MESA/BOOGIE MINI RECTIFIER TWENTY-FIVE

FEATURES
SOUND QUALITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
BUILD QUALITY
USEABILITY
OVERALL RATING
S U M M A R Y
“ It’s the most grown-up
sounding of lunchbox amps”
Rock and metal’s most revered amp arrives in teeny tiny form
MESA/BOOGIE
MINI RECTIFIER
TWENTY-FIVE
£1,099
HETFIELD,
Grohl, Petrucci, Munky, Delonge –
just five famous guitar players who
have helped Mesa/Boogie’s
mighty Rectifier series remain the
leading amp in rock and metal for
over 20 years. We have seen 150,
100 and 50-watt variants, but now
comes a ‘baby’ brother into the
family. A gig-bagged tiny metal
box, two EL84s, no valve rectifier
and gig ready. Are they serious?
As it turns out, yes they are. The
Mini Rectifier has two channels
and four modes: clean, pushed,
vintage and modern. You can also
choose full power (25 watts, using
Mesa’s Dyna-Watt configuration),
or step the amp down to 10 watts.
Even better, thanks to the
Multi-Watt circuit, you can have
MINI RECTIFIER TWENTYFIVE
REVIEW
either channel at either power
setting: mix and match for
full-headroom 25-watt cleans, and
really squashy 10-watt lead tones,
or vice versa.
How loud is 25 watts? Don’t let
the numbers fool you. The Mini
Rectifier will keep up in many live
band situations, and in any case it
tramples all over the vast majority
of 50 to 80-watt modelling amps
when it comes to cutting through.
There’s a notable fast attack to
notes and chords in the full-power
mode, which helps clean mode
tones stay percussive and really cut
through (think Chili Peppers style
funky chops, for example). As you
up the gain into Pushed mode, you
can cover punchy, well-defined
Malcolm Young style classic rock
rhythms into medium gain blues
sounds. The second channel’s
Vintage mode has much more
gain, but it cuts back in the middle
frequencies for cool, old-school
thrash and metal sounds with the
mid pot down low.
You can play leads in this mode,
but it’s killer for heavy rock
rhythms, too. Modern mode is
Rectifier territory as most people
know it: fuller in the mids and
more aggressive overall for tighter
chugs, quicker attack and a good
decade or two forward from the
Vintage mode.
Switching down to 10 watts
drops the volume, but it’s not
about home practice. It’s more
about feel, where the playing
dynamics are more chewy and
elastic. There’s more apparent
compression at the front of notes
and chords, which is very different
from the 25-watt mode. Light
overdrives take on a more
little-amp-cranked feel, while
heavier sounds get even more
compressed and unruly. In fact,
that’s not entirely dissimilar to
what happens in the bigger Rectos
when you use the valve rectifier
instead of solid state. Just to be
clear, there is no valve rectification
in the Mini.
You could buy a louder, bigger
head and 4x12 cabinet for the
price of this head alone, and that
will make life tough for the Mini
Rectifier. That said, most people
don’t have the chance to crank up
a 50 or 100-watt valve stack these
days, much less cart one around
easily, which is why a tiny, great-
sounding, versatile valve amp like
this makes so much sense. It is the
most grown-up sounding and
loudest of the lunchbox amps, and,
yes, it does deliver a big slice of the
Mesa Rectifier sound.
Mick Taylor
AT A GLANCE
TYPE: Valve amp head
OUTPUT: 25 or 10 watts
VALVES: 5x 12AX7, 2x EL84
CONTROLS: 2 each of gain, treble,
middle, bass, presence, master
SOCKETS: Input, effects loop, speaker
outputs, footswitch
WEIGHT: 5.5kg
DIMENSIONS: [HxWxD] 321 x 150 x 172mm
CONTACT: Westside Distribution 01412 482842
WEB: www.mesaboogie.com
YOU CAN run either
channel in 10 or 25
watts, but don’t think
the former is just for
home practice
CHOOSE YOUR
POWER
3
TWO independent
channels, each with two
modes. Sounds span
clean, crunch, vintage and
modern high gain
CHANNELS AND
MODES
2
A SINGLE-
BUTTON
footswitch is
included.
Channels are
footswitchable,
modes are not
SWITCHING
1
154 FEBRUARY 2012
TGR224.gear_mesa.indd 154 1/3/12 12:52:52 PM