Mesa/Boogie Rectifier Recording Preamp

it pretty easy! there is nothing complicated

well i compare it with rectifier head, i can say the base of the sound is the same, but the pre-amp has not enough gain, but if you use a pedal to boost your sound it will be kick *** sound, i tried it with Ibanez Tube Screamer, and that was awesome, if you want to play metal you need to buy a pedal, also you can use an MXR M133 micro amp, its good too.
i don't like the clean channel, its not what i except from mesa/boogie, its not sharp and bright enough
the reason i buy this is because i wanted to record my song direct through the mixer, and its works well, you know its better that you use a head and cab for recording, but if you can't, its perfect for direct recording

you can go to a war with it, hehe

they SUCK! you can't make a contact with them, they even didn't create an e-mail address in their website ! if you want to talk to them you should call them, but the phone line is busy for %99 of time,and in that %1 they don't answer! in fact, they are not supportive

well, im playing heavy/thrash/progressive metal and if i lose it i will try to buy another one, but if i have enought money and space for recording , i prefer to buy a head and cab ! but again i tell you its perfect for direct recording

Prety eazy to use really. took me about 10 mins to get it right. its a bit touchy though.

Good sound, not good for Metal/Deathmetal but once i changed the tubes in v1, v2 and v3 to Tunsols, and left v4, v5 and v6 as standard tubes because the tungsols were to dark in the position, try jjs in v4, v5, v6

Hasnt faild yet though i Have only had it 18 months. It has endured a travel from USA to australia then from australia to New Zealand. and seems good.

never had a problem, though mine never came with a peddle that it was ment to. Mesa bogie didnt take responsibillity, and they company claimed innsence and since i wasnt in australian anymore i couldnt do much about that.

good unit, very overpriced in Australia as due to direct selling rights with mesa and the prices they quote.

This unit is stock, new from store. I'll comment on both the live and direct recording sounds. The live sound is awesome, sounds just like you'd want it to. I can get good clean and dirty sounds. The solo feature when using the footswitch is great too. For direct recording I was dissapointed. I tried to dial in a decent sound but nothing beats a good mic on some nice speakers in my opinion. It gets an 8 because although the live sound is awesome, the direct recording is lacking.

I use it with a variety of guitars from ibanez prestige rg's to an american jack kv2 to a us made strat. I run usually the kv2 to the preamp to a mesa strategy 400 power amp running 2 straight marshall jcm900 4x12 cabs and 2 slanted recto 4x12's. It's sick. I can get good clean and dirty sounds out of all of them. The solo feature when using the footswitch is great too. Again the direct recording feature is sub-par and the rating is affected by that.

I have gigged, practiced and recorded with it without a problem. Built very sturdy and wouldn't expect any problems as it lives in my rack.

Never had to deal with them.

I play Death Metal, Grind, Grindcore, Deathgrind and Crust, this amp takes care of all sounds for all genres. I've been playing guitar for 14 years, owned more amps than you can shake a stick at (5150, marshalls, peaveys, rocktron) and i really like the distortion on this amp. The rocktron prophesy preamp I own does cleans better than this amp. The 5150 is my favortie for heavy distortion and i usually end up running both the 5150 and the recto at the same time push two cabs each. Then if i need to play something clean i switch to a piezo pickup running to the rocktron. The only thing I wish it had was reverb. I would probably replace it if i had it stolen, the only other i might get over it is a rectifier head but i doubt it.

# How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?

Um, turn it on.

# How about Editing patches?

Interface device consists of knobs. This is an analog preamp, not an fx processor. If you like a sound, stop touching the knobs. Down side is that the knobs are not clearly marked, and the position of the toggle switches did not exactly match the manual. Some fiddling was required to sort out which settings were which.

# How is the manual for it (if there is one)?

Besides the toggle switch thing manual is excellent and describes the thinking behind how the preamp's sound was shaped; it also includes 16 very useful sample settings.

# Do you know the firmware revision number? Has your unit been upgraded?

Heh. The only firmware this thing has is the wood I get when I play it...

