Stereo Rig with Dual Recto??

The Boogie Board

Help Support The Boogie Board:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Adambomb

Well-known member
Joined
May 11, 2008
Messages
404
Reaction score
0
Location
Western KY
OK, I am wanting to run a stereo rig. I only have 1 Dual Recto and two cabs. Do I have to buy another amp head? Can I just buy another power amp or preamp? Do I use the slave on my DR to another power or preamp?

I have only a hint as to what I need to do. I don't wanna buy another amp head.

Thanks
 
the first important thing is, you need a second poweramp. this could be another head or any 19" poweramp.
to get a matching stereo setup, i would recomend buying a second dual recto.

the second thing is, you´ll need effects which produce a stereo output signal. e.g. G-Major or something like that.

the third thing is, while using two different poweramps, you can become some serious hum problems cause by ground issues. especially if you use two heads.

if you want the recto in stereo, run the signal out of the loop, into a multieffect unit and back from there to the rectos return and another poweramp.
you could use the slaveout as well, but you must not return the signal the the loop return jack! while using the slaveout, send the effect signal to a stereo poweramp. in this case you´ll get a classical wet/dry/wet setup.

a simple way to use a stereo rig is, a preamp (triaxis, quad, studio, recto...), one multieffect unit and a tubepoweramp (2:90, 2:50, fifty/fifty, 2:100, 20/20) - with this setup you´ll have less problems with hum, with matching sounds left and right, less wireing......

i´m using a dual recto and a roadster head in stereo and switch between both preamps, for the effects i use g-major, IPS33B. it wasn´t easy to set it up without hum, matching stereo sound.......took me many hours!
within the last weeks, i got a studio peamp and a fifty fifty and another g-major. never been so easy to setup a stereo rig. and i can carry it away on my own, don´t need a helping hand at all.
 
Man, that's getting into a lot of gear to carry. So should I sell my pedals and get a multi effects unit? I have Boss DD7 and RV5 stereo pedals. I just don't want to get into a bunch of equipment and lugging all that around is bad enough right now. So I need whole separate power amp, and then another preamp?


Which one of these would be best...2:90, 2:50, fifty/fifty, 2:100, 20/20?
 
I agree with joe web. The preamp / power amp method is the easier method for a stereo rig. Unless you want to spend a boatload, obtain a Decimator G rack, a high gain switcher and 2 heads and 2 cabs, high quality wires, a Lehle ABY and on and on... as for the best amp, it depends on how loud you play and which preamp you go with. Sounds like a Recto Recording Pre and one of the new 2:100s would suit your needs very nicely. Read the specs and you'll see why.

I just acquired a Formula Pre and a 2:50 and it's working great! Very nice simple stereo guitar rig. I run a G-Major in the pre's FX loop, an Xotic BB and a Keeley compressor along with a StroboStomp out front. Very minimal hum. Very spacial!
 
its not hard to do, im running a stereo rig with a triple recto and a vht sig-x it all depends on your preferences and your personal taste. sometimes running two different amps gets you the best of both worlds and a mix of two not so similar amps. regardless what you chose your gonna need 2 cabs to really get the stereo effect. from there you have to figure if you want a rack rig or 2 heads. you can easily go pickup a recto preamp and a 2:100 and run it as stereo. or get two heads and either run a a/b/y or run a stereo effects pedal like i do and send your signal to both amps that way. its not very hard but it is expensive and it is alot of gear to lug around... but as we say go big or go home :lol:

there really arent much issues with hum in my rig the important thing of running a stereo rig is having good cables and have one consistant ground path to keep the amp from humming excessively. you can do this by lifting the ground on one amp (if it does hum badly), grab a good noise suppressor like a isp decimator and have a good power supply for your pedals that wont add noise.
 
There is nothing better or any alternative to a stereo rig! 8)

I run a rig with 4 ACE combo's.

I choose one of the preamps for the basic sound (clean/gain/diode/rectifier etc). The 4 pre's with 2 channels give me 8 separate basic sounds (two amps have tubes from other supplier).

Live a PODliveXT is slaved in just for the digital stereo processing of reverb, echoes, flange etc. Yes, there are better processors but for usability and reliability the PODliveXT is sufficient.

The power amps are doing a job to get the adequate volume level. I do not use the EL34 for poweramp gain or other sound modelling, just want to run identical monoblocs which can be leveled in volume separately. The amps are usually running relaxed at a middle power level, the headroom/dynamic is amazing.

If you travel a lot with your stuff why don't you go for one of the mesa stereo amps in rack format. put it into a rack with a FX processor, put your Dual Recto in front (by cable) and modify the cab to stereo - you can always choose 2 cabs later if the venue or stage needs more power. This should be also OK then with 4 pieces for transportation:
- FX/Power rack (with all cable stored inside),
- Dual Recto head,
- cabinet,
- guitars

Once you have the stereo rig virus its hard to find a cure for it :mrgreen:

stay tuned!
 
