Rivera R30-112 Thirty Twelve

I play mostly hard rock and this thing has some great tones fo that. Very wide range of setting and 2 channels (A=British Dirt B=American Clean). Channels each have a Preamp Vol, Low, Mid, Hi, and Master Vol, BOOST setting (pull out knobs). Lo and Hi Gain inputs. Back panel - Effects Loop, Direct Out, Footswitch, etc. Not sure what else you need in a combo other than that.

I basically bought this as a good sounding tube amp for low volume home studio recording. Works tremendous in that capacity. Could not ask for a better amp for that application.

Maybe a bit less than you would need for gigging, but depends where you gig. I have several other bigger amps I use for that and this thing can capture many of the sounds of my larger amps at more manageable volumes. That is nice. This would make a great practice amp too. Very versatile little guy.

So far so good. I have only had it a couple weeks, still getting to know the tones of this amp. Channel A has the Marshall JCM type tone and distortion, sounds really great when you crank it up of course. At this volume it is way too loud for homes/bedrooms, though. After all it is 2 EL34's (mine has winged C svetlanas) Class AB so it is kicking out some shit. Most 50W amos use the same config, so I am not sure how they rate this one at 30W, but whatever. It is every bit as loud as the 50W tube amp I just got rid of, except this one sounds pretty decent at very low volumes too. Not ideal, but good. As you probably know, this is tough to accomplish in a tube amp.

I recommend using an attenuator to get that good power tube distortion and squashiness at backed off volumes. Excellent sounding tube tone. With the BOOST engaged you can get those dark punchy sounds that you are used to if you play a big half/full stack. Although it is a little combo with a single 12" speaker and an open back, it can do those "closed-back" cabinet sounds well for a little amp. This is usually where small combos start to lose. This one hangs in there with a lot of low end punch.

Channel B is brighter and clearer for those Fender twin type sounds. With the BOOST engaged it can get dirty if you can crank the preamp vol and get the main vol up there too. But again it's screaming loud. This channel has more of a "buzzy" sounding light distortion than channel A. NOT clipping distortion, but more fuzzy where the Brit channel is crunchier and darker type distortion. Again, much like a Fender twin, IMO, or at least the ones I have played thru.

All in all a kickass sounding little rock and roll amp with a little more. Not a super heavy metal amp, but some of those tones are there too, you just have to drive it a little harder. I slam the frontend with an overdrive pedal and it gets a little more bitey.

Some others have said the reverb is lacking, but I think it is plenty. One of the better reverbs I have heard in a combo and it goes deep too. I am not a reverb nut, but it gets the job done for me if I need a little.

I have to say again it's too early to tell. That said, I can tell it's built well, but also very light and easy to take with me anywhere. I have known others who have owned Riveras (Knuckleheads, etc.) and one of the reasons I looked into getting one of these is their excellent reputation for bullet proof reliability and major performance (similar to Soldano's rep - I think these are right up there with Soldanos, IMO). Bottom line, you are not gonna have problems with this sucker - USA made, good people, family owned company, solid build, good components - and a hell of a service reputation.

No clue, but everyone says you can talk to the owner of the company if you have a problem. That's pretty cool. I have never had to yet, but again, I have only had a few weeks. I will update in the future.

I have been playing for 20+ years and this is one of my favorite amps, next to my Oranges. I just like having a combo that sounds good that you can crank up in the bedroom and capture some of your favorite tones for practice or recording. For around a grand new, and about 600 - 700 bucks used, you can't beat one of these. I would buy the very same model again, but if unavailable, the Rivera Pubster and Chubster amps are in the same vein, but have a few extra features I believe. I really can't say this R-30 is missing anything though. It has everything you need to rock hard and sounds fantastic. Clear and articulate and great tone.

Nothing I don't really like about. IMO, the only potential improvement that could be looked at might be the speaker, but I am not sure. Mine cam e with a Celection G12T-55. It's an OK speaker and I think it sounds fine, but I prefer Vintage 30's for some applications. No complaints though, 9 times out of 10, you will be OK with the stock speaker.

Anyway, overall, it's great - a clear, snappy little tube amp perfect for recording, practicing, and small gigs. If it was bigger and louder, it would be more than suitable for big gigs. They make 2 models n this line that are a bit bigger if that's what you're looking for. In fact, I think this is the smallest amp Rivera makes, if I'm not mistaken.

I would recommend this over just about any comparable combo. I wouldn't buy a fender amp in a million years if this was available. A Vox AC30 is OK, but this is a much versatile amp. A Marshall, ehhh, I really doubt it. An Orange AD30, if you want to spend double go ahead. But dollar for dollar, this thing smokes them all.

!!!VIVA RIVERA!!!

