Rig-Talk

Soldano Avenger with SLO Transformer - 6L6s
Mesa Boogie 3ch Triple Rectifier - 6L6s
Diezel Herbert - EL34s

I ran everything with 2 Bogner OS212s, one loaded with EVM12Ls, the other with v30/75 & an Avatar OS1x12 loaded with a Black Label EVM12L.

Features:



Soldano Avenger with SLO transformer

This amp is pretty much as minimum as it gets. Absolute lack of features, to the point that very few will be able or would like to use it live. I find an amp with no loop in 21st century bordering with ridiculous personally.


Mesa Triple Rectifier

Abundance of features here, so many that I find it overwhelming & in some cases differences are so subtle that they could as well not be there. With all that this amp lacks one very important knob - deep/depth, call it what you like. If there is nobody offering such a modification, then there should be someone, it will turn this thing into a monster.


Diezel Herbert

Great features, top notch loop & midi on top of that.



Sound:



Avenger

For recording this single channel amp has amazing versatility. Working with this amp was weird for me; I had to roll the highs all the way down & boost the presence a lot for it to sound the way I wanted it to sound. It doesn’t really have great clean cleans, but other than that you can go from blues to sheering metal with no problem. The sound remains defined even if you crank the gain all the way up, that said I thought 1:00 gain was already a blasting metal sound. A great head for leads(sustain FTW!), rock, metal, blues, you name it. What I found it lacking was the balls in its power section compared to the other two & that broad frequency range that Diezels deliver. It reminded me more a mix of Bogner 101b & Uberschall Blue revision’s power amps, not bad at all, but, when you fire up something like a Herbert, you enter a different realm. Overall the voicing had a lot in common with Triple Rec, but sounded much better to my ear. How much is it close to an actual SLO? Only Soldano can tell. I personally was able to get all the tones I've heard recorded with a SLO with this thing.


Triple Rectifier

The cleans are alright, nothing special, but any cleans are better than no cleans at all. Bunch of different settings on all the 3 channels here, many things can be played with it, but in all honesty I found this amp most suited for rock/alternative styles, great sounds can be had. It delivered metal tones, but they were always missing something, they were missing that depth knob that is found on the Avenger; run the CH2+ Herbert after this & find the metal mayhem, you probably won’t go back to the Mesa again. That said, if you want a double amp rig, these two together can peel the paint off the walls. This is not a low volume scenario I’m talking about, I had the thing all the way up on 2-3:00 master & all I could think of was if only it had that depth thing it would deliver some real magic. This amp is loose; vintage mode kind of sounds too vintage, modern mode brings some pretty decent tightness to it, but it scoops the tone too much. There were some settings here that reminded a lot of the sound of Bogner Uberschall. Ch3 sounded like more compressed ch2. I liked the power section on this thing, it thumps! Overall I found this a great head for gigs & a great buy for the price.


Diezel Herbert

Let me tell you that I’ve become a hard headed Herbert fan, so you can keep reading my biased opinion or not. I kept trying amps, I still do & I yet have to find something that comes close. This amp has gorgeous cleans, I don’t know how can one not like them. CH2- is an undiscovered magic in this amp, phenomenal for leads; I do clean boost it or/and use a volume pedal with it very often though; just run a clean boost in front of it & discover the magic. This channel has great sensitivity, beautiful grit, warmth, etc etc. Compared to Soldano leads it doesn’t have that much sustain, but it has the soul that Soldano lacks, it breaks up at lower frequencies rather than Soldano’s hi-mid tube breakup. To each his own, but I didn’t find it having less attack or sensitivity than the Soldano, in fact it’s more difficult to play than the Soldano. Go to CH2+ & do more, including the sheering metal tones Herbert is famous for; a little gain or plenty of it – it still thumps like no other amp, what a power section! punishing experience! CH3 is more gainy version of CH2, it has more thick midrange & more low end. Diezel amplifiers seem to deliver broader frequency response on both ends, I’ve felt this running all different amp heads with EVM12L speakers, which have extended frequency response; I don’t know what delivers it in Diezel amps, but it’s there.

Thank you for the reviews.

Putting a depth nob on a Dual Rectifier is not hard to do.

Long live the Herbert!!!

If you've still got the chance, try this out: channel 3 Modern with the presence literally off. Leave bass around noon then turn up mids and treble to taste, both probably past 1:00. I have a hard time believing an amp can have more balls than this should deliver. What I find is that running the presence control up even a little makes the amp extremely loose and throws in some nasty highs. Anyway, if you get the chance, let me know if you like it!

The Triple Rec is long gone & I've never really missed it. I do miss the VH4 though.

Haha, yeah. The Mesa gear seems to disappear quickly when the Bogners & Diezels show up....

I don't think Mesa makes a bad amp at all, but the biggest difference to me is that my Bogners just feel so much better!

time to get another VH4!!

I'm thinking about it!

How would one put a depth knob on a Rec. I have a Single Rec series 2.

Peace!

Welcome to this forum .... I spend more time here than all the rest

I found out since then the Red channel on the DR not having any negative feedback .... it can not be done. Maybe on the Orange channel ? I was talking to Mike Soldano about putting one on my Tremoverb ... but that was before I found out this. On most amps it is pretty simple and only a few dollars in parts.