Mesa Boogie Recto 4x12 Dislike

[chunkitup]

I just picked up a MB rect. 4x12 with the V30's and the purchase was based entirely on the V30 and oversized box hype. I am not pleased with the sound. I have a Avenger clone and a 20w Xtc clone that sound very good thru my Marshall 4x12(75watters). I plug them into the Booger and the sound is gritty and overly distorted and there is a mid frequency that comes across as nasally. I usually run the mid at 4 but had to scoop it out and I still couldnt get rid of offending sound. I was wondering if there was any truth to this review I read on HC:

Totally unnatural one trick pony. This is a follow-up to my prior review from 2003. I see some players agreed to subjectively review the cabinet and considered the limitations of the V-30 Celestion in their reviews. I am amending my review to include some further V-30 bashing. The cone doping and resultant damping in the volumetric Recto cabinet work but only as a the aforementioned one trick pony. IMHO the V-30 is a pre-Celestion G30H abortion project. Celestion spent too much money and time trying to design a "modern-vintage" driver and it failed. They tried to pull the plug but had to sell the unwanted motherload of crap to Mesa who had the marketing muscle to hype it in the Recto product, mainly nu-metal one hit wonders, appealing to teen-agers with deep wallet parents. Black Shadows did not a MESA make. Neither do V-30s.

I'm sure some of you are offended now my apologies. BTW the mids I speak of are unnatural due to the doping. The freqencies I measured with a meter and tone generator were off the 4-6khz that you hear in every great guitar recording ever made from the beginning of time. It is a very artificial mid and not WARM at all. Think of it as a Solid State tranistor tone that is accurate at some frequencies (like "doped" bass and edgy mids) but sterile. Using Mesa's unmusically overpowered flat sounding heads with scooped out mids works. Using anything else and you will not like it.

Thanks for any opinions.

 

[russellconner]

hmm. sorry youre not enjoying your new cabinet. ive had two of the oversized 4x12 rectifier cabs since '94, and i love em. they work great with my dual rec ('94 two channel) or my Rev 2 Uber both.

by your description, it almost sounds like you may have a wiring issue, or possibly a fried speaker. have you already checked everything out?

good luck,

russell

 

[D-Rock]

The speakers might not be your thing, but that does not mean there is anything fundamentally wrong with them design wise.
My Mesa 4x12 sounded great with the Soldano Avenger I had for a while. But my GH50L hates that cabinet. Even my smaller HT-5 likes my 1960A better than the Mesa. But V30 loaded my Randall 2x12 absolutely kills.

 

[chunkitup]

Yea I just think this cab is not for me. The quote of the review perfectly describes the flaws this cab has. For this cab to work I would have to revoice the amp to take advantage of the strong points of the V30. I was just wondering about the review I quoted and if there was any validation.

 

[D-Rock]

Yea I just think this cab is not for me. The quote of the review perfectly describes the flaws this cab has. For this cab to work I would have to revoice the amp to take advantage of the strong points of the V30. I was just wondering about the review I quoted and if there was any validation.

Well, all reviews are always valid. Because they are based on opinion, not fact.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean about having to "revoice the amp to take advantage of the strong points of the V30"
By revoice, do you mean re eq?
I for one, always tweak the amp I'm playing to suit the speakers/cab I'm using. I make the amp work with the speakers, not the other way around.
But in any case, to your ears, your two amps just may not jive with the Mesa cab. No big deal. However, another player with another guitar and different amp settings might very well be able to make the combination work to their advantage.

 

[nevusofota]

Love mine (standard version). Sounds great with the 5150 III.

 

[chunkitup]

Well as far as the quoted portion I was wondering about the doped part and the V30 being a failed attempt and sold off to Mesa. Perhaps the person was just pissed off that day.

For revoicing I was thinking about the slope resistor in the tone stack. The 47k for the Soldano stuff is very prominent in the mid freq. where as a if you use a 33k you start getting a scooped sound. When I build clone amps I try to keep it true to the original since I usually build the amp because I liked the originals sound. I guess it will be good to have the Mesa and a Marshall to test new amps on. Russell said he likes his Uber thru the Boog and that amp can be very scooped if need be which I bet the Boog thrives with.
Thanks for the replies!

 

[Sixtonoize]

Honestly, I don't think that the guy who posted that review has a clue what the hell he's talking about:

The freqencies I measured with a meter and tone generator were off the 4-6khz that you hear in every great guitar recording ever made from the beginning of time.

What the fuck does that even mean?

It is a very artificial mid and not WARM at all. Think of it as a Solid State tranistor tone that is accurate at some frequencies (like "doped" bass and edgy mids) but sterile.

Ahh, so now speakers can transistorize your tone.

Using Mesa's unmusically overpowered flat sounding heads with scooped out mids works. Using anything else and you will not like it. [/i]

So now we get to the point. The guy hates Mesa as a company and is using this review to bash their products using jargon that will confuse the layperson to make himself feel credible.

I'm not saying that the Mesa Recto cab is the right one for you, but the guy who posted that review is full of shit. He sounds like your average The Gear Page lawyer spouting off about technical things he doesn't understand using jargon that he once heard knowledgeable people use.

 

[guitarslinger]

FWIW,

I've owned a LOT of 4x12's, and my recto OS slant sounded weird, boxy, and piercing, and I never really liked it. I tried a few sets of speakers, and yes, they were all in phase

I'd take an MDF-backed Marshall 1960A over an Oversized recto 4x12 any day of the week.

