Tremoverb questions.

[Bmullet00]

Hey guys, Im about to get my first Mesa Boogie its a 2x12 tremoverb and I havent really seen any good videos on it and I have a couple questions, do I need a boost to play Hard Rock/Metal? I wouldnt think so but Ive heard somebody say that and I wanted to know for sure, and whats the difference between the Rectoverb and the Tremoverb, ive heard most like the Tremoverb the best but Im curious as to why. Thanks guys.

 

[domct203]

Hey guys, Im about to get my first Mesa Boogie its a 2x12 tremoverb and I havent really seen any good videos on it and I have a couple questions, do I need a boost to play Hard Rock/Metal? I wouldnt think so but Ive heard somebody say that and I wanted to know for sure, and whats the difference between the Rectoverb and the Tremoverb, ive heard most like the Tremoverb the best but Im curious as to why. Thanks guys.

Welcome!

In many on this board's experience the Tremoverb or TOV is one of the best Rectifier amps made.

In regards to using a "boost", this really depends on so many factors, with personal preference a big one of those factors. For me I use a Mesa Flux-Drive or BB Preamp to help with the overall feel of the amp. I have the gain on the pedal very low, just a little hair on it, and the volume a bit above unity.

The main difference between the TOV and the Rectoverb (ROV) is that the TOV also has tremolo vs just reverb onboard the ROV.

Do yourself a big favor and go download and READ the amp's manual:
http://www.mesaboogie.com/media/User Manuals/Tremoverb.pdf

It will explain all the features of your new amp.

Is this also your first tube amp?

Dom

 

[Elpelotero]

I really don't think you'd need a pedal to play metal on a Rectifier. As mentioned, a boost pedal would be nice for solos. Otherwise, a distortion pedal would be an injustice to the amp. I've seen people do it and I'm left shaking my head.

 

[LesPaul70]

I really don't think you'd need a pedal to play metal on a Rectifier. As mentioned, a boost pedal would be nice for solos. Otherwise, a distortion pedal would be an injustice to the amp. I've seen people do it and I'm left shaking my head.

The distinction between a distortion pedal and an OD pedal is important here.

A distortion pedal, no, definitely not, that would be silly. Like buying a Bugatti and then replacing its engine with a cheap Korean import.

But as for OD pedals...that really depends on which generation and subgenre of metal your ideal metal sound is. Like I've said before, I know more than just one or two metal players who consider the Recto distortion basically unusable for tight metal riffing (80s metal, thrash metal, etc.) without an OD pedal. In this case, you don't use an OD to increase the amount of gain (let alone replace the amp distortion with pedal distortion) but simply to tighten up its gain structure and response by cutting the excess lows.
The typical OD pedal settings in this application would be Drive at zero, Tone near noon or cranked (depending on the pedal and the desired sound), and Volume set to taste. That does change the feel of your amp quite a bit but does not ruin its unique character.

 

[Elpelotero]

I really don't think you'd need a pedal to play metal on a Rectifier. As mentioned, a boost pedal would be nice for solos. Otherwise, a distortion pedal would be an injustice to the amp. I've seen people do it and I'm left shaking my head.

The distinction between a distortion pedal and an OD pedal is important here.

A distortion pedal, no, definitely not, that would be silly. Like buying a Bugatti and then replacing its engine with a cheap Korean import.

But as for OD pedals...that really depends on which generation and subgenre of metal your ideal metal sound is. Like I've said before, I know more than just one or two metal players who consider the Recto distortion basically unusable for tight metal riffing (80s metal, thrash metal, etc.) without an OD pedal. In this case, you don't use an OD to increase the amount of gain (let alone replace the amp distortion with pedal distortion) but simply to tighten up its gain structure and response by cutting the excess lows.
The typical OD pedal settings in this application would be Drive at zero, Tone near noon or cranked (depending on the pedal and the desired sound), and Volume set to taste. That does change the feel of your amp quite a bit but does not ruin its unique character.

Yes, exactly that! Thanks for the more thorough explanation to aid our new Boogie friend.

 

[screamingdaisy]

As mentioned, some people feel it needs to be boosted to be tightened, but in my experience your choice of guitar and pickups contribute to that too. I played for years with EMGs in my guitars and I had zero issues with having a defined attack or tightness, but for whatever reason dudes want to play extreme metal with passive pickups these days and use pedals to compensate.

For hard rock I don't think it needs a boost as some inherent fatness compliments the typically slower riffs.

For metal, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Some guys use a pedal to cut bass and tighten the amp up. I turn down the amp's bass knob.

 

[Bmullet00]

Is this also your first tube amp?

No Ive owned a few others, 5150, JVM205h, but none of them really got the "recto" sound that I really like, so I figured might aswell just get one :lol: and thank you all for answering all my questions, its nice to see a forum as helpful as you guys, and when I said boost I didnt mean distortion I meant something to tighten it up, I have a boost but I was curious as to if I needed it or not. Ill read the manual, thank you!

 

[RR]

Although the ROV looks similar to the ToV there's many features that the ToV has. I'm not too familiar with a ROV but I'll highlight some of the ToV's features:

choice of "Spongy" and "Bold" - lowering the internal voltages.
choice of Silicon Diode rectifier or tube rectifiers. I like to have a choice of either. while other just use the solid state rectifier.
"Channel Cloning" : if you like the Red channel's two modes you could assign one of the mode to the Orange channel.

tremolo, its the only MESA that has tremolo!

The TremoVerb was the predecessor of the Road King. Instead of channel cloning why not 4 independent channels instead of learning how to use the channel cloning feature - lol.