NAD: 1995 Dual Recto

So I sold my FJA 3 Channel Dual Recto (and got more that I had thought I would for it) and was on the hunt for a 2 Channel Dual or Triple. Saw a Dual on the local CL for $750 and thought 'what the Hell, might as well check it out'.

This amp had been on CL for many weeks (!!) and man when I saw this amp it had been to the war in the Middle East and probably done several tours at that. Headshell is beat, dried up beer stains on the top and vent grill, etc.

Dude fired it up and I about fell over. Sounded amazing. So I paid the guy and off I went home.

Pulled the chassis and actually laughed out loud. It had NEVER been out of the shell, and still had the OE tubes in it, except for 2 of the center power tubes (several of the power tubes had loose sockets as well as the rectifier tubes) and literally was caked in beer and dirt and mice droppings:



Preamp tubes are the STR 12ax7-A (which I just happen to have bought several a few weeks ago on a whim) with an old Chinese SPax7 in V1. Inside the chassis it looks totally brand new, with the exception of a screen grid resistor that looks like it got a little hot years ago due to a tube failure or something.

Without this preamp tube combination in it, the amps sounds good, but not anything to jump up and down about. When you put in the SPax7 in V1, BOOM you are in Rockland. So cool!!

After I cleaned it up:







Anyone know if the current Mesa Spax7's are just JJ's? I would love to find more of these old Chinese tubes. Sound HUGE!!

Oh and I had enough leftover to go and get a Mesa 4x12 as well. 8)

Congrats on the new amp and the sale of your other! How does this 2 channel compare to your last 2 channel?

mikeweber74 said:

How does this 2 channel compare to your last 2 channel?

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Good question. The 2 things that stick out for me about the Rev. E was that it didn't matter what tubes or what cab you used, it sill sounded fantastic. The other thing I remember was how bad the clean channel was (doesn't help I use super hot Duncan active pups).

The '95's clean channel is the cleanest of any Recto I have ever owned. No light break up on a chord strum, nothing. Totally clean. Love it. It also is pretty cranky about what tubes you put in (or maybe I just have crap tubes?). As for the Modern channel, it sounds basically identical to how my Rev. E sounded, just a little less highs I think. Could be the tubes who knows.

Now thats an amp with character! Great score! And a great story to go along with it. So this one is an early G?

droptrd said:

Now thats an amp with character! Great score! And a great story to go along with it. So this one is an early G?

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Yeah. Serial number is R-5013 or something. Has the attached power cord and quick connect bar (later ones had screws).

So, this one going out to Jerry P?

droptrd said:

So, this one going out to Jerry P?

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Nope! Leaving it bone stock. Not even going to do the bias mod.

Having gone so far in the 'modification' dept., it is nice to have an amp I can just pop tubes into and whatnot ya know?

What alot of people don't realize is that when you are looking at tube descriptions ("XXX brand has lots of lows" or "this tube has good harmonics") that they are in reference to stock amps. So when you change how the amp operates altogether, those descriptions go out the window and those tubes, speakers, etc. don't affect the now modified amp the way you would think (or hope) it would.

Besides, it costs alot of **** money to send an amp to the opposite coast and have it worked on! :lol:

So anyways, it's nice to just have something that sounds killer and I don't have to fuss with it. haha

fluff191 said:

Anyone know if the current Mesa Spax7's are just JJ's? I would love to find more of these old Chinese tubes. Sound HUGE!!

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Yes, they should be. Congrats on the amp man!

-AJH

I cut the rubber off one of my SPAX7s and it was a JJ. That's not to say that there aren't Chinese SPAX7s.... I really don't know.

That said, it's not like you have a waranty to consider, so sourcing a non-Mesa labeled Chinese tube shouldn't be an issue.

screamingdaisy said:

That said, it's not like you have a waranty to consider, so sourcing a non-Mesa labeled Chinese tube shouldn't be an issue.

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Yeah I have loads of Penta, Ruby and regular Mesa Chinese tubes but they sound muddy compared to the old one. I have not tried the GT 12ax7-C. Might give that one a shot.

When I picked up my Roadster it was loaded with all Mesa JJs and had a bit of that muddy/excessive bass/lack of high end thing going on. A TungSol in the V1 woke that amp right up and turned it into a monster.

