Rectos now cooler than Diezels?

saxxamafone

saxxamafone

Well-known member
I remember early 2000's when Diezel really started getting traction and more popular.

They were always considered 'recto killers' and they were generally always viewed as a recto upgrade.

Recto's were often spoken poorly of due to some of the late 90's nu-metal tones. Flubby, buzzy, no mids etc.

Fast forward to now and it seems rectos (2ch in particular) are all the rage again and i often see them listed now for higher prices than Diezels.

The guys modding rectos also seem to be making them popular.

Have the tables turned and are rectos now cool again?
 
saxxamafone said:
I remember early 2000's when Diezel really started getting traction and more popular.

They were always considered 'recto killers' and they were generally always viewed as a recto upgrade.

Recto's were often spoken poorly of due to some of the late 90's nu-metal tones. Flubby, buzzy, no mids etc.

Fast forward to now and it seems rectos (2ch in particular) are all the rage again and i often see them listed now for higher prices than Diezels.

The guys modding rectos also seem to be making them popular.

Have the tables turned and are rectos now cool again?
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Diezels are well made great amps. But they don’t seem to be as in fashion as before. The recto demand is there. The modders are giving these new life. People are realizing the early revisions have some special sauce to them. People are starting to appreciate and get nostalgic for the very specific tones from the 90s/early 2000s. And culturally they’re significant just from how many records they have been on. A few years ago you could get any recto you wanted for a song. Not so much now. I always had a huge distaste for rectifiers until recently and the modded ones I have are some of the most fun amps I’ve played.
 
itsgoodnow said:
Diezels are well made great amps. But they don’t seem to be as in fashion as before. The recto demand is there. The modders are giving these new life. People are realizing the early revisions have some special sauce to them. People are starting to appreciate and get nostalgic for the very specific tones from the 90s/early 2000s. And culturally they’re significant just from how many records they have been on. A few years ago you could get any recto you wanted for a song. Not so much now. I always had a huge distaste for rectifiers until recently and the modded ones I have are some of the most fun amps I’ve played.
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that's a really good take, I agree.

I initially didn't love rectos because I was playing a 3ch one that I felt fell short, and I also wasn't playing it loud enough.

I've recently tried 2 ch rectos cranked and they absolutely slay
 
I have Diezels and i love them and the VHX is my main amp and i don't intend to get rid of it ever (unless there will be a followup version i prefer).

But on some days i miss my old 2ch Recto.
The whole 90s and it's sound still have a huge influence on me, so i might get one again for old times sakes.

But a recto will never be my main amp again.
They totally suck unless really loud and not too versatile.
 
They have definitely come back in style over the last 4 years or so. I'm not sure why, honestly. I remember pre covid, buying them for $600-700 on the used market, trying to resell them for $900 and having to sit on them in order to get that for them. Now if a 2 ch pops up for under $1,500 it's gone ion minutes. Besides the 5150, it's the craziest turnaround in such a short time.

I personally wasn't a fan until I got my multi watt back in 2021. I always found them flubby, and just never liked the way they felt, though I liked how they sounded when others played them so I kept giving them chance after chance, just to be disappointed again. The multi watt was the first one I had where I felt I could get it reasonably tight enough to live with, which was always my issue. I love the way they sound, incredibly raw and pissed off.

Having spent time with that one and really figuring out the ins and outs, I found the formula that made me absolutely love them - 7 band EQ + boost out front to really juice the front end and control the low frequency response, and a front loaded cab, such as my Soldano 412 to further increase the low end punch and focus. This has become one of my favorite rigs, period.

Now, it seems that people are coming out with mods for them left and right. You know how that goes - people lose their minds over it for a short time and then move on to the next fad. Not taking anything away from the modders, but that's just how it usually seems to go. First it was Hermansson, then KSR, now it's Ground Zero in the spotlight with Monomyth also offering a mod for them, so it seems interest is higher than ever.

Speaking of mods, Michael Klein offers a "unicorn" mod with a mercury transformer that was built off a reverse engineered schumacher tranny from a Rev C and a couple of other tweaks that I may partake in sometime soon. I'm interested in the GZ mods as well but it seems Jeremy is quite busy with those so I'll wait until things die down a bit. Either way, the Rec is an amp I gave a hundred chances to and finally figured out because it's become one of my favorites, period.
 
I personally don't have enough experience with them to even have an opinion but I've played maybe three different rectos and I didn't like any of them at all, not even close. I had a jp2c and I loved that amp so I would take a mark series any day of the week. I had a friend who had a single rectifier that sounded incredible but other than that I've never played one that I liked.