Note-- rating reflects that there are very few devices that are non-programmable in 2006. More thumbs down for the unclear knobs. My other beef, and this is minor, is that the recording output is *extremely* loud. I sometimes use a little M-Audio FW Solo for recording and it's difficult to record some tones without clipping.

I'm not a big guitar-hero encyclopedia, so it would be hard for me to say "oh, yeah, you can cop so-and-so's tone from the second solo on this song on that live bootleg." I do know that I have managed to get a surprising range of glorious tube sounds out of it recording direct.

Most of the below is based on playing the preamp in a DI situation using a variety of guitars and pickups. Generally, humbuckers and fatter-sounding single coils are better. Live through a Mesa 2/100 it's like having a Roadking and a Recto Twin in the same rig.

Clean sounds are uniformly warm, round, and very full. They tend towards fat/dark. Tweaking is necessary to find truly great rhythm tones, because you will find characteristics of your guitars and pickups you didn't know existed. Channel 1 is extremely sensitive to input level, and the warmth of the tones increases beautifully as you add preamp gain. The three modes-- Clean, Fat, and Brit-- are very distinct. Fat is almost never suitable for rhythm work, it's just too chubby. There's whole hidden universes of tonal shading in the Master and Presence knobs; the down side is that it's easily possible to produce outputs that are too hot for some interface devices with relatively sane Gain and Master settings. Again, tweaking is required for clean tones, especially if you need a completely clean sound that won't break up no matter what you do in a live situation.

The high-gain Channel 2 tones are also terrific, though slightly narrower in scope. Again, you have three very distinct modes that will cover pretty much all your rock needs from bluesy to modern metal. "Raw" and "Vintage" shade into each other a fair bit. All three modes have fearsome bottom end, silky highs, and very sweet compression as you increase gain. The bottom end in all modes is ridiculously tight-- we're talking Jessica Alba here. The only thing missing is that some serious doom heads (I mean, if you're into Sunn O))) or something) may find the bottom end is a little *too* controlled. It's hard to fuzz out completely, if that's what you want. The other thing I haven't found yet in here is a good Vox AC30 ripoff.

I haven't asked it to do anything awful. In six months it has about 400 hours on it in the studio and maybe 12 as part of a live rig. No problems thus far.

No problems so far.

It's difficult to compare this preamp to other gear because there's nothing quite like it in terms of the focus on pure tube tone to the exclusion of everything else.

The main things to keep in mind if you are considering buying this thing are:

Pros:

If you spend a lot of time in the studio as a guitarist (as opposed to being the songwriter/producer/engineer), and don't mind tweaking, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it.

All the sounds it makes are stunning.

If you find tone inspiring, this thing will make you remember why you love playing guitar.

Cons:

Difficult to use as the core of a live rig if you need much versatility, and you'll need lots of other gear to really make the best use of it.

It's "studio" gear without modern "studio" convenience.

It's totally *not* plug-and-go, and the learning curve is pretty long. You will need patience and a discerning ear. Again, if you love tone, you won't mind, but if you need predictable on-demand results, not so much.

I'll say only an 8 for ease of use because the pots have a lot of range, giving you a lot of power for serious tone or serious lack of tone, he he. The manual is excellent.

Wow! I've had this unit for 2 years and am still blown away every time I play. Channel 1 Clean gives me the perfect slap and wack with an EMG telecaster. Very similar to a Fender without reverb but more intense. Cops the "Green Grass And High Tides" telecaster sound exactly with every bit of excitement. Crystal-like until you slap the strings where you get a bit of crunch.

Fat brings in a fuller more gainy tone which works well for humbucking jazzy tones. Brit goes further in this direction and sounds very warm and full with more compression. All clean sounds have an amazing spring-loaded feel that varies with the amount of mid-range you dial in.

Channel 2's Raw is a little hard to get a feel for but there's got to be some nice Allman Brothers tones there. Vintage... Ah.... heaven with humbuckers. Creamy, Fat, Sharp, Liquid, you name it. Plenty of bass that doesn't completely go away at 0. With the pickups on all 6 of my electric guitars I get plenty of sharpness when I need it at high gain settings. Modern I'm undecided about. It lacks the fullness and harmonic outlay of vintage. It's bit bit sharper sort of. But I'm not a metal head though I revel in hard rock at times. Modern could sound quite hefty combined with Vintage if you had another amp or pre-amp.

