Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier Triple Channel

Built in 2003 i believe, although i cant be sure on this. Three channel amp, clean, and then two distorted channels. The distortion on these channels range from mild to brutal. Comes with big foot chanel selector, excellent effects loop but no headphone jack (no biggy). Cant really think of anything else that i would need.

(i used the rectifier and spongy setings)

First of all can i just say that whilst i realise this head is not for everyone if you are gona review then at least take the time to try it properly. I myself fell into this trap. I bought my first head a few months ago and after three hours i was gutted. There was no bottom end, it was muddy and slow to react. I sent it back for a new one, changed my pick ups and started all over. This time i tried it in a gig situation with no practice!! Awesome. I was blown away. This is the sort of sound i had always wanted and heard in bands like Linkin Park and Nickelback. My point................try all avenues. Its not always the head thats the problem. Onto the review.

Im using dimarzio tone zone pick ups with Ibanez RGT series guitar. Built for heavy rock...........and deliver. I was looking for Brad Delsons sound with John Petrucci's lead sound, who play for Linkin Park and Dream Theatre. Ive tried a few amps in the past, mainly solid state and ive always felt that i was never really able to cut through very well. The mesa has changed this. The last gig i played i was blown away by the sheer power and quality this head gave me. I was expecting there to be a alot of noise as i dont have a noise gate yet.............i was surprised yet again. Yes. of course there was some noise but compared to others i was impressed. The biggest problem i had was when i switched to the solo channel i recieved moderate feedback which told me i needed a noise gate. The clean channel, which despite getting hammered by the press is very useable. It beats many marshalls cleans.......once again i was very impressed. The clean doesn't break up at high volumes. With a compressor/sustainer the cleans with this head are very good.....but you can buy better heads for clean sounds. The distortion is what i wanted this head for. I was told that it offers a uniuque sound that really cant be duplicated. I was dubious. Then i flicked the standby switch on and braced myself for chaos! At first i went straight to channel 3 because that was the channel that i had heard so much about. But before i got into that i slipped and selected the second channel. Heaven itself!!! The distortion was very warm, powerful. Very much like the sounds that Brad Delson gets. The bottom end was huge. It was music to my ears. The sound i had always wanted. People have complained about the amp being hard to tweak but i got a good sound inside 20 mins. Im sure i can improve on this sound gievn time but i was very impresses with what i got. I will review channel 3 at a later date after i have had time to play it for long enough.

Obviously spare tubes are a must. Ill be getting mine soon. As i have only just got mine it would be unfair to review it at this point. But ive heard good things.

They were very quick to deal with my enquires. Impressed.

I was a late starter to guitar and have only played for three years but in that time i have been looking for 'my sound'. I feel i have found it. I own numerous boss pedals which of course compliment the sound in the way i want it to. I compared it against a number of heads including Line 6 and marshall (the mode 4 did not impress). Nothings perfect but this is as close as ive heard to my perfect tone!

Lets see 3 channels.... 1st channel with modes clean and pushed.. 2ond channel raw vintage and modern modes and 3rd channel.. raw vintage and modern modes..

i had it for month so i dint do too much Tweaking and tone Searching that much. but so Far So Good.

Sounds Awsome.. useing a Gibson Explorer 76'Reissue with a 500T Humbucker Pick up in the Bridge and a 496R pick up in the neck Thinkin of Switchin to Emg81 and a Emg60. and my head is combined with a mesa open back wide body 1x12 Switching to a 4X12 recto cab or a 2x12 recto cab Soon and a Mesa Boogie Triaxis Preamp before my head the triaxis dies tone compareing to the Dual Rectifier head
but anyways.... this amp Pretty much got's it its all. i was compareing this to a channel 4 marshall head.. the Dual Rectifier killed it. so far i got metallicas St.anger tone Locked on the channel 3 modern mode... which i love im a metallica freak... the channel 3 modern compareing to the channel 2 modern is that channel 3 has less bite but more growl... and channel 2 modern. has Alot more bite but less Growl. channel 2 modern or vintage.. Tweaking it a bit can sound exactly like your marshall tone.. so if like your old Style Marshall tone but want some new tone too.. this amp will do it. the Clean channel.. channel one... never even Tweaked it never even really tryed it... like i said only had it for a month. but the clean channel will do it for me. from what i played so far of it......

so bottom line is

looking for new tone buy it

looking for garage days-load-reload-st.anger tone buy it

looking for a amp but like your marshall tone too much and scared you aint gonna like it dont worry tweak your 2ond channel mode and your Good.... so buy it

looking for a LOUD AMP... buy it (lol Definetly buy it)

looking for a kick yo momma in the head and blow her away with Distortion buy this amp

