Rivera BM60 20th Anniversary

Two channel All tube, Boost on the clean channel, Slavemaster- acts as boost on either channel, tube driven spring reverb, FX loop, triode/pentode switch, half power switch, etc...

I am using a ?74 Gibson Les Paul Custom and a home made frankien-strat loaded with a Seymour Duncan ?59 in the bridge position. My style is somewhere between blues-rock and hard rock/metal. This is an extremely versatile amplifier! The clean channel (Channel 2) is on par, if not better, than any Fender that I have played. Through the push/pull tone controls, it is easy to achieve tones from booth the tweed era and the blackface era. When in the Triode mode, you can also achieve some very convincing Vox tones. With the ?Ninja? boost activated SRV tones are easily coaxed from the amp. After owning a few Mark series Boogies, the Rivera?s clean channel is a breath of fresh air. The sound is open and warm. Not over compressed like my Mark IV. The reverb is also way above average from what you would expect on a head.


Channel 1, or the Lead channel is the reason I purchased this amp. Rivera has firmly rooted this channel with British heritage. Using the push/pull features on this channel will allow you to achieve tone that range from very plexi to JCM 800 on steroids. While it does have Marshall?s number, I should mention that the M60 has its own vibe as well. It is Rivera?s take on the Marshall sound. The voicing is a bit thicker that a Marshall. The tone is very warm and round. This is not a gain monster by any stretch. I would say it has about as much gain as a JCM 800 with a DS-1 boost pedal. However, unlike hitting the 800 with a boost, the M60 do not get overly compressed. It stays open and the note definition is incredible.


The hidden treasure on this amplifier is the ?Slavemaster? feature. I have heard it referred to as a ?third? channel, but that?s not a fair representation on this feature. You can set the amount of gain and the level of the SM, and when used with the lead channel it can provide a thick, smooth lead tone that just screams Santana. I use the SM exclusively as a lead boost. Single note runs are thick and creamy. Just like they should be.

This is my third Rivera head. My other two heads has with stood the abuse of the road- in the back of a van? and held up wonderfully. I see no reason to doubt the reliability of this amp. Rivera has a well earned reputation for building bullet proof amps!

Rivera is one of the only musical instrument companies where the Owner will return your phone call. Whenever I have had a question or concern they have been super to deal with. I have actually spoken to Paul Rivera Sr. on several occasions. He has always been helpful and patient when answering my questions.

Over all, I think this is an incredible amp for the money. It has tones of features that actually do what they are supposed to do. Yet, it is based on a simple tube design that allows your style and your guitar?s voice to be heard. You can change the whole feel of the amp by switching from humbuckers to single-coils. The amp takes booth extremely well. I have been playing for 15 years. For the past eight there has been a Rivera amp behind me on stage. They are boutique quality amplifiers at prices that most of us can afford.

Bought in 1996 - this is the limited edition anniversarry model. As II've seen in other reveiws this is the swiss army knife of amps. Two main channels - channel one lead, channel two rhythm. Has Ninja boost (for the channel 2- think jacked Fender), and Slavemaster for both channels (this is gain and volume boost - if used with channel 1, gives 3 stages of gain available - very compressed "singing" lead tone). This amp mostly stays home (I don't want anytrhing to happen to it - it came with a signed certificate from Paul Rivera - this is prior to them making the anniversary model in line).

I can use this for almost any style out there. Great tones, from squeaky clean Country to Keith Richards style crunch o0n channel 2. Channel 1 is the Marshall plexi sound, but infinately more adjustable, everything from Hendrix, to Super saturation is available with a turn of the knobs. Also note this amp comes with a power switch on the back (Pentode / Triode), as well as a switch on the front allowing you to tweak the sound from Tweed to Blackface. Also has notch filters on both channels for attenuating the mids (Strats really benefit here). Reverb is good (not a drippy as Fender, but still works well). Effects loop on the back is really good, delays / chorus pedal seem to really excell here.

Never had a problem with it (it does go to practice, but no gigs, as I said I want to protect my investment). Every review I've ever read about Rivera, has remarked how dependable, and solid their amps are.

When I first called Rivera to find a dealer in Pittsburgh, Paul Rivera answered the phone (very cool). They were extremely helpful, and got hooked up right away. Swissvale music didn't have the configuration I wanted in stock, ordered from Rivera, and had it within 3 weeks.

The only reason I'm giving this a 9, is the weight (it's 72 lbs. nice to have helpful bandmates). As far as tone this thing is absolutely fantastic. The controls are so interactive, you can tweak to your hearts content, and still find new sounds eavery time. If it were stolen I definately get another one (oh wait,.... I am getting another Rivera - the Chubster - need somethingsmaller for gigs). IO've been playing for 20 yrs. gone through allot of amps (I still kick myself for passing on a couple of Matchless Lightnings), and I've never had an amp this versitale. There are amps that do certain things very well (that's great - I needed allot of different sound for what we do - so I play now with 3 small amps and a switching system), this amp does allot of different sounds very well.

