New Build

[Normster]

The reverb pan is giving noise when the chasis is on the enclosure. When chasis is outside (while modding) the amp has no noise.Turning the reverb to zero, the amp is very quiet.

Try flipping the reverb pan around. (Not the leads, the pan itself.) You want the output side of the pan as far away from the PT as possible.

As for plate voltages, if it sounds better with 190V on the V1 plates, I'd go back to that. Also play around a little with the input volume. In a sense, you have complete control over all gain stages so a bit of knob tweaking is in order. For a nice blues crunch I set the input volume at 1 o'clock and the OD gain at 10 o'clock. For all-out distortion, I set the input volume and the gain at 3 o'clock. At that setting, I get very smooth distortion and tons of feedback/sustain.

[mat]

The reverb pan is giving noise when the chasis is on the enclosure. When chasis is outside (while modding) the amp has no noise.Turning the reverb to zero, the amp is very quiet.

Try flipping the reverb pan around. (Not the leads, the pan itself.) You want the output side of the pan as far away from the PT as possible.

As for plate voltages, if it sounds better with 190V on the V1 plates, I'd go back to that. Also play around a little with the input volume. In a sense, you have complete control over all gain stages so a bit of knob tweaking is in order. For a nice blues crunch I set the input volume at 1 o'clock and the OD gain at 10 o'clock. For all-out distortion, I set the input volume and the gain at 3 o'clock. At that setting, I get very smooth distortion and tons of feedback/sustain.

Hello Normster,

Thanks for the good tip of turning the pan, first on tomorrows to-do list.

Agree on the V1 plates, I'll put bigger resistor back to B+4.

I've tweaked the volumes and switches alot To me nicest overdrive I get with volume at 12 o'clock, rock on, no bright, no boost, no deep, and the internal (100k) trimmer is only at 9 o'clock (starting at seven and going up to five), treble at 2 o'clock, mid almost full, bass at 12 o'clock, drive at 1 o'clock, presence at 12, local fb-loop switch at 44M + little reverb and turning up the master the sound gets better and better

I'll try to record something tomorrow..

cheers,

[seulb-rd]

The reverb pan is giving noise when the chasis is on the enclosure. When chasis is outside (while modding) the amp has no noise.Turning the reverb to zero, the amp is very quiet.

Try flipping the reverb pan around. (Not the leads, the pan itself.) You want the output side of the pan as far away from the PT as possible.

normster speaks the truth. i had the same problem with 6g15 reverb i built a while back. flipping the tank around eliminated the noise.

[mat]

Try flipping the reverb pan around. (Not the leads, the pan itself.) You want the output side of the pan as far away from the PT as possible.

normster speaks the truth. i had the same problem with 6g15 reverb i built a while back. flipping the tank around eliminated the noise.

You were right ! Another way around the reverb does not produce noise.

Thanks again Normster,

[dogears]

I really think you should try these suggestions..... Based on your settings....

1 ) If you must max your mid control, something is wrong. My best tones are with the mids no more than 60% up, regardless of .01uf or .047uf midcap. Regardless of 100kb or 250ka pot. Every single person I tweaked an amp for has preferred 250ka and .01uf for the midcap. Treble at 2pm with a linear taper seems high as well....

2 ) Try adding a 150k to 180k resistor and .001uf cap to ground from the V2b plate. Cap first then the resistor to ground. A 250k trimmer woudl work well as well. Really smooths things!!!

3 ) I find my best tones using the .022uf CL2 coupler. See #1 above. MAybe something is worng woth your amp? What is the measured value of your CL2 bypass cap. Have you measured it?

4 ) What exactly is your pre-od network.

5 ) Which value snubbers are on V2a and V2b Have you measured them??

6 ) What kind of shielded cable is that? It is long and looks like it has real high capacitance. That will KILL tone.

7 ) I'd suggest using 1% metal films for cathode resistors. The carbon comp you have on V1b can drift. Bad idea in that spot...

She seems to be coming along nicely!

