Help tuning a "Tweaked" D-lite 44 in Portland OR

[chopstuck]

I have built this D-lite over 5 years ago and work on voicing it every year.
Usually I give up put it back in the rack and move on. It's just not too musical when in OD mode. Very "overdriven Showman" if that makes sense. This year I made a big discovery -adjusted my dropping string slightly and moved the cathode and grid wires together on V1 and V2 and it's a different amp !
I have also done about every tweak in the "Tweaked layout" save the two back mounted mini switches and would like another local ear to bounce this off of.

I have beer and am willing to drive or host.

Anyone need a beer that can hear ?

[Mark]

Maybe pictures might help?

I amazed that it made that much difference. In the D'Lite I was working on the big factor was component values.

[sepulchre]

I'd love to hear it, but I fear the beer would get warm by the time you reached here. I like warm beer just fine, mind you, but the drive would be a bit tiresome.

Sooo, clips?

[Smokebreak]

I have built this D-lite over 5 years ago and work on voicing it every year.
Usually I give up put it back in the rack and move on. It's just not too musical when in OD mode. Very "overdriven Showman" if that makes sense. This year I made a big discovery -adjusted my dropping string slightly and moved the cathode and grid wires together on V1 and V2 and it's a different amp !
I have also done about every tweak in the "Tweaked layout" save the two back mounted mini switches and would like another local ear to bounce this off of.

I have beer and am willing to drive or host.

Anyone need a beer that can hear ?

What did you change your string to? Did you start with the tweaked string? I should be done with mine in a couple days, so very curious about these things.

[chopstuck]

Smokey, I changed my string to the tweaked values. I then did a little estimation to get V1 (200v) and V2 (210v) to the proper values.
my string was: (choke resistor) 300r - 1K - 22k - 8k2.
I used a Vibrolux PT with 425 on the plates of my 6L6's.
I got pretty close. Different tubes give you different numbers.

If it looks cheezy those are all 20-22g teflon wires. They look lonely in there.

[Smokebreak]

Thanks for the info . Your amp looks great! Mine always look like hell after the first round of modding My only issue with the Teflon is stripping that slippery stuff. I think I've got a friend of a friend in Portland that builds amps. I'll try and dig up his info.

[Structo]

Hey Chopstuck,

I built a D'lite 44 kit as well.
I finished mine back in November of 2007.

It was my first real tube amp build.

I worked on that thing for a year or two!
I did get it to sound pretty good in my rig.

I believe that besides known hints about getting them to sound good, you also have to adjust your playing style just a bit if you want it to sound like your favorite Dumble artist.

Finally, I relinquished and built a a 100w ODS clone in November 2010.
So I had three years to study and learned a lot tweaking my D'lite.

The boys here are right, nonsense not to build the 100w amp.
Since these amps have a pretty good master volume and can control
the overall volume of the rig with the D'lator output pot, you can set your amp controls a bit hot and get that more saturated sound.

Have you had a chance to try a Dumbleator with your amp?
It's a tube buffered effects loop but due to the two tube stages of Return/ Recovery, it just really helps the overall tone.


I know it sort of sounds cliche or like a band aid but the D'lator really does enhance the tone of the amp and should be mandatory equipment for these amps
Especially if you run delay or reverb/ modulation into the FX Loop.

I played my D'lite 44 a couple weeks ago without the D'lator and it didn't sound that great.

Ideally the loop should be built into the amp.
I've heard pros and cons of doing that but for me, having another small rackmount chassis on top of the amp works for me.

Here is a old voltage chart of the D'lite after I got it somewhat dialed in.
There are notes saying what the components were at the time.

I do believe besides component values and choices, that the voltage is important to cause the same type of range that these amps are known for.

[chopstuck]

Thanks for all the feedback, I was thinking about putting in a D-lator and drew up a little layout. I figure with the big PT I have plenty of supply.

I think what I'm hearing is a blocking distortion. Sounds a little fuzzy when OD is on. I played with the internal trimmer but it did not help.

I did change my playing style, I tend to play from the 5th to 14th fret on the neck pickup with a third of the treble rolled off with humbuckers.

Single coils just don't sound good yet.

I think I will check my caps on the plates to see if I have any leakers.

[Mark]

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s69/ ... CN4917.jpg

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s69/ ... CN4916.jpg

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s69/ ... CN4914.jpg

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s69/ ... CN4913.jpg

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s69/ ... CN4912.jpg

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s69/ ... CN4911.jpg

This is my effort on the D'Lite, it's a conversion to a #0102, it turned out pretty good. I also built a Dumbleator which was the icing on the cake.

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s69/ ... CN4064.jpg

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s69/ ... CN4059.jpg

[Structo]

Mark, where is the tube in the D'lator?

Chopstuck,

It looks like you have 1K5 grid resistors on the power tubes.

I think I also had blocking distortion when I first built my amp.

I have 5K1 on the power tube grids.

[Mark]

Hi Tom

The grid stoppers were 5.1K and the valve is mounted in the enclosure in the back. The owner of the amp didn't want to be pulling the rack apart to change valves.

[chopstuck]

Tom thanks for the tip.
I will go check out the amp and see, if that is true I will try 5K1 grid stoppers.

Marc

[chopstuck]

Tom, I changed the stoppers to 5k1 and it did help the blocking distortion.
Probably cut it down by 2/3.

I turned down the OD input trimmer to about 1/5 open. It did help the integrity of the signal. Cut down a lot of the left over blocking.
I will have to take a block of time later in the week to adjust the PI trimmer now that I can hear what's going on in there. I have to turn it down so low when the family is home, all I hear is pre-amp distortion.

Thanks a bunch for the suggestion. It's a little farther along now.

Next step WRX powered Porsche 914 !


Marc