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19K views 133 replies 42 participants last post by  screamndemon69 
#1 ·
Hey, whats up?
Here is the deal, i have the chance to take a single rectifier head for 1000E(about 1200$),or a tsl 100 half stack (1960 lead cabin 4x12 included) for 1500E(1750-1800$),all used, i wanna shred sound, what is the best for me? HELP me plz... The rectifier is too cheap and in very good cont, here in Greece single rec costs about 2200E (2600+$)...
 
#35 ·
JP is back to using Mesa Mark IV's at the moment, both in the studio and in the live rig. Systematic Chaos did have some Mark IIC+ on it too, but no rectos were used on the album.

He did use the Roadking exclusively on both Octavarium and Train of Thought though. The recto is great for heavy rhythms, but i prefer the tightness of the Mark amps, the lead sound is far less buzzy on the Marks too.
 
#38 ·
Yeah you are right about the Egnator etc, but i am in Greece, here i know only 2 or 3 persons have egnator, elmwood, about 15 have Diezels, and the prices starts on 2300E+ (out of my budget), Am not sure what to do, maybe i will go with the 83' jcm800 (its kinda vintage :cool:)
I saw the ****ing recto on photos and has some holes on the front, this will be my first tube amp and i want it in perfect contition, the jcm is perfect as i can see from the pictures...
 
#45 ·
I don't believe the "shred: go for Mesa" comment, as many who play Mesa these days seem to steer clear of solos, in general, mainly (and this is purely MY opinion) because they CAN'T. It's the Old Guard, such as myself, who say "F@#* you, I'm gonna tear it up" who solo AND swear by the Marshall sound (or in MY case the Laney AOR sound, which is pretty much the same thing. hehe)
 
#46 ·
No doubt Marshall has the (hyped) name and sound that most are very familiar with but just because you play a Marshall over a Mesa says NOTHING about your abilities. It does say other things to me but I'll keep those opinions to myself. (sorry to sound jaded but after working in music stores for so many years I see and hear all kinds of "great decision making skills" on why to buy one amp over another that usually have no real value on why to buy one amp over another.)

Everyone is different but I believe that if you don't have an amp (any brand) that is capable of getting good clean tones then it is not a good amp for a main amp. Cases in point would be alot of pro players that love the Marshall crunch use a Marshall for the crunch but have to A/B switch to an amp with a good clean sound because Marshalls just don't have it. Mesa's get both tones and do them well - period. You have to buy boutique amps to get the variety of complex tones most Mesa amps are capable of costing far more money than a Mesa.

Mesa is a USA hand built amp at the cost of import amps of inferior build. Seems like a no-brainer to me. I see people trying out Mesa's and say they sound like shi*t but literally 99.9% of the time it IS user error. Ex) treble on 10, bass on 10, mid scooped down to 1 or 2 and Gain on 10. If those are your settings, your ears probably can't discern complex tone anyway so enjoy your Marshall. :mrgreen:

I guess it's best to just dissagree about the Mesa/Marshall discussion as people have their own reasons for standing by one product over the next. I was just hoping to be a little more informative by sharing some facts as well as my personal experience rather than saying something intelligent like, "Marshalls OWN and Mesas SUCK dude!", which is all is seem to be hearing. :roll:
 
#48 ·
What did you get or plan to get?

This site rocks. Even when we dissagree, there can be things to learn thru some of these valuable discussions. I've learned more in over 5yrs+ around this site than I did in my 17yrs BJ ("before jemiste" - you sickos ;) ).
 
#52 ·
MT, your ears will be the best way to decide which has the tone for you but thru research you can learn "why" your ears might appreciate one amp over the other. It is kinda like the saying about "learning how to fish will feed you for life".

The quest for YOUR tone is a very personal experience but thru reading as much as possible, trying out as many different amps as possible and being patient you should find an amp or tone that will suit you. "Grail tone" tends to change for most people thru the years as peoples tastes change as they grow in playing skill and develop their own ears.

Take everything you read with a grain of salt but let your own ears be the final desicion makers. If the Marshall works for you over the Mesa, congrats!

I can rejoice in the fact I have found "my tone" with Mesa and I love to hear others be as happy with their tone (with whatever they use) as I am with the sounds I get from my Mesa.
 
#54 ·
i have owned both marshall and mesa voiced amps (copies..whatever) i enjoyed both . both can do some pretty cool things , ultimatly it depened on what i had going with the amp . which guitar with which pickups and what cab .

i can say i am really happy with my mesa mark III . It is versital and provides me with nearly anything i want . I recently switched out to all emg active pickups from dimarzios and the amp was still able to keep up and adjust accordingly to what tone i wanted now i have more clarity . the sound is still thick and full but it cuts and that is what i wanted. Clean the emgs sorta suck but the 85 in the neck and the way the clean on my amp is voiced still gives me a good fat clean clean sound .

i can say that i typically like mesa more then marshall . I would rather buy a mesa stiletto over any marshall any day , but i sort of have a thing against marshall .
 