I use an ADA speaker simulator and would regard that as an absolute necessity. You won't get a convincing amp sound otherwise. But the tone is so fantastic I don't even miss not having reverb.

So far so good but it stays at home. The tubes always get warmed up first.

Never needed to call.

I'm been playing nearly every style for over 30 years. This box seems capable of providing most of what I need though for precision work a fine amp and stack are often the way to go. This unit is perfect for practicing quietly, working out parts prior to recording final cuts, writing, and certainly complements direct miking. I'd buy another one for the rack if I had extra cash on hand. There's a high factor of inspiration I get with this piece.

You can get a straight-up good recording sound by putting all of the tone controls at 50% and dialing the gain to taste. You can create a wide range of tones with one of these. There is a bit of a learning curve like anything else. No preset storage banks.. have to dial in your tones from memory, by ear.. or you can take a snapshot of the dials with a digital camea and label the photos to archive your favorite settings. I'll give it a 7 here because it's simple in design, but setting the dials where you think they need to be to produce a certain tone won't happen until you learn the character of the amp. Once that's done, you can do anything you want with it.

I'll say a high 9. Only thing missing is that little extra something.. depth, width, etc. that you get with a mic'd amp, or perhaps a more robust powersoak unit at the output stage.. but then that also requires a power amp, and a cabinet, etc. I find it superior to the recto models on all POD, GS-10, VAMP types, or amp modeling software like guitar rig, etc. -as it should be.

You may have to tweek a bit to find the ideal output tone if you are going direct. There is a lot of actual interplay that goes on with the controls. Playing with the master volume will actually change up the tone on top of the gain knob, before the master record output. It sounds different with different guitars, etc. You can get a ton of bass on it. For those left wanting for 'palm mutes' that drown out everything else, I suspect it's either the guitar, pickups, or perhaps a faulty unit? I can get low end shake that's huge using my baritone guitar, or my standard Jackson strat model. I usually try to EQ most of that noise out though when recording.. not that it's excessive.. just there if you crank up the low end and know how to strum a powerful palm mute.

Cleans are very full. Lots of options all the way around.

Describing it can't really convey everything, so I linked a track that I have made with the unit. I think it shows off a good deal of tonal range you can get, though it's skewed toward the heavy side of things. http://www.soundclick.com/util/downloadSong.cfm?ID=4188642&ref=2

Download that^ and hear the recto recording pre. All guitar tones were done with the recto's direct record outputs, except for the obvious mic'd acoustic guitars toward the end of the track.

Solid steel. No problems whatsoever. I have used boogies (I guess they would be called 'Mesas' now) for years. Had a quad preamp, a strat 400 stereo power amp, 2 4x12 cabs, and also currently have the 2:100 power amp and a 1x12 recto cabinet. No problems with any of it save for needing to change the tubes out over time, which is normal.

Best there is. Cool guys working at the factory/offices, and also at the Hollywood store. Always prompt, savvy, and eager to please.

Great stuff. I play all styles and this 1 preamp serves my needs. Bear in mind that I do not use it to play live, though I could with my 2:100 power amp as it's basically a recto head sans power amp + recording outputs. Other gear I own.. just a few things like my MOTU 828MKII firewire recording interface, a Boss GS-10, a set of V-Drums, Event monitors, etc.

I compared the recto pre to everything else out there, and it was ideal for my needs and budget. Only thing it's really lacking is the above mentioned preset storage banks. I'm expecting Mesa to bring a 'Road King Recording Preamp' or something similar to market one day.. that hopefully will have preset banks available. Though, I have not heard of any such official plans. Best to listen to the sample I have linked above. The musical stylings may not be to taste, but there is a wide variety of tones in there that make a good demo of the unit.

I am real impressed as to have sensitive the controls are. Each control can really affect the overall sound and if you have mutliple guitars/ tones you can really get lost in the nuances this unit offers. As a result, I have spent a lot of time looking and noodling to find those sounds.

