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Post by Hohn on Mar 5, 2007 21:45:53 GMT -7
OK, so I finally spent some time with my Mesa Rectifier preamp and the Stang Ray trying to see if there were any useful tones in the Recto before I officially decided to sell it. The problem was that 1) the clean tones of the Recto were murdering the beautiful sparkly clean of the Stang, and 2) the dirty sounds of the Recto had so much fizz in them they were not just useless, they were offensively unmusical. Then, I rearranged the signal chain. And fiddled with the EQ on the recto-- a LOT. Result? FINALLY!! A gut wrenching hard rock tone that still leaves a really nice clean tone when not engaged. I was hoping to avoid having to swtich the recto in and out of the signal flow-- it DOES have a clean side after all (with three different voices). What kept me from finding these tones before was that I previously had the preamp after the pedalboard in the chain. With the preamp first (then pedalboard), the downline fx sound great-- even better with all the tube warmth helping things along. The other thing that prevented these tones was that I was afraid to twist the EQ knobs towards their extremes. On the recto's dirty channel, the presence has to be almost completely off! On its clean channel, the presence has to be almost cranked. I find that odd, given that this preamp is designed to feed a power amp with a fixed voice. So I'm quite pleased that I don't have to turn a major gear purchase into a pet rock. The Recto performs as I'd like it-- as the mother of all high-gain "pedals" in a convenient two rackspace format. Most surprising of all was that I got a decent hard rock tone with Blues for speakers-- not typical from what I gather. Video will follow for you to hear yourself. Of course all the disclaimers apply: playing, can't play hard rock on a Tele, dog ate homework, etc. jh
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Mar 5, 2007 22:17:36 GMT -7
...all the disclaimers apply: playing, can't play hard rock on a Tele, dog ate homework, etc. jh Hey, those are my disclaimers! lol
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Post by prsnstrat on Mar 5, 2007 22:39:00 GMT -7
Sounds like you got your cake and are eating it too. So...can the Ray do Hard Rock with pedals?? Inquiring minds want to know! -Thanks B
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Post by Hohn on Mar 5, 2007 23:17:40 GMT -7
OK, just tried it with the Hamer with P-90s. AWESOME. Very Lenny-Kravitz like tone (think "are you gonna go my way" and "american woman")
The P-90s have more midrange than the Tele pups (no surprise), but this extra push adds a lot more perceived gain to the tone.
As soon as I can score some "lone time"-- I'll put up a video.
I can't say I'd ever expect on paper to be happy with this combination of parts. I mean, EL-84s aren't the tube of rock, are they? At least, not as voiced in the 'Ray!
I'm giddy with excitement at this. I'm now at the point where all the tones I really want are within my reach! That means no more amp shopping.
How cool is *that*?
Pardon my childish excitement. I get that way when I'm really happy.
Justin
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Post by Hohn on Mar 5, 2007 23:20:51 GMT -7
...all the disclaimers apply: playing, can't play hard rock on a Tele, dog ate homework, etc. jh Hey, those are my disclaimers! lol So-- let's come up with new ones. How about "I left my tone in my other hands?" haha
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Mar 5, 2007 23:22:51 GMT -7
I'm now at the point where all the tones I really want are within my reach! That means no more amp shopping. HERESY! Captain, the plank!
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Post by prsnstrat on Mar 6, 2007 8:24:41 GMT -7
OK, just tried it with the Hamer with P-90s. AWESOME. Very Lenny-Kravitz like tone (think "are you gonna go my way" and "american woman") The P-90s have more midrange than the Tele pups (no surprise), but this extra push adds a lot more perceived gain to the tone. As soon as I can score some "lone time"-- I'll put up a video. I can't say I'd ever expect on paper to be happy with this combination of parts. I mean, EL-84s aren't the tube of rock, are they? At least, not as voiced in the 'Ray! I'm giddy with excitement at this. I'm now at the point where all the tones I really want are within my reach! That means no more amp shopping. How cool is *that*? Pardon my childish excitement. I get that way when I'm really happy. Justin Man I hope my StangRay makes me this happy! Congratulations!
