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Post subject: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 4:36 pm
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Let me atart with this; I had a stock deluxe reverb, thenn modified it.
I put a jumper between R12 & R25(clipping 1 end or R12) so that I have reverb/tremolo on the normal channel, & put both channels in phase so I can use a jumper.
-I changed the resistors that set the midrange frequency; the normal channel I went from 6.7; to a 12; to get more of a tweed tone. I pout a 10K trimpot for the vibrato channel and set it for 8.25K, still scooped, but a little sweeter midrange.
- the most dramatic change came from swapping C25 from a .001uf cap to a .01; this lowered the heasroom so instead of getting breakup at 8 w\PAFs, it does it T 4.
Today, I decided to put in a .0015uf, brining the headroom back to almost stock, but just a little lower.

Now the problem: I put it back together and found it had no volume, well it has SOME, but only w/it cranked to 10, and it was quiet. Also though I could hear the reverb, I heard no tremolo.
I pout the .01 bacj in thinking "let's put it back to where it was when it was working" to no avail.

It sounds like it did the day I handed the rectifier tube to someone to put in and they put it in wrong and broke the key part off. I bought a new recifier tube, and the problem went away. But the rectifier tibe is only 2 months old, so I doubt its that, what do you thunk?
Yes the power/preamp tubes are fine and everything is hooked up.


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Post subject: Re: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:00 pm
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King Midas in reverse. :roll:

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Post subject: Re: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:09 pm
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Thanks for the help


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Post subject: Re: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:29 pm
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No problem. The advice seems to be accurate considering your track record. What a shame that you did all of the "mods" yourself, yet handed a tube to someone else for insertion. I'm not buying. :wink:

Let's review:

"I had a stock 'deluxe reverb', then modified it." If you remove 'deluxe reverb' and insert every amp name that you've supposedly "modified", that pretty much sums up all of your amp problems. Do you see a common thread here?

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Post subject: Re: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:16 pm
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Just a quick question, if you don't mind. Why not use a pedal or two for the overall effects you want? Prolly a lot better than trying to permanently OD and squish the tone of an amp that was designed to be pretty much clean.

Can't you reverse the mods and see where the amp stands?


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Post subject: Re: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:41 pm
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The amp sounds so good clean. In fact, I don't really like the sound of my DRRI when it breaks up. It's a little too gravelly, flubby, and harsh. Maybe swapping tubes might help, I don't know. But, I get the tone that I desire from the amp clean with a low gain pedal in front of it. Sounds like pure heaven!
I admit, I did do the Fritz mod to get the reverb/tremolo on channel one and I don't regret it, but it's had no bad side effects that I know of. I've had no issues with it after about 2 or 3 years.
Based on the mods you've performed, why not buy a Mesa/Boogie Lonestar or Lonestar Special. You can get the Fender clean and the Fender reverb on channel one and it has a gain, treble, mid, bass, presence, master control for each channel, allowing you to push the clean channel as hard as you want. The benefit would be that the amp is meant to do this, therefore not inducing reliablility issues.

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DRRI


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Post subject: Re: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 9:45 am
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shimmilou wrote:
No problem. The advice seems to be accurate considering your track record. What a shame that you did all of the "mods" yourself, yet handed a tube to someone else for insertion. I'm not buying. :wink:

Let's review:

"I had a stock 'deluxe reverb', then modified it." If you remove 'deluxe reverb' and insert every amp name that you've supposedly "modified", that pretty much sums up all of your amp problems. Do you see a common thread here?



This is the oly amp I modded that had an issue, the others weren't modified, they just died. After I got them. So unless you're goinng to help, keepj your smug comments to yourself. Orkeep them on the comment section at the bottom of news articles.

And I handed the rectifier tube to someone to put in while I was working on something else; so your not "nuying it" is calling me a liar, which I find to be passive agressively low.

