Single / Dual / Triple Rectifier

Monsoon

Monsoon

New member
In Mesa's Rectifier amp series, is there any difference between the Single/Dual/Triple amps other than the wattage (50/100/150 respectively)?

If the wattage is the only difference, do they still sound the same?

If they still sound the same, then is someone like me who plays predominantly after the family is asleep better served getting a lower watt Single Rectifier so that the amp can be "opened up" a bit more to get to the sweeter tone without shaking down the house?
 
Monsoon said:
In Mesa's Rectifier amp series, is there any difference between the Single/Dual/Triple amps other than the wattage (50/100/150 respectively)?

If the wattage is the only difference, do they still sound the same?

If they still sound the same, then is someone like me who plays predominantly after the family is asleep better served getting a lower watt Single Rectifier so that the amp can be "opened up" a bit more to get to the sweeter tone without shaking down the house?
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Can I ask why you'd choose Mesa over Marshall?

As for the difference, the circuitry is different but every Mesa I've ever played sounds muddy and the tone just doesn't match my Marshall 6100. In fact, in my experience playing live the Mesa's clean tone was horrible (triple rect) and the dirty channel couldn't touch the quality brown tone of my Marshall.

Sorry for not giving you the answer you were seeking, I was just curious why you are choosing Mesa.
 
Sounds like personal preference or the Mesa you played had old tubes or was not correctly biased. Even at that, my Dual rectifier slammed right out of the box. It's different than the Marshalls but certainly not a shitty sounding amp.

One of the first things you should do is have a tech remove the hard wired bias resistors and add an adjustable pot and get that baby biased correctly. It's a well know fact the the mesa amps are biased cold.
 
SilverSurfer said:
Can I ask why you'd choose Mesa over Marshall?

As for the difference, the circuitry is different but every Mesa I've ever played sounds muddy and the tone just doesn't match my Marshall 6100. In fact, in my experience playing live the Mesa's clean tone was horrible (triple rect) and the dirty channel couldn't touch the quality brown tone of my Marshall.

Sorry for not giving you the answer you were seeking, I was just curious why you are choosing Mesa.
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Honestly, I haven't settled on an amp yet. But I'm trying to narrow down within brands so I don't waste my time. I'm also trying to decide if it is worth it to get a tube amp at all. Everything I've read indicates that if you don't turn it up, you don't get the "real" sound of the amp. I can't play real loudly very often. And if that means my tube amp is being wasted, I may as well go solid state. But that's a different question. For now, I'm just trying to figure out if single/double/triple rects. are basically the same sound, just different degrees of loud.
 
HangDawg said:
Sounds like personal preference or the Mesa you played had old tubes or was not correctly biased. Even at that, my Dual rectifier slammed right out of the box. It's different than the Marshalls but certainly not a shitty sounding amp.

One of the first things you should do is have a tech remove the hard wired bias resistors and add an adjustable pot and get that baby biased correctly. It's a well know fact the the mesa amps are biased cold.
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I played a brand new Mesa Triple at a gig in Chicago. We asked for Marshall's but the venue provided brand new (we took them out of the box) Mesa's. For playing rock, they were terrrible! I imagine if you are playing tuned down metal where tone and tenique are less important the Mesa might be the better choice.

Dunno about your experience but like I said, the clean tone was terrible and the dirty channel not much better. It had a switch that said "Marshall" type tone and it wasn't even close. I just don't think you can get 6L6 amps to match the EL34 tubes. EL34s sound much better to my ears.

I'd love to find out what Jose did to those Marshalls and get that old EVH tone. Now THAT is some killer tone!
 
Monsoon said:
Honestly, I haven't settled on an amp yet. But I'm trying to narrow down within brands so I don't waste my time.
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What style music do you play?

You don't need a NEW amp! You can find a used AMP on eBay. I personally have had good experience with the older Marshall's (JCM800/6100 30th Anniversary). Again, it depends on what tone you need. If you are a player who's dependent on people hearing your notes and you play cleanly, get the Marshall. Mesa's, no offense to any players, are generally 'dirty' amps for players who tune down and don't play solos. If you want the Godsmack sound, go Mesa. If you care about being heard, go Marshall.
 
SilverSurfer said:
What style music do you play?

