Yup, thats where its at. As I said before.....I was generalizing, but frequency is obviously key as well. In a studio setting though, Im sure you know that this is not quite as important as a live setting(lemme explain), because if nothing else.....you have a "stereo field" to play with. the midrange is where a guitar sings and stands out, but on a recording......a drastically scooped sound can still work out just fine as long as you lay it in the right place in the mix, and cut and arch the other frequencies of the other instruments to fit in and around it. Not so much as easy to do in a mono live mix, which is why a tight amp with the right mid charactor stands out best.
Studio though.....its all subjective. But even still....the boomy recto amp is still hard to record unless you find a way to dail out that boomy sound! And even though you can dial out the boom during the production/mastering process....its just soooo much better to be done DURING the recording process. Remember, garbage in, garbage out! So, the guitar player should have a handle on that sound before it gets recorded, and it makes the engineers life easier, and the end result better.
That said....the mark series stuff has the cutting, stand out kinda sound naturally. The recto has the hard edge, thumpy kinda low end naturally. either one can be manipulated to go one way or another, but a mark lends itself to the standout sound without much work.
But.....I still dig the rectos gain character. When you get it right, I just like the type of saturation and drive it has(while still being a controlled sound). but I will contradict myself and say that I still havent gotten it "right" just yet...... Ive come a long way, but not totally there yet.....
You hit the nail on the head because I was a little worried at having the 'devastation' that you mentioned. The context of a mix is what I was talking about since I work in a studio, not really a live player, so that's good to hear.
