Mesa/Boogie Rectifier Recording Preamp

How hard can it be to use? The controls are almost identical to the Rectifier heads. If you can't use an amp, then don't play. :)

I'm playing this with a modest Ibanez SZ 520 (excellent guitar for the money) and some pedal effects (MXR, BOSS, Tech21, Dano). I only play through my monitors using the record outs - I don't have a power amp or cab to play through, nor would I need them in my apartment.

The cleans on this thing are awesome. They sound nothing like the cleans on a DR. Almost Fender-ish, but with a little more body and balls. I love them.

The distortions of course, are incredible. I don't really care for the "Raw" setting, unless I'm playing classic rock like AC/DC, but the "Vintage" and "Modern" settings blew my nuts off. Here'a clip of Channel 2 on Modern - (http://www.bedroomstudio.net/media/rectopre/asiam-eq.mp3) - using only the direct record outputs. I love it.

Only had it for a week, so I can't really comment.

Never dealt with them.

This pre is awesome. I bought it when I realised that I was only using the "Recto" amp model on my Tonelab, and the "California" setting on my TRI-A.C. Both of those are getting sold ASAP, thing thing ROCKS! However, it's quite pricey, therefore a 8 overall.

Very easy to use. I was setup and testing the unit in about 45 minutes. That includes reading the manual( briefly). MIDI would be nice. I was in the process of buying a ENGL E530 for close to the same money, so I opted to go the extra cash and get the Mesa Rectifier Recording Preamp (used).

The sound quality is what Mesa Engineering intended it to be. Many reviewers realize this, and are experienced enough to know how to set it up properly. If you go straight to record with ANY preamp, it will probably sound bad. You need to use some common sense and hook it up proper with compressor/effects/EQ/gate. I think it sounds beautiful. The clean channel is exceptional, and Channel 2 gives a great Mesa sound. I absolutely love it.

Very dependable. I don't gig, so I don't have to woory about dying on Me. Home recordings only.

Mesa customer support is great. I called with questions---They had answers. What else?

Guitar is my hobby, not my life. I enjoy goofing around with FL Studio, and making up my own leads or rhythm tracks. Guitar has been a hobby for a good part of my life, I enjoy it. I have a Hamer USA Studio, and ISP Decimator.
I would buy it again, Yes. I love the sound and quality. The only the I dislike is that I waited so long to buy a Mesa product.
I have owned, Marshall 9004 preamp, Marshall JMP1, Soldano X99, Rocktron Voodu Valve, POD Pro. The JMP1 and Soldano were both tube. The JMP1 was ok for it's time, The Soldano kicked the JMP1's butt. The Soldano X99 was good for it's time. Both of them were too limited. One dimensional. I find the Mesa to be more flexible and with much better "direct" sound circuitry.
this helps me play better, because I forget about the preamp and get into the sound I hear. Awesome. I wish it had MIDI, But if it did, I could not afford it.

Not alot of knobs to it. If you read the instructions, you shouldn't have too much trouble using this unless you are an amateur with no sense of how to record music well. It took me a while, but the end result was good. Listen to this recording of my song and judge for yourself

http://www.slumberonline.com/auction/001d.mp3

If you want to know of what you could be capable of recording at home with a combination of a Shure SM57, Mesa Boogie, $80 beringer mixer, a PC and Cool Edit, listen to this:

http://www.slumberonline.com/store/item_001.php

Once again. If you put in the time to learn how to tweak it using your gear or other gear you can achieve studio quality work.

http://www.slumberonline.com/auction/001d.mp3

http://www.slumberonline.com/store/item_001.php

I have to give this product alot of credit despite the fact that you don't get the same kind of guitar feedback as you would from a cab. But this sure keeps the neighbors from complaining at 3:00am

Mesa Boogie made it. It's good. =)

Not bad. I called with some questions and they answered them.

If you want to keep the noise down, if you want to save money but yet get excellent sound of a studio, if you want to use this at a live show, if you love the sound of dual recifiers, then this is the amp for you.

It takes a little experimentation to find the tone your looking for...but it's there. Slight tweaks have big effects on the tone. It's a sudio piece of gear...with live applications. I use it for both. In the studio it shines! As a live piece...the jury is out...so far so good. More playing is required to form my opinion but first impression are that it is very good live as well. It would be nice to have 3 channels live...but oh well..I did get the Recto 2:100 power amp to match it. I'm running it through a Mesa Recto 4x12 cab. The manual is good. Read it. Actually...Mesa should get a new proof reader to catch the poor english here and there. I give it a an 8 for ease of use ...because you have to tweak gentle to find your sound...this is not a negative thing. Some may give it a poor rating overall...but they should get to know the unit.

