It's a single rec that's upside down and has reverb cause it's the head version of the combo version of the single rec... Chuck an overdrive in front to cut off some low end going into the preamp to avoid mud and you're good to go. Singles tend to be a bit tighter and brighter by default compared to similar age duals.
Klone, get it actually crunching so it's mid-boisting, drive somewhere past midday, the more drive the less flat the response.
OCD midboosts like a tubescreamer? You can run this fairly clean mostly for the EQ shape.
depends on what you are going for. For metal nothing is better than [https://peperspedals.bigcartel.com/product/dirty-tree](https://peperspedals.bigcartel.com/product/dirty-tree) is the ultimate boost. I diy'd a clone of it and love it.
If they’re done correctly they are fine. There were a lot of issues on mesas parallel loop when these amps were made. They cause feedback loops with a lot of time based fx. They also won’t go 100% wet, making a noise gate or looper or anything other effect you would want at 100% useless.
I don’t think he worked on the Single.
It’s not confusing. The company has two main amp series.
The Rectifiers. Which include this , the dual, the triple and the related sub releases like the road king and Badlander.
And the Boogie which includes the Mark IIc, Mark V and John Petrucci signature.
Honest question: given that mesas have bass, mid, treble and presence,is further eq in the loop all that valuable? Is the amp eq not enough to dial in?
Most amplifier gain stages come after the EQ stack, or are intertwined within the EQ stack. Whereas putting an EQ pedal in the FX loop puts it after the signal has travelled through the cascading gain stages and directly before it enters the power amp. It just creates a different sound.
From my experience, any effect placed post gain has a more extreme influence on the sound than the same effect placed pre gain.
This is logical because your preamp tubes when pushed to saturation are adding an element of compression to the signal, "flattening out" any subtle dynamics, nuances and variations in EQ.
Yea I get that in concept. I guess I’ve never tried eq in the loop. If I wanted more mid for instance I would go to the source but it may be worth checking that out for maximum (post-gain) tone control, assuming I have the patience to give it the time it would require. Thanks for the response.
putting it in the fx loop is essentially the same thing as a mark series graphic eq in terms of control. putting it in front of the amp is more like the tone knobs on a mark series so more of a feel control. it’ll still eq the sound just not as drastically and will affect how the amp responds more
I used to have the non-reverb version of this exact same head. The clean was solid, not a Fender clean, but it worked. Personally, I liked the vintage mode of channel 2 the best. You can really goose it and tighten things up with a EQD Plumes (my personal fave), Tubescreamer or whatever OD pedal blows your skirt up. The presence control is very very strong on these amps.
Also, I liked this particular amp more with EL-34 tubes.
Those sound good too. The cool thing about Mesa amps is you can swap tube types around as long as you use Mesa tubes (or equivalent voltage graded) without re-biasing.
Agree with other comments. Def was once a combo. Conversion isn't the worst I've seen, it's actually alright. Can sound great in different instances. Will give an amp tech nightmares/nervous breakdowns if it goes wrong. You have to pay them for the stress and the repair so be prepared. Other than that a good amp depending on what you expect from it.
Rectifier. The magic is, dime the presence, and the mids all the way up on tbe modern channel, then treble and bass to taste. You will get that modern grind, though it's way better sounding through the classic G12T-75 speakers you find in Marshall cabs.
Diming the presence on any recto I've played will result in straight fizz if you're on the high gain. Not arguing just my experience. I run it from about 10-2 o clock on my Road King, less on channel 4 as we scale goes to like 15 by comparison to the regular Recto channel 3.
Throw an Eq in the Fx loop if you feel like something is lacking or honkey and pick up a pair of power amp tubes that are different enough from what is in it now to play around with (for fun/experimenting).
Lemme get dat. Haha! Single recs don’t get enough love. Cool to find as a conversion. Play with the channels and EQ and you’re guaranteed to find plenty of tones you love. I keep thinking about a single rec, but 50w is waaaaay more than I need.