I bought two of these amps at the same time for back up on small gigs and a stereo setup for large venues. The amp is very versatile, it has two channels that some people get confused with. Channel one is the DIRTY BRITISH channel and channel two is the CLEAN AMERICAN (FENDER) channel. Most amps have channel one as clean and two as dirty. I like the fact that someone with a keen ear (ME) can set up channel two for Fender style rythym and channel one for Marshall style lead. It could use a standby switch, but other than that, its as cool and compact as it gets. By the way, it's louder than #%&t! The extra boost on each channel is unuseable as a live boost because the volume is not adjustable, but I find it works great as another way to tweak the preset for RYTHYM and LEAD settings. For example I'll set up the Fender channel for rythym without the Ninja boost and set up the Marshall channel for lead with its boost ENGAGED. I did replace the speaker immediately with a higher output Celestion 12-T75 for added headroom.

I play Teles and Strats most of the time, although I own and play several Gibsons as well. By adjusting the Volume knob on each channel its easy to compensate for single coil or humbucking pickups. Just about any sound imaginable within the realm of Marshall and Fender is tweakable, although, if you are not used to tweaking tones and just want instant gratification, you could be discouraged or unimpressed. Take the time, believe me, its worth it!

I waited a year to make this review so I could give an honest opinion on the roadworthiness of this combo and it has NEVER had a problem or glitch in any way. I feel very comfortable gigging it without a backup.

I have not had to deal with Rivera yet, but i'm told they back up their amps with excellent support.

I've been non-stop gigging for thirty-plus years and basicly went on a mission to find the loudest, best sounding and most light weight tube amp I could find, and I found it in the Thirty Twelve. For the money, there is no better amp on the market that weighs under 40 pounds! When your job is playing music, thats important! If lost or stolen I would definitely would buy another.

2 CHANNEL. BOOSTS ON EACH. 1 SPRING REVERB CONTROL FOR BOTH CHANNELS. FOOTSWITCH CONTROLS CHANNEL SWITCHING AND BOOSTS. WOULD BE NICE IF YOU COULD CLICK THE REVERB OFF AND ON, BUT YOU CANNOT (AS FAR AS I KNOW AND GIVEN THE F/S THAT CAME WITH THE AMP)

AT FIRST IT WAS A VERY AVERAGE SOUNDING AMP. THE CLEAN WAS VERY DARK AND MUDDY, AND THE DIST CHANNEL WAS VERY NASAL AND MIDRANGY. HOWEVER, I CHANGED OUT THE STOCK SPKR WITH A VINTAGE 30 AND CHANGED THE TUBES (2 RUBY TUBES EL-34). GOD DID THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE SOUND NOW. CRYSTALLINE CLEAN SOUND AND VERY CLEAR, HARMONICALLLY RICH OD/DISTORTION. THE DIRT CHANNEL HAS GOT SOME BITE TO IT! ALSO, A GOOD WAY TO GET A FENDERY CLEAN IS TO PULL OUT THE MID KNOB ON THE CLEAN CHANNEL. FOR GIGS, I RUN IT THU A 4X10 CAB W/ EMINECE SPRKS AND IT IS LOUD ENOUGH FOR ANY MEDIUM GIGS.

VERY RELIABLE. NO PROBLEMS IN THE 2.5 YRS THAT I'VE OWNED IT.

RIVERA IS KNOWN FOR THEIR GREAT CUST SUPPORT. NEVER HAD TO CALL YET, THOUGH.

AWESOME. GO BUY ONE. VERY VERSATILE FOR PRACTICE AND SMALL GIGS. HOOK UP A LARGE 8 OHM 4X10 OR 4X12 FOR BIGGER GIGS.

This is a great Deluxe style amp. traded a 75 pro for it.I wanted something that was light and loud to take out on jobbing gigs.I love the front panel its easy to use.the footswitch is simple enough.I replaced the celestion with an EV force 12.Now it kicks!

I have all the classic gibsons and fenders.Even the new noiceless (toneless) pickups sound ok.The clean is great unless you play with a loud drummer.Its fine for blues and country.Change the tubes to USA of at least higher quality ones.

Paul Rivera will even talk to you on the phone!!! Great guy and service.Try that with anyone else........

Unbelievable company.I have 3 amps now...

30 years now full time session guy.Live Tv and radio,films and back up singers.Blues ,country and what ever else..Played all kinds of gigs from 5 people to 50,000.

The others said it. Mine is a 93 model. It has a Celestion GT12-55 speaker. I wish the boosts didn't add quite as much volume. Some people are modifying this to allow more control. I use a volume pedal to pull back but am often booming out when I don't want to. Also a standby would be a nice feature.

