Hi everybody,
I just purchased a Mesa Dual Retifier and I'm having a little trouble dialing it in.
I run a stock Ibanez rg7321 and a stock Schecter Omen 6 then ran through a tuner pedal and a Boss NS2. I keep getting a muddy sound from both guitars and not a crisp brutal distortion that I'm looking for. I know that these Amps are a little harder to dial in so if any body out there has some suggestions I would sure love to hear them.

its muddy because its a DUAL rectifier :P

roll off the bass, keep the mids at about 50%, and get lotsa trebel in there.

ps. WRONG FORUM

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change pickups
use the bridge pickup for distortion
adjust your settings

What cab are you using? Bad quality/unsuited cabs are usually the source of a muddy tone. Cut some bass, or check the billion amount of extra switches your mesa has and try stuff with those. Try setting all your settings at 12 o clock, gain a bit less, turn off all the extra features and start tweaking til you get a sound you're happy with. Getting an EQ pedal like Boss or a MXR can help loads too.

Less gain.

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oh please, please pleaaasseee

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You ok mate?

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I'm using a Marshall JCM 900 1960 cab for the moment until I can get a Mesa cab. I was already thinking of getting an Eq pedal. Thanks for the feedback

the 1960 should work fine, You probably just need to mess with the eq and settings a bit until you dial in a tone you like, Tuning and pickups matter a bit too

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i saw a band the other night, both guitarist had dual rectos, with matching 4x12's and 2x12's

their sound was awesome

so yeah, maybe try a pickup change (emg's work well) and maybe a little less gain, a little gain goes along way

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how loud is it turned... tube amps dont start singing until you turn up the volume... maybe thats a factor?

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This should be in the Gear Forum, Chew.

I believe I may be of help since I have the Dual Recto/1960 cab setup.

Here's my setting that I use for metal (and it definitely isn't muddy):

Presence: 3 o'clock -- Master: * -- Gain: 3:30-4 o'clock
Bass: 3 o'clock -- Mids: 1 o'clock -- Treble: - 3:30
Toggle switch: Modern (important)

* Varies

Using this with EMGs is pretty high and crunchy. When I run stock pickups through this, its a tad muddy, but nothing terrible. It could definitely be your guitar.

Also, Bleeding may have a point: If you're trying to set EQs at a low volume with tube amps, expect shit. Give it a good crank and see how it sounds with those settings. One more thing: if you try everything, different guitars, etc and it still sounds noticeably muddy - you may have a problem with one of your tubs.

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el34's will do wonders in tightening up the dual recto's tone. if you get mesa ones you don't even have to rebias it, just put them in and flip the switch.

keep it on the modern voicing.
the gain past 6 usually starts mucking up. so if you like gobs of gain, maybe a boost pedal like a maxon od808 is a good choice.
don't go too heavy on the bass.
mids are your friend, try turning down the treble and turning up the mids.

when i had a dual recto, i found myself turning the gain down to like 4 and then i used my maxon od808 to boost it.

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Thanks for all the suggestions guys! yeah I know I put this post in the wrong forum sorry.

The 1960 is a good cab so that's definately not your problem.

I was about to say that thing about the boost pedals, Rectos usually sound a hellofalot tighter with a transparent overdrive(like the one dislexic suggested) because somehow slamming the frontend gives far tighter grind. Not that you really NEED extra distortion on a friggin Recto but it does give the sound a different character that you will probably like.

Upgrade your bridge pickups too. I would personally avoid EMG's unless you don't want any character whatsoever in your tone(modern high gain amp + active pickups = ridiculously sterile tone).

For playing at lower volumes you NEED to use different EQ'ing(cut some bass, more gain, more treble and presence) otherwise you're tone will turn to mud. And if you crank the amp with those "low volume" settings, the shrieking treble and presence and excessive gain will result in horrendous feedback at higher volumes. So yeah, EQ differently for different situations, using different EQ's for home practice/rehearsal/gigs/recording is very important.

Hey dislexic can Engl Fireballs take EL34's? How different would they sound than a basic (JJ/Tesla) 6l6GC? I've already got a set to be installed when the stock tubes die but maybe in the future I might experiment with EL34's.

you'd probably have to mod it. maybe it would just need a rebias, but maybe the transformers can't handle el34's.

i use tung sol 5881's in my powerball with great results, i bet they'd be awesome in a fireball.

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5881's, that's what 5150's come with stock right? I'm looking for a warm punch similar to what I'd be getting out of my JJ 6l6's, and I've heard from others that EL34's are most certainly gonna give me that kind of punch. I tend to go for fat mid heavy punchy sounds because my cab(Marshall Mode 4) really accentuates the bass and highs a lot so using power tubes that have a lot of treble response(ie: most 6l6's) gives me too much treble at high volumes.

What are the 5881's like? Was any biasing/modding required? I thought El34's and 6L6's were easily interchangeable. Will I need to rebias for the JJ's when I swap out the stock tubes?

5881's and kt66's are prety much direct replacements for 6l6's needing nothing more than a rebias.

el34's are pretty different than 6l6's, though some amps are setup to take both, for example, alot of mesa stuff.

the tung sol 5881's have a little less headroom, with a tighter, smoother midrange. really warm sounding. i like them alot in the powerball. they shuld have a similar effect in the fireball.

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