2 Channels...6 modes...foot switch...effects loop. Great tone! I'm using it stereo into a Roland VS machine. Some post EQing helps a bit. I also use to cabinet emulation in the VS machine to enhance the sound a bit. Not noisy at all. I am recording with Musicman Petrucci 6 and 7 string guitars. A Musicman Sillohoutte with humbuckers; A Fred up front and a PAF Joe at the neck. Also a PRS CE24. Each guitar requires some tone tweaking to find the best sound..but once you find a good overall sound...just work from there.

Also..the clean sound is really, really good! Very organic and rich.

So far so good. Mesa even called me out of the blue...to see if I liked it! They must have got my warranty card and just did a check. Very cool service.

see above

I am playing hard rock metal prog fusion intrumental stuff. It took a long time to get my chops up to this level and tone is SO important.
This preamp is so far the best recording pre I've used. I had a POD...good gear to have...but in the end I wasn't happy with the sound. Convincing...yes...but not quite there. I used a Carvin pre and it was the same thing. A Johnson J-Station too. Side by side...that is how I know...the Mesa is tops! Of course you pay for this. I have been playing more than 20 years. This unit is a keeper. All I can say to those who rate it poorly...give it the effort required. Read the manual...very small tweaks of the knobs have big impacts on the sound. This is no crappy solid state kids amp.

Let me say first that I did not buy this preamp, I used it for quite a few hours and made my decision. It's front panel controls are very easy and familiar. Having said that, this unit is most certainly intended primarily for recording. The nicest feature in my opinion is the multiple voicings, although they have to have the switch manually flicked. The fact that this unit cannot be fully controlled via midi or even a multibutton footswitch is a major minus for live players. I was orginially considering this unit because I wanted to get the rectifier sound in a solid preamp package. We'll talk more about that below. In the studio it would even be convenient to have a footswith for the voicings, but moreso in a live situation otherwise you really are left with just a bare bones 2 channel preamp. I can't give it a great score here because of its lack of intuitive switching.

I was very surprised when I plugged in this preamp at how poor the sound was. I played with it for quite a while, I was using a mid-high level Ibanez guitar about $700 straight into the preamp out into a mesa power amp into a mesa 4x12. I went though each sound, and here is what I have to say. The clean channels were really weak. You have to roll the gain almost down to zero to get a good clean it breaks up way too quickly. The fat mode sounded the best, clean was way to bright even with the bright switches off, not enough low end or mid range and not the greatest articulation either. The brit sound was interesting, and different, it didn't really sound brit to me but it could have some application for classic rock. What I really wanted to hear from this was the rectifier high gain sound. The gain was there, but the sound wasn't, very spongy with almost no articulation at all. I tried ajusting just about everything I could to get something really good out of it, and I just could do it. The best thing I could come up with was a mid gain crunch, think ac/dc crunch level, obviously not the ac/dc marshall sound. The all out gain was just not good period. Now I have heard some reviews saying this thing sounds great as a direct box, and it may very well, so keep in mind that I am only talking about the live sound. I used to own a Mesa V Twin Preamp Pedal and that little guy kicked this ones butt for the live sound hands down. I like the Triaxis very much too, and that is 20 times more preamp than this new one, however, being I am really just searching for a good high gain rectifier in rack mount, the triaxis is too much money. If I were using it as my main sound maybe, but I'm not. It looks like I will try and aquire a used V Twin rackmount, which in my opinion is much more versatile than this one. The V gets the rect sound about 90% which will have to do. I've also thought about trying the formula but have heard very mixed things. All in all I was very disappointed with this unit, especially since I could have gotten one for a very reasonable price.

I cannot say about this particular porduct but most mesa products are pretty solid, although some do manage to find there way out of the factory with issues hmmm.

I have not had to deal with them for anything, but something does bother me about a company that demands its vendors sell at their list prices. I can't understand what difference it can make to them since they get the same thing anyway, what difference does it make if a vendor wants to cut their profit a little to make a sale?

Again, I was very disappointed. I had a lot of hopes for this preamp. I am really a preamp nut, and love to have a lot of different tones. I use all high end gear and the list is too extensive to mention. I have liked many of mesas products in the past but this one does not do it for me. They may and I don't know so I say may have nailed a great recording preamp but it certainly doesn't cut it for live use. I'd rather use a cheap stomp box for a distortion on a decent clean amp rather than use this. I play all types of music ranging from Jazz to heavy metal and everything in between, so versatility in important to me. The lack of switching options is one thing, but I could get around that if it had a killer tone, say like a Bogner Fish or CAE with has great tone but is very limited. But if a company like VHT can make a midi controlled preamp that really kicks butt for the same price as the mesa I can't see why mesa being a much larger company can't. In my opinion there are a lot of other preamps out there, buy almost any of them, and you'll have made a better choice. Sorry, but that's just my opinion.

