114 Guitarist July 20 08
RIVERA VENUS 3 COMBO £1,166
GUITAR AMPS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOBY SESSIONS
GIT304.rev_rivera 114 16/5/08 13:52:47
July 20 08 Guitarist 115
RIVERA VENUS 3 COMBO £1,166
GUITAR AMPS
The Rivals
Vox’s AC15H1TV 1 x 12 combo
(£895) is a reworking of its
classic small amp with plenty of
great modern tones lurking
inside. Good value for money,
but where the build quality is
concerned Rivera is in a
different league. Fender ’s ’57
Tweed Deluxe re-issue
(£1,449) costs a fair bit more,
but this is a faithful recreation of
the archetypal small valve
combo – one of the most
recorded amps of all time. Larry
Carlton used one of these
throughout his studio career.
Wonderful tone and bulletproof
build quality – for great
recorded guitar sounds, this is
one of the classics. Cornford’s
Carrera combo (£999) is pure
Class A single-ended luxury; the
flexibility to swap the valves in
preamp and power amp makes
the Carrera a superlative
recording tool and, yes, even at
around eight watts you can use
this one live too.
T
o the vast m ajority of us,
Paul Rivera ne eds no
introduc tion. For well over
30 years he’s been one of rock
guit ar’s most inf luential amp
designers w ith a CV that includes
credits for Yama ha, Music Man
and, of cour se, Fender where he
revita lised that company ’s range
during t he early eighties with
such classics as the legendary
Super Champ. Today River a is
one of the most coveted bac kline
names, w ith an incred ibly diverse
list of user s. There aren’t many
amp compan ies who can include
Nashvil le legends like Doyle
Dykes and V ince Gill alongside
monster meta l players such as
Slipknot’s Jim Root and M ick
Thomson, or legend ary session
artist s such as Steely Dan alumni
Jeff ‘Skun k’ Baxter and Jay
Graydon among thei r customers.
The current f lagship of Paul’s
popular t wo-channel l ine is the
recently-introduced Cla ss A
Venus 6 (reviewed in issue 292),
which has now be en joined by a
single- channel version, t he
Venus 3, that’s threatening to
become one of the bes t recording
amps money ca n buy. Can thi s
little combo live up to the hype
though? L et’s take a closer look…
Like all R iveras, the Venus 3 is
built to a hig her standard tha n
many of its comp etitors, with a
tough ply cabinet , a removable
speaker gr ill and a rear panel
that’s bolted int o place – there are
no flimsy woodscrews here. Look
closely at the Venus’s trademark
pearlescent crea m vinyl covering
and you’ll notice there a re no cuts
to be seen any where, even on the
radiused i nside corners of the
speaker gr ill – that’s not easy to do
and few compan ies match this
standa rd. The gold piping, split
straw g rill and old-st yle control
knobs all work to accentuate that
popular retro-modern vibe.
The front panel is
straig htforward enoug h, with
controls for ga in, volume, and a
three- band EQ. There are also
level controls for presence a nd the
Venus’s built-in spring reverb. No
Rivera would be complet e without
at least one pull s witch, and the V3
has two : the first is a pu ll boost on
the gain control; the second is a
pull notch on t he mid-range,
which works to approxim ate the
two clas sic American EQs – t weed
(more 1950s in inf luence) and
blackface (’60s).
Move around to the rear and
you’ll find a simple series effects
loop (meanin g no level control),
a fixed li ne out and a Vintage/
Modern switch th at rewires the
out put va lves in t ri ode m ode ,
dropping the p ower to around
seven watts a nd enhancing even
harmon ics – perfect for home use
or recording. Inside the sturdy
steel chas sis – even though it’s
smaller a nd simpler – everyth ing
is still unmista keably Rivera, with
most of the elec tronics on a topqualit y aerospace grade PCB,
securely held in place by meta l
standof fs. Overall , the V3 retains
Rivera’s ty pical pro power tool
vibe, wh ile that classy vi nyl finish
looks equa lly at home in a living
ro om a s it d oes in a rec ordi ng
studio.
Sounds
But good looks a ren’t enough to
give th is diminutive combo a place
on our hot-list. How well does t he
Venus 3 perform in the dema nding
environment of t he recording
studio ? It’s pretty obviou s that
this a mp doesn’t have the
immediat e flexibilit y of the
footswitching dual-channel
Venus 6, but after a few minutes
experimenting with the tone
controls it’s also obvious that in
a studio, where you don’t need t o
ac ces s sou nd s in sta nt ly, t he V 3 is
easily capable of provid ing the
same ins tantly grat ifying Cla ss A
vibe. There’s some of the nat ural
squeezing of ba ndwidth that you
get when using a sma ller driver –
less bass tends to accent the
mid-rang e frequencies, which ca n
make 1 x 10s sound a l ittle nasal
and boxy – but R ivera counters
this w ith a very flex ible EQ and a
nicely-voiced custom Eminence
loudspeaker, ma king it quick and
easy to get some g reat rhythm and
lead tones for a simple 16-t rack
commercial m ix.
