Mesa Badlander 50 vs Rev E/F Dual Rectifier Video

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Bad.Seed

Bad.Seed

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Finally got some time to edit this one together!

My buddy was generous enough to loan me his rev E/F Dual Rec, Serial #617 for the week to shoot a couple videos with! I'm a lucky dude to have good friends.

I've never extensively played any early revision rectifiers, but I can say that they are WAY more tight than the Rev G's I had. Way more up my alley.

The Orange channel was killer, and I found myself really enjoying playing it. If you know me, enjoying playing rectifiers isn't really something that happens for me often, so this was a fun change of pace!

 
Digging the Rev F better as well. The badlander has a certain honk that I don't quite dig, personally.

Great demos, man. I dig your stuff.
 
Damn, hard to say which I prefer, but it might be the Rev F on the orange channel, followed by the Badlander. That’s close though. The Rev F red channel doesn’t do it for me at all. It’d be killer if you compared the Rev F to a multi-watt while you have it on your hands.

Shockwave was sadly forgotten classic as far as I’m concerned, I’ll have to check out Human Animal.
 
Beyond Black said:
Another killer video. You’re on fire, bro. I’ll take the F, but the Badlander sounds awesome as well. I can see the 100 watt in my future. Do you think that maybe you can do a vid shirtless? Asking for Maleman. :emofag:
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Gotta work off the 800 Christmas cookies I've consumed this week first. Sorry boyz
 
Rex Rocker said:
Digging the Rev F better as well. The badlander has a certain honk that I don't quite dig, personally.

Great demos, man. I dig your stuff.
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Appreciate that man! Hopefully they're helpful.
 
Spaceboy said:
Damn, hard to say which I prefer, but it might be the Rev F on the orange channel, followed by the Badlander. That’s close though. The Rev F red channel doesn’t do it for me at all. It’d be killer if you compared the Rev F to a multi-watt while you have it on your hands.

Shockwave was sadly forgotten classic as far as I’m concerned, I’ll have to check out Human Animal.
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I had to give the amp back yesterday so he could use it for practice, but I can get it back any time. I let him use my Friedman JJ100 for a couple weeks when they recorded their full length, so he's still indebted to me for amp borrowing. Haha!
 
I watched this yesterday, great video. You’ve had some great comparisons lately.

for me I would stick with the older recto but I’m a recto fanboy who loves that huge wall-of-sound. I just love how I can use a really tight boost like a tc integrated preamp and get a razor sharp attack, but it still has a low end that sounds like a natural disaster. The badlander seems like it’s moved away from that and is more of a recto for people who don’t like the traditional recto sound (which is a good business move as it’s a divisive sounding amp).

it seems like modern mode vs crush mode is where the big differences are at least in recording. The old rectos accomplished modern mode by disconnecting negative feedback in the power amp and changing the presence knob to a high-cut in the preamp, so you get huge, loose, resonant bass, and sharp, fizzy highs. Very highly influenced by the cab used. Sounds like there is less of this in badlander crush mode so I’m guessing there is still negative feedback in that mode.
 
mnemonic said:
I watched this yesterday, great video. You’ve had some great comparisons lately.

for me I would stick with the older recto but I’m a recto fanboy who loves that huge wall-of-sound. I just love how I can use a really tight boost like a tc integrated preamp and get a razor sharp attack, but it still has a low end that sounds like a natural disaster. The badlander seems like it’s moved away from that and is more of a recto for people who don’t like the traditional recto sound (which is a good business move as it’s a divisive sounding amp).

it seems like modern mode vs crush mode is where the big differences are at least in recording. The old rectos accomplished modern mode by disconnecting negative feedback in the power amp and changing the presence knob to a high-cut in the preamp, so you get huge, loose, resonant bass, and sharp, fizzy highs. Very highly influenced by the cab used. Sounds like there is less of this in badlander crush mode so I’m guessing there is still negative feedback in that mode.
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I get that for sure man! It really seems this amp was built to win over people who don't like certain qualities the rectifier has always possessed, and isn't really meant to be a replacement for any of the others in the series.

