Rectoverb Tone - Head vs Combo (Mini Rec gain comp)

Been amp hunting for a couple weeks after I threw in the towel and returned my Marshall DSL40CR. To this point have not played Fender or Orange amps, but have played almost all the Marshall and Mesa’s

The best tone I’ve heard yet is the clean tone on a Rectoverb 25 combo. Was amazing. That said I found the gain channel horribly abrasive. The odd thing is that I dig the Mini Rectifier gain tones and the Rectoverb is supposed to just be the Mini + Reverb as I understand it. The Mini has a good clean tone, not nearly as good as the Rectoverb, but good nonetheless. But I pretty much enjoyed the gain structure on the Mini Rec. (Aside from some slight in-articulation under heavy gain)

So the questions are:

1. Is the Rectoverb truly just a Mini + Reverb or is there more going on?
2. Was my dislike of the Rectoverb gain channels potentially due to playing the combo, and not the head through a better cabinet? (I’ve read some people complaining about nasally or boxed tones via the combo, which may be their way of describing what I called abrasive) I have a new 2x12 Mesa cab with V30’s.

Here’s the rub. There is one Mesa dealer in my city and they don’t have a Rectoverb head only the combo, so I can’t really test out the head to see if my dislike of the gain channel was down to the combo setup vs a dedicated cab. So basically I’d have to take a $1400 stab in the dark.

Any thoughts, opinions, advice is welcomed.

Howdy...

I actually know nothing about the amps in question (had gas for rectoverb but found a deal in NOS ED combo and went that way...)

But if you’re brave enough you could take your cab to the store and test the amp itself (without combo speaker connected) into your cab RoV combo and head are same amps in different covers.

I usually have a strong dislike for combo amps and their honky tonality so that could be one reason for you not liking the combo also

Eevil said:

Howdy...

I actually know nothing about the amps in question (had gas for rectoverb but found a deal in NOS ED combo and went that way...)

But if you’re brave enough you could take your cab to the store and test the amp itself (without combo speaker connected) into your cab RoV combo and head are same amps in different covers.

I usually have a strong dislike for combo amps and their honky tonality so that could be one reason for you not liking the combo also

Click to expand...

So I did try it connected to a 1x12 (but stock combo speaker still connected) but frankly it didn’t change my opinion much, which I’m thinking was a combination of me not having it cranked loud enough and also that the 1x12 we plugged it into was a black shadow C90. Not sure if the combos Fillmore speaker with the cab black shadow speaker would mesh well. (My cab is dual V30’s) And really wish I had the foresight at the time to just disconnect the cab speaker altogether.
That’s what’s got my wheels spinning for those that have either played both the head and combo and/or those that have played the head and a mini rec.

If it was a simple as the getting the brilliant rectoverb clean tone with the mini rec gain staging it would be the amp for me.