Silent practicing - with a Dual Recto?

Hey guys.

I was thinking today when I had my F-50 before the Dual Recto, I would actually use the recording/headphone out ALOT. While it didn't sound exactly like a speaker, it sounded really good for recording and practicing purposes. It was also perfect, as living in an apt, the 'silent' switch and Mesa's 'emulated' recording/headphone out were godsends.

Now, I love the Dual Recto, I love the versatility, the 3 channels, and most of all the tone better than the F-50 - but it seems to be only usable in a band situation. I've been trying to find ways to use it sort of like I did with the F-50, in silence with the headphones or through a mixer perhaps.

Any ideas of what I could do? What would be perfectly ideal for me, is to actually leave the cabinet at my band's practice space, and bring the head home to practice with. I mean, I could bring the cabinet home every time as well, but I'd really rather not .

I know this involves some sort of purchase, maybe an attenuator to function as a load, or a speaker sim box. Any ideas.

In addtion, I've been checking out people's clips of Mark IV's and really loving the solo tone. Mark IV's also have mesa's recording out and silent switch, would I be better selling my DR for Mark IV? I really love my Dual Recto's tone though.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

use the efx loop as an attenuator of sorts.

steps:
-engage the efx loop in the back
-set the overall volume to about 10-11 oclock
-set the individual channel masters to about 8-9 oclock

this gives you the power tube tone at a lower volume.

Have you considered power attenuators like the THD Hotplate?

It can be used as a load so you do not need a cabinet, then you could run the slave output to an inexpensive mixer for headphones and/or recording. The Hotplate also has a line out.

Dom

domct203 said:

Have you considered power attenuators like the THD Hotplate?

Dom

Click to expand...

This is how I did it.

Thanks.

I'll try that, I set the the rotary switch for the efx loop to 'on' and then what do I send the send and return knobs to? Also, do I plug anything into the send/return jacks?

Any ideas for a completely silent setup? Maybe through headphones or a mixer?

Thanks.

I was researching attenuators, but the hotplate's line out isn't speaker emulated, wouldn't it sound really fuzzy? Or does it sound have way decent?

You can just turn the attenuator down very low.. not sure about using headphones with it

Try this out.. its expensive but it very flexable and pretty killer.

www.motherloadusa.com

Thanks
Jason

Yeah I saw that. I heard that was one of the best loadbox/speaker emulators but the $800+ tag is a little too much

Any other ideas?

Get something intended for headphones! Like a Line 6 POD! Leave your Mesa at the practice space, for use of what it was intended for!

I have a Pod XT. It's decent. Ironically, after using the F-50 with headphones, and going back to the Pod XT - the pod sounded really fake and lifeless.

You could try the Palmer units, they sound good and not as expensive as the motherloads.

Jason

Behringer makes a direct box with a speaker sim for about $35. I've never tried it so I can not comment, but for practice it might do the trick hooked up to the hotplates line out or the slave output.

Dom

Yeah, I think I might pick up the Behringer plus the Hotplate. I kinda feel the hotplate is a good investment anyway, as it will probably stay as I go through amps in the future.

I was thinking, I have the Pod XT - could I use that as a cabinet sim?

Plug the headphones into the cabinet out.


































Failing that, maybe an iso cab or one of the palmer units. How about the AxeTrak?

Wow that axetrak looks pretty good. I think I might try that.

Also - would I start a fire with the headphones in the speaker jack

headphones into speaker jack, no load = blown transformer. :shock:

Eric said:

headphones into speaker jack, no load = blown transformer. :shock:

Click to expand...

It was a joke, hence the huge gap between the first and second sentences.

headphones into speaker jack, no load = blown transformer.

Click to expand...

Headphones do have an impedence (32-64 ohms), all they are is speakers in "cups".

So, the amp will still see a load, so it should work fine. I would be more worried about the power rating of the headphones. However there is still no cabinet sim, and if you crank the amp to get it smooth you'll either blow the voice coils in the headphones (which could cause an open circuit which would then be no load) or your ear drums!!!

Stick with an attenuator & speaker cab sim. Those are purchases that you will never regret as long as you own tube amps.

Dom