Rect-O-Verb

Kloppsta · Post by **Kloppsta** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 2:12 pm

hey hey hey!

Who was it that was going to buy the Rect-O-Verb combo off Trade Me?
Philipnz? Anyway...just wondering if you have it yet and what your thoughts are!?!

Any other stories, reviews, opinions, thoughts etc etc etc etc. on the Rect-O-Verb in particular are welcome.

The Scarecrow · Post by **The Scarecrow** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 4:26 pm

they're naff. the reverb is barely audible and it's no Dual Rec. sounds kinda solid state. admittedly, i did play one with a really shitty epiphone Les Paul special that belonged to a bandmate, but the gain was fuzzy and cold. but this one could of been a samicky model, i've heard them sound good on recordings from bands I like.

philipnz · Post by **philipnz** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 4:59 pm

Twas Gregtarr
http://nzguitars.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2332

Funny how when i was shopping for Boogies the guy at the Rockshop reckoned the best Boogie was the Rect-o-verb. Even when i was walking out the door with my Mark iv.

Kloppsta · Post by **Kloppsta** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 5:12 pm

philipnz wrote: Funny how when i was shopping for Boogies the guy at the Rockshop reckoned the best Boogie was the Rect-o-verb. Even when i was walking out the door with my Mark iv.

Yeah...its weird...everyone in the know i have spoken to has said they are probably one of the most versatile boogies. The Series II has a MUCH better Reverb, other than that they are pretty much un-changed.
I personally hate "web-reviews" but can't help myself checking harmony-central every now and then and 98% of the reviews are glowing 10's!! The word that KEEPS coming up over and over again for these amps is, "Versatile"

I played one a few months ago when I was shopping for a new amp....I really liked it, but the guy at the shop kept annoying me with "sales talk" and he didn't give me much time alone to just play it and set it up the way I would.
I think I may have to go and try another one, but this time spend much more time with it and kick the sales guy out of the room!

From memory I really enjoyed the clean (well, it was better than my Marshall anyway) and Im sure I remember dialling in some serious Dual-Rec tones as well as some nice bluesy almost "early Marshall" esque crunch too!
Deffinatley going to check one out again.

Gregtar----What are your thoughts???

philipnz · Post by **philipnz** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 1:04 am

How come your selling the new Orange Quad?

gregtarr · Post by **gregtarr** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 1:54 am

Well, I'm going and getting it next week, so I'll tell you sometime after that!
I'm just trying to get rid of some pedals so I don't completely scrape to the bottom of my overdraft.
A Crybaby, a whammy, tremolo and an eq.

Hamburgla · Post by **Hamburgla** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 1:12 pm

What kinda tremolo you letting go?

gregtarr · Post by **gregtarr** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:11 pm

Boss TR 2. It just went though. The eq has gone as well.
There is the whammy and a crybaby. And now my JCM 900.

DongHua · Post by **DongHua** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 4:05 am

philipnz wrote:Twas Gregtarr
http://nzguitars.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2332

Funny how when i was shopping for Boogies the guy at the Rockshop reckoned the best Boogie was the Rect-o-verb. Even when i was walking out the door with my Mark iv.

hi Philip, I really wish I could afford a Mark IV, but I got a seriesII Single Recto, I love it more than my PEAVEY XXX, 50w is much louder than a 120W PEAVEY XXX. crank it up and my flate will experience a Earthquake:twisted:

I reckon it's a great value, to me, sounds way better than Single Recto seriesI that I tried before. I play only Metal stuff, after 4 month of playing around with it, I can now get nearly any metal tone I wish. I think it's the great value for money if you after a real recto tone. (save $1000 from getting a Dual Retco), to me they don't sounds much different (even the guy at Mesa said the same thing to me).

But the only problem I don't like at all is FX loop, some FX dosen't works good with it, especially Delay and Chours, and No WAY I can use my POD XT in the FX loop for EQ and other FX(sounds shit), but it's sill fine to me cos I don't use any FX 99% of time.

gregtarr · Post by **gregtarr** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 12:49 am

It's made a good impression so far.
The clean channel hit me straight off - a bit reason I wanted something different was the lack of a decent clean sound from the Marshall. The other reasons were I wanted more portability (the Mesa is v. heavy, it needs wheels) and less of a metal sound (it sounds far more rock than the 'metal-on-any-setting JCM 900').

I'm still figuring out how to work it all though. I remember Tsuken saying once that he understood that Mesa = Marshall + a big eq. I'd agree with the eq thing. You'd turn the knobs on my JCM 900 and it would sound much the same, which is fairly much the opposite to this. The problem with that is that you can make it sound really bad if you do it wrong.

I tried out the FX loop and I found the problem which people are complaining about, but then got around it. I don't know how ordinary fx loops work, but I'm fairly sure that the loop on my JCM was different.

JCM

Guitar -> Preamp -> loop (loop volume control) -> poweramp -> speakers

Mesa
> Dry
/ \
Guitar -> Preamp (mix) > poweramp>speaker
\ /
> Wet

That is my hypothesis, based on the behavior of delay in the loop (when you set the delay pedal to 'all wet', but turn the mix down on the Mesa you still hear the original signal, but with the Marshall you don't). Something wrong happens with the mix set fairly high, you get an infinite repeat loop and it "feeds back". I got rid of this by turning the delay to 'all wet' and turning the mix down.

As for it sounding like a Dual Rec/ not at all like a Dual Rec, the guy I bought it off sold it because he bought a Dual Rec & 2X12. He said that through the 2X12 it sounds identical to the 1st and 3rd channels of the Dual Rec.

Sounds way more rock than my Marshall. I don't quite understand all the knobs though:
for each channel it has gain (I understand), master volume (I understand) and then over both channels it has an 'output' volume control as well (and a footswitchable 'solo' level as well). Are the output/solo controls like another master volume control or like a built in 'powerbrake'? How should I set them?

Reverb is quite nice and overdrive isn't solidstate. Well, unless my JCM is actually a samick in disguise.

Lastly I like how it doesn't shout out the brand name. If you buy a Rectoverb head it has the stainless, classic "Mesa Boogie" front. This is the same amp, though with a speaker, and it just has a little logo in the corner. All function, few cosmetics.

gregtarr · Post by **gregtarr** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 12:51 am

Mesa
> Dry
/ \
Guitar -> Preamp (mix) > poweramp>speaker
\ /
> Wet

gregtarr · Post by **gregtarr** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 12:52 am

Ah, it's not working. Basically the Marshall has a continuous signal, but the Mesa splits it into dry and wet and then gets you to mix them?

B45-12 · Post by **B45-12** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 1:17 am

Love it! rect-o-verb sounds like one of those cheap porno films - sort of 'Captain Rect-o-verb gets a little behind' starring Dirk Diggler, Mandy Canyons and introducing Juicy Lucy etc. Sick name like that should ensure instant success!

Presume you team it up with the 'Froggy bottom' make of guitar???? Certainly makes the old LP/Marshall or Strat/Twin Reverb teamings sound boring and naff.