Sounds sweet! One thing worth mentioning about these later revision Rectos (F/G) is that the publicized schematic is wrong. The schematic calls for 1M ORG/RED Gain pots, but in reality it's 250KA. Same story with the RED's Presence pot, not 25K but 100KB, even the RevG's manual is wrong there! Everybody talks about the Gain pots, but nobody ever talks about the RED's Presence pots. Hope you have some use for this info someday :)
oof, certainly pays to be diligent when moving tubes around. when would you recommend a recap for amps like this? I dont hear much talk about recapping older rectifiers so maybe the caps in these last a good long while.
Honestly the quality of the filter caps used in those Mesa’s is excellent. I’ve seen Mkiii’s with perfectly working filter caps. I think earliest Recto’s have another 10 years in them. Especially if they are used regularly. Occasional use is the worst for electrolytic caps.
Question: I know most amp techs hate working on Mesa's for some reason. Nearly everyone I've talked to warned me not to purchase one on the grounds they are built poorly. I think it sucks because I would love to purchase a Rev G but I'm torn on whether or not to invest in a 30 year old rectifier. How difficult is it to repair and find parts for older Rectifiers? Are they good investments? (not financial just long term usefulness) I know Rectos are basically just repackaged Soldanos but they sound extremely different to my ears. There are no good clones and most digital (plugins, modelers) don't capture the real vibe. Just wondering what you think?
Mesa’s are a quality build and hold their value well. Recto’s are actually fairly easy to work on. The circuit starts with Soldano but the power section is very different
Are mesa amps well made? I always presumed they were. I see a few techs on other channels say they are a really badly laid out, use cheap under powered components and fail regularly. You dont seem to have any issues with them anyway. Bar one Ive never had an issue with any ive owned down the years and ive owned a lot. Whats your opinion on the build and layout?
They are indeed well made. Not the easiest to work on. Sometimes they run the amp a little too close to limits on a few components (coupling capacitors) but built for touring.
How much difference does the bias mod make, in your opinion/experience? That sounds unusually tight as well, any magic tricks that you'd care to share?
@@RDampsthanks for the response, but what about the tone? People on forums often claim that it completely changes the amp etc. but what's your experience?
The Duck returns! The orange mode in particular sounded sooo good
Sounds sweet! One thing worth mentioning about these later revision Rectos (F/G) is that the publicized schematic is wrong. The schematic calls for 1M ORG/RED Gain pots, but in reality it's 250KA. Same story with the RED's Presence pot, not 25K but 100KB, even the RevG's manual is wrong there!
Everybody talks about the Gain pots, but nobody ever talks about the RED's Presence pots. Hope you have some use for this info someday :)
Yep, Mesa’s “guidelines” rather than schematics
I love this channel.
Immense tone man
oof, certainly pays to be diligent when moving tubes around.
when would you recommend a recap for amps like this? I dont hear much talk about recapping older rectifiers so maybe the caps in these last a good long while.
Honestly the quality of the filter caps used in those Mesa’s is excellent. I’ve seen Mkiii’s with perfectly working filter caps. I think earliest Recto’s have another 10 years in them. Especially if they are used regularly.
Occasional use is the worst for electrolytic caps.
Rectifier sounds killer. I own the MWDR and its amazing, my Favorite amp of all time next to my KSR Colossus H-100
Question: I know most amp techs hate working on Mesa's for some reason. Nearly everyone I've talked to warned me not to purchase one on the grounds they are built poorly. I think it sucks because I would love to purchase a Rev G but I'm torn on whether or not to invest in a 30 year old rectifier. How difficult is it to repair and find parts for older Rectifiers? Are they good investments? (not financial just long term usefulness)
I know Rectos are basically just repackaged Soldanos but they sound extremely different to my ears. There are no good clones and most digital (plugins, modelers) don't capture the real vibe. Just wondering what you think?
Mesa’s are a quality build and hold their value well. Recto’s are actually fairly easy to work on. The circuit starts with Soldano but the power section is very different
Are mesa amps well made? I always presumed they were. I see a few techs on other channels say they are a really badly laid out, use cheap under powered components and fail regularly. You dont seem to have any issues with them anyway. Bar one Ive never had an issue with any ive owned down the years and ive owned a lot. Whats your opinion on the build and layout?
They are indeed well made. Not the easiest to work on. Sometimes they run the amp a little too close to limits on a few components (coupling capacitors) but built for touring.
Obviously well made bro. Just look at it. Requires a competent tech tho. Most techs are hacks, thats why you hear a lot of complaints
🔥🔥🔥
How much difference does the bias mod make, in your opinion/experience? That sounds unusually tight as well, any magic tricks that you'd care to share?
I like having it as it stops you being restricted to “Mesa” tubes. Plus you can really dial in the power delivery.
@@RDampsthanks for the response, but what about the tone? People on forums often claim that it completely changes the amp etc. but what's your experience?
I wouldn’t say it changes the tone drastically, but the natural tone of a Mesa is a cold bias.