47 posts
I couldn't resist. I had a $100 gift card from a customer, $275 store credit from returning the Uber, and last weekend GC had a special where you get $10 in gift card for every $50 you spend. So, I bought a new amp. Here it is...
http://www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/Rectifier_Series/Mini_Rectifier_25/miniRectifier25.htmlI'm just going to say, this tiny little amp is rocking my world right now. I know Paul is just as crazy about this thing as I am. Everything from Clean to very Mean is done extremely well here. 2 channels, each with 2 modes, and there is ALL KINDS of goodness in all 4! Plus 10/25 watt switches for each channel which offer even more tonal options.
This sucker KILLS! From great cleans to great pushed to great Mark IIC+ to Dual Rec tones. It's all in there. I'm going to use an EQ to see how "Marshall" I can get, (and then try Marshall voiced pedals) but otherwise I'm good to go. This thing is incredible. LOVE IT!!!
To understate massively, I had one off the charts gear week last week! JP12 Monday. Mini Rec Friday. Crazy silly goofy smiling DTR for years go come. ;D
:D Woot! Grats Howie!
I run out of superlatives for this thing, I find great new tones every time I start moving knobs around. I am still wanting to turn it on and play every time I look at it. Killer little amp.
And my uber pedal is going back as well. It can't compete...
Same here. I told Amy "one hour" the other night and I never got off clean mode until I saw I only had 10 minutes left. This thing is just killer!
Yes, it is worthy of a screen name change!
Congrats! AGAIN! ;) Sounds like you got a great deal, that always makes a new piece seem just a little bit sweeter, don't it?! :)
Those Uber pedals are turning up used lately, RectoZilla, there are two in stock used right now at my local GC. Good call on the name change to go with the new amp btw, I read that Krank amps are officially no more, folded up the tent last week.
DTR - yes, a name change is in order for you too..."GearZilla" perhaps, lol!
It's Amazing.....told ya those Uber pedals weren't going to stack up.
Seems for the most part, people are loving the Red and Blue, and not the Uber. It was good. Had some very unusual design choices though, and for $250 a pedal better blow me away. My Special 6 Ultra OD channel sounded better with a guitar straight in, and I paid far less than the price of the Uber pedal for it.
But this thread is about my new amp! If you'd get off your lazy butt and have another BertStock, you'd get to see and play some of this new stuff! Lets see, since the last time I saw you, I have... 2 PRS's, JP12, Tokai strats and tele's, Budda Superdrive, Mesa Mini Rec., VHT Special 6 Ultra, Bogner Red pedal, Fulltone Plimsoul, Barber Gain Changer, etc...
what range of sounds can you get from the minirec ? Any clips anywhere of the complete range of tones you can get from this (not just the standard death metal stuff etc)
DreamTheaterRules — Apr 16, 2013Seems for the most part, people are loving the Red and Blue, and not the Uber. It was good. Had some very unusual design choices though, and for $250 a pedal better blow me away. My Special 6 Ultra OD channel sounded better with a guitar straight in, and I paid far less than the price of the Uber pedal for it.
But this thread is about my new amp! If you'd get off your lazy butt and have another BertStock, you'd get to see and play some of this new stuff! Lets see, since the last time I saw you, I have... 2 PRS's, JP12, Tokai strats and tele's, Budda Superdrive, Mesa Mini Rec., VHT Special 6 Ultra, Bogner Red pedal, Fulltone Plimsoul, Barber Gain Changer, etc...
I would love to have another BertStock. I'm just uncertain about my summer this year. I could be taking over a school. I can't promise you guys something and then have that conflict with real life job shit.
Jon,
I've only had 4 days with mine, but it goes from a great clean channel all the way to chugga chugga metal. Thing is, it's not two channels with those two things. Each channel has two modes so there are ALL kinds of pushed, crunch and rock tones in between. With WIDE range B/M/T and plus presence controls for each channel, plus the 10/25 watt switch definitely affects the sound giving even more tonal range.
Paul and I given way more details in our emails to each other than here. But this amp covers a TON of ground and does it extremely well. I'm absolutely loving this amp! Let's put it this way. You could spend a whole evening in any one of the 4 modes. Easily. I've read many at TGP saying that small size aside, this is one of the best amps Mesa has ever made. That's saying something.
