Sky Blue Lou
Well-known member
I would say, "You fuckin' crazy bastard!" but you obviously did yer homework. Nice pics and documentation. I love the idea of the knob going to 11. Do it!!
New amp for Greg - Bladow! (lots of pics)
- Thread starter Greg_L
- Start date
Thanks Lou! The mod was shockingly easy and yielded huge results. I obviously can't take any credit for coming up with the idea. I just followed the directions of many others that had done the same thing. Whoever initially came up with this mod idea is a genius.
There are several cool mods for this amp that seem to be pretty easy. One is a "Blackface" mod that converts the clean channel to Fender style. That one kind of has me interested as I don't use the clean for anything and having a "Fender" in there would be cool. But I don't know. EL34 power tubes kind of clashes with Fender sound. A choke would be pretty easy too. I'll probably just leave it alone. It sounds awesome. I biased it up and it's smoking. New pre/power tubes will be next.
There are several cool mods for this amp that seem to be pretty easy. One is a "Blackface" mod that converts the clean channel to Fender style. That one kind of has me interested as I don't use the clean for anything and having a "Fender" in there would be cool. But I don't know. EL34 power tubes kind of clashes with Fender sound. A choke would be pretty easy too. I'll probably just leave it alone. It sounds awesome. I biased it up and it's smoking. New pre/power tubes will be next.
Thank Ray. That other knob is the effects loop mix. You tailor how much effects signal comes back into the amp to be mixed with the raw signal. Currently I only have the 10-band EQ and delay in the effects loop. Neither gets used often so the fx loop is usually off altogether.
I'm not very good at soldering either. I can wire up pots, switches, pickups, and entire automotive electrical systems, but soldering tiny little things into tiny little spots onto tiny little elec boards is not my strong suit. I'm a bull in a china shop. I need to get some junk stuff to practice with.
Lol. I can solder usual guitar stuff and wiring. I can wire up an entire car from scratch. I used to do Winnebagos from front to back. That shit was a bitch. I'm just not to savvy with boards.
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
boards can get a little tricky ..... it's pretty important to do them quickly or you can damage traces, Don't want to use a big ol' gun either.
A little 30-40 watt iron is best.
But to be fair I don't consider soldering traces on PCB boards basic guitar knowledge.
Just repairing cables and pots and things like that.
If you can solder a car's wiring harness you've got skillz.
This mod you did ...... a LOT of people would freak out over doing something like that but I can't imagine it was difficult at all.
Used to be we all tore into our amps and guitars and stuff ............ nowadays everyone is afraid to.
I'm not sure why ........ I always thought it was fun.
I'm pretty confident I could solder to a board with the board removed. In the case of this mod, it was suggested that I snip just the body part of the stock resistor out and solder a new one to the legs of the snipped resistor with the board still installed. I envisioned myself melting everything together into one giant short circuit. Lol.
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
I would always choose to snip a wire instead of the resistor legs when that's an available alternative.
Thing is ...... boards ARE tricky ...... I'm pretty experienced at it and I still lift traces every once in a while.
But yeah ...... I'm sure you could do it ..... you have a lot of experience with detailed work so you know how to take your time and be precise.
But why do it if you don't have to?
Exactly. The mod to the mod involved snipping one wire as opposed to messing with the board. No-brainer to me. Splicing a pot into one wire is infinitely easier and less butthole puckering than messing with the board.
ibleedburgundy
The Anti-Lambo
I just played a 410 for about an hour at Guitar center. It's nice and had some awesome tones but considering all it's different configurations, it wasn't nearly as diverse as I thought it would be. No doubt I could have spent a lot more time dialing it in.
What the amp was awesome at IMO:
1) Clean channel had great clean tones. I loved the clean channel. Crystal clear, balanced, smooth, good reverb.
2) OD1 had an incredible crunch - palm muted distortion sounds are ungodly. Oddly enough I got basically the same sound out of OD2 - slightly more distortion I guess.
3) The presence and resonance provided significant and noticeable flexibility.
4) Plenty of power obviously
5) Has incredible lead tones IMO. I'm not as crazy about this amp for rhythm parts.
Things I was less impressed with:
1) Distortion isn't as smooth as a Mesa IMO (I play a DC-5 right now)
2) Moderate/light distortions were not impressive. Was kind of staticky IMO. Perhaps I just needed to dial it in more. I only had an hour.
3) Crunch channel wasn't my idea of crunch. OD1 was more crunchy to me but whatever. Crunch channel was slightly less clean than clean.
4) Push button red/orange/green distortion levels for each channel is kind of lame/gimmicky. The gain knob should handle all this instead IMO. Unnecessarily complicated. Douchebag salesman will tell you you're getting 24 channels lol. It just isn't.
5) 4 channels but they really aren't diverse. More like 2 channels with a butt load of buttons.
