In happier news, found some nice tones from ch2 Edge mode.
Following the manual is good advice for this mode. It does sound clearly different if you use high mids, lower presence vs vice versa. The treble needs to be a lot lower than any other mode because it can sound really harsh otherwise, and the bass knob can be turned up a lot more without problems.
No graphic or preset EQ needed. Running it at 45W here, hence the higher channel volume setting.
The Riverside with no knob EQ adjustments, mid push enabled and presence set to "minus" (less bite) or center (more bite) works great to kick it up to higher gain, giving more options to tweak it with your guitar volume knob.
I've also grown to like the combo and its Celestion/Mesa "Black Shadow" MC90 speaker. With the above settings I had both the combo speaker and the white Bluetone 4x10 w/ 10" Greenbacks peeking out in the back hooked up. Surprisingly the combo speaker still tends to dominate the sound (maybe just because it's closer to me) but the 4x10 adds a lot of "oomph" to the tone so together it sounds huge.
I'm powering the CIOKS 4 Expander with an old Truetone 1Spot. No noise issues doing it like that and enough juice to power at least 3 Strymons.
Also in happy tones: Flint's hall reverb with some pre-delay set to a somewhat dark Color knob setting sounds really nice and big. I still stand by the Flint as a great reverb. It just blends well with your base sound, instead of taking it over, especially when playing louder. It's not a reverb for people seeking tones where the reverb becomes "the thing", it's a reverb for juicing up your base tone.