DreamTheaterRules — Apr 16, 2013Seems for the most part, people are loving the Red and Blue, and not the Uber. It was good. Had some very unusual design choices though, and for $250 a pedal better blow me away. My Special 6 Ultra OD channel sounded better with a guitar straight in, and I paid far less than the price of the Uber pedal for it.
But this thread is about my new amp! If you'd get off your lazy butt and have another BertStock, you'd get to see and play some of this new stuff! Lets see, since the last time I saw you, I have... 2 PRS's, JP12, Tokai strats and tele's, Budda Superdrive, Mesa Mini Rec., VHT Special 6 Ultra, Bogner Red pedal, Fulltone Plimsoul, Barber Gain Changer, etc...
Second that, I was ready to do BertStock this year and last year. I'd gladly do one in NoCal, but the playing hours are limited at the studio.
I'm done with my Red... the one I built is killing it on the EQ side and has two channels... way more useful to me... Seems I'm not the only one, it's only been two months and the Reds are already all over ebay for $220.
I recently added a FET outbut buffer to mine, and now I'm drawing up a new schem so I can build a manufactured board and do a one-off. The next variant of it will have three footswitches so I can do on/off, channel (red/blue), and boost without having to flip any toggle switches.
Jon, one thing the mini-recs don't do is a marshall tone. mesa distortion/drive is sort of it's own unique beast. I think it has a lot to do with what Howie posted elsewhere about even order harmonics versus odd, etc..
It's a great amp, very versatile with a wide array of tones, but it does not try to cover any other manufacturers tones.
Pushed mode might get you close, but the EQ is going to be different, afaik...
Paul, that's probably a good thing as I like to have a bit of variety rather than several amps all doing the same thing. Hmmm, here we go again :)
Jon — Apr 16, 2013Paul, that's probably a good thing as I like to have a bit of variety rather than several amps all doing the same thing. Hmmm, here we go again :)
LOL! Not sure about pricing across the pond...
RectoZilla — Apr 16, 2013[quote author=Jon G link=1366050033/0#12 date=1366139880]Paul, that's probably a good thing as I like to have a bit of variety rather than several amps all doing the same thing. Hmmm, here we go again :)
LOL! Not sure about pricing across the pond...
Wow, £1,100 over here (approx $1,661) how much is it in dollars there ?
Yeah I had heard they were overpriced over there. Think it's even worse elsewhere.
over here they are $999 + tax. And Mesa will not let dealers lower the price. Howie really lucked out in that his store decided to no longer be a Mesa dealer, therefore they could sell remaining stock however they wanted.
1320 + 520 (amp & cab) :(
I'll wait for a Behringer copy of it! ;D
Congrats for the new "toy" guys!!! ;)
One amusing thing, this is the smallest amp I have. Because of the metal cab, it's even smaller than the Tweaker. Smaller than my Valve Junior head was!!! But don't let that fool you. This thing can breath some fire.
Jon, Paul and I are both sort of looking for the right pedal to take it to Marshall land. And which one is the right one will depend on which version of Marshall tone you want. Something like MI Crunchbox can get you to high gain JCM 800 tones. Others do the lower gain thing. Before I got this I planned to get the new Barber Compact Direct Drive. I may go ahead and get it because first of all I already know Direct Drives sound good and they are Marshall voiced. The Clean and Pushed channels take pedals very well so it's just a matter of finding the Marshall voice that you want. The OCD get's into that type of sound but not that EQ voice. The kick in the low mids that Marshalls have...
Thinking about all this today reminded me that I have not tried my BarbEQ with it, nor my MXR 10 band. Time to mess with some EQ. I think the Vintage channel, EQ'd properly, could do a good Marshall imitation. We'll see.
The new MI Cruchbox looks VERY interesting...
For me, all that's missing is Marshall. Everything else it does is good enough to be all I need for that. Meaning, the cleans are so good I don't need a Fender amp for cleans. The Rec thing is of course there in spades, and all the cool in between sounds could cover almost anything I'd ever want to do except a specific Marshall tone. But playing with pedals for that is just for fun. I already have a Superdrive... :)
Howie,
Try a Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret in high gain mode. ;-)
I'm looking for plexi to hot-rodded plexi. Hoping to try a Rockett Animal soon. The Wampler Plextortion looks tasty but maybe not so plexi...
