Hey guys!!
I am fairly new to amp modding, I've mostly replaced LEDs in pedals and amps just for the fun of it. Now I want to move up to modding the gain channel of my amp to LED clipping. Problem is, I can't find a schematic for my amp, which is a Traynor TRM-30. It's a 2 channel amp, and channel 1 sounds great clean. Channel 2 is another story. It's muddy and way too compressed, I absolutely cannot get the volume up to the clean channels level without putting too much of the amps horrible sounding gain in for my taste. Is there anything I need to be looking for as far as the diodes that may need replacing. I have heard that LEDs will up the volume on the channel they're used on, and I have a few different values (colors) to play with.
Any help would be greatest appreciated.
Here is the schematic set. (TGM30_Page 7)
Ok, I think I found the gain stage, marked "2gain," and it says it's a 50k pot if I'm reading it righ, but I'm a little lost on where the clipping diodes might be... I may have found two, marked 1N4148 (at d114) maybe, but don't know if clipping is what they're there for. Am I getting close?
Ok, it looks like I'm on the right track. The 1N4048s I think are the right ones, and they're 1v forward voltage. I'm thinking a two reds or one red and a yellow led to replace them would work. The reds are 1.8v and the yellow is 1.9v.
You're correct, D114 and D115 are the ones you're looking for. If you find the dirt channel level still to be lacking, R19/R20 form a voltage divider, you could replace R20 with a jumper and R19 with 100k to double that channels output level.
That's awesome!!! Thanks a lot guys!!! I'll let you know what happens..
Alright guys, I did it!!! I replaced both 1n4048s with two orange LEDs, rated between 2.0v and 2.4v. It didn't change as drastically as I thought it would, but that's probably a good thing, because this channel is so much better now, and the gain up to 10 is still very usable and isn't overpowering. It starts to get a good articulate crunch around 6-7 and I think I'll leave it there. It's a really cool distinctive switch between channel 1 clean to channel 2 crunch. It still compresses, but now it's alot less muddy than it was and I can get the volumes even with channel 1 and still have room to go up on channel 2 if I need it. Overall, I'm extremely glad I did this, and thank you guys for all your help.