Rear Panel; Slave; Speakers; Reverb - Mesa/Boogie Roadster Owner's Manual

REAR PANEL CONTROLS & FEATURES
REAR VIEW : COMBO Roadster
REAR VIEW: Roadster Combo
CH 2 CH 3
CH FT
POWER FUSE
1
SW
CH4 CH3 CH2
120 V~ 4 A
60 Hz SLO
4 A BLO
CHANNEL
EXT.
SWITCH
FOOT
FUSE
CONTROLLER

REVERB

SOLO LOOP

SLAVE:

This 1/4" jack and control provide a signal derived from the speaker jack. Perfect for using either the Roadster head version
or combo as a master pre-amp and additional power amps for more power when needed. Some players use the SLAVE to derive an
FX Send Signal and go to other amps for their wet sound.
LEVEL
NOTE: Once a signal is taken from the SLAVE, it can not be inserted back into the FX Loop Return jack or
a feedback loop will occur. Much like holding a microphone into a PA system's cabinets...a loud high pitched
KERS
SLAVE
4 OHM 4 OHM
squeal will be the result.
OUT
(USE WITH TWO 8 OHM CABS)

SPEAKERS:

Two 4 Ohm, one 8 Ohm and one 16 Ohm jack are provided for speaker interfacing. The Roadster is not very sensi-
tive to speaker mismatches and will not be damaged by them, except that very low ohmage loads will cause the power tubes to wear
faster. A single twelve-inch 8 Ohm speaker should generally be connected to the 8 Ohm output. When using two 8 Ohm speakers,
connect them both to the 4 Ohm outputs provided (because the total load is 4 Ohms in that case.) Check out the information further
back in this manual regarding speaker impedance and possible speaker hook-up schemes.
SPEAKERS
16 OHM 8 OHM 4 OHM 4 OHM
(USE WITH TWO 8 OHM CABS)
REVERB:
These 4 rotary controls determine the dry/wet mix ratio for the rich analog REVERB and are wired to the Reverb return
circuit. Each of the 4 Channels have a dedicated control so that a different Reverb mix can be attained for each individual sound. The
controls sweep from a subtle background effect at their low range to a drenched, swimming effect at the top of the control. Several
CH 4
REVERB
DIODE 100 WATTS FX ON
RECTO 50 FX
TRACKING WATTS OFF
the dry signal after switching the REVERB or Channels. This intentional built-in delay prevents both switching noise from the hard
bypass relays used to isolate the pure dry signal from the effected REVERB signal, and the prior Channels sound coming through
the REVERB in the current Channel when switching. At first this may seem strange, but after a couple minutes in real world situations
you will see that it is preferable to the embarrassing alternative of a loud overdriven crunch chord drowning out your beautiful clean
passage in the middle of a breakdown.
HANDBUILT
IN PETALUMA
CALIFORNIA, USA
NORMAL
CH1
SEND
LEVEL
FX LOOP
LOOP SYSTEM
ACTIVE
HARD BYPASS
LOOP, OUTPUT &
SEND RETURN
TUNER OUT
SOLO CONTROLS
4x12 cabinets may be 4, 8 or 16 Ohms. If you are not sure of the impedance of your cabinet, you may need
to remove the Rear Panel in order to verify the impedance rating of the individual speaker or speakers.
MESA 4x12 and 4x10 cabinets come standard wired to 8 Ohms, and are wired in series-parallel. Some
Non-MESA 4x12 cabinets are wired 16 Ohms using four 16 Ohm speakers. By wiring all four speakers
in parallel, you can reduce the cabinet to an impedance load of 4 Ohms (assuming the speakers are 16
Ohms each.) No matter how unusual your speaker setup, it is always possible to get good performance.
factors affect the REVERB tone and drive including the different Modes' gain structures, preamp gain set-
tings and CHANNEL MASTER and OUTPUT control settings. Generally speaking, lower gain settings will
produce cleaner, purer Reverb effects, while higher gain settings will produce more smeared, washy Reverb
sounds. This difference can be useful, desirable and is a normal characteristic of Reverb circuits of this type.
The REVERB may be switched in and out of the circuit via the REVERB button on the Footcontroller.
NOTE: It is normal to experience approximately 1-2 seconds of delay before the REVERB is mixed with
CH 4 CH 3
REVERB REVERB
EL34
DIODE 100 WATTS FX ON DIODE 100 WATTS
RECTO 50 FX RECTO 50
6L6
TRACKING WATTS OFF TRACKING WATTS
BIAS
PAGE 12
CH 2 CH 1
REVERB REVERB
FX ON DIODE 100 WATTS FX ON DIODE 100 WATTS
FX RECTO 50 FX RECTO 50
OFF TRACKING WATTS OFF TRACKING WATTS
LEVEL
SPEAKERS
SLAVE
16 OHM 8 OHM 4 OHM 4 OHM
FX ON
FX
OUT
OFF
(USE WITH TWO 8 OHM CABS)