JUST BUY THIS AMP MAN!! (versatile as hell)

this is your amp you will never go back to Marshall
who ever says dual Rectifier's are horrible and marshall beat them.. they are the crazyist peoeple in the world and need to be held in a Crazy House

im pretty sure i can trust it i would definetly gig with it. millions of people gig with them. amp never broke on me.. i pray to god it never does either cause i love it too much. and plus i only had it for a month so not sure how Tough it is.. but it looks built tough

never Dealed with mesa?.. hope i never do either
and mesa gots a 5 year warranty so i really think theres nothing to worry about... and im pretty sure mesa will make some new amp in 5 years lol

well i would give this amp a complete ten on tone and features.. ive been playing for 6 years (i think?) lol maybe longer?... owned a triaxis preamp. and a marshall. but the Dual recitifier killed it. only thing though is that the triaxis has the mark IIC+ tone on it... which aint Exact though. im more then sure the mark IIC+ head will kill it.. cause the triaxis just dint do it for me.

pretty much covered i think

I guess this amp covers everything but I've heard this 2 channel sounds better than the 3 channel. since I own a 94 2 channel, 2001 3 channel and tremoverb head I can tell you this. The 3 channel sounds way better!!! it's more versitile and has a tighter bottom end. I switched tubes to Svetlana 6L6 which sound awesome but believe me if you are going to get a Dual Rec head pay the extra and get the 3 channel it covers everything from funk/hendrix/Zep/slash/metalica etc

Never had one problem with a boogie, but you have to change the tubes when it sounds flat

crap!!!

i've played pro for 5 years and a total of 30 years and had probably everything!! this boogie is the best by far in a single head and i'll be selling my 2 channel model

This has been covered fully here

Sounds great and has a very searing defined sound that is very much "modern" sounding.Very powerful and rich.

Get ready for this one.... I bought a 50 watt solo head and it had a power dropoff/fluctuation (possible bad tube?) I returned it and upgraded??? to a a dual triple channel. The footswitch popped very loud compared to the other heads in the showroom. (very much more at an unacceptable level for a pricey amp like this).I returned it for another. The channel switching was very quiet but after it warmed up the 3rd channel would not work and would just produce a headphone level sounding signal. Boogie blamed both problems on a "J" switch. The problem is is that when I returned my 3rd head it would not drop out at the store leaving some doubt as to the disfunction.The amp to me is unreliable as that sometimes you can step on the footswitch to channel 3 and get nothing. For a $1500 amp that is completly unacceptable. I am now waiting for my 4th head with my fingers crossed!! Thank heavens for 30day moneyback from the dealer!

Most are very good some are snotty. They are very quick to blame tubes and not so quick to blame something else. I was told the tolerance for abnormal parts was very low?

I love the sound of this amp but for the money they better check 'em better.. especially the channel switching noise levels! Get a new supplier or do something about the bad parts being installed!If my 4 th one has any problems inside of 30 days like the others did I will not ask for another but get my money back and look for something that comes out of the factory Aok.

This amp has it all. The variety of tones you can dial in are almost limitless. With 3 channels, and 8 modes between them (3 modes on Ch 2 & 3, 2 modes on Ch 1) it's possible to cover alot of sonic range. Word's can't descibe Channel 3's modern mode, all I can say make sure your wearing a jockstrap! The effects loop is killer as well. You can assign to any channel, or activate it with the footswitch. I have yet to crank it over 3/4 volume. In fact one day I had it my garage at just over half volume and the neighbors heard me 2 1/2 miles away, true story I swear.

I play mostly Ibanez guitars with humbuckers, in the modern rock style. This amp does everything I want and then some. There is very little noise, except when I stand too close to it. There are better amps for clean sounds, but channels 2 & 3 make up for it. I never turn the gain much over half. The manual recommends not cranking the gain all the way up, and believe me there's no need too.

I've had my Dual Rectifier since March, and have had no problems with it. I rehearse with my band twice a week, approximately 4 hours each session. Around the house I only fire it up a few hours a week. It's just too loud, and my girlfriend gets annoyed when her nicknacks get rattled off the shelf.

Five year transferrable warranty. Haven't had any dealings with the company.

I would sell a kidney before I sold my Boogie. I have a hard time even practicing through my little Crate combo now, because my Mesa has spoiled me for all others. I know a lot of people have been hating on the Rectifier amps, and I just don't understand. Petaluma California is my Mecca...Mesa/Boogie is my savior.

