How do you know when to stop tweaking?

[RJ Guitars]

Hello Forum... I've had a great first ODS build experience and many of you have been extremely helpful.

My amp seems to be getting better all the time. I've done several suggested tweaks and a few experimental ones of my own. As I played the amp today it seemed that I might have more amp than I expected. I can get three pretty distinct sounds from my amp, all of them very good. The best clean tone of any amp I've ever owned. With the volume and OD cranked up about 3/4's of the way I get that rich creamy distortion with a nice singing sustain. Finally when I get just a little OD it's nice and bluesy. I think this amp has more harmonic content than anything else I've ever played.

I still have a few suggested tweaks but I'm curious when I'll know that it's doing all it's gonna do? When it is working so well I keep thinking it's foolish to change stuff.

How do you know when to stop tweaking?

rj

[phsyconoodler]

Building and tweaking amps is an obsession.You will never be happy.I just tell people to write down the exact value and make of the components you replace so when your tone quest is done and you have the 'perfect' amp,you can always go back to find you had it before you started tweaking.
Or you could buckle down and practice your guitar playing and make your old peavey sound like the holy grail.

[nickt]

With the volume and OD cranked up about 3/4's of the way I get that rich creamy distortion with a nice singing sustain. Finally when I get just a little OD it's nice and bluesy. I think this amp has more harmonic content than anything else I've ever played.

I still have a few suggested tweaks but I'm curious when I'll know that it's doing all it's gonna do? When it is working so well I keep thinking it's foolish to change stuff.

How do you know when to stop tweaking?

rj

Hey RJ - I'm not even where you are yet but I hate tweeking - don't know where dogears and others get the patience - build it then play it is what I want to do! (if only it were that easy... ).

From the sound of what you're saying you already know the answer to your own question

Glad you're getting your amp where you want it.

[Bob-I]

How do you know when to stop tweaking?

rj

When you no longer have the brain power to think about it.

[kleinm]

When you want to play it more than tweak it?

[Funkalicousgroove]

At some point there is a law of diminishing returns, i.e., Large tweaks yield minimal changes. The thing I suggest is to play it for a while after you build it, and really get your head around everything the amp does as it is, and take some time and write down a "wish list" of what you'd like more/less of and what you'd like it to do for you. Then tweak.

Funk

[briane]

write down a "wish list"

exactly what I do. As you play it make a list of what can be better. If theres nothing on the list, your done (till you make a new list).

[glasman]

I have one amp (my beater) that I have been working on periodically for two years.

I am ALMOST there. Biggest problem, is that my ears change a little from day to day. Especially when I pick up a different guitar.

When to stop, when YOU like the sound. But as Funk said, make a change and play it a while before making more changes. It at all possible, record some consistant passage that you can go back and compare.

Gary

[LooseChange]

I have major tweakitis! I've had to stop myself many times. Now I make a small change and wait for weekly band practice. That's where I listen.

Another great thing to do is add a small switch to the amp. I'll add one to the chassis on the top (or bottom for you tube hangers) or on a push/pull pot. I'll make the change and put it on the switch and A/B it for a while.

[Luthierwnc]

A more severe symptom of the disease is when you start planning your next amp before you actually finish the one on the bench. Skip

[Pete]

Too true (I can really relate to that comment)
Great question, I've been tweaking my two (or is it 3?) amps and giging with them since around 2000 or '01, back when there was much less info being thrown around. (With much assistance from guys like Gil, whether he knows it or not ... Thanks G.A.)
My first amp in it's current state, is almost exactly the same circuit as when I first fired it up, but it has been 3 or 4 different amps over the years. I think I'm almost done .

A more severe symptom of the disease is when you start planning your next amp before you actually finish the one on the bench. Skip

[Luthierwnc]

On the plus side, I usually know exactly what I want from the build while it is still on paper. If I don't get it, I'll make changes until:

a. I get it fairly soon,
b. what I get is as good or better fairly soon or
c. part out the build and do something else.

It isn't always the tone. There is also the issue that your build quality keeps getting better. One of my very favorite amps is a 5E5-A in a blackface Bassman chassis in a P15N combo. I recently redid it with the same schematic and a lot of the same parts but with a more reliable board, better layout, more UL-like interconnects. Even the keepers have to stay up with your current standards. sh

[greiswig]

How do you know when to stop tweaking? That's easy. So easy I can't believe nobody else has said it, but then this must be because everyone here is still tweaking.

You know it's time to stop when there is so much goop on your circuit board that you can't even see what the components are, let alone reach them with a soldering iron.

Dr. Dumble found the cure for the compulsive tweaker.

[Normster]

The thing I suggest is to play it for a while after you build it, and really get your head around everything the amp does as it is, and take some time and write down a "wish list" of what you'd like more/less of and what you'd like it to do for you. Then tweak.

Funk

Wise words, my friend. I actually do very little tweaking...just enough to get the amp to come into its own. Then I build another amp, then another, then another...

[skyboltone]

At some point there is a law of diminishing returns, i.e., Large tweaks yield minimal changes. The thing I suggest is to play it for a while after you build it, and really get your head around everything the amp does as it is, and take some time and write down a "wish list" of what you'd like more/less of and what you'd like it to do for you. Then tweak.

Funk

Wise counsel....