MESA Rect-O-Verb 50 Solo Head

[trustee]

Hi Guys - I've been looking for a place to recently address some issues with my amp hoping that someone could help me. This seems like a good community so I'll give it a shot:

Recently my ears have been pickier to better tone. When I first bought my rectoverb 50 head it was the most awesome amplifier ever. But recently I've began to have second thoughts. I'm thinking that a tube change might be neccessary to address some of these issues which are mainly:

harshness in the highs - want it to be silk and smooth and present but not ear piercing.
lows sound cluttered and boomy - mud
bad note to note separation
very dark sounding and bland (i want him to sound open and sweet if possible)

if anyone could help me with these issues or offer any suggestions i would be very grateful. also if anyone owns one of these and has any good settings i should consider please let me know as well. as far as cleans go they just sound awesome...these probs are all in the lead channel w/ the modern setting.

I play in the realms of classic/hard rock but a lot of punk as well. So i need an amp that can be subtle and sweet but can also be thunderous when needed. Now I play dry into the amp and i hate pedals, etc. Simplicity is the key for me and to work all my stuff through my chan footswitch and the vol/tones on my guitars. I thought my choice was right with this one about a year ago so I had it ordered from Mesa in red taurus with a black face..looks really awesome wish it would sound the same though...we'll see

btw - I play it through a 1x12 classic cab half open back custom ordered from boogie with a v30 instead of a c90.

Simon

 

[coop21]

I like my Solo 50 much better after I switched to EL-34s. I get better note to note articulation. Overall the EL-34s work better for all they styles I play.

For hard/classic rock tones, I prefer the vintage setting. My best advice would be to start with the sample settings in the manual and work from there. Keep in mind that if you max out the gain or the treble, the rest of the controls have less effect. Most of mine are in the middle ranges. My tubes and speaker cabs are different so my settings may not work for you.

Whenever I get disatisfied with my tone, I go to the manual and try something totally different. Every control on a Mesa makes a difference. It takes time, but I have found good tones in every mode on the amp.

 

[trustee]

hey coop,
thanks so much for your reply...what kinds of tubes r u using...when i switched to el34s the lead sounded better but the cleans suffered dramatically (break up easily no headroom, etc) please let me know your tube setup for the head...thanks again

simon

 

[coop21]

I have tried Mesa EL-34, JJ EL-34 and Shuguang EL34-B. My favorite were the Shuguang EL34-B. I bought them from http://www.tubestore.com

The JJs had the most gain and low-end followed by the Mesa then the EL34-B. All of them were better than the stock 6L6 to my ears. I think even the clean channel is better now. I bought the amp used so it may be that stock tubes needed to be replaced anyway. At some point, I'll try another set of 6L6 but for now I'm liking the EL34-B.

 

[CaughtLikeFire]

hey coop,
thanks so much for your reply...what kinds of tubes r u using...when i switched to el34s the lead sounded better but the cleans suffered dramatically (break up easily no headroom, etc) please let me know your tube setup for the head...thanks again

simon

Simon,

I have a Rectoverb series II head with a Recto Traditional 4x12 cab. I felt that the amp was a little too edgy in stock form too. I changed the tubes around and now I'm pretty happy with it. Still aggressive, but not as edgy as before. My sound is vintage hard rock on steroids 8) I'm into 60's hard rock as well as a lot of hardcore (I avoid the sterile "modern metal" guitar sound thats so popular in punk hardcore and hard rock nowadays). Here's my setup:

I'm using SED 6L6s (the Groove Tubes version - 6L6R2 - in a #5 rating). I tried the JJ Kt-77s recently - they're great tubes but I missed the low-end from the 6L6s too much. Not an EL34 guy when it comes to this typeof amp I guess. In the preamp, I have a GT12AX7M Mullard reissue in V1 and GT 12AX7Cs in V2 and V3. You can find the 9th gen Chinese significantly cheaper than the $16 you have to pay for the GT-selected ones but they were a convenient buy for me at the time. I have the stock Mesa tubes in V4 and V5 but plan to replace V5 with a stronger tube w/ balanced triodes.

My amp settings are very close to the settings in the Rectoverb series II manual that are labeled "instant gratification" Just a few tweeks here and there.

 

[chennie]

Hi,

I have a Rect-oVerb 2 combo and had an v30 extension cab and I found that the response get a lot smoother when the speakers are broken in. I did this accroding the description found at the celestion.com site somewhere at Q&A. It also seems the reverb is more presence now, somehow. Also dialing a lot of presence out and compensating it with a bit more treble works for me and as mentioned before changing to EL34 tubes. tough I like 6L6 more.

 

[fredster]

I had similar issues with a Rectoverb combo. I'm on a Dual Rec now - the key difference for me is the tube rectifier! The distortion isn't as harsh and I can still get some good chugga chugga out of it. I'm getting some good classic rock type sounds right up to metal.

 

[BrianBB]

This thread addresses the exactly the same issues I've had with my new Recto-verb.

It seems to sound better with a Les Paul but with my 50's Japanese Strat it's very harsh, even with significant adjustments in both the guitar and amp.

I can get a decent sound, to my ears, when I'm standing over the amp but when I walk out in front of the amp about 10 feet it sounds terrible. What's next before I give up on the amp?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[BrianBB]

Can anybody help,.......... please?

 

[Rectohead]

your guitar has a whole lot to do with the muddyness, note-to-note stuff you are talking about. My friend comes over every once in a while with his PRS Custom 24 and my amp sound 500 times better....

 

[BrianBB]

Thanks Rectohead,
I did try hooking my Recto up to an old Kustom cabinet and it sounded great out in front of the speakers. Back in front of the 1x12 in the Mesa and it was still very harsh. My guess is that the 1x12 is very tight in order to keep the sound well defined and loud and needs to be loostened up a bit. Does this sound plausable?

Brian