elvis
Well-known member
My Rectoverb 25 Review:
I have now owned the ROV25 for 24 hours. I have about 3 hours in on it.
At the store: With no reference, I plugged in and played. I hadn't played in the couple of weeks previously due to some travel. So I was really cold. The amp seemed pretty anemic. When I used settings from the modern rock demo video, I was surprised that it had so little gain. Of course I was playing it at pretty low volume, as I generally don't like to bug the folks in the store. One of the employees came over and cranked it, and the thing really came to life. Fire-breather indeed.
I was surprised at how much low-end it had, as most 1x12 cabinets disappoint me. It was really full and heavy. So I bought it for further "study"…
At home, I cranked it up, and again, it seemed kind of anemic. I A/B'd it with my Mini Recto with the same settings. The MR was running into a recto 2x12 with V30s. The difference was night and day.
Guitar: I used a 2005 American Deluxe Tele, stock. I am particularly sensitive to how the high end comes across, as well as how much of the "tele" character comes through. In general it sounds a bit better through my Dyne, and a bit less 3-D through the MR. I used the neck pickup mostly, as the bridge pickup tends to carry its character no matter what amp you play it through.
Gain: Once I got the volumes and settings about the same, the ROV had just as much gain as the MR. But the MR sounded way clearer.
Tone: The MR had much more top end, and the ROV sounded really muddy by comparison. I played with the tone controls a little, but it was just off. So I moved to a speaker A/B.
Speaker: I used my MR (by now I was warmed up and readjusted to how my MR normally sounds). Plugging the Fillmore into the MR gave the same muddy, low-end heavy tone to the MR as well. Interestingly, the Fillmore is noticeably louder than the recto 2x12. I played back and forth quite a bit and tried to tweak the tone to match the tones of the two speakers. I wound up cutting the mids and bass a lot to compensate the tone of the Fillmore, but it gets pretty honky in the mids. I had to crank the treble to get close, but the Fillmore really doesn't sound like the V30.
Once I got the tone about right, I switched over to the ROV into both speaker cabs. I found the tone controls behaved pretty much the same as with the MR. I believe that the ROV is very close to the MR, if not identical. The Fillmore is a VERY different beast than what I am used to. I thought, based on the description, that the Fillmore might sound a lot like the Jensen-equipped 4x10 that I usually play through (that is at the practice studio, so I haven't tried it), but I think it is wholly different from that as well. I use the same tone settings with my MR on both the 2x12 and 4x10, with only a small change in tone overall.
When I looked at the tone settings in the ROV vids, I noticed that the bass and mids tend to be set pretty low, and the treble high. Now I know why.
How do I feel about it? The amp is awesome, and I really need a 1x12 combo form factor for gigging. I am tired of lugging the 4x10. I also want to be able to use my MR as a spare in case the ROV goes silent on the gig (I have been bringing two MRs up until now). I think I can probably get a tone I like from the Fillmore, but I doubt I will ever get it exactly. I am impressed at how much low end it can carry, and I will bet it rivals the 4x10. It is the clarity that I am struggling with, and this is something I have always found with Eminence speakers. I also really like V30s. So I may swap out the Fillmore for a V30 in the end. I do think I will keep this amp long-term.
Reverb: I am not a big spring reverb guy. I use a TC Electronic G System for reverbs and delays. To me the reverb sounds pretty much the same at any setting, but the reverb control makes the artifacts at the end of the reverb louder and longer lasting as you turn it up. I am not sure if I will use that feature. If I feel like just bringing the amp and nothing else, I would use the built-in verb.
48-hour ADDENDUM:
I spent the entire initial review on tone and setup. I should add some general comments as well.
First, I love the form-factor. It is big enough to fit a 12" speaker and carry a TON of bass, but nice and small and light (surprise!). It will be perfect for gigging. The controls and connections are slightly different on the back, but not complicated. I think it is a great choice to have per-channel reverb controls, though it will annoy people who actually use them that they are on the back. The chassis is quite a bit bigger than the MR, again to fit the cabinet. The plus is bigger knobs and easier tweaking. It looks and feels right to me. I really like the black/cream covering. Everything is well-built, quality is great. I miss the loop disable, as I use that whenever I get no sound after setting up to see where the problem is. I guess I can always unplug the loop cables.
After a few hours last night with it, I continue to evolve the tone settings. A lot of the problems can be cured by adding treble. Otherwise, it is just a low-end heavy cabinet. I am getting used to that, and am curious to see how it sounds with my band. I got some really good clean tone and tele character from the clean channel. I did not get similar tone to the vids, but part of that as far as I can tell is that I think they had the masters way up when they filmed them. I'm not really pushing the power stage, and that is still a big part of this amp. I fired it up loud about midnight last night and it really added a lot of life to it. Ears were ringing...
I think the low end is probably an asset, but it will take some time to figure out how to tame it.
Addendum: This thing really thrives on volume. The character is completely different when you turn it up a bit. More lively, and the low end evens out much better. I am kind of used to playing the MRs at a pretty tame volume, but this made me remember that they ROAR at higher volume. Maybe the speaker will soften with time, maybe not. I'll find out...
Addendum: After a month or so, no real change in speaker tone or dynamics. I replaced it with a Mesa V30, expecting it to radically change the tone to be much closer to what I'm used to from the MR into a V30 recto cab. No dice. Only a very subtle shift in that direction. The tone seems to be dominated by the cabinet. Granted, it is a brand-new V30. Still, it is a long way from my other cabs. I will tweak on it, but I think that this is just how it sounds. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I'm missing some lively high-end dynamics that this thing just doesn't have. EXCEPT at high volume, where it really does come into its own very nicely.
