Old recommender with research experience or more recent with no research experience?

[JustHopefulMe]

Hi everyone!

So I'm trying to choose the people who are going to write me recommendation letters. One is my current master's advisor, another is a professor with whom I worked as a research assistant, but I'm stuck on the third. Should I ask my first master's degree advisor who supervised my thesis research almost 10 years ago (yes, I'm currently doing a second master's degree) or a professor with whom I have taken a class just a year ago (I got A in the class, but have never worked with him in a research environment)? I have very good relationships with both. The first is from a foreign country/institution while the second is from the same country I intend to apply for a PhD in.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Good luck to all!

[fuzzylogician]

I think it comes down to the content of the letters (assuming that at least one, preferably both, of the other letters is from your current institution). What can each write? For the older one, since your MA was presumably in another field, will the content be relevant? Are there transferrable skills? Did you do meaningful research? All things being equal, I would lean toward the one who can write about your research skills over the one that is basically a 'did well in class'. 

[JustHopefulMe]

Thank you! That makes sense.  The skills are actually transferrable, as the two fields are somewhat related. I will try to reach out to him, and perhaps sending him a copy of my updated CV would help