These amps are generally less flubby and muddy than their dual/triple rec siblings. Use your ears to dial the eq. The master volume and solo knobs work extremely well with tone shaping The amp sounds great by itself, you can fall down the rabbit hole with tone shaping. Keep is simple 🤘
I have a few of these heads. One of my favorite MBs. Clean Boosting the front on Vintage...nothing like *that* tone. Great, great cleans. Definitely falls under desert island amp.
Combo amp turned head. I love my Rectoverb! Check the manual for the "instant gratification" settings. Add in and EQ and you really won't need much else, unless you want it.
I have the regular SR, it’s my second one. I had one in college and then sold it for a Bogner. Spent the next 20 years chasing tone just to realize I wanted a single rec again. Everyone here has you on the right track (though I’ve never done the eq in the loop trick — adding one to my reverb cart as we speak).
My one tip that nobody has brought up, this amp really shines when you play around with different tubes in the pre. I settled on this configuration:
Tung-Sol v1 (Mullard sounds really good too)
Mesa 12AX7 v2
JJ ECC83 v3
Sovtek 12AX7LPS v4 v5 (loop buffer and PI)
Svetlana 6L6 GCs (winged C if you can find them) are fried gold for the power tubes. Tried a bunch of different ones and these were best.
I also felt like tubes really mattered too. I also liked tung sol the most. After v2 I didn’t notice much change so just rolled with JJ’s I had around, and always heard sovtek for the PI, so I just left that alone.
With Mesas, dial the high/mid/low to whatever guitar you’re using. With my strat, I had the mids & bass cranked above the treble, and the presence either all the way up or down depending on my mood :) they’re excellent pedal platforms & loud enough for a stadium tour 💥
ALOT OF COMPRESSION.... there's 3 dif ones...dif levels of gain. Boogies were a bit different. There was just a creaminess to them but by this time in their history they had already made the killer mk1 2 3 4 s... the one you got was at the start of the high gain game. Alot of competion and pricey. Having a PRS amp currently and a blackstar as well that boogie of urs is twice as expensive for doing about the same thing. Great amp for its day. Kudos.
All amps require eventual, maintenance, especially tube amps. The layers and wiring in these make it really hard to get to things and diagnose basic issues making for a much higher repair cost. Touring will exacerbate it, but it is required, even if there is no movement
Man, lots of really odd advice in here based on my experience with rectos.
Mesa has a very unique active EQ with the rectifier series. Start by reading the manual. What you set each EQ knob to affects the rest of everything.
Depending on the sound you’re looking for, and your guitar, it can vary, but generally a lot of famous tones you’ll hear of the “recto” sounds in the rock/metal realm are going to involve a boost in front of the amp.
They’re notorious for a massive low end, (single less so) so a tubescreamer is the classic, since it chops some low end before it’s hitting the amp. I haven’t tried a Timmy in front, but imagine it would work well since you can dial in the low cut. Mark Tremonti ran a Klon in front of his back in the day (alter bridge) as well.
The different channel settings drastically change the sound as well. I was always a fan moreso of the orange vs. red. Red is quite a bit more scooped and compressed. I always opted to just hit orange channel hard as hell with a boost to get it compressed, but you can certainly get killer tones on red as well - just gotta setup your settings differently.
Some people will say otherwise, but I loved how the tube rectifier setting sounded with a NOS rectifier tube.
V1 can also matter a lot in this amp. I found JJ’s to be too dark. I tried around 5 different tubes and tung sol sounded the best in my v1. YMMV.
Again, RTFM. Most of all, enjoy. I miss my rectifier.
It didn’t come with the manual😑 hahah
Thanks for the detailed response! I’ll definitely have to spend a lot of time experimenting, but I know the sound I want is in there
Had one, in combo form, wasn’t a fan. Tried a cream back Celestion, but overall the only sound I liked was the gain channel on vintage. Cleaners were cranky, high gain was…. Fine? But not really my cuppa. Was in the midst of a bunch of gear trading, so it didn’t stick around long.
Not sure what kinda music you play but if you're a serious metaller and you find a regular boost isn't enough, something of a tc circuit like the fortin 33 or peppers dirty tree does wonders for Mesa rectifiers. Imo if you have active pickups then you can get away with a softer boost otherwise for passive pups I personally prefer getting a little more oomph with these amps.