I played a Herbert once and it was crushing. Wish I had more time with it.
 
The only amp's that come close to Recto's in ubiquity are Plexi's and 2203/2204's. Its simply one of the greatest amps ever created - it's use spans multiple genres (Radiohead to death metal), changed the game for what people expect from a multiple channel amp, defined a solid 10 years (minimum) of music.

Diezel's are cool but Recto's are just a definitive guitar sound at this point.
 
easstudios said:
The only amp's that come close to Recto's in ubiquity are Plexi's and 2203/2204's. Its simply one of the greatest amps ever created - it's use spans multiple genres (Radiohead to death metal), changed the game for what people expect from a multiple channel amp, defined a solid 10 years (minimum) of music.

Diezel's are cool but Recto's are just a definitive guitar sound at this point.
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You have to add the OG 5150 and 5150II to that mix as well. I mean at one time if you wanted affordable super high gain the Rects and 5150's were the choices. Both are now iconic.
 
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I honestly don’t remember rectos really dying off or diesels being that popular honestly, especially in the early 00’s, endless metalcore and death metal bands were using rectos back then, as well as nickleback and all those bands. Maybe diezels were the flavor of the week at hcaf that no one actually heard at that point. I’ve still yet to see a diezel in the wild
 
I'm not certain that Rectos will ever be cooler than a Diezel...But they are cool. I have owned a few over the years and have always had a love / hate relationship with them. I can never seem to get a stock Recto dialed in just right, something always seems "off" tonally. They also have this mysterious ability to sound great one day, and terrible the next. And when I briefly used one live, they always sounded wildly different based on the room (much more so than other amps). That said, they can sound brilliant on many records and defined a sound for a certain generation. Like many the current talented techs (Hermansson / Ground Zero) have renewed my interest in these amps. Stock? probably not...I've tried to make that work, not for me.
 
Bad.Seed said:
They have definitely come back in style over the last 4 years or so. I'm not sure why, honestly. I remember pre covid, buying them for $600-700 on the used market, trying to resell them for $900 and having to sit on them in order to get that for them. Now if a 2 ch pops up for under $1,500 it's gone ion minutes. Besides the 5150, it's the craziest turnaround in such a short time.

I personally wasn't a fan until I got my multi watt back in 2021. I always found them flubby, and just never liked the way they felt, though I liked how they sounded when others played them so I kept giving them chance after chance, just to be disappointed again. The multi watt was the first one I had where I felt I could get it reasonably tight enough to live with, which was always my issue. I love the way they sound, incredibly raw and pissed off.

Having spent time with that one and really figuring out the ins and outs, I found the formula that made me absolutely love them - 7 band EQ + boost out front to really juice the front end and control the low frequency response, and a front loaded cab, such as my Soldano 412 to further increase the low end punch and focus. This has become one of my favorite rigs, period.

Now, it seems that people are coming out with mods for them left and right. You know how that goes - people lose their minds over it for a short time and then move on to the next fad. Not taking anything away from the modders, but that's just how it usually seems to go. First it was Hermansson, then KSR, now it's Ground Zero in the spotlight with Monomyth also offering a mod for them, so it seems interest is higher than ever.

Speaking of mods, Michael Klein offers a "unicorn" mod with a mercury transformer that was built off a reverse engineered schumacher tranny from a Rev C and a couple of other tweaks that I may partake in sometime soon. I'm interested in the GZ mods as well but it seems Jeremy is quite busy with those so I'll wait until things die down a bit. Either way, the Rec is an amp I gave a hundred chances to and finally figured out because it's become one of my favorites, period.
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Send it to Jeremy. He did my Tremoverb in about a week and I just got it back.
 
What could be cooler than this?
IMG_3444.jpeg
 
Shask said:
Part of that is probably just visibility and availability.

I think I have ever seen one Diezel ever in person. Rectos are everywhere.

Also, most people can't name more than 5 well known Diezel tones, where Rectos are the sound of generations.
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This.

When I gigged the heaviest from 2000-2015 or so, rarely did I see a Diezel. Not that it means anything, mind you. I just never saw one. Eventually a local guy who was using a VH4 wanted to try my SLO and possibly trade. The VH4 is cool, but something in the tone I didn't care for. But it has a big set of balls and pretty versatile, so I get the attraction.

The G and earlier Rectos, with a boost are beasts with the OS cabs, and can do tighter stuff with a traditional cab. I personally like the Recto tone far more than the VH4 I tried way back.
Honestly, I have no clue how dudes in the late 90s could dial in some of that garbage tone I remember, with any Recto....yuck. Much better tone in those boxes than the nu metal shit.
 
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