Plugging straight into a Recto and dialing in high gain always makes for a flubby, wooly sound. Absolutely. This is because there is a TON of low end from the guitar that is not filtered away at all, unlike most other high gain amps.
A Recto is basically like a Mark series amp with all the EQ knobs locked on 10, and it also has only 3 GEQ sliders in the form of the Recto’s TMB knobs. No low energy filtering. Think about how bad Marks sound with the TMB knobs all on 10. That’s what a Recto is doing.
What you have to understand is that because there’s basically no low end filtering going into the distortion stages, this means
YOU get to filter away that bass with a pedal and shape the sound EXACTLY how you want it.
Recto plugged straight in = flubby, awful.
Recto with bass cut at the amp’s input to your taste and possibly boosted a bit = tight and thick, possibly one of the best high gain sounds you can get out of ANY high gain amp.
Lots of people use overdrive pedals with Rectos. I’m here to tell you that the pedal’s additional distortion stage doesn’t matter. What matters is the way that overdrive cuts bass. It’s that specific aspect that makes ALL the difference with Rectos.
Here's some examples created by reamping a direct guitar line into the rig:
2020 Mesa Dual Recto Multi Watt, Orange Modern channel, straight in:
2020 Mesa Dual Recto Multi Watt, Orange Modern channel, bass cut with a Boss GE-7 in front:
MEDIA=soundcloud]greatgreen-1/2-mesa-recto-with-boss-ge-7-org-modern
2020 Mesa Dual Recto Multi Watt, Orange Modern channel, bass cut with a Boss GE-7 in front, GE-7's Output boosted to about 12db:
To me those clips don't even sound like they came from the same amp.
Haha, this doesn’t count!
Everything you touch sounds fuckin brutal as hell either way lol.