Might check this out also Paul.
http://www.catalinbread.com/DLS
Yeah Dearth, that is a really good sounding pedal from what I can tell, but right now I have GC willing to take back my Uber pedal for store credit (well past 30 days, so kudos to them forthat), and sadly they don't carry catalinbread.
P.S. I haven't tried this with a Greenback yet, so that should help as well.
RectoZilla — Apr 16, 2013The Wampler Plextortion looks tasty but maybe not so plexi...
+1 The clips of these sound great. Very tempting.
Speaking of clips - I find Brett Kingman's to be very good - to me he seems to really dial in tasty sounds and show the ranges of things. Here's the one that has me liking the Animal for the plexi tones (Jon beware!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX9Rt9EwbqA
RectoZilla — Apr 16, 2013Speaking of clips - I find Brett Kingman's to be very good - to me he seems to really dial in tasty sounds and show the ranges of things. Here's the one that has me liking the Animal for the plexi tones (Jon beware!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX9Rt9EwbqA
That's pretty tasty.....scratches chin and thinks here we go yet again. :)
DreamTheaterRules — Apr 16, 2013P.S. I haven't tried this with a Greenback yet, so that should help as well.
My favorite speaker with Rectos have always been a Scumback clone of a G12H30. I tried a Marshall Greenback 412 cab with my Roadster once. I liked it for crunch tones, but the cab couldn't play clean. They just wanted to break up too quick.
Tried the Wampler Plexi-drive?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DbCmx7zQYg
The guy who's video demos I've been loving lately is Prymaxe Vintage. I'm not even sure who he is, except that he's a dealer for a bunch of stuff... man, the guy can play and has ridiculous tone. If anything, he makes all the pedals sound way too good... but very cool nonetheless.
http://www.youtube.com/user/PrymaxeVintage/videos?sort=dd&view=0&tag_id=
Dearthian: — Apr 16, 2013Might check this out also Paul.
http://www.catalinbread.com/DLS
Any Jimi fan HAS TO watch the second video. The Fuzz>DLS is some of the best Jimi tones I've heard! Have to listen again when I get home with better speakers. Very nice!
My only issue here is in the first demo, he has the gain cranked all or almost all the way up the whole demo. I'd like to hear how it does at say noon.
charger — Apr 17, 2013The guy who's video demos I've been loving lately is Prymaxe Vintage. I'm not even sure who he is, except that he's a dealer for a bunch of stuff... man, the guy can play and has ridiculous tone. If anything, he makes all the pedals sound way too good... but very cool nonetheless.
http://www.youtube.com/user/PrymaxeVintage/videos?sort=dd&view=0&tag_id=
oh man... I did not need this link... LOL!!!
Great stuff, thanks for sharing Charger...
DreamTheaterRules — Apr 17, 2013[quote author=Dearthian: The Gear Pimp link=1366050033/0#20 date=1366148497]Might check this out also Paul.
http://www.catalinbread.com/DLS
Any Jimi fan HAS TO watch the second video. The Fuzz>DLS is some of the best Jimi tones I've heard! Have to listen again when I get home with better speakers. Very nice!
My only issue here is in the first demo, he has the gain cranked all or almost all the way up the whole demo. I'd like to hear how it does at say noon.
I just had a chance to watch the second one. That is extremely cool! Almost makes me want a fuzz... What the hell is going on with me?
RectoZilla — Apr 18, 2013What the hell is going on with me?
It's just GAS Paul. Completely normal. ;)
Paul, you had to figure that if you hung out here long enough, us "pedal guys" would ruin you. Obviously you don't spend much time at The Gear Page or this would have happened a long time ago!
The catalin bread pedals really are amazing. I'm still amazed at the RAH pedal I bought, very responsive to pick dynamics and also riding the volume pot on your guitar. Might look into getting more of the catalinbread line of pedals.
DreamTheaterRules — Apr 18, 2013Paul, you had to figure that if you hung out here long enough, us "pedal guys" would ruin you. Obviously you don't spend much time at The Gear Page or this would have happened a long time ago!
Gad, I can't stand that place. So many people whose appreciation of gear depends solely on the price and rarity. Every time I go there I get 5% information and 95% arcane discussion of unobtainium.
