at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

[VicToR]

hi dudes...

well i remember to post a poll 2 months ago about to choose among peavey or mesa tube amps. Yesterday a friend of mine told me to try one because he is interested on a good amp and have a lot of good reviews of this monster.
So we went to one store and saw single, dual rectos and a road king. I know we'll never :laugh2: have the money for the last one so we tried the recto... men you know, i haven´t finished paying the triple xxx head yet... :laugh2:

there are a lot of points on this amp that are very close to the peavey one, like the cleans, that sounds the same to me...like the idea of having a 2nd channel for riffing and a 3rd for soloing, but it´s ovbious that every amp has his own tone. i thought the rythm channel of the triple xxx was the best...well, now i think is the second one. The solo channel is brighter to play riffs with but obviously for soloing has a huge tone...i was impressed with the highs, that is a fact that i am not so impressed with with my amp. and i love this idea of have solo and "general" volume. didn´t tried it on his 2 rectifier modes (played on hi power mode, but didn´t know the diference) and tried it on bold mode (the other one was spongy?)...its the same resonance changes that produces my amp on loose, mid and tight modes.

i played throught it with an ibanez s prestige (mahogany) a ltd viper (not sure of which one but it has emgs on it) and a dinky with duncans (jb and jazz)...and went off the store very surprised of how good this amp is, i mean, i know mesa is at the top of this, but never played one...need to do it, and now i wish not to have done it because i want one :laugh2:

...btw i was surprised also with the price. i thought this one would cost like 3000 € or more (head only) and it cost 1900 € + 900 more with the cab so my friend will buy one...

btw i have said that i want one? :laugh2: F**K!!!! I WANT ONE :yell:

 

[some_dude]

Re: at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

I love my Rectifier.

 

[Davey]

Re: at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

i dont like the peavy xxx combo. there's not that much to it. have yet to try out the head version.

and for emsas, yea. i only played the mark4 combo and i was blown away by the sheer power and beefyness of it's sound.. and the gain wasnt even at 10 (or 12 or to whatever it goes on the mesa)

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

I found the Recto to be really muddy and unarticulate, and it has this really grainy quality in the high end that kills my ears. I like my XXX head 1000x more.

 

[kill your scene]

Re: at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

I think Mesas sound great. The only problem is that SO many bands use them these days that the "Mesa sound" is a bit overplayed. I like amps that are total tone machines, but have their own style going..... like a Bogner, Laney or H&K.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

In 1996, I went to the early Bogner shop, with no intent to buy, just plug in and see what the hype was. I played an Ecstasy for about 45 minutes, was blown away, and walked out, depressed, because they were $3500 for the head. I had numerous amps after that day, but always had the Bogner in my mind as the holy grail.
Then, after selling a bunch of my gear, and adding more money, I saw a local ad for an early Bogner that was from the same batch as all the one's that went to artists like Satriani, VH, Cantrell, Vai, Lynch, etc. I forced the guy to sell it to me for $2175, then later got the 4-12 cab. After using it nightly, I came to the conclusion that there has never been, nor will ever be, an amp that is as perfect as this amp. I also saw the harmony-central reviews stating the same thing I thought.
The amp will do anything that ANY Marshall, Mesa, Soldano, or Peavey will do, only better. One little switch on the front will literally change it's whole vibe from a Marshall to a Mesa Rectifier. Now, I've had the amp for over 2 years, and love it more everyday. The way I see it, life is too short to not have what you want. The Road King may be out of the picture financially now, but if you keep your sights set on it, or something similar, you'll get it. We're lucky to be in a time when guitar amps have hit a peak. Before, they were good, but lacked some features. Now, you can get almost anything you desire, as long as you can afford it. I guess it depends on how much you want it.

 

[VicToR]

Re: at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

I think Mesas sound great. The only problem is that SO many bands use them these days that the "Mesa sound" is a bit overplayed. I like amps that are total tone machines, but have their own style going..... like a Bogner, Laney or H&K.

well, i think that there are many bands using mesas and they have their own sound...like testament, dream theater or korn for example...i swore that i had to try one after hearing THE GATHERING (testament), and i realized that most of the bands that i like use rectos...the rest use peavey, and a couple that use marshall... i started with a dsl 400 and then change to peavey...i think that the next step would/will be change to mesa, but i have spent a lot of money on the triple xxx to sell it now...

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

What settings are you using on the XXX? I've found I can get it to sound pretty close to a Recto, only more articulate.

On the Ultra channel, highs at 6-7, mids at 5-6, lows at 10, on the loose damping. I Have my gain on 10 as well, but my DD might be the reason I have the lows so high.

 

[some_dude]

Re: at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

Now, I've had the amp for over 2 years, and love it more everyday.

To me my amp is everything. My guitars are simply tools that I use to make my amp do the things I want it to, but even though they're well cared for, at the end of the day they're still just tools.

My amp on the other hand, is my sound forge. Without it my tools are pretty much useless. With it, I can mold and shape the sound that comes from my tools into the sounds that I want. For some reason, I can sit and stare at my amp and admire it for the technological beauty in it's design, or sit for hours just playing with the gain and EQ to see what new sounds I can discover. I just can't seem to show that much interest in my guitars.

If you ever hear a amp with a tone that you love, don't ever settle for anything less unless it's temporary, go for it, for the sheer joy of playing that amp with be worth it's costs ten times over.

 

[Guitarist]

Re: at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

What settings are you using on the XXX? I've found I can get it to sound pretty close to a Recto, only more articulate.

