Single rectifier tone settings

[seanzilla]

Hi, I'm new here to the forums and I just bought my first real amp. My previous amp was a crate 15 watt. HAHAHA. BIG step up. I purchased a mesa single rectifier solo 50 and a jcm900 1960 slant cab. YAY.

So anyways, I was wondering if anyone could help me out by either telling me some great tone settings or know of a website with a list of them on there? I am very lost trying to tweak the eq. The guy at guitar center was getting all these nice tones and I can get like 3. heheh. Thanks in advance.

also what is best: to crank the output or crank the master????

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

Ask the guy at GC

With the master and output, it is really up to you. Try both and see which you like better.

 

[jbird]

How 'bout the owner's manual? Great tool there! If ya don't have one, reference the Mesa sight and download a manual for your amp! There's a million threads here on tone settings! Also, you could reference some of our settings from the duals and triples! Same thing, basically!

 

[Humbility]

I'll share mine:

1) Chan 2 Modern: (roughly )

Output 2:00
Master 8:00
Presance 9:00
Bass 12:30
Mid 9:00
treble 11:00
gain 11:00 - 12:00

2.a) Chan 1 clean:
output and master stays the same
too all over the place to say its one specific way

2.b) Chan 1 pushed:
presance dimed
bass off
mid off
treble dimed
gain dimed

this was as disgusting as I could get it LOL and I use it for the intro of one of our songs.

 

[Micah]

Welcome to the family Seanzilla! Ive been pretty slammed @ work for the past few days so Im a touch late on responding to this thread, but in case you didnt make it to my thread on "This might help someone" then I wanted to just copy what my findings were thus far in my quest for decoding this great amp: You can go to the tread to hear what people found based off of it if you'd like. Here is the thread:

Hello everyone--
I wanted to drop a line in here and let everyone know what I was able to figure out based off of a few suggestions and some more knob twisitng. Someone said on another thread that the bass knob will affect all frequencies and all of the strings(thank you it rings true!)(even the higher strings)(I hadnt thought of this before being almost a backward thought of what the manual says). This gave me my answer for chunk on the up-strum. Now, in the manual, Mesa says that their knobs are in series from treble-mid-bass, meaning that based on the position of the knob, the treble could lower the potential output of the mid and bass frequencies and the mid to Bass, etc..(thats the truth..I mean they made the amp..they should know!!). With that being said, I would assume(and did assume) that when eq'ing my amp I should irst set the treble to where I want it, and then the mids....bass etc... What I found as a good practice (at least this week )was to actually start with the bass and set it to where I want it first, then Mid...Treble... (START WITH THE PRESENCE ALL OF THE WAY UP!!)What will happen is I can get the bass as thick as I want and then balance out the heaviness in the bottom end with the treble and get my cut from the Mids. At this point I get a decent sound but really not the tight chunk that Im looking for. This is where the Presence comes in nice!! I can sit there and chunk while I turn the presence knob untill I get the chest pounding chunky punch that Im looking for. I realized that the tone controls for the most part are there so you can put in just enough of the frequencies to hear yourself and keeping things balanced and level. At this point I think of the presence as more of a contour knob. When turning the presence down the bass frequency presence is heightened and a looser feel is achieved. As I bring the knob up things start to tighten up and the bottom end is reduced, however, there is a spot in the middle where the bottom end is tightened to the right spot to give you that chunk that your looking for. My expiriences setting these knobs also have been that settings that sound great in your bedroom, dont necessarily sound the best though a PA. By the time I had everything dimed in my room on Tuesday and then played live last night, I realized thay the bottom end coming through the PA was so dominant in my mix that I couldnt hardly hear a single note. I realized that the low frequencies in my smaller room couldnt develop fully and because I couldnt hear them as well in there I kept cranking them up. I ended up backing them down live from wide open to (im still fluctuating) between 12 and 1. I have the mids set about 11:30 and the treble is set to between 11 and 1. My presence I have rocked between 11:30 and 2 depending on the other setting finalizations. Interesting information though!! Thanks for everyones' help and suggestions. I hope this helps someone out there!!

 

[Ken]

Here's some good tones to start with in this section of the website:

http://grailtone.com/tone-settings/mesa-boogie/mesa-boogie-amp-settings.html

 

[seanzilla]

I really appreciate all your help. Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

Post removed.

 

[cellardweller]

Throw in a 'V' shaped EQ in the loop and the sound gets really aggressive.

Just curious, what kind of eq do you use?
I have an old DOD eq pedal gathering dust....

 

[seanzilla]

The only EQ I have is the controls on the single rectifier. Should I be using an external one? What would you want for that EQ?

 

[MesaENGR412]

The $29.99 Danelectro Fish & Chips Eq pedal works great! sounds just as good as my bud's 90 dollar Boss, at least to me.

-AJH

 

[Anonymous]

Post removed.

 

[seanzilla]

especially on Mesas where you can really hurt your amp if you just pull off some dimed Marshall settings

I can hurt my amp with the wrong tone settings???

 

[MesaENGR412]

especially on Mesas where you can really hurt your amp if you just pull off some dimed Marshall settings

I can hurt my amp with the wrong tone settings???

