What's a good price on a Mesa Dual Rec 2 Channel ?

[zeegler]

I'm thinking about getting one. What would be a reasonable price on a used one?

[jgcable]

Re: What\'s a good price on a Mesa Dual Rec 2 Channel ?

A good price for a 2 channel is $850.00
A good price for a 3 channel is $950.00

I would suggest you look at the Single Rectifier. 50w is plenty for most humans. If you get a series 2 you also get the bias feature.

[FSU_Seminoles]

Re: What\'s a good price on a Mesa Dual Rec 2 Channel ?

isn't there a solid state part in the single rectos ?

[jgcable]

Re: What\'s a good price on a Mesa Dual Rec 2 Channel ?

[ QUOTE ]
isn't there a solid state part in the single rectos ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not that I am aware of. There is a rectifier ciruit but I believe they all have the same thing. The Single, Dual and Triple are very similar sounding and constructed. The duals and triples have more features but I am partial to the Single. It has everything that most of us would need.

[zeegler]

Re: What\'s a good price on a Mesa Dual Rec 2 Channel ?

So what would a single rec be worth?

[jgcable]

Re: What\'s a good price on a Mesa Dual Rec 2 Channel ?

Well, a good price for a Single would be in the high 7's.
They usually sell for around $800.00
Its a damn good amp and its pretty easy to lug around. The Dual Recto is pretty heavy and the Triple weighs a ton.

[siggy14]

Re: What\'s a good price on a Mesa Dual Rec 2 Channel ?

[ QUOTE ]
A good price for a 2 channel is $850.00
A good price for a 3 channel is $950.00

I would suggest you look at the Single Rectifier. 50w is plenty for most humans. If you get a series 2 you also get the bias feature.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
isn't there a solid state part in the single rectos ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not that I am aware of. There is a rectifier ciruit but I believe they all have the same thing. The Single, Dual and Triple are very similar sounding and constructed. The duals and triples have more features but I am partial to the Single. It has everything that most of us would need.

[/ QUOTE ]

Lets Break this down a little. First there is no solid state distortion in the single, they do however only have the solid state rectifier. Now believe it or not most people that have a dual or triple only use the solid state rectifer circuit anyway. Pretty much every amp on the market uses a solid state rectifier unless they have tube rectifiers in it or they give you the choice like mesa to either use tube or solid state rectification. As to the difference between rectification metholds, that is a whole other thread that would need to be started in tech section.

As to the differences, the single rec is only 50 watts with solid state rectifcation, and there are two series. Series one you can only use 6L6's, with series two you get the bias switch found on all the other rectifers.

If you need a verstile amp go with the 3 channel Dual, to me this is the best amp besides the roadking. You have the most options with the 3 channel versions, to me the pushed is an awesome voicing, very sweet, the downside to using pushed is you loose your clean channel. The raw, and vintage are my two favorite voicings for for rock and hard rock to old style metal, i do not care much for the modern voicing, but it is nice to have it there if i am covering new metal. The nice thing about the 3 channel rec's are that the switches to switch between voicings are right there on the front and easy to get too, the only time the volume level changes is if you switch to the modern voicing, then the volume level goes down.

The 3 Channels also have the solo function which is great for soloing, you can set how much you want your volume level to be boosted, then just by hitting the footswitch you get instant boost.

To me the triple rec is just overkill, yeah you can pull two tubes, but that still only brings you down to 100 watt amp, with the dual you can also pull two tubes and that brings you down to a more useible 50 watter.

The only advantage i find with the 2 channel heads, is the modern channel is slighty better sounding then on the newer 3 channels, but of course that goes for what you are looking for in a modern distortoin as well. The 2 channel sounds more organic and natural, were the 3 channel rec's modern voicing still sounds tube, but not as organic and natural.

So basicaly the big differences between the 2 channel and 3 channel are as follows.

2 channel voicings-Green/orange channel you can either have clean or vintage, this vintage would be the same as using the vintage of orange channel on a 3 channel rect. The 2 channel also does not have the solo feature. To change a voicing on the channel there is a switch on the back, of the top of my head i think these are your options.
Clean/modern
Clean/Vintage
vintage/modern

3 channel version has 8 difference voicings that are as follows.- Green Channel clean or pushed. Orange channel has either Raw, vintage or modern. Red channel has Raw, Vintage and modern as well.