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Post by Bill on Mar 6, 2007 11:03:14 GMT -7
Good stuff, justin...looking forward to seeing/hearing the video. Never one to miss an opp to brag on the Ray, I took my hotrodded Princeton w/ 12" Weber blue to practice with the rock/blues band Sunday. Sounded awesome, plenty of punch and volume. I was so impressed I immediately came home and A/B'd it to Mr. Ray. WOW, the Z totally obliterated the little dynamo, side by side. I realize we're comparing 30w to the roughly 18w of the modded Fender, but man what a huge difference in the two amps...both with single 12' speakers. The Ray has SO much thump and bottom...AND chime. And don't get me started on kicking in a BB pedal! ;D
I can't see the Ray doing metal, but hard rock...no problem.
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Post by rockstok on Mar 7, 2007 7:19:37 GMT -7
I can hear snickering in advance of pushing "post reply" this but my main distortion/fuzz/recto pedal is a plastic $60 DigiTech RP50. I have tried most of them and am a staunchly non-digital pedal user, but I found warmth and flexibility in this thing that no digital pedal has. Everything you hate about a Zoom pedal (brittleness, noise, db cut, sustain elimination, and more) is not found here. None of the half dozen settings I use are stock but with enough fiddling with this thing I found the sounds I wanted. If anyone has one I will be happy to tell you how I set it to get some sweet blues crunch all the way to metal, and all through a Stang Ray.
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Post by hdahs143 on Mar 7, 2007 7:46:50 GMT -7
The Ray and the BB do the rock thing quite well. Come to think of it, the Ray and the way it takes good pedals, does everything well. I love my Stingray!
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Post by dock66 on Mar 7, 2007 8:02:29 GMT -7
Ray can certainly takes pedal really well,with the right pedals it can be very versatile. ;D
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Post by Hohn on Mar 7, 2007 16:14:17 GMT -7
OK, I shot a quick (8min or so) vid of this thing and realized that the little camcorder mic just isn't going to let the full monte come through. The camera mic must have a lot of compression/limiting in it, because playing back the clip my voice is as loud as the amp-- definitely not the case in real life.
So mentally subtract a little compression and tone suckage due to the camcorder mic in use:)
Anyway, it's compressing now and should be up on the Tube in an hour or so (approval pending and all that, y'know).
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Post by Hohn on Mar 7, 2007 19:22:55 GMT -7
Clip's up and working:
Next step: something better than a camcorder for recording.
Justin
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Post by cementman on Mar 8, 2007 7:30:59 GMT -7
supremely entertaining., enjoyed the demo very much, hey maybe you could do the next one outside, i could use some hawaii right now..
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Post by prsnstrat on Mar 9, 2007 10:22:32 GMT -7
I tried the Ray with a Crunchbox and look out!! Works well with mid-focused OD/Disto's in my opinion.
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Post by beej on Mar 11, 2007 18:51:38 GMT -7
Clip's up and working: Next step: something better than a camcorder for recording. Justin Hohn - great video. thanks. How do you hook the recto pre up to the Stang - through the effects loop in?
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Post by Hohn on Mar 12, 2007 0:06:31 GMT -7
Nope. I just run its output into the input jacks on the front of the Stang. The loop is not used.
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Post by beej on Mar 14, 2007 11:50:11 GMT -7
Nope. I just run its output into the input jacks on the front of the Stang. The loop is not used. cool. thx
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Post by prsnstrat on Apr 27, 2007 14:39:17 GMT -7
The "ray can nail Incubus Enzinger tones to John Mayer to Green Day. Using a Tubezone.
I just love this amp!! Now onto speakers...
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Post by Hohn on Apr 29, 2007 16:12:10 GMT -7
... What kept me from finding these tones before was that I previously had the preamp after the pedalboard in the chain. With the preamp first (then pedalboard), the downline fx sound great-- even better with all the tube warmth helping things along.. jh OK, I have to contradict myself here. I went back to having the Recto AFTER the pedalboard, not before. Sounds better, imo. This way, the pedals aren't colored by the Recto's clean tone. That said, the "coloring" the Recto does isn't bad now that I have all the knobs dialed in. This reminds of why I love the Z minimalist design with fewer knobs. If anything, the Recto's clean side adds just a bit more gain to the front end and warms the Ray up a little further (though it cuts headroom to do so). So I'm back to keeping and liking the Recto. Get back to me next month, it might change:D I think the real source of my frustrations is not that the Recto sounds bad-- just that all the knobs and switches make duplicating any particular setting unnecessarily painful and frustrating. I think I'll tape all the knobs in place Justin
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