James Hetfield's Recto Tone- how does he get it?

[Storm]

+1 as well, great explanation!

Ciao ...

 

[Rocky]

I must be missing something. What is so great about that tone?

If you want to hear a Dual rec sounding totally unlike the typical idea of a dual rec check out Carl Roa.

http://www.carlroa.com/

 

[art_n_music]

Great post. I'm currently using a TOV and watched this video and thought, "Hell, that's a tone I play with all the time." Pretty much the settings you described as well. Vintage is where its at on the TOV.

+1...............Now that's what country music SHOULD be!

 

[bentium]

hasnt james been using diezel vh4 lately?

 

[4nkam]

VH4 and Triaxis/Strategy 400 live. Backstage he uses the Triple Recto and during the smaller performances he usually uses the Triple REcto (and VH4 at the hall of fame show).

 

[jbird]

I can get that exact tone on ch 3 vintage gain at noon maybe 1:00 at the highest, it's just a fairly medium gain setting with a hard pick attack. I would say the reason most people don't get the recto's is that the controls go to such extremes, no reason to crank any of the controls (except master volume). Turn your bass to 0, mids 9:00-noon depending on the guitar, treble about noon, gain about noon, presence 9:00-noon depeding on guitar, channel 3 vintage, bold, tube recto, channel volume 3:00 and master volume up as high as you can stand it, and your there. If it doesn't sound right then, you just need a new guitar, or a new cab, or you have a need to practice a lot more.

If I had an amp that I had to turn one of the controls to zero, it would tell me that something is probably wrong with one of the components in my signal chain! Either that, or the manufacturer of said amp is way off on they're frequency control for that parameter! :?

 

[Elpelotero]

I must be missing something. What is so great about that tone?

If you want to hear a Dual rec sounding totally unlike the typical idea of a dual rec check out Carl Roa.

http://www.carlroa.com/

cool tones.

 

[ToneAddictJon]

I can get that exact tone on ch 3 vintage gain at noon maybe 1:00 at the highest, it's just a fairly medium gain setting with a hard pick attack. I would say the reason most people don't get the recto's is that the controls go to such extremes, no reason to crank any of the controls (except master volume). Turn your bass to 0, mids 9:00-noon depending on the guitar, treble about noon, gain about noon, presence 9:00-noon depeding on guitar, channel 3 vintage, bold, tube recto, channel volume 3:00 and master volume up as high as you can stand it, and your there. If it doesn't sound right then, you just need a new guitar, or a new cab, or you have a need to practice a lot more.

If I had an amp that I had to turn one of the controls to zero, it would tell me that something is probably wrong with one of the components in my signal chain! Either that, or the manufacturer of said amp is way off on they're frequency control for that parameter! :?

Actually, the tone controls on the dual recto seem to start at zero not at noon like some other amps. The controls only add not take away frequencies, and there's a lot of bass there already. I've seen plenty of perfectly good amps that have the mids set to zero as well, so I wouldn't call it a problem. And all I run is my guitar straight into the amp, the only effects I use is wah and delay, and that's not very often.

 

[jbird]

Actually, the tone controls on the dual recto seem to start at zero not at noon like some other amps. The controls only add not take away frequencies, and there's a lot of bass there already.

I don't agree with that, nor do my recollections from any Mesa manuals! I've never heard, "start with the controls at zero and work up"? There are "sweet spots" to each control where the interaction between each is optimal, running a bass control at zero does'nt seem optimal! At least to these ears. :?

 

[ToneAddictJon]

Actually, the tone controls on the dual recto seem to start at zero not at noon like some other amps. The controls only add not take away frequencies, and there's a lot of bass there already.

I don't agree with that, nor do my recollections from any Mesa manuals! I've never heard, "start with the controls at zero and work up"? There are "sweet spots" to each control where the interaction between each is optimal, running a bass control at zero does'nt seem optimal! At least to these ears. :?