BTW, plese check out kwcabs speaker cabinets, you won't be sorry.

You need to read the manual to make sure you understand what every knob and switch does! This will lead to over induced tweaking!
After a few hours of tweaking...;) piece of cake!

Hmmm. Where do i start! Ok. After reading a few reviews here I decided that the best match for this would be my VHT 2\50\2 and a new Mesa Boogie 2:100. Both were awesome sounding! BUT I had to stay with the Mesa 2:100 because I could get the true Recto sound. Once you hook the REC pre into the 2:100...... Angels start singing! I sold my VHT BTW! These were designed to go together. I beleive you can dial in any MESA RECTO tone with this setup!
I just happend upon this because the local music store had a similar set up. It was going through a Genz Benz 212. (I bought the Genz benz too)
I cannot believe the tone that was coming out! So I bought it all.
(btw I was playing through an Ibanez Universe and a Jem...NO issues on the bottom end with the 7 string)

Built like a Tonka truck. Only issue i have had is making sure all the tubes stay the same color. I was told by my local tech to keep the "green pairs" in it. It came with all greens! (8 6l6's STR430)
The tone is a little warmer in his opinion. So greens it stays. It has been hard for us to get a green pair. I have been waiting for weeks!

I have dealt with Mesa customer support! NO issues realy but I ask a lot of questions when i kick in over $1000 on a product. They were cool about it. 5 year warranty! I have called with questions 3 times.
I got the runaround once but the other 2 times were excellent experiences. So no 10. I think if I had a serious issue they would take care of me. But you may have to wait a day and a half for a return call. (they dont pick up the phone right away)

I do not want to gig with this now. It is such a precious set up. I think I will buy a single rectifier to play out with my Laney VH 100r. (another great sounding amp) This set up is 6 mos old.
I give it a 10 because the combination i am using works and works perfectly!
If your not a tweaker dont post. I hate that people come here and post without turning a knob! If you post here you owe it to the rest of us to spend some time tweaking and experimenting before you post.

I mainly use PRS and Anderson guitars with humbuckers. I'm really into Dream Theater, King's X, etc. so-that's the sound that I'm shooting for. I use a Lexicon MPX G2 in the loop, preamp out into a BBE maximizer into a Mesa 50/50 power amp. I use 2 rectifier 4/12 cabs(vintage 30's).
By itself,the distortion is tamer than I expected. I use the overdrive in the Lexicon with this unit.
The clean sound is super!

New Rectifier Preamp. 2 channel clean/dirty with several options on each. More than features than I need actually, I'm striving for a crystal clean and a hard rock/metal dirty.

Like most Mesa stuff, it appears to be built tough. As this is still a pretty new unit (I've owned it for about 8 months), I've had the 50/50 for a long time and only needed to retube it. I have a TriAxis as a backup should this preamp ever fail.

I have delt with Mesa repair and service depts. concerning a Triaxis issue. I can honestly say that they are by far the best customer support that I have ever done buisness with. I sent the preamp back to the factory for repair and they were honest and upfront about everything.

I've been playing for nearly 21 yrs. I bought this to replace a TriAxis (which I kept). The best thing I can advise is to THOROUGHLY CHECK THIS THING OUT IN THE STORE. I'm not sorry that I bought it, but it's not all that I thought it would be either. $1000 is a lot of money.

I had no trouble what-so-ever getting great tones from this preamp. This is very straight forward to use...it may seem like alot is going on but it is straight forward it is just very flexable. The manual answers all questions. The most complicated thing on this is that the treble boost and input -3db pad is just applicable to channel 1... and thats not very hard to grasp is it?! As far as comments go to how funny the tone controls respond, it is due to the positioning of the mid control. Unless you going for a super scooped tone with the mid way down the treble kind of responds with the peak of its treble detention around 11:00am on the dial. Turn the dial up and you get more treble... turn the treble down from there you get more treble. IF the mid control is down quit abit the treble acts like what we expect.

I think this piece of equipment 100% hits what it is designed to do. This preamp sounds just like the current 3 channel versions of the Rectifier heads. I had a new dual recto but it was just uncontrolable as far as volume goes in the lower volume range (home level). For it to sound good you had to crank it up. I bought this pre to use in the return jack of my current head which has a smoother volume taper. And this preamp sounds just like the dual 3 channel I had but I was able to get a tons better sound at lower volumes. I then tried the recording outs and I don't understand why people cant use this thing. I used my monitors and was able to get the exact same tone and response. I had big fat chunky tones that had the same response as when using the 'live' outs.... good tight palm mutes etc. Don't be turned off by some comments, Mesa knew what they were doing with this piece of equipment.