 

[deadflagblues]

you know the oversized cab appears to be the source of much butt hurt. maybe you could sell/trade for a traditional. I have mine, i dont hate it but it does the job and is well made it has the v-30s in it and I can say that i am not offended

i have gone through alot of stuff, no different than the majority of the posters here but the cab that i can honestly say i really did not like was the 5150 staight cab i once had -for some reason it irritated me. call me crazy or dumb but i have no hate for most brands but this cab did not do it for me.

i know that was slightly off the mesa thing but i just wanted to illustrate that sometimes cabs wont satisfy a particular person

 

[petejt]

Get the "Traditional" Stiletto cab. It has a tighter, more solid & full sound. Sounds fantastic with many amps. Made my Fireball breath fire. My JCM800 growl. A Recto roar. And my MarkIV punch


Yes the oversize cab does emphasise the rumble and looseness of Recto amps, but otherwise the review on HC is a load of codswallop.

 

[glassjaw7]

Get the "Traditional" Stiletto cab. It has a tighter, more solid & full sound. Sounds fantastic with many amps. Made my Fireball breath fire. My JCM800 growl. A Recto roar. And my MarkIV punch


Yes the oversize cab does emphasise the rumble and looseness of Recto amps, but otherwise the review on HC is a load of codswallop.

This^^^ The traditional is soooo much nicer sounding IMO.

 

[Gsxrbusa]

I just got rid of my Recto cab. It sounded great with the Mark V, triple/dual rectos, Engl and Avenger. It sounded like complete ass with my VHT. I have owned 5 cabs with V30's, this cab has a very loose bottom end. Almost flubby with certain amps. They work good with some and not so much with others. Quality built cab, for sure. Would get another if I get another Mesa.

 

[droptrd]

I love mine. Had one since 98 I think. However Ive had a couple amps that didnt work with that cab as well as others. And there has been rooms that sounded better with other cabs too. But I think the same could be said about most cabs

 

[JakeAC5253]

There is nothing wrong with the Recto cab and that review was written by someone with a tin ear. It is true that it resonates more than your average cab with particle board sides and back, but this is its strong point. The tone is internal with this cab and you need to dial it as such. Bass down because the size of the cab gives it a low resonance. Mids down because of the V30's. Treb up to compensate the added body and low end. Gain down to keep it tight. Don't expect to plug into ANY piece of gear and fall in love with the sound immediately without doing some tweaking first. True, it may not be your style or something, but it's no fault of the design. It's fucking legendary in the recording world and it's been key to tons of metal guitar tones found on popular albums.

Spend more time tweaking it. I was a bit thrown off at first too, but once I dialed the amp to compliment the cab I can safely say that I will never ever ditch this thing.

 

[redrol]

I posed a clip with the Mesa 4x12 oversized with v30s, look for the Voodoo amps hex clip if you care \m/

 

[locoed]

I don't know what year your cab is but IMO I think the newer
260 watt 4x12's sound a bit honky,there's something to be said for the older 280 watt cabs,I like mine,they can have a strange mid sound while recording but not while gigging etc.

 

[JakeAC5253]

My newest clip in the clip collective section was recorded with my Recto cab. I hesitate to even say that for fear that you are just going to listen to it and trick yourself into thinking that you aren't hearing a good tone, but everything that you don't like about the cab will be personified in that clip.

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=75340

In the first post you said going from the Marshall cab to the Mesa made your tone sound overly distorted. How in fiery hell can a cab/speaker distort a tone if it's not being pushed past its limits? I think this points to a problem with a speaker like someone said. Put your ear to each speaker and see that each is firing and that they all sound relatively similar in timbre. That's the first thing I would do.

 

[ttosh]

+1 the Traditional Stiletto cabinet with V30s is simply awesome. I have two of them and they sound great with pretty much every amp I have paired them with. They have a really good tonal quality, solid full sounding, woody and chunky sounding without any flub.

Get the "Traditional" Stiletto cab. It has a tighter, more solid & full sound. Sounds fantastic with many amps. Made my Fireball breath fire. My JCM800 growl. A Recto roar. And my MarkIV punch


Yes the oversize cab does emphasise the rumble and looseness of Recto amps, but otherwise the review on HC is a load of codswallop.

 

[dfrattaroli]

Honestly, I don't think that the guy who posted that review has a clue what the hell he's talking about:

The freqencies I measured with a meter and tone generator were off the 4-6khz that you hear in every great guitar recording ever made from the beginning of time.

What the fuck does that even mean?

It is a very artificial mid and not WARM at all. Think of it as a Solid State tranistor tone that is accurate at some frequencies (like "doped" bass and edgy mids) but sterile.

Ahh, so now speakers can transistorize your tone.

Using Mesa's unmusically overpowered flat sounding heads with scooped out mids works. Using anything else and you will not like it. [/i]

So now we get to the point. The guy hates Mesa as a company and is using this review to bash their products using jargon that will confuse the layperson to make himself feel credible.

I'm not saying that the Mesa Recto cab is the right one for you, but the guy who posted that review is full of shit. He sounds like your average The Gear Page lawyer spouting off about technical things he doesn't understand using jargon that he once heard knowledgeable people use.

I think you hit the nail on the head.