The range a nd quality of
di sto rt ion is w hat mos t pe ople wi ll
buy this a mp for – it’s easy to pile a
lot of gain i nto a preamp, but very
diff icult to take t hat and make it
stable and dy namically
responsive. Very few amp
designers do this tric k as well
Rivera Venus 3 combo £1,166
The Venus 3 sets out to prove that the best things really do
come in the smallest packages – but does it sound as good
as it looks? by Nick Guppy
It’s easy to pile a lot of gain into a preamp,
but very difficult to make it stable and
dynamically responsive. Few designers
do this trick as well as Paul Rivera
The rear Vintage/Modern switch rewires the output valves and drops the power
GIT304.rev_rivera 115 16/5/08 13:52:58
RIVERA VENUS 3 COMBO £1,166
GUITAR AMPS
116 Guitarist July 20 08
The Bottom Line
We like : Great tone, great
looks and lots of versatility.
One of the best small amps
we’ve ever plugged into
We dislike: The reverb is too
powerful and the EQ takes
some getting used to
Guitarist says: If you want the
best in build quality and tone
then the Venus 3 is a real
contender – check it out soon!
as Pau l Ri ver a. T he V3 ca n go f ro m
gently overdr iven, chiming chord s
to massive shreddi ng distortion
with t he boost engaged; a nd it’s all
highly useable, with those
powerful tone knobs making it
ea sy t o ta ke t he V 3 f rom s coo ped mid LA th rash to the butter y thick
mid-rang e of Brit-influenced
classic rock or blues. A nd in
between t hose extremes there
are some absolutely killer vintage
tweed and black face effects.
The powerful EQ needs to be
used wit h care – its range mea ns
there a few sett ings you probably
wou ld n’t w ant to u se. For
example, pulli ng out the mid
notch on an already scooped mid
sounds a bit like f ingernail s on a
blackboard – but wit h very little
effort you ca n also find some
sublime tones th at are everyt hing
you would expect f rom an amp
with t he Rivera badge. The
cleaner sounds a re very good, but
not trul y exceptional, and bet ter
to our ears i n the Modern mode
than the roughly half-power
Vintag e setting. The vert ical spar
in the speaker g rille acts as a bea m
blocker, so besides looking go od, it
diff uses the higher f requencies
and adds to t he V3’s airy and open
treble response if you mic f rom
medium dis tances. However, the
slight lack of ba ss from the 10-inch
driver mean s that the Venus 3
doesn’t quite achieve t he jawdropping t hree-dimen sional
richness of it s bigger brother.
Having said this, with the grille
removed (it’s held on by Velcro
tabs) and mic ’ing very close to the
con e as wel l as fr om t he re ar o f th e
cabinet, you can find some highly
useable tones that sou nd a lot
bigger than the box that’s
generating them.
The V3’s noise levels are ver y
low indeed, even w ith the amp’s
reverb level wound up – not that
you would do this t oo often as like
some other smal l Rivera amps
we’ve trie d, the V3 has too much
reverb on tap; any thing beyond
about 4 is only real ly useable as
a special ef fect.
Ve r d i c t
Overal l, the Venus 3 is a kil ler
small combo w ith a massive rang e
of t one fro m a v ery sim ple a nd
stra ightforward cont rol panel.
Don’t be misled by this amp’s
sweet and innocent appearance,
it’s capable of insa ne overdrive
and distortion as well as fat,
classic vi ntage stuf f, and special
effect s like feedback and pinched
harmonics are easy too. Like
most of Paul’s amps, t he Venus 3
actua lly makes you play better
ju st b y ma ki ng a ll o f th at s tuf f
happen without you h aving to try
too hard. I f you want to use the
amp for cleaner st uff, then we’d
advise goi ng for the 12-inch
version, but for any thing th at
needs a lit tle overdrive this a mp
won’t disappoint. Per fect for
studio us e at any level, the Venus
3 also look s the business. It’s not
the cheapest 1 x 10 combo out
there, but few amps ca n deliver
this ra nge and qualit y of tone, so
we thin k the price is about right .
If you’re looking for t he perfect
small a mp to complement your
lounge or st udio, we think it ’s
pr obab ly t ime to c al l of f th e
search a nd check out this baby!
Rivera Venus 3
1 x 10 combo
PRICE: £1,166
ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: All-valve, single-channel combo
with solid-state rectification.
OUTPUT: 15 watts RMS
VALVE S: 2 x ECC83/12AX7 preamp,
2 x 6V6 power amp.
DIMENSIONS: 440 (h) x 470 (w)
270mm (d)
WEIGHT (kg/lb): 19/41
CABINET: 18mm ply with dovetailed
corners.
LOUDSPEAKER: One Eminence
custom 10-inch
CHANNELS: One.
CONTROLS: Volume with pull boost,
bass, middle with pull notch, treble,
master volume, reverb, presence.
FOOTSWITCH: None
ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Series effects
loop, fixed level line out, Vintage/Modern
switch (drops power to approx 7 watts)
OPTIONS: None
RANGE OPTIONS: Also available in 1 x 12
format for £1,333, and in black vinyl to
order
Rivera UK 02380 363333
www.rivera.com
Test re sults
Build quality
Featu res
Sound
Value for money
GUITARIST RATING
The pull no tch on the mid- range aims to co py classic Amer ican tweed a nd blackface E Q
GIT304.rev_rivera 116 16/5/08 13:53:01
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