Mesa/Boogie Roadster User Manual

PAGE 1
Overview:
Congratulations on choosing the Mesa Dual Rectifier Roadster as your amplifier and welcome to the Mesa/Boogie Family! By
choosing this all-tube hand-built instrument you have taken a step into the future of guitar amplification, for as you can see at a glance,
the Roadster is more than just an amp. It’s a collection of amps housed in one chassis. This arsenal of sounds is so powerful that
with them at your command, inspiration will take over and propel your playing to places you have only dreamed. Let’s take a moment
and review the features that make up this house of tone.
First and foremost it will help you to digest this dictionary of amazing guitar sounds by realizing that, as daunting as it looks, it is re-
ally just four separate amps. If you view it as such and learn them individually and then combine and dedicate them, you will find the
process easier. Each Preamp Channel on the Front Panel has a corresponding Power Amp/Effects Loop Control Panel on the Rear
Panel (we call them Channel Strips). Once you have chosen a Channel/Mode combination for a sound, you simply go to the Rear
Panel and select that Channel’s Reverb Setting, power amp choice (50 or 100 Watts), choose your Rectifier Style and set your Effects
Loop status. There you go, one channel done…repeat this scheme three more times and you are ready to explore your first palette of
sounds in the Roadster. Rest assured, many more combinations are lurking in there and you can look forward to years of discovery
as you go deeper. In case that was too simple sounding, here is a more expanded way of understanding the Roadster.
Four independent preamp channels make up the front end of the Roadster and though they may each be used for any sound, they
are grouped as two sets of lower gain Rhythm Channels (1 & 2) and two sets of high gain Lead Channels (3 & 4). The two sets are
stacked with the lower gain rhythm channels following the Input jack. Each of these channels house 3 different modes, which are
voiced differently and in certain cases have different gain structures. You’ll notice the modes are duplicated in the two types of channels
(excepting one in each Rhythm Channel) which makes it possible to use the them for different settings of the same sound.
OUTPUT
SOLO
CH1 CH3
LOOP
GAIN TREBLE MID BASS PRESENCE MASTER
RAW
MODERN
VINTAGE
RAW
MODERN
VINTAGE
BOLD
SPONGY
ON
STANDBY
CLEAN
TWEED
FAT
CLEAN
BRIT
FAT
GAIN TREBLE MID BASS PRESENCE MASTER
FRONT VIEW : COMBO
Roadster
MUTE
CH2CH4
FOOT
CONTROLLER
CH 2
CH
1
CH 3
FT
SW
CHANNEL
POWER FUSE
120 V~
60 Hz
4 A
4 A
SLO
BLO
FUSE
HANDBUILT
IN PETALUMA
CALIFORNIA, USA
FX LOOP
CH4
CH3
EXT.
SWITCH
CH2
CH1
REVERB SOLO LOOP TUNER OUT
LOOP SYSTEM
ACTIVE
HARD BYPASS
LOOP, OUTPUT &
SOLO CONTROLS
NORMAL
SEND
LEVEL
SEND RETURN
CH 4
6L6
BIAS
EL34
REVERB
DIODE
RECTO
TRACKING
100 WATTS
50
WATTS
FX ON
FX
OFF
REVERB
DIODE
RECTO
TRACKING
100 WATTS
50
WATTS
FX ON
FX
OFF
REVERB
DIODE
RECTO
TRACKING
100 WATTS
50
WATTS
FX ON
FX
OFF
REVERB
DIODE
RECTO
TRACKING
100 WATTS
50
WATTS
FX ON
FX
OFF
CH 3
CH 2
CH 1
SLAVE
LEVEL
OUT
REAR VIEW : COMBO
Roadster
(USE WITH TWO 8 OHM CABS)
4 OHM8 OHM
SPEAKERS
4 OHM16 OHM
Operating Instructions

Mesa/Boogie Roadster Specifications

General

Channels	4
Reverb	Yes
Effects Loop	Yes
Type	Tube
EQ	Treble, Mid, Bass per channel
Footswitch	Yes
Speaker Outputs	4 Ohm, 8 Ohm, 16 Ohm
Speakers	None (head version)
Tubes	5 x 12AX7, 4 x 6L6
Wattage	50W/100W (Switchable per channel)