Dual recto - Grid Slammer boost

[sulistef]

I just bought a Mesa Grid Slammer as a boost for my Dual Rectifier, and it works really well !
I compared 3 pedals : Maxon OD808, Mesa Grid Slammer and Mesa Flux Drive

The Mesa Flux Drive gives (for my taste) too much gain, even when the level is very low, so the amp gives some treble "fuzz" on Hi gain. But the controls on the bass and treble gives you a good way to tune the sound.

The Mesa Grid Slammer is very close from the Maxon OD808, withe the mid-boost, the sound get more sharpness and clarity, BUT on the Grid Slammer there is a better response in the bass and mid-bass that turns the sound a little bit more modern than the OD808.

So I was nicely surprised by the Grid Slammer, I went to the shop for the Maxon in fact because it looks like "standard" to boost the Dual Recto but I now get the sound I was looking for, and I have on my pedal board a cool-looking pedal :-D

 

[Shemham]

+1

Nice to finally hear some experiences about the new Mesa pedals and good to see they were positive.

I'm thinking about ordering Mule pickup for bridge from Bare Knuckle with two rows of screws. I don't like how the 808 type pedals shape the tone without control over it and overall think its a bit overkill. So I'd be interested to try how the Tone Burst would handle boosting low output pickups and whether it is transparent enough. In that regard I'm glad to hear the EQ controls on Flux Drive came handy as I'd like to have control over both lows and highs at the same time.

 

[sulistef]

For information, my complete signal chain :

PRS SE Custom 24 - 7 strings / Bare Knuckle Aftermath 7 - ISP Decimator G-String - Mesa Grid Slammer - Dual Rectifier 3 chan - MXR Eq in the Loop for fine tuning - Mesa Rectifier 2x12 Cab

 

[bendo]

I had a Grid Slammer for a little while as my main boost. I found it colored the tone more than I wanted to. Plus you cannot use it at gig levels without a noise gate. Just screams like a *****.

Wound up switching to an EP booster, and I will never look back.

 

[sulistef]

Before the Grid Slammer I had a Catalinbread Chili Picoso clean boost and I tried an other OD pedal, all of them required a noise gate, even at a low sound level for the Picoso. Looks like a gate is required for all these boosting stuff

 

[KiwiJoe]

I had a Grid Slammer for a little while as my main boost. I found it colored the tone more than I wanted to. Plus you cannot use it at gig levels without a noise gate. Just screams like a *****.

Wound up switching to an EP booster, and I will never look back.

Before the Grid Slammer I had a Catalinbread Chili Picoso clean boost and I tried an other OD pedal, all of them required a noise gate, even at a low sound level for the Picoso. Looks like a gate is required for all these boosting stuff

Wow, such different observations from mine. I just picked up my Grid Slammer the other day, using it with my Mini Rec. I haven't had it out with the band yet (I'm in a trio), but I had it fairly cranked in my man cave/studio and didn't have any issues with noise or squeal. My gig volume has been with the gain and master dimed on "clean" (there's really nice power section OD to be found there). I had the master nearly dimed and the gain at about 1-2 o'clock and I was actually impressed at how quiet the Grid Slammer was. The benefit I found so far is that I can lower the gain on the amp and not have to ride the guitar volume so much to control it; let the pedal do the work for solos rather than roll the guitar volume up and down all the time. I don't venture too far from how the pedal is set in the photo below.

I also played around with the amp on "vintage" at a low gain setting and found the GS to behave well there, too. I don't know; maybe you guys use a lot more gain than I do?

I also found, directly opposite of Bendo's experience, that the GS was very natural/neutral sounding. It doesn't seem to add too much color to the amp, but rather just gives more of what the amp is already doing. It gets along very well with my Fromel Shape EQ, and I'm getting the best Mark I sound yet with these two working together.

I'll keep these other observations in mind when I get together with the guys this week and see if the same holds true, but so far the Grid Slammer is doing exactly what I expected it to do.

 

[sulistef]

After a couple of testings I noticed that I can turn the noise gate off It's on by default in my habits :-D
The GS is turned on all the time and I managed to get the gain down on the amp to 12h, and I even get my modern metal sound !
When I come on the clean chanel I just lower the volume on my guitar and the sound is clean.

About the color, using the GS lowers the "too much" aggressivity in the sound of the rectifier and get it more warm, but it still keep beiing a BIG Recto sound So there is some color, yes, but it's discreet enough to my taste.

At the moment I didn't push the sound too high, I want to keep good relations with my neighbours :mrgreen: :mrgreen: but next jam session I will try with some volume to see if screams too much. Wait and see

Again I really enjoy this pedal.

 

[LPMojoGL]

I'm using a modded ts and a Dano cto-1 to boost my dual rec.
The dano is a timmy copy, with controls for bass n treble, and sounds more modern.
I've read good things about the grid slammer, and get the feeling that it sounds much like the dano.
How does it sound on the clean channel? Any bluesy tones at hand?

