 900 but less than a Mesa rectifier. Very open sounding, even at high gain setting, the sound remains "clear" and full. I also have an Ibanez RG570 with Dimarzios in it and the gain is plenty. You can cover your Blues gig and your Grindcore Death Metal gig with the same amp.

Like everybody says, Riveras are built to military specs, but it's a tube amp after all. I gig without a back up, but always carry spare tubes.

Haven't used C.S. yet. The warranty is somewhat short, only one year, but most manufacturer offer the same. Their web page is a mess.

I've been playing for 15 years. Have owned everything from Roland Jazz Chorus to Marshalls and Boogies. Rivera gives you the best of both worlds in one package. Very good clean sound and delicious overdrive in a reliable, well built, featured packed amp. I've been shopping for a new amp for months. Going to the stores, reading all the reviews in this page and finally decided on this Rivera. Line6 were very tempting for convenience, but like many have said before, you can replicate the sound of tubes, but you can't replicate the feeling, and life is too short to play through a solid state amp. Boogies and Marshalls have one of the best overdrives and distortions, but the clean sounds are not so good. Fenders define what a good clean sound should be, but their overdrive sucks. Riveras have both. Of course there are Bogners, Egnaters and the such, but they usually are a one tone machine and very expensive. Also try a 15" speaker with your amp. You will be surprised and pleased. For all of you GAS suffering maniacs, one piece of advise: be patient. Try as many amps as you can, playing with your guitar. First know how much you can afford, and go from there, but you get what you pay for. I tried anything from Peavey to Bogner (and liked both very much, the Peavey Classic 50 1-15 and 4-10 are very good but not as open and rich, and quality of materials is not as good, but hey, they are $500). One final comment: this amp is heavy ( about 75lbs ) so be prepared to break your back, but any good, loud enough, tube combo will weight this much. I recommend Riveras to any guitar player doing any style. They are not over priced for what they are. Don't forget that the final tone is in your fingers, so stop reading all these reviews and go practice some more, that way you can buy a $30 gorilla amp and still sound good.