Rivera Venus 3 Manual

114 Guitarist July 2008
RIVERA VENUS 3 COMBO £1,166
GUITAR AMPS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOBY SESSIONS
GIT304.rev_rivera 114 16/5/08 13:52:47

July 2008 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.
To the vast majority of us,
Paul Rivera needs no
introduction. For well over
30 years he’s been one of rock
guitar’s most influential amp
designers with a CV that includes
credits for Yamaha, Music Man
and, of course, Fender where he
revitalised that company’s range
during the early eighties with
such classics as the legendary
Super Champ. Today Rivera is
one of the most coveted backline
names, with an incredibly diverse
list of users. There aren’t many
amp companies who can include
Nashville legends like Doyle
Dykes and Vince Gill alongside
monster metal players such as
Slipknot’s Jim Root and Mick
Thomson, or legendary session
artists such as Steely Dan alumni
Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter and Jay
Graydon among their customers.
The current flagship of Paul’s
popular two-channel line is the
recently-introduced Class A
Venus 6 (reviewed in issue 292),
which has now been joined by a
single-channel version, the
Venus 3, that’s threatening to
become one of the best recording
amps money can buy. Can this
little combo live up to the hype
though? Let’s take a closer look…
Like all Riveras, the Venus 3 is
built to a higher standard than
many of its competitors, with a
tough ply cabinet, a removable
speaker grill and a rear panel
that’s bolted into place – there are
no flimsy woodscrews here. Look
closely at the Venus’s trademark
pearlescent cream vinyl covering
and you’ll notice there are no cuts
to be seen anywhere, even on the
radiused inside corners of the
speaker grill – that’s not easy to do
and few companies match this
standard. The gold piping, split
straw grill and old-style control
knobs all work to accentuate that
popular retro-modern vibe.
The front panel is
straightforward enough, with
controls for gain, volume, and a
three-band EQ. There are also
level controls for presence and the
Venus’s built-in spring reverb. No
Rivera would be complete without
at least one pull switch, and the V3
has two: the first is a pull boost on
the gain control; the second is a
pull notch on the mid-range,
which works to approximate the
two classic American EQs – tweed
(more 1950s in influence) and
blackface (’60s).
Move around to the rear and
you’ll find a simple series effects
loop (meaning no level control),
a fixed line out and a Vintage/
Modern switch that rewires the
output valves in triode mode,
dropping the power to around
seven watts and enhancing even
harmonics – perfect for home use
or recording. Inside the sturdy
steel chassis – even though it’s
smaller and simpler – everything
is still unmistakeably Rivera, with
most of the electronics on a top-
quality aerospace grade PCB,
securely held in place by metal
standoffs. Overall, the V3 retains
Rivera’s typical pro power tool
vibe, while that classy vinyl finish
looks equally at home in a living
room as it does in a recording
studio.
Sounds
But good looks aren’t enough to
give this diminutive combo a place
on our hot-list. How well does the
Venus 3 perform in the demanding
environment of the recording
studio? It’s pretty obvious that
this amp doesn’t have the
immediate flexibility 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 to
access sounds instantly, the V3 is
easily capable of providing the
same instantly gratifying Class A
vibe. There’s some of the natural
squeezing of bandwidth that you
get when using a smaller driver –
less bass tends to accent the
mid-range frequencies, which can
make 1 x 10s sound a little nasal
and boxy – but Rivera counters
this with a very flexible EQ and a
nicely-voiced custom Eminence
loudspeaker, making it quick and
easy to get some great rhythm and
lead tones for a simple 16-track
commercial mix.
The range and quality of
distortion is what most people will
buy this amp for – it’s easy to pile a
lot of gain into a preamp, but very
difficult to take that and make it
stable and dynamically
responsive. Very few amp
designers do this trick 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 2008
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 Paul Rivera. The V3 can go from
gently overdriven, chiming chords
to massive shredding distortion
with the boost engaged; and it’s all
highly useable, with those
powerful tone knobs making it
easy to take the V3 from scooped-
mid LA thrash to the buttery thick
mid-range of Brit-influenced
classic rock or blues. And in
between those extremes there
are some absolutely killer vintage
tweed and blackface effects.
The powerful EQ needs to be
used with care – its range means
there a few settings you probably
wouldn’t want to use. For
example, pulling out the mid
notch on an already scooped mid
sounds a bit like fingernails on a
blackboard – but with very little
effort you can also find some
sublime tones that are everything
you would expect from an amp
with the Rivera badge. The
cleaner sounds are very good, but
not truly exceptional, and better
to our ears in the Modern mode
than the roughly half-power
Vintage setting. The vertical spar
in the speaker grille acts as a beam
blocker, so besides looking good, it
diffuses the higher frequencies
and adds to the V3’s airy and open
treble response if you mic from
medium distances. However, the
slight lack of bass from the 10-inch
driver means that the Venus 3
doesn’t quite achieve the jaw-
dropping three-dimensional
richness of its bigger brother.
Having said this, with the grille
removed (it’s held on by Velcro
tabs) and mic’ing very close to the
cone as well as from the rear of the
cabinet, you can find some highly
useable tones that sound a lot
bigger than the box that’s
generating them.
The V3’s noise levels are very
low indeed, even with the amp’s
reverb level wound up – not that
you would do this too often as like
some other small Rivera amps
we’ve tried, the V3 has too much
reverb on tap; anything beyond
about 4 is only really useable as
a special effect.
Ve r d i c t
Overall, the Venus 3 is a killer
small combo with a massive range
of tone from a very simple and
straightforward control panel.
Don’t be misled by this amp’s
sweet and innocent appearance,
it’s capable of insane overdrive
and distortion as well as fat,
classic vintage stuff, and special
effects like feedback and pinched
harmonics are easy too. Like
most of Paul’s amps, the Venus 3
actually makes you play better
just by making all of that stuff
happen without you having to try
too hard. If you want to use the
amp for cleaner stuff, then we’d
advise going for the 12-inch
version, but for anything that
needs a little overdrive this amp
won’t disappoint. Perfect for
studio use at any level, the Venus
3 also looks the business. It’s not
the cheapest 1 x 10 combo out
there, but few amps can deliver
this range and quality of tone, so
we think the price is about right.
If you’re looking for the perfect
small amp to complement your
lounge or studio, we think it’s
probably time to call off the
search and 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
VALVES: 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 results
Build quality
Features
Sound
Value for money
GUITARIST RATING
The pull notch on the mid-range aims to copy classic American tweed and blackface EQ
GIT304.rev_rivera 116 16/5/08 13:53:01