#58 ·
i can say that i typically like mesa more then marshall . I would rather buy a mesa stiletto over any marshall any day , but i sort of have a thing against marshall .
+1

If i woke up tomorrow and decided I wanted an amp with a Marshall-esque tone, I could think of half a dozen amps i'd be looking at, and none of them would actually be Marshalls.

I have a lot of respect for Mesa/Boogie products, even though i might not necessarily like the tone of every single one of them (i much prefer the Mark series to the Rectos for example) - they're well built amps, and a lot of thought has gone into the design of each one. They seem to be on a constant quest for self-improvement as well, listening to feedback and fixing things, making improvements & revisions etc.

Marshall just seem to be in it for a quick buck these days, with all the dreadful recent amps (MG, AVT, Mode-Four..). Mesa could make a $100 piece of crap if they wanted and it would probably sell loads and make them a fortune, but they've stayed true to their commitment to quality.
 
#59 ·
You can't compare the two. They are completely different. Even the Stiletto sounds different from a true Marshall Plexi or JCM.

The only Mesa amp I've actually been impressed with is the Mark IV (Now that's an amp worth buying). Past that, Mesa doesn't do much for me, especially considering the price they ask on most. I recently spent over an hour with the Mesa F:50. Sounded like utter crap. Way too fizzy...

Sure, Marshall cleans aren't that great, but I can go out and get a Fender Super Reverb AND a plexi combined, for a whole lot less than a Mesa Roadking.
 
#61 ·
If you want loud balls to the wall shred metal, get MESA.

if you want classic rock crunch, then marshall is for you.

Mostly it depends on what guitar your playing and what your running it through.

Last week i happened to have turned on a Mesa triple Rect forgetting to turn down the knobs, and the thing blew my balls off.

Marshalls dont have that power.
 
#127 ·
I know you've played a few different Mesas and are also at least relatively impressed with the Mark-IV, and I'll also state for the record that I'm not personally a MASSIVE Rectifier fan...

...but, honestly, the "buzz-box" you're referring to isn't because the amp sucks, it's because a large chunk of Rectifier owners, and about 90% of the GC amp-posers, are complete morons.

Simply put, it's a very complex amp, and when you consider there are three distinct preamp modes per channel that all interact with the tone controls very differently, you CANNOT set Modern mode of Channel 3 (the "Recto" sound) like you would a Marshall, and not expect it to not sound like ass.

Modern mode has a substantial gain increase over Vintage (which itself is juiced compared to Raw), and significantly more presence and a MUCH more robust bass. The lower midrange is also a bit more scooped than it is on the first two modes. As such, you need to be careful with how you set the rest of the controls - I've found that while you can run the gain fairly high on Vintage, and safely max it out on Raw, 6 is really about the "useable" cutoff on Modern if you want any articulation. Likewise, unless you WANT that harmonic edginess and sizzle, you need to be careful with presence and treble. I forgot what I found that worked for me, but I think it was setting the presence very low and the treble in the halfway range. The bass, due to the extreme amount of low end already in the signal, needs to be set VERY low or it'll turn to mud - I mentioned below 3 earlier on, but I believe a buddy of mine got great results with a Triple on his last album with the bass on 0. Likewise, the midrange needs to come up past the usual 1-3 range most metal guys scoop to - it's a scooped enough midrange as it is, so you really don't want to scoop further. I want to say I was getting good results in the 6-7 range...

And this of course all changes when you start playing with the back panel Bold/Spongy and Solid State/Tube Rectification controls. :lol:

Anyway, set correctly a Recto isn't a wall of buzz - it's a brutal, articulate tone that'll cut through a mix with no problems. On my PWH, the neck pickup through 3 Modern set intelligently just BEGGED for fast Petrucci-style runs, while the bridge was perfect for riffing.

Anyway, moral of the story is that because there's so much variation between each of the "distortion" modes, there are areas of the EQ range that are just not particularly appealing in each mode, and the sad reality is the gain cranked, 10-0-10 EQ that most GC metal heads default to is one of 'em for channel 3.
 
#81 ·
Well, I'm not all that concerned about tiffany, Brittany, and becka's opinion, or feelings, for that matter. :wink:
What I like is those people that adore the boy bands and such, a year or more, later. Many are embarrassed that they ever even LISTENED to that crap. Um.....maybe because you chose your music with your hormones, instead of your EARS? LOL.
 
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