Anyone ever heard of or used this amp? It has a solid state power section and a 12ax7 preamp, great sounding amp, picked it up for $200

Well here is is after the mods I did, I like the sound alot better, am going to do the bias mod as well shortly. My bridge tone pot is going bad and need to get a CTS for it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOieBJplBIE

Well I tried the diode clipper, first with the resistor then without and it didn`t change anything. I had talked with Kevin Silva he does alot of work for some of the big names, Charlie Daniels, Ted Nugent, Dokken, and a bunch of others, he said the answer to my muddyness problem  and over bassyness that the Deuce and Mace were famous for was actually a easy fix, just place a .001uf cap across the outer legs of the Post Volume controls and call it done. I did that and WOW, opened that amp up in a hurry. I can actually run the bass on 6 and the mids on 4 and highs on 7-8 and it has a solid rock tone with a sweet little touch of growl to her. My buddy came over and he was shocked,,said it didn`t even sound like the same amp. I do appreciate everyones input as well as their patience with my questions, I still wish I had a touch more drive to it but the tone is so much livelier now I am not going to worry about messing with it. Once again many thanks to all that posted.

One of these days when I learn much much more about amp electronics I want to set this amp up like its first version where I can run both channels in series rather than paralell.  I wish Hartley hadn`t of changed that aspect of the origonal Mace, maybe I will get lucky and find an old 320T Mace that isn`t completely trashed and set it up as a spare head to have both.

Well done some homework, it looks like I remove the resistor and put the 2 diodes in its place. Going to pick up some 1n4007`s and give it a shot on 1 channel to see how it sounds.

To do the 2 diode clipper trick I would basically lift 1 end of R42 and R11, put 2 diodes side by side and solder the resistor leg to the 2 legs of 1 end of the diode and run the other 2 legs to the hole where the end of the resistor came out? Assuming the cathode end of the diodes would go to the board connection and not the resistor?

- I replaced the IR14 (1k) with 5k1 resistor.

- In the preamp section I replace R42 (33k) to 47k and R51 (33k) to 22k, this change makes the tonestack more effective.

All this changes make the amp more louder with mids and highs, Increased the distortion of power section, tonestack more effective ... perfect to rock'n'roll!!!
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There must be some difference between the 2 amps, I checked over the schematic I have and found that R42 is a 22k and R51 is a 4.7k ?  not sure if I need to find the resistors in that area that match your numbers or what?

Thanks for the replies, Enzo I didn`t mean to sound like I was putting down the local guys. I had talked with them about Eddies mods he listed and they were very apprehensive in even talking about it, all they would say is they know nothing about the hybrid amps ? I pretty much took it they weren`t into doing mods to adds and left the subject alone out of respect for their feelings. I will give Eddies mods a try, I found a duece vt that has the same board as the mace vt and may be able to get it ultra cheap and use it for a tester. I appreciate the help and the info.

Thanks Teemuk,,very much appreciated.

Anyone know which resistor controls the bias on the Peavey Mace VT series? Thanks for any help.

Thanks JM,, in the post above yours is a link to a short video I did with it, not sure if its the mic on the camera thinning out the sound or what but it sounds like its brighter than when I am playing. Then again with it at a decent volume tone wise it could be my hearing has been impaired,,lol.

Here it is with my epi les paul in action
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=1332438003944

http://www.abeltronics.co.uk/download.php?manu=peavey&file=peavey-mace-deuce-vt.pdf

Thanks very much appreciated ! ! !

I got the 4x12 cab built and loaded up with texas heats and man that thing rocks ! ! I can get classic skynyrd tone, ZZ Top, Blackfoot, Allman bros,Marshall Tucker tones with ease out of it. Only thing I would like to change is the highs, its like with the highs on 10 they need to be on 12-13, the pick up has boosted highs and mids and the overal sound is fairly bright, just would like to get the highs up a bit more leads, may have to slap a eq pedal on it.

Well I got the head back today and got it put in the cabinest and wired for sound, I completely restored the cabinet and recovered in burgundy snakeskin and built a 4x12 cab to match, will have the last 2 speakers for the 4x12 in a couple of weeks. MY GOD this amp is unreal ! !