GUITAR LABORATORY
There are lots of videos, songs and albums recorded with the legendary Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier tube guitar amp.
This amp is legendary for its hi-gain metal tones.
So almost every video with this amp is metal-oriented.
Chugging stuff, right?
I had the chance to play this amp and do some re-amping (video later).
It is revision F which is one of the most demanded tube amps in the World, made in the early 90s.
Revision F is known for its very aggressive and slightly brighter tones.
The most sexy sounding, the most demanded Rectifier, as far as Fluff says.
WHO HAVE BEEN SUPPOSEDLY PLAYING DUAL RECTIFIERS?
Javier Reyes & Tosin Abasi from Animals As Leaders
Richard Z Kruspe & Paul Landers from Rammstein
Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson from Linkin Park
Wes Borland from Limp Bizkit
Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters
Kirk Hammett from Metallica
Matt Heafy from Trivium
Devin Townsend
Mark Tremonti
Ola Englund
Ryan Bruce
...
But last week I have seen a video with a Rectifier amp in quite a special situation.
It was LEE RITENOUR Java Jazz festival 2018 video.
Believe it or not, but it looks like Lee is playing the Rectifier amp!
Go and check it out.
In fact, it's not a secret that Lee is normally using Mesa Boogie Road King amp.
Quite interesting.
WHAT IS MY PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE WITH DUAL RECTIFIERS?
My 1st ever guitar setup was Digitech RP50 straight into the PA.
And there was Rectifier model available.
The sound was horrible.
It was more than 20 years ago.
The modeling technologies were still starting out.
The cabinet modeling sounded like crap on the Rectifier amp.
That was the main issue I think.
Why?
Because when I run the RP50 without cabinet modeling into a tube amp, the sound was pretty much OK.
So the amp model was not too bad.
Well, it was OK to my ears 20 years ago.
Then I had Boss GT-8, playing straight into the PA too.
It was in 2007 or so.
There were R-Fier and T-Amp amp models available.
Both should be based on Dual Rectifier amp.
Again, Cabinet modeling was horrible.
R-Fier was too dark, T-Amp was too bright.
I quite liked both when I applied some heavy EQ filtering.
But still I was quite dissapointed how bad it sounded.
No way near to my favorite bands.
So I was very very excited and very curious how does the real Rectifier actually sound.
And what about pedals?
Could I get a nice dynamic crunchy tone out of the Rectifier?
How does the Rectifier take fuzz pedals?
SO WHAT?
I find Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier rev F surprisingly flexible and pedal-friendly.
The amp was interacting with my crazy pedalboard very well.
I was really surprised.
Since I own Fryette / VHT Sig:X amp which is pretty dry, aggressive, unforgiving and not pedal-friendly that much,
I was expecting something similar with the Dual Rectifier.
But it worked great.
At least to my ears (and fingers)...
I felt like I can get every tone I can imagine out of my pedalboard with Dual Rectifier amp.
Unexpected.
The amp was working very well with my favorite pushed-clean tone combination of Bogner Ecstasy Blue pedal boosted with MXR CAE LineDriver.
I was running it into the clean channel, of course.
With my RATs I could get very smooth, beautifully dark singing tones.
I was also curious how well the amp would work with my fuzz pedals.
Pure brutality.
It dooms!
Even amp's lower gain channels / modes were sounding really great (modern crunch tones), even the amp is not that famous because of them...
I am saying all this based on playing my baritone custom-made guitar equipped with active EMG pickups.
What if I would play my Stratocaster guitar with passive single-coil pickups?
And what about a Telecaster guitar?
Or a semi-hollow?
I can say that you definitely can get a nice clean or crunchy tone out of Dual Rectifier amp.
It's a lot about your playing style, guitar, pickups, settings and pedals you are using with this amp.
As always...
But some amps are really not friendly at all.
I had a great time with this amp and I am looking forward to the next time when I will be able to play this gem again.
Have you ever played Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier amp?
What is your experience?
May the muse be with You!
Big thanx goes to Petr Canov for lending me this amp.