Metallica tone from a Rectoverb.

Do you guys think it's possible to get that tight, early Metallica tone from a Rectoverb 25? Possibly using an eq ran in the effects loop? I've been pondering this. I saw a video on youtube where a guy compares a ROV25 w/an eq and a Mark V25 side by side. It sounded similar but it was not a high def recording...I've never been able to demo in person.

Any owners of the ROV25 out there care to comment?

I don't own it, but, yes. Kill the 'verb and use only enough bass to fill in the bottom and it will be tight. A slight boost into the front with a reasonable amp-gain level will make the volume more compressed and keep the chugga chugga from being softened up as it decays. If you use a noise gate, clamp it hard to get the staccato, when needed.

...just how early Metallica?

I'm by no means an expert on Metallica sounds (I do my own kind of sounds) nor do I own a RoV but what afu suggests above sounds good to me.

For the very early (Kill 'Em All) sounds, you could even try a Rat or a similar dirt pedal instead of plain boost, as silly as that sounds, and keep the amp gain pretty low. That's more or less how Hetfield did those sounds.

Yep. That Rat and Marshall sounded sick.

Master of Puppets and AJFA used a Mark IIC+ slaved to a Marshall amp. He boosts the lows, but the power amp is EL34 and doesn't give the bottom like a Recto type of amp does. They also used parametric EQ to shape the sound on the console. He does some things where he boosts and cuts frequencies at different places, including the custom EQ he has covered in his rack nowadays that is Top Secret.

When he uses a Triple Rec, he sets the Presence kind of high and doesn't scoop as much. I don't know what mode he uses, but I would suspect it's Modern by his settings. I'd also suspect he's using silicon diode and Bold. He likes tight and those are the tightest settings for this amp line.

From memory, his settings are something like:

Presence 1:00
Gain 1:30
Bass: 2:00
Mid: 11:00
Treble: 2:00

There's a picture floating around that could be found through Google. I've used that setting and it is very good for Metallica rhythm, even on my amp, which isn't the exact same as his. Vintage is too bassy like this.

Kirk uses moderate, user manual suggested, settings for Gain and Presence. His bass is dialed back to 11:00. Mid is around 12:30 to 1:00. Treble a little more than 1:00. I think he uses Vintage, but he runs it into a 2:90 power amp, since it's a rack preamp. His midrange and bass setting leave a lot of room for his sound to be distinct from James and work really well with Vintage mode. I'd say the back panel settings would need to be set like James to keep the tight sound on an amp head.

Premier Guitar did a rig rundown. I think an approximation could be made for EL84 power tubes, though I'm not the best person to ask about what the changes would be.