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More overdrive, lower volume


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there was most definately a difference in tone even with the pot wide open

It should have no affect at full throttle. The cap only comes into play as the volume is rolled back.

 

could the length of wire in the clips have added enough resistance to take out some bass?

No, but the flakey way that you had them installed could've. I doubt you're losing bass, since that cap is a high pass filter, not low. I would suspect that what you're perceiving a bass loss is actually additional highs being passed, which may be more than you need or want. Try higher cap values.

 

SOLDER a .0022 in there, and see what it does. Lose the flea clips.

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It should have no affect at full throttle. The cap only comes into play as the volume is rolled back.

 

 

No' date=' but the flakey way that you had them installed could've. I doubt you're losing bass, since that cap is a high pass filter, not low. I would suspect that what you're perceiving a bass loss is actually additional highs being passed, which may be more than you need or want. Try higher cap values.

 

SOLDER a .0022 in there, and see what it does. Lose the flea clips. [/quote']

 

I know it should have no effect at full throttle. And its not a perceived bass loss due to extra highs cause it happens at full throttle, when no extra highs should be passed. cause they all are going through with the pot on 10. i will try soldering it in, but lately ive been playing more that soldering... O:)

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it happens at full throttle, when no extra highs should be passed.

At full volume, you're not attenuating any highs. The bleeder cap's purpose is to pass some of those highs straight to output when the volume is turned down, so that the perceived amount of high end is retained from full volume all the way down to nothing. It should have no affect on highs when the volume is full on. Check your wiring again, check your pup resistance, and check that pot again. Something's not right.

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Hey all,

 

Thanks for your comments. They have been very helpful.

 

I went on ebay and got myself a Weber Mini Mass 25W attenuator. Plugged it in between my EVJ amp and the 8'' 16ohm Eminence speaker, and voila, beautiful saturated tone at very comfortable volumes!

 

The one thing I haven't been able to get is cleaning up the tone by rolling down the volume knobs. My guitar is an Austin Session master, which is a 335 copy made in China. It's a semi-hollow body with two humbucker pickups.

 

I'm reaaally new to electric guitar and a lot of the stuff that you guys are discussing are going somewhat over my head. But, technically, if my volume pots were in good working condition, I should be able to roll off the volume and clean up the overdrive just with my volume knob? Even with humbuckers? If I can't get that result, what can I do to fix it? Will it be an easy job?

 

Thanks guys.

 

-Dave

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Not necessarily; Humbuckers drive a lot harder than single coils.. That’s why they sound so good (sorry single coil guys)… but there are some mod’s that you can do to get more clean room; sort of.

You’ll need to print out the schematic for the amp and you’ll need to get your fingers and soldering iron in there too. So READ the VJ101 and all the safety stuff.

 

You may need to change out a couple of capacitors, primarily the C3 & C4 which are at something like 22uf .. most of the gang has decided to move then downward to about 2.2uf for single coils and under 1uf for hummers…

This moves the bass role off around and may give you some clean room back…

Just remember that the little EL84 is running flat out all the time, so you’re really adjusting how much gain the pre-amp section has.

The amp was designed to give you up to 5 watts ‘clean’ until the volume control is pointing to 12oclock. Then to give you ‘dirty’ 5watts past there till full.. so clean is a perception.

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But, technically, if my volume pots were in good working condition, I should be able to roll off the volume and clean up the overdrive just with my volume knob? Even with humbuckers?

First, if you're using a lot of attenuation, you're not going to get much of a clean at all, guitar volume rolled back or not. That effect really works best with either no attenuation, or only mild attenuation. The more you attenuate the amp, the more saturation you're getting, and the less you'll be able to clean it up with guitar volume.

 

Secondly, the cleanest, brightest sounding HB pups are in the neighborhood of 7.5k - 8k resistance. If yours are 12k or more, they're made for higher output, and aren't going to clean up nearly as well. Also, you might consider plopping a nice set of PAFs in there from one of the many notable pup builders. Stock pups in most of the overseas-built guitars aren't generally known for their greatness (although, I have heard some really fantastic sounding, incredibly cheap guitars...a buddy of mine has a HB-equipped Ratfink that sounds amazing, and it's a POS guitar).

 

If you can get to the wiring without difficulty, put a DMM on those pups and see where they fall, resistance-wise. Also, check those pots while you're in there...HB volume pots should really be very close to 500k. Otherwise, they can cause muddiness.

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