My Rivera rack:)

[Guitardude86]

Finally.. I got a matching Rivera head to my cab.. May not seem like it but I'm up in the sky right now.. I never thought I'd get a Rivera head..
Then one day I get a mail, the guy sais he's got one Rivera head too many and he wants to try out something different. I say sure, I've got a Mesa Quad and a poweramp, check it out if your interested.

Next thing I know, the guy's in his car, driving across half the country with the Rivera in the back of his car. Yesterday he arrived and plugged his guitar into my Quad. A few moments later he says cool, I'll take it.
WAY COOL. I helped him carry the Mesa preamp and poweramp to his car,
he drove off.. And I am now the proud owner of a Rivera M-100 head:-)

So here's a few pics of the head and my current set-up, for anyone interested.




As usual, all comments are welcome. Rock on!

[markD]

killer rig!!! i have lived by my rivera's since 1990!!! they are great amps that are VERY under-rated. excellent build quality, and awesome tone!! congrats!!!

i have an s120 and an m100. the cabs sound MASSIVE for 1x12 and 2x10 cabs. they are open back and my tone FILLS the room.

[toejam]

Sweet. Riveras rock!!

[Dave L]

Another Rivera guy signing in! I´ve got a TBR1 from 1987 and a late nineties Knucklehead 55, and I couldn´t be happier with them. Here´s a little pic of my KH, I really like the vintage styling.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j210/DaveLundmark/Rivera.jpg

[Guitardude86]

These amps were built to rock! Look at the construction; Riveras are so solid they'll still be around for our grandchildren to play around with!
Blast from the past..

I read somewhere that, apparently Skid Row used Riveras on their first two albums? Is that true, or more like a rumour? Are there any other guitarists/bands known for using Riveras?

[Dave L]

Well, I first found out about Rivera because Steve Lukather and Jay Graydon had their own models; the Bonehead and the Rake, respectively. Besides these two I don´t really know of anyone "big" having close affiliation (via some kind of public endorsement, that is) with Rivera. At some time or another I think Mick Mars, John Sykes and the already mentioned boys from SKid Row has played them, however... along with a barrage of Nashville- and session players.

I still slap myself upside the head for not jumping on a veeery pretty Rake head with matching 2x12 a few years back, but in all fairness I think my TBR1 is a pretty similar animal.

[markD]

skid row used them on slave to the grind, the album and tour. rudolph schenker used rivera for a while, in the late 80's/early 90's. saigon kick were the biggest rivera users to me.

les dudek was/is a rivera player. i saw him once and the guitar was SO loud. it sounded killer, but loud....

[Joe_Steeler]

Another Rivera user here.
Excellent amps and great people to deal with for sure.

[Dave L]

Yeah, the people at Rivera are great... it´s just too bad they don´t have time to have a public e-mail nowadays. It always feels weird to call internationally to ask something, so when I´ve not been in a rush I´ve relayed stuff thru the very helpful swedish distributors.

[Endrik]

riveras are very loud amps, usually their clean sounds are killer too.
Mick Mars has used them for years with his other amps.

[Dave L]

Yeah, loudness is definitely something to factor in when considering one of these. I´ve had my fair share of high-power tube amps, but the Riveras are simply punishing... probably partly due to the extraordinary amount of volume they need to really start singing. I can´t imagine trying to use one of these at home, and pretty much everything I´ve had has sounded better at bedroom levels. The Riveras are the best I´ve had where it counts, though... full band volume!

[Guitardude86]

That's one of the reasons I got it - volume! I'm desperately trying to assemble a band now so there will definitely be some loud-ass playing going on
I've been sitting quietly in the cellar practicing at bedroom levels for years now - this has to come to an end!

[Dave L]

Which poweramp did you run the Quad with? I´m thinking you probably had gigging power there as well?

[Guitardude86]

A Mesa 20/20.

[Dave L]

Ah, OK... well, then you´ll have alot more power now! A 20/20 could have done the trick as well, I suppose, but I´ve heard people complaining about the lack of sheer volume they have.