Attenuator and a Couple of Guitar Cabs

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DrewPeterson7 said:
Do you use the "Deep" and "Bright" switches? They're not perfect, but basically they allow a little extra of what's getting stripped out to bleed through in those ranges, and with them on I can get perfectly good tone out of -16db.
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I do use them both. They do restore some of the goodies when flipped on but the tone still seems "squashed" to me when I really pile on the attenuation. But it still sounds waaaay better than the amp with the master volume turned down to match the same volume with no attenuation.
 
Tadpui said:
I do use them both. They do restore some of the goodies when flipped on but the tone still seems "squashed" to me when I really pile on the attenuation. But it still sounds waaaay better than the amp with the master volume turned down to match the same volume with no attenuation.
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Yeah, I'll be the first to admit that even then it's not 100% transparent, but also that the difference between a Recto at a given volume attenuated -16db and a Recto at the same volume but with no attenuation is HUGE, and the added power amp goodness more than makes up for anything the Hot Plate does. I'm happier with my tone with it by far than without it.
 
ocnor said:
Before you blow your wad on a THD Hotplate you might want to check out the attenuators that Ted Weber makes. http://www.tedweber.com/atten.htm
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I have a Weber Mass 150 that I use with the old Matamp 100-watt head (no master volume on that thing!) and it sounds very good. It has tone controls for low-mids and mid-highs so that you can tailor the response for whatever sound level you need. (He also has a Mass III 150-watt unit that has three tone controls.)

Edit: Weber Mass attenuators don't care about your speaker cab impedance. You could email Ted Weber to make sure that mismatched impedances are OK.
 
Markaholic said:
...the pots are huge, and i understand why they are, but they were making a grinding noise, almost like a "metal on metal" type noise everytime you turn them.(like when your brakes pads are toasted and hitting the metal)...
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From Weber's web site:

"That is a high power wirewound rheostat because it has to handle the full power of the amp. So, it is grainy feeling as you turn it. It will be fine, though. It is made that way."
 
The difference isn't tooo much, however even on 11, you're not hitting the 3rd Rect....so why own a triple...sell it and buy a mark IV!

let me guess, you scope your mids!

i'm an ass, but I have no respect for people who plays the mesa rectifier series...I openly racist towards them
 
my weber mass lite works perfectly.

i use a palmer pdi-09 to capture the full output of the amp to my DAW BEFORE the attenuator sees it...

and use the attenuator to simply control the volume for myself for monitoring purposes.
 
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iownrocknroll said:
The difference isn't tooo much, however even on 11, you're not hitting the 3rd Rect....so why own a triple...sell it and buy a mark IV!

let me guess, you scope your mids!

i'm an ass, but I have no respect for people who plays the mesa rectifier series...I openly racist towards them
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Then, with all due respect, you're a moron. I'm not a huge fan of the "Recto sound," and if you're going to dial one in with the Guitar Center Kiddie Settings of Doom, then they're going to sound like ass, no doubt. However, even my Single Rectifier (which doesn't have any of the switchable rectification settings) is an almost stupidly versatile amp. Yeah it'll do metal, but it'll cover anything from blues (with a TS9 and a Strat, it does a scary-good SRV tone) to blues rock (Gilmour could probably gig with Raw mode on the thing and never miss a beat) to jazz to country to, for me most importantly, the sort of mid-gain Satriani-inspired instrumental prog-metal lead tone I go for. Channel 2, Modern mode, mids high, bass low, treble halfway, presence pretty far back, channel volume about 9, master halfway up, and the amp just sings. I like Marks too, but anyone who thinks anyone with a Recto needs to sell it for a Mark simply hasn't played a Recto that's been dialed in right. It's a perfectly vaible alternative - just as great, just different.
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
Yeah, I'll be the first to admit that even then it's not 100% transparent, but also that the difference between a Recto at a given volume attenuated -16db and a Recto at the same volume but with no attenuation is HUGE, and the added power amp goodness more than makes up for anything the Hot Plate does. I'm happier with my tone with it by far than without it.
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Absolutely! Its worth the small sacrifice to the tone for the bounty of tone I get in return for being able to really cook those power tubes.
 
i'm half kidding about the mesa recto series....however, 3 recto circuits will never be used.
they are manufactured and marketed as "nu-metal-asshole-amps" hence the 150 watts. if you scope your mid range 300hz-3khz, you're gonna need the 150 watts..................
i'll put an ac50 up against one of them with some mids in it....bet it's louder!
 
iownrocknroll said:
i'm half kidding about the mesa recto series....however, 3 recto circuits will never be used.
they are manufactured and marketed as "nu-metal-asshole-amps" hence the 150 watts. if you scope your mid range 300hz-3khz, you're gonna need the 150 watts..................
i'll put an ac50 up against one of them with some mids in it....bet it's louder!
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Nah, they've been taken as such, though. It's worth noting the first band I was ever aware of using Rectifiers was Soundgarden.