I've helped many people on this site with advice to fix their guitars; from advice, to sending them replacement parts: last one being a completer replacemnt fender tremolo. I don't do it for any other reason than if someone needs help, and I can; I do. Especially when there's so many memners that slidout of some rocks over the last few years that seem to wait to for the oppertunity to jump on people. The lasttime I was on here when the first hot rod deluxe went on the fritz. I had 4 or 5 people who took great glee to insult me, then tell me what was wrong. I went to another forum, and had 6 people come out & without talking down to me; gave me some things to check on. None of which matched up woth the trolls that belittled me here. Guess what; they were right, nothing I got here was.
I'm done with fender forum; this was an fantastic forum 4-5 years agom there were a lot of knowledgablepeople, who'd offer assistance without the backhandm I don't see them here anymore. I wonder why.


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Post subject: Re: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 11:10 am
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I did these mods because I like the driven tone of the drri, and I like not having to plug into thve vibrato channel to get reverb, it sounds good on its own, but dirt pedals makes it harsh. I changed the midrange to make it sound more like an authentic blackface which had more midrange than the reissues. I also like being able to jump the hannels and blend them. I have a second drri stock as well as a twin. I use drifferent amps for different sounds. This one, w/my Zendrive gives me a Dumble sound. I don't like Mesa Boogies, more out of just being tired of hearing them. I use a Carol -Ann for some sounds, this for another, and the stock for clean.
With lo8we're headroom, and a 50watt rated speaker, the drive tone is distinct. The most accurate comparison I can make is Lindsey Buckinghams version of Oh Well from the live Fleetwood Mac album from the early 80s, it actually aounds exactly like it. The biggest reason for the mods; because I wanted to. All the mods worked perfect, no problems at all. The problem came when I tried to reverse the change I made to thecoupling cap. Alli can think of is thati did something to blow the rectifier tube, it did the same thing when I had a bad one before; I only got volume @10, butit was quiet.

Before I started on changing the cap; I have about a dozen loose preamp tubes. One by one I put them in the drri, turned them on and tapped on them with a bic lighter to find oles that went micrphonic, then threw those out. I don't know ifgoingthrough 12 preamp tubes might have affected the rectifier, though. The tube is onlu a couple months old. Imgoing to take the PCB off and remelt the solder, may e I have cold joint


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Post subject: Re: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 11:33 am
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Windwalker9649, it sounds like you are competent at modding your amps, and you know what you are looking to get out of them and the tone you are trying to find. If I implied otherwise, I apologize. I don't want you to abandon the Fender forum, although I do understand what you are saying. You were slammed right out of the gate for no reason. I didn't help matters and again I apologize.
I am a Mesa fan and the Lonestar series amps are awesome because they have a very good blackface-type clean tone that can pushed really hard. I understand if they are not right for you though.
When I first got my DRRI, it had a bad 12AX7. Then, within the first year, I had replaced one by one every tube except the reverb 12AT7.
I've had no issues with the Fritz mod, but lately I've been thinking about reverting it back, and clipping out the cap that makes the Vibrato channel super bright. What do you think about this?
Don't leave us windwalker9649, there's still one or two good folks left in here. :D

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2010 American Deluxe Strat Sunset Metallic - Lindy Fralin Blues Specials in the neck and middle, Dimarzio AT-1 humbucker in the bridge.
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DRRI


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Post subject: Re: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:51 pm
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Well, first off, I fixed the problem; bad solder joint. The board is a, royal pain, so i, originally soldered the original cap without talking the board off, because i, was in a, rush, now its fine.
Secondly, I took NO OFFENSE to your question aas, to why I modified it, its a fair question. So i, gave you the reason. There are a handful of people who like to degrade others, which really gets to me. Not so much as, its geared to me, but others. Nothing bothers me more than when a new player asks a, question thats been answered several times before, and they get attacked. They don't know any better, it would be a much more gracious thing to do to just answer their question. But sine get some sense of power by belittleing them. I, rarely come to, ask questions because I know what to expect. I do come on from time to time to see if there is a, question I can answer. IM teaching a 19-year old girl presently how to repair guitars, we are starting slow, how to do a proper setup, how pickups work and how to rewire then I using push/ pulls, switches, etc. Next week in showing her how to level frets using a neck gig. I do it because I get satisfaction passing knowledge on.

