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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 11:05 am
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Thank you, Vinyl. That's what I'm talkin bout.

Yes, it is compatible with other mods.


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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2019 12:17 pm
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TimsAudio wrote:
Thank you, Vinyl. That's what I'm talkin bout.

Yes, it is compatible with other mods.

I don't have a CAD drawing program so I had to make do with Microsoft Paint.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, hopefully it's worth 500 words in a different language.
:)


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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2019 12:30 pm
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vinyl wrote:
TimsAudio wrote:
Thank you, Vinyl. That's what I'm talkin bout.

Yes, it is compatible with other mods.

I don't have a CAD drawing program so I had to make do with Microsoft Paint.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, hopefully it's worth 500 words in a different language.
:)



I use Mac Aperçu for same kind of work.


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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2019 10:01 pm
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TimsAudio wrote:
This is about a series of mods to improve the sound of a Hot Rod Deluxe, original and reissue. It is especially useful for players who can't crank it up past 2 or 3. These will not be found anywhere else. I have developed them in secret, until now.
It all started in 2007 when Rich asked me to modify his HRDX into something like an old Fender BF. He had a Mesa for high gain and this was sittin around not being used.
So I channeled Leo and removed one tube stage and seven resistors in the signal path to compensate. It was ten jumpers and sounded pretty good. Later, it got 270k plate resistors to bump up the gain a bit. It was a rats nest of wires, but the beginnings of the TBV mod.
Over the next ten years, I fiddled with different ideas and perfected the mod. It keeps the tube stage and stock gain, but reroutes the signal path. It addresses the muddiness at low volume settings on the Hot Rod and improves definition throughout all volumes.
You can appreciate the improvement by comparing the Hot Rod signal path to the BF/SF topology. A BF Fender input goes to the preamp and then the tone control, then the volume control. The HRDX sends the signal to the volume controls before the tone controls. If the volume is turned down, the capacitors in the tone stack get very little signal compared with the BF/SF tone stack.
So I move two parts, cut one trace and add a jumper to reroute the HRDX signal path into the tone before volume or TBV, configuration. There were two approaches I used. The grid swap method and the plate swap method. I settled on plate swap mostly for ease of mod.
I developed this mod for Blues Deluxe and Blues Jr as they have the same layout. I will be posting each of these separately. Each has their own iteration of the Tone Before Volume mod.
You have to pull the board away from the chassis. If you don't know how to do that safely, stop reading and forward this to your qualified tech.
1 Remove R8 100k and R41 10 k
2 Cut trace at V1 pin2 on the main board to R1/R2
3 install jumper from R1/R2 to R41 +Pin7 of V1
4 install 10k resistor from R41 to R8 +Pin2 of V2
5 Install 100k resistor from R8 to pin2 of V1

Hot Rod TBV mod
https://imgur.com/gallery/xyDZKZt
i'm working on getting the pics up.
You can use the old resistors, but new one with long leads work better. Once its done and tested, anchor the mod to the board with silicone for vibration control.


Hello Tim

Today I pulled the board away from the chasis of my Hot Rod Deville so the guy with soldering skills could work on the TBV mod. As I mentioned before this guy does not speaks english so I have to make my best for translating the mod step by step for him. We began with step 1: removing R41 and R8, but when going to step 2 I realized my Hot Rod Deville has a board somewhat different than your Hot Rod Deluxe. There is no trace at V1 pin 2 (main board) to R1 and R2 in my Hot Rod Deville. The trace I see to R1 and R2 comes from a soldering pad that is connected to V1 (tube board) with a black cable.
I checked for the others steps (3, 4 and 5) and realized that could be done without any problems, the only problem is with step 2 (locating the trace) so I decided to stop and wait to solve the step 2 for continue with the mod.
Once more I'll be more than grateful if you help me out here.

Thanks in advance


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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 7:36 am
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algajgg wrote:

Hello Tim

There is no trace at V1 pin 2 (main board) to R1 and R2 in my Hot Rod Deville. The trace I see to R1 and R2 comes from a soldering pad that is connected to V1 (tube board) with a black cable.

Thanks in advance


Does it look like this? Sorry for the image quality, it's the best I could find on the web.
Image


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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:17 am
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Yes, that's a reissue. I changed the original post here at the top to include instructions for the reissue Hot Rod.
These instructions are an early version of the mod. Later on, I think I did the same mod as the original. The point where R1 and R2 come together and connect to the coax is the cut point.


