A Mesa Rect Question

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StudioMxpx

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I have a Mesa Dual Rectifier head..first of all I wanna get a clear Distortion sound..somehtign that is Heavy enough to palmmute and it wont sound all crunchy..A sound like the bands Atreyu or Hawthorne heights..i tried to get a simular sound but does any one have any good setting for it..or any good setting at all would be helpful:) (i know i should experiment with my sound and i do but any kind of setting right now sure will be useful to me!..also my other question is on the back of the Rect head..it has a switch from vacuum tubes to silicon diodes and a switch from spongy to bold..which ones are paried up with eachother and which ones should i be using for my type of music? (Metal/screamo) i did read the manual but im not quite geting it but any help with this would be awsome! thanks!
 
the guitar you are putting through the head has quite a bit to do with the sound , what kind of guitar are you playing ?..i have a gibson s.g. supreme through a mesa trip rectifier , we have a sort of a foo fighters-ish sound ..im trying to rem my settings on the back ...fuck i have to go look ...i'll post it later tonight . :o
 
I play a Fender Strat with Hot Rails in the lead through a Triple recto. The sound I have is similar to what you're describing (I think). My settings are as follows:

Gain: 4
Presence: 2
Lows: 4.5
Mids: 7
Highs: 10
 
First off... I own an esp ltd ex-350 and played through my mesa triple rectifier it sounds terrible. It's the pickups in the guitar. EMG HZ's are just not good pickups IMO. I have a couple of stratocasters, 1 with a seymor duncan hot rails and the other with a HB jr. and they both sound great. Also, my gibson flying V sounds great through the mesa too. Clean, I'm sure the F-250 sounds really good. But distorted I bet it sounds a little bit dull. So, try this for settings:
for the switches in the back, you probably want the power on spongy, and the rectifier switch on tubes. on channel 3 (i'm assuming you have one of the newer 3-channel heads) turn the gain type switch to modern (you know that switch that says "raw, vintage, modern") and turn your gain all the way up. Now, turn the presence knob almost all the way up, maybe to about 4 oclock. Turn your bass to about 1 oclock, and the mid to around 8 oclock (almost all the way down) then, experiment with the high knob and get it up to where you want it. It should provide a decent 'screamo' sound. If it sounds a little too trebly, turn the mid knob up a little bit.

If you still can't get the sound you want after playing with the settings, consider this: The best sound I have ever gotten out of my triple rectifier, was with a $30 POS distortion pedal. In fact, it was a danelectro black coffee. One of those crappy mini ones. Try a distortion pedal! I've noticed that sometimes with tube-type preamp gain it sounds a little gritty. Like the gain is not really 'tight'. It's hard to explain, but, I just like the sound of a solid-state gain with a tube power amp. I believe this is what you are looking for in your sound. I guess just try some things, and you should be able to come up with the sound you are looking for.

I just thought of this too: There are a couple of knobs in the back, and for some reason (don't ask me why) they effect your tone. They are for the effects loop and even with the effects loop off, or bypassed, or whatever, they still can have a factor in how your amp sounds. They are the effects send and return knobs. The small ones. I have those turned all the way up on my head. Try playing with these as well. The mesa rectifier amps are actually really difficult to get the sound you want out of them, but it's not because they are shitty, they are just different than most amps. Experiment with it. The more you play with it, the more farmiliar you will get with the sound. Play with the switches.. all of them are fair game EXCEPT the bias switch, which is in the back, and has two settings, EL34/6L6. DO NOT CHANGE THIS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. IT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOUR AMP WORKING OR NOT WORKING AND IF YOU CHANGE THE SETTING WITHOUT CHANGING THE TUBES TO THE OTHER TYPE, YOU WILL BURN YOUR AMP UP! But since you read the manual, I'm sure you know that already :)

Anyway, hope this helps!
 
well atreyu's sound came from 5150's, thats 6 preamp tubes which is what makes the amp so gainy, mesa boogie has a different sound to it, IMO the low end sounds completely different on the two and the two amps have a very different sound as far as gain goes, the mesa is more fat and the 5150 is a thinner sound with a looser low end.

just my opinion though
 
ok how about Hawthorne heights? i know one of there guitar players uses a Mesa rect...how should the seting me for that sound?
 
StudioMxpx said:
ok how about Hawthorne heights? i know one of there guitar players uses a Mesa rect...how should the seting me for that sound?
Click to expand...
Though this has been said time and time again, you really aren't going to be able to cop someone's sound soley based on their amp settings. Furthermore, they have three guitar players. I know one uses a Soldano, and I'm pretty sure that's the prominent amp in the mix.
 
I have always used 'bold' and silicon diodes. It makes for a tighter bottom end and a more focused sound IMO.
 
Mesa boogies are extremely hard to dial in. My recomendation is set the tone controls to center and use distortion/presence to dial in your tone. It took me about 3 months to get the hang of it.
 
What ever happened to turning some knobs while you play? The spectrum of tonal possibilities on a dual rec is not so great that it couldn't be adequately experienced with a decent 30 minutes or an hour of fiddling. Also that would help you get to know your amp a lot better, and that is something that you obviously need to do!
 
Furthermore, the controls are meant to be adjusted....you're not going to break it! :D Just start in the middle and move 'em around till they sound right. If you have any idea what a good tone sounds like you'll know it when you hit it. ;)
 
VesuviusJay said:
Mesa boogies are extremely hard to dial in. My recomendation is set the tone controls to center and use distortion/presence to dial in your tone. It took me about 3 months to get the hang of it.
Click to expand...
Word! Presence is a powerful powerful knob on the Boogies. It's also very easy to add too much bass to your sound. I usually end up with the bass turned down below 5, presence over 5 somewhat, gain at about 8-ish. If you have all the knobs maxed out one way or the other, you're probably doing something wrong.
 
i read once that one of the most important thing about playing guitar is to try and find your own unique sound and style insted of trying to sound like your heroes(forget all i just said if you are in a tribute band)i would only recomend trying to get the sam esound as some one else if you are a beginner
oh and i saw a video of a Atreyu in the studio and one of the guitarist was playing thru a pod xt
 
I'd almost be positive that was for a clean part because no way are they getting their distorted tone through one of those.
 
booyah14 said:
I'd almost be positive that was for a clean part because no way are they getting their distorted tone through one of those.
Click to expand...

Without a doubt!!! NO WAY is their distortion coming out of a POD XT!!!!

They have a great focused distortion sound on their new cd. I would be willing to bet it IS the Soldano.
 
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