Why not Rivera?

SalazarMcMantis said:
I thought I'd bring this up again for anyone else who's still interested. I stumbled across this video the other day and for me the same as he mentioned in the video, those harmonics always stood out on Skid Row's Slave to the Grind. If we never get a M100/TBR1-SL then so be it, but for anyone who is very familiar with them does anyone know what advanced parameters would help achieve that squeaky harmonics aspect of the amp?
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It's like a fuzz you forgot to turn off through a mid-high gain amp brrrr 😬
 
Riveras are great amps although if they get a TBR it will for sure be the heaviest amp they have and the last to get pulled out for testing updates.

I have all the big hairy profiles stuff, it's great and Michael's a neat guy.
My name is mud said:
It's like a fuzz you forgot to turn off through a mid-high gain amp brrrr 😬
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It's from a different era. TBR's live in a band context are thick and solid.
 
Big Paul Rivera fan here. I own a couple of his "baby" amps, an early 90s Thirty Twelve and an '82 Champ 2. Love them both so yeah I would love to see a Rivera model.

On a separate note, since it also brought up in this thread, I'd rather see a Super-Sonic but a Pro-Sonic would be nice too.
 
Funny, I hadn’t really thought about it until this thread, but I’m always down for more amps to be added, even though I haven’t even gotten through all the existing ones to really know them well enough to know what I can/can’t get out of them. I haven’t been unable to dial in a tone I’ve needed and I’m always finding new ones I didn’t know I could get or would love, so the more they add, the longer that’ll keep happening!
 
SalazarMcMantis said:
those harmonics always stood out on Skid Row's Slave to the Grind. [...] does anyone know what advanced parameters would help achieve that squeaky harmonics aspect of the amp?
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Thinking of Jay Graydon's heavy use of great pinched harmonics, it immediately makes me wonder if this may be one of the special things on Rivera amps/mods...? I know he used an Orange Squeezer compressor though and requires great mids in an amp.

Examples of his tone
Other things that might be special to a Rivera is how the high notes/strings still have body/fat? Jay considers this must have and has this in his signature Rivera amp. Maybe this was simply the fat switch mod that Rivera already developed in the 70ies for the Fender Deluxe amps and the like? I'm not familiar enough with Fractal gen III to know if our fat switch does the same thing. I do remember from early years on the II that having high strings still sound fat only occurred on one or more amps (just by going through presets and fading memory though).

Jay on the required mids and fat (and how he was involved with all the 70ies Rivera mods) ...



If our knowledgeable people here can not make great Jay Graydon presets fairly easily(...?), maybe there is something special to some Rivera amps...?

Another thing that is special is simply the fact that the mods on the Deluxe (etc.) were the must have thing for LA studio cats during the latter half of the 70ies, and still being used in early 80ies (AFAIK). This makes those sounds the most recorded ones in (mostly) pop for a good deal of years.

Seems this is considered so legendary that Rivera came out with the Stage IV a year ago(?), an amp that has all those classic mods.

Rivera Stage IV Podcast Paul Rivera Jr and Sr.


Vertex (sorry) also just made a vid on it...



When many years ago our Screaming Meanie preset sounded best to me to play the Rosanna solo, I already wondered if it was meant to emulate a Rivera-modded Deluxe? If not, I'd love one sounding closer to those mods or the Stage IV (unless it's already easy to do, which I kind of suspect).
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Sidenote on the Knucklehead [oops, Luke's was a Bonehead] mentioned earlier... If we can believe Steve Lukather, it was mostly his idea and he was promised some kind of credits or other benefits on the idea [for the Bonehead]. He claims Rivera totally broke his promise on that and he felt extremely screwed over by good friends. It is notable how in the video I just mentioned (or maybe it was www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCtsFMW6PCE ) an A-list of LA studio cats is mentioned twice, but each time they leave out Luke's name... It's like an off-camera sign is saying, "DON'T MENTION LUKE!!!" Paul comes off nice enough to me, but his son is more looking like things would degrade quickly if an argument arose... :D
 
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My name is mud said:
It's like a fuzz you forgot to turn off through a mid-high gain amp brrrr 😬
Click to expand...

I used to have an M100 and that's pretty much how it sounded when I'd pull the mid pot, turn it down and run it with moderate NFB. There's this unique "chewiness" in the low mids that, to my ears, sounds like some weird Mesa that never was, almost like a cross between a Mark and a Rectifier.

I don't really feel a need for this amp in the Axe though. As others have pointed out it had a veritable smorgasbord of push/pull options and knobs for things that were practically unheard of at the time so it was capable of a range of different sounds; something tells me that I could probably mimic the one I just talked about in the Axe by modifying one of the Marks. The Ninja Boost was essentially instant SRV and was probably my favorite part of that amp even though I'm not typically a fan of that style of music. The clean channel compared well to my dripface Bandmaster and was probably the more capable side of the amp. It seemed to me as though the distortion side of things was trying to be all things at once and ended up doing nothing well.
 
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My name is mud said:
It's like a fuzz you forgot to turn off through a mid-high gain amp brrrr 😬
Click to expand...
...just the way I like it ;) .
but seriously, I always liked the texture of that amp. not your typical 90's cliche tight Mesa tone, but a very unique almost 3d texture in the way it distorts. if you let a note ring and just listen, there's so much happening in the texture. quite different, and yes, almost fuzz like compared to most amps we already have...
 
