New Boogie owner + settings help

Hey all and merry christmas. Got a big surprise this morning in the form of a new dual rectifier and rectifier 2x12 cab. The tones I have got out of it so far are very pleasing but because I am coming from a solid state line 6 spider I have limited knowledge of how to EQ the tones I am after. I'm trying to get Van Halen and Satriani type lead tones but dont know where to begin. Any tips greatly appreciated.
Also, will I be needing a tube screamer to reach these tones.

Cheers,
Joe

Hello, welcome, and congrats on the new additions to your rig!

Check out these two links for a quick start (tks to domct203 for keeping these links in the conversation (in a different thread)....good stuff).


http://www.forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6704

http://www.forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=54097


Strat

ps - Be patient, and prepared to become MUCH better at dialing in an amp by ear then you may have ever been. These are crazy, but vastly satisfying, beasts.

Welcome to The Board and congrats on the new Recto, that's quite the Christmas present for sure!

Coming from a SS amp to an all tube Mesa will be a big adjustment, especially a Recto. The amp is very unforgiving and will force you to be a better player.

For fluid lead tones like VH or Satriani you will want to try some sort of boost out front to give the preamp some added compression and sustain. Don't abuse the gain controls or you will kill all the dynamics in your playing. Start with the gain around 12:00-2:00, and the EQ at 12:00. Use your ears, not your eyes to dial in the amp, and be sure to read your manual as it explains how all the controls interact to shape your tone.

The Dual Recto is not really a "bedroom" amp, it sounds best at stage volume. You will find that settings that sound great at bedroom levels will sound like crap at band volumes so be prepared to tweak!

Good luck, and be sure to ask questions here about any issues you may have with the amp.

And be sure to read that manual.

And NEVER run the amp without a speaker connected to it, you will damage it. That goes for just about any tube amp.

Dom

Thank you both for the advice. To be honest i've only spent half an hour or so just messing about with it and can't wait to take some time dialling in my own tones. Gonna get myself an od808 or ts9 soon as i've heard these are the best pedals for a clean boost to channels 2 and 3 although i'm not entirely sure I will need one yet. Just going by what other people say.

Cheers,
Joe

I would definitely consider an OCD as a boost.

DR_JJ said:

I'm trying to get Van Halen and Satriani type lead tones but dont know where to begin. Any tips greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

Van Halen and Satriani tones from a MESA Rectifier??????? It ain't happening, dude. I learned this lesson the hard way, back in the mid-1990's. The MESA Stiletto, Royal Atlantic, and even the Mark V will get you MUCH closer to these tones. They will also NOT need a boost pedal to get you there. Sorry for the buzzkill.

Yeah I thought so. All i'm really shooting for is a nice lead tone now. Not going to try and emulate others tones, just find my own and stick with them. I chose this amp as I love the recto sound, I could have chosen a 5150 or whatever else but I didn't. I'll mess around with it properly this weekend and take it from there.
Cheers,
Joe

Any Tubescreamer (or copycat pedal) will help you get the lead tones you are looking for. My money is on the BB Preamp. Adds some nice mids and low end to your sound. Check out Andy Timmons lead tone with a Single Rectifier. There are videos of YouTube.

I would use your manual to start you search for the tone you want.

I dont push my gain much higher than 1 on my triple, I like to scope down the mids some, and run the bass and treble around the noon mark, but dont set it according to this, use your ears.

Ive had recs for years and love them, lately Ive stayed away from the modern tones, for what you are asking explore the vintage setting, I thinkyou will find something close in there to what you ask for.

Speaking of TS's on the rec, I like to set a channel to Raw, with just a little breakup from the gain and then boost it with the TS, I also tend to run the mids higher on this channel, it really makes your leads come out more fluid in my mind.

Good Luck and enjoy, its a monster amp and should give you years of enjoyment, just take a lot of time dialing it in.

One of the greatest tricks for lower volume playing is to route your signal thru the loop and use the loop master as your overall master volume, doing this you can get a very good tone at lower levels to practice with. Dont think you just have to crank this amp to get your tone, tone has nothing to do with volume, in spite of what many people on here will tell you, once again use your ears as your guide and dont be afraid to move the eq controls around every now and then to get what you want.

Hey again guys,
Im still yet to really sit down with the amp to find good tones. I would like to know however whether to be using diode or tube tracking for a good lead tone as i've heard varying opinions. Also bold or spongy.
I've also just found my dads old Boss SD-1. Are these good for a lead boost.
Cheers, Joe

DR_JJ said:

Hey again guys,
Im still yet to really sit down with the amp to find good tones. I would like to know however whether to be using diode or tube tracking for a good lead tone as i've heard varying opinions. Also bold or spongy.
I've also just found my dads old Boss SD-1. Are these good for a lead boost.
Cheers, Joe

Click to expand...

