New Lightning Build Question (easy)

[ericnuke]

Hey all. A little back story, I've got a Laney VC-30 2x10 that I've already gutted and am gonna fill back up with Lightning guts. I'm pretty jazzed about it. My question is about adding a Mid knob so I don't have quite so many unused holes on the face, the laney had many more knobs than the lighting will...

I'm following the Ceriatone layout and see the Bass pot has a 10k resistor from wiper to the lug that then goes to ground. Would it be as simple as inserting a 25k pot in place of the 10k resistor as a variable resistor? I've built a few amps so far but I'm largely still a paint by number kind of guy as far as my actual knowledge about these things. I'm learning a ton though just by reading through this whole forum though so thanks to everyone on here, it's an amazing resource!

Here's the Ceriatone Layout

http://www.ceriatone.com/images/layoutP ... iatone.jpg

-Eric

[M Fowler]

Take a look at this 18 watt plexi or also look at the TW Express/Liverpool layout.

Mark

[M Fowler]

I have seen in some Fender mods to add the mid control do that they replace the resisitor in the bass pot with the 25k mid pot but if you look at the TW, Lightning and Fender Bassman it is not as simple as that.

Mark

[Bear]

Schematic Heaven has the Top Hat Club Deluxe, which is another Top Boost tone stack ala AC-30, DC-30 and Lightning, TW Rocket, and so on. The Top Hat is an outlier in that it has a mid control. Given that the Top Boost is an interactive stack as is, I can't say whether the mid control adds control or just chaos. But it's been done before, so presumably it's not an entirely bad idea.

Bear

[ericnuke]

Thanks for the input guys. I think I'm gonna just try putting a 25k pot in place of the 10k resistor and see what happens. I'll probably just leave a little extra room on the board in case it doesn't do anything or only sounds good when the pot is set so the resistance is 10k. I've heard of people doing this kind of mod to princeton reverbs as they have a similar tone stack with just bass and treble with the 10k resistor to good effect.

Consequently I don't really care about having the mid control I just want less open holes in the faceplate as the doner chassis is sort of odd and can't really accommodate a new faceplate and already is labeled for T M B.

Another question, I ordered a Weber PT, the one for AC-30, for this thing(sorry but i didn't learn about all the bad blood with that camp until after I received it) but it turns out I measured wrong and can't make it fit. Can anyone recommend me another pt? I looked at heyboyer and mercury Magnetics AC-15 PT's but are there any others out there? I'm not looking for top quality but not bottom of the barrel stuff either. Thanks.

[M Fowler]

Check out these guys for transformers and 10% off right now.

http://www.tubesandmore.com/

Mark

[Structo]

A mid control can be a good thing.

Fender used the 10k a lot for their fixed mid scoop sound.

[ericnuke]

Thanks again for the ideas guys. Follow up question. According to the ceriatone layout I need HV secondaries of 290. I can't for the life of me find voltage numbers on any of the transformers I'm finding. The lightning schematics I've been able to find don't have any voltage numbers on them and I'm afraid that if I order a standard Vox ac15 PT It won't have the right HV coming out for what I need and I'm afraid my electronics knowledge isn't good enough to know how to adapt around that if say I get one with 300 hv secondaries. Any thoughts?

I did check out antique electronics and they have a pretty good price on the ac15 PT.

[collinsamps]

The original Matchless (lightning & Spitfire) was 285-0-285

[Darkbluemurder]

Schematic Heaven has the Top Hat Club Deluxe, which is another Top Boost tone stack ala AC-30, DC-30 and Lightning, TW Rocket, and so on. The Top Hat is an outlier in that it has a mid control. Given that the Top Boost is an interactive stack as is, I can't say whether the mid control adds control or just chaos. But it's been done before, so presumably it's not an entirely bad idea.

Bear

I built this amp as my first complete amp project. I really like the mid control for additional flexibility. Should it confuse you, just set it at about 11 o'clock and you have your stock two band control.