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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 1:06 pm
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Lots of nice pictures on the web ;

Image[url=https://flic.kr/p/2dVzU1e]Image[url=https://flic.kr/p/2dVzU1e]


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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 8:54 pm
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vinyl wrote:
algajgg wrote:

Hello Tim

There is no trace at V1 pin 2 (main board) to R1 and R2 in my Hot Rod Deville. The trace I see to R1 and R2 comes from a soldering pad that is connected to V1 (tube board) with a black cable.

Thanks in advance


Does it look like this? Sorry for the image quality, it's the best I could find on the web.
Image


Hello Vinyl, thank you very much for your help. Yes my Hot Rod Deville is exactly like that one. Tha PCB on mine says Revision A P/N 0059781000


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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:06 pm
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TimsAudio wrote:
Yes, that's a reissue. I changed the original post here at the top to include instructions for the reissue Hot Rod.
These instructions are an early version of the mod. Later on, I think I did the same mod as the original. The point where R1 and R2 come together and connect to the coax is the cut point.


Tim thank you very much. Yes my amp is definitely the reissue Hot Rod Deville (has a C56)
I did the mod as you explained for the reissue Hot Rod, exactly as the pic you posted, but the amp has no sound right now.

The speaker is connected on the left jack.

I tried connecting the guitar on the power amp in and get no sound.

The guitar connected to input 1 of the amp produces a high frequency whistle but very quite. Playing around with the volume of the guitar and the treble knob of the amp I could get a very very low volume and kind of distorted sound.

The 2 power tubes and 3 preamp tubes glow like they normally do.

Any clue of what could be?


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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:23 pm
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I'm confident in my pics and records. Its my memory I don't trust
If you have no output from the preamp In, my first guess is that the ribbon cables are broken. Look where they go into the board for bits of red showing. That is broken strands.
I'm guessing your amp has seen a few disassembles and this is a common issue after a few pulls.


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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 2:04 pm
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Maybe a picture of your amp with the chassis removed would be more helpful. Not necessary to remove the circuit boards from the chassis, just a picture like Tim's. Red circles not needed.
Image


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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 8:15 pm
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TimsAudio wrote:
I'm confident in my pics and records. Its my memory I don't trust
If you have no output from the preamp In, my first guess is that the ribbon cables are broken. Look where they go into the board for bits of red showing. That is broken strands.
I'm guessing your amp has seen a few disassembles and this is a common issue after a few pulls.


Hello, yes I have dissamble it 6 times I think. I have no output from POWER AMP IN.

I see PW1A PW2A and PW3A rock solid, I suspect from PW4A. Before putting the amp back together I saw what I tought was a broken strand and made the guy with soldering skills resolder this two strand ribbon cable in the end that goes to the board. Do you think that a broken PW4A could cause this? Should I check for continuity?


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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 10:11 pm
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https://imgur.com/XZlijc4 Here I show the TBV mod from Tim

https://imgur.com/uqyAyqg Here I show the 3 big ribbon cables I think are OK

https://imgur.com/sKndCmB Here I show the small 2 strand ribbon cable PW4A which I think is the culprit of my muted amp.


This is the first time I upload a pic in this forum, please let me know if you guys can see it. Thanks a lot


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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2019 9:18 am
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algajgg wrote:
https://imgur.com/XZlijc4 Here I show the TBV mod from Tim

https://imgur.com/uqyAyqg Here I show the 3 big ribbon cables I think are OK

https://imgur.com/sKndCmB Here I show the small 2 strand ribbon cable PW4A which I think is the culprit of my muted amp.


This is the first time I upload a pic in this forum, please let me know if you guys can see it. Thanks a lot

When posting an image from imgur, copy the "Linked BBCode (message boards)" and paste that link in your post. That way your picture will show in the post and not a link.

_________________
Marky

Remember the music is not in the guitar


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Post subject: Re: New Mod for Hot Rod Deluxe
Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2019 9:54 am
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Marky Forrest wrote:
algajgg wrote:
https://imgur.com/XZlijc4 Here I show the TBV mod from Tim

https://imgur.com/uqyAyqg Here I show the 3 big ribbon cables I think are OK

https://imgur.com/sKndCmB Here I show the small 2 strand ribbon cable PW4A which I think is the culprit of my muted amp.


This is the first time I upload a pic in this forum, please let me know if you guys can see it. Thanks a lot

When posting an image from imgur, copy the "Linked BBCode (message boards)" and paste that link in your post. That way your picture will show in the post and not a link.


Thank you very much Marky.


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