Very nice review, I have bought my Rectoverb new in 09 and I still love it a lot. It is close to the Trem‘o‘verb combos which have a very distinctive creamy tone. In modern mode i keep the gain pretty low (11-12 o’clock), mids at 11-12, treble at 1 and the bass around 12 and presence at 11 as well boosted by a Maxon OD 808. The amp is tight enough to hear every string in chords and it just has character. It works great a lower volumes, I play and record the amp at home in my apartment. It has a bit more fizz at lower volumes, but nothing that can’t be tamed by the presence knob, the louder the amp is the lower the fizz gets. Vintage mode is a beast if it’s own, it just needs a bit of tweaking and a boost pedal to really shine. The amp has it’s own tone of all Rectos which I love so much, I will certainly keep mine forever, thanks for the video man!
I have a love/hate relationship with my Rectoverb. I love it when I play through it. I hate it when I bring home a new amp that sounded great at the music store, but comes up lacking next to the Mesa. Oranges, Buddas, Marshalls, Blackstars, and THDs, have come and gone, but the Rectoverb is still my go-to amp.
many amplifiers sound great in the store, but not so great on a gig or at home. but many amps that sound great in the store ,but-when you get them home, you find a certain sound, you rite down the settings, the next day, you set all the settings to where you had them, and the amp sounds different. that happens especially with transistor amplifiers..
I found a great deal on a series 2 Rectoverb 50, got mine for $450 in September of 2020 on reverb. Had to drive almost 6 hours to Chicago to pick it up. Seller even threw in a new amp stand with a boom mount for a mic for free. Worth the drive considering they typically sold around $750 locally for me at the time
With that setup I liked the humbucker only at 3:40 the best. The super distorted heavily overdriven sounds, that come later, are always the easiest to play electric guitar with. You get instant gratification. But they tend to fatigue my ears real fast. The demo itself was excellent. Concise, right to the point. Succinct even.
funny,you are missing 98% of the other sounds this amp does well.you seem like the kind of guy who always wants to hear clean tones on a hard rock/metal amp demo
I love my Rectoverb. It was my dream amp forever, and it did not disappoint when I got it. The clean channel is better than the deluxe reverb I had, and I love the vintage mode on channel two. So thick and chunky. I've gigged it with a pedalboard in front of the clean channel, or just using the amps gain and a few pedals. Amazing amp.
Did you put those tone controls on your rectoverb? Mine has just the round silver knobs without the point and i find them impossible to see on a dark stage after a few beers. I do love my rectoverb tho!! I've played that many shows in the last 2 years with it i've been through 2 broken handles. Great amp, great review. Thanks mate!
the series 1 amp does have different knobs compared to the series 2. I prefer the look of series 2, but series 1 knobs are better for dark stages after a couple beers :)
Thanks for featuring the Vintage mode. Indeed, I have the same amp (ver. 2), and I always felt Vintage & Raw were more musical and colorful than the Modern mode. And yes, this clean channel is amazing, both clean and pushed. It’s a very heavy combo (like most higher powered mesa combos), and for that reason the head version sells for higher price.
Could you tell us in your demonstration on the clean channel are you using it regular clean or “pushed “you’re getting a really nice beautiful edge of break up sound on your hum bucker how much of the volume do you have it cranked in the clean mold? Thank you
Excellent video - Very informative... like the explanations along with the cut-shots of the settings This is nice, especially for folks who have been out of the loop for awhile... like to see more of this - but the name "Recto-verb"? Why not Colon-verb? Well done, Jon!
Just picked one of these up. Your video was extremely informative and helpful in helping dial in starter tones. I’m retubing and wondered if you used 6L6’s or EL 34’s in yours.
For a bedroom guitarist who’s into indie to metal this seems perfect for me. Was planning on saving up for one of those new Badlanders, but it seems like overkill, and the price isn’t exactly ideal.
is this the combo 2x12 version? i have no idea what you are talking about..mine had almost NO reverb, it buzzed loudly because the transformer's rivets got loose .. also , the front panel fell off after some years of use.. to make it sound good, i used my jcm900 on top of the cab with the amp disconnected and plugged into my marshall.. it was the amp that i owned the i hated the most
Hey Jon, I just picked up one of these yesterday. Sounded great at the guys house but now that I have it set up I can't seem to get a good tone at room volume without a ton of "fizzyness". Can you please help me figure out how to get some nice tones? I am playing with a Epiphone Les Paul Custom. I'm starting to regret this purchase so hopefully I can figure this thing out!
Take a look at my tone settings in the video. It shouldn’t be fizzy. Important to realize with Mesa that the way the tone circuit works, it’s best to start dialing everything from zero, not from 12:00. Use gain and treble for initial voicing. Use mid for filling in the body, and bass for filling in the lows. Remember, the bass goes on thick! Use channel volume lower and control overall output as main volume (for clean especially).
Boss EQ in the loop with these settings... 100... -3db 200... 0db 400... -8db 800... -4db 1600... -1db 3200... 0db 6400... -4db Adjust tone stack on the amp after applying those EQ settings. Use JJ 12ax7 preamp tubes because they have less fizz than Electro Harmonix 12ax7. Those settings should make it sound more like an ENGL amp.
Make sure that you keep the channel master lower than your master output. Channel = pre amp Master = power amp Also keep your presence down to like the 9 o'clock range if you're looking for a thicker tone, because all rectifiers have a high pot value on the presence knob. Hope that helps
Have a tech look it over, idk if the 2 channel heads have the same issue as the 4 channel roadsters but there are some small issues that can come up over time as these age with a cathode getting hot next to other parts of the circuit creating a delay.
Not sure this is the only difference, but Series I amplifiers have a two-position mode switch for Channel 2 labeled "Vintage/Modern". Series II amplifiers have a three-position mode switch labeled "Raw/Vintage/Modern". The one in this video is a series 1, based on the channel 2 mode switch as seen at 6:36
Something I've not seen anyone really address is the output control. How useful is it? I have a ROV 25 head, but have been eyeballing one of these combos for a bit, but I'm mostly playing at home for the time being and can't be blowing my wife, dog, and cat out the window every time I want to play this sweet thing.
Does anyone have an accurate weight of this combo? No spec on Mesa Boogie's website and even the comments I've seen in online forums are all over the board. One said they had it shipped and the weight with box and packing was less than 65 lbs. Another post said 70 lbs. And another said 80-90 lbs. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it's about 70, but I'd really like to know.
many modern tube amps have solid state rectifiers.its still a tube amp though,blackstar amps all use ss rectifiers,modern marshalls are the same as well.
These are fantastic amps - so versitile. Can get such a spectrum of sounds to play with Down side is the amps weight!! Ha ha Great video, very well put together 👏👏👏
I wanted a boogie til I watched them being repaired....too many switches pots and caps... too many things to go wrong....give me a tweed champ or a marshall all day long.....suhr or friedman ok too...or a benson or hiwatt or carr
No thanks,, Mesa sounds the best to me. They are pretty damn reliable to. Better built than crapper Marshall DSLs with transformer de-soldering themselves off the pcb.. ill stick with Mesa
Yea, but when I needed my mark 2b fixed/modded, Mike b at mesa called and spent 20 minutes explaining all the mod options got it sounding how I wanted and for not that much more than shipping, and sent me a file with the entire service history for a 40 year old amp I bought off cl for 400$. I'm happy to pay extra for a well made product with great customer service that is still run by the founder.
1- the clean on the solid state peavey xxl amp? sounds better than this clean! ( and costs many hundreds less! ) and when you add the xxl reverb??? SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!! ( and again!!! costs many hundreds less then the mesa ) the lonestar is NICE! but again, for many hundreds less, the peavey cleans are just as sweet! BUT THE BEST TUBE AMP OUT HERE NOW, THE CLEAREST, PRETTIEST, PURIST, ARTICULATE, DEFINED, PUNCHY, AND ALL AROUND TRANSPARENT TO BRING OUT ANYONES SOUNDS???? IS AN AMP MADE BY AMP BUILDER BILL LANDRY.. LANDRY AMPS.. CHECK OUT HIS AMPS! PARTICULALRY HIS LS100G3 amp! JUST CHECK IT OUT!! AND YOU WILL HEAR IT FOR YOUSELVES.................. youre welcome!
@@trillrifaxegrindor4411 Actually, many famous musicians use different amps than they are paid to use in public, on their records. Secondly, LISTEN TO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THIS AMP YOU ARE GETTING MONEY TO PROMOTE AND THE XXL CLEAN!!! INFACT DO A VIDEO COMPARISON OF THE TWO IF YOU REALLY WANT THE TRUTH!
@@ryanenglehart1685 : / Actually, Im not Bob landry. BUT I AM A SERIOUS GUITARIST WHO LOVES HIS AMP, AND GAVE MY VIEW OF YOUR COMMENTS AND REVIEW ON THE MESA. SOUND IS PREFERENTIAL TO THE PERSON HEARING IT. I JUST SAID WHAT I HEAR! AND I HAVE TRIED MANY DIFFERENT AMPS!
Very nice review, I have bought my Rectoverb new in 09 and I still love it a lot. It is close to the Trem‘o‘verb combos which have a very distinctive creamy tone. In modern mode i keep the gain pretty low (11-12 o’clock), mids at 11-12, treble at 1 and the bass around 12 and presence at 11 as well boosted by a Maxon OD 808. The amp is tight enough to hear every string in chords and it just has character. It works great a lower volumes, I play and record the amp at home in my apartment. It has a bit more fizz at lower volumes, but nothing that can’t be tamed by the presence knob, the louder the amp is the lower the fizz gets. Vintage mode is a beast if it’s own, it just needs a bit of tweaking and a boost pedal to really shine. The amp has it’s own tone of all Rectos which I love so much, I will certainly keep mine forever, thanks for the video man!
I have a love/hate relationship with my Rectoverb. I love it when I play through it. I hate it when I bring home a new amp that sounded great at the music store, but comes up lacking next to the Mesa. Oranges, Buddas, Marshalls, Blackstars, and THDs, have come and gone, but the Rectoverb is still my go-to amp.
many amplifiers sound great in the store, but not so great on a gig or at home. but many amps that sound great in the store ,but-when you get them home, you find a certain sound, you rite down the settings, the next day, you set all the settings to where you had them, and the amp sounds different. that happens especially with transistor amplifiers..
Good review ty. I just got a series one and had it serviced and I'm in love
This was a great review brother. Deserves more love
I've got a Rectoverb 25, and it is such a sweet amp! I absolutely love it.
Great review. I bought one new in 2002 and still have it.
It’s an amazing amp indeed. Had it for 5 years. Very serviceable and versatile amp.
Congratulations on your solo career Jon! Great demo.
Amazing review!!
I found a great deal on a series 2 Rectoverb 50, got mine for $450 in September of 2020 on reverb. Had to drive almost 6 hours to Chicago to pick it up. Seller even threw in a new amp stand with a boom mount for a mic for free. Worth the drive considering they typically sold around $750 locally for me at the time
👏👊👍
With that setup I liked the humbucker only at 3:40 the best. The super distorted heavily overdriven sounds, that come later, are always the easiest to play electric guitar with. You get instant gratification. But they tend to fatigue my ears real fast.
The demo itself was excellent. Concise, right to the point. Succinct even.
funny,you are missing 98% of the other sounds this amp does well.you seem like the kind of guy who always wants to hear clean tones on a hard rock/metal amp demo
I appreciate it, guys!
The lead sound is magic
Wow, that packs a punch!..great video!!
I know this is an old video but can you share your settings? Just picked up a retroverb 50. Thanks so much (:
Love this video. Great info and really cool demo
Great video! Keep'em coming!!!
Great video man! Loved the review.
I love my Rectoverb. It was my dream amp forever, and it did not disappoint when I got it. The clean channel is better than the deluxe reverb I had, and I love the vintage mode on channel two. So thick and chunky. I've gigged it with a pedalboard in front of the clean channel, or just using the amps gain and a few pedals. Amazing amp.
Settings?
Ohhhhhh that middle + bridge on the clean channel. Wow. Tone for days
Did you put those tone controls on your rectoverb? Mine has just the round silver knobs without the point and i find them impossible to see on a dark stage after a few beers. I do love my rectoverb tho!! I've played that many shows in the last 2 years with it i've been through 2 broken handles. Great amp, great review. Thanks mate!
the series 1 amp does have different knobs compared to the series 2. I prefer the look of series 2, but series 1 knobs are better for dark stages after a couple beers :)
that's John from Bad Cat and the man knows amplifiers...a Rectoverb is on the radar now!!!
