Settings for a good clean sound on Dual Rec?

[HEAVENandHELL]

Hey Everyone,
My #1 gigging amp is my 3 channel Dual Rectifier. I can dial up great dirty (ch 2) and solo (ch 3) sounds but I've never been able to find a nice clean sound for channel 1.

My only requirements are Tube Rectifier and Spongy setting. Lately, I've been running the channel master at max with the gain set about 9 o'clock. Bass max and mids minimum. Presence and Treble set around noon.

I tried upping the gain last night and backing off the channel master, bass and mids to noon and slightly less treble and prsence at last night's gig. Seemed a little better but my ears were likely shot by then!

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know I'm not going to get the most phenomonal clean tones but something much more usable would be fantastic!

Thanks for any help,
Gregg

 

[Miles]

Well, a good clean is subjective depending on the ears. But the dual rec gets pretty fendery when dialed in a certain way on the cleans.

The tricky thing with rectos is the interactive EQ. When you increase the mids and treble, you're also increasing the gain, so to get that snap in a nice clean tone can be a trick. I used to keep the gain down and increase the master, using the presence generously on the cleans, bass around 11:00, mids around 11:00 treble around 1:00, presence around 3:00.

I used less presence, more mids and more low end for single coils. The settings above were for gibsons with hot pickups.

Miles

 

[Sniper-V]

I had a Dual Rect a while back and remembered having a hard time dialing a great clean tone I was really satisfied with.
So,
I understand what you are going through.

Miles made a great point about the EQ being very interactive with the over-all gain. You just have to tweek and tweek until you like what you are hearing.

 

[scottlaned]

It is not a good clean amp, to my ears. Depends what clean you're going for I guess, but the clean always seemed weighted down to me.

 

[scottlaned]

And just on a side note, the Mesa Roadking v2 addressed this issue (to the sound of another thousand dollars of course) and added the Lonestar's cleans to the 1st channel.

 

[John Phillips]

I find the Trem-o-verb (I know, it's not quite the same amp as even a 2-channel Dual Rectifier, but it's basically the same) has great cleans. OK, not BF Fender... but I always found them a bit too glassy and clinky anyway.

The problem with the original poster's requirement is that the best cleans by far are with the Bold setting IMO. The Spongy setting makes them muddy and slightly clangy (yes, at the same time), no matter what you do with the EQ. That's why I rarely run my T-verb in Spongy.

There's no way to switch between the two modes on a channel basis even with the Road King since it's what controls the voltage input to the entire amp.

 

[HEAVENandHELL]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Perhaps I'll try going with the BOLD setting and see how that affects my other channels. I'll also hit up Miles' settings and see how they work for me.

Gregg

 

[Miles]

I wouldn't take any EQ suggestions off of me. I used to use my Dual Rec in pushed mode for "cleans" 90% of the time.

I like sort of raw aggressive tones for melodic music. So my cleans off that amp were always midrangey and nasally to most people's ears. When I did put it in clean mode, I used the settings that I mentioned above.

 

[NoGlassNoClass]

Ch1 clean, bold, tube-rec
vol 11:00, gain 12:00, pres 1:30, bass 11:30, mid 10:00, treb 12:00

FWIW this is for a 3-ch Triple into Mesa cabs w/V30s, mahogany humbucker gtrs. A little delay in the loop can make the Recto cleans a bit more lively (~400ms, few repeats and only mixed in around 20%)

 

[HEAVENandHELL]

Ok. I found a pretty good setting for my clean channel with the bold setting but now my other channels sound odd to me. It could have just been my ears last night at practice but it seems that my distorted channels are now brighter (on BOLD versus SPONGY) and less gainy. Does this make sense? Is the fix as easy as adding a little gain and trimming the treble?

Thanks for all the suggestions,
Gregg