AgentOrange

Hi myles, a brief visit away from the land of HC..... As some of you may remember ive had my fair share of problems with this recto and its been great for months now, but today i heard a sound i hoped i would never hear ever again. When i fire her up (my mesa Rectoverb 50W combo)its fine, just the usual background noise, but when i play for a bit, on certain notes i hear a rattle from inside, i imagine this is some sort of resonance the sound has with somthing inside. Thats not so important, but its annoying, the real problem is when i stop. I get this low rumble/hum at about 50/60Hz. I had it before and phoned up all sorts of techs and they told me to put new tubes in and it worked. This was a good number of months back (probably about 5/6) and it solved it, but then i got this 'motorboating' putting sound and an arcing in the tubes so it went back to mesa and they 'fixed it'. It has been fine up to now so im a little worried that the problem stems a little beyond knackered tubes. I do play loud, and its most obvious when i use the combo as a combo and i dont use my 4x12. It happened today cos my friend bought his 2204 for a practice but couldnt fit his cab in his car. I usually play with the channel master and output on 11 oclock to 12 oclock, which is pretty much flat out before the sound goes to crap. It was just as loud as his 2204 with everything on 10 also, another thing i noticed is even when the reverb is disengaged, i sometimes notice it bleeding through. Is there anything i can do about this? Thoughts? James

Yo miles, this is James from the HC Forum First off, upon recommendation from Watford Valves over here in the UK (i noticed you have a link to them on your page), I have ordered two Harma 6L6s which they plugged over all the other stuff they have. How do you think they will affect my sound if all other things are kept constant? Well onto the real question...... If i wanted a tighter more focused sound from my rectoverb, would this be possible/worth the money, in terms of an audible difference, by changing the preamp valves. If so, what valves would you recommend? I have 5 12AX7s in there all MESA tubes so id unno what they were b4 any help would be greatly appreciated ------------------

I have a Mk1 Mesa Rectoverb 50W combo and i love it but it has certain problems that i belive are due to old or defective valves. Im sure it should be louder than it is, having tried others that seemed to be, which leads me to believe there is a power tube failure, both are glowing orange but i still believe this to be the case. At a recent band practice, the other guitarist had to use an old 40 watt practice amp (Peavey Envoy 110) which worryingly kept up with me, even with the master and ouput volumes at 12 oclock (after this point, the sound turns to mud and there is neglegable increase in volume, another problem possibly caused by bad valves). Also, it now seems to have developed a low rumble/hum which doesnt get louder by increasing the output volume, leading me to believe that this is a power amp problem and once again, probably (and hopefully) due to a valve failure. Do you think i am right in thinking that the lack of volume isnt just an inherant design floor but a valve problem (seeing as i am unable to get a useable sound past 12 oclock on both volume controls)? Its main application is high gain rhythm and lead playing, tho i do regularly enjoy the fantastic clean channel, it has two channel over all and two modes per channel. I was wondering what pre/poweramp valves would suit it best. I would like a more defined gain response from it and also, if possible, a better treble reponse. It has 7 valves in total, 5x 12AX7s and 2x 6L6s (50watts). The rectoverb is a fixed bias amp, so, would it be possible to replace all the valves my self, or would i be advised to seek out an amp tech (the dealer i bought it from is 2 hours drive away). If no, then how much do you tihnk it would cost. I have been told that most Mesas come biased cold and that by having this set correctly, tone can be vastly improved. Would this be an expensive operation if done at the same time as the valve replacement, assuming this is required. Additional technical information, taken from manual, though i was unsure how to interpret it since it seems to describe 6 Preamp valves when there are onyl 5 (it discriminates between 5 and 6 not 5A and 5B):- Description of Valve Functions V1A-Input Stage V1B-2nd Stage (Rhythm & Lead) V2A-3rd Stage Rhythm V2B-3rd Stage Lead V3A-4th Stage Lead V3B-5th Stage Lead V4A-FX Send V4B-FX Return V5 + V6 - Phase Inverter In summary, how much do you think it would cost, from the information given, to aleviate my amp problems, including the price of new valves and any labour required? A quick reply would be greatly appreciated. Also, i live in the UK, so Watfor Valves are onyl aphone call away to order any valves you can recommend. cheers