Mesa Boogie Roadking Series II

The Marketing Blurb

Our patented Progressive Linkage™ provides five different all-tube power amplifiers which you can harness in any combination to the King’s four preamp channels to create – not a cyber mock-up, but the real, authentic circuits found in those classic amplifiers.

Once in a while a product comes along that redefines its genre, changing the way we think, and ushering in a new era. The Road King™ does just that.

This seriously over-the-top Recto® offers four discreet channels that each house an incredible three modes of hyper-tuned pre-amp expression. Yet as if all this shaping power wasn’t enough, the Road King goes on to revolutionize amplifier design by offering a unique dimension in channel switching: Progressive Linkage™.

This simple yet powerful concept allows you to assign different power amplifiers to each pre-amp channel …and footswitch between them. You can match any power amp to each channel and create your own fleet of dedicated, all-tube amplifiers from input jack to speaker, from 30 watts to 120. The Road King even lets you assign a choice of speaker cabs per channel!

Colored LEDs on the front panel keep you informed of your channel selection and power combinations. But there’s more to power than wattage and tube types alone. It’s all about the feel. And part of providing a perfect power response is selecting the proper rectifier. This is the device that converts high voltage AC into Direct Current for the power tubes. And two of the Road King’s eight patents cover the rectifier choices available and the way they track.

Choosing Rectifier-Tracking in any channel matches the power harness you have selected to the perfect amount of juicy rectifier sag for the number of output tubes in use. Here’s how it works: When you select one pair

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Channel Strips, one per channel, repeat like a console so it’s simple to learn and easy to use. Here you assign Loops, Cabs, Rectifier Status and most important, Progressive Linkage which offers these five power choices: 2x6L6, 2xEL-34, 2x6L6 plus 2xEL-34, 4x6L6 and 4x6L6 plus 2xEL-34.

of output tubes, either 6L6s or EL-34s, Recto Tracking brings up one 5U4 rectifier tube for enhanced low power bounce. When selecting two pairs of output tubes, both5U4 rectifier tubes are engaged to support the increased power and retain the dynamic feel. And finally, selecting all six power tubes triggers the tighter sounding, more efficient silicon diode rectifiers to produce an authoritative 120 watts of headroom. And just like the famed Dual and Triple Rectifiers®, you can over-ride Recto-Tracking anytime by merely selecting the Silicon Diodes.

Imagine a bubbly Clean sound, using the incredible dynamics of a 50 watt pair of tube-rectified 6L6s. Now footswitch to the threshold-clean Brit voice on Channel 2, driving a pair of EL-34's for a chiming power clip. Or, if you need alternate clean sounds, set Channel 1 to Tweed and Channel 2 to Fat, choosing power amps for each that best suit your style.

Applying Rectifier® Logic further, Channels 3 and 4 each include Raw, Vintage and Modern modes, just like the fabled Dual and Triple Rectos. But with the Road King you can combine each mode with any of five different power sections. For example, try strapping Raw to a pairing of EL’s and 6L’s for a snarling harmonic spread with British attitude. Or run Vintage, through four 6L6s, to cop the Dual Rec Solo Head exactly. And if you can stand more, hit Modern through all six power tubes, diode rectified, for a new frontier in crushing gain.

These few examples offer a mere glimpse into the incredible domain ruled by the Road King™ with Progressive Linkage™. Take the world tour of classic all-tube circuits from vintage to modern and on into the future. Understand, the Road King IS what modeling technology wants to be. Not algorithm simulations, rather combinations of the original circuits, using the real technology, to create the actual amplifiers.

What would you rather play …a cyber mock-up? Or a fleet of real, hand-made, all-tube amps. The Road King™ is the new frontier, in authentic tube tone.

My Opinion

What an amp! I was really interested in these when they first came out. The idea of a do-anything amp was very appealing. I remember playing one and I liked the tone a lot, but I couldn't justify the whole package. It's just too much...well too much of everything.

The back panel is a work of art in itself. It shows just how many options you have for creating your tone, yet it's still neatly laid out. It's that progressive linkage that's the major selling point for this amp.

If you absolutely need to have one amp that does everything and you want it to be true valve sound rather than digital modelling, then you must try this amp.

Why I didn't choose it?

I did play a few Boogies again at the time, including the Roadking Combo. It's great amplifier and I couldn't really fault it for what it's meant to be: The king of all amps in one body.

However, I found the Mesa Boogie Roadking to be one of the most complex amps to setup so I could maintain consistent volume across the channels and achieve the tone I wanted. Now I'm a bit of geek so complexity isn't going to phase me. I just couldn't get on with this amp, nor could I see myself playing through it for years to come. In fact something about the simpler amps such as the Lonestar, or better still the MarkIV, appealed to me much more. Now that the Mark V is out, I'll have to have a look at that. This may not be

The other side of the story is that the amp wasn't practical for me. It was too heavy and too expensive. This amp is about expensive as you can get before you enter boutique territory. Actually you can get boutique, albeit simpler, amps for less than this. They may only have one tone but they'll have that tone sorted.

In the end, I chose an Engl amp that did everything I wanted and I've only recently changed that after 5 years. Next time around, I'll reconsider the Mesa Boogie Roadking and the Mark V.