Rect-o-verb 50 head - need overdrive pedal & tube referrals

[Pig Muffin]

Hello,

I am new to this forum.

Question is I have a Rect-o-verb 50 series 2 head, with stock mesa 6l6’s, and stock preamps playing through a Tom Anderson drop top guitar, and an awful Peavy 4x12 with some Sheffield speakers. Cleans are amazing, but I am looking for a tight distortion with a little less mid range when up loud. Seems that this thing has a really bold mid range.

Main focus is with someone using this head what overdrive pedals kick butt on it to push it a little, and can I go to euro tubes and replace the stock stuff with better tubes? I see Sovtek all the time but what is a high end tube I can use to make a quick swap upgrade. I have had a Mesa Tremoverb Dual Rec in the past but I always just took it to places to be worked on, and I want to learn now.

 

[boss4]

You can always put an OD pedal in front of the amp (like I do, and many others too) like the Ibanez tubescreamer TS-9, TS-808, Maxon OD-9 or a Boss Turbo Overdrive. With one of these you can shape your distortion, compressing it, tight things up, more sustain, etc. As for the tubes I use JJ tubes and I like them a lot. You can also try EL34 tubes, as the type of distortion which is ideal for you may be different of mine. You can call or email Eurotubes and ask his opinion (I did that), and they will respond quickly and wisely.

 

[Pig Muffin]

You can always put an OD pedal in front of the amp (like I do, and many others too) like the Ibanez tubescreamer TS-9, TS-808, Maxon OD-9 or a Boss Turbo Overdrive. With one of these you can shape your distortion, compressing it, tight things up, more sustain, etc. As for the tubes I use JJ tubes and I like them a lot. You can also try EL34 tubes, as the type of distortion which is ideal for you may be different of mine. You can call or email Eurotubes and ask his opinion (I did that), and they will respond quickly and wisely.

You going for a pantera sound? I am looking for an As I Lay Dying or All that remains type of distortion. What is the deal with JJ, I am familiar with EL34 and 6l6 is JJ just a brand name, different tube in general?

 

[boss4]

I play not just one type of music. I have a band which is basically rock but with many variations. I'm also in other project that consists exactly in modern metal, metalcore, melodic metal as: As I Lay dying, Parkway Drive, Killswitch Engage, Destrage, Unearth, Miss May I, etc. Pantera simply was the band who put me in the metal scene and an inspiration (Dimebag). JJ tubes is a brand of tubes like many others such like: Groove Tubes, Tung-Sol, Sylvania, Sovtek, Electro Harmonix, etc.
You can visit the JJ Tubes site here:
http://www.jj-electronic.sk/

 

[Pig Muffin]

Cool, so in doing a little research would running a Fulltone OCD in front of the amp, a boss eq in the fx loop, and a decimator for some noise suppression be a nice combo? I am hoping this will give me some sounds to play around with? I also have a BBE sonic stomp box, I could mess with, I just found it in my closet.

Do you think this would get me to a point where I could flex the sound a little bit, and maybe tighten the sound up, or would I need a separate compressor?

 

[Chris McKinley]

PigMuffin,

The combo of OCD up front with EQ and Decimator in the loop sounds like just what the doctor ordered. I use that exact combo myself frequently. If you're going to use the BBE Sonic Stomp, it pretty much has to go in the loop between the EQ and the Decimator. Go very easy on the BBE knob....a little of the effect goes a very long way. The bass knob of the BBE governs the 100Hz frequency, so it's nice with a Recto, but use it cautiously as well. The Recto is already a bass-heavy amp.

As to the EQ, try cutting the 200/250Hz range by about 4db in the loop to get rid of the Recto's natural muddiness. For the more rock-oriented stuff, add about 3 db of 800Hz mids, but flatline the 800Hz for the metal stuff.

 

[Pig Muffin]

PigMuffin,

The combo of OCD up front with EQ and Decimator in the loop sounds like just what the doctor ordered. I use that exact combo myself frequently. If you're going to use the BBE Sonic Stomp, it pretty much has to go in the loop between the EQ and the Decimator. Go very easy on the BBE knob....a little of the effect goes a very long way. The bass knob of the BBE governs the 100Hz frequency, so it's nice with a Recto, but use it cautiously as well. The Recto is already a bass-heavy amp.

As to the EQ, try cutting the 200/250Hz range by about 4db in the loop to get rid of the Recto's natural muddiness. For the more rock-oriented stuff, add about 3 db of 800Hz mids, but flatline the 800Hz for the metal stuff.

Nice input thank you! I know there is an FX mix knob in the back, so for the (eq,decim, and sonic) is their and spot that should stay at or just fine tune it? Also thank you for the order in which they should go, I am new again so i am learning as I go. I will surley use ur eq setting as a test run. Do you have anything where i can hear your sound?

 

[Chris McKinley]

As for the mix knob, I always left it at full, which is 90%, and mixed the individual effects on the boxes themselves. I don't have any current internet clips to listen to....that's not really my thing and I always hate the sound of internet clips anyway due to the poor fidelity.

 

[boss4]

Very good advices from Chris, but remember (and my setup consists exactly in a Boss Turbo Overdrive - among others - in front and a Boss GE-7 EQ in the FX-Loop) the ISP (I use a Boss NS-2) is for noise supressing, so put your overdrive in the loop too. The EQ dont generate much noise, unlike a OD in the front and in a Hi Gain channel. I use my noise supressor loop in the front to eliminate the OD noise, Big Muff noise, Phaser, etc.

 

[Pig Muffin]

Very good advices from Chris, but remember (and my setup consists exactly in a Boss Turbo Overdrive - among others - in front and a Boss GE-7 EQ in the FX-Loop) the ISP (I use a Boss NS-2) is for noise supressing, so put your overdrive in the loop too. The EQ dont generate much noise, unlike a OD in the front and in a Hi Gain channel. I use my noise supressor loop in the front to eliminate the OD noise, Big Muff noise, Phaser, etc.

Ok, so dont use the OCD in front but rather in the loop, correct? Will it still have the same effect in the loop as it would out in front? Or are you telling me to put in the loop to be able to have the ISP quiet it down?

 

[boss4]

No, no! The OD is more efficient in the front. My setup consists in all the pedals in the front (the sound, for me, is better than in the FX-Loop) except the EQ in the FX-Loop. And all my noisy pedal such like the OD, Wah and the Big Muff are in the NS-2 loop but in the front. Delay and Acoustic simulator, for example, dont generate much noise and are in the front too but out of the NS-2 loop. The problem is to much tap dancing, so my next process is to put all the pedals in a rack and via a GCX audio switcher or a RJM RG-16 make loops and control the all thing in a pedalboard like the Rocktron All Access or a GCX Ground Control Pro.

 

[Chris McKinley]

Pig Muffin,

You're getting confused because boss4 is using the term "loop" to refer to his Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor pedal which has its own loop built in for quieting a bunch of pedals simultaneously. When the rest of us use the term "loop", we are referring to the effects loop of the amplifier itself.

For clarification, never put an OD in the effects loop of your amp. They are designed specifically to be placed in front of your amp's preamp tubes so that the OD can drive the preamp tubes into greater saturation.

Also, if you only have one graphic EQ to use at a time, I would definitely recommend placing it in the amp's effects loop since it will have a much greater effect on your sound there. Try it and see for yourself.

 

[Pig Muffin]

Perfect, you guys kick butt!