What is your volume set to?

On the OD808... set the balance to max... overdrive to 0... tone 12-1:00. A graphic eq like the Mesa 5 band in the loop will work wonders.

Bright and chimney... ummm... not really Fender cleans. More on the warm/thick/full side.

 

thanks.....probably wishful thinking on the cleans.

I have a mxr 10 band eq....what do you recommend I emphasize or reduce?

 

I find with my TR, anything above 11:00 turns into mush. The power amp starts to overpower everything and just gets weird. Sounds awesome if you love that super-thick, super-fuzzy Recto grind, but it's in no way quick or tight. Keep the master around 9:30 - 10:30. It sweetens up the tone but keeps the sound more defined. And as said above, boost 'er.

 

I find with my TR, anything above 11:00 turns into mush.

That's not unique to the Triple, that's approximately the point on the vast majority of amps where you are no longer adding volume, only saturation, compression, etc.

 

Maxon slammed hard out the front. Rule of the thumb for a recto: more gain = more bass (this the same for any amp but it's particularly noticeable on rectifiers), so as you pump in the gain you must roll the bass off. WAY off. Like 9 o'clock. You can get insanely tight/defined tones from recs, you've just got to ignore all your previous experience with amps :lol: They're unique, the tone controls are not user friendly or intuitive. It's almost better if you just close your eyes and do it by feel.

As for cleans - the cleans before the reborn models weren't amazing but they're nice enough. Keep the presence high, and the highs fairly high, roll off the bass a little and scoop some mids. On rectos scooping the mids doesn't actually result in a scooped mid sound, so to speak, especially on the cleans. You're just dipping out the "roundness" of the tone and accenting more of the chime.

 

What Matt says. Roll that bass almost off. You should be able to get nice enough cleans with a triple as it's got crazy headroom.

 

Treble adds gain. Roll back gain if you increase treble.

Mids half way is maxed out, past half is boost.

High presence is crunchy rather than sizzly, low presence is growly and throaty. Don't be afraid of low presence settings; they can sound awesome.

Bypass the loop or put an EQ in it (unless reborn, their loops are fine).

Jazzhands is spot on about the master.

 

The other thing here is what do you consider a "lot" of gain? Depending on your pickups, anything past say 2-3 o'clock may mostly be unusable in Vintage or Modern.

 

Yup. If I wanna add more gain past 12 - 1:00, I kick on a boost.

 

Rule #1 for dialing in a Mesa: RTFM. The manual is actually very useful, since it does a good job explaining how a) all the EQ controls effect one another, and b) how the usable range of the pots change depending on mode. As others have said, Triples make a ton of bass, so in modern mode, you want to roll it back to 9:00-10:00. If you've got the gain about 1:00, you're just making fizz. Don't scoop the mids, either, since that is where all the body is coming from; it's more low-mid in modern mode, and it's how you fatten up your sound without it getting boomy. Similar to Marshalls, the treble acts as the second gain knob, so I prefer to use the presence knob to get my attack and the treble knob for saturation.

The trick to Recto cleans is to roll the mid knob almost all the way off. It thins out the sound and gives you that more Fenderesque bell-like clean.

 

Well, first order of business is if you have to be running it at the proper volume.

What are your specific complaints with the tone you have going?

Do you have the matching 412 OS? That's the cab the Triple sounds best with IMO. I don't really like the 412 OS on a lot of other amps, but it really works on the Triple.

 

I've achieved most tighter sounds out of a Triple Rectifier with the Orange channel and not the Red.

Make no mistake, the Red is my favourite because I EQ it like crazy and I love the thick fuzzy mess I get. But it's not the tightest or most cutting.

Which channel do you use? What pickups do you use? What cab and what speakers? It all makes a big difference according to my experience with the Triple Rectifier.

 

Many questions to answer.....

Cab: 2x12 EVH with V30s

Guitar: JP6 with JP's original set of PUPs (pre liquefier etc name escapes me at the moment)

Channel: been experimenting with all three

Feedback: Wow rolling back the mids on the clean channel was an unexpected pleasure. I think this amp is interesting in that intuitively you'd think rolling back bass or mids down to almost nothing would be a bad thing.

Oh someone asked me what volume I was using.... again an interesting feature about this amp is that when I change channels and settings I have to tweak the master volume because there's a point where it sounds terrible to awesome. If too quiet it just sounds like shit. But nudge up the volume and it is glorious.

I took the advice and cranked the balance on the OD808 to max and that had a really nice effect (prior to that I was using

0 overdrive, 12 tone and 12 balance)..... by changing balance to max and using some of the other tips channel 2 and 3 sound much tighter. The E string tuned down to D no longer sounds like a loose floppy string but a tight percussive sound.

