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I've had my 2 channel 100 watt Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier head since January 1998. I bought it used in pristine condition. The former owner had it a couple weeks, then decided to upgrade to a Triple Rectifier. Mesa told me that it was built sometime in mid-1997. Anyway...
I was never totally convinced about this amp despite the huge number of pros who use the amp. It always had a jagged, buzzy sound that drove me crazy and seemed to get worse as the volume is increased. I tried different power tubes, but still wasn't 100% happy. I've kept the amp because I couldn't come to grips with the fact that many pros love'em but my ears didn't. I've come close to selling it several times, but never did. I was recently pretty much totally convinced that I would sell it, but decided to read some reviews about the amp as I hadn't done that in a long time. Reviews strongly mentioned downloading the owner's manual from Mesa Boogie's website.
Here's what is funny. During the first several years this amp was in production, Mesa really never made a proper manual for it. They had this 3 page summary paper that looked like it was written on a typewriter. It even has several spelling and grammatical errors. The first line in it is something like "this amp doesn't really NEED an owner's manual...just plug in, tweak, and enjoy". That's the only manual I had for the amp until a few days ago. At some point Mesa decided to actually make a proper manual....the one I recently downloaded. The interesting thing is that I feel Mesa Boogie made a poor assessment when they assumed that owner's "don't need a manual". The way the controls work on the Rectifier amps...I feel they VERY MUCH need a manual to explain how it all fits together. In fact, much more than other amps that DO come with detailed owner's manuals.
So anyway, I read and tweaked. I tried some settings recommended in the manual and I'm liking what I hear. I've been into effects for awhile and when I plugged into the DR, I had my pedal chain in front of the amp input. While playing, for good measure, I kicked on my Ibanez TS-9 (modded to 808 specs by AnalogMan) as I have grown to love that pedal as a clean boost (gain and tone at zero and level at somewhere around 3 o'clock to max). What's awesome is the TS-9 really smoothes out the jagged edges. After 8 years of ownership I'm hearing the best sounds I've ever heard out of the amp!!!! I like!
I'm glad I didn't sell it.....I'm gonna keep it for a long while. And I'm gonna get some new tubes to play around with to see if I can get it dialed in even better.
Short form of this post: if you have a Dual Rectifier and hate it, then READ THE *proper* MANUAL all the way through to get an understanding of its design. That should help out. If you still don't like it, then try an overdrive pedal in front. You may be surprised at what you hear. If that doesn't work, then you probably genuinely don't like the amp and should look at something else.
I was never totally convinced about this amp despite the huge number of pros who use the amp. It always had a jagged, buzzy sound that drove me crazy and seemed to get worse as the volume is increased. I tried different power tubes, but still wasn't 100% happy. I've kept the amp because I couldn't come to grips with the fact that many pros love'em but my ears didn't. I've come close to selling it several times, but never did. I was recently pretty much totally convinced that I would sell it, but decided to read some reviews about the amp as I hadn't done that in a long time. Reviews strongly mentioned downloading the owner's manual from Mesa Boogie's website.
Here's what is funny. During the first several years this amp was in production, Mesa really never made a proper manual for it. They had this 3 page summary paper that looked like it was written on a typewriter. It even has several spelling and grammatical errors. The first line in it is something like "this amp doesn't really NEED an owner's manual...just plug in, tweak, and enjoy". That's the only manual I had for the amp until a few days ago. At some point Mesa decided to actually make a proper manual....the one I recently downloaded. The interesting thing is that I feel Mesa Boogie made a poor assessment when they assumed that owner's "don't need a manual". The way the controls work on the Rectifier amps...I feel they VERY MUCH need a manual to explain how it all fits together. In fact, much more than other amps that DO come with detailed owner's manuals.
So anyway, I read and tweaked. I tried some settings recommended in the manual and I'm liking what I hear. I've been into effects for awhile and when I plugged into the DR, I had my pedal chain in front of the amp input. While playing, for good measure, I kicked on my Ibanez TS-9 (modded to 808 specs by AnalogMan) as I have grown to love that pedal as a clean boost (gain and tone at zero and level at somewhere around 3 o'clock to max). What's awesome is the TS-9 really smoothes out the jagged edges. After 8 years of ownership I'm hearing the best sounds I've ever heard out of the amp!!!! I like!
I'm glad I didn't sell it.....I'm gonna keep it for a long while. And I'm gonna get some new tubes to play around with to see if I can get it dialed in even better.
Short form of this post: if you have a Dual Rectifier and hate it, then READ THE *proper* MANUAL all the way through to get an understanding of its design. That should help out. If you still don't like it, then try an overdrive pedal in front. You may be surprised at what you hear. If that doesn't work, then you probably genuinely don't like the amp and should look at something else.
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