What is it about the Rectos?

[Dale B.]

Well, the title of the thread says it all to me. This forum is devoted pretty much solely toward Mesa products and it's a good place. Heck, I've learned a good bit more here myself from the information that some of you guys have been ever so kind to share.

Anyway, I've owned almost everything there is to own out there and I came full circle back to Mesa. I currently own a 3 channel Dual Recto, a Mark IV Medium Head, a Bogner XTC 101B, a Naylor Superdrive 60 and a Fender Twin. The Mesas have stepped back in as my main amplifiers, but I play the XTC a good bit here and there.

I guess I can answer my own question and this is how I would answer it:

It's hard to run away from a good thing.

Dale

 

[Anonymous]

Post removed.

 

[G.I.G.]

I couldn't agree more. There are so many amp manufactures that try to emulate Mesa's. And I'm not just talking about the modeling amps. Companies like Marshall and Peavy even try to play into the Mesa market with Marhsall's Mode Four and the "Fat" mode on the Peavy JSX. If you want the Mesa sound, get a Mesa...bottom line.

 

[SneakyPete]

Dale - how do you like the Naylor? Can you give me a description of what sounds you can get out of it?

 

[Dale B.]

Dale - how do you like the Naylor? Can you give me a description of what sounds you can get out of it?

It's kind of like taking a Fender Tweed Amp and Blending it with a Marshall, but smoothing it out. It has more preamp gain than your typical old school Master Volume Marshall though. It can pull off blues, rock and hard rock. It's not overly saturated or anything like that, yet it does have a good bit of preamp gain.

I would say it compares close to the Bogner, yet it's just a bit brighter. As far as the overall amount of gain on tap, it's pretty close to a Mark IV with it's Gain and Lead Drives turned down on the lead channel.

The voicing of the amp is really nice. The Bass is tight, there are plenty of mids and the highs have this compressed, musical vibe that sound kind of nasal in sense, yet it still sounds great.

I love my Naylor. It's a great amp. If you like Boogies, you would probably like a Naylor. It's a smooth, compressed vibe that sounds great.

The Master Volume on the amp is probably the best Master Volume that I've ever used on an amplifier. The best Master Volumes that I've ever used were the ones on these amps: Naylor Superdrive 60, Roccaforte Amps, Orange AD 140 Twin Channel head (I loved the Volume taper on that amp) and a Diezel VH4 and Diezel Herbert. I would say that the Naylor and Roccaforte sound the best though.

Dale

 

[SneakyPete]

Thanks a lot for the comprehensive review - I'm a big A Perfect Circle fan and I had heard that the guitarist (Billy Howerdell) had used a modded Naylor on the first album. So, I've been interested in getting a better idea of what it can do.

Thanks!

 

[redmax61]

I've only had a chance to play with a couple of the heads that you mentioned. And I tend to stick pretty much to the higher gain stuff. Having said that, The Ecstacy that I played didn't even come even close to the bone crushing tone of the Dual Recto. It was way too vintagy sounding for me. The Uberschall, however . . . that is a thick sounding amp!

Marshall's Mode 4 sounded kinda like a typcal stock Marshall to me. I just didn't think it had enough grunt. I seriously considered a Peavy Ultra Plus at one point in time (the one with the light up logo that changes color depending on what channel you are using). I think they are pretty underesimated amps. Not quite as much crunch as the 5150 or the DR for that matter, but I think it was one of the better sounding amps that Peavey made. BTW, I didn't care for the 5150 because I though it was just too noisy.

Overall, I have to agree with G.I.G. If you are looking for that huge Mesa crunch, get a Mesa!

 

[Dale B.]

Thanks a lot for the comprehensive review - I'm a big A Perfect Circle fan and I had heard that the guitarist (Billy Howerdell) had used a modded Naylor on the first album. So, I've been interested in getting a better idea of what it can do.

Thanks!

Well, Billy actually used the Amp Farm plug in for the first album, but the 2nd album was his Mid 70's Superlead that was modified by Dave Freidman of Rack Systems, INC.. The Superlead has the Naylor Dual Channel preamp installed in it, yet it was tweaked just a tad bit to be more aggressive. Dave called those amplifiers Naked Amps. He actually started producing them at one point. There are only a hand full of them on the North American continent. He basically filled one Japanese distributor's order and he haulted production of them because he didn't have the time.

Dale