Thanks Phil, I knew with a tube amp it can be a good tone shaper just wasn`t sure on a hybrid if it would do any good to add one on board or just run a separate master through the effects loop to control overall volume.

Would adding a master volume to a hybrid amp, solid state preamp and 6L6 power amp do any kind of benefit besides controling over all volume?

I have 4 Eminence Texas Heats in my 4x12, I had the old peavey speaker in the 212 and decided to replace those and see what happens. I got a good deal on 2 new Celestion 7080`s and put them in the 212 and what a difference, much more open and bright than the heats and the crunch is WAY better even at higher volumes, definately did the trick. I will be replacing the Heats in the 4x12 with more 7080`s the Heats are greta speakers just doesn`t match up with the Mace very well.

have tried to upload the schem,, but is way to big.

I have noticed on my Mace VT with the volume low it gets a good meaty crunch as I turn it up the crunch cleans up, any way to keep the crunch at higher volume?  Note: Higher volume not being real loud, just slightly above bedroom level.

I swapped out the magnet on the bridge pick up on the Les Paul and WOW ! !  All of the compressed sound and mushy bottom end I had is gone. The pick up is a Duncan Custom and had a ceramic magnet in it, the guys on the duncan forums have been talking relentlessly about mag swapping so I figured since mags are cheaper than pups I would try it. I picked up a Alnico 4 mag off ebay for $5, took the pup apart and double checked to make sure I had the A4 going in just like the old mag and put her back together and heated the pup with a hair dryer for 20 mins to get the wax flowing and sealing everything back up. I plugged in and had the roundest fullest tone I have ever gotten out of that guitar and amp, I was in shock for about 10 min`s as all the less than likeable aspects of the tone were gone and an actual lovable tone replaced. The normal channel I left stock sounded so sweet and had the best Skynyrd tone the amp has produced, the Effects Channel I modded per Mr. Fahey had this sweet growl and really good distortion, the rythm sounds were so clear and articulate. I would have never figured that a ceramic magnet would make a change for the worst, my Peavey Heritage had an even worse compressed mushy sound and when i plugged into it with the new mag it was gone as well. If you have a Peavey amp with a solid state preamp and a pup with a ceramic magnet do yourself a favor and hit ebay and get a Alnico mag, its easy to swap and will make a HUGE difference in your sound and tone

Well i installed a bias pot and bumped the bias up to 41 mA`s, the tubes get decently warm and not overly hot. She sound alot more full and open now, she is shaping up nicely. The tubes were on a 17mA bias before, I read where the JJ Tesla 6L6GC can be biased to 60mA`s but doubt I will push them that far, will get a small fan to pot on the back of the amp to help keep any extra heat down.

Quote from: phatt on September 12, 2010, 09:47:24 AM
Hi skynyrd,
What happened to *super bassy and compressed* you mentioned?

Did that get sorted?
Phil.

If I just use the effects channel alone with the pre gain on 10 its there,, backed off to 9 it opens up and get a better tone, with the channels being run in series like I am 99% sure it is, the normal channel feeds the effects channel. So that with the tone stoack mod I did to the norm channel is brighter and helps even out the effects channel. Now if I crank the effects channel up it will over power the norm and the bassyness returns, but for low volume like stage level being miked its a very even tone.

Ok, now that Mr. Fahey`s mods made a nice change he has peaked my interest, since I have the warm up out of the way whats the next step?

Well I decided yesterday to really dig into this amp and see what I could do, first off the normal channel never has worked right and there was always a loud squeal when plugged into it. Had a tech tell me the norm jack was bad and went ahead and replaced it, squeal gone but the norm channel stayed on all the time. I could toggle the effects channel on and off but the norm stayed on so always figured there was a messed up switching chip in it or something. So I switched out R50 from a 33k to a 22K in reference to another forum member and put 2 LED`s in series on R11 per the same forum member and plugged her in and tried her, did not like the grungy sound the LED gave so pulled them and went back to norm. The 2 resistors I changed added a little more distortion but with the effects channel pre gain on 10 it was super bassy and compressed, on 9 it had a decent rhythm tone but the lead tone was still not edgy enough. The 2 channels on the amp are suppossed to run paralell to each other and you should be able to boost 1 channel over the other, not in this case. I don`t know why but I decided to put both channels pre gain on 10 and set the effects channel on 1 and started turning the normal channel up to see what happens, the more I turned it up the more the bassyness and compression went away. Then this sweet little crunch came out and a cool growl and tone the amp never had before emerged. So I played with the eq`s on each channeland kept raising the norm chan volume and it got better and better. So it appears the amp has been rewired with the channels in series like i wanted to do. It would have been nice if the previous owner had told me this and saved me and everyone else alot of headaches..lol.

I have been finding out that the DC and AC circuits are confusing,,lol.  I know no one can come on here and type out a complete electronics theory course that a ying yang like me could pick up and run with,,lol. But I do appreciate everyone taking the time and the patience to answer my questions so I can understand what I am looking at a little better. I know i can`t take my old Mace and make it a high gain amp,,well i probably could but that would take more than I am capable of,,lol. But with the guidance all of you are helping me with I am getting it closer and closer to the sound I am looking for.

Correct me if I have been given wrong info, but I was told the lower a capacitors value increases bass and rolls off more treble ?  Wouldn`t dropping from 22UF to 2.2 UF increase the bass at the input ? I don`t mean to question YOUR knowledge just trying to improve mine.

Would R8 be the cause of the compression sound? It is right after the pregain pot and my line of thinking is it could be loading up so to speak. Or with it being 1K is it not big enough and it is overloading the second gain stage?

Well I got it switched out with a 47K resistor, with the pre gain on 10 its very bassy,mushy,compressed sounding, with the pregain backed off to 9 it has a great tone and decent distortion. Would like to be able to get rid of the mush and compression on 10 and gain some good crunch.

Thanks Phil, I saved that to my favs for reading. I do appreciate the help you guys are offering, this stuff is really intrigueing to dive into. I played for 20 years with the idea that the amp had to stay stock to get the sound, I have learned a BUNCH that I wish I knew back then.