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Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Rackmount
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Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Rackmount
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« Tight, articulate rectifier goodness »

Published on 03/15/11 at 16:36
The Dual Rectifier has been a staple of many heavy metal albums. This particular model is actually housed in a 4U chassis. There is a lot of mystery and allure about the rackmount and pre-500 rectifiers, and I am not fully qualified to answer a lot of the questions regarding the various models. This is the only rectifier I've ever personally owned. What I do know is that this amp is not flubby and super bass heavy like so many nu-metal recordings make them out to be. Despite being housed in a 4U chassis, this amp has every feature the normal two channel rectifier has. One thing to note is that the older models had a serial loop just like the pre-500 rectifiers. It was later on that they switched to the parallel loop.

UTILIZATION

It's pretty insane that Mesa was able to fit every feature the full sized two channel rectifiers have into this small 4U chassis. What's scary is that everything feels like it was meant to be this size. Being a Mesa, the EQ is a touch different. Every control interacts with each other, so you have "sweet spots" that can shift slightly depending on how you have the settings. The manual does an awesome job at describing this. I highly recommend downloaded the manual from Mesa's site if you're not used to dialing in Mesa amps. They're always extremely helpful.

SOUNDS

Those who grew up listening to the nu-metal trash of the late 90s, early 00s will probably think the Dual Rectifier is a flubby, bass heavy mess. The secret to getting a great tone with the Mesa is to boost it. Get an overdrive and slam the input of the amp; it'll become a tight, articulate and actually unforgiving amp. The amp will show your mistakes if you're a sloppy player, especially boosted. The orange channel is a warm, tubey style channel that many people love. This channel can do everything from blues to liquid style Petrucci leads. The red channel is the real star, and it's absolutely a behemoth when you spend the time to dial in the amp. I never liked the clean channel; I always thought they were pretty dismal, so I never bothered with them.

OVERALL OPINION

Those who know how to dial this amp in will surely be rewarded with a wonderful sound. It's not just meant for low note chugging, either. Let's not forget that Sykes toured with this head for quite awhile, and his tone is always out of this world. Those looking for a tight and percussive high gain amplifier in a 4U chassis should really look no further than the rackmount Rectifier. The only thing that really competes with it currently is the extremely rare rackmount SLO100, and they're quite a bit of money.