Features Galore! This is the Swiss Army knife of amps. Hmm, where to start... It has (first of all) two inputs (High and Low Gain), footswitchable channels, and many functions are also footswitchable (Ninja Boost, SlaveMaster, etc.) The first channel has Volume (push for Ch. Select), Bass (pull for Gain 1), Middle (pull Notch), Treble (pull Gain 2), and Master. Channel two has Volume, Treble (pull Bright), Middle (pull Notch), Bass (pull Contour), and Master (pull for Ninja Boost). The Reverb, Focus, and Presence controls affect both channels. I still haven't figured out what the Slavemaster is or how to work it, but I can only conclude that it has something to do with slaving another amp out (hence SLAVEmaster). This has a Gain knob (affecting the SlaveMaster), and a Level knob (selecting the FX loop, OR, just use your handy footswitch). Also, the Standby is a rocker switch (the middle being stanby). From what I can tell, the "down" position activates lower power, while the "up" position activates higher power.
Channel 1 is, I guess, the "Brit" voiced channel, while channel two is more "American" sounding. When I tested it, the control setting that seemed to work the best for me on Channel 1 were Volume-10, Bass-8, Middle-10, Treble-10, and Master-2. I had both pull-Gain functions activated. On Channel 2, they were Volume-3, Treble-7, Middle-1, Bass-4, and Master between 5 and 6, with the Pull-Bright and Ninja Boost activated. Also, I had the Reverb between 4 and 6, Focus on 10, and Presence on 8.

The very first thing you notice about the BM-60 is that it is definitely NOT a "plug-in-and-play" amp. I had to knob-twiddle for an hour to get sounds that I like out of it. However, it really seems to deliver when you hit that magic combination. I didn't notice any noise, and I was using a Bommie Raitt Strat (equipped with Texas Specials), so That's saying something. It sounded pretty good in the store, although I wasn't able to push Channel 2 over where I though it should be grit wise, due to irate salesmen, though it sounded pretty good anyway, attaining an almost Stevie Ray but noy quite tone - very American sounding - it's got that clang. This channel seems to lose it's steely American sound when you push the preamp too much, and the Contour tended to make it too boomy. The Mid knob made it too congested, and forget about the Notch feature (if you do my style), and this is coming from a guy who usually maxes the Mid in most amps (most circuit designs sound too scooped for my tastes, this one is definitely not that way.) The only gain I was happy with here came from pushing the power section, and this seemed to do the trick. Channel 1 didn't sound especially "British" with a Strat, but it did get a good midrange-y grind when I rolled the Focus and Presence all the way back, and either way, it had a lot of that throatiness I love in EL-34 powered amps. I will say that having the Focus and Presence on 10 and 8, respectively, worked better with the sound I was going for. I still think the amp as a whole wasn't as open as I thought it could be, but Rivera also makes a 100-watt version with a single 15" Electro-Voice EVM that is probablt better suited to MY needs, and considering the way I play in clubs, I will more than likely need the 100 watts. I play blues rock in the SRV/Hendrix/Trower vein, so you get the idea, but I invite Rock, Jazz, Country, Blues, "roots" players of any kind, and especially Top-40 bands (or anyone who needs TONS of flexibility) to check it out for themselves. and even though I tested with a Strat, Channel 1 got a good rockin' sound from a P-90 equipped Les Paul. Food for thought.

I don't own it (as I said earlier, I hope to own a 100-watt 1x15 version), but Paul Rivera has a reputation in the industry of some prestige. I have never heard of anyone having any problems with their Riveras, and the only problem I ever found in one (sounded like like a jar of tiny nails sitting on the amp, kind of a thin rattle whenever anyone hit a chord hard, or cranked it a little), was diagnosed as a faulty tube (had a loose plate).

I wouldn't know. like I said earlier, I don't own one.

Would I buy it? Probably, in one form or another (as specified earlier). All-in-all, this is a tough contender in the search for the "Holy Grail" amp. The only qualm I have with it is that I will probably never use 80% of the features offered, and there are a lot of sounds I don't like (is that such a bad thing?). But, then again, that's the beauty. The next guy will probably hate MY settings, but find the perfect sound with a little fidgeting. And that's the attitude behind it. You won't find "That Plexi sound", "That Blackface or Tweed sound", or even "That Boogie sound", but it has a sound all it's own, and it comes in 33 footswitchable flavors (more or less). At the very least go and try it out. A little time is the only thing you've got to lose, and you lose it anyway.