I bought my 96 HRDx about 10 years ago for $200 totally beat up and inop. It required a full servicing for all the pots, but was lucky to find someone upgraded the filter caps to oversize Sprague caps. I gigged it for a while and thought it kinda sounded really bad compared to my Peaveys, so I decided to mod it. Ive done a few mods over the years to it by studying PDF files of various schematics. Here's my final secret sauce I highly recommend for anyone looking to blow your tone up into hifi quality area.

First and foremost these are PCB component mods, do at your own risk and please use safety when dealing with high voltage capacitors.

The clean Channel. I found its extremely LARGE in every aspect. It's got bass. It's got mids. It's got treble. Too much of all isnt a good thing. The bass becomes flubby. The mids are honkey. The treble spike hurts my ears. Lets bring these values into a padded room and sober them up.

R11 100k slope resistor. Same as the blackface 60s Fenders. Brings the overall EQ much tighter and tames that flubbery bass.

C3 330pf. This takes the lowpass filter and lowers the pass value slightly to roll off some harsh treble

C7 270pf. Same as above, just more discrete

C4 .047uf. This takes out that honkey tonk midrange a bit and really cleans up the whole channel

If I were to do it over, I would probably leave C3 stock as it does make the treble warm, I find myself using the bright switch now to compensate and it does sound great.

Now for the dirt. The mud. The filthy channel nobody likes on Hot Rods. How can it be so bassy and spikey at the same time? Like you just can't turn the treble down enough and the palm mutes just sound like... soft serve fecal matter. Here's how I make the drive channel actually desirable, not just usable. Mind you, I'm a Peavey guy, so my mods were inspired by reading schematics of the 5150 and the Ultra Series.

C23 Silver Mica 470pf. This cap is responsible for how much bass is injected into the drive channel preamp. Too much bass means it's not tight and it sounds like feces. This is the same value that the 6505+ runs in its circuit. Think nice and tight bottom end. Very touch sensitive.

C11 silver mica 1000pf. Because we knocked off half or more of the bass going into the preamp (depending on your gen) now the drive channel is quite sharp, extremely sharp in the treble. This is the low pass filter for the drive channel and raising this value rolls off the top end bringing it into the sweet spot.

C18 .022uf WIMA box cap. Not the dipped poly film caps that are cheap, this ones better quality and makes for a more organic drive character

R52 250k resistor. This is a padding for the signal going into the preamp. Less padding, more unwanted distortion. More padding, cleaner distortion.

C8 Tantalum 2.2uf cap. This replaces the cheap electrolytic capacitor that handles the high pass filter for the drive channels AFTER the preamp. The stock cap cuts off the low end a bit early so there's not much of a really low deep percussive felt bass in the drive. This cap lowers that threshold and since it's tantalum it is immediate. Palm mutes actually chug now. You can actually feel the deep bottom end and it's immediate, not like a sagging wet sock of a late bass response that it used to have.

You will find that the overall amount of distortion is lowered a touch, and if you like fuzz you won't like this. If you like awesome sweet percussive palm muting chugs you will like this. The drive and more drive now are quite touch sensitive and sound nearly identical to the Silver Pony (klon clone) that I built from BYOC. The drive channel is awesome, very much like a nice overdrive, the tone is organic and papery without sounding soggy or brittle harsh. The more drive setting has an amazing clarity and sustain that organically let's you reach harmonic overtones in bends.

And lastly for anyone wondering, the best drop in non solder mods you can do are retube with JJ and bias them at 63mv (on the cold side), and get a new speaker. I run an Eminence Texas Heat 8 ohm and find it is the sweet heat for a hot rod.

My 1973 Silverface Twin Reverb has excessive hiss, especially with the Master Volume high. On the Normal channel, Normal Volume at 10/Master at 2 is clean with only a little hiss, but Normal Volume at 3/Master at 10 has very distracting hiss while the guitar signal remains clean. On the Vibrato channel, Vibrato Volume at 10/Master at 2 produces rattly, distorted, unstable sounding guitar audio that seems like the signal is about to give out. It sounds distorted as if the amp was breaking up which if I’m not mistaken it’s not supposed to since it’s a twin? This happens through both Vibrato inputs and doesn’t matter if the bright switch is on or off. With Vibrato Volume 3/Master 10, the guitar signal is clean but the background hiss is very prominent.

hey everyone,
i’m looking to upgrade to a pure vintage tube amp for playing live, and i need some help narrowing down my options. i play a Senn Model One DLX equipped with dual P-90 single-coils.

my biggest hurdle is that i need a single amp that can bridge two very distinct sonic identities:

garage rock side: when playing clean or right at the edge of breakup, i want a sharp, glassy, high-treble garage rock rawness with a lot of bite for bluesy riffs.

alt rock side: when i hit my fuzz pedal (running an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi), i want that signal to turn into a compressed, massive, thick alternative rock wall of sound.

my current setup & dialing habits:
i currently use a Boss Katana 100W Gen 3. to get close to what i want digitally, i run the “pushed” amp model with the master volume maxed out at 100% to simulate pushed power tubes. my always-on EQ settings are:
gain: 2 o'clock
bass: 10 o'clock (pulling out sub-bass mud)
mids: 1:30
treble: 4 o'clock
presence: 2 o'clock

preferences:
format: i have zero preference between an integrated combo or a separate head-and-cabinet stack. whatever works better.
size/aesthetics: size and weight do not matter to me at all. visually, i love massive, intimidating stage setups (like Jack White's multiple Twins or Kevin Shields' walls of gear). i want something large-format that commands the stage and pushes real air.
i’ve been looking into high-headroom circuits like a Fender '65 Twin Reverb for the treble bite/clean slate, or a Marshall JCM800 2203 reissue half-stack for how it compresses high-gain fuzz.