If that was Mesa's intent, I'd say they nailed it, as I love the amp and I've never been a huge rectifier fan! Haha. Agreed with your points on the differences between modes.
 
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bandit2013Triple RectoPosts: 3153Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2013 8:31 amLocation: North CarolinaContact:
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Re: Mesa Rectifier Badlander
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  • Post by bandit2013 » Sun Dec 20, 2020 11:16 am
    I got mine last day in November.
    Nice amp. I did compare this to the Multi-watt Dual Rec. Very similar but different. Sub-harmonic content has been reduced considerably. Still has plenty of low end to get the job done. I would not have noticed this if it was not for the Badlander. When I compared the MWDR to the Roadster, thought they fixed the low end drone. Also tried running 6L6 tubes (SRT440 grey which is the same color code in my MWDR), thought they sounded lame when comparing to the MW with the same tubes. EL34 perform much better in the Badlander. Just my opinion. Running both amps (Badlander and Multi-watt Dual Rec) is amazing. This new amp has not taken away any desires to run the Multi-watt Dual Rec or even the Roadster. It is different but with some similarities. I find the crunch voice on the Bad to sound similar to the Modern voices on the other two. Some have compared it to the vintage voice. Crush is one step further into compression, which is lacking in the other Rectifier amps. Midrange content is there in a musical way. The other two have more of a scooped tone. Also tried the variac power mode which does bring the Bad closer to that of the Multi-watt on the bold power setting. Most important, the tone stack is also different. Bass, Midrange and Treble actually do something, they do not appear to be dependent on one another. Presence control is also more reactive. Yes, the Badlander will fit onto the vertical 212 cab. Shell is basically the same as the TC series but without the reverb tank. That is about all of what is similar to the Triple Crown except for Mesa tubes installed. Transformers are different, not the same numbers as found in the MW or TC. Comparing the Bad to the TC, there is non. TC sound thin in comparison and that is with the TC red channel vs crunch or crush on the bad. Feedback and harmonic characteristics is very similar to the JP-2C but darker in some characteristics. I have run the JP-2C in tandem with a Marshall Silver Jubilee JCM2555x reissue, now that was something I thought would be unique. Not anymore as that is what I feel the Badlander sounds like in crush voice. JP-2C + TC-100 would be a similar comparison to the Badlander (for those who get offended when a different brand of amp is mentioned). Have not found any issues with the FX loop either. I have not tried any instrument level pedals though, I tossed all of that gear after I got the Mark V 90w as it was not compatible. I now use Strymon stuff in my loops, in addition to two or three boss pedals (Boss DD-200, Boss EQ-200, Terra echo TE2, Strymon: BigSky, BlueSky, Brigadier, DIG, Volante). I still have a tone sucking delay pedal (Line6 DL4) that does not work in the Mark V but does ok with the TC and JP-2C. I should pull that out of its little coffin and see it if it sucks or performs well as it is an instrument level pedal based on what specifications I could find. Interesting amp, something new but familiar. Not very hard to dial in, no decoder ring needed. I personally would get the 100w model. Bigger iron goes a long way even with the 50W and 20W power modes. That 20W power is no lame duck either. The 50W is almost the same as the 100W with one exception, there is more saturation at the 100W power than at 50W. Will need to explore this more at gig levels. I have not been pushing my hearing threshold lately. Don't expect the Badlander to be a duplicate of the Rectifier amps, it is not, similar yes, identical no. If there was such a scale to gauge where the Badlander sits in the tone farm, based on the amps I have, the Roadster would be to the far left (in terms of darkness and sub harmonic content). Mutli-watt would be next but not at the same location. Badlander, then JP-2C, TC then Mark V. I put the MarkV90 in its location due to its ice pick issues and upper midrange peak in tone. This may be exaggerated to some extent.
    Bass amp------------RDSTR------MWDR-----BAD----------------JP-2C---------RA100-----TC100---TC50----------------------MKV90----------Crash Cymbals
 
Nice vid. E/F for me; but the Badlander is much better to my ears than a dual G.
 
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