Well all I can say is it works perfect for me and I get plenty of compliments on my tone. And I'm not sure why you would think if it doesn't work for you, it wouldn't work for someone else.

 

[jbird]

Well all I can say is it works perfect for me and I get plenty of compliments on my tone. And I'm not sure why you would think if it doesn't work for you, it wouldn't work for someone else.

Quite the opposite! I'm not the one suggesting settings, followed by a statement like..."If it doesn't sound right then, you just need a new guitar, or a new cab, or you have a need to practice a lot more." I just don't agree with that! :shock:

 

[ToneAddictJon]

The question was how to get Hetfield's Recto sound from a Recto, and if you can't get the sound from a Recto, then you probably do need a different cab or guitar to get that tone or new tubes, how is that bad advice??

 

[jbird]

The question was how to get Hetfield's Recto sound from a Recto, and if you can't get the sound from a Recto, then you probably do need a different cab or guitar to get that tone or new tubes, how is that bad advice??

You forgot about the "turn the Bass to zero" part! :?

 

[SuperD]

Anybody notice James' pickup selector switch? You can get a good look at 1:33...it caught my attention, thought somebody else must have noticed too...

 

[rockhound76s]

Anybody notice James' pickup selector switch? You can get a good look at 1:33...it caught my attention, thought somebody else must have noticed too...

If you're referring to the fact that the switch is in the neck position you are right, BUT....

Hetfield has his guitars modded so that switch is inactive. Instead, there's a pickup toggle installed where one of the tone controls normally would reside. He only uses 1 master tone control, and two volume controls---one for each pickup.

The production version of that guitar is wired the same way.

 

[123thefirst]

Actually, the tone controls on the dual recto seem to start at zero not at noon like some other amps. The controls only add not take away frequencies, and there's a lot of bass there already.

I don't agree with that, nor do my recollections from any Mesa manuals! I've never heard, "start with the controls at zero and work up"? There are "sweet spots" to each control where the interaction between each is optimal, running a bass control at zero does'nt seem optimal! At least to these ears. :?

Much, very much, depends on what cables you're using. I rarely before ever set a tone control to zero but after switching to a *very* high end cable the little Mesa controls have so much less power over the tone that I often need to zero at least the bass control and peg the treble now.

 

[daveyboy]

running a bass control at zero does'nt seem optimal! At least to these ears. :?

I kind of agree. And yet I guess if thats the sound ya dig than its all good.

That said I've never had an amp that in my opinion gave its best tones with the bass @ zero. That includes my Marshall Plexi.

laters,

-dave

 

[CoG]

I wouldn't have believed it till I heard some of toneddictjon's clips and went, "hey, this guy knows his $h1t"

I've since been doing a lot of tweaking on my Rec Pre and have found that my happy place for recto rhythm tones is with the bass around 9 o'clock and the master around 3:30, both of which would have seemed a little counterintuitive to me ("dude, where's my scoop?") I found a bunch of tones in Raw mode that I wouldn't have otherwise-- very 'Undertow'-ish.

 

[ToneAddictJon]

And I always thought those were claymation videos...... I guess it was just maynard dressed up like that
A great example of why not to do drugs kids

 

[jdurso]

just wanted to chime in on Het's tone as he is one of the most influential players for me both in style and tone..... i think his tones are EASIER to achieve from a triaxis..... they're in the recto but as far as a lot of his recorded stuff and live his tone is achieved more through his set of triaxis' ...... plus his guitars all have emg preamps in them combined with his emg 81/85 or 81/89 setup..... plus all the other gear in his chain..... i have an esp eclipse with emg 81s and no matter what recto i've had its been pretty easy to get close but there was always something missing..... when i got my triaxis/2:90 through my recto 4x12 i had finally found what i was looking for... not to mention your picking style can make or break trying to emulate his tone.... all down picks..... thats the main part of his tone..... chugging just doesnt respond the same with alternate picking..... thats just my .2