SLO vs. the ripoff Rev C Dual Recto- Have you actually played them both?

Purity said:
Relax. Nobody is saying any of that. This thread is about the ludicrous claims of it sounding like a recto. I've never understood any of that and others who have experience with both amps will tell you the same. The SLO is killer and responsible for the birth of some of the best high gainers out in the market today.
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My own experience is that I have both SLO and rev G Dual Rec side-by-side plugged into an amp switcher. When you switch from one to the other at volume into the same cab (a stack of old marshall cabs at the moment), they're not that far off. Yeah. I said it : "Not that far off.". It's even very, very surprising the first time you experience it. At least it surprised me when I bought the amp switcher about 20 years ago. I thought at first the switcher was defective or something else was amiss in the signal path. LOL. It's "a bit" different. The difference being largely overblown when you read intarweb forums. Not to mention that the SLO has a huge low-end when plugged into the OS recto cab. Even more surprising is when switching between the SLO crunch channel and a 2203 (from 82). One with wafer base Sovtek 5881 and the other with winged C EL34. Should sound totally different by all accepted guitar boards standards. Both fed with a SD-1. Most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. At least most of my guitarist friends can't tell. It's so different that after a few minutes, you need to check the switcher leds to make sure what amp you are actually playing. LOL
 
scottosan said:
They are very alike in the preamp. The main difference is in the power section. They lifted the design no doubt. To me they sound different as well, but ultimately it’s about the mix and in a mix the SLO will cut so much better than the Mesa
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…..no
 
Jack Luminous said:
My own experience is that I have both SLO and rev G Dual Rec side-by-side plugged into an amp switcher. When you switch from one to the other at volume into the same cab (a stack of old marshall cabs at the moment), they're not that far off. Yeah. I said it : "Not that far off.". It's even very, very surprising the first time you experience it. At least it surprised me when I bought the amp switcher about 20 years ago. I thought at first the switcher was defective or something else was amiss in the signal path. LOL. It's "a bit" different. The difference being largely overblown when you read intarweb forums. Not to mention that the SLO has a huge low-end when plugged into the OS recto cab. Even more surprising is when switching between the SLO crunch channel and a 2203 (from 82). One with wafer base Sovtek 5881 and the other with winged C EL34. Should sound totally different by all accepted guitar boards standards. Both fed with a SD-1. Most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. At least most of my guitarist friends can't tell. It's so different that after a few minutes, you need to check the switcher leds to make sure what amp you are actually playing. LOL
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What you’re experiencing is a phenomenon that happens with anything really. Plugging an amp into the exact same signal chain ( cab,
Mic, mic pre etc) with similar gain levels will yield some tonal similarity, as the cab and mic placement are crucial and matter more than just about anything . I think of it like taking a picture from the same angle with the same lense and taking pictures of similar objects, if that makes sense.
 
VESmedic said:
What you’re experiencing is a phenomenon that happens with anything really. Plugging an amp into the exact same signal chain ( cab,
Mic, mic pre etc) with similar gain levels will yield some tonal similarity, as the cab and mic placement are crucial and matter more than just about anything . I think of it like taking a picture from the same angle with the same lense and taking pictures of similar objects, if that makes sense.
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I totally understand the phenomenon. But how can that be if those amps are so different ? Maybe there's not that different after all. That's exactly where I was heading. Can you do the same with a Vox AC30 or a Fender Vibrolux Reverb vs a SLO ? I think not. Even switched into the same cab. Those are truly different. I know because I tried with my Vibrolux reverb. So I guess it doesn't happen with "anything" after all.

Also, I wasn't talking about mic/mic pre/recording etc. Just the amps blasting into the same cab directly to your ears. I guess it would be even closer when recorded and mixed.
 
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Jack Luminous said:
My own experience is that I have both SLO and rev G Dual Rec side-by-side plugged into an amp switcher. When you switch from one to the other at volume into the same cab (a stack of old marshall cabs at the moment), they're not that far off. Yeah. I said it : "Not that far off.". It's even very, very surprising the first time you experience it. At least it surprised me when I bought the amp switcher about 20 years ago. I thought at first the switcher was defective or something else was amiss in the signal path. LOL. It's "a bit" different. The difference being largely overblown when you read intarweb forums. Not to mention that the SLO has a huge low-end when plugged into the OS recto cab. Even more surprising is when switching between the SLO crunch channel and a 2203 (from 82). One with wafer base Sovtek 5881 and the other with winged C EL34. Should sound totally different by all accepted guitar boards standards. Both fed with a SD-1. Most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. At least most of my guitarist friends can't tell. It's so different that after a few minutes, you need to check the switcher leds to make sure what amp you are actually playing. LOL
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I still go back to the trusty old SD-1 for boosting all these snobby high end amps too. It's funny how that works, but at the end of the day, that's the tone. Yes, the SLO crunch and 2203 aren't vastly different. It's very subtle. Really, when blasting my Boogies with the same guitar, through the same pedals, and out to the same speakers, the difference isn't that huge. I dialed them all in with my ear, so no real surprise that the differences are subtle.
 
