Guitar amplifier designed by
Mesa Boogie in 1989. Comes in triple, single and other varieties but the dual is the original and most well known. Fast becoming one of the most popular amps in recent times for
rock music and offering serious competition to
Marshall. They seem to be everywhere these days, take a look at the backline of most of the bands on mtv:
Foo fighters? Dual rectifers.
Nickleback? Dual rectifiers.
Avril Lavigne? Dual recs again.
So what makes them so popular? Well they are known for their aggressive, gravely distortion sound and look pretty cool as well with their black and metal colour scheme. They also come with a ridiculous amount of features which I will go into later, mesa boogie amps tend to have quite a lot of extra switches as well as the regular gain, bass and treble eq knobs you would expect on a guitar amplifier (Which on a dual rec are incredibly fiddly, trying to find a good sound can be like playing with a rubix cube as every parameter seems to have an effect on the others) One of its options is the ability to switch between vacuum tube and silicon rectifiers, which is where it gets its name.
The name is in fact a little misleading; with the 150watt version being called the Triple Rectifier and the 50watt’s Singles a potential buyer could be fooled into thinking a rectifier is unique to the mesa boogie line, or that it in some way affects the volume output. In fact all amplifiers contain a rectifier, and the triple doesn’t have any more than the dual.
The rectifier's distinctive sound has of course been copied by many competitors and if you want that low end growl there are many companies these days including line 6, marshall, and countless others offering “sounds a bit like a rectifier” products of their own.
Features: (From the Mesa Boogie website)
- 100 Watts, Class A/B Power / 4x6L6, 5x12AX7, 2x5U4 (valves)
- Bias Select Switch (6L6/EL34)
- 3 Fully Independent Channels with 8 modes (Channel 1=Clean or Pushed, Channel 2= Raw, Vintage High Gain or Modern High Gain, Channel 3=Raw, Vintage High Gain or Modern High Gain
- Independent Gain, Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence and Master Controls per Channel
- Output Level Control (over all channels, when activated)
- Solo Level Control (over all channels, when activated)
- Rectifier Select Switch (Tube/Silicon Diodes)
- Bold/Spongy “Variac” Switch
- Assignable Parallel FX Loop w/Send & Mix Level Controls
- Slave Out with Level Control
- External Switching Jacks for Channels 1, 2, 3, Solo & FX Loop
- 5 Button Footswitch (Channel 1, Channel 2, Channel 3, Solo & FX loop)