I have now owned the ROV25 for 24 hours. I have about 3 hours in on it.
At the store: With no reference, I plugged in and played. I hadn't played in the couple of weeks previously due to some travel. So I was really cold. The amp seemed pretty anemic. When I used settings from the modern rock demo video, I was surprised that it had so little gain. Of course I was playing it at pretty low volume, as I generally don't like to bug the folks in the store. One of the employees came over and cranked it, and the thing really came to life. Fire-breather indeed.
I was surprised at how much low-end it had, as most 1x12 cabinets disappoint me. It was really full and heavy. So I bought it for further "study"…
At home, I cranked it up, and again, it seemed kind of anemic. I A/B'd it with my Mini Recto with the same settings. The MR was running into a recto 2x12 with V30s. The difference was night and day.
Guitar: I used a 2005 American Deluxe Tele, stock. I am particularly sensitive to how the high end comes across, as well as how much of the "tele" character comes through. In general it sounds a bit better through my Dyne, and a bit less 3-D through the MR. I used the neck pickup mostly, as the bridge pickup tends to carry its character no matter what amp you play it through.
Gain: Once I got the volumes and settings about the same, the ROV had just as much gain as the MR. But the MR sounded way clearer.
Tone: The MR had much more top end, and the ROV sounded really muddy by comparison. I played with the tone controls a little, but it was just off. So I moved to a speaker A/B.
Speaker: I used my MR (by now I was warmed up and readjusted to how my MR normally sounds). Plugging the Fillmore into the MR gave the same muddy, low-end heavy tone to the MR as well. Interestingly, the Fillmore is noticeably louder than the recto 2x12. I played back and forth quite a bit and tried to tweak the tone to match the tones of the two speakers. I wound up cutting the mids and bass a lot to compensate the tone of the Fillmore, but it gets pretty honky in the mids. I had to crank the treble to get close, but the Fillmore really doesn't sound like the V30.
Once I got the tone about right, I switched over to the ROV into both speaker cabs. I found the tone controls behaved pretty much the same as with the MR. I believe that the ROV is very close to the MR, if not identical. The Fillmore is a VERY different beast than what I am used to. I thought, based on the description, that the Fillmore might sound a lot like the Jensen-equipped 4x10 that I usually play through (that is at the practice studio, so I haven't tried it), but I think it is wholly different from that as well. I use the same tone settings with my MR on both the 2x12 and 4x10, with only a small change in tone overall.
When I looked at the tone settings in the ROV vids, I noticed that the bass and mids tend to be set pretty low, and the treble high. Now I know why.
How do I feel about it? The amp is awesome, and I really need a 1x12 combo form factor for gigging. I am tired of lugging the 4x10. I also want to be able to use my MR as a spare in case the ROV goes silent on the gig (I have been bringing two MRs up until now). I think I can probably get a tone I like from the Fillmore, but I doubt I will ever get it exactly. I am impressed at how much low end it can carry, and I will bet it rivals the 4x10. It is the clarity that I am struggling with, and this is something I have always found with Eminence speakers. I also really like V30s. So I may swap out the Fillmore for a V30 in the end. I do think I will keep this amp long-term.
Reverb: I am not a big spring reverb guy. I use a TC Electronic G System for reverbs and delays. To me the reverb sounds pretty much the same at any setting, but the reverb control makes the artifacts at the end of the reverb louder and longer lasting as you turn it up. I am not sure if I will use that feature. If I feel like just bringing the amp and nothing else, I would use the built-in verb.
48-hour ADDENDUM:
I spent the entire initial review on tone and setup. I should add some general comments as well.
First, I love the form-factor. It is big enough to fit a 12" speaker and carry a TON of bass, but nice and small and light (surprise!). It will be perfect for gigging. The controls and connections are slightly different on the back, but not complicated. I think it is a great choice to have per-channel reverb controls, though it will annoy people who actually use them that they are on the back. The chassis is quite a bit bigger than the MR, again to fit the cabinet. The plus is bigger knobs and easier tweaking. It looks and feels right to me. I really like the black/cream covering. Everything is well-built, quality is great. I miss the loop disable, as I use that whenever I get no sound after setting up to see where the problem is. I guess I can always unplug the loop cables.
After a few hours last night with it, I continue to evolve the tone settings. A lot of the problems can be cured by adding treble. Otherwise, it is just a low-end heavy cabinet. I am getting used to that, and am curious to see how it sounds with my band. I got some really good clean tone and tele character from the clean channel. I did not get similar tone to the vids, but part of that as far as I can tell is that I think they had the masters way up when they filmed them. I'm not really pushing the power stage, and that is still a big part of this amp. I fired it up loud about midnight last night and it really added a lot of life to it. Ears were ringing...
I think the low end is probably an asset, but it will take some time to figure out how to tame it.
Addendum: This thing really thrives on volume. The character is completely different when you turn it up a bit. More lively, and the low end evens out much better. I am kind of used to playing the MRs at a pretty tame volume, but this made me remember that they ROAR at higher volume. Maybe the speaker will soften with time, maybe not. I'll find out...
Addendum: After a month or so, no real change in speaker tone or dynamics. I replaced it with a Mesa V30, expecting it to radically change the tone to be much closer to what I'm used to from the MR into a V30 recto cab. No dice. Only a very subtle shift in that direction. The tone seems to be dominated by the cabinet. Granted, it is a brand-new V30. Still, it is a long way from my other cabs. I will tweak on it, but I think that this is just how it sounds. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I'm missing some lively high-end dynamics that this thing just doesn't have. EXCEPT at high volume, where it really does come into its own very nicely.