nnngggghhhhhhh! The Road King is without doubt the heaviest 2x12 combo we’ve ever lifted. And judging by the price, that means it’s either lined with solid gold, or crammed full of toneful goodies. Now let’s see… it says ‘Mesa’ on the front and there are, wait for it, 13 glass bottles, 17 mini toggle switches, 16 rotary pots and 21 jack sockets – and that’s just the rear panel! Clearly gold lining is looking less likely by the second – this is certainly no ordinary amplifier.

Indeed it’s not. Mesa Boogie’s most ambitious project to date has been over four years in development, raising a defiant two fingers to the digital modelling craze by cramming a number of different valve amplifiers – not models of them – into one chassis. Four channels, five different power tube combinations, valve or solid-state rectification and switchable speaker outputs. Now nobody’s done that before.

PREAMP
A total of 26 knobs on the front panel might look daunting, but fear not as you’re actually getting four sets of identical controls – one for each channel – plus master volume and solo output pots.

Channels one and two (to the left of the front panel) are the lower gain end of the Road King offering singing, clean headroom through to on-the-edge bark and crunch. Before you get to the gain and EQ pots, there’s a mini toggle switch for each channel which sets the overall gain structure and tonal response of that channel. So channels one and two have identical ‘clean’ and ‘fat’ modes which, respectively, offer a classic sparkling clean tone, or slightly more bottom and midrange which, so says Mesa, comes from the Mark I Boogie. As you push the gain control, so both modes push into drive, getting fatter and rounder all the way.

"...There really is an obscene amount of dirt available here, same as you'd find in a Single or Dual Rectifier..."

It’s worth mentioning here that the gain and treble controls in particular are extremely powerful, meaning that it’s easy to dial in a harsh tone if you’re not careful. It’s been levied as a criticism in the past, where the sound can become brittle and thin – particularly at lower volumes – so you need to take care balancing gain, treble and presence.
The final two modes are ‘tweed’ in channel one and ‘brit’ in channel two. The former is a variation on the ‘clean’ mode to be brighter, lighter and generally more vintage sounding, while the latter is altogether heavier in the mid range; more focused and powerful, intended to emulate the classic ‘British’ sound. We’re guessing they mean like a Marshall, where the signal path through the preamp is back to front compared with Fender-style amps.

If it all sounds confusing, just take time to experiment – the front panel layout is totally intuitive and besides a few pops when you flick between modes (best zero the master before you do so), nothing will come as a major surprise, save perhaps for the sheer size of the sound. But more on that later…

The right-hand side of the front panel is home to high-gain channels three and four. Layout is exactly the same as channels one and two, though this time the modes are ‘raw’, ‘vintage’ and ‘modern’ which get progressively more animal. There really is an obscene amount of dirt available here, same as you’d find in a Single or Dual Rectifier. Once again sounds are childs’ play to set up, though as we said before, pay particular attention to gain, treble and presence. This is one amp where turning everything to 10 is not the best policy – it can all get mushy and horrible. The upside though, is that with such powerful controls there’s pretty much every sound and tonal response you can think of – you just need to spend time dialling them in.

POWER AMP
Here’s where it gets really interesting. Bearing in mind we already have four independent channels that go from pristine clean to full-on metal, the folks at Boogie have done something unprecedented with the power section. Using a rotary control on the back panel – one for each channel – you can choose one of five different output tube configurations – two 6L6s, two EL34s, two 6L6s+two EL34s, four 6L6s, or four 6L6s+two EL34s.

More to the point, you can assign any combination to any channel. What’s the point? Well, a silver-face Fender Twin has four 6L6s, and a 50-watt Plexi Marshall has two EL34s. You see where this is going… You can match your preamp settings to different power tubes, therefore getting much closer to that magic sound you have in your head.

What’s more, the various combinations offer approximately 50-watts (two tubes), 100-watts (four tubes) and 120-watts (six tubes). That means the ever elusive sweet-spot where your power tubes are working just right, now comes at three volume levels. And in case you were wondering, the four 6L6+two EL34 setting is crucifyingly powerful.
Staying with tubes for a second, you can also assign either solid-state or tube rectification to any channel. (Rectification is where AC voltage is converted to DC required by the tubes). Briefly, a tube rectifier is less efficient than a silicon diode and has a big impact on the tone, especially as the amp starts to work harder. Roughly speaking, vintage Fender-type tones benefit from the sag and sponge imparted by tube rectifiers, whereas modern, high-gain tones have more immediacy and attack with silicon diodes. When you select the tube rectifier option, you call into play either one or both of the 5U4G rectifiers, depending on output, although for the full 120w output (all six power tubes), you can only have silicon diode rectification. Now rest. Go and get a cup of tea.

Add careful gain tweaking, and you have the cleanest clean to the dirtiest dirt, all in one box. Click image for enlargement

The final big determinant in how an amp sounds – remember that we’ve looked at pre- and power amps so far – is speakers. Obviously we have the 2x12 combo version, which we’ll discuss in a second, but the final jewel in the Road King’s glittering crown is assignable A/B speaker outs. Controlled by a mini toggle underneath the tube selector pot, you can send your sound to one of two cabinets, or indeed to both. What that means in use is that you can use the combo’s 2x12 speakers for your clean, vintagey sounds, then send your Recto high-gain sounds to a 4x12 – all switched directly off one touch of the footswitch. It works like a dream; one minute you’re Pete Buck from REM, the next you’re Munky from Korn. No emulations, no modelling – you choose a real preamp, real power amp tubes and rectification, then a real speaker cabinet. To top it all off, switching is dead quiet too – no speaker- or ear-threatening pops you’d expect with such massive potential changes in gain, power and volume.