On the Ultra channel, highs at 6-7, mids at 5-6, lows at 10, on the loose damping. I Have my gain on 10 as well, but my DD might be the reason I have the lows so high.

I have a question: How can you survive through the mud? :13:

And also, if your settings are anywhere near these when you play on the Recto, of course its going to be muddy. They have a huge amount of gain (10 is overkill), and everyone knows about their massive bass response. Keep the lows at 11:00 and the gain at 2:00 if you're looking for a killer metal tone.

 

[Guitarist]

Re: at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

hi dudes...

well i remember to post a poll 2 months ago about to choose among peavey or mesa tube amps. Yesterday a friend of mine told me to try one because he is interested on a good amp and have a lot of good reviews of this monster.
So we went to one store and saw single, dual rectos and a road king. I know we'll never :laugh2: have the money for the last one so we tried the recto... men you know, i haven´t finished paying the triple xxx head yet... :laugh2:

there are a lot of points on this amp that are very close to the peavey one, like the cleans, that sounds the same to me...like the idea of having a 2nd channel for riffing and a 3rd for soloing, but it´s ovbious that every amp has his own tone. i thought the rythm channel of the triple xxx was the best...well, now i think is the second one. The solo channel is brighter to play riffs with but obviously for soloing has a huge tone...i was impressed with the highs, that is a fact that i am not so impressed with with my amp. and i love this idea of have solo and "general" volume. didn´t tried it on his 2 rectifier modes (played on hi power mode, but didn´t know the diference) and tried it on bold mode (the other one was spongy?)...its the same resonance changes that produces my amp on loose, mid and tight modes.

i played throught it with an ibanez s prestige (mahogany) a ltd viper (not sure of which one but it has emgs on it) and a dinky with duncans (jb and jazz)...and went off the store very surprised of how good this amp is, i mean, i know mesa is at the top of this, but never played one...need to do it, and now i wish not to have done it because i want one :laugh2:

...btw i was surprised also with the price. i thought this one would cost like 3000 € or more (head only) and it cost 1900 € + 900 more with the cab so my friend will buy one...

btw i have said that i want one? :laugh2: F**K!!!! I WANT ONE :yell:

Congradulations on your find bro! I love Rectos, you should have great years of tone with that one...just take the time to find it! Most idiots on MTV using Rectos wouldn't know tone if it smacked them right on the forehead!

 

[some_dude]

Re: at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

I have a question: How can you survive through the mud? :13:

And also, if your settings are anywhere near these when you play on the Recto, of course its going to be muddy. They have a huge amount of gain (10 is overkill), and everyone knows about their massive bass response. Keep the lows at 11:00 and the gain at 2:00 if you're looking for a killer metal tone.

highs at 6-7, mids at 5-6, lows at 10, on the loose damping

Geeze, if that's how people think Rectifiers sound, no wonder so many can't stand the tone. I'm going to have to go find a XXX to test those settings on, because I'm pretty sure my amp sounds nothing like that.

 

[VicToR]

Re: at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

mmmm, well i play on the crunch channel, highs at 1:00, mids at 11:00 and lows at 3:00 and gain to the max...not ultra channel user at all, at first, then i went using it to play solos, highs at 12:00, mids at 9:00 and lows at 2:00...the ultra channel sounds too much muddy to play riffs with imo...

when i tried the recto i put the same settings on it, made some changes on eq, volume, and guitar/pups... and having my guitars/amp tone in mind, it's "crunch" and "ultra" channels sounded simply better to my ears...yeah, i know i should say that it has more balls or low end or something, but i don´t need to. i love that tone and that's it... this doesn´t mean i dislike my amp now... but i´ve just found a better amp for my tastes...

btw if i think that i just need to change my amp, time and money will do the rest... but it´s hard cause i had been trying the triple xxx and many more to have sure which one would be "the final amp" and now i know that i should had tried this one... i thought that one dual recto+cab should cost like 5000 € (some friends told me that) and my amp cost like 2200, so i decided then not even to try it...

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

I have a question: How can you survive through the mud? :13:

And also, if your settings are anywhere near these when you play on the Recto, of course its going to be muddy. They have a huge amount of gain (10 is overkill), and everyone knows about their massive bass response. Keep the lows at 11:00 and the gain at 2:00 if you're looking for a killer metal tone.

Ahh, sorry, I didn't mean that was the setting I use to get a recto like sound. The XXX can't really get a recto sound, but close. The highs are grainy, that's the XXX's only downfall to me. You can't get a smooth Mark III or IV sound out of it, it's always crunchy. I still love it. Those settings don't produce any mud at all, actually. I plan on replacing my DD with a Custom soon, because I've found it to be quite thin. That's why I keep the bass so high. Also, on Recto's, I found tweaking the control's to do very little to change the amps sound. No matter what, it's still a recto. I prefer the Mark III's and IV's tenfold.

 

[some_dude]

Re: at least i tried a Dual Rectifier....wow!

That's why I keep the bass so high. Also, on Recto's, I found tweaking the control's to do very little to change the amps sound. No matter what, it's still a recto.

You really need to spend more time with a Recto dude. You'd be surprised how many different sounds you can get out of it.

The problem is, most of them don't start comming out until your output is at about 6 or higher, and most people can't run their amps that loud. When the output is set too low it sounds thin and buzzy, lacks midrange, has no picking dynamics, ect, ect....most of the problems people associate with Rectifiers.

Once you get that output up, the amp turns into a whole new monster.....

....if you ever get the chance to dime a Recto's output (leaving the gain below 13:00) you should sometime. I'm not saying you have to like it, as everyone has a different sound in their head, but it's something you should experience at least once in your life.