Recto owners: try this if you haven't yet!!

I'm on my 5th Rectifier now - a 3-channel Triple - and although I haven't owned the dozens that some here have, I think I've got a pretty good grip on what makes these amps tick. Now on every Rectifier's red channel, I've found that doing one thing in particular works magic on the amp: turning the presence control completely off. If you haven't tried this yet, it's really worth doing. Just turn off the presence and use the bass, mid and treble controls to get your tone. Report back!

I dont have a recto at the moment. What does this trick do? I must know!

Tightens it & reduces fizz. sounds flat out better to my ears which is why I recommend it so highly. Also, on 3ch recs it makes orange and red channelS sound identical.

I keep mine around 3 (9 o'clock) way smoother with little presence

REALLLLY..... interesting......

hmmm, never thought of it this way..... I need to know now... :lol:

I do this with my Dual, and it was a closely guarded secret until now. Guess I'm not that weird after all.

so it makes the red sound like the orange?

JF Omalycat said:

I do this with my Dual, and it was a closely guarded secret until now. Guess I'm not that weird after all.

Click to expand...

Haha, nope. That or we're both weird!

With presence up, I find the type of high end is unmusical fizz. Again, to my ears, it doesn't really matter which note you play, the high end will sound the same. I have no clue why on earth Mesa designed it to work that way - maybe for other modes or on 2ch models, for channel cloning - but I think as JF Omalycat put it, that's the secret for the awesome Recto tone.

I though I might try and shed some light on those that have never done this because I'm tired of hearing people complain about their Rectifiers sounding fizzy and loose! I really do think this "fixes" those problems.

droptrd said:

so it makes the red sound like the orange?

Click to expand...

On the 3ch models, yes. In effect, by turning the presence control off - and someone correct me if I'm horribly mistaken - you're essentially taking the presence control out of the circuit. Since the presence control is the only difference between the 2 channels - minus small difference in component tolerances - they're then identical.

In some posts I've seen people talking about how much they like Orange Modern compared to Red Modern. The only thing they'd have to do to get Red Modern to sound great is to lower the presence control. If and when you guys get to try this, post back!

Just tried turning down the presence and turning up the treble to even it out, on my 2 channel dual.....didn't hardly make a difference to my ears.

Killswitch Engage turn the presence off on their Triple Rectos as well.

I put in an Orange Channel pot on my Red Channel and keep it at about 9:00.

Who knows what it will be at once I get it back from being modded though.

I agree with turning the presence off on the red channel sounds much warmer.

fluff191 said:

Killswitch Engage turn the presence off on their Triple Rectos as well.

I put in an Orange Channel pot on my Red Channel and keep it at about 9:00.

Who knows what it will be at once I get it back from being modded though.

Click to expand...

I can't wait to hear about what it sounds like from FJA; please post once you've gotten some time to test it! What did you want them to do to it, btw?

TheMagicEight said:

I can't wait to hear about what it sounds like from FJA; please post once you've gotten some time to test it! What did you want them to do to it, btw?

Click to expand...

There will def. be a post about the sound once I get it back.

And I just got the standard mod, which tightens up the bottom end, tames the high-end fizz, and gives notes more overall clarity. Installed TAD 6L6GC-STR tubes as well. Should be pretty cool.

Ill have to try this out. =p

Should be interesting for me, as I dont feel like my amp is loose or has a bunch of fizz to it in the first place. And I remember turning down my presence and feeling like the amp was being covered up, like throwing a blanket over the cab.

Once I get it out of the shop ill try out again though.

I've always done this on my 2 channel Recto, it sounds way better with the presence turned off. However, even with the treble just under half it's still a bit bright for my liking.

Botch said:

I've always done this on my 2 channel Recto, it sounds way better with the presence turned off. However, even with the treble just under half it's still a bit bright for my liking.

Click to expand...

Have you tried the Sovtek LPS? My favorite spots for that tube are V3 and V5 - more so V5. It's pretty dark and should make the amp darker if that's what you're going for.

I have one of them as I have the Doug's tube kit in my pre amp which is as follows:

Tung-Sol 12AX7
High Gain JJ ECC83
Penta 12AX7
Shuguang 12AX7 8th gen
Sovtek 12AX7 LPS

I can't remember which order they're currently in.

Botch said:

I have one of them as I have the Doug's tube kit in my pre amp which is as follows:

Tung-Sol 12AX7
High Gain JJ ECC83
Penta 12AX7
Shuguang 12AX7 8th gen
Sovtek 12AX7 LPS

I can't remember which order they're currently in.

Click to expand...

Ahh, I see. Well if I can recommend one thing to you, it would be to swap tubes out for something more suitable for your Recto. Doug's "tube kit" is supposed to be a sampler of different types of tubes because believe me, there are much better combinations out there for a Recto than those.

What I'd do is first get the Tung-Sol and Penta out of there; Chinese tubes, to me, add a lot of brightness and unnecessary fizz that doesn't work well with Rectifiers (or Bogners!). For the first 3 spots, JJs will work well, though I like to mix it up a little. I'd go with JJs or Electro-Harmonix - though EH aren't made as consistent - for V1 and V2. Your ears will tell you which should go where, or if you should just use two of a brand. For V3, I do like the darkness of the Sovtek LPS so I'd probably put one in there, but the JJs or EH tubes will work well here too. The effects loop, V4, I hardly even think about since I rarely use it, but the Penta would probably work best here - Penta tubes are well known to sound good in hi-fi circumstances, which is essentially what you want the loop to do. Phase inverter, V5, sounds great with the LPS again. I haven't played around with this spot too much, but I'd imagine a reissue Mullard would sound good here too.

A few things I've taken away is that in general, with Rectifiers, Russian and Eastern European tubes sound better than Chinese. The early stages - V1 and V2 - should be your clearer tubes with the most gain, while V3 you may want to tame it down (or not!). V4 should be clear to have the loop color the tone the least amount, and V5 must be chosen carefully because it will have a big impact on your tone.

Hope that helps!

And one more thing: I've never heard of anyone liking that Tung-Sol RI in their Rectifier. I'd get that tube out of there ASAP!

Thanks mate that post was massively helpful . Think I may have a few more JJ's kicking around at home so may swap out some of the tubes for them. Thanks again!