What is the most coveted & collectable Recto? ever.

[little-b]

Please forgive my ignorance -to the recto fanatic),I thought I'd try to help out a local recording studio buy one.(plus I'll get the session work with it)....but what is thee most desireable,collectable, valuable, best in tone-modded or not recto? A dual or triple I'm assuming? Hoping there's an easy answer to this. Money no issue.

 

[YellowJacket]

Most coveted and collectable Recto: Dual Recto Revision C ( 2 channel '92) Problem, the clean is terrible.
The best old Recto: Dual Recto Tremoverb.
Best Recto (In my opinion): Dual Recto Reborn. It is the most versatile with a tighter and brighter tone. It also has more cool options and a fantastic updated clean tone.

 

[little-b]

May I ask are any of these locatable, obviously with time and patience?...about what year is an "old tremoverb"?...and since we can crank the heck out of an amp in the studio,does that add the triple rec to the search?

 

[Elpelotero]

Generally speaking, anything made around the years 1992-1993 are considered their best in terms of raw tone. Afterwards, the tone is still good, but they begin to add lots of extras. Think of it like drinking coffee. You can have a pure black colombian fresh ground bean espresso, or you can have a starbucks with cream and sugar. They both taste like coffee, and tasty, but one is more aggressive than the other.

 

[JCDenton6]

Generally speaking, anything made around the years 1992-1993 are considered their best in terms of raw tone. Afterwards, the tone is still good, but they begin to add lots of extras. Think of it like drinking coffee. You can have a pure black colombian fresh ground bean espresso, or you can have a starbucks with cream and sugar. They both taste like coffee, and tasty, but one is more aggressive than the other.

+1, gotta love a guy who uses a coffee analogy to describe amp revisions! :lol:
Having a cup as I type :mrgreen:

 

[Daxman73]

Generally speaking, anything made around the years 1992-1993 are considered their best in terms of raw tone. Afterwards, the tone is still good, but they begin to add lots of extras. Think of it like drinking coffee. You can have a pure black colombian fresh ground bean espresso, or you can have a starbucks with cream and sugar. They both taste like coffee, and tasty, but one is more aggressive than the other.

Priceless! Great analogy.

 

[Elpelotero]

Working too many hours, guys. I guess coffee is subconsciously on my mind. To the original poster, I can help you with meticulous details if you need more info.

 

[siggy14]

It really depends on what sound you looking for, the 92-93 recto is better for leads where the revision G and later are better for rhythm, honestly any one is a good choice, but if I was you I would find an RKI, best of everything.

 

[JCDenton6]

Working too many hours, guys. I guess coffee is subconsciously on my mind. To the original poster, I can help you with meticulous details if you need more info.

I hear ya, I think I drink more coffee than water these days :shock:

I agree with Elpelotero about anything from 92-93 being regarded as the "holy grail" of rectos.
I'd say try them all if you can and see which one has the biggest wow :shock: factor to you.

 

[Elpelotero]

Working too many hours, guys. I guess coffee is subconsciously on my mind. To the original poster, I can help you with meticulous details if you need more info.

I hear ya, I think I drink more coffee than water these days :shock:

I agree with Elpelotero about anything from 92-93 being regarded as the "holy grail" of rectos.
I'd say try them all if you can and see which one has the biggest wow :shock: factor to you.

Watch out for those kidney stones!

 

[noodles]

It really depends on what sound you looking for, the 92-93 recto is better for leads where the revision G and later are better for rhythm, honestly any one is a good choice, but if I was you I would find an RKI, best of everything.

+1

That Rev C you had sounded absolutely amazing for leads, but it sucked for pretty much everything else. Nothing wrong with that, since I thought of it as a SLO100 (great studio amp), but I need something more versatile live. Of course, I'd be curious to know how much of that is the output transformer; those amps used the same buggy transformer that was in the Mark IIc+, so it's like playing through a ticking time bomb.

For me, the best overall Recto is the first generation Road King. The cleans are the best of the Recto line, and ch4/modern is every bit as vicious as ch3/modern of a Triple. I always though the three channel Duals were the worst.

 

[little-b]

Thanks guys! Awesome info...boy if this doesn't make ya sick..a buddy of mine had a 92 and a 93 dual...then sold em off for other stuff...probably unaware of their value....I have access and some connections to some folks that can dig up the rare stuff...(they just found me an original full Rockman stack w/ 2 heads fully loaded).. so hopefully if I give em some info they can help me land some good recto gear for this studio...I guess one question is how do u date the rectos and where is the version markings?..in the meantime we could easily grab a reborn and tremoverb then hunt for the rarer stuff.

 

[little-b]

Would there be any tonal differences in a R-003647 or R-005713 tremoverb? just curious....(im 9 hrs from these 2 amps)..cant try em

 

[webrthomson]

Thanks guys! Awesome info...boy if this doesn't make ya sick..a buddy of mine had a 92 and a 93 dual...then sold em off for other stuff...probably unaware of their value....I have access and some connections to some folks that can dig up the rare stuff...(they just found me an original full Rockman stack w/ 2 heads fully loaded).. so hopefully if I give em some info they can help me land some good recto gear for this studio...I guess one question is how do u date the rectos and where is the version markings?..in the meantime we could easily grab a reborn and tremoverb then hunt for the rarer stuff.

The version for all dual channel rectos is marked on the PCB, which is just as well as there is a fair amount of myth and folklore about the revisions and the numbering - there are also other give away factors for an early recto, namely serial loop, attached power cord etc.

Would there be any tonal differences in a R-003647 or R-005713 tremoverb? just curious....(im 9 hrs from these 2 amps)..cant try em both

Should be minimal (other than the tremolo) a both were built round the revision G version of the recto.

TBH - I'd try them till you find one you like - I've got R189 which is a revision C and it's great for some things and sucks for others - like most Mesa hype there is a grain of truth but the drawback is that it really is a one trick pony. That trick is being a simply awesome lead amp and that it does well, but the clean is awful (actually unusable) and the rhythm and the leads sounds can't really be dialled in at the same time. So for recording its fine but for gigging you would need to bring two more amps

Yes Mesa started to add stuff to the amps in the later (and three channel) amps - stuff that gigging guitarists were screaming out for - you know like a clean that they could use, a rhythm channel and a lead channel that could be set independently etc.

Best of luck with your search!

 

[webrthomson]

Number 242 is on ebay now - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mesa-Boogie...269?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ec37e88b5