The manula is great starting point and frther tweaking can come from adjusting one's own equipment (humbuckers/ single coils, active/ passive, body woods, etc.) to find the sweet spot. Between my LP and PRS Modern Eagle the setting vary a lot and so I am still tweaking and enjoying doing so.

I am currently awaiting a 2 x 12 rec cab to use with my 20/20 power that I just bought and mounted in my rack. I am currently using it only through Pro Tools and my ribbon tweeter monitors for a couple more weeks.

The unit has a minimal amount of hum even with the gain fairly high with clean setting it's real quiet. I have an LP, a PRS Modern Eagle and a Warmoth strat with a Duncan Invader. The interesting settings for me are real low gain on channel 2 and more/ lots of gain on the clean channel. There's a lot of tones in the are where the two channels are closest that I find most exciting. I like a whole range of tones (clean- Linkin Park/ Creed) and am new to Mesa so I cannot tell if this is standard Mesa quality or a really great Mesa unit. I understand the love of their products now though.

I have a Marshall 100Watt 2 x 12 and run a DBX 31 band EQ, a DBX 266XL compressor, a TC Electronic G Major and a Behringer DualFX Pro. When I run the loop or in series the rack really affects the tone and so I find that I don't use it at all. The Marshall needs the rack to get the sounds I want. I run the Mesa Recto Pre direct and then run plug-ins in the channels in Pro Tools. I use Waves stuff for chorusing, delay and reverb and it sounds great.

As for artists I like Alex Lifeson (Permanent Waves- Pictures), BIll Frisell (all), Andy Summers (Solo stuff), Pat Metheny (all) and John Scofield (Grace Under Pressure up 'til now). I also like Scott Ian/ Anthrax, Queensryche, Petrucci, etc.

I've only had it for several months and haven't any problems with it.

I've had no reason to contact them as of yet and they haven't called me to check.

I find this is unit for direct recording an amazing piece of equipment. I've never owned a Mesa product before and I am very much in love with the range of sounds. For running direct into a DAW I just love the range of warm tones. I am not big into the 7 string low tuning thing, but it clearly has all of that stuff. The warmth of tones just makes the digital stuff pale in comparison. When recording in my studio volume is quite low and the tone just absolutely rages.

My goal is to be able to record sounds direct that capture that live, miked sound and this is really great for that. I also want to play it as a stand alone as well and most of the other Mesa amps don't offer the direct recording option. I highly recommend it because it sounds great direct and can still be a stand alone. I am really happy with this. It's pricey, but I don't feel dissappointed at all.

IF YOU WANT THE OH MY F*CKING GOD TONE WITH THIS PREAMP, HERE IS THE SIMPLE SECRET.

THE OUTPUT IS SUPER QUIET SO RUN THIS PREAMP WITH AN OVERDRIVE PEDAL. MY RIG IS DUNLOP CLASSIC CRYBABY, MORLEY A/B SWITCH, TO THE DRIVE SIDE A MXR ZAKK WYLDE OVERDRIVE TO A ISP DECIMINATOR, TO THE RECTO PREAMP( VINTAGE ), THAN A ROCKTRON XPRESSION SET ON DIGITAL TO A BEHRINGER EQ THAN TO MY POWER AMP . THE CLEAN SIDE GOES FROM THE A/B SWITCH TO AN ADA MP1 THAN TO A BBE SONIC MAXIMIZER TO THE ROCKTRON EXPRESSION , EQ THAN POWER AMP. ON MY PEDAL BOARD ALL I HAVE IS MY WAH , MY A/B SWITCH, AND MY BEHRINGER FCB 1010. ONE MIDI, AND TWO GUITAR CABLES. SO SIMPLE.

ONLY 12AX7'S HERE, NO POWER TUBES, OR RECTIFIER TUBES , SO VERY STURDY.