I use a Peavey Wolfgang. The humbuckers sing with this amp. If you have channel 1 boosted and slide in for a solo this combination will give you goosebumps. You can get all the sustain you want. I also like channel two when it is pushed - it gives me a bluesy tone with not too much dirt. The clean sound is very acceptable. But I don't like Wolfgang clean tones and prefer a Tele on the clean channel with the mid cut out. The amp doesn't have the stock tubes but came with two Tesla E34s. The preamp section had Chinese 12AX7s in V1,V3, and V4. It had JJ ECC83s in V2 and V5. I changed out V1 with a boogie 12AX7 tube and liked it. There's an interesting site with good information about tubes and Rivera amps http://scobro.150m.com/Rivera/. This is a perfect gig and practise amp for me. If doing louder venues I'd be miking anyway and you have to love all that sound for 35 lbs.

I've had to replace a few tubes. I use it all the time without a backup and never think twice about it.

I have talked to Rivera a few times on the phone and they have suffered my questions without any complaints. They seem to like what they are doing and take pride in their products.

I've been playing so long that my experience in years is now higher than my IQ. There are so many good amps out there but this is the one for me. If I lost it I would want another but I would also like to get my hands on a Fandango.

This is a 30W all tube combo with two seperate channels. It has 5 12AX7 preamp tubes and 2 EL84 power tubes. This amp features two independant, footswitchable channels.

Starting with Channel 1, this is the overdrive channel. It has bass, mid and treble controls along with volume(gain) and master knobs. The master has a switchable boost function.

Channel 2 is the "clean" channel. It also has bass,mid and treble controls but this time the mid control has a scoop feature which alters the function of the mid knob by making it a mid sweep rather than a mid level control. This channel also has volume and master, the master featuring the famed rivera ninja boost. The ninja boost comtrary to popular belief does not just pile on gain, but alters the gain structure to increase harmonic content (and t works!).

This amp should come shipped with the 3-way footswitch. Oh, and its got a mono effects loop (or as its labelled "preamp out" - "power amp in").

I'm using this amp with an Ibanez S540FM which has a H/S/H p/u configuration. The guitar can produce sounds varying from dark and smooth to very stratty funk. The Rivera communicates this large variation in to brilliantly. The other day I had a Jazz gig, so I kicked in channel 2 with the neck humbucker and the sound was incredibly smooth and defined. No wooliness at all!

I've yet to find a use for the ninja boost on this channel. Sometimes its a really meaty blues sound, but then again it can just add enough break up to make jangly chords sound awesome. The mid scoop fuction is great for getting this amp to sound funky. The whole gammut from Sly and the family .., to Chic, to ever Robert Cray can be dialled in using this.

Channel 1 is where things get dirty. I'd like to go against what other people have said in their reviews and say that with high enough output p/us this amp can muster up a particularly mean metal to. Stick a wah in front, whack up the treble and drive and Satch's Summer Song tone in not far away! Backing off the drive (even to almost clean levels) yields a brilliantly thick tone which allows your guitar's (and your) personality to shine! I like it!

This amp is built extremely solidly. I do think I could depend on it without a backup (and I've had to). I tend to look after my gear quite well so its pretty rare that stuff gives up, but I'm sure this amp never will.

1 year warranty. In England dealers are as easy to find as flying pigs. ie. not very!

I've been playing for 14 years and have owned my fair share of gear. At the moment I've got a Trace Elliot and a Hughes and Kettner amp both of which are cool, but this Rivera beats then hands down for versatility and tone. I was so lucky to find this amp in the UK considering there are barely any dealers, but I'll be loated to sell it if push comes to shove. For the moment I get home after uni every day and revel in the fantastic sounds this machine can create!

Wishes? Wouldn't mind a cover, also the boosts add just a bit too much volume for my liking (as opposed to just adding gain). But I can live with that. Also its generally hard to balance the volumes of the two channels and the effects loop doesn't have send or return levels. But it is dead quite. And considering that i got it 300 quid less than rrp I'm pretty chuffed. I don't like writing glowing reports but for the money this amp delivers pro sounds at a reasonable volume with some great versatility thrown in for good measure.

This is a two channel all tube amp. It features a "ninja"-boost on the clean channel (to make it dirty!) and a solo-boost on the drive channel. It's a fairly versatile amp; a bit small, but yet pretty loud regarding it's size! Check out the weight of this one, I've never encountered an amp with this volume being so lightweight. That is an absolute Pro!
Only one thing I would change: the ninja-boost is not adjustable in any way. In my opinion it's a little too loud. To use it, I had to adjust the volume on the guitar, which isn't always nice. But other than that I can't think of anything else! (there are models above this one with more features and most important: more volume..)

I use it with strats and tele's and the sound is very pleasing. The clean channel is a bit dark, but has a real Fender flavour and like I said above, the ninja-boost makes the channel kinda throw up or something like that!
The drive channel was not made for real heavy metallists, but leans more towards Marshall-like sounds. Very nice, but not as smooth as the clean channel. Sometimes I use the clean channel as the drive channel; just turn on the ninja-boost and turn up the (seperate)preamp volume and it's really starting to lift off!
Yep, this is a mighty fine piece of machinery..

