Im new here. Just bought a SF pro for conversion or ? Help!

[sidehatch]

Hello,

I have a 76 pro reverb and I just got it BF'd and capped. I'd like to have it modded to have the distortion sound of the dumble. If possible I'd like to keep the clean sound. It doesn't matter to me if the normal or the vibrato side is converted as long as I keep one channel.

Another possibility would be to have a dumble built in a head and get a head switcher and switch in the head for overdrive.
I really dont care for the 2 channel head and only want the one sound with volume,gain and tone controls.

I cant find any info on just the tone stack that makes up a dumble. I have a great local tech that will do the work for me if I can provide him with a schematic and layout.

I just want to see if its even possible to convert only one of the channels to the OD sound.

Also, Is the typical robben ford or carlton sound with the switch set to jazz or rock?I dont need the switch to move if its on the right sound.

I found the schematic on schematic heaven that say "Dumble mods for the normal channel on a fender".

Has anyone ever done them and what is the verdict? Does the schematic have the clean sound of the ODS or the overdrive sound? If it just makes it sound like a clean dumble I don't see the point.

Lastly, If I just get the overdrive section built into a head and go the head switching route , is there anyone on here who will build one for me?

I cannot afford to go the Fuchs or two rock route bacause I play guitar and teach for a living.

BTW: I have a zendrive/direct drive/fulldrive 2/and have owned just about every other pedal that cleaims to have that sound. They are very close but not exactly that sound. I play for a living and Im to the point that 99% isnt close enough.

Please let me know what needs to be done.

Thanks,


Sidehatch.

[BobW]

Modding a SF or BF Pro won't get you the sound you seek. The stock Pro OT and speakers won't cut it. You would be better off to sell the SF Pro and use the $$$ to buy the chassis, transformers, and all other components and do it yourself or have someone here on this forum build you what you want. This is the ONLY forum I know of that contains all the info / advice you need to build one yourself. However, if you have never built an amp before, any of the Dumbles models, ODS, Bluesmaster, SSS, etc., are not for the novice. Have someone build it for you, and you will be much happier.

There are also other factors that influence tone or the type of tone you seek. Speakers, guitars, the type of music you play, etc. Since you didn't mention what type of music you usually play to capture a Dumble tone, I'll assume it's not metal. Nothing wrong with metal, it just doesn't require a Dumble. FWIW, I saw Sonny Landreth last May in NOLA, and he was still able to capture his tone w/o his usual Dumble. Sometimes the player is a big part of the tone.

Best of luck. cheers!

[ic-racer]

I had good luck modifying a 70s Fender with a D-style overdrive. The tone stack is based on the original Fender layout with some changes. I wanted to keep a "Fender" style clean. The addition of the "Deep" circuit makes the cleans better than those on my Dumble clone.

Here is a schematic to look over.

[jaysg]

If you go forward with this, you'd do well to replace the OT with the TO40MT from Allen. http://www.allenamps.com/parts.php#transformers

I think the Pro chassis is the same width as a Twin Reverb, so what you're suggesting is possible, though involved. A handful of us have more or less what you want, in the form of Dumble modded Fender Series II amps. Mine's the Concert. (Bloody mess really.)

Otoh, there's a variation called a Bluesmaster, that's closer to a BF Fender than any of the others.

It would be helpful for you to study a lot of clips you'll find posted at this site to decide just which sort of Dumble sound it is that you really like.

re: Rock/Jazz switch...I believe those guys use the Rock position.

You'll have to say good-bye to either Reverb or Tremolo.

[Funkalicousgroove]

If only EXACT will do, why do you insist on going about it Half Assed?

I love the guitarist mentality, we'll spend $25,000 over a couple years to chase a sound and STILL NOT GET IT when we could have had EXACTLY WHAT WE WANTED for a $3000 lump sum in the first place.

[Luthierwnc]

I fall in the sell-it-and-use-the-money camp. Those silverface Fenders command enough to get at least most of what you need. The main issue will be speakers. They will be heavy and expensive. In that cab they are original. Without the cab, they are Utah's (or Oxfords). For a 50-watter, I'd go head and cab.