If you want the MESA recto sound at a cheaper price point this fills the bill 100%. Use it in the return jack of your existing tube head and your there. The recording outs sound great too, no doubt about it.

It is the answer for home recording. If you simply can't mic a cab to record, this will do just fine. Clean channel is VERY clean, meaning no color w/ exception of "British" mode - makes it a tad brighter. Dirty channel gives a lot of different tones and ALL are good. This sounds awesome in a digital recording environment (I use DP4 w/ a Waves L2 for it's converters . . . oh and a strat w/ SD humbuckers) When I got this, the whole ride home I was thinking the first thing I'm going to do is A/B it w/ my pod and if it's only slightly better it's going back . . . needless to say I posted my pod on EBAY that night!!

2004, 2 channels, 6 modes, emulated line out etc.

It's in a studio so not much cause for getting knocked around, but I would feel confident popping it in a rack case for a gig. VERY solid build.

I had a tube issue right out of the box. Mesa was swift in sending me new tubes.

It took me a long time to look past the convience of my pod and realize the sound was not that good. Digital recording is brittle enough - you need to warm up everthing you can. This box does it in spades!! If it were stolen I would stomach a battle w/ my insurance to replace it :)

This pre has 2 faces in every aspect. Let's start with this: is it easy to use? Well, it has all the knobs of a very simple head, 3 eq, presence, gain, volume. All of them are separated for the clean and lead mode (that shares the controls in its 3 own modes).
Does this make it a "simple" pre? No way! The eq behaviour is crazy, ok maybe I am too used to Marshall or Laney stuff, but there, you turn the bass and the bass changes! whooo whoo! Here, I don't know, it's all about micro movements because everything influences everything else.
I give 7 because, maybe, this will feel like "home" for usual Mesa users.

Again 2 faces.
The sound quality in the scenario this thing is SUPPOSED to be working is hopeless. I'd give it a 5 or a 6, the cleans are good as you can read from EVERY review here. But the direct distortion, oh dear, it is really nice if you just blam very open chords, it is decent for lead tone (but lacks real gain here, my JMP-1 has loads of gain compared to this), but when it comes to palm muting riffs.. no way to make it sound decent.
Trust me, I've had this pre for 10 months, I've experimented every possibility.. I've revalved it completelly, played for days doing A/B tests with my other 2 pre (JMP1 and PODxt), and the Mesa is a loser.
I remembered testing it in the shop, driven by a VHT power amp and it was stunning, so I started doing crazy tests going from the Mesa to the PODxt using Line6's speaker emulation technology.. and here they are the palm mutes I was looking for! The problem got to be in the Mesa's speaker emulation circuit.
I couldnt bare the lag in the POD.. I think this is what ppl refer to when they judge the POD, it sounds great but it "feels" wrong, the reason is the lag! Being a digital system the POD needs some time to process the result, it is quick, but still not "real time" as a tube amp.. but let's go back to the Mesa.
I was waiting to build a considerable cash to go for a power amp, since I am going back on stage soon and recording is not my only occupation now. I decided to keep the hopeless Mesa until I had my rack finished with a power amp, I bought an incredible VHT 2/50/2 "Black Beauty" and guess what?? The Mesa is a KEEPER! Here it is the sound I got in the shop when I bought it, creamy, beefy and ballsy, and now my JMP1 is being kicked hard! But before, in direct mode, the JMP1 is, IMO, still the nicest sounding pre out there!

But there's something more I don't like about this pre, it doesn't clean up! If you back off the volume on the guitar, you'll get an almost clean bassy fart sound... I wrote Mesa, they were very quick in the response and they said it is "normal".. huh? My JMP1 cleans just great with the guitar volume! Heck my PODxt cleans with the guitar volume!! Go figure..

I'd give the Mesa 8-9 in a complete rack scenario but.. this is not a "real" rack pre, it has no MIDI interface, nothing.. so I have to judge it as a recording pre and the result is bad.. really bad. 5

It is a monster, almost as heavy as the VHT power amp! I don't think I could damage it, even if I try.
It has been "on" for 9 months almost 5 hours a day, not a single problem! I revalved it just to try.

Very good. 1 day to reply an email.

Well, if you want to buy this to do recording, trust me and don't! Mesa is not there with speaker emulation, go somewhere else.
If you want a very non versatile pre for your rack then go for it.
If you are ready to spend a lot of money for a great power amp to couple this and make it like an expensive head, go on and buy it.
I've been playing for 15 years, I do a lot of recording and I tried almost every single gadget for direct recording, the Mesa is not the answer, period.