Thanks for featuring the Vintage mode. Indeed, I have the same amp (ver. 2), and I always felt Vintage & Raw were more musical and colorful than the Modern mode. And yes, this clean channel is amazing, both clean and pushed. It’s a very heavy combo (like most higher powered mesa combos), and for that reason the head version sells for higher price.
Great playing and review!!! 🎸💯👍🏿✌🏿
Had mine 17 years now
Could you tell us in your demonstration on the clean channel are you using it regular clean or “pushed “you’re getting a really nice beautiful edge of break up sound on your hum bucker how much of the volume do you have it cranked in the clean mold? Thank you
ty.. about to buy one of these... 100 watts was too much... this seems good.. i never bought Mesa before.. Glad it's made in the USA! I hope..
Excellent video - Very informative... like the explanations along with the cut-shots of the settings This is nice, especially for folks who have been out of the loop for awhile... like to see more of this - but the name "Recto-verb"? Why not Colon-verb? Well done, Jon!
dan noyes rectumfrier!
Cool video, great sounds. I'm gonna try out one because of this video. Do you have a V30 speaker in your combo?
Great review, musicianship and sounds.
Just picked one of these up. Your video was extremely informative and helpful in helping dial in starter tones. I’m retubing and wondered if you used 6L6’s or EL 34’s in yours.
I am running 6L6s in mine. It's a personal preference...
@@JonBingham can you please list the control settings you used for each tone you showcased?
For a bedroom guitarist who’s into indie to metal this seems perfect for me. Was planning on saving up for one of those new Badlanders, but it seems like overkill, and the price isn’t exactly ideal.
Any differences in sound between the mark I combo and the mark I head ?
Nice Boogie!
Does it sound good at a bedroom level?
I have the mark 2 with the raw setting. I wished you didn't use the delay pedal!!
is this the combo 2x12 version? i have no idea what you are talking about..mine had almost NO reverb, it buzzed loudly because the transformer's rivets got loose .. also , the front panel fell off after some years of use..
to make it sound good, i used my jcm900 on top of the cab with the amp disconnected and plugged into my marshall..
it was the amp that i owned the i hated the most
Outstanding review.
Great amp, I got the version 2 Single Rec head
Hey Jon, I just picked up one of these yesterday. Sounded great at the guys house but now that I have it set up I can't seem to get a good tone at room volume without a ton of "fizzyness". Can you please help me figure out how to get some nice tones? I am playing with a Epiphone Les Paul Custom. I'm starting to regret this purchase so hopefully I can figure this thing out!
Take a look at my tone settings in the video. It shouldn’t be fizzy.
Important to realize with Mesa that the way the tone circuit works, it’s best to start dialing everything from zero, not from 12:00.
Use gain and treble for initial voicing. Use mid for filling in the body, and bass for filling in the lows. Remember, the bass goes on thick!
Use channel volume lower and control overall output as main volume (for clean especially).
Boss EQ in the loop with these settings...
100... -3db
200... 0db
400... -8db
800... -4db
1600... -1db
3200... 0db
6400... -4db
Adjust tone stack on the amp after applying those EQ settings.
Use JJ 12ax7 preamp tubes because they have less fizz than Electro Harmonix 12ax7.
Those settings should make it sound more like an ENGL amp.
I'm my experience, Mesas don't play nice at any volume that you might play that won't irritate others in a house or apartment.
Make sure that you keep the channel master lower than your master output.
Channel = pre amp
Master = power amp
Also keep your presence down to like the 9 o'clock range if you're looking for a thicker tone, because all rectifiers have a high pot value on the presence knob.
Hope that helps
Any problems with lag in switching channels?
Frank Velasquez it has the sliding switching which is slightly odd, but not unworkable.
Have a tech look it over, idk if the 2 channel heads have the same issue as the 4 channel roadsters but there are some small issues that can come up over time as these age with a cathode getting hot next to other parts of the circuit creating a delay.
They had an original and a series II. Anybody know what the difference was? Which is this?
Not sure this is the only difference, but Series I amplifiers have a two-position mode switch for Channel 2 labeled "Vintage/Modern".
Series II amplifiers have a three-position mode switch labeled "Raw/Vintage/Modern".
