Question on Single Rectifier. Really Bassy woofy sounds

Hey everyone, Im new to the forum.


I own a Mesa Single Rectifier, version 1. I use it with a Mesa 2x12 rectifier cab, and sometimes use it on a 4x12 cab.


I have noticed that on clean or high gain modes, the amp is very bassy, almost to a point of being feedback or something on certain notes, especially with palm muting.


I notice this more on neck and neck/bridge positions, but also a little bit on the bridge alone. I use humbuckers, prs guitars.


I used to set my bass to 12 o clock, mids to 9 oclock, and treble to 1 or 2 oclock. Now I find myself turning the bass down to like 8 or 9 oclock to make it less of a woofy sound.


I recently changed tubes to see if this would change, but it has not.



Is this the nature of the single rec, or all the rectifiers? Do you guys think its normal or could there be something wrong?




Thanks



Andre

They're bass heavy amps...just their nature...pushing the treble all the way can brighten them up quite a bit, and can be kinda fun IMO.

Also, are you using stock PRS pups? If so, they tend to be a little dark IMO...not helping you with the dark rectifier. Nor is the Recto 2x12...you've got a lot of things adding to the darkness of the amp, so it is going to put out a dark resulting tone.

I have a bunch of different guitars, 3 PRSs and a couple custom made Quicksilver guitars. The quicksilvers are a bit brighter, but yes, the prs 's are darker.



I will play with the eq more, and dial in the tone I want. I think it helps fill out the sound when playing live, and when I record it isnt picked up as much. Playing in practices and in the bedroom it can be quite bassy but I'll adjust. I just wanted to make sure I didnt have a problem with my amp!


Thanks,



Andre

A lot of guys throw a Maxon OD808 pedal in front to tighten the amp up. Also switch to Bold and Diodes...Other than that, not much else will give you great results besides selling.

I dont have the bold or diode options on my single.


I dont think I want to sell, I really do dig the tones.





Andre

Try turning up the mids more to bring back the punch when dialing back the bass to tame the boom. IMO mids at 9:00 does not allow the Rectos to cut through in a band mix and will add to the already dark nature of the amp. Also as others have mentioned using a TS-9 or OD808 as a boost will cut some bass and add some mids to the guitar signal. A good graphic EQ out front can help to further shape your tone.

If you consider modding your effects loop to serial, a good GEQ in the loop will do wonders for your final tone shaping. IMO that's your best option to tame the bass frequencies.

Also, cheap cables (especially longer than 20 feet total length) can rob you of treble response, as well as wah pedals. What's between the guitar and amp as far as effects?

Dom

I dont use much in front at all. Tuner so far, thats about it. I am going to use a couple of more pedals in the future, such as a reverb, chorus, etc. but so far I just go in dry.





I have normal cables, maybe I'll invest in better ones.



I will play with the mids a bit, and keep the bass down. If the amp is naturally bassy, I wont feel so bad about turning the bass down so far.



Thanks!



Andre

doctadre said:

I will play with the mids a bit, and keep the bass down. If the amp is naturally bassy, I wont feel so bad about turning the bass down so far.

Click to expand...

Trust your ears, not your eyes. I run the bass on my Roadster's red channel around 9:30-10:00 and it still shakes the room!

I actually had someone from another band at a gig accuse me of setting the bass on full and moving the knob to make it look like it was on 10:00. That guy almost sh!t himself when I showed him how much travel was left on the bass control. :twisted:

**** Marshall playing kids! :roll:

Dom

domct203 said:

doctadre said:

I will play with the mids a bit, and keep the bass down. If the amp is naturally bassy, I wont feel so bad about turning the bass down so far.

Click to expand...

Trust your ears, not your eyes. I run the bass on my Roadster's red channel around 9:30-10:00 and it still shakes the room!

I actually had someone from another band at a gig accuse me of setting the bass on full and moving the knob to make it look like it was on 10:00. That guy almost sh!t himself when I showed him how much travel was left on the bass control. :twisted:

**** Marshall playing kids! :roll:

Dom

Click to expand...

+1 on this.... I never ran my bass above 10:00. Something else to consider would be EL34's... That'll tighen up the low end some too.

FYI: For the longest time, I thought something was wrong with my Recto because of the flubby bass...... But my amps always checked out fine. After my 3rd Recto, I came to realize that they do have that nature if you crank the lows too high. It did this with every recto I had (Triple, Dual, RK, Roadster, T-verb and Rectoverb).

Do you change your strings regularly ?? I have found with my PRS's at high volume and gain the pups can cause boomy feedback and they actually vibrate !! :shock:

And bear in mind that on the rectifiers, the treble and presence controls are the most powerful. it can help tame the other frequencies if you dial them up right.

I don't believe you've mentioned what your gain setting is yet. Gain above about 2:00 on a Recto gets muddy/flubby very quickly. Keep your bass down and put the mids back in like some of the guys have already said. Try setting your gain to straight up noon to start with, and adjust from there.

Hey doctadre

I'm new to this forum as well; hopefully it's not too early to be dispensing tips and advice. I have a Single Rec. as well (of which I'm having some eq-ing issues). As tele_jas suggested, EL34's def. do brighten the amp up somewhat. I have a pair of JJ's as well as Mesa's STR 447 EL-34's that I like to swap out the 6L6's for. You could also try diming your presence and boosting your mids.

Ciao

iv had a single rec for about 8 months now
so far this is what Ive found

you can pretty much turn the bass all the way down and stll have more than say.. a marshall.
as you turn up the mids it adds quite a bit of bass
as you turn up the trebble it cuts bass and mids

as far as I know the presence is a traditional presence control that rolls off the highs after the preamp.

if you regularly turn the output up really high like to noon the el 34s can change the amp a whole lot suddenly there is loads of high end.

one more thing

get your speaker cab off the floor and away from walls or corners to tame the boomyness

I have a single recto that I play through a Marshall 1960 quad. I used to have the bass dimed on my crappy valvestate marshall head. I have the recto bass set at about ten o clock and it is more than enough. I find pushing the mids up to about ten o clock helps cut through the mix better and generally gives a punchier sound.
I play a Washburn Stage A20 with SD Custom Custom bridge.