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Well I purchased a several year old Rivera S120 that I had seen before, but never played through. I did a little research and found out it has 2 60 watt amps. Channel 1, the Marshall-y channel uses one amp, while Channel 2, the Fender-y channel uses the 2nd amp. Tubed with Svetlana EL34s, this amp can be operated at lower voltages and in triode for lower power output perhaps as low as 8 watts per amp.

I played it for several hours today after playing a couple of Dr Z's, Peavey JSX and XXX and the 100 watt and 60 watt Genz-Benz El Diablo Heads. The El DIablo 60 is a great vintage sounding amp with a modern edge, where the 100 watt model has more voices and a fatter tone on the hot channel. The 100 watt head can be very Plexi-ish with a little Mesa DR on tap too.

The Rivera S120 had a great clean channel and the Marshall side was a kick. The ability to run the amp at different voltages for different tones was the clincher. I lowered the voltages, used the Marshall side (Ch 1) and got a fat solid tone with a lot of crunch. The OD was real and raunchy and growly and not at all buzzy like the XXX, JSX and Marshall DSL I have recently tried out.

Now I need to see what cab and speakers will work well with this amp. I was thinking an Avatar, perhaps with the new Emi Governors. Would be nice to have two cabs; an open back for the Fender side and a closed-back or ported for the Marshall side of the amp. Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated regarding cab and speaker choices.

Brent

As a wise man once said:Rivera good.
and my rivera g.a.s. is still on FIYAH!!!

the idea about having two 2x12's one open and one closed is very intriguing...?!

as far as speaker choices...that's gonna be tough...Dave from Avator will be able to suggest something good i'm sure...but it's all gonna come down to personal taste though...tell him what your ideas are and see what he says!?

Bump

Get a Rivera 4x12. The best cab for a Rivera head!!