How are you using your 2 channel Recto?

[screamingdaisy]

How are you using your 2 channel Recto?

You know.... clean and modern high gain. Clean and vintage high gain. Two orange channels (rhythm and lead), two red channels (ditto). Do you mix pedals in there at all?

Right now I'm kinda stuck between;

1) using red for rhythm and orange for leads, and using my guitar's volume to drop down for clean tones. The main drawback being that the red channel rolled back doesn't give the best clean tones.

2) using channel 1 for clean and channel 2 modern for rhythm, then using an overdrive for leads. Problem is that modern doesn't have the same thickness in the midrange as vintage.


Also... is it possible to use the effects loop as a boost? As in, I set it to footswitch and leave it bypassed for rhythm, then engage the effects loop with the levels turned up for leads?

 

[fluff191]

This post made me go read the manual. I bought a Rev. E Recto and have never played with a 2 channel. Kinda strange when all you know is the 3 channel version. Im used to having Solo and whatnot. Hmmmmm

I plan on using one channel for cleans and the other for Modern.

 

[echoes420]

I use mine clean to modern high gain. Bold and diodes on the back.

The clean is not the best clean in the world, but I have found that it IS possible to get it to sound decent. I personally dump the bass and the mids, crank the treble and presence and run the master and gain around 9 o clock.

The loop on the 2 channel is not so good... I am not sure if anyone on this board uses it. Just bypassing the loop on it is sort of like a boost. Ha. I run all of my 18+ pedals in front of the amp... with the help of a LS-2 line selector to combat the signal loss.

 

[screamingdaisy]

Hmm.

I actually like the cleans on mine. They're very warm, almost jazzy sounding with a bit of squish under the pick. It's part of the reason I don't want to give up the clean channel to gain a lead channel.

As for the loop, I've never used the loop on mine. Does the rotary switch have to be in bypass to avoid the tone suck? Or can you have it in footswitch and have it bypassed to avoid it? I figure a bit of tone suck would be acceptable on my leads if it came with a suitably impressive volume boost. I suppose I could toss a clean boost in the loop to achieve this, but I'm wondering if I could achieve it without needing to rely on a pedal.

I can see I'm going to have to do some experimenting today.

 

[mikey383]

I use mine for clean, and both orange and red modern high gain.

Yes, sounds confusing. I have a preamp/processor wired in with the 4 cable method, so I can use its cleans into the Mesa's poweramp. I can also have two gain channels that way.

Don't fall for the "tone suck" theory. There's just as much tone with the loop on as there is with it off. Crank the send and mix (or switch to a serial loop) and it sounds the same. The reason people think it sucks tone is because of the volume difference between just using the masters and using the loop master.

 

[screamingdaisy]

I use mine for clean, and both orange and red modern high gain.

Yes, sounds confusing. I have a preamp/processor wired in with the 4 cable method, so I can use its cleans into the Mesa's poweramp. I can also have two gain channels that way.

Don't fall for the "tone suck" theory. There's just as much tone with the loop on as there is with it off. Crank the send and mix (or switch to a serial loop) and it sounds the same. The reason people think it sucks tone is because of the volume difference between just using the masters and using the loop master.

I just finished messing around with the loop for a bit. I have to agree with the others that it does suck tone, but I don't think that just plain sucks if that makes sense. That said, I need to do some more experimenting. Mine has a serial loop.

What I found is that using the loop thinned out the bottom end and increased the upper mids a bit. Not necessarily a bad thing on a Rectifier. I actually kind of like the sound as I found it was a bit clearer than the way it sounds with the loop bypassed. Like I said, I need to experiment more. I never tried cranking the send for instance.

I also found that when putting a buffered effect in the loop (Boss DD-3 in this case) it gave the amp a pretty significant volume boost as I engaged and disengaged the effects loop using the footswitch. This could be useful since I can have no delay on my rhythm (which I prefer), and kick the loop on for a volume boost and delay on my leads (which I also prefer).