Man! I think I have been missing out for all these years on a stereo rig. Guess I'll have to shell out some money to get another head. I don't like multi-effects processors.

Could I not just get another power amp and slave it to my DR? Stereo is two signals from separate power amps right?
 
yes n no

stereo means in this case the symmetrical configuration of loud speaker and power amplifiers. therefore try to use the same amp and speaker on both sides. for schematics see it like this:

1 preamp -< 2 poweramps

you need a stereo processor to create the effect. a small stereo stomp box (e.g. stereo chorus, stereo delay etc.) is actually all you need.

plug the guitar directly into the DR, from the send you go into the stomp box, from the stereo out of the stomp box into right and left power amps.

If you want to use the power amp of the DR you can plug the stomp box out there also. like joe web said a second DR would be first choice for this existing rig (because the DR has the same power amp).
 
Adambomb said:
Could I not just get another power amp and slave it to my DR? Stereo is two signals from separate power amps right?
not really, if you run your guitar into one amp, send the signal out of the loop into stereo delay pedal and from there into both poweramps return, and you DON´T have the delay active (what i mean is, you don´t hear any delay effect) you´ll have a mono signal coming out of both poweramps and speakers. in this case you only split the signal to two poweramps and cabs but you don´t get the stereo effect because you don´t use a stereo effect at that moment.
stereo effects are e.g. ping-pong delays, slapback delay on one side, any other kind of stereo delay...., chorus, panning, reverb (but it´s hard to notice as stereo).....harmonizer (e.g. leftside pitched signal, rightside original), detuner (e.g. leftside -6cent, rightside +10cent).....

only if you are using stereo effects, you´ll hear your signal in stereo!

btw. if you are playing in a band with two guitarplayers, forgett about stereo-rigs. in a live situation, you will hardly use it or should i say the FOH-guy will not give you the panning for the real stereo image via the P.A. system.
 
1 preamp.... (Mesa DR), ......2 power amps.. (Mesa DR and another Mesa power amp)


I have a DR head, 2 cabs, Boss Delay and Reverb stereo effects pedals..... So can I just hook up a rack mounted Mesa power amp to my DR?

If so how would it work?

Sorry, I am totally new to hooking up anything in stereo.
 
think about it like a hi-fi system. you can try a test run with any other power amp first (maybe from the bassplayer or other guitarist)

here the signal flow (for the cables):

- guitar into DR1
- loop out into Boss Delay
- Boss Delay out into Reverb stereo effects pedals
- Reverb stereo effects pedals LEFT out into DR1 loop return
- Reverb stereo effects pedals RIGHT out into DR2 loop return (or 2nd poweramp from bassplayer)
- connect each poweramp via speaker cable with one cabinet

Fire up!

set the loop output for best signal level to the Boss Delay, after that you just level both poweramps until they have the same volume.

Look at your hi-fi system - both speaker are the same and both poweramps as well. Try to copy this for your mesa-stereo rig and enjoy the stereo sound.

stay tuned!
 
dean69 said:
think about it like a hi-fi system. you can try a test run with any other power amp first (maybe from the bassplayer or other guitarist)

here the signal flow (for the cables):

- guitar into DR1
- loop out into Boss Delay
- Boss Delay out into Reverb stereo effects pedals
- Reverb stereo effects pedals LEFT out into DR1 loop return
- Reverb stereo effects pedals RIGHT out into DR2 loop return (or 2nd poweramp from bassplayer)
- connect each poweramp via speaker cable with one cabinet

Fire up!

set the loop output for best signal level to the Boss Delay, after that you just level both poweramps until they have the same volume.

Look at your hi-fi system - both speaker are the same and both poweramps as well. Try to copy this for your mesa-stereo rig and enjoy the stereo sound.

stay tuned!

Earlier today I hooked up my bass players amp to my other 4x12 cab. Ran one output of my Boss delay to Recto and then one to the bass players amp. I just wanted to hear how it would sound clean....and it sounded so HUGE!! I gotta get me another head I guess.
 
Stereo is awesome for if you have two amps that you like for seperate things they have. I just went stereo with my own rig and it is the best decision I could have made. By themselves the amps I have sounded good but had one area lacked in. My dual rec didn't have a very good lead tone and my Mark IV didn't seem to have the rhythm tone I was looking for. So I bought an a/b/y box to spit my signal to them both. They worked together perfect. By itself the Mark IV sounded bad on rhythm but with the dual mixed in it sounds awesome.
 
I used to run stereo a lot with a triple and dual rec rig. It sounds great by itself, but in a real live band situation you tend to lose a lot of sound in my opionion. You also run the risk of just being too loud and overblowing your bandmates.

Ive gone back to running a Mesa Subway Rocket and mic it thru the pa. Sounds huge.

Good Luck and keep experimenting to get your tone the way you want.
 
A fake stereo rig would be to take your slave signal out thru a delay unit with about 10-30ms of delay into another amp or power amp to your second cab.

This will give that early Van Halen type sound they used for recording.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top