Confessions of a former Recto hater.....

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Confessions of a former Recto hater.....

Sadly, (most) ODs tighten things up by limiting freq response and compressing the signal.

If I use one on my CAE3+se, it sound like someone EQed the highs and lows off. Transistor radio sounding in a way in comparison to what it normally sounds like. Most amps prolly won't display it so blatantly I'll figure though...

[khabibissell]

Re: Confessions of a former Recto hater.....

I should probably mention that I have had the bias modded on my Single Rec to (42ma? I'll have to look at the receipt) about a year ago. It helped liven up the tone quite a bit. I use an OD in front too.

It was worth the $35 it cost me.

[siggy14]

Re: Confessions of a former Recto hater.....

[ QUOTE ]
I should probably mention that I have had the bias modded on my Single Rec to (42ma? I'll have to look at the receipt) about a year ago. It helped liven up the tone quite a bit. I use an OD in front too.

It was worth the $35 it cost me.

[/ QUOTE ]

can you still switch between EL34's and 6L6's?

[khabibissell]

Re: Confessions of a former Recto hater.....

I've had the Mesa branded Svet EL34's in there when I had it done, and I have switched back to 6L6's off and on since. They still sound great in there, and I would recommend sticking with 6L6's if you want a "clean" clean. The EL34's break up pretty quick when you turn it up. Then again, it will do a nice old school Marshall impersonation by turning up the gain while in the pushed mode.

[siggy14]

Re: Confessions of a former Recto hater.....

[ QUOTE ]
I've had the Mesa branded Svet EL34's in there when I had it done, and I have switched back to 6L6's off and on since. They still sound great in there, and I would recommend sticking with 6L6's if you want a "clean" clean. The EL34's break up pretty quick when you turn it up. Then again, it will do a nice old school Marshall impersonation by turning up the gain while in the pushed mode.

[/ QUOTE ]

Is it adjustible, or did they just change it so it is hotter?

[khabibissell]

Re: Confessions of a former Recto hater.....

Changed a resistor internally to make it hotter, or that's what the tech told me at least. If I can find the work order, it said what the amp was at, then what they upped it to. I recall it being on the low side... 20ma or something.

What ever he did, it sounded better afterwards.

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Re: Confessions of a former Recto hater.....

It must be a trend in Charlotte here...I met this band yesterday called The Mile After, and one of the guitarists said that he uses a Triple Rec with the Mesa cab, and he is selling his cab to get a Marshall 1960BV. Dustin ended up getting his broken 1960BV cabinet fixed up too, so it must be the vintage cabinets that everyone likes with the Rectifiers, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense since they're the same speakers, but I still want to try....

[siggy14]

Re: Confessions of a former Recto hater.....

[ QUOTE ]
It must be a trend in Charlotte here...I met this band yesterday called The Mile After, and one of the guitarists said that he uses a Triple Rec with the Mesa cab, and he is selling his cab to get a Marshall 1960BV. Dustin ended up getting his broken 1960BV cabinet fixed up too, so it must be the vintage cabinets that everyone likes with the Rectifiers, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense since they're the same speakers, but I still want to try....

[/ QUOTE ]

The BV's are not vintage unless you are really buying older marshall cabinets. As to the speakers, they are lighter then the V30's you get in a recto cab, I personaly think they sound more like a mix between the 75's and the V30's. But where the big sound difference might be is that of course the marshall cabs are 16 ohms where the mesa's are 8 ohm and that does make a difference in tone. If you are interested i have four marshall Vintage (v30) speakers that came out of a BV cab that i am selling, PM me if you are interested.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

Re: Confessions of a former Recto hater.....

if you want power tube distortion from your mesa - get a hot plate! they work great and are the only power attenuator out there that does the job properly IMO.

if your mesa sounds flubby, try turning off the treb and pres and use your mids on full and adjust your gain to taste to make up for it. you can then turn the bass up as much as you want without the flub. (as well as your gain if you want) your mid knob has more than enough highs in it. and like khabibissell said earlier: your speakers will have plenty of high end with that mid knob cranked and playing at gig/drummer volumes.

biasing your mesa's hotter is as simple as changing some resisters on the tube sockets. that is their so called "fixed bias" anyway. i've had it done on every mesa i've ever owned. no problem, no worries. you buy the same rated tubes when you replace them and you won't have a need for the bias pot mod. just have a pro tech do it and it will be a hotter biased "stock" mesa. and you can replace power tubes all day long yourself.

with all the modes and channels on the recto, you can pretty much get any sound you want out of it. you just have to approach tweaking it differently that other amps.

if you can't get the sound you want out of your recto with these tips in mind. - you don't like your cabinet, guitar or pickups. bottom line, end of story.