Mesa/Boogie Mini Rectifier Twenty-Five and Mini Recto 1 x 12 cabinet
January 2012 Guitarist 131
£1,099 & £449
GUITAR AMPS
A
ll together now – aww,
isn’t it adorable! Well yes
it is; measuring just over
a foot across Mesa’s all-new
Mini Rectifier looks at first like
it might be one of those scale
models you see in big boy’s
toyshops. Far from some
mantelpiece memento,
however, it is in fact a living,
breathing, all-valve head. The
baby of the bunch it may be
(it has 50-, 100- and 150-watt
brothers), but the Mini
Rectifier has a pair of EL84-
driven lungs that will happily
shout down the house, small
bar or club. So, should you be
someone with a penchant for
the brand itself, or indeed for
the heavier end of guitar music
in general, you will doubtless
now be asking this question: is
this a gimmicky toy, or could it
finally solve my big amp/small
amp woes?
The Mini Rec is housed in
a black powder-coated metal
lunchbox-style case, lightly
textured for an industrial feel.
The top handle recesses should
you want it to, or pokes up and
out through the included
padded gigbag for easy
transport. And boy is it easy –
this amp would happily fit in
some players’ leads/pedals bag!
Airline hand luggage? Size and
weight wise at least (5.5kg),
there’s no problem at all.
The Rectifier’s now-
legendary truck-ramp metal
plate texture adorns most of the
front panel, through which you
can see a menacing red glow
when powered up: rock.
Despite the tiny size, the Mini
Rec features two independent
channels, each with two modes,
offering everything from
Fender-derived cleans, through
more British crunches, heavily
saturated classic rock distortion
and modern metal crunching
high-gain. Channels one and
two are footswitchable, but the
modes need to be set via mini
switches on the front panel.
In addition, each channel has
a choice of either 10- or 25-watt
operation. The lower power
mode, according to Mesa, runs
the Mini Rectifier’s pair of
EL84 output valves in class A/B
triode mode, while 25 watts
uses Mesa’s patented Dyna-
Watt circuit, class A/B pentode,
for maximum power and more
pronounced attack with notes.
Completed with two rows of
identical, self-explanatory
control knobs, there’s nothing
here to confuse you.
As with Mesa’s other mini
head, the TA-15, there’s no
reverb. Okay, many rock/metal
players tend not to like springy
ambience, and it’s not on the
bigger Rectifiers either. Add to
that the fact you couldn’t
physically get a full spring
reverb tank in the chassis and
you can see why it’s not there.
You do get a hard-bypassable
series effects loop, however, so
you could put a reverb unit
there, or indeed any other
effects box or processor.
And what about that cabinet?
Shaped like a Recto 412 but in
miniature, it houses a single
Celestion Vintage 30 driver. It’s
not something either party
publicises but Mesa is fastidious
about its V30s and has
continuously worked with
Celestion to get the spec and
consistency it needs, which is to
politely say that not all V30s
have been created equal over
the years. Like its speakers,
Mesa also takes cabinet design
extremely seriously and a quick
A/B with another 1 x 12
explains why immediately in
terms of volume, tone and
projection. Do make sure that
you try one alongside the lesser
cab on which you were thinking
of economising.
Inside the head, its Mesa
business as usual. The Mini
Rectifier is designed and made
around a custom PCB design,
the only real questions
surrounding just how Mesa
crammed it all in there – this is
far from a simple circuit.
Sounds
It’s very easy to trip off the
words ‘two-channels with four
modes’, but the reality is that
each of these modes is radically
different. On power-up there is
a small but noticeable hum; not
enough to upset a recording
(and certainly not a rehearsal or
gig), but potentially enough to
annoy home players at
super-low volumes.
Channel one clean has a very
Fender-like response with a
goodly dollop of high end
presence and full, extended
bass. You could happily twang
out Sultans Of Swing here with
a Strat, or get into funky choppy
The Rivals
The Hughes & Kettner
Tubemeister 18 (£559) is
the nearest rival. Two
channels and three modes
that span clean to filth. It also
has a direct simulated/silent
recording out. Mesa’s own
TA-1 5 (£1,129) is in a similar
chassis, but with a more old-
school take on tones than the
Mini Rec. Finally, the Egnater
Tweaker (£369) is built in the
Far East so offers exceptional
value for money and a great
range of sounds.
Mesa/Boogie Mini
Rectifi er Twenty-Five
& 1 x 12 cab
£1,099 & £449
The genre-defining Rectifier Series gets its own Mini-Me.
Enfant terrible or chip off the old block? by Mick Taylor
http://vault.guitarist.co.uk
GIT350.rev_mesa.indd 131 11/30/11 9:59:44 AM