NAD Rivera Suprema 55

[jgcable]

Just picked it up. 55 watts, 1 x 12 sealed combo with bass ports. 2 channel with boost. The clean is Fender Blackface quality. The gain channel has just enough gain for metal. This amp reacts beautiful to your guitars volume controls. Its extremely touch sensitive. The gain voicing to my ears is very articulate and the notes bloom. It has fantastic bass response for palm muting and it really cuts through a loud mix. Probably one of the nicest all around sounding amps I have played in a long time. The build quality is ridiculously good. Its technically a 100% handmade boutique amp.
This is easily one of the heaviest 1 x 12 combo's I have ever lifted up. Good thing it has casters and recessed side handles!
This 1 x 12 combo is capable of handling any sized gig (providing you mic it for really large shows). It has a full enough sound with the cabinet design and the 1 x 12 to satisfy any country, blues, classic rock, hard rock or 80's metal player. This is NOT an amp for the scooped screamo type music because it has too much midrange and not enough gain. It would say its the perfect amount of gain for Whitesnake, The Scorpions, Skid Row.
Acually, this amp with the gain on around 7 and the gain boost engaged pretty much NAILS the Snake Sabo guitar tone from Skid Row.

[markD]

Yep. A killer amp, for sure. I have been singing the praises of how awesome Rivera is for years. It always amazes me how more people don't play them. I have been religiously using mine and flying the Rivera flag since 1990. I should have an endorsement, haha....

[jgcable]

Yep. A killer amp, for sure. I have been singing the praises of how awesome Rivera is for years. It always amazes me how more people don't play them. I have been religiously using mine and flying the Rivera flag since 1990. I should have an endorsement, haha....

This is my second Rivera. I owned a Duo 100 2 x 12 a few years ago. It was also a fantastic sounding amp but at the time I thought it was a little too high end sounding with not enough bass response because of the open back cab. This Suprema 55 is completely sealed with 2 bass ports in the front. It has all the bass I could ever need. I think the reasons they aren't very popular is the big box stores don't carry Rivera and... its basically a boutique amp and it commands a boutique price. My amp had an MSRP of $2195.00 so it was probably around $1800 new. That's a lot of cash for a 1 x 12 combo. Its an incredible sounding amp. I can't wait to use it for my next show in September.

[markD]

Yeah, I hear you about the pricing. My first M100 head was $1899 in 1989 when I ordered it - no discounts, it was straight from Rivera at the time. It was SO worth it though. The prices have been pretty stable through the years also. My first S120 head, which I purchased in 1991 was $2295, again with NO discount. When they did the limited edition S120 reissue, it was $2995 from the factory.

Regarding the bass, the Suprema was an interesting design. If I remember right, the cab is a little shallower and a bit taller than what Rivera usually makes (aside from the R series, which suffered tonally from the open back and shallow cab). Doing the sealed back on a tube combo was an interesting choice also. I played a Suprema Jazz once - same as yours but with a 15" speaker - and the tone was gorgeous for what the amp was designed to do: Jazz!

Enjoy it, man! I know you flip amps a lot, but maybe this one will be a keeper.

[jgcable]

Its been almost 2 weeks and I have been putting this amp through the paces. Here is what I think so far.
The clean channel has 2 modes. One sounds like a Fender Tweed. The other like a Fender Blackface. For all you Fender lovers out there.. this would be tone Nirvana.
The gain channel has an unusual voicing and the controls are all very reactive to one another. Its actually hard to get a bad tone out of the amp but its easy to lose your tone. Just one number in either direction and your sought after tone is nowhere to be found. You need to write your settings down. Its like a dumb downed Mesa Mark III. This amp excels in that medium gain Cornford (ala Guthrie Govan) type tone. Its fat, its articulate, the notes bloom and you can do a ton of cool things with just the volume control and pickup selector of your favorite guitar. Perfect for the soloist who is looking for that boutique Cornford type tone.
If you are a metal player I would probably steer you away from this amp unless you want to slam it with pedals. It just doesn't have enough gain for serious metal. In some ways... tone wise... it reminds me of the older Carvin X100B but with a lot more refinement. Its boutique and if you are an accomplished soloist this could be the only amp you would ever need. Its that good.
It kind of makes me wish I wasn't in an 80's metal band and instead be in a Tony Macalpine CAB or Guthrie Govan/Shawn Lane type project!!

[jgcable]

I used it at the last gig with my 80's hair metal band. The best way to describe this amp is "refined". When A/B'ing against my other amps it always sounds much different than any other amp. Its not as midrangy as my Marshalls, its not as thick or high gain sounding as my 6505+. Its not as in your face as the Soldano. Its not as scooped as the rectifier. It sounds the best when soloing and the clean channel is probably the best I have ever heard.
One thing I did notice at the gig though.... at one gig I played a DSL100 1/2 stack mic'd with an SM57 and I got more compliments on my playing ability rather than my guitar tone. I wasn't that happy with the tone. At another gig I played my Line 6 Spidervalve 1 x 12 combo with a Blackstar 2 x 12 extension cab. This is the Bogner all tube powered combo. I got some compliments on both my playing ability and even more on my overall guitar tone. I was using a Behringer Ultra G direct box out to the board with the 4 x 12 cabinet emulation on and the sound guy was loving the tone coming out of the speakers. At the last gig I used the Rivera 1 x 12 combo mic'd with an SM57 and I really didn't get any remarks on my playing or the tone. At soundcheck getting guitar levels I thought it sounded amazing. During the gig I wasn't that happy with the tone and how it sat with the band. It really doesn't have that 80's hair band metal sound like the Line 6 modeling amp has. Its more of a soloist's amp if you can understand what I mean!

[markD]

That would make sense because the Suprema is really more of a "fusion" amp - good for instrumental players that work in a jazzier construct. The original Suprema was designed AS a jazz amp. It was single channel, had a 15" speaker....later on that model was dropped and the 55 was designed. While not a DIRECT copy, the overall idea was more to be in the realm of a Dumble-esque type of amp.

The Rivera's that are 80's sounding would be the R series, the M/S series, and the TBR series.

[jgcable]

I did another show with the Rivera this past Saturday. Packed club. All 80's arena rock metal. I had a GT10 in the loop running in the 4CM for effects only.
I got more compliments than I ever have before on my live tone. Most stated it was perfect metal guitar tone for the music we were playing... (Skid Row, Motley Crue, Whitesnake etc...... A few guys were from very prestigious recording studios and 1 was from a sound reinforcement company and they were both in agreement that I had probably the best live guitar tone they have ever heard. The Rivera is extremely easy to hear live. I was just using the 1 x 12 but it was mic'd with a 57 through a very nice PA and monitoring system. Funny.... the tone of the amp alone at home is good but I wouldn't think it would work for the music my band plays. That changes when its in a live an loud setting. The midrange and overall tone of the amp sits perfectly in the mix with the other guitar player, keyboards and bass player. The solo's jump out perfectly when level boosted through the loop. This amp blows away my 6505+ live for the style of music this band plays. I think if it was heavier stuff I would use the 6505+ and for the large shows I would break out my Metaltronix M1000 1/2 stack which can literally knock walls down.