Conclusion: I wanted to love it but I instead I merely liked it. But in this price range you need love. I play all sorts of styles and the concept of having 4 channels appeals to me, but that's assuming they are 4 distinct flavors and these aren't. I was interested in the combo. I think the value here is the 210 - the 2 channel version/$700 cheaper.
Anyway, I prefer the Orange Rockerverb MKII. Just has a little more distinct personality IMO and better light distortion capabilities. Gonna get one of those.
What the amp was awesome at IMO:
1) Clean channel had great clean tones. I loved the clean channel. Crystal clear, balanced, smooth, good reverb.
2) OD1 had an incredible crunch - palm muted distortion sounds are ungodly. Oddly enough I got basically the same sound out of OD2 - slightly more distortion I guess.
3) The presence and resonance provided significant and noticeable flexibility.
4) Plenty of power obviously
5) Has incredible lead tones IMO. I'm not as crazy about this amp for rhythm parts.
Things I was less impressed with:
1) Distortion isn't as smooth as a Mesa IMO (I play a DC-5 right now)
2) Moderate/light distortions were not impressive. Was kind of staticky IMO. Perhaps I just needed to dial it in more. I only had an hour.
3) Crunch channel wasn't my idea of crunch. OD1 was more crunchy to me but whatever. Crunch channel was slightly less clean than clean.
4) Push button red/orange/green distortion levels for each channel is kind of lame/gimmicky. The gain knob should handle all this instead IMO. Unnecessarily complicated. Douchebag salesman will tell you you're getting 24 channels lol. It just isn't.
5) 4 channels but they really aren't diverse. More like 2 channels with a butt load of buttons.
Conclusion: I wanted to love it but I instead I merely liked it. But in this price range you need love. I play all sorts of styles and the concept of having 4 channels appeals to me, but that's assuming they are 4 distinct flavors and these aren't. I was interested in the combo. I think the value here is the 210 - the 2 channel version/$700 cheaper.
Anyway, I prefer the Orange Rockerverb MKII. Just has a little more distinct personality IMO and better light distortion capabilities. Gonna get one of those.
without a doubt, every guitar is going to sound different on it..and..it might just be my opinnion, but it seams like once a guy has been playing for XXX amount of time on a perticular amp, nothing else ever sounds quite right..or atleast..not for a while anyway, until the ole ear starts getting use to it..
anyway, the green/orange/red is more then just what it seams on the surface..you can "program it" if you will..each to run through the FX, or not etc...so its not just a matter of each color having more or less gain, but really, you can greatly change things with each color IMO..
even the guys at marshall forums, who`ve owned for a while, still often discover another setting, a slight tweak etc that they realy like, and have`nt discovered before..so like ya mentioned, only having 1 hour, really was`nt enough to fully apreciate it..IMO anyways..
anyway, the green/orange/red is more then just what it seams on the surface..you can "program it" if you will..each to run through the FX, or not etc...so its not just a matter of each color having more or less gain, but really, you can greatly change things with each color IMO..
even the guys at marshall forums, who`ve owned for a while, still often discover another setting, a slight tweak etc that they realy like, and have`nt discovered before..so like ya mentioned, only having 1 hour, really was`nt enough to fully apreciate it..IMO anyways..
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
if it's anything like my 3 channel 6101, those green/amber/red buttons do more than just change the gain. They also sound different as far as tonality goes.
Plus even if it's just gain it'd be hard to do it with a single gain control because at each of those buttons' settings you still have the gain control to add some gain or back it off ..... ends up being pretty fine adjustment of the gain.
Plus even if it's just gain it'd be hard to do it with a single gain control because at each of those buttons' settings you still have the gain control to add some gain or back it off ..... ends up being pretty fine adjustment of the gain.
Telegram Sam
New member
I just took delivery, last week, of a JVM215 50 watt 1x12 combo.
I've been playing my Strat through it.
I think it is a phenomenal amplifier with many varied and superb tonal possibilities.
I have to disagree about the colored buttons being nothing more than different gain settings.
I think they are incrementally stepped gain structures that also remember the user's configuration as individual patches,
so when you go back to a particular switch it reverts to the last used settings (tone, reverb, master, etc.) in that switch mode.
Getting great tones out of it, for me, happened faster than I expected.
The first time I used it, it took me less than 10 minutes to be damn near falling out of my chair.
The tones are superb, IMO, oh shit, I already said that.
I've been playing my Strat through it.
I think it is a phenomenal amplifier with many varied and superb tonal possibilities.
I have to disagree about the colored buttons being nothing more than different gain settings.
I think they are incrementally stepped gain structures that also remember the user's configuration as individual patches,
so when you go back to a particular switch it reverts to the last used settings (tone, reverb, master, etc.) in that switch mode.
Getting great tones out of it, for me, happened faster than I expected.
The first time I used it, it took me less than 10 minutes to be damn near falling out of my chair.
The tones are superb, IMO, oh shit, I already said that.
Seeker of Rock
The One and Only
I'm just now seeing this thread. The size of the transformers is obscene. Nice fucking amp, dude!