Not saying it'll always be like that. I may have lucked out with a particularily good TungSol.

Congrats! That's a hell of a score for $750.

I dearly miss my '95.

The SPAXs are just a regular tube with a rubber coating on it. The same thing can be done with a few rubber O-rings over the tube...it helps cut down on microphonics and vibrations.

I have a ton of the old Chinese STR 12AX7s. They are great sounding.

Yeah the SPax7 in this amp doesnt have the rubber around it. Probably cause it wont fit in the base of the tube shield thing (A regular EH tube wont fit in V1!!!).

If you ever want to sell a couple of those Chinese tubes you let me know. :wink:

Nicely done fluff. I was excited when you mentioned you were going for a 2 ch - dual or trip.
Congrats. I'm getting cover to putting up some clips of my setup.

Yetti said:

I'm getting cover to putting up some clips of my setup.

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Do it!

nice pickup on an old recto. I love the 2 channel versions. The channel switching is quicker and less noise. As for the preamp tubes, yes the older chinese do sound good and better than many current production tubes. I still recommend the classic nos GE JAN philips, those are my fav comparing to all other NOS like Mullard, Amperex, Tele, RCA and etc. I would certainly have you check out some nos rectifier tubes as well. They certainly bring out more of a vintage sound and feel to the mesa tubes.

Other than that, great amp!

cradlefish said:

I still recommend the classic nos GE JAN philips, those are my fav comparing to all other NOS like Mullard, Amperex, Tele, RCA and etc.

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Hmmm recommend me some combinations.

I have 2 JAN GE's, 2 RCA's and as mentioned above I really like the old Mesa STR 12ax7's in V2 and V3 (which is stock). Still don't know what make those tubes are. They look identical to an old Raytheon I used to have.

Just fantastic, huh? Somehow these old mesa heads have mojo. No matter what new tone I want, I just can't part with my old blackface 2 channel dual. I need to find some time to practice, been too busy finishing term. I scored a short animated film and I'm just doing some inane coursework. (Playing classical period chord progressions on piano for theory)

Wow talk about being productive.

fluff191 said:

Wow talk about being productive.

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:lol: You think I am productive of my own volition!?? :lol: This is all school work, sadly. I only managed to clock an hour on the cello today, simply because it is a more high maintenance instrument than guitar is. The chord progression stuff is boring to work on, but does help with theory. Shame it is all classical stuff. I'd rather practice ii V I (jazz) progressions instead =-/

The film score has been a huge blast. Probably my favourite project for the year, next to the Metal inspired Cello and Piano piece. (I was inspired by some of your tunes on your myspace) The film is a stop motion animation harkening back to the good old monster movies. I got to write lots of cheesy brass licks, but I was sure to make them awesome at the same time! My only regret about studying music is that I really don't get to play as much as I would like. (Ironic, huh?) I really miss gigging, as I gigged basically from the day I started playing guitar and now I am a basement wannabe. How ironic! My advice to 14 year old kids is to sell their videogame consoles, ditch their online friends, and spend the next 8 years practicing, while they still have nothing to do. I wish I could have told myself that back then!

When I took the film class, I was hoping to score something where I could haul out my gear and get some tracks down in a professional studio but I ended up going something much more retro. We did have studio time booked for our project but all my players ended up flaking out on me. I outsourced my brass recording halfway across canada to my friends out on the west coast. We laid down some oboe licks at the music building in a hallway with a low frequency hum, because the rest of the building was far too loud. (Air radiators blowing, people practicing piano scales, sopranos belting out high notes, jazz cats ripping on saxophone . . . ) Zoom H2 recorders sound like *** for guitar, but work well for symphonic instruments . . . My son then puked his broccoli and cheese babyfood all over himself and the floor. What a day!

So what does this have to do with my 2 channel dual!!?? I HAVEN'T TO PLAY IT IN OVER TWO WEEKS! IT IS DEPRESSING ME! After all the schooling, a big part of me would much rather get out and gig. I can play, but the real ability is in composition so that is why I am studying that. Who knows, maybe I'll get to do something interesting in the future?

Sorry for the digression, your 2 channel Dual looks really rad. Hopefully you'll hold onto it for awhile . . . :wink: