Rivera Knucklehead Reverb KR 100 T Bedienungsanleitung PDF herunterladen (Seite 2)

Knucklehead

Reverb 100

Bench Test

By Barry Cleveland

The Knucklehead Reverb 100 ($2195 Pro User Net) expands Rivera's

basic concept of offering classic American and British tones by adding a

third preamp channel. Channel one provides Fender-like clean tones, chan-

nel two takes you into Marshall/Hiwatt territory, and channel three soars

into the upper reaches of supersaturated sonic meltdown.

Gobs of Knobs

The Knucklehead Reverb is definitely not for knuckleheads. There are 17

knobs on the front panel alone-nine of which change function when pushed

or pulled-for a total of 23 controls. Some of these knobs are organized in a

less- than -intuitive manner. For example, the bass, middle, and treble con-

trols are arranged from left-to-right in one section, and right-to-left in the

other section.

Each of the three channels has separate controls for master and gain lev-

els, and a switchable boost mode. There are also two sets of tone and

reverb controls: one dedicated to channel one, and another common to

channels two and three. The bass, middle, and treble knobs in each tone

set affect the level of the frequencies- so turning a knob completely coun-

terclockwise removes that frequency entirely. Additionally, most of the tone

knobs are the push/pull variety, allowing them to do double-duty. On chan-

nel one, pulling the treble knob adds brightness, pulling the middle knob

engages a notch fliter (which thins the sound slightly), and pulling the bass

knob adds contour (richer bottom). Similarly, the middle knob in the chan-

nel two /three section engages some thing called Scoop, which does not

"scoop" the mids as you might imagine, but rather deepens the midrange

notch frequency from 750Hz to 550Hz, which is supposed to simulate the

tonal character of a Marshall plexi

Back Issues

The Knucklehead Reverb's rear panel is also packed with features.

Highlights include a High/ Low power switch that cuts the output power in

half, and a Modent/Vintage, switch. The Modern setting puts the amp in

Pentode mode, for a clean and bright sound with lots of headroom and odd

harmonics. Vintage puts the amp in Triode mode, which increases the even

harmonics for a darker sound, and cuts the power in half. These two

switches combine to yield four power levels: High/Modern, 100 watts;

High/Vintage, 50 watts; Low/Modem, 25 watts; and Low/Vintage, 12 watts.

Super Sounds

The review amp was the 100-watt with EL34 tubes (50-watt and 6L6-

equipped versions are also available), driving a Rivera K412T 4xI2 cabinet

($995 retail/$799 street). I put the Knucklehead Reverb 100 through its

paces using a '68 Les Paul Custom, a late-'70s Strat, and a mid-'90s PRS

Custom 24, and the amp sounded really good with all of them. The tone

controls are beautifully voiced, and the many push/pull variations provide

an extremely wide variety of sounds. Despite the plethora of options, how-

ever, I was able to dial in perfectly satisfactory sounds quickly and easily.

Channel one produces clean tones reminiscent of old Fender amps, and it

even breaks up like a vintage Deluxe when you crank the gain. Overall, the

sound is rich and well-balanced, with a warm and tight low-end and lots of

sparkle in the highs. The tone controls are quite effective over a wide range,

and the notch, contour, and bright modes all provide additional usable tim-

bres. My favorite channel one option was the darker sound of the

vintage/triode mode. it should be noted that the overall volume of channel

one is considerably lower than that of the two overdrive channels.

Channel two produced some amazing distortion tones. Here, the amp can

wail like an old non-master 50-watt Marshall with its controls maxed-out,

sing like a '60s Orange head a la Peter Green, and create the spongy, yet

clearlydefined, crunch of an early-'70s Hiwatt 100.

Channel three offers a similar array of tones, but with increased saturation

and a nastier highend. Some of the sounds reminded me of a pumped-up

Soldano SLO, while others had an almost fuzzboxy square-wave quality.

The Knucklehead Reverb also can be used as a recording preamp-sans

speaker cabinet-by switching it into standby mode, and taking the signal

from the recording output (post-EQ, reverb, and effects loop), the effects

loop send (post-EQ and reverb with send level), or the sub output (post-EQ

and reverb with send level). None of these outputs provides speaker emula-

tion, but it's definitely a boon to do "silent" direct recording in standby mode

without having to worry about maintaining a speaker load (and dealing with

the resulting volume issues).

Under Foot

The Knucklehead Reverb is designed to work with the included FS-9

Head Master MIDI footswitch, which can be programmed to change chan-

nels, activate boosts, switch the effects loop in and out, and turn the reverb

on and off- individually or in programmable combinations-as well as send

program change messages to external MIDI devices. The Knucklehead

Reverb also responds to MIDI messages from other external controllers via

its MIDI input (but not while it's connected to the FS-9). The Head Master

doesn't allow you to name programs, however, so you'll have to keep a list

of which program numbers correspond to which sounds.

Knuckle Up

A great-sounding professional amplifier that is loaded with enough sonic

options to satisfy even the most inveterate tone-tweaker, the Knucklehead

Reverb is also powerful enough to hold its own in nearly any performance

situation. In addition, its MIDI capabilities will be welcomed by users with

sophisticated rigs who want the convenience of having several preset

sounds without sacrificing genuine tube tone.

GUITAR PLAYER Feb. 2003

The Kuncklehead Reverb features a PC board layout with board-mounted

sockets for the five 12A7s and four EL34s. Preset boost levels can be adjust-

ed using three trimpots on the motherboard.

Compact Massive Attack Stack

KR-55 EL-34 Top with KS-312

55 Watts,2-12” CelestionVintage 30’s,

300W 1-12” Powered Sub built in.

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