THIS SET UP ALLOWS ME TO HAVE THE RECTO TONE THROUGH TWO 4X12'S AND A SOUPED UP MARSHALL TONE THROUGH MY OTHER 4X12'S. THERE ISN'T ANY TONE I CAN'T GET. THE OVERDRIVE PEDAL GETS RID OF THE RECTO'S MUDDY BOTTOM END, AND MAKES IT SHARP. I THINK THE PRE GAIN SECTION IS A LITTLE OFF BALANCED FROM THE POST. THERE JUST ISN'T ENOUGH IN FRONT OF THE TUBES, SO THEY SOUND FUZZY AND MUDDY. THAT IS WHY SOME PEOPLE LOVE THIS THING AND SOME HATE IT. ( ALL MY GUITARS ARE LOADED WITH EMG'S, AND ALL MY CABS HAVE CELESTION GT75'S IN THEM ).

The layout is simple and well layed out.

It seems to be very picky about what guitar you use. I've used a G&L S-500 and a Commache. The S-500 sounded like crap. Very thin and weak. The Commache sounded awesome. Lots of overtones and detail. I've also heard with a Mexi-Strat and an SG, with mixed results, depending on what sound you're going for. The recording out was somewhat dissapointing for the price tag.

Never had a problem

I had a problem with a pop when channel switching. I contacted Boogie and they found me a repair guy in the area and paid for the fix.

Overall, this is a great tool for getting good tone without having to use an amp. If you have the luxury though, I would definately prefer a good amp with good mics in a good room. The speaker simulator does not live up to it's claims, but it sure beats a pod. Now that I have a room to mic amps, I will be selling it, but it was great when I didn't have a room and was working at home.

Easy to use. The controls are self-explanatory.

The context is I wanted to try direct recording. I tried it with two guitars, an ESP LTD M1000 with EMG 81 pickups and a Jackson Kelly neckthrough with Seymour Duncans.

For strummed out chords, the direct recording was great. Unfortunately, I'm into syncopated metal with a tight yet warm sound. The best I could get out of this amp (in modern mode) was a loose attack, then a very nice sustain, then a fuzzy break up. Again, great for genres that bang out long chords (if there's a lot going on in the song that covers up the attack/decay problems) but awful for metal.

I listened to shintock's mp3 below and that's the sound I was getting. Notice how the opening chord in "asiam" is nice but things go to hell when he palm mutes single notes. Before I had the preamp in my hands I assumed he was poor at palm muting, but after playing with it I concede that while his rhythm is off on the single note palm mutes, his poor attack is more to blame on this unit.

It may be true that one can add compression/effects to clean it up, but to me a unit should have a great "base" sound. For me, a good sound is a nice tight attack and a harmonically rich sustain. This unit has the latter, even though it breaks up horribly eventually (static), but lacks the former. If you are into hard rock you might like it. For metal, stay away. Your syncopations will turn to mush, and it's just not pleasing to play for that style, unless you use it in conjunction with other effects.

Did not keep it long enough to comment.

Did not keep it long enough to comment.

I bought the preamp for direct recording purposes, and have since returned it.

For non-metal genres, or if you use another distorion in the chain and operate on clean (defeating the purpose in my eyes), you may like this. For metal, stay away. To me, metal requires a tighter response. And this isn't a case of no direct recording methods being sufficient, since I can get much better direct recording for metal with both my subsequently-bought-and-loved ENGL 570SE (highly recommended, although better still to use it with micing up a 4X12 and a tube power amp (the ultimate)) and with my Pod XT (does the job ok, with some harshness, but especially considering its low price, amazing).

As for non direct-recording with the mesa recto recording preamp, I can't comment.

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.

If you can work an amp you can work this unit. As this is not a digital simulation thingee you have no instant recall of a patch but it does do sitching between the "clean" channel, the higher gain channel. Th footwitch also lets you get a solo mode. For each of the two channels you have nobs for gain, treble, mid, bass, presence and master. In addition there are switches for selecting the two channels, preamp voicing, -3 db and bright. On the output stage you have a recording output and two live outputs, regular and solo.

For my purposes this unit is fantastic. I use it exclusively for recording and I am getting the best sounding guitars I've had on my recordings. I sold a vg-8 to get this and I am very happy. I couldn't handle the POD sound and the vg-8 just wasn't cutting it for me. It now sounds like I'm playing through a tube amp.

Unlike some of my other equipment I think this unit would handle the road well. The build quality appears to be excellent.