SD-1 is a very good pedal. If it's an oldie, keep it, don't sell it; black label made in Japan by chance? That's the one you want.

Cannot answer for bold or spongy, I own a Rectoverb and it doesn't have these controls.

If you search my posts I mention plenty about EQ's / tones / drive pedals etc. ..... all in relation to my setup of course but you can take whatever you want and learn from it. It's all about ideas and trying things out. And about fun, too, right?

Just experiment but be mindful of volumes... you can do hearing damage. And make sure you always have a speaker plugged into your amp.... you've been warned before.... otherwise you could be up for a new power trannie = $$$

JW123 said:

Speaking of TS's on the rec, I like to set a channel to Raw, with just a little breakup from the gain and then boost it with the TS, I also tend to run the mids higher on this channel, it really makes your leads come out more fluid in my mind.

Click to expand...

+100

The Raw channel is a thing of beauty. I do the same thing as you; a little breakup, slightly higher mids, reduced bass and reduced treble. I use various OD/Dist pedals and usually cascade 2 pedals + EQ pedal after them (if required) + an EQ in the loop. Really allows for full tonal shaping.

I find you can get a really good smooth, liquid type of drive. Great for leads and palm mute type chord work.

I really need to record some stuff......

DR_JJ said:

Hey all and merry christmas. Got a big surprise this morning in the form of a new dual rectifier and rectifier 2x12 cab. The tones I have got out of it so far are very pleasing but because I am coming from a solid state line 6 spider I have limited knowledge of how to EQ the tones I am after. I'm trying to get Van Halen and Satriani type lead tones but dont know where to begin. Any tips greatly appreciated.
Also, will I be needing a tube screamer to reach these tones.

Cheers,
Joe

Click to expand...

Well done - great gift.

When Mr Satriani visited Australia he did a clinic at my friends super store in Sydney where he was the manager and as such was asked to supply Marshall amps and Boss OD1 pedals (apparently Joe was travelling light on this trip...

Anyway before the gig we heard him trying stuff out - you know what - we all said "the tone is all in his fingers, he could've used any amp and any pedal and it would still sound exactly like Joe". It was amazing.

Granted a Dual Rectifier sounds different to a Marshall but they do have a lot in common as well and if you get the guitar and playing technique right 99% of people won't pick any difference.

To help out I would definitely use a guitar with humbuckers, something like DiMarzio PAF Pro/FRED pickups...

I have an older 2channel recto so I'd pick the "vintage" orange channel, set gain up pretty high, like 3 o'clock, treble between 1 and 3 or clock, mid pretty well off or there abouts, bass at about 12 o'clock and presence well let's start with 12 o'clock.

You should definitely also use the guitar volume, even if you crank the gain on the amp, just lower the guitar volume (even if it's on very low!). Just balance the guitar volume and amp gain see how you go.

At home I wouldn't use bold, go with spongy and probably rectifier tubes not diode rectification. Otherwise it'll get very loud and I think these settings are more on the money. (I switched to Mesa 5881 tubes to help lower the volume at home but that's another story).

If it feels like a strain trying to play leads and you find yourself trying to eek out every bit of juice from every note then a pedal will help a Boss OD1, TubeScreemer, etc etc, just set the distortion or overdrive pretty low if not zero and just use it to boost the amp and fatten up the leads.

The other 99% of it comes down to how you play

This is my first post, as I too am new to dual rectifiers, so what I say should probably be taken with a couple grains of salt...

While I was shopping for amps (I didn't get much chance to play with them before buying since selection around here is limited) I ruled out single rectifiers simply for the lack of the tube rectifier. I have always loved the feel of old amps with tube rectifiers... But have found with my Mesa I almost exclusively use the solid state rectifier, so don't rely on any preconceived notions you may have had when it comes to that.

It really does come down to using your ears and not listening to what anybody else thinks you should be doing, or even what YOU thought you would be doing with it before you actually got to hear it for yourself, with YOU playing on it with YOUR guitar... Another example... I've always thought that most people use far too much gain, and while my main high gain sound is channel 3 vintage with the gain at about noon, my channel 4 is modern with the gain at about 3 o'clock. If I had read somebody else say that without having heard it, my first thought would have been that must sound like an undefined worthless mess with no real "umphh" to it. But I use a strat with fairly low output pickups... and it just works. The same settings with an Ibanez tuned down 43 steps with EMGs probably would sound like an undefined worthless mess...and I'm not knocking the super tuned down sound at all... I'm sure the amp could do that too, but not with those settings. Just pointing out that it all comes down to the entire setup as a whole, and not to put 100% faith into what you read without trying it yourself.

That said, whatever setting you end up liking for the gain... turn it down 25% (j/k) (kinda)