You don't need a NEW amp! You can find a used AMP on eBay. I personally have had good experience with the older Marshall's (JCM800/6100 30th Anniversary). Again, it depends on what tone you need. If you are a player who's dependent on people hearing your notes and you play cleanly, get the Marshall. Mesa's, no offense to any players, are generally 'dirty' amps for players who tune down and don't play solos. If you want the Godsmack sound, go Mesa. If you care about being heard, go Marshall.
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Yeah, most likely, my "new" amp would be a used amp off ebay. Great deals on equipment in good shape there. But to make my decision, I need to walk into a store and try some out. So, when I walk in with my limited time, do I just ask for the single or do I first compare the single, dual, triple, etc.

Then, I get to do this process for teh Marshalls, etc. And then compare the "winner" within each brand. And then, look for a good deal.

Picking an amp can be a long process. It can be fun, but it is definitely a bit frustrating.

I play hard rock/metal. Definitely like the solos. I like a good crunch in the sound.
 
so why is that i see pop rock bands with mesa and harder bands like taking back sunday and skindred with mesa if they are terrible? they sound pretty good to me its also interesting because these bands usually have a mesa and a marshall
 
SilverSurfer said:
I played a brand new Mesa Triple at a gig in Chicago. We asked for Marshall's but the venue provided brand new (we took them out of the box) Mesa's. For playing rock, they were terrrible! I imagine if you are playing tuned down metal where tone and tenique are less important the Mesa might be the better choice.

Dunno about your experience but like I said, the clean tone was terrible and the dirty channel not much better. It had a switch that said "Marshall" type tone and it wasn't even close. I just don't think you can get 6L6 amps to match the EL34 tubes. EL34s sound much better to my ears.

I'd love to find out what Jose did to those Marshalls and get that old EVH tone. Now THAT is some killer tone!
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I'm not completely sure but on mine, the dual, that switch you mention is to control the bias depending on what tubes you put in it (6L6 or EL34) If you put it on the marshall(EL34) setting and it had 6L6s in it(stock from factory) that would have been the problem.

That's one of the great things about the Mesa, you can use either 6L6 or EL34s and from what I understand, you can make the rectifiers really scream by putting KT66's in them.

My guess is you had the switch in the wrong position. That and it takes a little time to get used to setting the rectifiers. It took me a little trial and error before I got used to dialing in the sound I wanted.
 
I was kinda hoping this wouldn't turn into a which brand is best thread. There are people who swear by Marshall. There are people who swear by Mesa. There are people who swear by [insert your favorite brand here]. And while I'm very interested in soliciting opinions on amp brands, for this thread, all I'm trying to do is figure out if the sound of the single rec is the same as that of the triple rec, just at lower decibles.
 
Yep, verified with the picture on Mesa's website of the triple's back panel. There is no "Marshall type tone" switch. Just the bias switch. That could possibly explain why you thought it sounded so bad.


Monsoon
I understand that you don't want this to become a pissing match as to which is better. But I'm sure you don't want somebody giving you false impressions of gear when it was a case of operator error. Which it was in this case.
 
Monsoon said:
I was kinda hoping this wouldn't turn into a which brand is best thread. There are people who swear by Marshall. There are people who swear by Mesa. There are people who swear by [insert your favorite brand here]. And while I'm very interested in soliciting opinions on amp brands, for this thread, all I'm trying to do is figure out if the sound of the single rec is the same as that of the triple rec, just at lower decibles.
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I'm sure that the tones from either of the rectifiers is basically the same. It's just the triple is 5owatts more and has 3 channels instead of 2. Probably some more options as far as configuring the individual channel modes as well. The rectifiers IMHO are one of the most tweakable of all the great tube heads.
 
HangDawg said:
Monsoon
I understand that you don't want this to become a pissing match as to which is better. But I'm sure you don't want somebody giving you false impressions of gear when it was a case of operator error. Which it was in this case.
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Yeah, I appreciate that. But no matter what anyone says, a Mesa is going to be on my final list. As will a Marshall. And after that, my own ears will make my decision. And then I can join in on the piss fights. :D
 
May I humbly recommend to do an e-bay search for "Sovtek Mig" ...

those are HUGELY impressive beasts, that also have a VERY nice clean channel - can still be had rather cheap as the word isnt out quite yet.

they have 30w/50/60/100w models. I got a minty-mint Mig 60 for 270 bucks some months ago

another good and inexpensive option might be CARVINs - cant comment too much on them
 