There are a couple Traynor Voicemasters on Ebay right now that are a much better platform for this amp. Study up on speakers too. You'll find lots of good (if varying opinions) on what goes well with the style you are after. Remember, there are maybe a dozen bona-fide variants in this category. For the most part, you can see who used which amp on what song for comparison's sake.

Good luck, Skip

[BobW]

I love the guitarist mentality, we'll spend $25,000 over a couple years to chase a sound and STILL NOT GET IT when we could have had EXACTLY WHAT WE WANTED for a $3000 lump sum in the first place.

My point exactly, Why cut up a classic amp (Fender Pro) and still not have THE tone?
It's your time and money but here's a case in point, I spent hours rebuilding / tweaking a Bassman that already had enough iron in the OT to do the job, but it never came close to my recent #124 build in one of Funk's chassis. Don't get me wrong the tone sounds great in the Bassman, but now that I have a #124, do I really need the Bassman? No. I plan to rebuild the Bassman back to original Fender specs either to keep it or sell it. Trying to sell it years from now w/ the mods, I'd be hard pressed to find a buyer, and it wouldn't yield the profits ogf an original specd Bassman .
Bottom line is a lesson learned here, I will have spent all this time modding the Bassman, just to re-building it, when I should have started with the #124 in the first place. All the effort put into the Bassman would have equaled a new HRM build.

my 2 cents.

[sidehatch]

What about ceriatone?

They will build the whole thing for about a grand!

Since we are talking about fender mods, I just had the pro blackfaced with sprague atoms and bias converted and put new Gt6l6 GE's and new preamp tube some NOS.

I had a fuchs a while back and sold it because I didnt like the clean as much as my fenders.
'
So Ill either keep the fender and switch in a cab or continue to own pedals.

Today I recieved a pedal from tanabe in Japan called the Zenkudo.

I Ab'd it with my FD2 mosfet,direct drive and several other pedals and it doesnt come close to the sound my Fuchs had It nais it. I cant wait to out up a good youtube video with this thing.

Since I have the pro and I love it Id like to do some inevasive mods to the normal channel. Maybe some mods that work well with the dumble style clones.

Im trading out lessons to the best tech in town-the guy who brought this SF pro reverb back from the dead. I went from saying "nothin sounds as good as my slant 6" to "this sounds as good but its different"

ANyway, Im keeping the pro and Im not going to drill holes in it but since Im trading lessons for tweaking I thoug we might try some stuff this week.

Has anyone heard those dave funk mods that send the signal to the cathone follower before the tone controls?

Im not looking for marshall ina fender or voxac30-just something that has variety,wont mess up the vibrato channel and maybe something that will accentuate the Dumble style pedals?

What about those Dumble mods on schematic heaven? Do those do much?
I might even be able to get the tech to assemble a ceria tone kit or build on from scrath after we've done the lesson thing for a while.

Id love to heer your advice. For onbe I will not copltely convert a pro into a duble like I said before.

Thanks

[bluesfendermanblues]

What about ceriatone?

They will build the whole thing for about a grand!

What about them? The're great

I bought an Overtone one month ago, and Nik shipped it, the same day the paypal payment was received.
I ordered mine without transformers and tubes.

I live in Denmark and the extra shipping cost of trannies, would be much more expensive, than buying original Hammonds with tubetown.de in (our neighbouring country) germany. I also have a 59' RI Bassman, that I had upgraded with a Mercury Magnetics OT. I just put the original back in and used the MM for my overtone instead.

I have seen some posts in here with people kind of dishing Ceriatone/Overtone, which I don't think is quite fair, considering that it is delivered with Sprague 6ps OD, Dale RN65's and CC resitors. APS potentiometers. The chassis is 2,5 mm thick and connectors are all in excellent quality. All wires (and i do mean ALL) wires are included in the kit.

Only nickel is the connection of the included switch pedal, which is connected via DIN connectors in stead of 5-pin XLR. However, I just drilled the hole a little larger and fitted a Switchcraft XLR. And we're back in the top league quality wise.

The only thing missing was the 6mm indicator lamp. Nik included a traditional Fender juvel lamp, instead and emailed me that the original lamp was in backorder and would be delivered ASAP. I received it a week ago.