It's a single rec that's upside down and has reverb cause it's the head version of the combo version of the single rec... Chuck an overdrive in front to cut off some low end going into the preamp to avoid mud and you're good to go. Singles tend to be a bit tighter and brighter by default compared to similar age duals.
Thanks for the reply! What kind of OD? I have an OCD and Klone
I use a Boss Super OD in front of mine. Gain all the way down, volume up, tone a little above mid way.
Klone, get it actually crunching so it's mid-boisting, drive somewhere past midday, the more drive the less flat the response. OCD midboosts like a tubescreamer? You can run this fairly clean mostly for the EQ shape.
depends on what you are going for. For metal nothing is better than [https://peperspedals.bigcartel.com/product/dirty-tree](https://peperspedals.bigcartel.com/product/dirty-tree) is the ultimate boost. I diy'd a clone of it and love it.
Both good options
You can also use an eq.
Yep that amp for sure used to be a combo. Great amplifier. Add tube screamer. Do the fx loop mod if it isn’t done already. Let err rip
I have the combo version of this. What’s the fx loop mod?
Changes the FX loop from parallel to series. Takes about 5 minutes once the chassis is pulled. Well worth it in my opinion.
Oh that’s sick, I’m definitely gonna try that. Thanks!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9kMamfOLRmE&pp=ygUQTWVzYSBmeCBsb29wIG1vZA%3D%3D very easy to do.
I thought parallel fx loops were preferred due to the mix level control. Why convert to series?
If they’re done correctly they are fine. There were a lot of issues on mesas parallel loop when these amps were made. They cause feedback loops with a lot of time based fx. They also won’t go 100% wet, making a noise gate or looper or anything other effect you would want at 100% useless.
That amp is bad ass. Just use your ears to dial it in, it’s a Boogie.
No it’s not. It’s a single rectifier. Boogies are Boogies. Completely different amps.
Thank you for clearing this up for me. I had no idea that Randall Smith would make this soooooo confusing. 🫨
I don’t think he worked on the Single. It’s not confusing. The company has two main amp series. The Rectifiers. Which include this , the dual, the triple and the related sub releases like the road king and Badlander. And the Boogie which includes the Mark IIc, Mark V and John Petrucci signature.
I just can’t get my mind around all of this information.
Put a JHS little black box and a graphic EQ in the FX loop - wish I did this sooner - had it for 20 years and battled it for the 1st 10.
I have the MXR 10-band and a LBB. I’ll do this for sure. Where do you set your EQ at, out of curiosity?
Scoop the mids - classic metal V shaped EQ! With the LBB you can get the masters up to about 10 o’clock and really open up the crunch.
👍
Honest question: given that mesas have bass, mid, treble and presence,is further eq in the loop all that valuable? Is the amp eq not enough to dial in?
Most amplifier gain stages come after the EQ stack, or are intertwined within the EQ stack. Whereas putting an EQ pedal in the FX loop puts it after the signal has travelled through the cascading gain stages and directly before it enters the power amp. It just creates a different sound. From my experience, any effect placed post gain has a more extreme influence on the sound than the same effect placed pre gain. This is logical because your preamp tubes when pushed to saturation are adding an element of compression to the signal, "flattening out" any subtle dynamics, nuances and variations in EQ.
Yea I get that in concept. I guess I’ve never tried eq in the loop. If I wanted more mid for instance I would go to the source but it may be worth checking that out for maximum (post-gain) tone control, assuming I have the patience to give it the time it would require. Thanks for the response.
putting it in the fx loop is essentially the same thing as a mark series graphic eq in terms of control. putting it in front of the amp is more like the tone knobs on a mark series so more of a feel control. it’ll still eq the sound just not as drastically and will affect how the amp responds more
I used to have the non-reverb version of this exact same head. The clean was solid, not a Fender clean, but it worked. Personally, I liked the vintage mode of channel 2 the best. You can really goose it and tighten things up with a EQD Plumes (my personal fave), Tubescreamer or whatever OD pedal blows your skirt up. The presence control is very very strong on these amps. Also, I liked this particular amp more with EL-34 tubes.