Well, you'll make the amp hurt and your ears hurt because of the sounds coming out of it....I think is what he meant :wink:

-AJH

 

[jbird]

Listen! Read your manual, so I don't have to quote it for you! Your Recto was designed to provide amazing gain and tone at less than extreme settings, removing the need for you to crank everything all the way up. If you are not able to achieve the sound you want at sensible settings on any of the controls, your problem may lie elsewhere in the signal chain, ie. pickups, cabinetry, processing, etc! Personally, I've never felt the need for more EQ than is available, and to the contrary, the Boss GE7 I had actually degraded my tone!
As far as hurting your amp? Back to the manual! Concerning channel 1, when using "pushed" with the gain maxed (5:30), do not run the treble control above 2:30! Settings above 2:30 can create possible oscillation in certain pre-amp tubes in the V-1 position. You can avoid this altogether by setting the treble control sensibly when the gain control is maxed. Use the presense control for additional brightness!
Concerning channel 2: Due to the Recto's extreme gain potential, the highest regions of the gain control may possibly push the pre-amp tubes past what they can handle, producing microphonic squeal! While the tubes are tested, there's no way to predict how they will respond over time exposed to extreme gain settings! You can save yourself the inconvenience of having to deal with annoying microphonic tube problems by simply using a little common sense, Don't Turn The Gain All The Way Up!

 

[PDad]

Listen! Read your manual, so I don't have to quote it for you!

But...then you...quoted the manual... :?:

 

[seanzilla]

How can I get a nice round clean tone, not muffled, and not shrieking. Maybe I am doing something wrong but this amp is not that loud and I can't get a very loud undistorded clean, it breaks up really easily. I'm worried I made the wrong purchase.

 

[PDad]

seanzilla:

Your Solo 50 should be plenty loud--but high settings on the Master and Output controls (higher than 11:00, perhaps?) will lead to more output tube distortion, which won't help you.

I play in a 5-piece band, and we play LOUD. I don't have to turn my master or output above 11:00, but I realize every situation is different.

I use settings on Channel 1 Clean very similar to koprofag's Channel 2 Modern settings. I play a wide variety of music, so I like to have some nice clean tones to go with the great rectifier distortions. My Rect-O-Verb (weird name, but the same amp as yours with reverb) also was not a great clean machine right out of the box. I did have the output transformer changed to a much beefier Mercury Magnetics unit, so that helped a lot, but I found settings that work for me.

With more judicious use of the gain and tone controls, I obtained a very useable, round, clean tone. I keep the gain relatively low, no higher than about the 11:00 position or less, and I don't overdo it on the Treble control, either--perhaps 1:00. These two settings seem to be most important on my amp.

To make things a little more "Fendery," I turn down the mid (8:30 to 9:30) and keep the bass control around 11:00. The presence control stays about the 12:00 position--higher if I need more sparkle.

This works pretty well for me through a Mesa 2x12 3/4 back paired with a Marshall 1960A.

 

[Micah]

Seanzilla--
Some advice for you to take or leave on the clean channel. While I am a bit of a purist and most of the time I will use the old "Marshall" mentality where you just back your volume control off low to achieve a not-so fender-y sparkle, I have occasionally found the need for a nice clean sound. Heres what Ive found with channel 1 on my Triple. First things' first! I was unable to find anything usable(in my opinion) without first turning up the "Output" and backing down the channel 1 master. Right now I have things sensibly set with the output @ noon (straight up) and the clean master @ 9 o'clock. Now TURN THE PRESENCE ALL OF THE WAY UP WHILE SETTING YOUR TONE CONTROLS!! I also have the gain backed down to about 10:30. Now set all of the tone controls @ noon(bass-mid-treble).Then I took the bass knob with the gain set so low and placed it @ 4 o'clock. The mid knob you will most likely find the nicest between 9:00 o'clock and 12(noon). I suggest you pick a "G" note using an alternate picking technique while turning the Mid knob untill the right amount of string grab/punch/depth initially before the presence knob is adjusted. You will find that the presence knob will have more of an effect in this channel with the Mid knob closer to 12(noon). Now take the Treble and turn it up untill you get the desired clarity. I have found that with my Dragon II pickups the top end is a little on the soft or dark side causing the amp to need to make up for the lack of clarity. This is not a problem though with my treble set @ 2-3 o'clock. Depending on the EQ of your pickups and guitar you may just need to pick a note untill you find the right amount of clarity and edge for your ear. With the output volume set higher like this and the gain set lower you shouldnt run into allot of breakup in this channel allowing you to get a nice buttery sound. Last pick a "G" note using an alternate picking technique while turning the presence knob untill you achieve the right amount of string grab/punch/depth for your clean sound. Just remember that the clean channel is all about power amp volume controled by the "Output" knob and lower gain settings in the preamp--in the same breath I will also mention that your Master volume knob for the clean channel will be higher than that of the other chanel(s) due to the reduction in Gain. I find these settings to be quite nice serving my clean needs-try em and let me know if you like them!~~

 

[jbird]

Listen! Read your manual, so I don't have to quote it for you!

But...then you...quoted the manual... :?:

PDad, I don't understand your point here? Maybe if I said "because I'm not going to qoute the manual for you", then your reply might have some justification! On the other hand, excellent advise on the clean settings! May I add, the guitar and pickups can also be of help here! Try the middle position of a humbucker equipped guitar, and humbuckers with coil taps will elicit an even nicer clean tone yet!