2 Ch Rect-Orange Presence Knob with RED channel, reversed?

[Vm27]

Something happened while playing with my Triple Rectifier last night. I adjusted the ORANGE presence knob while playing in RED channel since I read that both presence knob should work when playing on Red channel and I was shocked that it does work(I read and re read the manual confirming that i wasn't dreaming :lol: ). Anyway, it does work but the ORANGE presence knob seems to work backwards when playing in RED-MODERN. It adds highs when on zero and removes everything when dimed. It's working normal when playing in Orange-Clean/Vintage. Is that normal?


I also read the part where it says:
If you must for a specific part of at very low volumes, back down the TREBLE and PRESENCE Controls. Your RECTO was designed to provide amazing gain and tone at less than extreme settings removing the need for you to crank everything all the way up. If you are not able to achieve the sound you want at sensible setting on any or all of the controls, your problem may lie elsewhere in
the signal chain, i.e. pick-ups, cabinetry, processing, etc.

http://www.mesaboogie.com/manuals/2chRecto.pdf

Is this what I am experiencing?



edit: I also found an older thread that someone mentioned the same thing, where Orange presence knob is set on zero, it is out of the loop. Maybe it is acting as a gate? Let me find that thread again...

Heres the thread:http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=52818&p=377119&hilit=ORANGE+PRESENCE+KNOB#p377119

Ok, I just tried it. Looks like I was wrong. It was just my thiele cabinet that hates the uber high frequencies.

I tried it in the Mock212B with the v30 and c90. Here is what I noticed: With red set to vintage, as I turned up the presence on the red channel the blanket came off of the amp. The tone cleared up, opened up, and became very 'chainsaw' like. This is with the gain at 2:00, Presence dimed, everything else at noon. The orange channel presence was set to around 9:00.
The tone is very open, clear, and even. Not overly bassy like rectos can tend to get. I recall playing a Soldano Hot Rod 50. There is this clear chainsaw like quality to that amp where there is no mushy or squishy-ness. The recto is surprisingly similar with these settings but it is still thicker sounding. It is a fantastic rhythm tone setting and the lack of bass would be great with some guitars. I wouldn't say it is an SLO but it is definitely more 'Soldano like' than any other way I have set up my amp.

I AB'd the presence dimed vintage channel mode with the modern mode. With fairly conventional red channel settings with the red channel set to modern, the amp becomes crunchier, more scooped, and much more 'recto - like' in its tone. The bass thickens up and becomes phat and pounding. Definitely less like a chainsaw. I WISH I HAD RECORDING equipment. It would be interesting to record this stuff properly. The Zoom H2 doesn't cut it for guitar recording. It captures far too much room noise.

Awesome; thanks for the feedback!

I'll bet the lead tone was a bit more usable? With the SLO - and I'll bet for the Pre-500 as well - the effect would be even more dramatic. Switching to Red Vintage introduces negative feedback to the power amp, "stabilizing" and evening out the frequencies a bit. When the Orange presence is completely off, it's (nearly) as if it's out of the circuit. The opposite is true of Red presence in this situation.

And any clips - terrible quality or not - would be greatly appreciated, though I'll find out for myself what all this sounds like in a week or two! Which setup do you prefer, by the way?

 

[Botch]

Just out of interest, if you turn down the treble pot, on either channel, does it slightly boost the volume when it gets to 7/8 o' clock? My 2 channel Recto does and my tech, who work for Mesa UK says this is part of design.

I always thought it was faulty but after hearing that and reading your post, I'm starting to think they just have a slightly unorthodox design.

 

[Chester]

Wow - I never understood the manual to imply that "feature"

Got to check that out tonight! If it works (by accident or design), it might open up the Red channel somewhere close to where I want to to be!

 

[Vm27]

Just out of interest, if you turn down the treble pot, on either channel, does it slightly boost the volume when it gets to 7/8 o' clock? My 2 channel Recto does and my tech, who work for Mesa UK says this is part of design.

I always thought it was faulty but after hearing that and reading your post, I'm starting to think they just have a slightly unorthodox design.

I never notice anything like that when playing with mine. Although there's a noticeable jump when going to clean setting If I set(forget that I set) the gain really high. I'm used to playing Marshalls and I think Mesa controls are bit complicated(sophisticated, maybe?).

Wow - I never understood the manual to imply that "feature"

Got to check that out tonight! If it works (by accident or design), it might open up the Red channel somewhere close to where I want to to be!

Yes, there's a lot of feature for this amp that I will never be aware of if wasn't for reading the manual, another example is how the volume for loop works. I read in the another forum that it works as a Master Volume when engage. It replaces the channel volumes. Sure enough, it says it in the Manual.

Same with the presence knob, the manual says it works best around 9-11 o clock. And I think it sounds best at that range because it gets too bright and harsh around 1 or so..

 

[Chester]

Update - as a test, I used CH3 and 4 in Raw Mode, channel vol at 5pm with gain at 11. Both channels bass / mid between 8 - 9 o'clock, trebble and presence at noon. Loop engaged - pot centred, nothing connected

Great chewy light crunch through CH3 which darkened up as expected in CH4. Whilst playing through CH4, I turned CH3 presence off ... and it opened up CH4 beautifully. Light, crisp with the fabled blanket removed

As per the OP, I find this is unusual, although I cannot say unique - the fact is I have never tried it with any other Mesa / Marshall / Matchless I own or have owned, so I don't know if it is there, but will have fun seeing if I can get similar results on others

Looks like we have uncovered a new meaning to "interactive tone controls", but joking aside, I would like to know what causes this on a Roadster. In my experience, the tone controls on a dormant channel not engaged should be out of the tone string of the one engaged .. interesting

 

[Vm27]

That's very cool! I really thought this would only work with a 2 channel version. Good to see it works on yours!