But Howie's a star there! ;D
charger — Apr 18, 2013[quote author=DreamTheaterRules link=1366050033/25#33 date=1366258286]Paul, you had to figure that if you hung out here long enough, us "pedal guys" would ruin you. Obviously you don't spend much time at The Gear Page or this would have happened a long time ago!
Gad, I can't stand that place. So many people whose appreciation of gear depends solely on the price and rarity. Every time I go there I get 5% information and 95% arcane discussion of unobtainium.
I thought I was the only one that can't stand the gear page....a kindred spirit. That place is just full of egos and downright nastiness of people who are most full of shit. Only been there a few times and have never thought of a good reason to go back there.
There is a TON of good info there though. Plus, I would still be playing Boss pedals and a Peavey amp if not for TGP. That's where I've discovered just how much cool gear there is out there.
Jon — Apr 18, 2013[quote author=charger link=1366050033/25#35 date=1366306664][quote author=DreamTheaterRules link=1366050033/25#33 date=1366258286]Paul, you had to figure that if you hung out here long enough, us "pedal guys" would ruin you. Obviously you don't spend much time at The Gear Page or this would have happened a long time ago!
Gad, I can't stand that place. So many people whose appreciation of gear depends solely on the price and rarity. Every time I go there I get 5% information and 95% arcane discussion of unobtainium.
I thought I was the only one that can't stand the gear page....a kindred spirit. That place is just full of egos and downright nastiness of people who are most full of shit. Only been there a few times and have never thought of a good reason to go back there.
Sound more like gearslutz to me. Most people seem friendly at the gear page, I just don't think a lot of them have ears as good as they think they do...
Craig, not so much a "star." More of a "Myth." Some claim to have seen me, some even claim to have heard me play. But for the most part, they don't know if I'm real or not.
I generally like tgp... but there are two types there that can bug me. the "money = tone = money" guys and the "only credible if you play gigs" guys. oh, and the "theory/jazz" guys.
but a place where guys like Pete thorn, Scott henderson and John suhr (+more other "famous to guitar nerds" guys) post sometimes... that's pretty cool!
not to hijack the thread back to the original topic, but.. :)
I spent an hour last night on ONLY the clean channel. It goes from sparkling clean to classic rock crunch. It can be bright, dark, fat, smooth, big bottom end or light like a small combo tone. The 10/25 watt switch makes anything from looser vintage tones to tighter brighter tones. And that's just one out of the four channels.
DreamTheaterRules — Apr 19, 2013not to hijack the thread back to the original topic, but.. :)
I spent an hour last night on ONLY the clean channel. It goes from sparkling clean to classic rock crunch. It can be bright, dark, fat, smooth, big bottom end or light like a small combo tone. The 10/25 watt switch makes anything from looser vintage tones to tighter brighter tones. And that's just one out of the four channels.
Come on Howie. This is totally not helpful. Basically you've just told us this amp sounds like whatever we want it to sound like. Narrow it down a little. Does it sound like a Fender? A Vox? A 59 Champ? A silverface Vibrolux? A JCM 45? Because frankly, from that description, it sounds like all of those. And we who have worked on amp circuits know that's just not possible.
On the subject of the gear page, I've found a few threads on really good bargains. Which are fucking annoying, because then the thread fills up with a bunch of people who like the idea of a bargain who are then roundly criticized for liking it, and a bunch of people who compare the cheap gear to their unobtainium and then laugh heartily at the poor rabble. And then there are threads specifically about unobtainium, where not a single person says, you are all frigging idiots. Instead, everybody hails the dusky vintage tone and classically mythical properties of the unobtainium device. The one that killed me was the Tim White Timbucker thread... humbuckers that people spend $700 for. We're talking about magnets, with enamel wire wrapped around them. There may be decent info there but I've been far happier with places like freestompboxes, where they actually take stuff apart, and reveal the unobtainium for the $13 in parts that it is... and where no one believes electrical components are magic.
charger — Apr 19, 2013[quote author=DreamTheaterRules link=1366050033/25#42 date=1366388666]not to hijack the thread back to the original topic, but.. :)
I spent an hour last night on ONLY the clean channel. It goes from sparkling clean to classic rock crunch. It can be bright, dark, fat, smooth, big bottom end or light like a small combo tone. The 10/25 watt switch makes anything from looser vintage tones to tighter brighter tones. And that's just one out of the four channels.
