Broken Mesa Triple Rectifier, changing amp

[noarin]

hey guys,
I seem to be in possesion of a 'broken' Mesa Triple Rectifier. It sounds alright, not really bad, but I've heard other rectifiers sound so much better, also my knobs don't respond anything like other rectifiers, if I turn up my gain, my sound gets gainier but it seems to deplode like hell, my treble does practicly nothing and all that comes out when I turn up my gain is mess, I've had better musicians than myself try it out and they also agreed there was something wrong, does anybody know what might be the cause of it? I put in new tubes some time ago..

I'm thinking on changing amp as well, I've heard some good stuff on 5150, Engl Powerball and Bogner Uberschall.. do you guys have experience with the bogner? my music style is like Emo/Screamo/Hardcore and I just want it to be tight, I like a big touch of metal and directness in my sound! thanks!

 

[Ermz]

The first thing I always ask people is whether they actually need a TRIPLE rectifier. I mean, do you regularly play stadiums?

I'm not sure what the particular problem is with your amp, but you could look at downgrading to a Dual or Single rect, and being able to get more power tube saturation with less volume.

 

[Hewy80]

Perhaps you need to give it a good clean?

How old is it? Have you ever cleaned it out?

I had my dual recto start sounding like shit and I did some reading. I found a good article (unfortunately I got no idea where it is now) on how to clean the head.

Basically what you do is pull the main guts out of the shell. Then you dust off the bulk of all the shit.
Next you get some contact cleaner and spray it into the pots that are used as nobs on the front. After you spray it in there give the nob a bit of a twist backwards and forwards, that should clean it nicely. You might feel that the pot seems to loosen up and move smoother...

Leave it a couple of hours to dry, I left mine over night. Then plug it back in and see how it sounds.

 

[Fragle]

The first thing I always ask people is whether they actually need a TRIPLE rectifier. I mean, do you regularly play stadiums?

I'm not sure what the particular problem is with your amp, but you could look at downgrading to a Dual or Single rect, and being able to get more power tube saturation with less volume.

kinda depends on the music, imho. for balls out death metal i'd take a triple over a single (or a dual for that matter) recto any day of the week. sometimes more power tube saturation isn't exactly desired.
furthermore, i found that even at lower volumes the high wattage models tend to have more punch. this is especially the case with old marshalls. to my ears, the 50w models just don't have the balls of their 100w brothers, regardless of the volume.

 

[Matt Crooks]

i found that even at lower volumes the high wattage models tend to have more punch

Comparing my old triple to a dual, the triple had a more immediate attack, and a little more "edge" to the sound. The extra 50w from 100 to 150 doesn't really make it that much louder, but the extra headroom makes a noticeable difference.

 

[noodlesatf]

Hey Noarin, when is the last time you replaced any of your tubes?

 

[musickey]

Hey Noarin, when is the last time you replaced any of your tubes?

I agree i own a triple recto and i would say it might be a prob with the tubes probable the pre-amp tubes

 

[Mr. Brokenamp]

Sounds like tubes. Just pop in a matched power tube set, Mesas are self biasing.
But of course try swapping them in from another amp before you go out and spend $ on new tubes. Might as well swap the 12ax7's even though it sounds like a power tube problem.

 

[Where She Wept]

On some triples recs the gain pot takes a shit. I know a couple of people who've had this problem.

 

[GuitarMaestro]

Mesas are self biasing

ALL Mesas ever built have a fixed bias and in most Mesa manuals there are several pages describing the reasons.

 

[noarin]

I replaced all of my tubes like 4 months ago, and it didn't really seem like there was an ultimate improvement, I'm thinking on changing amp anyway;

I'm looking for good definition and tight punch, and it should have a huge sound without having the gain up a lot.. I must agree on some people here, 150 watt doesn't seem necasserily, although I've played stages where I could put it on about half and it SO blows your mind off at that volume; it tends to get worse on little volume though, but with recording it does alright..

I heard some bands used to turn their triple rectifier backwards on stage, then mic it and turn it to an disastrous volume which created a killer sound for them, so that's how you could make full use of 150 watt..

I'm really interested in your experiences with the Bogner Uberschall, cause I'm still considering that one with the 5150 and the Engl Powerball which all seem to be pretty good. My guitarparts are often melodic and lead parts; so I like to cut through the mix. After I replaced my tubes, my mesa was biassed by our local Tube doctor ;-)