LOOP THE LOOP The Road King has a comprehensive effects loop system. ‘Loop 1’ is a series effects loop (meaning you get 100 per cent of the effected signal) while ‘Loop 2’ operates in parallel (you control the wet signal mix with rotary pots to each channel). You can assign either or both loops to any channel via two small toggle switches, and of course they are switchable on and off from the included footswitch. Finally, there’s also an ‘external trigger’ function (operated via the footswitch) to send either a pulse or latching signal to an external device such as a sequencer, or any other device you need to control remotely!

CABINET & SPEAKERS
The first thing you’ll notice is the covering. This crimson snakeskin is one of Boogie’s many custom-order options. You can also go for various exotic hardwoods, though the less overt among you will be pleased that the standard Road King comes in leather-look black.

Beneath the ’skin’ is a substantial cabinet of marine-grade birch ply. The half-open back design is the result of much R&D for optimum frequency response, and so offers no concessions to the pain-in-the-arse operation of removing the foot controller from its pocket inside the lower panel. More than once we’ve clunked the rectifier tubes in one of those cringing moments, so take care. On the positive side, the supplied lead for the footswitch is plenty long.

We’ve moaned about Boogie’s leather corner protectors before; while it’s unlikely your custom-covered Road King will ever get chucked about, they’re still far too easy too knock off, as we’ve discovered on various Rectifier speaker cabinets.

The speakers themselves are a pair of powerful 90-watt Mesa/Celestion Black Shadows. Ultimately, we’d say they’re not as musical as Vintage 30s – though much sweeter than EVs for example – but you’ll be pleased of the extra headroom as you start cranking things up. With the A/B speaker switching capabilities, we’d be tempted to go for a head version and choose a couple of cabs to suit personal preference (Lotto win notwithstanding). In fact, with issue 11’s Recto 4x12 still in our grubby mitts, the whole of Cambridgeshire has been treated to bowel-moving Road King demos!

Sat in the bottom of the cabinet is the long-spring reverb tank, and finally, sturdy spring-loaded side handles are an absolute necessity given the Road King’s considerable weight.

SOUNDS
Where to begin? Anyone who’s played a 100-watt Boogie will know all about huge, round, clanging clean tones. Similarly, if you’ve dallied with any Boogie at all, you’ll be familiar with swathe upon swathe of tube distortion. So at one end – channel one, clean mode, four 6L6s, valve rectification and using the combo’s 2x12 speakers – you have a beautiful, bold clean sound with a tight bottom end and sparkly highs; sort of Fender Twin-like but bigger all over. As you push the gain and master it darkens more musically than, say, a MarkIII, especially when you flip to ‘fat’ or ‘vintage’ mode.

At the other end – channel four, modern mode, four 6L6s+two EL34s, solid state rectification and a Recto 4x12 cab – you have Boogie’s ultimate high-gain, mega-volume fire breather. It can be even more aggressive than a Dual Rec with that extra EL34 power and crunch. Just for a bit of fun, we A/B’d these sounds against some modern 60-watt modelling amps. Although the modellers are arguably easier to live with, the tone doesn’t even begin to approach coming close. On tape it’s a slightly different story, but stood in front of the thing at gig volumes, the Road King has soooo much more depth, presence, clarity and, lest we forget, seemingly limitless power. It’s an absolutely huge sound, and yet generally clear and defined.

In-between crystal and filth lie all those tones most of us use, most of the time. It’s here that the Road King really shines. By selecting your basic tone in terms of channel, mode and output tubes, you can then work on balancing the gain, channel master and output levels to really nail your sound. Judicious tweaking of the EQ controls really helps fine tune from there – need less preamp gain, and a bit more power amp squash? No problemo. More preamp gain and miles of headroom? It’s all here, and everything in-between.

The only thing the Road King won’t do convincingly is the AC30/Matchless, EL84 thing. The way those cathode biased amps work is very different, yet you have pretty much every other 50w+ classic design covered – see ‘Setting Up Sounds’ for a quick visual guide on how to set up your tone.
Another tone determinant is how you use the master volume and solo controls. These take their signal from the effects returns, so in order to use them at all you need to have the effects loops switched on (you do this on the rear panel). There’s more information on the Road King’s loops in the box section on page 14, but using the overall master volume has a definite effect on the tone. At lower volumes it enables you to push the individual channel masters to get more squash and overdrive, though it can sound a little constrained and brittle at really low levels. The tone is generally more round, full and direct coming straight off the individual channel masters (ie with the effects loops switched out), which can be a little frustrating if you want the extra compression but not the extra volume. Things improve immeasurably as you wind up the master, underlining the fact that the Road King is no bedroom amp. Masters at anything below about 10 o’clock just won’t do – you need to give the tubes and speakers something to chew on!

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