Dual Rectifier tips, tricks and hints.

[AudioPhile777]

The recto is a beast all unto its own...

You read about it but it means nothing until you're trying to dial decent tone in with it...

It has been a few years since I've played through one and forgot that the eq works off itself (each knob affects another in weird ways, IMO)... I've spent about an hour and a half playing through it and I still haven't found a sound that makes me happy... these things have such a grainy underlying sound...

I'm on silicon diode, bold and I've switched back and forth between channel two and three trying to nail a tone that I like...

I'm running a G-Major/FCB1010 deal so I'm trying to avoid having to use the TS in front but it seems that I'm going to have to.

So, who here has some settings that I can bum to use as starting points?



P.S. I am aiming for a live tone at the moment more so than a recording tone.

EDIT: Also just finished weeding through threads of post after post after post of clips with no settings... hence this thread.

 

[Dylan S]

Definitely have the TS in front.

Read the manual man...it tells you where the sweet spots are and all that jazz. I'd say avoid having the bass any higher than 11:00 and shoot for somewhere between 9:00 or 10:30. Have the mids anywhere between 10:00 and 1:00, depending on what suits your guitar and playing style. Having the mids up that high can sound boxy with some guitars and it can also make others sound very smooth and in your face. Also, aim to have the treble around 11:30 tp 1:30 or 2:00. I never put my treble above about 1:00 personally, but I am always messing with my tone in little ways at band practice.

I run my channel volume (for rhythm on modern with bold and diodes) at around 9:30 or 10:00 and then adjust my master to a level that is nice and loud. If you have your master a lot louder and your channel volume lower, this will give you a bit more of a darker tone.

 

[K Odell]

Well I use some strange settings on my recto, but they have always worked and always ruled live for me.

Channel 3 modern mode
Bass: 8
Mids: 5
Treble: 5
Pres: 0
Gain: 5

Obviously with a TS up front.

 

[JeffTD]

Presence off FTMFW.

TS is a MUST with these amps.

 

[Ermz]

The presence knob is dangerous. That one never goes higher than 9 o'clock for me. Trebs are usually sitting around 4 or 5 from memory.

Your biggest battle with this amp will be that fizz. It has an ungodly amount of it, to take it easy on the highs. Everything else is a delicate balance with your guitar, ts, cab, playing style etc. General rule with the Recto is don't gain it any more than you need to and it will be one hell of a tight, articulate amp.

 

[Dylan S]

Has anyone ever tried running channel 2 for rhythms and channel 3 for leads? I have always gone the other way around (3 modern and 2 vintage) but I just swapped them around and it sounded pretty good.

I'll have to wait until band practice to really see because at the moment I'm playing at bedroom levels and there is way more fizz at this volume than there is when I crank it.

 

[JeffTD]

Has anyone ever tried running channel 2 for rhythms and channel 3 for leads? I have always gone the other way around (3 modern and 2 vintage) but I just swapped them around and it sounded pretty good.

I'll have to wait until band practice to really see because at the moment I'm playing at bedroom levels and there is way more fizz at this volume than there is when I crank it.

ch2 sounds closer to the gain channel on the 2ch ones, IMO, so I always used that on Modern for rhythm and the 3rd channel for leads on Vintage.

 

[Ermz]

Orange channel, modern mode is glorious for sexy lead tones. Sometimes Vintage brings it too, depending on what you're playing.

 

[Dylan S]

I always play leads on vintage mode because it just feels more dynamic when I play. It suits my playing style a lot more than modern does, but really, if I was forced to play leads on modern I wouldn't really care. It still sounds fantastic...but I just like the silky nature of vintage a little more for leads.

I thought that maybe channel 2 on modern sounded a little darker than channel 3 on modern, which is why I decided to experiment and go with the ol' switcheroo. I'm all about enormous dark tones that still cut heaps well, which is easy with my 6505+. The last few gigs I've played with my recto, the sound guys have sucked, so I can't really here if what I'm doing sounds how I want it to.

After seeing Behemoth a couple of nights ago, I had thoughts going through my head of trying to sell my dual recto and buying a Laboga Mr. Hector, because they sounded SO awesome live, but I don't think I'm a big enough idiot to get rid of a dual recto. I just like it far too much.

 

[Bekanor]

Orange channel, modern mode is glorious for sexy lead tones.

Right here.

 

[AudioPhile777]

Definitely have the TS in front.

Read the manual man...it tells you where the sweet spots are and all that jazz. I'd say avoid having the bass any higher than 11:00 and shoot for somewhere between 9:00 or 10:30. Have the mids anywhere between 10:00 and 1:00, depending on what suits your guitar and playing style. Having the mids up that high can sound boxy with some guitars and it can also make others sound very smooth and in your face. Also, aim to have the treble around 11:30 tp 1:30 or 2:00. I never put my treble above about 1:00 personally, but I am always messing with my tone in little ways at band practice.