As to your question regarding removing the bright cap I would recommend going about it a, different way. I, removed it for a, week, and while single coils sounds good, buckers, were too dark. Id do one of a few things.

First, id do three mod that puts the channels in phase, then give the normal channel reverb/ tremolo. Then you wont have to deal with the bright cap. You can also replace the stand alone cap with a, switch. The most useful however is, replacing the 6.7k resistors with a, higher value. This adds mids. What i, did aas, of yesterday was put a 20k, trim pot for the normal channel and a 10k on the vibrato. Now i, set the normal one at 15k giving it a nid range punch, and leave the vibrato channel at 8m25; leaving the scoop. But you can increase the mids, midigating some the harshness of the cap.


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Post subject: Re: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:22 pm
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Hollis Prince wrote:
...You were slammed right out of the gate for no reason....Don't leave us windwalker9649, there's still one or two good folks left in here. :D


Hollis,

It was for very good reasons. Replacing the fuse in the amp multiple times, watching the amp spark, even trying a slow-blow fuse so it will spark longer, then arguing about using fuses to troubleshoot without so-much as looking at a meter, is dangerous and beyond the pale. An excellent indicator that he shouldn't be anywhere near an amp, and deserves the ire of the more experienced members here. His stories change also, blaming others for his screw-ups, and you can't believe the contradicting stories. If you have a few hours, you can read just one of the long-winded posts and see for yourself. You'll need days to read them all, but the picture will become clear after a few minutes.

Frankly the posts about guitar "repair" are also quite revealing, and funny in a sad kind of way. And to claim that he is helping others with the BS experience that he claims to have, is spurious at best. Just because someone can solder doesn't mean that they know what the heck that they are doing. Likely piss-poor soldering from the sound of it.

Those helpful members mentioned are still here, just avoiding the numb-nuts that are going to hurt themselves or somebody with their Tom-foolery. It is not often that we are this hard on someone, so it's not like we're picking on him for "no reason". So, I say, buh-bye and good luck to him, hopefully in another line of work. :)

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Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.


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Post subject: Re: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:40 pm
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Go slide back under the rock you cane from
You're a troll, you brought this up before, I forwarded you all the PMs from people thanking me, and your only response was " you nust mistake me for some onewho cares" and to comment I didn't use spellcheck. Give me a break, what a loser, nothing better to do than sit at your computer and make swipes, get. A life


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Post subject: Re: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 3:57 pm
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In all of your ways remember,
do what is good and right.
In folly and in wisdom gained,
our thoughts will be remembered,
tonight. :)

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.


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Post subject: Re: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 4:30 pm
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Well, its fixed, because I do the, work, not live on a computer putting up 4000 posts in 2-years. You have quite the fan club here, I've heard from six since that post. Maybe instead of trying to convince everyone your smarter than them, you can try to accomplish something. All I picture is the comic book guy from the Simpsons. What are you? 15-Ym years old. W when you see any of my posts, why don't you fight your naturalinclination to spew your self indulgent sanctimonious drivel. Really-how exactly do you have the time to post close to 4000 posts in 2-years? I've been on here twice as, long, and couldn't come close to being able to do that. IM sure making friends is hard for you, so here's a tip; when someone asks for assistance, either give it, or shut it, you'll go much further.


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Post subject: Re: DRRI major volume loss & no tremolo
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 4:49 pm
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I think the personal attacks should stop. Shim, leave the guy alone. You tend to do that to everyone who either disagrees with you or doesn't like the HRD series amps. It's not your job to constantly belittle, criticize and personally attack fellow members. personally, I've had enough of it. I'll criticize equipment but never personally insult another member unless I'm really pushed to the brink or attacked fist. You seem to get your rocks off doing this to people. It just ain't right.

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