Triple Rec Q

[homeunit]

Hey all I'm new around here and have been enjoying reading what fellow boogieheads are saying. Lots of good points.

I haven't read this here before and I was wondering if everybody does this with their recto's FX loop?

I keep it active without any effects running through it and use the output knob, as an overall master. This lets you crank the individual channel's masters and control the overall volume with the output knob.

I've found by doing this the whole amp cleans up a lot. I play everything from 50's style rock all the way up to Killswitch heavy and it works very well in all situations for me.

I run channel 2 and 3 in the vintage mode, and have the variac set to spongy and it's killer. I get guys asking me all the time how I modded my amp. I have it set up to sound like a hot-rodded jcm 800, and to me it sounds better than my old 800 plus it has 3 channels.

The one thing I do not understand about the recto series is the modern mode. I play some pretty heavy music from time to time and I have no idea what the purpose of having that much gain is for? I've seen lots of bands who run rectos and it seems like all of them run in modern mode with the mids scooped right out and the gain cranked and to me it sounds like a terrible buzzsaw :?:

Has anybody hear had any luck getting a killer tone out of the modern voiced setting?

Also what's everybody's thoughts on the tone EL34's in a recto gives you. I haven't tried/heard that yet and it's getting time for a tubing so any input would be appreciated.

John

 

[Micah]

I play a triple and use the modern mode on 2 and 3. The reason I like it is that it has great highs and bottom end so that you can catually scoop out the top and bottom a little instead of scooping the mids as much and then you end up with a huge sounding ballanced and punchy crunch/lead tone. Another thing that I like doing is actually the opposite of what you do with your channel masters and output knobs. What I do is take my channel masters and turn them off, then I take my over all output and put it @ about 1 oclock. Now bring up the channel masters to your desired playing volume. This gives you a nice mid-range punch and screaming sustain that has touch sensative compression and clarity. This can sound a little loud-sounding @ first but you can dial out the nasty frequencies with the B-M-T. This is how I believe the Vintage Hight Gain modes were meant to be run as well--which explains the jump in volume between the modern/VHG modes. :wink: This will help out your clean channel a ton as well!

 

[homeunit]

Cool, I'll try that. With the configuration you're suggesting what is being driven the most? Is it the power section or preamp section? I'm not the most knowledgable when it comes to amp tech stuff so please be patient.

With my old 800 and modded jmp I used to keep the gain low and crank to **** out of the master. With my 5150 I also used to crank the master and keep the preamp gain knob low. I With my recto I thought I was doing to same thing by doing what I described in my first post, is that not the case? I run my channel gains in 2&3 at around 10-11oclock and the channel masters at around 12 oclock. I'm completly confused right now, lol.

I hate fuzzy buzzy and I always thought that the fuzz/buzz came from the preamp and the balls came from the power section? I use mahogany bodied guitars with low output PAF's (Seth's and 59's) and the other has P-90's. I run a Marshall 1960 4x12.

I do run my mids at around 2 oclock, my bass at 10 oclock and my pres and treble around 1-2 oclock.

 

[trendkill1168]

I'd check your preamp tubes as well. If you are running a Mesa tube in V1 it is probably Chinese. I found by swapping in a JJ ECC83 S in the V1 position takes care of that buzz. It is a much smoother tube vs. the Chinese tubes. I actually pulled the rest of my stock preamp tubes and replaced them with Electo Harmonix 12AX7's and run them in the other slots. It sounds much smoother now and I still get tons of gain.

 

[Micah]

Cool, I'll try that. With the configuration you're suggesting what is being driven the most? Is it the power section or preamp section? I'm not the most knowledgable when it comes to amp tech stuff so please be patient.

With my old 800 and modded jmp I used to keep the gain low and crank to sh!t out of the master. With my 5150 I also used to crank the master and keep the preamp gain knob low. I With my recto I thought I was doing to same thing by doing what I described in my first post, is that not the case? I run my channel gains in 2&3 at around 10-11oclock and the channel masters at around 12 oclock. I'm completly confused right now, lol.

I hate fuzzy buzzy and I always thought that the fuzz/buzz came from the preamp and the balls came from the power section? I use mahogany bodied guitars with low output PAF's (Seth's and 59's) and the other has P-90's. I run a Marshall 1960 4x12.

I do run my mids at around 2 oclock, my bass at 10 oclock and my pres and treble around 1-2 oclock.

Think of it like this-- The channel masters are merely an output limiter for the preamp. Your gian is the actual preamp drive or volume for the tone of your preamp and that is limited by the channel masters for channel balancing purposes. So with your master set low, you are still getting the breakup tone of the driven preamp while you get the nice drive and squish of the poweramp being pushed. Dont get me wrong here--there is a ballancing act between the amount of channel vs poweramp but you should be able to get a grat tone that screams and is huge @ a reasonable volume. :wink: