These are a few of my favorite cleans

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dlpasco

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After owning (at the same time) a full-sized Mark V, an Electra Dyne, a Road King II, and a multiwatt Dual Rectifier, my favorite clean sound came from:

(Drum roll) the multiwatt dual rectifier.

I've since sold the Mark V, the Road King II, and the Electra Dyne.

Like Fat mode on the Mark V and Road King II, the Dual Recto Reborn's clean sound is marketed as based on the Lone Star's clean channel, and I believe it.

After A/Bing the cleans on all of these amps I found that the Recto's cleans had a fuller, more pleasing dynamic range and feel to them.

Furthermore they were superior in the ultimately subjective way that is all that really matters: the Recto's cleans suck me into playing more, because I enjoy it much more than playing clean on the other amps, and I prefer its sound in my recordings.

I fully accept that I may be nuts here. Maybe so. I am just sharing what I have experienced. This factor was a big part of why I sold these other amps.

note: I am using a Strymon Big Sky for reverb, so the lack of built-in reverb on the Recto didn't really come into it for me.

I started learning an old jazz standard "Willow Weep For Me" last night and recorded a very short clip using my Dual Rectifier (clean, dry) and a '53 Gibson ES-175 https://soundcloud.com/dlpasco/willow.

It does jazz very well in my opinion but other clean styles as well.

I don't know how much love the Recto Reborn gets for its cleans, and perhaps it will sound terrible to the rest of you, but I thought I'd share the experience for other people to have as a point of reference.
 
Nice. I can't speak to the cleans of the Dual (never owned one). I've had a bug for a while to try out an LSS. However, our (semi)local Mesa dealer never seems to have one.

I've owned several other Mesas in my life, and the best one's cleans I like is the one I currently have - the Mark IV. My SG has some gorgeous jazz tones through the IV.

(PS: Loved the background vibes on your soundtrack!)
 
Try out a Blue Angel or a Maverick if you get a chance.

The Blue Angel sounds great with the 6V6s (my preference) as well as the EL84s; I don't find much use in combining the tubes, but I don't gig with this amp (where the extra power would be useful). The reverb is very lush, but I'm guessing you'd stick with the Strymon (I'm looking for a Flint myself).

The Maverick is a more versatile amp (with a second channel and the select-able rectifier). The reverb isn't as lush, but it sounds very, very good. If you hear a "bad" Maverick, I'd bet it has tubes that are too hot -- I've had dramatic (and undesirable) tone changes when trying other brands of tubes and I swear by the Mesa-branded tubes at this point.
 

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