The difference between the orange and red channel on both versions is that the red channel is a little more mid scooped. The advantage to the 3 channel besides the fact you have more voicings, is you have more options on how you use the voicings, you can have vintage set on both orange and red channel, or modern set on both etc...

Now for pricing, JC is right those are good pricings, however you very rarely ever find them for that. Right now the Mesa's prices seem to keep rising. The 2 and 3 channel duals and triples vary in price.

For the 2 channel later models (mid to late 90's) usualy go between $900 and $1100, the earlier 2 channel models (95 and below)have been going from $1200 all the way up to $1500 depending on how early. I just sold my 1992 model for $1300, the serial number was in the 800 range. If you find one with the serial number under 500 you are gonna pay top dollar. Note that on most of the old two channel versions it is almost impossible to find them with the original footswitch, people find they can sell them footswitches for about $40 to $50 dollars so they usually sell it seperate. Not that it is a horrible thing, you can use any single footswitch with it.

The rackmounts are going from $1200 up to $1600 depending on years, the rackmounts only came in 2 channel Dual rect version and it is also impossible to find one with a footswitch.

The 3 channels are roughly going between $1100 and $1250 for the ealier ones before they started the 5 year warrenty (think 2001 to 2002). The newer ones (roughly 2003 and above) usually go between $1200 and $1400. Most of these come with there original footswitches, however if you find one without it make sure to negociate $140 dollars ($129 from mesa plus shipping) off the price as that is roughly how much it is to replace it.

You can get bargins out there if you look and stay sharp on ebay. The one i sold for $1300 i paid only $910 for. I had also won a 3 channel for $600, but of course it suddenly got damaged and returned to the sender in shipping and i never saw it and just got a refund, i kinda knew that was bullshit from the beginning, he basically used me as bank to loan him money to finish his tour. But there are deals out there, so just keep looking.

[siggy14]

Re: What\'s a good price on a Mesa Dual Rec 2 Channel ?

[ QUOTE ]
Well, a good price for a Single would be in the high 7's.
They usually sell for around $800.00
Its a damn good amp and its pretty easy to lug around. The Dual Recto is pretty heavy and the Triple weighs a ton.

[/ QUOTE ]

Weight wise i think the singles are roughly 40LBS, the duals are about 47LBS and the triples are about 55LBS.

[zeegler]

Re: What\'s a good price on a Mesa Dual Rec 2 Channel ?

Great explanation Siggy.

Here's the deal: I am using a Crate Blue Voodoo as my main amp right now. It sounds awesome, but my philosophy is that there is no such thing as good enough. There is always something better. I have a Randall RGT100 that needs repair, and my brand new B52 also seems to have a problem that I don't have time to look into right now. So I basically need another head that I can keep at home. 2 channel would suit me fine. I don't use the clean channel very often, and while an on-board boost would be great, if the amp responds well to using a Boss SD-1 as a boost, then that's good enough for me. The single rectifier would probably do just fine.

[siggy14]

Re: What\'s a good price on a Mesa Dual Rec 2 Channel ?

[ QUOTE ]
Great explanation Siggy.

Here's the deal: I am using a Crate Blue Voodoo as my main amp right now. It sounds awesome, but my philosophy is that there is no such thing as good enough. There is always something better. I have a Randall RGT100 that needs repair, and my brand new B52 also seems to have a problem that I don't have time to look into right now. So I basically need another head that I can keep at home. 2 channel would suit me fine. I don't use the clean channel very often, and while an on-board boost would be great, if the amp responds well to using a Boss SD-1 as a boost, then that's good enough for me. The single rectifier would probably do just fine.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah i would either go with a series 2 single or even a series 2 rectoverb, the rectoverb is a killer amp. Both rectoverb and the single series 2 have the voicing switches on front and you get more options then the original 2 channel version recto. On the single/verb you get two different cleans on channel one and on channel two you get a choice of raw/vintage/modern. Both the single/verb series 2 also have the solo boost function.