I'm still somewhat undecided how I'm going to proceed at this point, but it's not like I'm in a rush.

 

[screamingdaisy]

I didn't mess around with the effects loop again, but I spent awhile working various overdrives to see how the lead tone compared.

Fulldrive 2 - Nice screaming leads... bit too thin however. Doesn't really pack the punch and immediacy I want.

OCD - Nice. Sounded really good. Nice sustain, yet not too smeared sounding. I use it with the gain off, HP, and volume up about 3/4s.

Fat Boost 2 - Nicer than the OCD. Thicker in the midrange. Actually, just thicker in general. Slightly more compressed than the OCD.

Beano Treble Booster - Also really nice. On treble boost mode it added some nice upper mids, but was a bit boxy sounding in a cool sort of way. Nice tone, just not what I'm after. On mid boost mode it was more like the Fat Boost. Not quite as bright as treble boost and lots of low mids added. Also not as boxy, and a little rawer sounding than the smoother Fat Boost.

Right now it's kind of a toss up between the Fat Boost 2 and the treble booster, but I have a few more pedals to try. I don't know if you can tell, but I like fat lead tones over that of bright lead tones. Amp right on the verge of being out of control if I balance it right.

I'm going to experiment a bit more tomorrow. I'm actually really pleased with the OD results so far. Normally I don't like boosting an amp for lead tones, but this amp seems to take it very well.

 

[screamingdaisy]

Well, after two rather disappointing days of experimenting with various overdrives and trying to dial in a good lead tone I gave up, and then totally fluked into a great lead tone. Go figure...

What I noticed a few days ago is that engaging the effects loop actually cleans up the tone. I experimented a bit more with it today and it removes a fair bit of low bass and seems to increase the upper midrange presence. I think it makes the amp tighten up and hit a little harder. It was also the last piece of the puzzle in getting a good lead tone. I was messing around, flipping the loop in and out when I let a lead rip and it finally had the power/intensity I was looking for. With the loop bypassed it would just kind of mush along... it wasn't bad per se, but it had no "Oomph" factor. Switching that loop in really caused it to stand out in a pleasing way.

I also confirmed that putting a buffered pedal in the loop causes a bit of a jump in output when you switch the loop in and out using the footswitch. This was the icing on the cake, as I've dialled the amp in so that there's delay (Boss DD-3) on the clean channel, nothing on the dirty channel, and then I step on the loop switch to get delay and a slight output bump on leads. The output bump comes across more as an increase in thickness more than an big in your face volume jump, but that's cool with me.

And there it is.... vintage high gain, bold, tube rectified, presence 8:45, bass 12:00, mids 1:30, treble 11:30, gain 12:00.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[Silverwulf]

Most of the time, Channel 1 Clean and Channel 2 Modern Red, with Bold and Diodes. Sometimes I'll opt to use Channel 1 in Vintage high Gain instead.

 

[muramasa]

I use the Orange channel for cleans and the Modern Red for Rhythm.

I use my Nova System in the loop, but lately I've noticed that when my effect loop is on it creates hum on the Red channel. I might go back to having the Nova System in front of the amp, which would suck because I like using some delay with distortion.

 

[Areola]

I use mine to record and just play around at home writing songs. when it comes to set tones, that's why I have my Road King. Its not as good as a 2-ch Dual, but it does more.

 

[sdgiffin]

I use Channel 1 in Clean, Modern high Gain mode & Channel 2 in Modern High Gain.

I have the gain on Channel 1 around 11 o'clock so it's not totally clean, just a little bit of grit, and then run a BB Preamp for nice smooth leads.

Channel 2 is my main rhythm and lead channel. I like it, but don't love it. I have EL34s in the power section but am thinking of putting JJ High Gain 6L6s in to dull it up a bit, I find it a little fizzy, even with these settings.

Presence - 9 o'clock
Bass - 10 o'clock
Mid - 11:30
Treble - 9:30
Gain - 12:30