More on the D'Lite

Buschman · Post by **Buschman** » Tue May 01, 2007 3:46 am

I was able to play my Homebrew through several speakers today & learned a few things.
1 Played through a new Vibroverb 15" Jensen. I expected this to be IT!. Boy was I wrong. It parted my hair. Even with the treble backed way out it was just real harsh & bright. In all fairness the speaker was not broken in-but geeze!
2 12" Greenback Celestion. Maybe it's just me but it's hard to beat a greenback.This sounded great. It knocked the highs down & was fat & smooth.
3 2x12 Vintage 30s in closed back. This was better than the 15 but harsher than the Greenback. We were in a small room. I would probably appreciate the punchy closed back in a big club.
4 A-B'd with a Vibroking. The little 6v6 monster held it's own. But--

Here's the deal. Can the clean amp is too distorted & maybe too bright & the overdrive is very high gain.It's harsh not Robben Ford. I do not have Vishay Dale plate resistors yet. cl1 & 2 & od1 & 2 are both in the 200v range. I could get some more headroom with 6l6s but the clean preamp still want's to break up at 10 oclock. Sooner with humbuckers. It's a rock N roll monster but I would have wanted it smoother. Maybe it's just my playing. Any ideas?
If I go with standard Fender values on cl1 will it botch up the OD sound?
Thanks for listening.

Bob-I · Post by **Bob-I** » Tue May 01, 2007 4:42 am

Buschman wrote:I was able to play my Homebrew through several speakers today & learned a few things.
1 Played through a new Vibroverb 15" Jensen. I expected this to be IT!. Boy was I wrong. It parted my hair. Even with the treble backed way out it was just real harsh & bright. In all fairness the speaker was not broken in-but geeze!

When I first bought my Jensen at the advise of a friend, I almost sent it back. He told me to play for 5-6 hours before I did. What a difference. These speakers REALLY need break in.

2 12" Greenback Celestion. Maybe it's just me but it's hard to beat a greenback.This sounded great. It knocked the highs down & was fat & smooth.

You gotta try the 12-65. Think Greenback on steroids. Amazing tone. I gotta get me some a dese.

.....but I would have wanted it smoother.

First off, give it some time. These amps need break in. Next... what tubes are you using? What snubbers on V2?

Some tubes are harsher than others. I like the EH 12AX7 for V1 and V2, the Sovtek 12AX7LPS for the PI and JJ 6V6's, but that's me.

The snubbers on V2 are critical to the smoothness. You can go from 270pF for a nice bright cutting tone all the way to 390pF for smoother. You can also put in a "Smooth" control by adding a cap and pot to ground after the OD output. Dogears can expand on that one, I did it once but forgot what values I used.

candh · Post by **candh** » Tue May 01, 2007 7:48 am

Bushman,

If you are getting break up at 10 oclock on the clean channel then I suspect something is amiss. Get all your components to spec, check your voltages and mess around with some quality pre's. From what I see with the gain channel of this amp once I back off the volume of the guitar a little......woop there it is...Ford tone.

PS contrary to everyone else I too am like this amp with greenbacks...not too loud, smooth and warm.

candh

Buschman · Post by **Buschman** » Tue May 01, 2007 12:04 pm

Thanks again guys. I hate to be a biatch but it has become this love -hate thing. The last thing I changed was to put the feedback circuit on the 4 ohm line instead of the 8 ohm where I had it. This seemed to hurt the sound. At the advice of candh I will double check things. I didn't know if everyones clean channel broke up at 10 oclock or not.,
Snubbers are 330 or 350pf.
JJ 6v6s
Mesa 12ax7-a -look chinese
Sylvania pi
I have not put in carbon films or Vishays yet.

mlp-mx6 · Post by **mlp-mx6** » Tue May 01, 2007 12:24 pm

Buschman wrote:I have not put in carbon films or Vishays yet.

Before you change anything else, I would absolutely recommend that you make these changes. Please make no decisions about speakers and such until you have the proper resistors in the circuit. In particular, the Vishay plate resistors will make a difference. Did you use ceramic caps for the pF-sized caps?

Buschman · Post by **Buschman** » Tue May 01, 2007 12:46 pm

They are all ceramic wiht the exception of the 10pf on the glopal master which I am considering removing completely.

I see a local feedback loop on cl2 on some schematics. Whats up with that, I do not have one. Does it clean things up?

brownnote · Post by **brownnote** » Tue May 01, 2007 1:30 pm

Yes that local FB smooths the tone, and FWIW no cap on the master.

daz · Post by **daz** » Thu May 03, 2007 10:37 pm

candh wrote:Bushman,

If you are getting break up at 10 oclock on the clean channel then I suspect something is amiss. Get all your components to spec, check your voltages and mess around with some quality pre's.
candh

I would agree the clean channel has heaps of clean headroom but I am using 6L6..
May I ask what improvement does the vishay dale resistors do?

Buschman · Post by **Buschman** » Fri May 04, 2007 12:03 pm

I put the Vishay Dale plate resistors in last night. I did change the tone some. It's not snake oil. It doesn't seem as bright now -of all things. It has more Roben Ford now.

Boy it hurts to destruct something that you so carefully put together!

Thanks again.

Bob-I · Post by **Bob-I** » Fri May 04, 2007 3:19 pm

Buschman wrote:I put the Vishay Dale plate resistors in last night. I did change the tone some. It's not snake oil. It doesn't seem as bright now -of all things. It has more Roben Ford now.

None of the changes are snake oil, more subtle but they add up to the Dumble Magic.

Boy it hurts to destruct something that you so carefully put together!

Thanks again.

I hope you didn't have to take apart too much. You should be able to swap a few resistors/caps without harming anything.

As for that early breakup, that's what I like about the 6V6 amp. You might try 6L6's.

groovtubin · Post by **groovtubin** » Sat May 05, 2007 1:29 pm

Buschman wrote:Thanks again guys. I hate to be a biatch but it has become this love -hate thing. The last thing I changed was to put the feedback circuit on the 4 ohm line instead of the 8 ohm where I had it. This seemed to hurt the sound. At the advice of candh I will double check things. I didn't know if everyones clean channel broke up at 10 oclock or not.,
Snubbers are 330 or 350pf.
JJ 6v6s
Mesa 12ax7-a -look chinese
Sylvania pi
I have not put in carbon films or Vishays yet.

try a phillips 12ax7 in V1 and a sovtek LPS in V2. an EI gold pin in V3.. Chinese AX7`s belong in a HRM amp...WAAY too much gain...

drz400 · Post by **drz400** » Tue May 08, 2007 1:14 am

Is this one of us in here?
D'Lite
http://www.bnamp.com/dlite22.html

Buschman · Post by **Buschman** » Tue May 08, 2007 1:57 am

That would be Brownnote. That is the D'Lite kit lots of folks are building. I just built a homebrew clone because I am a tightwad! (3 teenagers at home).

drz400 · Post by **drz400** » Tue May 08, 2007 3:18 am

Buschman wrote:That would be Brownnote. That is the D'Lite kit lots of folks are building. I just built a homebrew clone because I am a tightwad! (3 teenagers at home).

Thanks! Duh!

Anyone figure out what an Ultraphonics mod really is?

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