This is an add to my previous review which is about 2 reviews down.

After a year with my Mesa I am enjoying it more and more. I haven't added much to it as far as the signal path goes, but I have done some experimenting with cabinets. The other guitarist in the band has a 2 channel dual recto and a matching oversized 412 where I am using a Johnson Ampliciation 412. Our amps sound identical at approximately the same settings w/the same cab. But our cabs have completely different sounds. They have the same speakers (celestion vintage 30's), but my cab is shorter slightly deeper and not near as hi-fi sounding. My cab is very raw and almost rough sounding, but in a good way. I leave my mids at around 2:00 and bass below 9:00. This gives me a thumping low end sound and really crunchy mids through my cab. With the presence knobs set between 12:00 and 2:00 and the highs at 11:00 (in the raw mode with gain at about 12:00), and get an unbelievable classic marshall on steriods, with tons of low end punch, w/o being bright sound that I love. Put my amp on his cab and it goes away. It don't necessarily sound bad just more trebly with a more or less boomy bottom that can be eq'd out, but takes some tweaking. Oh yeah, his Gibson LP Studio w/stock pick-ups and my Gibson LP Studio w/Rio Grande Texas in the bridge sound completely different through the same set up also sound drastically different. Neither is bad they are just different. So my point is to say this. There are infinitely many variables that add up to the total tone of the electric guiatr as an instrument. It starts with the player and ends with the speakers, so if you don't like an "amp" or a "guitar" remember it all starts with you. Everything after that can be changed to alter the sound, so experiment and find out for yourself whether an something sounds good or not. This is something because I have a Ibanez TS7 to get instant feed back and some other interesting effects, but putting it in front of my amp changed its tone also. It's not true-bypass and I've thought of modding it to be true bypass but found I like what it does to the sound. So if your looking to buy something try to find some way of using it with your entire set up before you buy it. That way you have a much better understanding of what it to the sound. Because there are just so many variables.

2001 Three channel. I have been playing and lead singing for a while and I ALWAYS WONDERED...why don't they make a 3 channel amp with an independantlead channel. When I found this amp I thought. Finally I am in the right place at the right time...This amp has 3 and an incredibly simple FX channel that will pump effects into any of the 3 channels. All there on the end of my foot..

So far it does everything it says. Added Svetlana 6L6 (which mesa offers) and I am even more blown away. I even love the clean tone.
I am currently shopping an effects rack but I have been playing gibson les paul Classic(70's muscle car loud), or SG special(wild animal loud), to a boss stage tuner, bad horsey wah, to the Rectifier for just about 2 years. I am in a 3 piece, original, hard rock power trio and my bass player is a mad scientist with his gear and banging on a 6 string. Everything he does is to try and match the power of my Les Paul Classic and Mesa pair-up. Believe it when I say we are a wall of sound.

I use it all the time without backup. The only problem I have had is the foot switch cable started freaking out on me this past summer. I called mesa and they sent me one for free. I have done nothing but play it out and replace tubes.

The best

Hoping to enhance my playing with some decent effects so I can ustilize this amp to fullest. If this were lost or stolen I would spontaniously combust.

I bought this amp when I was embarrassed by my sound live one night. I had follow on stage after another three piece where the guitarist had a rectifier half stack. My guitar sounded like a dry fart. I will never forget it. And I have never looked back.

Everyone should know the features to this already.

Im using a Fender telecaster with a Seymour Duncan hot rails pickup and an Ibanez rg270dx with an emg81 pickup in it. I got this amp because I play hard rock and i wanted something loud. I love this amp when its low cause you really get that saturated distortion when you palm mute... but once u turn it up loud you lose that? so thats what i dont like about it but other then that its a mesa.

I can but I had a problem with it one time where it jus started to smoke...

They are great over there and very nice. They dont get off the phone unless you get your sound.