Thanks for the good tip of turning the pan, first on tomorrows to-do list.

Agree on the V1 plates, I'll put bigger resistor back to B+4.

I've tweaked the volumes and switches alot To me nicest overdrive I get with volume at 12 o'clock, rock on, no bright, no boost, no deep, and the internal (100k) trimmer is only at 9 o'clock (starting at seven and going up to five), treble at 2 o'clock, mid almost full, bass at 12 o'clock, drive at 1 o'clock, presence at 12, local fb-loop switch at 44M + little reverb and turning up the master the sound gets better and better

I'll try to record something tomorrow..

cheers,

[mat]

Hi dogears,

I really think you should try these suggestions..... Based on your settings....

1 ) If you must max your mid control, something is wrong. My best tones are with the mids no more than 60% up, regardless of .01uf or .047uf midcap. Regardless of 100kb or 250ka pot. Every single person I tweaked an amp for has preferred 250ka and .01uf for the midcap. Treble at 2pm with a linear taper seems high as well....

I had today opprtunity to play little louder. Acually You are right. The best OD sound cames when the mid pot is around 50%. The lower strings comes buzzy if the mid is maxed.

2 ) Try adding a 150k to 180k resistor and .001uf cap to ground from the V2b plate. Cap first then the resistor to ground. A 250k trimmer woudl work well as well. Really smooths things!!!

I tried this and while it smoothed the sound, some 3d or other complexity in the sound dissappeared. I have to test it more.

3 ) I find my best tones using the .022uf CL2 coupler. See #1 above. MAybe something is worng woth your amp? What is the measured value of your CL2 bypass cap. Have you measured it?

I have measured every component. Here is picture of the values on the layout. If they are not mentioned second time then they are the right value:
[img846]http://www.pichotel.com/pic/16028B31e/43317.jpg[/img]

4 ) What exactly is your pre-od network.

Sorry, still too noob You mean the plate cap/res of the V2 ?

5 ) Which value snubbers are on V2a and V2b Have you measured them??

326p and 329p, yes I've measured them.

6 ) What kind of shielded cable is that? It is long and looks like it has real high capacitance. That will KILL tone.

It is 'TASKER c113 1x0.25 spiral shielded cable'. Should be low capasitance. I have it on input, reverb pot (2x), presence pot, master pot and on drive pot.

7 ) I'd suggest using 1% metal films for cathode resistors. The carbon comp you have on V1b can drift. Bad idea in that spot...

Ok, changed it

She seems to be coming along nicely!

Thank You

[dogears]

Hi Mat,

Thanks for the layout..... A few thoughts.

1) Add a 24k resistor (or close) to the treble pot tail.

2) Change the OD1 and OD2 series resistors to 105k feeding the OD drive pot and 160k feeding the OD level pot (which should be a linear)

3) Lower the 220k that feeds the 100k OD trimmer to 180k-200k per taste (listen)

4) Revisit snubber size (maybe 390pf) and the treble bleed once other changes made. You may like the bleed when you lower the resistor in #3

[mat]

Hi dogears,

Thanks for the layout..... A few thoughts.

1) Add a 24k resistor (or close) to the treble pot tail.

2) Change the OD1 and OD2 series resistors to 105k feeding the OD drive pot and 160k feeding the OD level pot (which should be a linear)

Ok, the new values soldered as in:
[img846]http://www.pichotel.com/pic/16028B31e/43363.jpg[/img]

3) Lower the 220k that feeds the 100k OD trimmer to 180k-200k per taste (listen)

Oh, sorry - forgot to put it on the layout. It's been 180k from the beginning.

4) Revisit snubber size (maybe 390pf) and the treble bleed once other changes made. You may like the bleed when you lower the resistor in #3

Ok, I'll listen tomorrow how it sounds. What is the treble bleed cap on the layout ?

Thanks dogears ,

[dogears]

Treble bleed was the .001uf cap and 250k trimmer to ground from V2b plate. I set mine around 180k. Sounds real smooth and nice but still has clarity.

