Is the Dual Rec the new JCM 800?

[Anonymous]

Not in tone but as a marketplace sleeper, and a reliable, timeless ,workhorse?

I remember in the early 90's JCM's could be found in any pawn shop and on consignment for next to nothing ( I bought a mint 50 watter with a mint marshall 2x12 cab for $400 at a local store..it sounded amazing and I never should have sold it)..


the dual rec is sort of in that place right now in my opinion...

not the latest or greatest, but there is a huge amount of these amps in the used marketplace that are readily available, reasonably priced, and always a solid workhorse like the jcm!


and like marshall many think mesa hasn't really produced anything more signature or better since

 

[biggness]

I'd wager the Recto or 5150 has been on used on more metal albums in the last 15 years than any other amp... by far.

 

[some dude]

I think it's the new JCM800 in that it's a distinct sound that defined an era... that a lot of people avoid them because they don't want to be associated with that era, and some people who originally avoided them due to the stigma are now starting to try them for themselves and re-discovering why they were popular in the first place.

 

[reverymike]

Well, workhorse or not, is is a classic (like the 800). Certain amps are just classic, 'standards' for certain kinds of tones.

 

[rottingcorpse]

i sure hope it is. the 5150/6505 series is a great metal amp, and it's out there for cheap used. the rectos are plentiful, and are quickly coming down in value due to the economy. lots of great tone from both and paired together they sound great.

 

[JakeAC5253]

Well if you mean an amp that USED to be a sure bet, but due to more modern economical and "creative" changes, they don't match up to their predecessors that made the line famous.... then yes, the Dual Rec is the new JCM800.

 

[droptrd]

Why yes. Yes it is.....

 

[se7en]

I thought Bugera was....

 

[droptrd]

I thought Bugera was....

I stand corrected

 

[Death by Uberschall]

I say in falls in line with the greats.

Any amp that changes the sound and feel of the current musical scene deserves it's place. The Rectos did that in spades.

 

[fluff191]

I say in falls in line with the greats.

Any amp that changes the sound and feel of the current musical scene deserves it's place. The Rectos did that in spades.

+1

 

[petejt]

Not in tone but as a marketplace sleeper, and a reliable, timeless ,workhorse?

I remember in the early 90's JCM's could be found in any pawn shop and on consignment for next to nothing ( I bought a mint 50 watter with a mint marshall 2x12 cab for $400 at a local store..it sounded amazing and I never should have sold it)..


the dual rec is sort of in that place right now in my opinion...

not the latest or greatest, but there is a huge amount of these amps in the used marketplace that are readily available, reasonably priced, and always a solid workhorse like the jcm!


and like marshall many think mesa hasn't really produced anything more signature or better since

I think that is what Mesa/Boogie intended for the Dual Rectifier in the first place. They wanted to capture a cornerstone of the market, as Marshall did with their amps and in particular the JCM 800. I believe that Mesa/Boogie heavily saturated the market with Dual Rectifiers, pushed them onto artists & music studios, lent them out for free, provided them as backlines for many gigs. Even some of their marketing babble says how nearly every band at Woodstock '99 had a Recto.

Originally the Recto was marketed as an alternative to the JCM 800. And it was originally adapted from a Soldano SLO which was a suped-up modified Marshall...

While the Mark series Mesa/Boogie amps had/ve their niche, they weren't as common as the Marshall JCM amps. They still seem quite exclusive in some odd way. Not "posh" exclusive, just not "run of the mill". I reckon Randall Smith was seething all through the 1980s that the Mark series weren't "run of the mill", so by the end of that decade he set out to go against the Mark series and push the design profusively (sp?) for the following twenty years. Marshall already had nearly 30 years of reputation behind them so Randall had to go harder to claim his stake so to speak. I reckon he went into the nu-metal scene to associate his Recto with it, since that became a big trend, which in part was rejecting the lead sounds of the 1980s (of which the Mark series excel at).


While I do (and actually have) got some cool tones out of a Recto, and heard some good tones out of them, the majority of Recto tones are appalling. They were used in such a stereotypical fashion, that horrid "nu-metal rumble" or that farty burping 'light rock' sound (think Bowling for Soup or Blink 182) which I despise completely. I still remember having arguments about how bad those amps would sound.


I do think that Mesa/Boogie have done better with all their amps in comparison to Marshall over the last 20 years. While I might not like the tones, the innovation and build quality and features have been rather good I reckon. I think the new lunchbox Recto is a great idea.

 

[some dude]

Not in tone but as a marketplace sleeper, and a reliable, timeless ,workhorse?