Overall id like to say this is the best modern amp out there

Bought brand new 2001 ,this amp have all the features you would expect from a company as good as mesa!
this is a very versatile amp even if its main goal is to roar. i mean you can dial a lot of great sound from great clean to great saturated distortion and everyting in between.

first i would say this GET RID OF THE 6L6 POWER TUBE AND PUT SOME GROOVE TUBE EL34 IN AND MAN YOU ARE NOT GONNA BELIVE THE DRASTIC CHANGE IN YOUR TONE....before i did the swap in tube power i am honest to say that i was really looking for another amp such as BOGNER EXTACY i wnt to new york to try one at rudys and the bogner really souds great but for over $3000 and for me in canada i mean over $5000 can money....hey! so i tell you do yourself a favor for those of you hoo like that british tone try it out...since that i cannot recognize the old tone that to my ears was flat with nothing more to it now my sound is so crisp and the power chords even sound better and for soloing i mean this is really an amp to be recon with!!
and why i gave it a 9 is because of the effect loop,it alters your tone when used and very badly ...

built like a tank...never had problems except for bad tubes!

very nice people ,had a tube problem and they send me a bunch free!!

to me it is amongst the best amp ever made.period right there with the BOGNER,SOLDANO,RIVERA HAD NOT THE CHANCE TO TRY A DIEZEL YET!!!!

This head was made pretty recently (probably 2001). I bought this head second hand and I used it for a couple weeks in a live band situation. You should now all the features it has by now, if not just visit the Mesa Boogie website. I think this amp has more than enough features but they are very easy to figure out. I really like the fact that you don't have to bias the amp (wish all amps had this feature)! The solo boost is also a nice feature for those who dedicate all the channels to rhythm. I usually dedicate one channel for lead. The output control (master volume) is also a nice feature but you must use the effects loop also or it won't work. It would be better if it wasn't tied into the effects loop! The best features are the separate eq's and the footswitch with a detachable cord (if it ever wears out you don't have to replace the whole footswitch like Marshall's). The footswitch is very quiet and it works extremely well! There is no volume swell when you change channels (unlike the Marshall TSL). You may hear a pop but thats only if you are strumming when you change channels. My soldano does the same thing. I have learned to change channels without making any sound,trust me it's not a problem. I won't give any amp a 10 until i've had a chance to play every one!

I have a Carvin DC127 with carvin humbuckers and I played the head (w/ 6l6 power tubes) through an open back 2x12 cabinet with Eminence legend's in it. I am very picky and I require alot from an amplifier. 1)I must have an excellent clean sound (I've never played a fender tube amp so I can't compare it to them). 2)A slight overdrive sound (where the clean is just starting to break up). 3)And the abillity to go to a searing lead sound or a nice metal crunch. My perfect amp would have all these things along with an effects loop and the ability to switch between these three sounds without any volume drop, nothing more nothing less. Believe it or not it is hard to find one amp with all these features and sounds! I play many styles of music from rock & blues all the way to punk & metal. I compared this amp to a Marshall JCM 2000 tsl and a Soldano Decatone. The clean channel was good at low volumes but when I played with a band it was very harsh sounding (yes I did spend time eq'ing it). The sounds are hard for me to explain but I'll try my best! There was a raspy or grainy sound I could not get rid of. My other two amps are incredibly easy to get a good clean out of even the Soldano with no reverb sounds excellent. The distortion channels are extremely good and very addicting but I found that it was hard to get a slightly overdriven sound out of either of them (it wasn't to hard on the clean channel but I need that to stay clean). It had that same annoying raspy sound that I could not get rid of when I dialed in a low amount of gain. Now it was very easy to get a good searing lead sound and a good overdriven metal rhythm on both distorted channels. The lead sound comes close to the Soldano but definitely beats the Marshall. I like the crunch on my Soldano the best, it's alot smoother and there is no grainy sound like the Marshall and Mesa. I guess I got spoiled with the Soldano. I would rate the sounds a 8 if all I played was heavier music on this amp. For the lack of variety I will give it a slightly lower rating. One bit of hard learned advice, you should always try the amp out before buying. Don't let a couple reviews for or against sway you because these are just opinions. No amp sounds the best and no amp sounds the worst everyone just likes a different sound!

This amp appeared to be very durable and I would depend on it without a backup. I did not own it long enough to really rate this section. The amp is top quality throughout! It is much better built than the Marshall JCM 2000. Where Marshall uses plastic on most things Mesa uses metal!

I never had to deal with the company!

I have been playing about 5 years total and 1.5 of those years i've played in a band. I was originally the lead guitarist but i've now switched to rhythm and vocals. If it was stolen or lost I would not buy it again but i've already sold it! Overall I would say this amp has the features all amps should have (especially separate eq's for each channel) and is extremely well built. I can tell a lot of thought was put into its construction! I think most amps are overpriced this one included! This amp just didn't have the versatility in sound that I require. I'm not afraid to tweak the eq's which I did alot on this amp. Even so I couldn't find the sounds I wanted. If you are into heavier types of music and can find one used (easy to do on eBay!) then you should definetely check this amp out! Well... that was my two cents worth I hope it was informative!