gt5litre
New member
Well I purchased a several year old Rivera S120 that I had seen before, but never played through. I did a little research and found out it has 2 60 watt amps. Channel 1, the Marshall-y channel uses one amp, while Channel 2, the Fender-y channel uses the 2nd amp. Tubed with Svetlana EL34s, this amp can be operated at lower voltages and in triode for lower power output perhaps as low as 8 watts per amp.
I played it for several hours today after playing a couple of Dr Z's, Peavey JSX and XXX and the 100 watt and 60 watt Genz-Benz El Diablo Heads. The El DIablo 60 is a great vintage sounding amp with a modern edge, where the 100 watt model has more voices and a fatter tone on the hot channel. The 100 watt head can be very Plexi-ish with a little Mesa DR on tap too.
The Rivera S120 had a great clean channel and the Marshall side was a kick. The ability to run the amp at different voltages for different tones was the clincher. I lowered the voltages, used the Marshall side (Ch 1) and got a fat solid tone with a lot of crunch. The OD was real and raunchy and growly and not at all buzzy like the XXX, JSX and Marshall DSL I have recently tried out.
Now I need to see what cab and speakers will work well with this amp. I was thinking an Avatar, perhaps with the new Emi Governors. Would be nice to have two cabs; an open back for the Fender side and a closed-back or ported for the Marshall side of the amp. Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated regarding cab and speaker choices.
Brent :cool3:
I played it for several hours today after playing a couple of Dr Z's, Peavey JSX and XXX and the 100 watt and 60 watt Genz-Benz El Diablo Heads. The El DIablo 60 is a great vintage sounding amp with a modern edge, where the 100 watt model has more voices and a fatter tone on the hot channel. The 100 watt head can be very Plexi-ish with a little Mesa DR on tap too.
The Rivera S120 had a great clean channel and the Marshall side was a kick. The ability to run the amp at different voltages for different tones was the clincher. I lowered the voltages, used the Marshall side (Ch 1) and got a fat solid tone with a lot of crunch. The OD was real and raunchy and growly and not at all buzzy like the XXX, JSX and Marshall DSL I have recently tried out.
Now I need to see what cab and speakers will work well with this amp. I was thinking an Avatar, perhaps with the new Emi Governors. Would be nice to have two cabs; an open back for the Fender side and a closed-back or ported for the Marshall side of the amp. Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated regarding cab and speaker choices.
Brent :cool3:
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