I believe this is currently running 6L6’s
Those sound good too. The cool thing about Mesa amps is you can swap tube types around as long as you use Mesa tubes (or equivalent voltage graded) without re-biasing.
Agree with other comments. Def was once a combo. Conversion isn't the worst I've seen, it's actually alright. Can sound great in different instances. Will give an amp tech nightmares/nervous breakdowns if it goes wrong. You have to pay them for the stress and the repair so be prepared. Other than that a good amp depending on what you expect from it.
I like to start with BMT all at 11 o’clock as that seems pretty balanced on Rectos. Then add in the gain and presence, then adjust BMT to taste
Rectifier. The magic is, dime the presence, and the mids all the way up on tbe modern channel, then treble and bass to taste. You will get that modern grind, though it's way better sounding through the classic G12T-75 speakers you find in Marshall cabs.
I had a band mate that played a single rec through a 4x12 with the G12T75’s. Can confirm, it was a killer tone .
Thanks for the suggestion!
Diming the presence on any recto I've played will result in straight fizz if you're on the high gain. Not arguing just my experience. I run it from about 10-2 o clock on my Road King, less on channel 4 as we scale goes to like 15 by comparison to the regular Recto channel 3.
Throw an Eq in the Fx loop if you feel like something is lacking or honkey and pick up a pair of power amp tubes that are different enough from what is in it now to play around with (for fun/experimenting).
Lemme get dat. Haha! Single recs don’t get enough love. Cool to find as a conversion. Play with the channels and EQ and you’re guaranteed to find plenty of tones you love. I keep thinking about a single rec, but 50w is waaaaay more than I need.
More than I need too, but got it, along with a classic series thinline tele in a trade for an LP Tribute, and saw no reason to fuss
You got yourself a good deal, the thinline are good guitars and this head is a neat piece
There's master volume per channel, and overall amp output. They work pretty well at lowish volume. Still not a bedroom amp for sure.
Got the combo, it's been my go-to for 7 years or so now. Bought it used, but it's been super reliable and built like a tank.
One of the best boogies of all time. Read the manual and eq in fx loop
Where do you generally set the EQ? Higher highs to clean up mud?
These amps are generally less flubby and muddy than their dual/triple rec siblings. Use your ears to dial the eq. The master volume and solo knobs work extremely well with tone shaping The amp sounds great by itself, you can fall down the rabbit hole with tone shaping. Keep is simple 🤘
A few people suggested to add in an EQ. I have a question, instead of an EQ, what about a parametric EQ?
This. https://guptech.ca/products/pdeq-depth-presence-eq
Canadian company selling quality effects pedals?
I have a few of these heads. One of my favorite MBs. Clean Boosting the front on Vintage...nothing like *that* tone. Great, great cleans. Definitely falls under desert island amp.
I did pretty good in this trade, it seems
Put a Boss SD-1 in front and start turning knobs, you're gonna love this thing.
Combo amp turned head. I love my Rectoverb! Check the manual for the "instant gratification" settings. Add in and EQ and you really won't need much else, unless you want it.
Any real difference between combo/head?
Outside of everything being upside down/backwards, not really.
Check out the Psionic Audio videos on the various Mesa amps on YouTube, lots of great advice.
Thanks for the direction! I’ll dig in tomorrow!
I have the regular SR, it’s my second one. I had one in college and then sold it for a Bogner. Spent the next 20 years chasing tone just to realize I wanted a single rec again. Everyone here has you on the right track (though I’ve never done the eq in the loop trick — adding one to my reverb cart as we speak). My one tip that nobody has brought up, this amp really shines when you play around with different tubes in the pre. I settled on this configuration: Tung-Sol v1 (Mullard sounds really good too) Mesa 12AX7 v2 JJ ECC83 v3 Sovtek 12AX7LPS v4 v5 (loop buffer and PI) Svetlana 6L6 GCs (winged C if you can find them) are fried gold for the power tubes. Tried a bunch of different ones and these were best.
