Mesa Rectifier guys: help give me advice

[skoora]

The red modern mode has no negative feedback iirc, hence the huge sound so the presence control isn’t acting like a true presence control.

 

[stephen sawall]

http://pickroar.com/1003/the-tone-stack ... or-humans/

Red the Presence is not negative feedback in the poweramp. The Presence is in the preamp with the rest of the tone stack.

 

[mesa50w]

boost it and a eq in the loop always did the trick for me .. tube rolling as well to fine tune them ..its takes alittle bit of work to find your tone with pretty much all rectos ..but i will say these amps can cover alot of ground doing those few things

 

[cardinal]

I do have a Multi-watt Triple at the house right now too. It's MUCH easier to dial in and does sound and feel better to me. I wouldn't say it really works for me for the low F# either, though. Boosting it makes it tighter but I just don't like what it does to the top three or four strings on my 8-string.

I think the Recto just doesn't work for me. I LOVED the Triple when all I used was 7-strings but giving it a go with the 8-strings has been disappointing. Have to keep searching for something modern that can handle the lower string and still sound natural with the top strings too.

 

[skoora]

You might want to try a preamp into a PA power amp or a pedal or preamp pedal into a bass amp (return of its loop maybe). I remember some guys in the 90’s trying pedals with Mesa 400+’s and similar setups. Maybe something like this would handle the greatly extended range you’re trying to reproduce. I know there’s seven string.org but are there any 8 String players posting somewhere with their rigs and possible clips? I’m a 6 string traditionalist so it’s pure guess work for me. You might need some advice from the horses mouth per se.

 

[cardinal]

Ah ha! It was my pickups.

Put a Fishman Modern Ceramic back into my other PT8 and it is CRUSHING and TIGHT into the Reborn Triple. Man that is a great sound.

The pickup was way to thin and a bit shrill into my Marshalls so I pulled it out and forgot about it. Now my #1 is a Schecter PT8 with Dimarzios that does really well with Marshalls for that hot rod/hard rock type tone. I don’t use the low B or F# strings that often, but I think the Dimarzio/Marshall combo works well enough for the occasional foray into that zone.

So I think for I just end up dedicating a specific guitar (with the Modern Ceramic) to the Recto for the modern metal stuff that uses the low strings more often.

Problem solved.

 

[metal_master]

The biggest factor that tightened up and opened up the sound of my Mesa Dual Rectifier Multiwatt is replacing the mesa 6l6 str440 with JJ 6CA7 power tubes! I cannot not stress this enough. These are not your typical JJs. They have the bottom end of a 6l6 but tighter and add some upper mid grind that is missing from the dual rec.

Also, remove all the stock mesa (rebranded JJ) 12ax7s and only leave one in the phase inverter. Put a tung sol in v1 & v2, Ruby branded 12ax7 (chinese) in v3 and v4.

I replaced the Mesa 5u4g rectifier tubes with JJ GZ34 and now run it in tube rectification mode on the red and orange channels. The GZ34 takes our the sag, makes it almost as tight as solid state mode. The main benefit is that it makes the amp sound warmer.

After all this you need to dial in your amp settings lol.
Bass at 9 oclock
Midrange at 3 oclock (the mids shift to a higher range with the tube change)
Treble 12 - 1 o'clock
Presence almost off
Gain 2 - 2:30.

This combination worked for me. I went from hating this amp to loving it. Do it!

I also use a maxon od808 and mesa 2x12 cab.

I hope this helps someone! It took me 1 year of experimenting and a lot of money spent on different tubes trials to make this amp sound great.

 

[Whatamada]

The biggest factor that tightened up and opened up the sound of my Mesa Dual Rectifier is replacing the mesa 6l6 str440 with JJ 6CA7 power tubes! I cannot not stress this enough. These are not your typical JJs. They have the bottom end of a 6l6 but tighter and add some upper mid grind that is missing from the dual rec.

Also, remove all the stock mesa (rebranded JJ) 12ax7s and only leave one in the phase inverter. Put a tung sol in v1 & v2, Ruby branded 12ax7 (chinese) in v3 and v4.

This combination worked for me. I went from hating this amp to loving it. Do it!

I also use a maxon od808 and mesa 2x12 cab.

I'm assuming that it's stock Mesa 6L6's as well.
I would try switching them for JJ's EL34II or even better, E34L for a more direct attack in tone.
Just make sure that you order tubes from a store/site that's picky when matching tubes, and that you let them now it's for a Mesa Recto.

Best of luck in your efforts

 

[skullfxr]

The biggest factor that tightened up and opened up the sound of my Mesa Dual Rectifier is replacing the mesa 6l6 str440 with JJ 6CA7 power tubes! I cannot not stress this enough. These are not your typical JJs. They have the bottom end of a 6l6 but tighter and add some upper mid grind that is missing from the dual rec.

Also, remove all the stock mesa (rebranded JJ) 12ax7s and only leave one in the phase inverter. Put a tung sol in v1 & v2, Ruby branded 12ax7 (chinese) in v3 and v4.

This combination worked for me. I went from hating this amp to loving it. Do it!

I also use a maxon od808 and mesa 2x12 cab.

I'm assuming that it's stock Mesa 6L6's as well.
I would try switching them for JJ's EL34II or even better, E34L for a more direct attack in tone.
Just make sure that you order tubes from a store/site that's picky when matching tubes, and that you let them now it's for a Mesa Recto.

