Rivera Concert II

[roadkingbluzs]

Another Concert question. I will be getting a friends Concert '84 for tune up. I am looking for a few real world upgrades. Not neccesarily mods, as this will remain pretty much stock. Maybe experienced owners that have changed component values. I know there are mods and long threads on other sites, but not looking to mod, just improve tone quality. Suggestions would be welcomed. Thanks

[jaysg]

There's a great deal to be gained by blackfacing the clean preamp. Otoh, it's meant to 'sound' more Dumble than a stock Fender. There's a set (I don't know it) of simple changes buried in the Gear Page threads on the subject...most start with clipping the cathode to grid caps in OD preamp. The thing has an unused half 12ax7 which tends towards the ODS structure, but that's a lot of work. I did read what you want...the amp needs mods.

[roadkingbluzs]

Oh boy. Thats what's I did not want to do. Threads you refered to are very long. Appreciate help and I will do the blackface preamp circuit. Will be a few days before I do anything so any other ideas are welcomed. Thank you jaysg.

[martin manning]

An as-yet unanswerd question is where does your friend want to go with it? I went through one of these last year and found that it improved quite a bit with new output tubes and cleaning up the preamp tube sockets to get rid of some crackle. I'm not sure I'd mod it... Might have some collector value now or in the future.

[roadkingbluzs]

Hello MM , that is exactly what I was looking for. BTW, owner said this amp has a bit of crackling noise. Depending on improvement with new caps etc. owner to decide on selling or? Did you swap any component values? This amp is extremely good condition. They are a bit heavy for a 1x12. Thanks!

[martin manning]

The one I had had nice (looking) preamp tubes, so I first cleaned the socket contacts by spraying the tube pins and inserting and removing them a few times. That cured the crackling. If you can't do the same suspect the plate load resistors first. I left the power supply filters alone. There should be date codes on them so you can decide for your case based on age and performance after you do the routine cleaning stuff.

[vibratoking]

I had an 83 combo with a 1x12 configuration. I had it for about 5 years before I sold it a few months ago. It was a fine amp once I installed good tubes and a good speaker. The factory speaker is probably the flabbiest POS I have ever heard. Other than that, I had no complaints about that amp. I didn't feel the need to mod it, I just let it be what it was designed to be. Very nice blues amp.

Oh, make sure to put a patch cable in the loop and adjust that stage as desired. That is where the magic is in that amp, IMO.

[jaysg]

thinking about this again...before I started modding mine, my best tonal experience was when I was running it as a head into an EV 15L....so a speaker change can help.

Beyond that, you'll find people complaining about how it sounds using the Fender footswitch. I never had one and built my own...and I can't hear a difference, leaving me to guess that the shielding isn't very good -- it only affects the Reverb function. Channel switching doesn't send signal out to the switch.