KiwiJoe
Well-known member
**DISCLAIMER: Let me just get it out of the way that I am NOT a self-professed blues player, per se. I play a fairly eclectic blend of classic rock, funk/R&B, some lighter jazz/fusion with the locally obscure and infinitely infamous Bay of Plenty power trio I'm in now, and while we mix some blues into all of it (and we're old-ish), none of us wears (or owns) tan pants and/or bowling shirts.**
To a lot of purists, as soon they hear the words "Mesa" and "Rectifier" together, mental tonescapes of scooped mids, chugga-chugga lows, and metallic highs appear. I was skeptical, too, when I first demoed the Mini Rec at the local shop, however, after about 5 minutes, I knew that there was a lot to be had from the Mini and that, while it could get that signature "Rectifier" tone (I did side-by-side it with a Dual Recto), that is certainly not the only thing the Mini could do.
I'll even go out on a limb and state that it offers in its palette a very nice Mark series tonal quality if you're looking for it. I think I've found it.
Low to medium gain is where I live when I'm not clean, and the Mini delivers. The demo below represents the "low" end of my spectrum. The "mid" level would be a bit more than that but with enough drive to get a Santana-like harmonic feedback sustain for days - or at least long enough to smoke an entire joint (not that I would know anything about that nor do I endorse any illegal activity; check you state and local laws; MSRP, limit one per customer, YMMV, don't smoke or drink and drive, yada yada).
But I digress.
I can't believe how good the Mini Rec sounds "on tape" at low volume. I've been playing out with the amp, and I've played around with a few variations on settings since purchasing the amp in September of last year. I've been pleasantly impressed throughout, and I'm well past the "honeymoon" phase; so I feel a bit more confident espousing the qualities of the amp. I'm thoroughly convinced that it suits my needs. Perhaps yours, too, but, as always, YMMV.
Usually, playing out, I've got it chimed and dimed on the green channel at 25 watts (pentode), "clean" setting to get a similar (but actually better) sound to what was captured here, so I was curious if I could get "that" sound at low volumes by pushing the preamp on the red/hot channel. I also wanted to show, for those who think this thing is a one-trick baloney pony, that it is not. I can see now that the Mini is not only a great live amp but can be a real winner in the studio, too.
This was at REALLY low, truly bedroom-level volume, but (I think) it still gets extremely close to the classic Mark I tone I dearly love. I also wanted to hear how well the notes bloomed and how responsive the amp was to the pick at this low voume, so I played accordingly to let notes ring and went from light to digging in. I was pleasantly surprised.
So, I'm not trying to convince anybody that this is the amp for everybody. I've not played it through anything other than the Mini slant closed cab with the V30, but I'm pretty sure that, even through a 4x12, it's not going to blow you pant legs (or your skirt) up or rattle your liver when you strike a power chord. It's also not going to give you a lot of clean headroom when you push the clean channel - and I'll demo that glorious chimed and dimed clean channel sound at a later date. I'm simply trying to demonstrate that for purposes other than that big-iron-only phenomenon (that I happen to love, also), the Mesa Mini Rec is a versatile amp.
Post re-title could be "Mesa Mini Rec: It's Not Just For Metal Guys"
So here's a short recording over a Stormy Monday backing track just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.
***************************************
Production Notes:
Mic is a Rode M1 placed perpendicular @ 11 o'clock, approx 1cm from the grille, midway between the cone and edge. Interface is the Focusrite iTrack Solo into Audacity with a bit of reverb added to the guitar track to get it "into the mix" prior to mix-down.
Guitar is the Epi Dot 335 (neck pup, tone on 8, volume wide open)
Mesa Mini Rec and 1x12 Mini Rec slant cab set to the following:
Fromel Shape EQ (in the loop) - bass and treble flat, mid freq. adjust @ 1 o'clock, mid level @ 4 o'clock
http://soundcloud.com/kiwijoe-1/stormy-monday-demo-remix
To a lot of purists, as soon they hear the words "Mesa" and "Rectifier" together, mental tonescapes of scooped mids, chugga-chugga lows, and metallic highs appear. I was skeptical, too, when I first demoed the Mini Rec at the local shop, however, after about 5 minutes, I knew that there was a lot to be had from the Mini and that, while it could get that signature "Rectifier" tone (I did side-by-side it with a Dual Recto), that is certainly not the only thing the Mini could do.
I'll even go out on a limb and state that it offers in its palette a very nice Mark series tonal quality if you're looking for it. I think I've found it.
Low to medium gain is where I live when I'm not clean, and the Mini delivers. The demo below represents the "low" end of my spectrum. The "mid" level would be a bit more than that but with enough drive to get a Santana-like harmonic feedback sustain for days - or at least long enough to smoke an entire joint (not that I would know anything about that nor do I endorse any illegal activity; check you state and local laws; MSRP, limit one per customer, YMMV, don't smoke or drink and drive, yada yada).
But I digress.
I can't believe how good the Mini Rec sounds "on tape" at low volume. I've been playing out with the amp, and I've played around with a few variations on settings since purchasing the amp in September of last year. I've been pleasantly impressed throughout, and I'm well past the "honeymoon" phase; so I feel a bit more confident espousing the qualities of the amp. I'm thoroughly convinced that it suits my needs. Perhaps yours, too, but, as always, YMMV.
Usually, playing out, I've got it chimed and dimed on the green channel at 25 watts (pentode), "clean" setting to get a similar (but actually better) sound to what was captured here, so I was curious if I could get "that" sound at low volumes by pushing the preamp on the red/hot channel. I also wanted to show, for those who think this thing is a one-trick baloney pony, that it is not. I can see now that the Mini is not only a great live amp but can be a real winner in the studio, too.
This was at REALLY low, truly bedroom-level volume, but (I think) it still gets extremely close to the classic Mark I tone I dearly love. I also wanted to hear how well the notes bloomed and how responsive the amp was to the pick at this low voume, so I played accordingly to let notes ring and went from light to digging in. I was pleasantly surprised.
So, I'm not trying to convince anybody that this is the amp for everybody. I've not played it through anything other than the Mini slant closed cab with the V30, but I'm pretty sure that, even through a 4x12, it's not going to blow you pant legs (or your skirt) up or rattle your liver when you strike a power chord. It's also not going to give you a lot of clean headroom when you push the clean channel - and I'll demo that glorious chimed and dimed clean channel sound at a later date. I'm simply trying to demonstrate that for purposes other than that big-iron-only phenomenon (that I happen to love, also), the Mesa Mini Rec is a versatile amp.
Post re-title could be "Mesa Mini Rec: It's Not Just For Metal Guys"
So here's a short recording over a Stormy Monday backing track just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.
***************************************
Production Notes:
Mic is a Rode M1 placed perpendicular @ 11 o'clock, approx 1cm from the grille, midway between the cone and edge. Interface is the Focusrite iTrack Solo into Audacity with a bit of reverb added to the guitar track to get it "into the mix" prior to mix-down.
Guitar is the Epi Dot 335 (neck pup, tone on 8, volume wide open)
Mesa Mini Rec and 1x12 Mini Rec slant cab set to the following:
- *Red channel, "vintage"
*Gain - 11 o'clock
*Treble - noon
*Mid - 1 o'clock
*Bass - noon
*Presence - 2 o'clock
*Master - 7-8 o'clock (just off the low stop)
Fromel Shape EQ (in the loop) - bass and treble flat, mid freq. adjust @ 1 o'clock, mid level @ 4 o'clock
http://soundcloud.com/kiwijoe-1/stormy-monday-demo-remix
