buddy's Dual Rec Solo head tone

[siggy14]

Well we know you dont like the recto's, you have made that clear in many posts. But to blame the head with so many in betweens, it can be anything from the tubes, to the line 6 floorboard to the pickups in the les paul.

Here is what i can tell you, I have recto's, seen many bands play them live, and they have always had clarity and plenty of crunch.

Simple things like using tradtional cabs as the oversized do get muddy. Or even a les paul can mud up the recto if the pickups are not hot enough or more on the vintage lines.

So I sat in for about 10 min's to check out my buddy's band @ the studio last nite. He has an older 2 channel Dual Rec Solo head with EL34's. He tunes to drop C with les pauls. I was sitting behind the two 4x12 mesa cabs and it was **** loud. Even by my standards.

I really don't like his tone and he also uses a line6 floor pedal (big thing not sure what it is) and OCD pedal. It's pretty scary sounding but the clarity and crunch is not there. It's straight up metal, not even jazz chords (that would be a muddy disaster). His EQ settings were pretty much all noon and gain was noon or less. But he loves that amp. The soundgarden badmotorfinger recto sound was **** good however.

I'm glad I got off that recto thing. Marshall into Mark IV power amp is sick.

It would be cool if there is a head that focuses on the mid-range b/n a recto and a marshall...

 

[Silverwulf]

To each his own I guess. I just used a 2 channel Dual Recto (rackmount bought from Siggy, actually) live over the weekend. I use EMG loaded guitars into it with a traditional sized Mesa 4X12 w/V30's. I used a Maxon OD808 as a boost in front, and although my settings change per venue, I think I was using something in the 12 noon for Mids and Gain, with around 10:30 - 11:00 for everything else (Treble, Bass, Presence) and it sounded great. Tight, punchy, articulate, etc. In fact, I had Recto users from 2 other bands on the bill come up to me after we were done and compliment me on how good it sounded and ask about the amp.

 

[Elpelotero]

Or even a les paul can mud up the recto if the pickups are not hot enough or more on the vintage lines.

this last part is especially true!

 

[Kincaide]

your buddy is ruining his tone with that line 6 floor board! get rid of it!

 

[RoadKinger483]

I too agree on getting rid of the Line 6 floorboard. It's practically defeating the purpose of the mesa rig if he's using the floorboard as a distortion rather than the true amp drive. The head alone with the OCD as a boost should sound perfect. My suggestion would be to run a MXR 10-band EQ in the FX loop of the amp and scoop out the mids if he want s that modern metal tone. It use to work for me when i had my dual recto's and my RK.

 

[ToneAddictJon]

I have seen a few local bands that run pod's or similar in front of Mesa DR's and Rectoverb's, and everytime they sound like crap. I always ask why they bought such an expensive amp just to use it as a power amp for digital processing, and it's the same answer every time- they look cool, and/or they have the Mesa name on stage. Most "musicians" (and I use the word lightly) are more interested in names and recognition than actual songwriting or talent (or tone), and it's a shame that this has happened to what was once a thriving community, at least locally where I am. I constantly get compliments at every gig I've played, and I go direct into my amp, sometimes a wah in front, sometimes delay/phase in the loop, but I think people mostly compliment on ability and mix it up with the gear people use. I've heard many DR's sound horrible, but I think this has more to do with- 1) Beginning guitarist buying expensive gear that they don't care about or wish to learn how to dial in, 2) Decent guitarists that set their amps without the band and keep the settings the same regardless of where they play, 3) Not having a good enough ear or not training their ears to hear tonality within the band structure.

I don't know how many guitarists I've played with that sound great playing by themselves, but sound like a muddy, jumbled mess when put in a band situation. The opposite is true as well, I've heard some guitarist that sound really bland by themselves, but tonally they fit their band perfectly and add a lot to the characteristics of songs.

Abridged version- Most the time, it's not the gear, it's the player.

 

[Chris McKinley]

Whenever I read about somebody running a digital processor in front of a Mesa for its distortion, I'm truly baffled. Why spend ridiculous amounts of money for something that is, quite frankly, a very poor choice as a high-fidelity amplifier. That's like gutting a Ferrari to use the body to cover a Prius. Why in the holy hell would anybody ever do that?

I own a POD XT Live floor unit. When I visit the inlaws, it's the handiest little all-in-one amp modeller in the world, and allows me to play at headphone volume. It's also a really nice multi-effects unit when used without the preamp models.

That said, I also own a Mesa Triple Rectifier. A real one...ya know, the thing Line 6 modelled their most popular amp model off of. There is absolutely no comparison regarding distortion tone.

However, I've figured out part of the reason why people would be so stupid as to run guitar>POD distortion>Mesa amp. It's because they have gotten so used to running all their effects before the amp. Now, I'm an old fart and a player from the 80's. Before the recent trend, we'd have laughed at you for putting your effects before the amp. That's ***-backward. Any moron who put their chorus before the distortion not only sounded like ***, he was laughed at and called names.

These days though, kids (read: young whippersnappers) don't even think about proper placement in the chain of effects. You'll find idiots putting reverb first instead of very last, or nimrods putting echo in front of overdrive. Just goofy. But not just goofy; they're also able to make a boutique amp like a Rectifier sound like a Crate knock-off by using fake distortion. Congratulations. We should never have let the nerds into our treehouse.

 

[CoG]

+1 on learning where to put yer goddamn fx.

drop-C on a les paul is probably his biggest problem. If he has the stock pups in there I can't imagine that sounding good no matter what he plugs into. You need some hot, bright pups to make that work.

buddy should also dump one of those cabs. two 4x12s at metal gig volume is a lot for a 50 watt head. He can probably push one cab harder and get a punchier sound.

 

[les_paul_gold_top]

Even before I bought my dual Rec, I started noticing, every once in a while a band I went to see, the guitar player was using a DR. First one I really noticed was the guitar player for Eddie Money was playing one (I think I was 7th row so I heard the amp pretty clearly- he sounded pretty **** good). Now that I own one, I'm really aware of what the guy is playing (sort of like when you buy a car, you start noticing how many are on the road and are the same model as yours). I saw a guy in Portsmouth NH this weekend - actually my wife and I crashed a private party at the Muddy River downstairs to see this 80's band. The dude had a Dual Rec with a standard cab planted on the stage (no casters). I've got to say he sounded amazing - and he was using the clean channel too in conjunction with his lead tone! What's pretty cool is I know the guy's tone now - he was playing a Les Paul - and I was with him because I really dug his tone. The band was covering a ton of 80's Marshall originated tunes - and the band nailed 'em, thanks to the guitar player's tone....bottom line is that the dude's signal chain was pretty clean - it appeared that the majority of overdrive was amp derived, as it should be, and I believe when that is the case - the DR might be unbeatable, especially with a power trio as I'm in and what this 80's band I saw was!

Tim