I remember in the early 90's JCM's could be found in any pawn shop and on consignment for next to nothing ( I bought a mint 50 watter with a mint marshall 2x12 cab for $400 at a local store..it sounded amazing and I never should have sold it)..


the dual rec is sort of in that place right now in my opinion...

not the latest or greatest, but there is a huge amount of these amps in the used marketplace that are readily available, reasonably priced, and always a solid workhorse like the jcm!


and like marshall many think mesa hasn't really produced anything more signature or better since

I think that is what Mesa/Boogie intended for the Dual Rectifier in the first place. They wanted to capture a cornerstone of the market, as Marshall did with their amps and in particular the JCM 800. I believe that Mesa/Boogie heavily saturated the market with Dual Rectifiers, pushed them onto artists & music studios, lent them out for free, provided them as backlines for many gigs. Even some of their marketing babble says how nearly every band at Woodstock '99 had a Recto.

Originally the Recto was marketed as an alternative to the JCM 800. And it was originally adapted from a Soldano SLO which was a suped-up modified Marshall...

While the Mark series Mesa/Boogie amps had/ve their niche, they weren't as common as the Marshall JCM amps. They still seem quite exclusive in some odd way. Not "posh" exclusive, just not "run of the mill". I reckon Randall Smith was seething all through the 1980s that the Mark series weren't "run of the mill", so by the end of that decade he set out to go against the Mark series and push the design profusively (sp?) for the following twenty years. Marshall already had nearly 30 years of reputation behind them so Randall had to go harder to claim his stake so to speak. I reckon he went into the nu-metal scene to associate his Recto with it, since that became a big trend, which in part was rejecting the lead sounds of the 1980s (of which the Mark series excel at).


While I do (and actually have) got some cool tones out of a Recto, and heard some good tones out of them, the majority of Recto tones are appalling. They were used in such a stereotypical fashion, that horrid "nu-metal rumble" or that farty burping 'light rock' sound (think Bowling for Soup or Blink 182) which I despise completely. I still remember having arguments about how bad those amps would sound.


I do think that Mesa/Boogie have done better with all their amps in comparison to Marshall over the last 20 years. While I might not like the tones, the innovation and build quality and features have been rather good I reckon. I think the new lunchbox Recto is a great idea.

I don't think Mesa originally intended the Recto to be what it became. Prior to the Recto they were a boutique company with a successful but niche product line. I think that with the Recto they were hoping to tap a younger crowd and simply made a product to see what would happen. It's easy to see the steps in hindsight, but no one could have predicted turn of the century nu-metal and pop-punk in 1992-1993 when they did most of the changes to the voicing of the amps. I also don't think they purposely re-voiced it to make it more suitable to Grunge... I think it was a fluke that happened when they tried to fix the clean channel so that it was actually useable as a channel switching amp.

On the marketing side I think Mesa lucked out. I can't remember the label name anymore, but they were responsible for a lot of what would become known as "pop-punk". The bands they would sign were usually young and would arrive with amateur gear that would die on tour. In response, the label negotiated deals with Mesa and PRS and as part of the contract would issue a new band a tour ready rig so they could go on the road and support their albums. It's why nearly every pop-punk band seemed to have a PRS and Mesa all of a sudden, and those who didn't typically still had their original guitar with a Mesa backline.

Nu-Metal was never as homogenized as people claim it was. Yeah, there was the Korn/Limp Bizkit Ibanez 7 string+Recto thing going on, and there was the Creed PRS+Recto thing, but there were plenty of bands rocking various Marshalls, Gibsons and other random manufacturers (Peavey, H&K, Splawn, Rivera, Bogner, Randall, etc) that never seemed to acquire the nu-metal stigma.

 

[stephen sawall]

The DR became the new 800 in the 90's ???

 

[thegame]

Yes. To the Recto's credit and I'm talking about the original 2 ch. ones, I don't think I've ever heard an amp have such two different sounding high gain channels. The orange and red channels sounded like two different amps in one chassis. Later Rectos vintage and modern 'modes' weren't nearly as distinctive IMO.

RIP original Recto 1992 - 1998

 

[locoed]

I agree with the Recto being the new 800,even though the Recto was an SLO 100 rip off,they could build them faster than Mike Soldano. When they first came out the dudes at the store would tell me they sound great with tuned down guitars etc.
IMO they are in need of a major overhaul,not that little bit of tweaking they did last year,but a major rebuilding job.
It's still floppy in the lowend,just my 2 cents.

 

[madrigal77]

I'd say it's a tie between the Recto and the 5150.

 

[grunge782]

Pretty much, its between it and the 5150. Honestly I see the timeline for the evolution of the most widely used metal amps going like this--

JCM800 (80's rock/thrash/metal)-->Mesa Boogie Rectifier (90's metal/nu metal/rock)-->Peavey 5150 (2000's metal)-->Axe-FX (djent )

 

[jdel77]

and some people who originally avoided them due to the stigma are now starting to try them for themselves and re-discovering why they were popular in the first place.

This is so true.

 

[311boogieman]

I say in falls in line with the greats.

Any amp that changes the sound and feel of the current musical scene deserves it's place. The Rectos did that in spades.

+1

+2