Trip Rect.

[Vaeth]

Hey all, let me give you some background info:

I have been playing for about 8 years now.
After playing various guitar roles for 4 years in a genre I didn't necessarily enjoy,
I'm looking to start a band of my own
I want to start a thrash/deathrash band

So now that that's out of the way, I decided I had to upgrade my gear, as my previous amp was an MG100R and it just wasn't producing a good enough tone for me. I decided if I was getting a tube head, I'd go balls to the wall and get top tier one cause in the long run it would save me money building up to it. I asked a lot of store clerks and named one band in specific each time: Testament. They said Mesa Boogie was the sound that defined thrash in the 80s, so I looked into that. After testing out the Mesa Triple Rectifier for a couple hours, I decided this was the amp I wanted. So powerful and Sodom, Exodus, and Megadeth songs sound fantastic on it. In addition, I went to Kreator/Overkill last year and saw Warbringer's John Laux using a Mesa rectifier series.

My question is now this: I have an ESP with EMG pickups and my Triple Rectifier has 6L6 tubes. I'd like to know if I can get a really modern thrash tone out of it, we're talking like Dark Roots of The Earth album, Exhibit B, IV Empires Collapse, etc. You see, I live in an apartment, and after the 3rd or 4th complaint I got, I stopped using it, covered it up, and started looking for a house, so I haven't had a chance to tweak the sounds since the first time I set it up months ago. Also a lot of people are saying it's the wrong amp on the internet to other people, but how can that be if they defined thrash tone? Metallica used dual Rectifiers for Master of Puppets album, and Battery is one of my favorite songs by them, and I got some nice tones out of them. I labeled my channels

Channel 1: Harvester of Sorrow [Clean]
Channel 2: Hangar 18
Channel 3 Sodom
Solo: Painkiller

To reference an idea of what the tones sounded like.

Anyway, you guys got any insights? Also if someone could tell me how to remove tubes for a routine clean/dusting of the head, I would appreciate that haha

 

[ryjan]

Metallica used Mark amps for MOP and later albums. Rectos didn't hit the scene until the early 90's.

 

[Vaeth]

Ugh.. Wikipedia -.-

Thanks for the clarification though

 

[Shredd6]

Probably the biggest reason people are saying that you have the wrong amp for it is because typically 6l6 models are a little sluggish compared to el34 amps.

There's nothing wrong with your amp choice. It'll do great in fact. You just need to experiment with it a little, and be prepared to tube it to be what you're after. Modern preamp tubes don't have the type of treble you need for that amp. 90% of them will make that amp sound thick on Bass.

Most metal players I've run across don't know **** about tone. I've heard the most incredibly shitty trebly, mid scooped, added tube screamer, crap come out of a lot of the wanna be metal players thinking they have it right. What they're trying to emulate is the compression and eq tweaking that gets used during recording and mastering that never came out of the amp being recorded at the time.

Ever see a real metal band live? Ever notice how much thicker they sounded than their album?

The bottom line is, guitars are meant for mid frequencies. Your Mesa has more than enough. Secondly, you don't need a tube screamer in a high gain amp. It's always been bad advice. There's no benefit to it. Your Mesa has more than enough gain to kick. If you want one to kick channel 2, I could understand that. But using one in channel 3 is ridiculous.

Grab some good EL34s for the power section and remember to flip the switch for that. That will give the amp a tighter response to fast picking. Then grab yourself a good RFT ecc83 for V1 of your preamp. They have a nice early breakup and an extremely good compressed sound. After that, I would slowly start stocking up on Amperex or Mullard for other gain stages. They have complex treble characteristics you won't find in modern preamp tubes.

My best advice is to utilize your tube section wisely. Do that, and you'll be able to shut up anyone who says it's not a good metal amp. I used a Dual Rec religiously in the early 2000's and it blew away most any other amp I came across.

And lastly, don't listen to those weenies who want to steer you into sounding like a dying squealing rabbit being smashed into a wall of chainsaws. Use your mids.

There are videos on youtube for doing tube changes. Just remember the tubes have notches for making them go in right. To take them out, you don't unscrew them, you just give them a light wiggle and pull up. For the power tubes, spread the clips apart at the bottom, then wiggle them out. Do the same to put them in and make sure they're all the way in and sit flat. It's that easy.

 

[TRENCHLORD]

Marks and Marshalls defined the 80's.
Rectifiers sound amazing for playing all the 80's classic metal styles IMO. Not quite as edgy and urgent (even when running el34), but more refined and depthful.

For the modern extreme-metals I highly suggest using a boost in front of the amp if you want a more compressed (evened out, smoother) pick attack.

A clean-booster, EQ pedal, EMGs, EMG's w/pa2 added boost, and overdrives are the most common tools.
You can use the overdrives as "signal boosters" by running their gain at 0, tone near neutral/noon, and level/output at max or near max.
Even at those settings most overdrives still add that slight compression that makes the strings feel more sensitive. (some would say less sensitive, meaning less dynamic)
Orange channel works better than the red with a boost on all the main rectifier models IMO.
For some reason red channel isn't quite as scooped sounding on the single#2 I have, it really loves the 808 and maxon 9's.

Personally I don't like an EQ in the loop with rectifiers. They already have so much sweep anyways with their tone knobs. They can sound massive as a booster out front though.
Just push-up the mids several dbs where you want them to thicken-up, and leave the outside sliders near 0/neutral.