When I A/Bd the BAD SLO & my Tremoverb (which is essentially a Rev G) at band practice, same guitar & cab, the SLO did embarrass the TV in terms of how well it cut in the mix. Clear win there. The SLO absolutely had a huge bottom end- it's just flubby & undefined in our thrashy metal mix. The SLO boosted was similar in this regard to say a Rev F not boosted.

Comparing the SLO to the Rev G was much more fair aside from the SLO's improved mix cutting. They were much more similar, in that the SLO is a wet fart and the Rev G is a dry fart.

The Rev C, on the other hand, and what I started the thread about because I've always heard how close it is to a SLO, is where my confusion lies. The C it TIIIIGHT (for a Recto). It's like the Mark III and the Recto that you're used to had a baby. Maybe the vintage SLOs are more like this? IDK as I've only owned a BAD SLO.
 
Jack Luminous said:
I totally understand the phenomenon. But how can that be if those amps are so different ? Maybe there's not that different after all. That's exactly where I was heading. Can you do the same with a Vox AC30 or a Fender Vibrolux Reverb vs a SLO ? I think not. Even switched into the same cab. Those are truly different. I know because I tried with my Vibrolux reverb. So I guess it doesn't happen with "anything" after all.

Also, I wasn't talking about mic/mic pre/recording etc. Just the amps blasting into the same cab directly to your ears. I guess it would be even closer when recorded and mixed.
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The in the room sound is even more apparent with this yes, but I couldn’t care less about the in the room sound, as it does nothing for me at all. So much influences a sound in the room, you can only deviate from that so much when using similarl gain, a similar dimension “box” ( the cabinet) etc. You can’t obviously do the same with a vibrolix and an SLO, that’s why I said the caveat about similar gain structure and saturation. We are saying the same thing, but yes.

While this phenomenon is somewhat true, it still doesn’t change the fact how different the amps are under a mic and how they respond etc. to a non guitar player or audiophile, yea I can see how people think they sound similar. An average person knows what a guitar sounds like, and they don’t analyze it much past that, or think the way we think. But in the pro audio world or guitar world, I don’t think these amps are on the same planet at all.
 
rstites said:
I still go back to the trusty old SD-1 for boosting all these snobby high end amps too. It's funny how that works, but at the end of the day, that's the tone.
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Absolutely ! (y)

VESmedic said:
But in the pro audio world or guitar world, I don’t think these amps are on the same planet at all.
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We can agree to disagree on that. I prefer to say they're not that far off. Which is much closer than "not on the same planet at all".
 
Jack Luminous said:
Absolutely ! (y)



We can agree to disagree on that. I prefer to say they're not that far off. Which is much closer than "not on the same planet at all".
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They are extremely far off…. Agree or disagree all you want, that’s fine, but there’s a reason literally ZERO relevant metal records ( modern metal ) have an SLO as the main rhythms on it. Those are the facts. And that’s what we are discussing here, the recto vs the SLO when it comes to high gain.
 
VESmedic said:
They are extremely far off…. Agree or disagree all you want, that’s fine, but there’s a reason literally ZERO relevant metal records ( modern metal ) have an SLO as the main rhythms on it. Those are the facts. And that’s what we are discussing here, the recto vs the SLO when it comes to high gain.
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So just to level set, what two amps would you consider close that are made by different companies?

And I see the same discussion on dirt pedals, with some saying they all sound the same. Others saying the different designs sound nothing alike. I think the reality is something in the middle.
 
blackba said:
So just to level set, what two amps would you consider close that are made by different companies?

And I see the same discussion on dirt pedals, with some saying they all sound the same. Others saying the different designs sound nothing alike. I think the reality is something in the middle.
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Well, this one is easy to do, but I’ll stay away from the obvious ones ( Marshall, Marshall clones, modded Marshalls etc)..


