Dual Rectifier or Mark III

[anomaly]

I wanna get a new amp and i'm thinking Mesa. I hear all the hype about the Mark series amps, yet i have never heard any really good rhythm tones out of them, besides late 80's metallica (and that was IIC+'s right?)...

I hear TONS of great rhythm tones out of the recto, yet i hear people say its a fizzy piece of shit??? I'm really confused about this.

SYL, their last couple albums have been done with the Recto with el34's. Sounds amazing to me. Just a really big, mean, clear tone. That's basically what i'm after.

Should i just get a recto? or what?

 

[Gainfreak]

I wanna get a new amp and i'm thinking Mesa. I hear all the hype about the Mark series amps, yet i have never heard any really good rhythm tones out of them, besides late 80's metallica (and that was IIC+'s right?)...

I hear TONS of great rhythm tones out of the recto, yet i hear people say its a fizzy piece of shit??? I'm really confused about this.

SYL, their last couple albums have been done with the Recto with el34's. Sounds amazing to me. Just a really big, mean, clear tone. That's basically what i'm after.

Should i just get a recto? or what?

Stick to what you know. If you know that you like the Rectos then stick with it. FWIW, Rectos do sounds buzzy as hell to me unless you hit them with a pedal or watch the settings. That said, Ive heard plenty of tones that I have loved with a mesa Mark series but thats just me!! Like I said, stick to what sounds good to you!

all the best

~R~

 

[Mudder]

I think a lot of clips with fuzzy recto tone come from people not setting things right, you know, the classic "gain dimed, mids scewped" thing. Plus I don't think Mesa's are coming from the factory with great tubes biased well.

Nice tubes, a good set up, and proper eq and gain settings give you some great tones. I'm not a Recto afficianado but there are also some models better than others. I'm sure someone will chime in with which ones to avoid.

 

[itsme]

I have a triple channel recto, that I love. Not as good as my Diezel, but still sounds great. I put good pre tubes in it, and SED EL34's. I really hated it with 6L6's. I use the Vintage mode on both channel 2 and 3. Bold/tube recto. Really don't like the Modern mode. I also bypass the effects loop and use the channel volumes as masters. Don't need that extra tube in the signal, and I can't stand effects loops. I've had it for several years, and must admit, it took a while to get to where I liked it. I use channel 1 for cleans, which I think sounds pretty nice. If a recto buzzes, it's due to a couple of things: Crappy tubes, gain set any higher than 2:00, treble set any higher than 1:00, or presence set too high. The buzz lies in those 3 tone controls. When EQ'ing it, the mids shouldn't be set lower than 11:00, and the bass shouldn't be set any higher than 11:00.

 

[BOOGIE444]

Having owned dual recto's, mark III and mark IV I would say get a mark III for the heavy's and cool lead tone. The mark IV sounds great and I prefer its lead tone, but the mark III just sounds meanier and better for heavier stuff. Recto's are great but running a boost in front is mandotory, I prefer the mark III over the 2 and & 3 channel recto's.

What kind of music are you going to be playing with it??? Thrash, death metal, progressive metal etc etc etc...... Thats a huge factor for which amp to go with.

My humble mark III clips if you are interested, most clips I wasnt using much gain either.

LINKY.....
http://music.mp3lizard.com/boogie66/

 

[BOOGIE444]

BTW, IIC+ is basically the same tone as the mark III.

 

[thiswaythatway]

BTW, IIC+ is basically the same tone as the mark III.

After owning a IIC+ for years and owning a III and playing several III's i disagree. Funny thing is, i have heard some III's that sound nothing alike. The last III i owned didn't anything close to my IIC+. It was a no stripe 60/100.

I now like this IV b version i have now. It's much smoother than the III's i have played, if anything i can get a IV to sound more like a IIC+ than i can a III. The III blue stripes have an aweful lot of high end and more preamp gain than the IIC+. I compared them both in the same room on he same cab with the same tubes.

 

[Code001]

I have a Simul-Class III Blue Stripe and a Rackmount Recto. I love both for various reasons, and I can get both to sound pretty damn similar. As far as the buzzy comments go, it's because people don't dial them in correctly. Also, the newer ones simply don't sound as good as the older ones. For me, the Recto needs a boost 100% of the time (and this is also how Dev runs his). The Recto tends to deliver a more "thump" and chest pounding sound, where as the III gets straight to the point with that completely saturated, mid-heavy tone. For the record, I've never heard a Metallica tone I've liked so our tastes are probably different. I prefer mids to shine in my tone (and yes, I can get a good amount of mids with my Recto) rather than a scooped tone. I also prefer either high or low mid heavy tones instead of mid-mid heavy tones.

 

[philb]

My Mesa amp journey went from Single Rectifier Mesa Mark III and now Mark IV. I like the Mark IV best.
It does what I want and like.

I liked the Single Rectifier a lot but I didn't like how loose it felt and while it was a great rhythm amp, the lead tone
left me a bit cold. The part about leaving the gain under or max 2 o'clock is true, above that setting, the tone will start to suffer.

The Mark III is a great amp and I really liked mine but I had a hard time playing rhythm on the lead channel (to get that huge rhythm sound). I tried tweaking but I could not dial out some of the things I didn't like. I was willing to live wit it though as the Mark was the best Mesa I've tried yet until I tried out a Mark IV.

I liked it so much I ordered one. I got it a few weeks ago and it's simply perfect.

BTW: It's all a matter of taste, go with your ears on this one.

 

[BOOGIE444]

BTW, IIC+ is basically the same tone as the mark III.

After owning a IIC+ for years and owning a III and playing several III's i disagree. Funny thing is, i have heard some III's that sound nothing alike. The last III i owned didn't anything close to my IIC+. It was a no stripe 60/100.

I now like this IV b version i have now. It's much smoother than the III's i have played, if anything i can get a IV to sound more like a IIC+ than i can a III. The III blue stripes have an aweful lot of high end and more preamp gain than the IIC+. I compared them both in the same room on he same cab with the same tubes.

Well you would know better than me, the closet thing I have ever played to a IIC+ is the triaxis version of it. And my old mark IV did sound closer to that than my mark III. I just thought I rember you saying once that you had both IIC+ and III next to each other and saying the IIC+ was mostly hype and that they both pretty much sounded the same. My memory could be wrong of course

Anyways I agree the mark IV is smoother than than III, but the III will defiantly nail the "puppets" and "justice" tone ALOT better than my old IV used too.

 

[itsme]

I must have the only recto that doesn't need a boost. Mine's fat a creamy. Can't imagine boosting it. If you have the right tubes and settings, you shouldn't need a boost. I wish I could record some clips. Mine's the triple-channel one that everyone shits on also.