The one in this video is a series 1, based on the channel 2 mode switch as seen at 6:36
Something I've not seen anyone really address is the output control. How useful is it? I have a ROV 25 head, but have been eyeballing one of these combos for a bit, but I'm mostly playing at home for the time being and can't be blowing my wife, dog, and cat out the window every time I want to play this sweet thing.
I run a bugera powersoak on mine. Well worth the 120 bucks.
Does anyone have an accurate weight of this combo? No spec on Mesa Boogie's website and even the comments I've seen in online forums are all over the board. One said they had it shipped and the weight with box and packing was less than 65 lbs. Another post said 70 lbs. And another said 80-90 lbs. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it's about 70, but I'd really like to know.
68lbs
It's a tube amp, right?
Definitely
I am confused....is it a tube or a solid state amp? I thought it came with 2 6L6 tubes...
Iordanis P. It’s tube. It just has a solid state Rectifier.
many modern tube amps have solid state rectifiers.its still a tube amp though,blackstar amps all use ss rectifiers,modern marshalls are the same as well.
Finally something good on UA-cam.
Is this amp to loud for practice?
Jonathan Carida it has a very good master volume
@@JonBingham thanks. I'm going to pick up the 50w head tmrw
These are fantastic amps - so versitile. Can get such a spectrum of sounds to play with
Down side is the amps weight!! Ha ha
Great video, very well put together 👏👏👏
Wait all that money and it’s solid state rectified??? 😢
Tube preamp and power amp, just SS Rectified. I prefer that. Tube Rectifiers are too saggy for my taste.
Sounds ok
Young Louis CK plays guitar!
It's too bad there's so much delay, especially the number of repeats. W a clean tone, it's very distracting
BINGHAM ! ! !
I wanted a boogie til I watched them being repaired....too many switches pots and caps... too many things to go wrong....give me a tweed champ or a marshall all day long.....suhr or friedman ok too...or a benson or hiwatt or carr
Ugh!
No thanks,, Mesa sounds the best to me. They are pretty damn reliable to. Better built than crapper Marshall DSLs with transformer de-soldering themselves off the pcb.. ill stick with Mesa
Yea, but when I needed my mark 2b fixed/modded, Mike b at mesa called and spent 20 minutes explaining all the mod options got it sounding how I wanted and for not that much more than shipping, and sent me a file with the entire service history for a 40 year old amp I bought off cl for 400$. I'm happy to pay extra for a well made product with great customer service that is still run by the founder.
1- the clean on the solid state peavey xxl amp? sounds better than this clean! ( and costs many hundreds less! ) and when you add the xxl reverb??? SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!! ( and again!!! costs many hundreds less then the mesa ) the lonestar is NICE! but again, for many hundreds less, the peavey cleans are just as sweet! BUT THE BEST TUBE AMP OUT HERE NOW, THE CLEAREST, PRETTIEST, PURIST, ARTICULATE, DEFINED, PUNCHY, AND ALL AROUND TRANSPARENT TO BRING OUT ANYONES SOUNDS???? IS AN AMP MADE BY AMP BUILDER BILL LANDRY.. LANDRY AMPS.. CHECK OUT HIS AMPS! PARTICULALRY HIS LS100G3 amp! JUST CHECK IT OUT!! AND YOU WILL HEAR IT FOR YOUSELVES.................. youre welcome!
if xxl's sounded great,one famous musician would use them..THEY DONT
@@trillrifaxegrindor4411 Actually, many famous musicians use different amps than they are paid to use in public, on their records. Secondly, LISTEN TO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THIS AMP YOU ARE GETTING MONEY TO PROMOTE AND THE XXL CLEAN!!! INFACT DO A VIDEO COMPARISON OF THE TWO IF YOU REALLY WANT THE TRUTH!
So everyone knows this is Bill Landry, right? Lol
@@ryanenglehart1685 : / Actually, Im not Bob landry. BUT I AM A SERIOUS GUITARIST WHO LOVES HIS AMP, AND GAVE MY VIEW OF YOUR COMMENTS AND REVIEW ON THE MESA. SOUND IS PREFERENTIAL TO THE PERSON HEARING IT. I JUST SAID WHAT I HEAR! AND I HAVE TRIED MANY DIFFERENT AMPS!
Why are you shouting?
BINGHAM!!! Dave Sent me hahahah.