Come on Howie. This is totally not helpful. Basically you've just told us this amp sounds like whatever we want it to sound like. Narrow it down a little. Does it sound like a Fender? A Vox? A 59 Champ? A silverface Vibrolux? A JCM 45? Because frankly, from that description, it sounds like all of those. And we who have worked on amp circuits know that's just not possible.On the subject of the gear page, I've found a few threads on really good bargains. Which are fucking annoying, because then the thread fills up with a bunch of people who like the idea of a bargain who are then roundly criticized for liking it, and a bunch of people who compare the cheap gear to their unobtainium and then laugh heartily at the poor rabble. And then there are threads specifically about unobtainium, where not a single person says, you are all frigging idiots. Instead, everybody hails the dusky vintage tone and classically mythical properties of the unobtainium device. The one that killed me was the Tim White Timbucker thread... humbuckers that people spend $700 for. We're talking about magnets, with enamel wire wrapped around them. There may be decent info there but I've been far happier with places like freestompboxes, where they actually take stuff apart, and reveal the unobtainium for the $13 in parts that it is... and where no one believes electrical components are magic.
Since I have the amp in question - I know what he's saying here - the b/m/t controls give the channel a lot of tonal variety. He's not trying to say it sounds like everything, just that when you want more bottom, it does so without farting out, When you want more highs, it does so without getting crispy.
By comparison - my Krank has one setting that sounds good to my ears. That's it. Turn the knobs away from that and it goes to hell. But with the mini, it gets different, but (usually) still very good. There are a lot of great sounds on each mode in this thing.
People think $999 is steep for a lunchbox amp with 2 channels. But if you take enough time to really explore it, you come away thinking its a bargain.
But as far as what the clean channel sounds like? I dunno that, not having played any of those amps (unfortunately). It just sounds good. Really good.
It's possible I haven't found a good demo of the clean sound, at least on Youtube. We looked at this amp for a while because it almost perfectly fits the requirements for the studio--low wattage and hi quality... and we don't have anything with the recto sound... but from the clean samples we were able to find on Youtube it just doesn't sound exciting. I am a huge fan of early Mesa cleans, through about the Mark III series, and including the DC series. After that they kind of lost me. But if it sounds like DTR says it sounds really great. Would love to hear or see an example of this...
Charger, while probably not said in the most friendly way possible ( ;D) I get your point. The best answer I have at this point is something I read at the gear page when another owner was talking about the Mini Rec. "It doesn't necessarily have Fender, Vox or Marshall cleans. It has great cleans, but they are Mesa cleans, which means you can dial it all kinds of ways and it always sounds good. It's not voiced like blackface, tweed, vox or Marshall, but can be dialed in any of those directions."
I'd say that sums it up pretty well. The tone controls all have huge range, but as we all know, where they are placed makes each amp different. Equally important at this point, these cleans seem to take pedals extremely well and easily take on the voice of the pedal. So if you want a Tweed breakup or Marshall breakup, get a pedal voiced that way and the amp will let that shine through quite well.
So while my previous post may not have been helpful, it is IMO accurate. :)
Last night I got a quick lesson in how high the output is on the JP12 pickups. I played my new Custom 24 with the Clean and Pushed channels. Neither go as high on the gain scale with these more moderate level output pickups. The clean can still get pushed, and the pushed can get crunchy, just takes about 2 clicks higher on the gain knob. PRS>Pushed = all kinds of cool bluesy tones. And to avoid grumpy replies, ( :D) these aren't Marshall-ish type of crunchy tones, but the tone controls provide a HUGE range of usable tones.
Now, on this topic. Paul and I have already been discussing upcoming use of EQ's to see if we can voice things in specific directions with EQs. So far though, I've spent MOST of my time with the amp with no pedals or maybe just occasionally clicking on the Timmy or Gain Changer or OCD for solo boost tests. But I did spend 20 minutes last week with the Barb EQ to see what it did to the clean channel. It will definitely swing the cleans towards tweed, blackface or Marshall voices. Not so much with the Vintage and Modern settings. I'll try the MXR 10 band out front, next to see if I can get that Marshal lower mid kick that I'm looking for. Then I'll try it in the loop.