YellowJacket
Well-known member
Ok, I want to post a caveat before I start blabbering on about the settings I tried on my 'Dyne today.
Here goes: I achieved this tone using a Gibson Les Paul with Bare Knuckle Rebel Yells which are very clear, articulate, and midrange heavy pickups with a very tight / rolled off bottom. Additionally, my 2 x 12 is considerably oversized with a celestion v30 and a c90 and a ported baffle in the centre which breaks up standing waves and greatly reduces mud.
So yes, results may vary....
I powered up the Dual Rectifier and I was enjoying just how wide and gigantic the rhythm tone is on the amp, especially with the controls all set to noon. I then powered up the 'dyne and started dialing. I'm really surprised what I came up with. It has the creamy 'Dyne' crunch but it is seriously as aggressive as the rock rhythm tone I dial into my dual, at least on Vintage Hi.
Sooooo....
Settings: 45 watts with the master at 8:30. Don't need much volume with this sucker...
Presence at 2pm
Bass at 12pm
Mids at 10pm (this widens the sound more than it scoops it. Consider my pickups...)
Treble at 1pm (this adds more cut to the tone and mitigates the bass somewhat)
Volume at 2:30pm
Gain trim set to Clean.
Clean trim level set to just over half....
Why it works... Well, my pickups are a calibrated set of Bare Knuckle Rebel Yells. Because of the way the pots are ganged, my pickups just EQ very easily. I was convinced to buy an Electra Dyne when I noticed that my EQ was always set the same for both channels on the Recto. This definitely holds true 90% of the time. But for these settings to work with a Les Paul type guitar, once has to set the Gain Trim to clean because otherwise a soupy and flubby mess results on the clean channel. This is because as you turn the volume up, the low end of the amp saturates.
The Les Paul is also a very round and buttery sounding guitar so the highs are never shrill. The guitar is well served with more highs dialed in.
Anyway, my general thoughts are thus: This amp can get surprisingly **** heavy with modern rock tones, especially on Vintage Hi. Vintage Lo sounded awesome with these settings as well, but it was more of a vintage marshall kind of roar rather than a modern high gain tone! It was pretty much the same sort of EQ spread as with my 2 Channel Dual running flat on modern mode, the only difference is that the actually quality / nuance of the tone is different. An Electra Dyne is smoother, crunchier, and more violin like whereas the Dual Recto has more of a brittleness or rawness to the tone. I know I can also dial in this same sort of tone with a Mark V but it tends to sound more grainy and it is more articulate. Comparing the 'Dyne with the Dual, when all things are equal, the 'Dyne has a far better Lead and Clean tone. The Dual just feels like it is at war with me when I go to solo...
Oh, With the 'Dyne, the presence knob is the most important tone shaping tool next to the Volume. This control can really 'smooth' out the tone by adding more negative feedback or it can really 'open things up'. Basically, cranking the presence is the equivalent of taking Vintage Hi into much more "Modern" territory. I really appreciate that Mesa managed to hide a Modern Rock beast within my nice little modded plexi / blackface clone!!!! What an utterly fantastic marvel of engineering.
This amp does my punk tone, my rock tone, and so much more. Now I have a Country tone, a Jazz tone, a Surf tone, a Blues tone, a Classic Rock tone, and the list goes on!!! (It just doesn't get into flat out metal though...)
At any rate, I still love both heads. I can appreciate the Dual so much more when I have something to cover those other tones...
Here goes: I achieved this tone using a Gibson Les Paul with Bare Knuckle Rebel Yells which are very clear, articulate, and midrange heavy pickups with a very tight / rolled off bottom. Additionally, my 2 x 12 is considerably oversized with a celestion v30 and a c90 and a ported baffle in the centre which breaks up standing waves and greatly reduces mud.
So yes, results may vary....
I powered up the Dual Rectifier and I was enjoying just how wide and gigantic the rhythm tone is on the amp, especially with the controls all set to noon. I then powered up the 'dyne and started dialing. I'm really surprised what I came up with. It has the creamy 'Dyne' crunch but it is seriously as aggressive as the rock rhythm tone I dial into my dual, at least on Vintage Hi.
Sooooo....
Settings: 45 watts with the master at 8:30. Don't need much volume with this sucker...
Presence at 2pm
Bass at 12pm
Mids at 10pm (this widens the sound more than it scoops it. Consider my pickups...)
Treble at 1pm (this adds more cut to the tone and mitigates the bass somewhat)
Volume at 2:30pm
Gain trim set to Clean.
Clean trim level set to just over half....
Why it works... Well, my pickups are a calibrated set of Bare Knuckle Rebel Yells. Because of the way the pots are ganged, my pickups just EQ very easily. I was convinced to buy an Electra Dyne when I noticed that my EQ was always set the same for both channels on the Recto. This definitely holds true 90% of the time. But for these settings to work with a Les Paul type guitar, once has to set the Gain Trim to clean because otherwise a soupy and flubby mess results on the clean channel. This is because as you turn the volume up, the low end of the amp saturates.
The Les Paul is also a very round and buttery sounding guitar so the highs are never shrill. The guitar is well served with more highs dialed in.
Anyway, my general thoughts are thus: This amp can get surprisingly **** heavy with modern rock tones, especially on Vintage Hi. Vintage Lo sounded awesome with these settings as well, but it was more of a vintage marshall kind of roar rather than a modern high gain tone! It was pretty much the same sort of EQ spread as with my 2 Channel Dual running flat on modern mode, the only difference is that the actually quality / nuance of the tone is different. An Electra Dyne is smoother, crunchier, and more violin like whereas the Dual Recto has more of a brittleness or rawness to the tone. I know I can also dial in this same sort of tone with a Mark V but it tends to sound more grainy and it is more articulate. Comparing the 'Dyne with the Dual, when all things are equal, the 'Dyne has a far better Lead and Clean tone. The Dual just feels like it is at war with me when I go to solo...
Oh, With the 'Dyne, the presence knob is the most important tone shaping tool next to the Volume. This control can really 'smooth' out the tone by adding more negative feedback or it can really 'open things up'. Basically, cranking the presence is the equivalent of taking Vintage Hi into much more "Modern" territory. I really appreciate that Mesa managed to hide a Modern Rock beast within my nice little modded plexi / blackface clone!!!! What an utterly fantastic marvel of engineering.
This amp does my punk tone, my rock tone, and so much more. Now I have a Country tone, a Jazz tone, a Surf tone, a Blues tone, a Classic Rock tone, and the list goes on!!! (It just doesn't get into flat out metal though...)
At any rate, I still love both heads. I can appreciate the Dual so much more when I have something to cover those other tones...