I haven't had any trouble wthat-so-ever with this baby, and I don't expect any..

I play blues, soul and popmusic. I've been playing for 13 years and I've owned (and sold) many amps. I think I'll keep this one for a long long time!!

This is basically an entry level deluxe, high-end amp. As such, a few corners have been cut, notably no standby switch or headphone jack. Otherwise, it's pretty good on features. Dual inputs (high-gain, low-gain), two independent channels, foot switchable overdrive on each channel, pull midrange notch filter on one channel, etc.
I use this amp for practice and small gigs. It's got enough juice for that. Channel One, the Marshall channel is significantly louder than Channel Two. If you need the watts, consider the 55 or 100 W models.
Areas to improve: you can get a factory mod to make the boost volume adjustable, which I think you'd need to make it practical to use on gigs without a lot of adjusting of the guitar or a volume pedal.

I use this with an American Standard Strat, but mostly with a Heritage 535, which is ES-335 like and has humbuckers. I play jazz with the Heritage, blues/rock with the Strat. I have no problem getting the sound I need with either. It had a great sound right out of the box, but for $30 I replaced two of the preamp tubes with better ones and it made a magical difference. This is the singing tube sound that you've heard about.
Channel 2 is Fendery and is great for jazz with moderate overdrive and tone. The tone controls are very sensitive and act like a true EQ; for example, for jazz I turn the tone on the guitar way down but by adjusting the treble on the amp, I can equalize the volume of the strings without getting that brittle sound. Channel 2 boost is a great rock, blues or R&B sound. You can really get that old-school warm distort with an edge blues sound -fat yet clear.
Channel One is strictly for rock or blues--it's edgier than Channel Two. With a Strat, you can easily get that Clapton sound; with humbuckers, think Duane Allman.
All channels, even at low volumes, have great sustain. Playing the hollow body with this amp gets you Santana-like sustain.
I don't think this amp would be great for death-metal, I have to say. You can get that shredded sound, but right at the max of the amp.

I've only had it 4 months, no problems. It's made like a battleship, though.

No issues. However, Rivera is legendary for their customer support. You can talk to the Riveras themselves, apparently, if you want advice. Their web forum is cool --lots of people give practical advice on mods, setups.

I've been playing for 35 years. I owned a Fender Super Champ before this (coincidentally designed by Paul Rivera when he was at Fender) and an old Peavey Deuce beast. This is way better than anything else I've had or the typical Fenders I've played through at clubs, etc.
At this point, if I had to replace it, I spend the extra $200 and get the 55 W model, which has a standby, some more tone controls, and a volume knob for the line out.
Even though it's $1000, it's a value, IMO, because you're getting the kind of sound you would only get from a Boogie or other $1400+ amp.

2 channels Marshall/Fender, Reverb, no standby. Footswitch and gain bumps on both channels. The bumps on both channels were not usable in my opinion so I had this amp modded with volume pots to control the amount of gain. Makes the amp near perfect. Just enough volume to hang with a fairly loud band.

I am currently playing in a band that goes direct to the PA and I use a Boss GT-3. I really miss the sound of this amp when playing live. Very pleased with the sound. I play a custom Warmoth Strat and I am very happy with both the fender and marshall sounds.

Seems extremely reliable. It has been bounced around in the back of my pickup and has not failed me yet.

I have sent emails to Rivera and they were always answered. Also, had the amp modded and turned out great.

Loud enough for most needs, not so that you can't get good tone with out killing your audience. For the price it is a very good value.

i forget the year, but i got it used this year and it's at least 3-4 yrs old. see http://www.rivera.com for features and online manual (pretty good, but favors R55 & R100, leaving a few questions unanswered for the R30).

docked a couple points for lacking a standby switch (this is a Class AB-type amp, right?) and ability to drive both internal & external speakers. added a point cuz one of the reviews herein is needlessly stingy.

used w/Heritage Millenium (Duncan Seth Lovers) and old Tele and Gibson Blues Hawk. very quiet amp, great loudness when you put in a Weber 12" California (better cleanness, too). see other reviews herein for more info. i agree with just about all of them.

w/the speaker above, i play Master on 10 and Channel volume at about 3 and it's still "too loud" for what is actually a pretty loud bunch of rascals (our band).

docked a point for Celestion speaker, raised a point to compensate for other reviews here.

used for all rehearsals, so maybe once or twice a week. might start using it for small clubs, just to hear it at its real potential. i would never gig w/o a backup cuz of theft and non-amp possibilities.

build quality appears to be the best.

Customer support is the best i've ever experienced - phone and e-mail.

playing >30 yrs. would buy again, if i could find the same deal.
these things go for $1000+ new, so i don't know about shelling out that much for one. am very glad i found this one. it's replacing my Blues Jr.