I think the Rhodes colossus is much more comparable to the SLO than the recto is: but it still is not really at the same time. I think it’s midrange is in a similar vein, in that it has that chewy, almost greasy bold midrange that I think stands out about the SLO, but the colossus’s low end ( surprise surprise) is much more robust, and doesn’t fall apart or sit in a weird range. I also think it has a similar type response to the mark series in a way as well.


I think the driftwood purple nightmare has a very similar type of low end to the Diezel Herbert, which is not surprising as it has a similar design from what I understand.


There’s a lot of amps out there that sound “similar”, I just don’t think the recto and SLO are those amps at all…
 
scottosan said:
No which part? A Mesa will cut fine on its own. Put them both side by side, the SLO will sound louder
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What kind of mix are you talking about? The things people talk about sometimes on this board blow my mind, like these aren’t conversations people have in the real world of making music. You said in a mix the SLO will cut better. In what mix? I can make farting into a microphone cut through with ease on a mix. I can make anything “cut” in a mix with all the tools in the world. Something “cutting through” or not is an irrelevant part of the conversation, you have all the tools in the world on your computer to make whatever you want “cut through”. What matters is how it sounds in…. Ya know…. A mix. The song. The emotion etc. and I get that’s all completely 100 percent subjective, but the point still remains, i have no idea why the cutting through reference or point is even brought up, because it’s just so irrelevant. Even live.

The slo and the recto can both be heard in a mix, that’s not even a debatable point or worth pointing out. How they sound is what I thought we were discussing. And it’s true, you can mangle the shit out of them to make them sound vastly different, but the inherent dynamic nature of each and how they bounce in a track, the percussiveness, the quickness, the attack, can only be mangled so much. It’s like the old “well I can just put an eq in the loop or on the track and make it sound like that”….. you can? Prove it. I hear that all the time, and I’ve yet to see anyone put their money where their mouth is when it comes to the “you can just eq that in” argument. Im not saying at all you were saying that, it just brought up another topic in my head to me.


All I’m saying is, looking at making music from
The point of view of “well this amp will cut through better” is just a pretty small lense to look at things through. If it’s About the song ( as it should be) then I care so much more about the overral picture of the track and where it’s going and how it makes me feel more so than “well I can really hear the guitars better with this amp”. And how do we even know the difference is BECAUSE of a different amp being used on that track? We all know you can do incredible things in a studio to make a sound sound like it does. Correlation is not causation and vice versa.
 
VESmedic said:
What kind of mix are you talking about? The things people talk about sometimes on this board blow my mind, like these aren’t conversations people have in the real world of making music. You said in a mix the SLO will cut better. In what mix? I can make farting into a microphone cut through with ease on a mix. I can make anything “cut” in a mix with all the tools in the world. Something “cutting through” or not is an irrelevant part of the conversation, you have all the tools in the world on your computer to make whatever you want “cut through”. What matters is how it sounds in…. Ya know…. A mix. The song. The emotion etc. and I get that’s all completely 100 percent subjective, but the point still remains, i have no idea why the cutting through reference or point is even brought up, because it’s just so irrelevant. Even live.

The slo and the recto can both be heard in a mix, that’s not even a debatable point or worth pointing out. How they sound is what I thought we were discussing. And it’s true, you can mangle the shit out of them to make them sound vastly different, but the inherent dynamic nature of each and how they bounce in a track, the percussiveness, the quickness, the attack, can only be mangled so much. It’s like the old “well I can just put an eq in the loop or on the track and make it sound like that”….. you can? Prove it. I hear that all the time, and I’ve yet to see anyone put their money where their mouth is when it comes to the “you can just eq that in” argument. Im not saying at all you were saying that, it just brought up another topic in my head to me.


All I’m saying is, looking at making music from
The point of view of “well this amp will cut through better” is just a pretty small lense to look at things through. If it’s About the song ( as it should be) then I care so much more about the overral picture of the track and where it’s going and how it makes me feel more so than “well I can really hear the guitars better with this amp”. And how do we even know the difference is BECAUSE of a different amp being used on that track? We all know you can do incredible things in a studio to make a sound sound like it does. Correlation is not causation and vice versa.
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Meaning if you have 2 players unmic’d jamming, the Guy with the Recto is going to have to crank his amp a bit more to keep things at same levels. A lot of wattage is used for the extended low end of the Recto vs the SLO. Mic’d isn’t an issue. Simply a point the Mesas sound great but but in a room with more mid focused amps needs to be pushed harder.
 
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