Crank that baby! Screw the neighbors!

[mat]

Treble bleed was the .001uf cap and 250k trimmer to ground from V2b plate.

DOH!

I set mine around 180k. Sounds real smooth and nice but still has clarity.

I will definitely try it again, maybe order a 250kA pot with a switch more switches more switches ....

Crank that baby! Screw the neighbors!

[mat]

Hi,

How does this sound ? Dumble ? No ?
http://media.putfile.com/d-clone

It's recorded with my 'Julia' guitar (http://koti.welho.com/mtiilama/DIY%20Guitars.htm). Neck pu is DiMarzio humbucker and treble pu is Schaller humbucker. First is the middle position, then neck, then treble with OD channel. Boost is on all the time.
I used one cheap Audiotechnica mic + one DIY electret mic on seperate channels. No further processing done, the reverb is the amps reverb. Master volume is moderate. Driver is red white and blues 1x 12'' on diy enclosure.

cheers,

[Normster]

Hi,

How does this sound ? Dumble ? No ?
http://media.putfile.com/d-clone

It's recorded with my 'Julia' guitar (http://koti.welho.com/mtiilama/DIY%20Guitars.htm). Neck pu is DiMarzio humbucker and treble pu is Schaller humbucker. First is the middle position, then neck, then treble with OD channel. Boost is on all the time.
I used one cheap Audiotechnica mic + one DIY electret mic on seperate channels. No further processing done, the reverb is the amps reverb. Master volume is moderate. Driver is red white and blues 1x 12'' on diy enclosure.

cheers,

Holy cow, Mat! That amp sounds superb right out of the gate!!!
Big congrats on an excellent build. Man, I'm going back to tweak my Bassman now.

[mat]

Hi Normster

Holy cow, Mat! That amp sounds superb right out of the gate!!!
Big congrats on an excellent build. Man, I'm going back to tweak my Bassman now.

Very glad to hear that I think every golden bit of help dogears (AND GLASMAN!!) has given has been getting me closer to THE sound. Also I cannot enough thank You for Your help and the layouts, BIG THANKS It would have been very hard (or impossible) for me to start from zero.

As much as I love this amp I think it could be improved still. I found one sound clip of one of Gary's amp (http://glaswerks.com/media/maria.mp3) and the sound is VERY nice to me. Some very cool rawnes but still without harshness - cool !

I think I will be playing the amp for couple of days and enjoy Maybe make some more samples with backup tracks.

It would be nice to know how Gary or dogears record their amps and with what kind of hardware...

Thanks Normster again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BobW]

Mat,
Nice guitar chops and think you have captured the essential *umble tone. Sounds like you have caught the tweak bug too. LOL
That's OK, I don't know if I'll ever be finished w/my tweaks either. Thanks for sharing the layout and clips. I agree w/Normster, guess I need to go back and re-tweak mine some more too.
You mentioned your Mvol was set at a moderate level, What was your preamp vol set at when you recorded the sound clip? I'm guessing maybe a 10 o'clock setting?
cheers BobW

[glasman]

As much as I love this amp I think it could be improved still. I found one sound clip of one of Gary's amp (http://glaswerks.com/media/maria.mp3) and the sound is VERY nice to me. Some very cool rawnes but still without harshness - cool !

I think I will be playing the amp for couple of days and enjoy Maybe make some more samples with backup tracks.

It would be nice to know how Gary or dogears record their amps and with what kind of hardware...

Hi Mat, the clip sounded really nice, good job on the amp.

Here is my recording setup.

Oktava MK319 microphone
Aphex Preamp
Yamaha 01V96R2 Mixer. (all effects are added in the mixer, the amp was recorded dry)
Mackie SDR2496 recorder

For my recordings, I use two tracks for the backing track and 1 for the guitar. I re-record the mixdown back onto the Mackie. Once I am happy with the mix, I move the files into the computer for final mastering and tweaking. Using Wavelab and the Ozone mastering plugin.

Gary