tbonesullivan

Yep! And for many amplifiers with higher amounts of gain, they have a second rectifier on the tube filament heaters so that V1 and sometimes V2 get DC heater supplies to avoid hum. And the fancy switching setups? All based on solid state logic with a bunch of solid state relays of various types. I won't even touch the "i need an all tube amplifier to run my germanium diode fuzz pedal through" thing.

Looking at the schematics for the Pubster 25, It has two IFN6449, which are "JFET N-Ch JFET -300V 10mA -15Vgs 800mW", in the preamp, probably as the input and boost driver. After that comes the two Triodes of V1, which make the overdrive, and then after that is the tone stack. So it's not "all-tube", and honestly who cares. My Carvin X-100B has tubes for the input drivers and for the overdrive, but the Rotary and Graphic EQ are all solid-state driven, as is the reverb, and the effects loop. This is not that different from the "modern" marshalls. Having all those features, but still being "all tube", simply isn't possible, and honestly many people are simply so "all-tube" obsessed. There's no way to make a Mesa Mark series amp without a significant amount of solid state tech running that Graphic EQ. It's still ALL ANALOG. The hi-fi community doesn't care about solid state tech as long as it's good. It's the END SOUND that matters. The same goes with the use of diodes in the preamps of some amplifiers for clipping. Preamp tube overdrive is actually quite harsh, especially when the "cold clipper" circuits are used, which essentially turn the tubes into clipping diodes.

The clubster is nice, but I like the more simple layout of the Pubster. If i want something big, loud, and with lots of gain, I've already got that. This kinda fills in a spot that my Carvin Vintage 16 was never quite able to fill, as it sometimes doesn't have quite enough dirt. On the other hand the V16 can bet set to 5 watts triode, which can be driven pretty hard, and has that lovely elastic feeling. Now I just need to figure out what tubes I want to put in it. With only two preamp tube spots, it's not like I have much of a choice.

It is! Nice sound, even through a 10 inch speaker. I kinda wish the Carvin Vintage 16 had a 10 inch. I think it would have suited the cabinet size better. The Rivera R55-12 cabinet is also a bit shallow. This one is juuuuust right.

Yeah, I've got the fever, the fever to have an amplifier that uses every type of major power tube, and the one that I don't have is a 6V6. I saw a Rivera Pubster 25 pop up locally a few weeks ago, but I was kinda 'meh' about it, because I hadn't actually researched it. Well, I did, and then I decided it was worth getting, especially at the price. I also have heard this amp is pretty much a "modern" take on the Rivera-era Fender Super Champ, so I went for it. It's a really simple amp setup, single channel with a "boost" mode, which is pretty much like a 2 channel amp with a shared EQ. It has master volume controls for both the regular and boost mode, reverb and also a presence control. The volume for the standard mode also effects the "boost" mode, so you can get some interesting sounds with both the regular and boost mode. It's got a standard T/R/S/ footswitch jack for the boost and reverb, though I rarely see these for sale with the FS-20 Rivera footswitch, which does actually have LEDs. Aftermarket ones are about 40-50 bucks. I have a bunch of carvin FS-22 switches around though, so I'll probably use those, as the amp also has LEDS on the faceplate indicating the mode it is in. Sound is surprisingly good. The amplifier came with an Eminence Legend 10 inch speaker, though I don't know what exact model it is. Haven't gotten a chance to get inside yet. Amp is solidly built. It does however only have 2 preamp tubes, one for the EQ/Dirt/Preamp and one for the Phase inverter. The reverb is solid state driven, which I know some people are down on, but it's a real spring unit, and sounds good. It came with Groove Tubes GT-6V6-C tubes, which are a Chinese design made only for Groove Tubes. Currently there's a Sovtek LPS in V1, and a JJ ECC83S in V2, which should change shortly. It's a bit dusty, so I'll post some pictures when I get it cleaned up. Also the speaker cable is some bad splice job onto the original jack. no idea why anyone would do that. It'll be replaced shortly. Until then here's a stand in picture:

The Cali Tweed really is a nice amp, especially for those who really want some power amp tube growl in their sound. The ability to choose from all those different power amp configurations to get 2 to 40 watts? daaananaanang.

Also, you may want to look at the Fillmore 25 as well. It's a somewhat newer design, and doesn't have quite the gain that the Rectoverb has, but still has plenty, and it's running 6V6 tubes, which are a bit chimier than the EL84s in the Rectoverb. OVerall though the Fillmore is much more of a ROCK amp, while the Rectoverb can maybe cover more territory. There are LOTS of clips out there of both amps.