Best of luck in your efforts

I love E34L's in my recto. I have to get some 6ca7's to try some day though.

 

[metal_master]

The biggest factor that tightened up and opened up the sound of my Mesa Dual Rectifier is replacing the mesa 6l6 str440 with JJ 6CA7 power tubes! I cannot not stress this enough. These are not your typical JJs. They have the bottom end of a 6l6 but tighter and add some upper mid grind that is missing from the dual rec.

Also, remove all the stock mesa (rebranded JJ) 12ax7s and only leave one in the phase inverter. Put a tung sol in v1 & v2, Ruby branded 12ax7 (chinese) in v3 and v4.

This combination worked for me. I went from hating this amp to loving it. Do it!

I also use a maxon od808 and mesa 2x12 cab.

I'm assuming that it's stock Mesa 6L6's as well.
I would try switching them for JJ's EL34II or even better, E34L for a more direct attack in tone.
Just make sure that you order tubes from a store/site that's picky when matching tubes, and that you let them now it's for a Mesa Recto.

Best of luck in your efforts

I love E34L's in my recto. I have to get some 6ca7's to try some day though.

E34Ls are good. 6CA7s sound even better as they retain the 6l6 sound as well as add the upper mid grind.

 

[metal_master]

The biggest factor that tightened up and opened up the sound of my Mesa Dual Rectifier is replacing the mesa 6l6 str440 with JJ 6CA7 power tubes! I cannot not stress this enough. These are not your typical JJs. They have the bottom end of a 6l6 but tighter and add some upper mid grind that is missing from the dual rec.

Also, remove all the stock mesa (rebranded JJ) 12ax7s and only leave one in the phase inverter. Put a tung sol in v1 & v2, Ruby branded 12ax7 (chinese) in v3 and v4.

This combination worked for me. I went from hating this amp to loving it. Do it!

I also use a maxon od808 and mesa 2x12 cab.

I'm assuming that it's stock Mesa 6L6's as well.
I would try switching them for JJ's EL34II or even better, E34L for a more direct attack in tone.
Just make sure that you order tubes from a store/site that's picky when matching tubes, and that you let them now it's for a Mesa Recto.

Best of luck in your efforts

I don't need to try other tubes. I've found what I like. Only other important thing is amp settings. Bass at 9 o'clock, presence very low almost off, and midrange high at 3 o'clock.

 

[Whatamada]

The biggest factor that tightened up and opened up the sound of my Mesa Dual Rectifier is replacing the mesa 6l6 str440 with JJ 6CA7 power tubes! I cannot not stress this enough. These are not your typical JJs. They have the bottom end of a 6l6 but tighter and add some upper mid grind that is missing from the dual rec.

Also, remove all the stock mesa (rebranded JJ) 12ax7s and only leave one in the phase inverter. Put a tung sol in v1 & v2, Ruby branded 12ax7 (chinese) in v3 and v4.

This combination worked for me. I went from hating this amp to loving it. Do it!

I also use a maxon od808 and mesa 2x12 cab.

I'm assuming that it's stock Mesa 6L6's as well.
I would try switching them for JJ's EL34II or even better, E34L for a more direct attack in tone.
Just make sure that you order tubes from a store/site that's picky when matching tubes, and that you let them now it's for a Mesa Recto.

Best of luck in your efforts

I love E34L's in my recto. I have to get some 6ca7's to try some day though.

E34Ls are good. 6CA7s sound even better as they retain the 6l6 sound as well as add the upper mid grind.

Never tried the 6CA7.
Is it a direct replacement for a 6L6?

I've tried another "middle-land" tube between 6L6 and EL34, the KT77.
I really liked those, but in my experience the work better in some amps and not at all in others.
Hard to say how they'll handle the Recto.

 

[metal_master]

The 6CA7 are a direct replacement for el34 tubes not 6l6. The mesa dual rec has a 6l6/el34 switch. You must select el34, otherwise they will run way to cold.

6CA7 sound closer to a hybrid 6l6/el34 than the kt77. 6ca7 is bigger and tighter in the bass, fuller in the lower mids with upper mid grind. Kt77 is much brighter in the top end and has a looser rounder bass

 

[stephen sawall]

I used 6CA7 in my Tremoverb for almost twenty years. I've been using 6L6 for the last five years. I never liked EL34 in the amp much. I guess they are okay if your playing blues. Too thin for the heavy stuff. KT77 lasted less than a month. ....obviously the entire rig effects the outcome. I'm using Sylvania 6L6 and a full stack.

 

[skullfxr]

I like the E34L's in my tremoverb. I did not like EL34's at all. I like Svetlana 6L6's but have not tried them in a mesa.

 

[metal_master]

I used 6CA7 in my Tremoverb for almost twenty years. I've been using 6L6 for the last five years. I never liked EL34 in the amp much. I guess they are okay if your playing blues. Too thin for the heavy stuff. KT77 lasted less than a month. ....obviously the entire rig effects the outcome. I'm using Sylvania 6L6 and a full stack.

I agree with you and had similar experiences with tube types. I liked mixing a pair of Svetlana Winged C 6l6 with a pair of Mesa 6l6 Str440. That was the best 6l6 sound I ever had, more open. The JJ 6CA7 still sound better.