given my P-90 pickups and my Katana settings, which vintage tube platform is going to handle this dual-tone puzzle best on a live stage without turning into fuzzy mud? open to any unique reissues or head/cab configurations. thanks!

tl;dr:
looking for a large-format vintage tube amp for live gigs. playing a Senn Model One DLX with P-90s and using an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi. i need one rig that can pull off both glassy, raw garage rock leads (Jack White style) and a thick, compressed wall-of-sound fuzz crunch (Smashing Pumpkins style). currently running a Boss Katana 100W Gen 3 on the "pushed" model with the master at 100% (bass at 10, treble at 4, presence at 2). format and weight don't matter, but i love massive, intimidating stage setups. considering a Fender '65 Twin Reverb or a Marshall JCM800 2203 half-stack, which one is the best fit?

Hey guys,
I’m thinking about picking up a Boss GT-1000 Core to run with my EVH 5150 Iconic Head using the 4-cable method.
Does anyone here run this exact combination or something similar? How does the boss behave in the 5150’s effects loop?

thanks

Howdy from Dublin, Ireland

Doing a restoration on a 1981 Vox AC30 (Rose Morris Era)- replacing the power tubes (el84) and the main power capacitors which look to be original. Works fine but has a bad hum which is constant and ever present on all channels and with no instrument/ cable connected.

There are three main power ones a large 60/100uf double capacitor can and two smaller ones rated as 50+50uf and 32+32uf respectively.

The wiring on the 50/50 cap has red wires and yellow wires connected to similarly marked lugs and then a silver/ unmarked cable attached to a plain lug with no colour.

The replacement caps from JJ Tubes (like for like for the 50 and 32 double caps and a double 100uf one which i understand can replace the 60/100 one) have no colours on them but two positive (marked +) terminals and a negative terminal (marked -)- see pics.

My instinct is that the caps are effectively two similar capacitance caps in one enclosure so it possibly doesn’t matter which + I connect the red or yellow to and the uncoloured cable goes to negative.

However very new to all this and some guesswork involved here so I’d be grateful for any advice or confirmation/ correction on the foregoing.

I'm posting this so other's like me can find this answer. I have a Champion 600 reissue without any mods (working grill cloth and speaker replacement), but I wanted to run it hot at lower volumes because small house and family. I got a Joyo Roll Boost for cheap and put it at the end of my signal chain, right before the amp, and it works perfectly as a gain knob for that amp. If you want to spice up your Champ at true bedroom volumes, go for it!

A tube went out in my Peavey VK212 and I'm seeing conflicting answers on whether or not I can just replace one tube or not. I'd rather not drop $150 on four tube if I don't have to. And I did swap it around to make sure the tube was the problem.

Can you tell these four Friedman tube amps apart by ear? I used the same Ally Lee DI guitar performance for each real amp and balanced the levels. The reveal is at the end.

Signal path: De Lisle switcher into the same Sunn 4×12 in another room, DV77s and Greenbacks in an X pattern, shared TC Electronic Plethora X5 effects loop.

https://youtu.be/oAOg0YNj9Cs

Curious which amp's character comes through most clearly—and which you'd pick without knowing the name. Disclosure: my own video; I also make amp captures/profiles.

Tolex finally showed up this morning. I had the afternoon off so I decided to go ahead and do it. It's ivory, the photos make it look white, but it's a little creamier than it looks. Also, the grill cloth is a little more maroon than it looks. Anyway there's still a lot to do but the major stuff is done at this point. Happy with it so far. Once I get all the cabinet stuff done I'll go back to the circuit and just really let it soak. After the fall it took I worry about solder joints so I'll probably reflow everything and really wail on it with chopsticks to try to get it to fail, etc. But so far so good, everything works as it should and it sounds good. Once I get back to that portion of the project I'll post some photos of the circuit, capacitor dog house, etc.

I want to get a Ceriatone JCM800 2203 and I’ve heard that Nik will do pretty much any mod out there, so I was wondering if there are any highly recommended mods that I should take a look at. Thanks

Just a super quick post about the Twin Reverb cabinet I'm building for a customer whose amp I dropped.
I've been working with her for a long time and I need to give a shoutout to Sandy at precisiondesignin.com.
She makes all my faceplates as I do a lot of custom one offs, and she's quick, professional and delivers great results.
Got the faceplate for the amp today and it looks sharp.
If you need custom plates she's worth checking out.

Looking for someone to post a picture of the inside of an ENGL Savage 120. I got one from someone knowing it didn’t work and I’m trying to make sure all the connections are correct. Thanks in advance.

Hello!! I’ve been curious about getting a tube amp for some time, but I play with a pretty massive board. Running through probably 15 pedals, and a lot of effects I use and sounds I make require full frequency response. Essentially I need a guitar amp that synth sounds could pass through without issue.

I currently play a Roland JC-40, but I feel like I could be benefitting by 1. Getting a quieter amp 2. Getting a tube amp that compliments my tone and overdrive response better than the JC.

I was curious about the Fender Deluxe Reverb ‘65 reissue, but if anyone else has good recommendations please shoot them!!

Some players I love for reference are Jeff Parker, Nels Cline, Julian Lage, Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Gregory Uhlmann, and Mk.Gee