The rectoverb has a very usable clean, IMHO. I played with a used one for a good half hour at guitar center. It's not a "fender clean" though, but it's definitely nice. They definitely gave more thought to the clean channels on rectifier amps with reverb. I have a TremoVerb, which while being an older design, still has a very nice clean. The Tremoverb however also has the Spongy Variac, and Tube rectifier, both of which can work to the detriment of a nice chimey clean channel.

How old is it? I've only had one of two "new" nitro guitars, and it can take about a year for that feeling to go away. Once it's gone though, it's gone for good.

Finally got around to switching the tubes out to some nice 6L6 tubes, which seems to have allowed the high end to shine a lot more. It's a GREAT rock and hard rock amplifier. I know that many people only see the "rectifier" series as heavy metal beasts, but they really are quite versatile. The reverb is VERY nice. The tremolo is ok. It takes some getting used to, as it is a lot more subtle than a lot of the tremolo effects out there. With the "spongy" control reducing the voltage, as well as the tube rectifiers, a really smooth sound is pretty easy to get. I also put an amperex preamp tube in V2, and an EHX in V1, and put the stock Beijing China tubes back in V3 and V4.

Yeah, I had heard about the presence thing from others and in the manual. The EL34s in it are good, and the previous owner loved them, but for me, nope. I think it still has a bunch of the original preamp tubes in it, the Chinese 7025 STRs. Also some have been replaced with groove tubes, which I'm going to pull out. I'm trying to decide what preamp tubes I want to try out in V2 and V3, which are the major tubes for the overdrive sound. I wish I had a tube tester so I could tell how much life the 7025 tubes have left in them. They still have plenty of getter flash.

I definitely like the Vintage high gain channel so far. I also love that with the channel cloning, I can have TWO vintage high gain channels. The blues channel is also quite nice. I've got a set of 6L6GC tubes on order, as I've already got a ton of EL34 based amps. I'll probably put those tubes in the Marshall. I used to be big on JJ power tubes, but after having issues with two amps because of them making popping and crackling noises, I think I'm going to stay away for the time being, unless they are tested by a third party like TAD, Penta, Ruby, Mesa, etc.

I was thinking about getting a nice 4x12, but most of them weigh in over 80 lbs. The mesa boogie ones are over 100. I mean, eventually I may start trying to sell my combos and get heads, but right now, its combo city. It's easier to get a good speaker match with a combo.

It gets loud, and thankfully it's on wheels. I don't see it moving much out of the basement, so the weight should not really be an issue. I still need to put the wheels onto my Maverick. I picked up the hardware a few months back, but have been lazy.

Yeah, so I keep telling myself that I'm gonna switch to all heads and cabinets, and make all kinds of weird plans that end up with me needing to own 10 different cabinets for various amps, situations, etc etc etc. And then I give up and just get a combo. Well, it happened again. I had been thinking about picking up a real "Rectifier" for some time now. I have a Maverick, which is technically a Dual Rectifier, but it's not THAT kind of Rectifier. This definitely is. It's also got one thing that I really do like having in an amplifier: reverb. I just like... spring reverb, and don't like having to plug in some type of unit to an amp to get it. The typical "rectifier" doesn't have reverb, or tremolo for that matter. If you want reverb you had to go with the Rect-O-Verb, but that doesn't have the Tube Rectifier option, which is one of the big reasons for getting it. The other options were the Tremoverb, the Roadster, and the Road King. Well, the latter two are just insane amps, with 4 channels, tons of switches, tons of tubes, and that many more things to go wrong. So, the Tremoverb it was. It's also got the kinda unique "channel cloning" feature, which allows you to have two of the same channel, so you have two of the 4 total modes dialed in at any given time, along with reverb, and tremolo (which is fun but of questionable usefulness). I was on the lookout for a head, but then a combo popped up locally, original owner, in great shape, with some extra goodies and the original hang tags. Perfect for an OCD idiot like me. Original casters, footswitch, manual etc. Also came with an aftermarket custom footswitch that uses the external control jacks, so that you can turn on/off reverb, tremolo, efx/ etc. Not sure how useful that will be for how I'll be using it, but it is nice to have. Mesa Boogie has a history of either having a minimal footswitch, or something huge with a ton of buttons. Currently the amplifier is set up for EL34 tubes right now, and it's got a set of "7" rated Groove Tubes EL34 -R2 tubes, which are the same as the "Svetlana" brand of power tubes made by New Sensor. Preamp tubes are a mixture of the original Beijing China 12AX7 tubes, Groove Tubes 9th Gen Chinese tubes, and some Russian. Currently it sounds really good, but loud, though it's got an overall master volume that really helps tame it. Now I've got to decide if I want to keep it running EL34s, or switch it back to 6L6GC tubes. Pretty much all my amps right now have EL34s, so I was looking for something different.