THere reputation is great, I haven't had to call them as of yet.

If you want a tube amp sound that goes from the best clean you've ever heard to great sounding overdrive look no further. Highly recommended. Personnally look around (on the phone, etc.) for a good price. Mesa tends to be restrictive in how much dealers can negotiate the price. You may be lucky and find a dealer that has had one hanging around for a while that they may want to unload.

To me, this unit is so damn easy to use; but read the manual, at least once, to find out about the little details not obvious from the panels (like the vintage/modern channel switching via footswitch). The controls are pretty much self explanatory.

This is where it gets fun and tricky... (it's a little long, but I think is worth for a good reference)

First of all I'd like to point out that it'll make a HUGE difference the kind of guitar, pickups and tubes that you use. I'll give you my experience.

The style I play mostly is progressive metal and shred stuff, so I demand a lot of definition and personality from the distortions I use. I wanted this unit for live and studio situations. I felt like I could live with the live features

I first tried this unit at the store like this:

Jackson Soloist/Seymour Duncans
-> Rectifier Recording Preamp
-> Recto Stereo 100:2 (6L6)
-> Peavey 4x12 speaker (don't know the model, sorry)

and I must say that I wasn't satisfied. I went directly to the modern mode and, regardless of volume or power level, I felt no definition on single notes, specially in the muted bass. The open chords sounded great, but the heavy riff were muddy and not tight at all. After that I tried the vintage mode, it felt a little tighter but even muddier than the modern one. The clean channel was OK, but not my main purpose. Unfortunately I could not try the unit direct through a console at the store.

In spite of this, I trusted MESA and decided to purchase the unit and give it a try with my own equipment. BIG DIFFERENCE... this is what I use:

Custom ESP (mahogany body)/EMG-81
-> Rectifier Recording Preamp
-> TC Electronic GMajor
-> Marshall 9200 Dual Monobloc (6L6)
-> Marshall JCM 900 (4x12)

and totally satisfied...:D

Live, the sound is totally killer. The modern mode is open, tight and punchy; you get a good distortion with a lot of sustain and all the rectifier personality you'd expect, great for metal. The volume level is lower in this channel, this gets adjusted in the power amp stage by removing the negative feedback (Stereo Recto 100:2); I get around this with the 9200's own modern mode really well. The vintage mode is also great, the distortion feels a little cleaner (obviously) and darker, still plenty of sustain for solos and "progressive" riffs. In channel 2, the treble and presence controls play an important part in the distortion; if you can, experiment. As far as the clean channel goes, it's sweet. From the clean mode I can get soft, sparkling cleans suitable for chording; from the fat mode, I get what it takes for a clean/slightly overdriven solo; I haven't needed that much the brit mode. BTW, the channel and mode switching is quick and silent, no pops or gaps.

The only downside I see from this unit is to be stuck with the same control preset in the modern and vintage modes. This is kind of useless in a live situation because the control preset for a mode generally won't work for the other. I Get around this by re-equing, on a preset basis, with the GMajor; btw, I do the channel switching through this unit (relays) via midi, if you wanted to know. :P

Given these 2 scenarios, I'd definitely encourage people to try, at least, this preamp with a carefully chosen equipment. As far as I go, I'll never grab a Seymour Duncan loaded guitar again, but that's just me. :P

For studio purposes, I also been completely satisfied. I mostly need a direct recording box for a quick setup, and consistent tone, in every recording session. For the past 2 months I've been trying different approaches mostly with the modern and vintage modes. In this scenario, I find the vintage mode a little more useful because sounds less harsh than the modern mode on tape. Both offer great distortion and sustain, but in my case the vintage mode blended nicer in the mix. I haven't experimented that much with the clean channel on tape yet, I still need to try some different techniques for distorted guitars.

Another important point is tubes. I usually replace my preamps' stock tubes with Sovteks 12AX7LPS. In the case of the Mesa Triaxis and the M

I've owned this unit since November 2003 and no problems. I haven't had issues with any Mesa product so far. I use it live with backup tubes and behind a Furman Power Conditioner; I wouldn't go live without, at least, those 2 things.