 

[bendo]

I'm using a modded ts and a Dano cto-1 to boost my dual rec.
The dano is a timmy copy, with controls for bass n treble, and sounds more modern.
I've read good things about the grid slammer, and get the feeling that it sounds much like the dano.
How does it sound on the clean channel? Any bluesy tones at hand?

It's very good on Clean channels. Lot's of room to play around with almost anything you could want.

A friend of mine used it during a jam session on his Rivera Knuckelhead Tre and it sounded fucking amazing! His channel switching crapped out half way through. All he had was his clean channel. He almost liked it better than his Lead channel on the Tre.

 

[LPMojoGL]

I'm using a modded ts and a Dano cto-1 to boost my dual rec.
The dano is a timmy copy, with controls for bass n treble, and sounds more modern.
I've read good things about the grid slammer, and get the feeling that it sounds much like the dano.
How does it sound on the clean channel? Any bluesy tones at hand?

It's very good on Clean channels. Lot's of room to play around with almost anything you could want.

A friend of mine used it during a jam session on his Rivera Knuckelhead Tre and it sounded f%&# amazing! His channel switching crapped out half way through. All he had was his clean channel. He almost liked it better than his Lead channel on the Tre.

Crazy! I just tried out a rivera knucklehead tre yesterday. Was not impressed. An amp *****, but it was noisy and flubby. Good on the pedal tho!

 

[KiwiJoe]

I'm using a modded ts and a Dano cto-1 to boost my dual rec.
The dano is a timmy copy, with controls for bass n treble, and sounds more modern.
I've read good things about the grid slammer, and get the feeling that it sounds much like the dano.
How does it sound on the clean channel? Any bluesy tones at hand?

I can't say what it sounds like with the mighty Dual Rec, but I can tell you that the pedal works incredibly well so far with the clean channel on the Mini Rec. I've got a gig tonight, and I can't wait to give it a go. I've been playing the Mini on clean with the gain and master dimed, but that can still be a bit much for the smallish pub I'll be at tonight. I've found in rehearsal that the GS is a great "in between" - I can set the master slightly back off of fully dimed and run the gain at about 12-1 o'clock for chords and rhythm work; then just kick in the GS for leads. It retains all the clarity of the full press clean channel OD, but at a lower volume; so in that sense the GS feels and sounds like the amp - just more of it. I have to say that I could use the dirt channel "vintage" to get almost the same sound, but it's still a bit more saturated and compressed than the GS on the clean channel; I really like the rounded, open OD I get from the Mini Rec on a dimed clean channel, and the GS seems to give me that at a lower volume. I still play with the guitar volume to fine tune the gain, but the range of adjustment on the guitar volume is greatly reduced from going between 3-10; now it's like between half and full.

Keep in mind that I'm playing old rock, blues, and fusion through a semi-hollowbody; I'm not a metal player, so keep that context in mind.

 

[LPMojoGL]

I'm using a modded ts and a Dano cto-1 to boost my dual rec.
The dano is a timmy copy, with controls for bass n treble, and sounds more modern.
I've read good things about the grid slammer, and get the feeling that it sounds much like the dano.
How does it sound on the clean channel? Any bluesy tones at hand?

I can't say what it sounds like with the mighty Dual Rec, but I can tell you that the pedal works incredibly well so far with the clean channel on the Mini Rec. I've got a gig tonight, and I can't wait to give it a go. I've been playing the Mini on clean with the gain and master dimed, but that can still be a bit much for the smallish pub I'll be at tonight. I've found in rehearsal that the GS is a great "in between" - I can set the master slightly back off of fully dimed and run the gain at about 12-1 o'clock for chords and rhythm work; then just kick in the GS for leads. It retains all the clarity of the full press clean channel OD, but at a lower volume; so in that sense the GS feels and sounds like the amp - just more of it. I have to say that I could use the dirt channel "vintage" to get almost the same sound, but it's still a bit more saturated and compressed than the GS on the clean channel; I really like the rounded, open OD I get from the Mini Rec on a dimed clean channel, and the GS seems to give me that at a lower volume. I still play with the guitar volume to fine tune the gain, but the range of adjustment on the guitar volume is greatly reduced from going between 3-10; now it's like between half and full.

Keep in mind that I'm playing old rock, blues, and fusion through a semi-hollowbody; I'm not a metal player, so keep that context in mind.

Sounds like you're giving that mini rec a workout! That's the best way to run the lower wattage amps. All out, hit em with pedals for the sustain n other good stuff.

 

[KiwiJoe]

Sounds like you're giving that mini rec a workout! That's the best way to run the lower wattage amps. All out, hit em with pedals for the sustain n other good stuff.

Oh, man, I am! Well past the honeymoon phase with the Mini but I still lust for the tone I'm getting. I love the big bottles too, yet there is still something very special about getting an E84 power section on the pipe. I can't suggest strongly enough to anybody who's considering a Mini Rec when they give it a test drive to just leave it clean, dime it, and have a go.

The Grid Slammer is like a perfect fit for the Mini at any volume. The higher I set the amp, the lower I set the pedal, and it still sounds and feels like the amp dimed; it's almost like the feeling you get with an attenuator. I can only imagine that the Slammer would be equally great with one of the big cousin Rectos, too.