Oh
VegaBaby said:
...just the way I like it ;) .
but seriously, I always liked the texture of that amp. not your typical 90's cliche tight Mesa tone, but a very unique almost 3d texture in the way it distorts. if you let a note ring and just listen, there's so much happening in the texture. quite different, and yes, almost fuzz like compared to most amps we already have...
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i have no problems with fuzz pedals that’s why I own 3 pedals for that, with my “fuzz war” it’s all about textures 😅. But having it everytime by default in a head and cannot remove it hmm no 😅. That’s an effect. You can use fuzz in the unit they are pretty good
 
My name is mud said:
Oh

i have no problems with fuzz pedals that’s why I own 3 pedals for that, with my “fuzz war” it’s all about textures 😅. But having it everytime by default in a head and cannot remove it hmm no 😅. That’s an effect. You can use fuzz in the unit they are pretty good
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I'm all set in that regard as I actually collect fuzz pedals ;) . and no, the Axe's Fuzz emulations aren't really that good. at least not that I would choose them over any of my teal ones...
 
I was a big Rivera guy for a long time. The tones are definitely in the Fractal already, I've nailed the tones of my old Knucklehead with the Bogner model and the right IRs
 
ak301 said:
I was a big Rivera guy for a long time. The tones are definitely in the Fractal already, I've nailed the tones of my old Knucklehead with the Bogner model and the right IRs
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Axe FX III can nail any amp tone with the right adjustments and IR. It would be nice to have a Rivera in there that starts off sounding like one from the start.
 
Would you mind share your settings for that ? Thanks !
ak301 said:
I was a big Rivera guy for a long time. The tones are definitely in the Fractal already, I've nailed the tones of my old Knucklehead with the Bogner model and the right IRs
Click to expand...
 
Brewce said:
Thinking of Jay Graydon's heavy use of great pinched harmonics, it immediately makes me wonder if this may be one of the special things on Rivera amps/mods...? I know he used an Orange Squeezer compressor though and requires great mids in an amp.

Examples of his tone
Other things that might be special to a Rivera is how the high notes/strings still have body/fat? Jay considers this must have and has this in his signature Rivera amp. Maybe this was simply the fat switch mod that Rivera already developed in the 70ies for the Fender Deluxe amps and the like? I'm not familiar enough with Fractal gen III to know if our fat switch does the same thing. I do remember from early years on the II that having high strings still sound fat only occurred on one or more amps (just by going through presets and fading memory though).

Jay on the required mids and fat (and how he was involved with all the 70ies Rivera mods) ...



If our knowledgeable people here can not make great Jay Graydon presets fairly easily(...?), maybe there is something special to some Rivera amps...?

Another thing that is special is simply the fact that the mods on the Deluxe (etc.) were the must have thing for LA studio cats during the latter half of the 70ies, and still being used in early 80ies (AFAIK). This makes those sounds the most recorded ones in (mostly) pop for a good deal of years.

Seems this is considered so legendary that Rivera came out with the Stage IV a year ago(?), an amp that has all those classic mods.

Rivera Stage IV Podcast Paul Rivera Jr and Sr.


Vertex (sorry) also just made a vid on it...



When many years ago our Screaming Meanie preset sounded best to me to play the Rosanna solo, I already wondered if it was meant to emulate a Rivera-modded Deluxe? If not, I'd love one sounding closer to those mods or the Stage IV (unless it's already easy to do, which I kind of suspect).
-
Sidenote on the Knucklehead [oops, Luke's was a Bonehead] mentioned earlier... If we can believe Steve Lukather, it was mostly his idea and he was promised some kind of credits or other benefits on the idea [for the Bonehead]. He claims Rivera totally broke his promise on that and he felt extremely screwed over by good friends. It is notable how in the video I just mentioned (or maybe it was www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCtsFMW6PCE ) an A-list of LA studio cats is mentioned twice, but each time they leave out Luke's name... It's like an off-camera sign is saying, "DON'T MENTION LUKE!!!" Paul comes off nice enough to me, but his son is more looking like things would degrade quickly if an argument arose... :D
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This guy considers a $2500.00 1x12 combo affordable?
 
laxu said:
Agreed. And if they don't you have all these tools to shape the sound further:
  • Input EQ
  • Output EQ
  • Advanced amp params
  • Ideal tab params that don't exist on the real amp
  • Graphic EQ before/after amp
  • Parametric EQ before/after amp
  • Filter block
  • All the stuff the Cab block offers
I get people wanting more amps as it's nice to have your absolute favorite amp in a nice preset option. But with the sheer amount of amps, there's usually a way to tweak one of the existing models to sound like your favorite amp or close enough. Once you get it right, save it to your block library for instant recall.
Click to expand...
laxu said:
Agreed. And if they don't you have all these tools to shape the sound further:
  • Input EQ
  • Output EQ
  • Advanced amp params
  • Ideal tab params that don't exist on the real amp
  • Graphic EQ before/after amp
  • Parametric EQ before/after amp
  • Filter block
  • All the stuff the Cab block offers
I get people wanting more amps as it's nice to have your absolute favorite amp in a nice preset option. But with the sheer amount of amps, there's usually a way to tweak one of the existing models to sound like your favorite amp or close enough. Once you get it right, save it to your block library for instant recall.
Click to expand...
That’s a great point. I wish there were more layman or down to earth descriptions on many of the advanced parameters. Like knowing the technical change that parameter makes is cool but for someone like me a more usable description would be if you do “this” with “this” parameter it will affect the amps tone like “this”. Or if you like the amp you’re using but you want it to do more (or less) of “x” this (or these) parameters when used in “this” way will do “x”.
 
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