I also took the advice of toning back the gain. Even at 9:00 it sounds pretty sweet..... unboosted.

I will have to see if I can print out a copy of the manual. Since this is used I don't have one.

I'll have to go back and re read all the great comments and questions as I am not sure if I touched on all of it. But even with using some of the tips it is sounding much better.

One word that has my curiousity peaked is SIZZLING. in the context of the TR what kind of tone would qualify as that?

Grind in general makes more sense to me with the second and third channel but sizzling I am not sure.

Speaking of tone words I see what someone meant by that the clean tones have a warmth to them but rolling back bass and mids definitely got me closer to what I consider Fenderish but not Fender cleans.

 

Cab: 2x12 EVH with V30s

Guitar: JP6 with JP's original set of PUPs (pre liquefier etc name escapes me at the moment)

Channel: been experimenting with all three

The Triple Rec is a naturally bassy amp, which is one of the reasons why it's not the easiest amp to dial in. So in any case, a boost is definitely a plus and especially if you boost up the mids upfront (tone knob) and volume or balance.

In my experience V30 are very tight as long as you keep the bass down, they do a good job at being loud and providing extra cutting mids but you have to deal with the bass, same with gain; the V30 provides a nice breakup but too much gain and it will mush up, I find they just don't have a lot of headroom.

So you got a Crunchlab in the bridge? It's a tight pickup if used with the right settings but it's heavy on the bass and doesn't have a lot of accent on the mids, and especially not in a basswood guitar. Plus the amp itself is bassy so definitely keep the bass down once again.

As far as channels go, what are the settings you've found most useful for distortion on the Red and Orange? Curious to see where you're at, seems like you're getting close.

One word that has my curiousity peaked is SIZZLING. in the context of the TR what kind of tone would qualify as that?

Grind in general makes more sense to me with the second and third channel but sizzling I am not sure.

In my experience, once again, the "sizzle" of the Triple Rectifier comes alive especially on the Red channel with a higher Treble and Presence setting and a decent amount of gain. Where a lot of amps will start sounding buzzy, the Rectos will have more of a sizzling sparkle.

 

Re: volume taking the amp from bad to good - that is a characteristic of most tube amps. Keep that in mind when you try some out :yesway:

 

Diode rectifier is much more aggressive than tube. Tighter in the bottom end, too.

 

The Silicon Diode setting will give you a much tighter bottom end... skip the tube recto setting... it useless for what you are after (I never use it). Try the bass and mids at 9:00... no higher. Mids at 0 might sound cool, but you are loosing out on some frequencies that will fill out your tone more.

The orange and red channels in modern mode are the same, except for the value/sweep range of the presence pot. Try setting the treble and presence on the 3rd channel (red) modern mode to 3-4:00pm and see if that helps at all.

Technique... yeah that has a lot to do with it as well... but that's whole other barrel of monkeys. :cheers:

Oh... a good eq pedal like the Mesa 5-band in the loop with the classic scooped "V" shape will work wonders as well. If you're still not 100% happy... try an eq pedal in the loop.

 

Oh... a good eq pedal like the Mesa 5-band in the loop with the classic scooped "V" shape will work wonders as well. If you're still not 100% happy... try an eq pedal in the loop.

Also that's very true. There are a few EQ settings that can help tighten this amp, you can put it in the loop and sculpt your tone pretty much however you want, and you can also try an EQ up front to change the way you guitar hits the amp (or get one of those newer Maxon with separate mid controls, or my boost of choice: Boss Metalzone, for $20 used it can be worth a try).

 

To answer #1:

Bold, Silicon Diode, and use 6L6 tubes

Presence: 10 o'clock
Master: 10 o'clock
Gain: 1 o'clock
Bass: 9 o'clock
Middle: Noon
Treble: 1 o'clock

Run an OD in front with the gain off, the level at 70-100%, and the tone at noon. I suggest a Maxon 808 or a Mesa Grid Slammer, but any good TS will do, some just need to be cranked more than others.

Use the loop, put a gate in the loop. For that matter put a gate after your guitar and before your OD too. They make a Decimator 2-gate pedals just for this.

Run the loop output at 9-10 o'clock (this is as loud as you will ever need to go).

To answer #2: put a compressor in front of it, and run most knobs at noon, with maybe the mids backed off a bit. Make sure it's set to Clean and not Pushed. The clean channel on a triple rules, you should have no problem getting it to sound amazing.

 

Run the loop output at 9-10 o'clock (this is as loud as you will ever need to go).

I always run mine at noon. Isn't that where it's meant to be for making it the same level when the loop is on/off? Then you just adjust the master on each channel to taste.

 

If that's what works for you.