'68 super reverb vs. Rivera Pubster 45?

[martingibson70]

Opinions please?

[Alanfc]

I dunno but snoop around here too:

 

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/riveraheads/messages/376?xm=1&m=s

 

http://www.vintageamps.com/plexiboard/viewforum.php?f=11&sid=e69d0073d905932dc9c5a2c66fe37b42

[martingibson70]

Thanks. I did find some usable info.

[DenverDave]

You are kind of talking apples and orages with those two amps. I've played through both and own one (well - I own a Rivera Clubster 45).

 

The Super Reverb has the classic Fender clean tone and is loud as crap. It has a lot of clean headroom, so you need to use pedals to drive this unless you need a crapload of volume. Pristine cleans - good reverb, weighs a ton.

 

The Pubster (if you go that route I recommened spending the extra bucks to upgrade to the Clubster) is a two channel amp. The clean channel is nice and gets a Fenderish clean, but is uses EL34 tubes so you won't get the 6L6 cleans the SR will. A good amount of headroom on the clean channel. The dirty channel (more of a Marshallish voiced channel) does everything from a nice bluesy breakup to near metal saturation. The reverb unit is good, but maybe too sensitive. I rarely run mine above 2, and usually lower. They are also a relatively light amp - one of the reasons I got mine (back lower back).

 

They are both killer amps, but really are not that comparable. The SR is a killer clean amp with 4 10" speakers, the Pubster a nice twin channel 1 x 12" amp. I prefer the versatility of the Rivera, but it can't touch the incredible cleans the SR will get.

 

Bottom line for me was that I prefered the versitility of the Rivera, it's lighter weight, and that is sounds better at a lower volume. The Super Reverb excels at Fender cleans, but gets too loud too soon. A THD Hot Plate is in order with that amp. Either amp will serve you well - both are great amps. But I'll repeat one more time - spend the extra money to get a Rivera Clubster as opposed to the Pubster. The extra $100.00 is money well spent..

[martingibson70]

Thanks DenverDave. I agree about the $100 upgrade for the clubster. I actually already own the Rivera Pubster. Got a good deal on it too. Bought it before the recent price increase of $100 in the past year and it was used, $599. It is quite easy to carry as well, a definite bonus. My reason for asking is that I have the opportunity to trade and while I appreciate versatility, I mostly play my tele's clean and really I find no comparison between the cleans. The SR definitely wins there. My dilema is that it will not be an even trade. I'm going to have to fork over some $$ in addition to the trade.

[DenverDave]

 

Originally posted by martingibson70 My reason for asking is that I have the opportunity to trade and while I appreciate versatility, I mostly play my tele's clean and really I find no comparison between the cleans. The SR definitely wins there. My dilema is that it will not be an even trade. I'm going to have to fork over some $$ in addition to the trade.

 

 

Yeah - I can see that. When I bought the Clubster I didn't know that I would be ending up in a country rock band in less than a year, so I might have opted for a Fender had I known that (probably a Deluxe Reverb though). I can get a pretty good clean tone with the Rivera and my Tele though - but not a SR clean. You may want to consider a Deluxe Reverb instead of the SR - maybe even get a straight acroos swap. I'm not sure what SR runs these days, but they sure do have a utterly killer clean tone.

 

Actually - the amp I really want is a Dr Z Stang Ray. Killer cleans and a bit warmer than a Fender - more of the older AC30 vibe. But they are way out of my price range...