So quality is excellent and Nik is a trustworthy person.

How does it sound, well it didnt quite have the Robben Ford sound I want - until now. You have to give a new amp at least a month with a couple of hours a day to settle in properly.

I am the pushy type So in the last month I've done every possible tweak I could think of - from fine board menbers like Funk, Heistl, Bob-I and others.

I've ended up with 220k-3,3k/150k-2,2k on both VI and V2. the caps on V2 have been changed to Xircom and I use 10n throughout.

The trimmer is on 10 o'clock and the 2,2k resistor in the PSU is changed to 3k, which has lowered the V1 voltages to 190v and V2 to 195v.

The mid cap is 47n with 100k slope and the bright cap is 120p. And the mastervolume has got a 39p.

The lead dress is real important !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have followed Nik's layout in regards to grounding and checked the #040 and #124 pictures to get correct the schielded wires to/from the overdrive pots. THIS IS Really important. I thought the Overdrive was way too bright utill I got these wires a little further apart (½ inch). The result was a much more 'grainy' and mellow overdrive. This mod rended the after OD treble control of 3,3nF with a 470k trimmer from OD Level to ground, obsolete.

I use both a strat (with SD antiquities and trembucker in the bridge pos), Tele and Les Paul and I'm able to go from RF to John Mayer tone.

At least that was my status last night. I still need to try to hear the amp without the local 22m+47n+22m feedback on V1b.

CONCLUSION: Overtone is a fine kit with excellent component quality. Give it time to be played (burned) in and tweak it to your taste. It really a bargain IMHO.

[bluesfendermanblues]

dbl post

[Luthierwnc]

As long as you already have a Pro Reverb, take a look at Mike Fuller's multi-amp set-up:

http://www.fulltone.com/qaframe.html

sh

[Funkalicousgroove]

Yeah, you gotta love a guy who lets Ayan, Dogears, and Myself (Mostly Ayan)do all the work discovering what makes Dumbles tick. We put the information out there to help the DIY community( not all of it though, I have Dumble Info that has never even been brought up here, and never will because of Nik, he contributes NOTHING to our forum, and yet he profits from our hard detective work) then joins OUR discussion, takes all the known information- HAS NEVER EVEN SEEN A REAL DUMBLE IN PERSON- and then starts selling a commercial version.

Nik is an ass, and it is MY OPINION that if you support him YOU ARE AN ASS TOO- Don't ask me for ANYTHING!

[bluesfendermanblues]

Nik is an ass, and it is MY OPINION that if you support him YOU ARE AN ASS TOO- Don't ask me for ANYTHING!

Thank you very much. I just wanted to share my findings with the rest of you guys.

[jaysg]

...and it doesnt come close to the sound my Fuchs had

You had a top notch Dumble style amp. That would have been easier to mod than building from scratch or overhauling a Fender. Just wondering why past tense.

[sidehatch]

...and it doesnt come close to the sound my Fuchs had

You had a top notch Dumble style amp. That would have been easier to mod than building from scratch or overhauling a Fender. Just wondering why past tense.

Sorry for all of the spelling mistakes. I got a new wireless keyboard and it sucks.

Yes, I has a fuchs ods about 4 years ago or so. I got it and it had a close dumble sound but I hated the clean sound. Mine sounded sterile and lifeless clean. I play clean most of the time and at the time wasn't into multi amp setups. If I could do over I would have kept the Fuchs head and got a silverface pro reverb and switched the head in for distortion.

I was getting ready for a pretty big tour so I sold the fuchs and bought a carr slant 6 2/12 that I still use as my #1 amp. The clean and mild overdrive sounds are the best I've ever had and it fits my style better than the fuchs did.

One day I will get a great dumble clone and switch that head thru the Carrs speakers for overdrive but until them I'll use pedals.

The Zenduko Pedal arrived on monday and its very similar to a zen drive pedal except I think its even more dumble sounding. Ran thru my carr slant 6 with its g1265 speakers it sounds closer to the dumble sound on recordings than my fuchs did into the ev speaker I had.

I'm really happy with this setup now and I played my first gig with that pedal last night . At some point I will probably make a real dumble clone based on info here though :)IM looking into the D lite.