Has your Rectifier ever surprised you in ways that you didn't expect?

[WytLytnyn]

After owning my Rectoverb 25 for about 8 months and primarily using it for high gain work, I have fallen in love with the "Pushed" channel when using a transparent boost pedal and either a strat or tele. I really never thought that this would happen with this amp as I primarily use old Fenders for this kind of work.

As I began to play with the amp more and more and started working on a lot of new musical territory for me (getting to know certain scale modes) and exploring other styles of music more than I had as a younger man, I think this channel has really become the staple of what I like about this amp more than what I bought it for originally. I would say for the first three months that I owned the amp, I set it to destroy all living things on the red Channel with the Modern voice.

I've seen people use Rectifier series amps and genres that I did not expect. Has anyone else had a similar experience with these amps that were pleasantly unexpected?

 

[CoG]

I have a TOV 100 head and when I stumbled across the idea of turning the knobs outside of 11-to-2, I realized that those clever Boogie *******s hid like three other single-channel amps in here.

 

[fireonhigh]

oh YESSS, loop **** the bed,back to petaluma...cant trust techs here!

 

[TubesNStuff]

I found the exact same thing in the single rectifier, 3-channel rectifiers, anything made after 2000. Pushed mode on the green channel is a lot of fun, very inspiring.

The classic Rev G rectifiers from the 90's had an afterthought of a clean channel. It was just another mode on the orange channel that would never get too clean, so i think everyone got used to the idea "rectifiers don't do clean". You could buy a newer rectifier just for the clean channel. Nobody does, but you could.

 

[Eevil]

Second round of Roadster - the 1x12 combo in this round.

After first gig I was floored about the tones I’m getting out of tweed, ch3 vintage and ch4 modern. With Music Man Morse Y2D the amp really shines getting different flavours just by playing with vol/tone in single channel (tweed and modern being the prime examples)

I’m just baffled by the “heavy metal amp” being such a versatile platform :mrgreen: (again…)

 

[LesPaul70]

The classic Rev G rectifiers from the 90's had an afterthought of a clean channel. It was just another mode on the orange channel that would never get too clean, so i think everyone got used to the idea "rectifiers don't do clean". You could buy a newer rectifier just for the clean channel. Nobody does, but you could.

I thought the Rev F and G cleans were actually a vast improvement over the pre-500 cleans, which were officially a joke. An afterthought, if anything. I have had...let's say interesting moments trying to get make my Rev C cleans sound passable live. I stacked a chorus pedal, a reverb and whatnot to mask how horrible they were. The result was...almost acceptable. (Or maybe it didn't bother non-guitarists.) The Rev G cleans were never perfectly clean but at least they were warm and alive-sounding. I prefer them to early 3-channel cleans, the Reborn cleans are somewhat better though.

As for the topic, I'm reminded of a an amp shootout I had with a friend a good few years ago. I was using my Rev G. After all the obvious entries, I kept dialing it for a while and was then pulling off some AC/DC, Hendrix, ZZ Top...you name it, classic Marshall stuff. While I obviously didn't nail the exact sound, I definitely got close enough and we both were laughing out in amazement. A simple 2-channel Dual/Triple Rectifier is far more versatile than it is normally given credit for...you just need to remember to back off the gain and bass and use the other pots!

Also, many many years ago, it was an important discovery for me to never turn the Gain knob past 2 o'clock on Vintage or Modern. My favorite sounds tend to lie well below that point - much crunchier, tighter and ballsier. Sure, you get more sustain when you crank the gain - but you will simply not sound as hard or heavy. Just more buzzy. Plus that extra sustain just hurts your playing technique, it encourages lazy playing.