Mesa Rocket - And let the changes begin

[Thatbastarddon]

That can be said for just about any demo video of a certain amp. There's no way that the actual fidelity and feel can be reproduced thru digital shenanigans. Even crappy amps can be made to sound better than they really are. Some great amps can sound like manure, too.

Yep...the right mic, and placement on an amp/speaker is huge. I can certainly teach anyone that cares to learn just how not to do it.

 

[ChasFred]

So, @gball , @Hackmaster, et al...can you point me to a demo that really showcases the Rectoverb 25? I mean, I've seen a lot of Youtube videos, but Youtube videos can be misleading. Since you guys actually have one, do you know of some demo that really shows it for what you experience it to be?

 

[gball]

I know it's not intended to be a comprehensive review or comparison and I think he does a pretty good job overall, but this video really does not showcase the sounds of either amp very well, other than maybe the MarkV Crunch mode and the Recto clean.

Starting with the Mark, and factoring in the fact that he admits he hasn't taken the time to learn to really dial it in, the clean mode is capable of sounding like a Blackface Fender. The genesis of the Mark series is hotrodded Fender, and it still lives in there. I've A/B'd mine to a DLRI and the only thing the Fender did better was reverb (which I am not a big fan of anyway so no points lost to me). He does show off to a certain extent that the Crunch channel has more gain than the average player would ever need and can do a damn impressive Marshall impression when dialed in with more midrange. But, I think he's actually doing the red channel a disservice - he's got way too much gain and presence dialed in to show the modes off (the highest I ever have the gain on mine is 1:00 and it's brutal at that setting). It's tough to make a Mark sound fizzy but he managed, which is a shame because it's such a nuanced and articulate high-gain sound if you pull back a little. And I will disagree about punch - also a function of dialing it in - in Mark 2C+ and Mark 5 (Xtreme) modes the amp easily has the same amount of punch and low-end attack that the Recto has, Mark 5 mode even moreso as it completely removes any negative feedback from the power section.

On the Recto, I think he has actually done a good job of highlighting the fact that an amp known as a high-gain firebreather actually has a really great clean channel. It's not that enveloping blackface-style clean that the Mark has, much more Vox-like if I had to compare to a known quantity, but it is the best channel in either amp for taking pedals and in particular for distortions. It's a surprisingly versatile clean channel. On the dirty (red) I think he again has too much gain dialed in to let you hear what the amp really sounds like. His tone seems a bit too mushy, and it's actually a really tight, percussive tone, which IMO is much better with the gain turned back a bit and the power section working harder. To me though, what's lost again is the sense of harmonic content and overtones that are there when you play through the amp live.

One other disagreement: I find the Recto much better for low-volume playing than the Mark. They both sound surprisingly good at low volume but I give the slight edge to the Recto at bedroom levels - it seems to retain just a little bit more of its essence.

Huge agreement: if I could have only one it would be the Mark 5. It's infinitely more versatile, and the distortion tones have just a little something more "special" to them. More complex, perhaps just a bit more "organic" in nature. Plus it has the graphic eq and the amazing CabClone built in.

Here's probably the best video I have heard of what the Mark 5:25 actually sounds like:

I really have not found a video of the Recto that does as good a job of capturing it's tones. This is a good overview though: