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Post subject: reverb control mod to HRdVL
Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 7:59 am
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My main amp is a late 40's Oahu Tonemaster and sounds sweet as pie, but I have this older hot rod deville that has been retubed with NOS Raytheons a friend found for me with his ham radio connections. The clean channel on the deville sounds pretty good to me now that the volume pot issue has been solved.
My new question for the peeps that know more than me about these amps is:
What about the damned reverb pot? seems like if I turn it up past .5 it gets so wet that Dick Dale would be reaching over to roll it back a bit. Is this just my ear? I have to admit that I don't use much reverb in my sound at all, just a tiny bit to sweeten things up so maybe my perception is biased. It just seems to be the same deal as the volume pots; as soon as you dial it up to 3 or 4 it's maxed out and there's nothing left which means that the usable range is in the first 25% of the pot and the rest is for show. Will upgrading the pot make the reverb more usable? I'm actually starting to like the amp and would love to be able to use it more. Don't think any amp will ever replace the Oahu though...


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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 8:13 am
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The way I fixed my HRDlx when I had it was with an outboard reverb unit. The HRDlx has the same problem. It's not just that the signal is too wet, the reverb just sounds bad period. I believe there are mods to help, but what it does to the tone is IMO awful. Some people love it though but I'm from the old Fender reverb school and just prefer tube driven reverb. I just tried a friends BYOC Reverb pedal that uses a Belton Digi-Log Reverb module. I'll tell you what, I was pretty impressed with it and for $90 for the kit, it's a steal.

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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 9:01 am
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sounds wet to me. but everyones ear is different. I'll have to dial it up and see wht I think about the tone. Guess I've never had it up enough to notice. And I really hate tone-vampires. If your tone isn't what you want, don't try to fix it with pedals and other effects, get a better guitar and/or amp. More stuff in the signal train is like trying to polish a turd. just my not-so-humble-opinion. I still like the clean sound on the deville with the N.O.S. tubes though, if I can't figure out how to get the reverb pot a bit more "friendly" I'll just turn it to 0 and let the room take care of the reverb.


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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 9:54 am
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Hi cjpeck,

You could change the pot to an audio taper, or you can just remove R103 for an improvement for the reverb response. You can just clip one side of the resistor, or both sides to completely remove it. Either way, pot or resistor clipped, will help quite a bit. :idea:

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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 10:59 am
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cjpeck wrote:
sounds wet to me. but everyones ear is different. I'll have to dial it up and see wht I think about the tone. Guess I've never had it up enough to notice. And I really hate tone-vampires. If your tone isn't what you want, don't try to fix it with pedals and other effects, get a better guitar and/or amp. More stuff in the signal train is like trying to polish a turd. just my not-so-humble-opinion. I still like the clean sound on the deville with the N.O.S. tubes though, if I can't figure out how to get the reverb pot a bit more "friendly" I'll just turn it to 0 and let the room take care of the reverb.


I agree 100% I sold my POS HRDlx. It wouldn't stay away from the shop. My current rig is an Egnater Rebel 20 with two 112 cabs a guitar and a cord. I don't miss the reverb at all. The only thing I did to it was put a NOS JAN Phillips 5751 preamp tube in V1 to lower the gain a little. Now it's one of the most perfect amp I've owned in ages. The HRD series reverb is solid state driven and seriously lacks any warmth at all. Natural reverb and a good cabinet of like Pine or Birch would do the trick just fine. It would have enough resonance to make the tone sound a tiny bit wet.

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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 1:10 pm
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shimmilou wrote:
Hi cjpeck,

You could change the pot to an audio taper, or you can just remove R103 for an improvement for the reverb response. You can just clip one side of the resistor, or both sides to completely remove it. Either way, pot or resistor clipped, will help quite a bit. :idea:


seriously? just remove it from the board? educate me; what will that do and how will it change the sound?

Supro: I actually like the clean sound on the Hot Rod Deville, it's just the reverb is over the top for my tastes. i actually have it set to about .25-.5, any more and it gets too "surf-y" for me. But the old G.E. pream tubes and raytheon power tubes (biased a bit hot) sound really sweet to not use the amp at all. I generaly use the Oahu with the Gretsch and the deville with my strat and tele.


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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 1:19 pm
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cjpeck, Is the Oahu an original?

Here's a link to the reverb mod. http://www.justinholton.com/hotrod/reverb.html

Here's a link to Justin's whole site
http://www.justinholton.com/hotrod/

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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 2:17 pm
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cjpeck wrote:
...seriously? just remove it from the board? educate me; what will that do and how will it change the sound?...


Yes, just cut it out completely, or clip one side to break the circuit. It will be close to a capacitor lead so you should discharge the caps before attempting to clip the resistor. R103 and C52 provide a path around the reverb pot, allowing more signal through. Clipping R103 will break that circuit, and reduce the amount of signal going to the reverb, giving you less reverb at lower pot settings. Of course if you turn the pot all the way up, it will be the same. But, not many want to turn it up that much on this amp. I have the 4x10 version, you didn't mention if you had the 2x12 or 4x10. :)

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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 3:00 pm
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63supro wrote:
cjpeck, Is the Oahu an original?

Here's a link to the reverb mod. http://www.justinholton.com/hotrod/reverb.html

Here's a link to Justin's whole site
http://www.justinholton.com/hotrod/

yup, it's an original. I believe the tonemasters' were originaly sold as lap steel amps.

I have the 2-12 version of the HR deville


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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 3:04 pm
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Very cool.I love old Valco, Supro, National, Silvertone stuff ect.

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Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 8:40 pm
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I had a HRDx and I clipped one end of R103 and it sounded better to me! It is simple as pie and reversable too! All you have to do is remove the back panel and locate R103 under the reverb pot then clip one end and pull it up so it doesn't contact or touch elsewhere! My name is "Peck". C.A.Peck!

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