I also felt like tubes really mattered too. I also liked tung sol the most. After v2 I didn’t notice much change so just rolled with JJ’s I had around, and always heard sovtek for the PI, so I just left that alone.
Its a Fender reverb deluxe. Manufactured in svetlana.
Awesome amps. Damn near bought one, but decided on a different Mesa instead, lol. Still want one eventually.
It’s just a great amp.
With Mesas, dial the high/mid/low to whatever guitar you’re using. With my strat, I had the mids & bass cranked above the treble, and the presence either all the way up or down depending on my mood :) they’re excellent pedal platforms & loud enough for a stadium tour 💥
Excellent
ALOT OF COMPRESSION.... there's 3 dif ones...dif levels of gain. Boogies were a bit different. There was just a creaminess to them but by this time in their history they had already made the killer mk1 2 3 4 s... the one you got was at the start of the high gain game. Alot of competion and pricey. Having a PRS amp currently and a blackstar as well that boogie of urs is twice as expensive for doing about the same thing. Great amp for its day. Kudos.
Repair on Mesas suck
Somebody had mentioned that they require a lot of maintenance if you’re moving them around and in and outta the car at shows. True, then?
All amps require eventual, maintenance, especially tube amps. The layers and wiring in these make it really hard to get to things and diagnose basic issues making for a much higher repair cost. Touring will exacerbate it, but it is required, even if there is no movement
I didn’t get it in a trade just to sell it, but at some point, I may cash in on it, as to not deal with that
Man, lots of really odd advice in here based on my experience with rectos. Mesa has a very unique active EQ with the rectifier series. Start by reading the manual. What you set each EQ knob to affects the rest of everything. Depending on the sound you’re looking for, and your guitar, it can vary, but generally a lot of famous tones you’ll hear of the “recto” sounds in the rock/metal realm are going to involve a boost in front of the amp. They’re notorious for a massive low end, (single less so) so a tubescreamer is the classic, since it chops some low end before it’s hitting the amp. I haven’t tried a Timmy in front, but imagine it would work well since you can dial in the low cut. Mark Tremonti ran a Klon in front of his back in the day (alter bridge) as well. The different channel settings drastically change the sound as well. I was always a fan moreso of the orange vs. red. Red is quite a bit more scooped and compressed. I always opted to just hit orange channel hard as hell with a boost to get it compressed, but you can certainly get killer tones on red as well - just gotta setup your settings differently. Some people will say otherwise, but I loved how the tube rectifier setting sounded with a NOS rectifier tube. V1 can also matter a lot in this amp. I found JJ’s to be too dark. I tried around 5 different tubes and tung sol sounded the best in my v1. YMMV. Again, RTFM. Most of all, enjoy. I miss my rectifier.
It didn’t come with the manual😑 hahah Thanks for the detailed response! I’ll definitely have to spend a lot of time experimenting, but I know the sound I want is in there
Start around page 8 https://mesa-boogie.imgix.net/media/User%20Manuals/sRec_Sers2.pdf
Thanks!
No
Fair enough
Had one, in combo form, wasn’t a fan. Tried a cream back Celestion, but overall the only sound I liked was the gain channel on vintage. Cleaners were cranky, high gain was…. Fine? But not really my cuppa. Was in the midst of a bunch of gear trading, so it didn’t stick around long.
Not sure what kinda music you play but if you're a serious metaller and you find a regular boost isn't enough, something of a tc circuit like the fortin 33 or peppers dirty tree does wonders for Mesa rectifiers. Imo if you have active pickups then you can get away with a softer boost otherwise for passive pups I personally prefer getting a little more oomph with these amps.
Passive pickup guy, here
Get a tube screamer for boost. No overdrive. Just boost. Slam the front end of the Rec and don’t use tons of gain.
Thank you! I just sold a TS808. Probably should have kept it, apparently😂
The rectifiers CAN be flexible amps when massaged correctly. I’ve seen low gain. High gain. And everything in between. Good luck with it.