The almighty Mesa Boogie Roadster is a great sounding and versatile amp that is designed with the plug-in-and-play guitarist in mind. It is a brother to the Road King amp and is basically the same as the RK minus Mesa’s Progressive Linkage technology and some other back-panel features that some feel a player needs an advanced engineering degree to operate.
The Roadster gives less tech-friendly players a number of foot-switchable options to craft their tones with, without the anxiety of tons of power amp features they don’t understand. The Roadster’s channels one and two give up classic clean tones that can be duplicated across both channels for rhythm and lead applications. They also have TWEED and BRIT modes that work with the mid frequencies to get classic American blues and British rock sounds from clean to clipped. These two channels would make a great sounding and versatile amp all by themselves. Channels three and four offer players all the legendary tones found in Mesa’s Dual Rectifier Solo heads and contain all flavors of gain from mild to wild. Again, the sounds can be cloned across the channels for ultimate tonal control.
These duplicate modes make for an amp that not only fits what the player in question is playing the day the amp is purchased, but that can be adapted to any future music that might come down the pipe. The Roadster also has 50 and 100 watt power amp modes that allow for more or less volume and tightness and needed. The reverb circuit from Mesa’s acclaimed Lonestar series is found on the Roadster, as well, putting lush, wet tones literally at the players’ fingertips.
The Roadster is available in a few different configurations that will suit any pickers’ needs. It comes as a 1×12 ported-back combo, a 2×12 closed-back combo, and as a stand-alone head that can be paired with a variety of speaker cabinets. All these different features and speaker options make for more of Mesa’s famous versatility and variety of tones without the complexity of some of their other amps. It really makes the Roadster a can’t-miss type of amp, one that can provide a home for many different players and styles that has an intuitive feel that gets users up to speed in a hurry. Those put off by the many switches and modes on other Mesa products may just find something to love with this one. MSRP: $1,999.00 – Preferred Player Card Payment from $67.00 a month!
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