Rectifier recording preamp; treble control is really wierd

When connecting the rectifier recording preamp correctly to the 2:100 rectifier poweramp it's suposed to sound like dual rectifier, but it does not!
With the exact same settings in modern/red mode the rack setup will sound alot brighter and have less mids.

I know there is a live/recording switch on the preamp but refering to the manual all it does it take away stuff, not add, so I that means ot should be set to live/bright. Setting it to warm kinda kill the sound when playing through a cabinett.

However...
The treble controll on the dual rectifier set to 12.00 o clock sounds like the treble controll on the recto preamp set to minimum...really wierd...

I've double checked this with several units....di'd mesa make the treble controll on the recording preamp work like this by purpose?

I find the settings on the pre a bit more sensitive but still the same tonal characteristics of the Dual Rec head(lots of mids and treble to play with). There is a bright switch and and -3DB switch as well near the gain controls.
The warm setting should only be used when recording direct.
If you are dialing in the same controls on the preamp and your head they wont sound identical .
The preamp needs a lot more tweaking then the heads do. Thats fairly standard with most pre-amps. They require a little more work then just going straight into a head but you should be able to achieve the same tone with some tweaking.
You have to approach the rack as a separate piece of gear.
Its not just the head in a rack casing.

the rec pre is intended to give you a little more latitude within the "familiar" tones so it's very tweak-sensitive. I think that's why some people have said they like the rec pre/2:100 combo better than the dual rec head.

The manual is pretty good at explaining what they were trying to do on each mode even if the actual technical detail is lacking. best thing you can do with your new rec pre is sit down with the manual, read it, then try their sample settings in a DI situation and start tweaking from there. The tone knobs have very different effects in different modes, so that takes getting used to. After that, try hooking it up to a power amp and cabs and see what's different.

The rack setup is actually a little brighter with the treble set to minimum AND the bright switch set to off.......yikes.......

...and I don't care about DI, I use it to mic a cab....

one thing I've found is that on the "modern" setting a lot of the brightness is tied up in the 'presence' control, so try messing with that. I find that cranking the presence all the way on any of the modes results in pretty odd tones that can have a place in a mix but aren't something you'd wanna punch for a solo or lead.

I suggest trying DI first because it's a lot easier to sort this stuff out in a quieter situation, you won't blow your ears out as fast It will help you hear how the different modes were designed, and then you can see what the controls do with less variables (like the mic and mic placement)

Also, try it DI if you're just mic'ing a cab anyway. You might be very pleasantly surprised, esp for cleaner tones.