I haven't contacted Mesa directly, everything has been through my dealer in Arizona. But he states that the Mesa people are great and they've answered all my questions so...

Overall, I never rate 10 just because I feel that there is no such thing as a perfect unit, but this one gets really close. It doesn't produce all the sounds in the world, but it's fine and acurate Rectifier replica; what it does, it does great.

I just want to encourage people to put special attention on the equipment being used around the preamp, and not just this one; I've had great experience with other preamps rated as shit from many people (aka Marshall JMP-1)

Very straight forward and easy to use. I plugged in and was able to dial up my main session sounds instantly. The manual was good...but, IT HAS TO BE READ to get the most out of the unit. This isn't a conventional preamp. There are things that we may be use to doing with other amps---throw all that out of the window and start from scratch with the manual.

If Direct Recording is your thing--especially where distortion and overdrive tones are conscerned--- I'd highly recommend this unit. I heard some positive stuff from peolpe and I heard some negative stuff--so I was skeptical until I plugged it up. I plugged it straight into my DAW which is basically: MOTU 828mkII, ALesis M1 powered monitors, DELL Dimension 4550 at 2 GHZ and Cakewalk Sonar 3.1. With no added processing, I was able to get the full, round, thick lead tone that I was hoping I'd get. It felt great under the fingers, and the way I heard it through my monitors when I was recording was the same way it sounded during playback. There was none of that 'buzzy' sound that others mentioned and it sounded way better than any direct signal I've ever used. It has outdone my Pod Pro too.
Another good thing is that it offers more sound choices than a standard Rectifier amp. It offers more options in the clean tones, and there is a variety of Distortion sounds that can be obtained. I certainly don't consider it a one trick pony.
Nothings perfect...and for me, the only downside is a lack of low end beef when palm muting and playing fast, shred style alternate picking runs. I found though, that that could be somewhat corrected with some EQ-ing....but, it sounds okay as is.

I'm using 2 Schecter C-7 Seven string guitars with Duncan pickups and a Strat with Lace Sensor pickups as my primary axes.

It's heavy, and seems built like a tank. The tubes also seem nice and snug.

Haven't had to deal yet.

My background is in Jazz/Funk and R&B and I do plenty of session and hired gun work in that area...but I'm also involved with a lot of Progressive, Hard rock and instrumental guitar stuff. I started studying music when I was seven years old (20 years ago) and have been playing professionally for 9 years. I've been through my share of gear. I also spent the last two years in Digital Modeling world. This unit covers all the bases for me. It's turning out to be the all in one box that I hoped it would be---allowing me to dial in great tones for sessions and still be able to use it as part of a live rig. I highly recommend it. There is no reason people shouldn't be getting great direct to tape sounds from this box.

This product is a very easy to use unit, when you turn this unit on you almost immediatly can get a great sound but it all depends on what you are using with it. No stupid editing patches like the POD or a Digitech 2101, 2120, or 2112. Those things take a while to dial in settings that you like, although the presets on those units arent so bad, but i find myself tweeking the hell out of those to get my tones. this is a straight forward unit with out fearing your unit will crash. Mesa manuals are great and give example tone settings.

Gibson les paul standard (2000)
Boss octive
Boss OS-2
Boss Blues Driver
Juice goose
Digitech 2120(effects and gate)(J12) mesa sp12ax7 tubes
Mesa recording preamp
Beringer tube ultrafex
BBE sonic maximizer
Mesa 50/50 with sp12ax7 tubes
all monster cables
marshall 1960A 4x12
Johnson millenium combo amp Vintage 30 speakers

Not noisy considering i have a gate, Beautiful fat tones from this amp,cleans are nice, although the bright function does do little to the sound unless you are playing at louder volumes.I do switch this unit with the 2120 that i use, for my older songs in the band i will use the 2120 with the 0s-2 and the amp distortion wich if you tweek for a while you can get it to sound pritty good.The digitech distortion i use is pritty close to the raw mode on the rec pre. I use mesa Sp12ax7's in the digitech 2120 and they are low noise ballsy sounding tubes that will enhanse distortion. i gavent yet replaced the rec pres tubes with the sp12ax7 tubes yet