new to the mesa family (pics added)

[krylon]

recently picked up a triple rect. 3ch. and a 4x12 straight mesa cab. i'm looking to tighten up the gain a bit on the modern ch3. i'd rather to replace a preamp tube or two before going the route of trying pedals. i know you guys are full of opinions and knowledge. can you point me in the right directions of some tubes i should try? looking to nail the tight newer Satyricon sound.

now for the porn, everything is stock except the dimarzio paf pro in the bridge, and a floyd rose trem arm mod to the zr trem in the S. one day i would like to send the rat to keeley to mod one side.

 

[MusicManJP6]

Only tube change that would tighten up your tone would be EL34s in the power section. But, that's 6 new tubes! A bad monkey OD pedal is like $30 new or something. An OD in front is really the only way to tighten up a Recto IMO.

Congrats on the new amp and welcome to the forum!

 

[Turumbar82]

Only tube change that would tighten up your tone would be EL34s in the power section. But, that's 6 new tubes! A bad monkey OD pedal is like $30 new or something. An OD in front is really the only way to tighten up a Recto IMO.

Congrats on the new amp and welcome to the forum!

+1, you could get try some new tubes but replacing one or two preamp tubes isn't going to tighten it up that much. EL34's will but like MusicMan said that's 6 tubes plus the rectifier tubes if you want to replace those which will cost a lot more than a cheap overdrive like a bad monkey or a dod yjm 308 or even a fish and chips EQ to put in the loop.

If it were as easy as changing a couple tubes everyone here would be doing it instead of buying boost pedals and putting graphic eq's in their loops.

If you don't mind spending the money on the new tubes and you don't want pedals on the floor which is understandable try some EL34's in there and maybe a high gain preamp kit of JJ"s from Eurotubes.com. The high gain kit did great things for my Single Rectifier.

Also do you have the standard Recto cab or the Traditional/Stilleto? The Traditional will be tighter naturally because it's slightly smaller than the standard.

Good luck and congrats on the new amp.

 

[krylon]

i was thinking about going to pick up my r2du ( rack rat ) and try that as an od. but i think it might be too fuzzy. i also have a rane 30band eq. guess i'll go snag these now then.

 

[MusicManJP6]

the trick is to run the OD with gain at zero and level at max. This will hit the preamp harder while not adding any gain (or very little) from the pedal itself. OD pedals stay clean with gain at zero while DS pedals usually don't - hence why OD pedals are the recommended boost pedals for your front end...

An EQ might work too - run your bass knob lower and use the EQ to compensate.

 

[krylon]

Also do you have the standard Recto cab or the Traditional/Stilleto? The Traditional will be tighter naturally because it's slightly smaller than the standard.

its a straight rectifier 4x12.

 

[fluff191]

It's going to be pretty hard to tighten it up without a pedal. But I know where yo uare coming from. I personally don't use OD pedals, but instead run very high output pickups. You could also try KT77's in the power section.

 

[krylon]

playing with the rat in front and the rane in the loop now. def did some magic. but its a tad fuzzy like i thought it would be. w/out the rat its almost perfect.

kinda scared of that green monkey thing, digitech is not my brand of choice. and these others are pricey. about the cost of a new set of tubes.

i'm wondering if this eq with some el34's might be what the doctor ordered.

 

[Turumbar82]

an EQ and different power tubes might be the ticket for you. Try to lower the 200hz-250hz slider on your EQ a little and boost 100hz and boost 800hz a little too maybe. That should tighten things up quite a bit.

Fluff had a good point about the KT77's also. They are a nice choice too.


Also, are you using the tube rectifiers or the silicon diodes in modern? For the tightest sound use Bold and Diode.

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

You could try a Mesa SPAX7 preamp in V1, helps to tighten it just a bit...

 

[krylon]

an EQ and different power tubes might be the ticket for you. Try to lower the 200hz-250hz slider on your EQ a little and boost 100hz and boost 800hz a little too maybe. That should tighten things up quite a bit.

Fluff had a good point about the KT77's also. They are a nice choice too.


Also, are you using the tube rectifiers or the silicon diodes in modern? For the tightest sound use Bold and Diode.

diodes and bold here.

eurotubes has the whole sets w/high gain preamps tubes. if i do replace these do i also have to switch the rectifier tubes even tho i dont use em?

 

[Turumbar82]

Na, if you are using the Diode all the time you don't have to change the Rectifier tubes.

You can do a kit with Eurotubes or you can call them and get whatever you want. You aren't limited to the kits they have on the webpage.

 

[Noonoo]

Fulltone damnit

 

[krylon]

Fulltone damnit

nice i'm sure, but too pricey atm. i'm actually getting some good results with the rat now. works much better on ch2.

 

[fluff191]

nice i'm sure, but too pricey atm. i'm actually getting some good results with the rat now. works much better on ch2.

Don't count out the vintage setting on Channels 2 & 3 too. Alot of metal players I know are now putting everything on the vintage settings (instead of Modern) and then boosting it with a pedal. Lots of tones to be had on Vintage.

 

[TREC]

+1

 

[Turumbar82]

+1 on the vintage setting. I usually kept my Single Rectifier on vintage and ran the presence a little higher.

 

[krylon]

ya im keeping 2 on modern. ive been going back and forth with the raw and vintage on 3. just didnt like how the modern was voiced on 3 after a while of listening.

wish i had a friend locally with an OD pedal to try out. i never needed one with my marshall, it takes the rat extremely well. i feel like i'm missing out now that ive read all these posts about using them. just not sure it will give me the satyricon-ish sound i'm looking for with this amp.

 

[clutch71]

The more you get up into power section the more it will tighten up. So if your not really cranking the amp, it's going to have a looser feel. Even 50 w amps will sag a little until you get more into the power section.

OD's will help and so will El34's. Look for posts by Nitrobattery. He's running a roadster with a Maxon 808 and Tung sol EL34's. Rectifiers are loose feeling in general but there are wasy's to tighten them up. You already have the straight cab and I've always felt they were tighter and thumpier than a slanted.

 

[krylon]

well, i took a gamble on a used maxon od808 for 80$, never heard it in person or anything before hand. all i can say is, THIS IS WHAT I NEEDED! tightened everything right up. was able to ditch the eq and rat( they can go back on my marshall) so all i got is the od and it;s perfect. even at low volumes its a pretty amazing difference.