Speaking of Tremonti and Recto's, my whole Recto obsession pretty much started when I first heard "Human Clay." I had been playing guitar for a few years at that time, and I remember reading an article with Tremonti saying he used Rectos on the album. I looked up the closest Mesa dealer (was only 1 within hundreds of miles at that time), drove up with my buddy, plugged in, and *bam*...there it was, the tone I heard in my head. I was hooked. I bought my first Recto then, a brand new Dual for $1299 (the late 90's price for them).
On "Human Clay," he used Dual's into the Mesa V30 Cabs and Triple's into a Fender Showman 2X15 because he wanted more bottom end. He had a guy come up to him after a late show on the "My Own Prison" tour, and he was complaining to the guy about how he wanted more bottom end. The guy told him about the old Bassman 2X15, so he went out and got one used at a pawn shop for something akin to $150-$200. That pretty much became the staple of his sound. Mesa saw him using the Showman cabs and offered to make him a pair spec'd like it, so he switched to those after the "Human Clay" tour. That tour is also when he became involved with PRS. His early PRS guitars we're equipped with 500T's in the bridge, then he later got his signature PRS pickup based on the 500T around the "Weathered" era. As posted above, his Human Clay-era settings we're right around:
Tremonti - "Human Clay Era" Recto Settings
Modern Red/Bold/Diodes
Treble - 1:00 to 2:00
Mids - 10:00
Bass - 3:00
Presence - 1:00 to 2:00
Gain - 3:00
Crappy bootleg, but here's a good example of his with those settings on tour right before the album was released:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU12ZjXOt2I&feature=related
Once Alter Bridge got off the ground, he was exclusively using PRS with his signature pickup. He also started playing more leads at this time, and the 2X15's weren't conducive to that, so he started dropping them off the tour. It was right around the recording sessions for "Weathered" when he got his 3 channel Rectos, though you hear a mix of the those and the 2 channels on the album. As Alter Bridge got off the ground, he started to change up his settings some too, using more mids and less gain, never boosting them:
Tremonti - "Alter Bridge Era" Recto Settings
Modern Red/Bold/Diodes
Treble - 1:00 to 2:00
Mids - 12:00
Bass - 1:00
Presence - 1:00 to 2:00
Gain - 12:00
Yes, I know entirely way too much about Tremonti's gear history, haha. He was the reason I got my first Recto, so I learned as much as I could and took advantage of folks I've been fortunate to speak with about it. These days, he does use his 3 channels a good bit (always live, where a good 80% of his tone comes from), though he breaks out his favorite Rectos in his home studio, which are 2 of his 2 Channel Dual's form the "Human Clay" days.
Didn't mean to derail the thread or anything...just answering Phil's question in-depth... :mrgreen:
