Dialing in my Road King II?

[Captain_howdy]

I haven't owned a recto in a while. I just got this Road King II and Recto 4x12. I play an ESP LTD EC1000 with active EMG's tuned to drop C. (we play heavy stuff)

Right now, for my main crunch channel, I've got it on Channel 3, bold, silicon diodes, 2 x 6L6 and 2 X EL34.

My other guitarist plays a triple recto and they sound pretty good together, but I seem to have trouble getting mine in that "sweet spot". I'm just having trouble getting those lower mids to growl. What are some settings you guys start at? Anyone try experimenting with the presence all the way down/really low and relying more on the 3 band eq?

I'm running my presence at/around noon, my bass is maybe 35%. Mids are a little past 50% I believe, and my treble is around noon/1 o clock.

 

[Captain_howdy]

Also, do you guys boost them live, or just when you record? I was thinking about picking up a Maxon od808 and seeing if that helps.

 

[coupie666]

Hey. I have a roadking 1 and keep my eq in or around noon and adjust to taste with gain maybe at 1 o'clock. Then use an od pedal to really tighten things up with gain about 9 and tone and volume at noon (knowledge gained from the guys in the board :wink: ) The od808 should be fine. Hope u find the sound you are looking for!!!

 

[b0nkersx]

When I used EMGs, I liked to run the gain pretty high (unboosted) - as high as 3:00 - with the bass up a bit too. This required a good bit of volume too (nothing TOO intense, about 9:00 on volume) to get things cooking. At low volumes it was pretty loose.

Here are some settings I used with EMGs:
Treb - 2:00
Mid - 11:30
Bass - 2:00
Pres - 9:30
Gain - 3:00
Bold/diode, usually with 4x6L6 or 4x6L6+2xEL34

One note - I always run the amp with the loop/solo/output hard bypassed (sounds way better IMO). In order for these settings to sound good I would run the master volume at around 9:00 or higher. I'd drop the gain down to about 1:30 when I boosted it. An OD808 would probably help you achieve what you're looking for.

I think running the presence off is only really a good idea at very high volumes. Sometimes at high volumes everything can be a little too harsh and in your face and scratchy, and that's usually when I lower the presence (sometimes off, sometimes not, depends on the room).