You'd also be wrong about that AC50, by the way - even my Single is probably louder. The thing is just absurd. A guy I know runs a studio down in VA, and was telling me about this one time he was tracking a band and running a Dual Rectifier wide open - louder than god, but it sounded phenominal. Just, when they listened to the playback, there was this weird, slightly funky distortion going on that they couldn't quite trace. The preamps weren't distorting, the signal wasn't clipping, and the amp sounded fine in the room. Finally, he realized that the SM57 was distorting, that the amp was putting out more volume than the mic could handle. They turned it down a few notches, and the signal cleaned up. I mean, I didn't even think you COULD overdrive a SM57.

The real reason for the 150 watts of the Triple isn't volume (because honestly the difference in output between a Dual and a Triple is pretty slight, I want to say in the realm of 3dB) but rather the headroom - how well the poweramp stays clean at a given volume. The low end of a Triple is simply going to be clearer, tighter, and more punishing at a given volume than a dual or a single. Ironically, this does make it great for guys playing 7's, though this is as true for Jeff Loomis as it would be for Wes Borland.

Granted, a Dual Rectifier has enough clean headroom that I can't imagine ever needing more, but a buddy of mine who plays a seven into a Triple in a power metal band swears that the low end response is different enough in the triple to warrant the extra cost of retubing it.

FWIW, I do love the sound of a Mark-IV, I'm seriously fired up about the Mark-V, and prior to impulse-buying and subsequently falling in love with a Rectoverb, I'd played a Mesa Nomad for years, which is more in the Mark school of tone. It's just Rectifiers are amps that a lot of people love to hate, and I think a lot of the hate is unearned.
 
Yeah, its kinda like hating Victorinox knives because their leather punch attachment doesn't work to your liking. There's so much more they can do!
 
iownrocknroll said:
3 recto circuits will never be used.
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There are only 2 rectifiers in the triple rectifier. You have tube or solid state and I believe that it's one or the other and not both tube and solid state, but I could be wrong.

The triple in the triple rectifier references the number of channels, not number of rectifiers. It's a marketing ploy meant to confuse.
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
.....from speaking with guys who own Webers.......They're supposed to be incredibly transparent, and I believe are a bit cheaper
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Cheaper yes......

Transparent? Not.

I love Weber and his speakers, I own several of his speakers.

But you dont realize how much tone you lose with the Mass until you decide to try it without one day and you are stunned to remember what your amp used to sound like. I used two masses for months. Then I went to a small gig, and when I returned I forgot to reconnect the masses. I had the amp cranked up a bit, turned it on, and started playing. The volume shocked me, but I was absolutely floored to hear once again how the amp was really supposed to sound. I sold the masses on ebay the next day. Great great speakers, but I'll never do the mass thing again.....
 
iownrocknroll said:
let me guess, you scope your mids!
i'm an ass, but I have no respect for people who plays the mesa rectifier series...I openly racist towards them
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You sir would be incorrect. :) My mids never go below 10 o'clock,and i also use the vintage switches. The Modern switch is just too insane!
 
soundchaser59 said:
Cheaper yes......

Transparent? Not.

I love Weber and his speakers, I own several of his speakers.

But you dont realize how much tone you lose with the Mass until you decide to try it without one day and you are stunned to remember what your amp used to sound like. I used two masses for months. Then I went to a small gig, and when I returned I forgot to reconnect the masses. I had the amp cranked up a bit, turned it on, and started playing. The volume shocked me, but I was absolutely floored to hear once again how the amp was really supposed to sound. I sold the masses on ebay the next day. Great great speakers, but I'll never do the mass thing again.....
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I believe that most of this tone difference we hear is purely volume dependent.

There is some tone change because of the fact that the speakers aren't moving as much, but you can fix that by getting a smaller and/or lower wattage speaker.

With the mass lite there is no reason you should hear a big tonal difference. The small change that does occur will never be audible in a live band or recording situation.
 
Markaholic said:
You sir would be incorrect. :) My mids never go below 10 o'clock,and i also use the vintage switches. The Modern switch is just too insane!
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Try this, just for kicks - Modern mode, channel 2 but keep the mids at 3 o'clock, and the treble all the way back at zero. Adjust presence to taste. It makes NO sense, but somehow the combination makes for a great wool-y Hendrix-y sort of lead tone that records rather well. It's not my go-to sound, but it's an interesting one.
 
I guess I've spent too long on the indie circuit, the underground metal scene is and has been flooded with them.
i'll take a 5150 series 2 over it any day

. the triple does have 3 rectifying circuits..in theory you could put 20 solid state recs in there if you wanted.

i always found them to be a very harsh and fizzy amp....way more high end fizz then a jcm 900 with a gain mod!

and mesa tubes are junk as well, but that's another argument.
 
donkeystyle said:
There are only 2 rectifiers in the triple rectifier. You have tube or solid state and I believe that it's one or the other and not both tube and solid state, but I could be wrong.

The triple in the triple rectifier references the number of channels, not number of rectifiers. It's a marketing ploy meant to confuse.
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(posted before but it seems to have gotten lost)

From the Mesa website describing the Triple Rectifier: "150 Watts, Class A/B Power / 6x6L6, 5x12AX7, 3x5U4". The 5U4's (3 of them) are rectifier tubes.
 
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