I run my channel volume (for rhythm on modern with bold and diodes) at around 9:30 or 10:00 and then adjust my master to a level that is nice and loud. If you have your master a lot louder and your channel volume lower, this will give you a bit more of a darker tone.

VERY Helpful... thanks, will try it first thing in the morning...

Well I use some strange settings on my recto, but they have always worked and always ruled live for me.

Channel 3 modern mode
Bass: 8
Mids: 5
Treble: 5
Pres: 0
Gain: 5

Obviously with a TS up front.

Going to give this a try as well... though this does seem VERY odd...

Presence off FTMFW.

TS is a MUST with these amps.

Presence off, huh?... I guess this is where I was going wrong...

 

[Blacklight_Studio]

I ve always been pretty close to the settings Andy once posted, I own the 2 cgannel beast though. Previously I had a 3ch and it was not so easy to get THAT tone out of it so I was often messing up with radicaly different settings.

 

[poidaobi]

I usually have my presence on 12-1 oclock!

There is no way I'd use it without as boost. As people have alluded too!

I find I use the boost for a bit extra saturated gain. Not to tighten things up.

 

[::XeS::]

Presence at 12-13 o'clock

 

[Dylan S]

Having the presence around midnight is usually a pretty safe bed on the 2 channels or the orange mode on the 3 channels, but in the manual for the 3 channel rectos it specifically says that the presence knob is especially harsh on the 3 channel ones, so use it sparingly.

It isn't very noticeable on lower volumes because everything sounds pretty fizzy around there, but you notice it A LOT when you're playing really loudly. You also notice it with the treble as well...it isn't so much like your tone sucks. Often it'll still sound amazing, but there will be this fizz happening that is really annoying. If you back off the presence and the treble, you'll achieve this nice big/dark kind of sound, and if your mids are anywhere above about 10:00 (as personally said, somewhere just over midnight) you'll still cut through really well.

It's all to do with experimentation and you'll find things working differently to us. My Hellraiser and Loomis sound a lot brighter than my Hex, so when I use my Hex I have to bump the mids up a little to help maintain the 'even-ness' of the tone, and the treble will get bumped a little as well.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Definitely have the TS in front.

Read the manual man...it tells you where the sweet spots are and all that jazz. I'd say avoid having the bass any higher than 11:00 and shoot for somewhere between 9:00 or 10:30. Have the mids anywhere between 10:00 and 1:00, depending on what suits your guitar and playing style. Having the mids up that high can sound boxy with some guitars and it can also make others sound very smooth and in your face. Also, aim to have the treble around 11:30 tp 1:30 or 2:00. I never put my treble above about 1:00 personally, but I am always messing with my tone in little ways at band practice.

+1 to all of this, and I definitely gotta disagree with presence off, just be careful with it on the red channel (according to the manual, the red and orange channels are identical except for the presence knob being much more aggressive on the red, so like 10:00 on that channel = 1:00 on the orange) And for live, yeah, mids around 10:00-11:00 would work, but for recording I'd drop 'em to 9:00-10:00 to tame the honk

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Btw Dylan, what pickups do you have in the bridge spots of each of your guitars?

 

[ttrentt]

I got my favorite sound out of the recto when I started to jump the loop. I would just use a 1 ft cable to jumper them, and run the level at max. It changed the sound and make it more "saturated" instead of the fizz....just something to try.

 

[Dylan S]

Btw Dylan, what pickups do you have in the bridge spots of each of your guitars?

In my Hellraiser - 81-7 at 18v.
In my Loomis - 707 at 18v.
In my Hex - 81-7 at 9v.

I've found with the tone I need and the way I play, the mids up above 11:00 can give a really full sound and help it cut through a lot, and doesn't really get too honky like you're describing. As I said though, I play very differently and play different kinds of music for the most part.

 

[Melb_shredder]

Ok... some settings I have personally founds AMAZING with Mahogany body guitars though!
I find the recto takes a WHOLE different world of taming if you're using brighter woods, eg Alder Maple and whatnot.

So with my Jackson SLS3..... *Blackouts*

TS: Drive 0 Tone 5 Level 8
Recto: Chan 3 modern
Gain: 11:00 - 1:00 *depending on use*
Mids: 9:00 - 10:00
Bass: 10:00 - 12:00 *usually about 10 though
Treble: 10:30 - 11:30
Pres: 9:30 - 10:30

Mind you, with even variable of only 2 notches, the recto becomes COMEPLETELY different. But I find with mucking around in that general region, the tone is heavy, tight and has enough high end to cut but not fizz out.

Just my .02 of course