Hi Monsoon,

I don't think any of the three amps you are looking at are your answer. Not because Mesa sucks or because Marshall is "the amp". But because all of your amp choices are going to be too loud to play at night while the family is sleeping. I play through a Fender Pro Junior. It is 15 watts, one volume knob, one tone knob (i.e. simple!!), one 10" speaker. And when I "open it up" it just screams. You might want to consider a Fender Blues Junior. It is also 15 watts but it has pre amp distortion so when you can't "open it up" and use that power amp distortion (which is that coveted tube distortion that everyone with tube amps is seeking) you can still play at low volumes and get good pre amp TUBE distortion. Is the Blues Junior loud? Yeah, it can scream. Is it loud enough for band practice--15 tube watts can handle most drummers and every basememnt or garage situation I know of. On stage--small venue, yes; large venue just mic it up. There are lots of other amps out there in the 5 watt range, too. Guess what, if it is a tube amp and you crank it, it will give you great distortion (usually) and still be screamin' loud. That "TUBE SOUND" everybody talks about means master volume knob above 7 and closer to 10. So come on everybody. Instead of telling each other that "your amp is a piece of crap" let's help this guy out with some real suggestions for a tube amp that he "might be able to" crank at night. And, by the way, as all guitarists know, no matter how good the solid state amp (and there are good ones--Roland JC120, JC70, etc.) we all want a tube amp someday--heck, thats why I finally bought a little 15 watt Pro Junior--it glows in the dark (the tubes) and it does sound very good--especially loud.

Peace, Jim
 
Monsoon said:
I play hard rock/metal. Definitely like the solos. I like a good crunch in the sound.
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Get a Marshall. You won't be happy with the sloppy tone of the Mesa if you're playing solos.

If you're a good player, Marshall will reward with great tone and every note will be heard.
If you're bad, Mesa will cover up your playing a bit but you won't have the best tone and not all notes will be heard like a good Marshall.

PM me if you have further questions. I've used a lot of different AMPs and I always come back to Marshall. It rewards good players.
 
distortedrumble said:
so why is that i see pop rock bands with mesa and harder bands like taking back sunday and skindred with mesa if they are terrible? they sound pretty good to me its also interesting because these bands usually have a mesa and a marshall
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Because they aren't using "off the shelf" Mesas. In the studio, they are using custom amps. Most of them use MANY different amps. If they are endorsed by Mesa, they'll use them live and may have one for the studio.

Metallica is endorsed by Mesa but if you look in their studio, they have tons of Marshall's laying around. The Black Album was recording using mostly Marshalls modified by Jose.

Remember, we get (on the street) 'boxed' amps. We don't get 25,000 custom made amps.

Question: What guts do you think the 5150 is built from?
 
HangDawg said:
I'm not completely sure but on mine, the dual, that switch you mention is to control the bias depending on what tubes you put in it (6L6 or EL34) If you put it on the marshall(EL34) setting and it had 6L6s in it(stock from factory) that would have been the problem.

That's one of the great things about the Mesa, you can use either 6L6 or EL34s and from what I understand, you can make the rectifiers really scream by putting KT66's in them.

My guess is you had the switch in the wrong position. That and it takes a little time to get used to setting the rectifiers. It took me a little trial and error before I got used to dialing in the sound I wanted.
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Well we messed with the amps for 2 hours before we gave up on them. No matter what we did, we could not get a good tone from the amps. Maybe I am a bit biased but my ears are used to good tone and those Triples just hurt my ears.
 
HangDawg said:
Yep, verified with the picture on Mesa's website of the triple's back panel. There is no "Marshall type tone" switch. Just the bias switch. That could possibly explain why you thought it sounded so bad.


Monsoon
I understand that you don't want this to become a pissing match as to which is better. But I'm sure you don't want somebody giving you false impressions of gear when it was a case of operator error. Which it was in this case.
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Can you show me the photo you used? The switch was called "Classic British" (inferring Marshall) or something to that effect to sort of emulate the older Marshall amps. I know that switch was there and the sound wasn't even close to a quality Marshall Amp.

Monsoon, I am not sure if you'll get the answer. But if you are playing solos in a live band, you'll want a three channel amp. At least in my experience, that works best. You could get away with 2 channel and a volume pedal but you lose any control over the tone variance for rhythm and lead.
 
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