albertjohn Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Hello everyone. I'm new to the forum but spend some time over on the Gibson Forum. I was given a Valve Special as a present a while back bit don't use it too much. I have a Highway 1 Strat and an ES 335. I have kids so tend to practice with one of those Vox plug in things which works OK. There's a lot of love for the Valve Junior on this forum but nothing on the Special. Can anyone share their experiences/tips etc. Many thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cGil Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 The VSpcl has the same 7.5 OT of the v2 VJr, so swapping that for a Hammond 125DSE will offer significant and rather dramatic improvement. It's been described as the biggest bang for the buck for these amps. There are threads over on PPwatt.com that describe eliminating the DSP, which will also dramatically improve the tone. An easy way to find 'em is look in the SEwatt FAQ's "In Depth Info" section where you'll find links to the major mod threads with schematics. http://www.sewatt.com/faq Gil... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertjohn Posted July 16, 2008 Author Share Posted July 16, 2008 The VSpcl has the same 7.5 OT of the v2 VJr' date=' so swapping that for a Hammond 125DSE will offer significant and rather dramatic improvement. It's been described as the biggest bang for the buck for these amps. There are threads over on PPwatt.com that describe eliminating the DSP, which will also dramatically improve the tone. An easy way to find 'em is look in the SEwatt FAQ's "In Depth Info" section where you'll find links to the major mod threads with schematics. http://www.sewatt.com/faq Gil...[/quote'] Wow. Thanks Gil. A bit over my head but my teacher is a bit of a whizz on these matters so I'll certainly have a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cGil Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Scuze me. Typo alert. Make that a 7.5K primary impedance. The "K" is a rather important detail on that side of the iron, since it's 7500 ohms, not seven and a half. Sorry 'bout that. Gil... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cochrane Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 I have a valve special. I've been playing less than a year and originally had a Fender amp. I then upgraded to a Vox AD30VT but it sounded too digital for me so I went for the Valve Special. It sounded pretty good as is when I got it, however I decided to replace the stock speaker with an Eminence Ragin' Cajin 10' and swap the tubes. It sounds excellent now. I get great tone using my boss ds-1 and my epi g400 custom through it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robo Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 I've had my Special for over a year now, and I play it all the time. I love it. I've got quite a few amps, but I play the Special now more than all the others put together. The only thing I've changed is the tubes, but I have thought about an Eminence Ragin' Cajin also though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cGil Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 Then to all you stock VSpcl guys out there; man, I gotta tell ya,... ya'll ain't heard nothing yet. Try the Hammond 125DSE (or 125ESE) from http://www.tubesandmore.com/ or the Heyboer replacement OT for the VJr from http://www.turretboards.com/ Or a Single Ended OT from http://www.musicalpowersupplies.com/ Plenty of other options, too, from Edcore at the cheep end to Mercury Magnetics on the high end. You will be shocked by what you've been missing in that "excellent" tone you think you "love" now! I'm serious. Everyone who have ever upgraded the v1 or v2 VJr/VSpcl OT has come back here totally raving about their new tone and how easy the upgrade mod was to accomplish. Gil... . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertjohn Posted July 21, 2008 Author Share Posted July 21, 2008 Thanks Guys. Sorry, I've been off this forum for a couple of days. I've recently taken up electric again having been playing exclusively acoustic for some years. 6 months ago I bought a Gibson ES 335 - a life long ambition. I also have Fender Strat Highway 1 HSS. I will probabaly being doing a couple of electric songs live at a gig soon. Do you think the VS will be loud enough for the backline in a small gig? 5W doesn't sound much but I've been told it would be roughly equivavlent to a 15W digital amp. I've not had it cranked up at all so can't really tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cGil Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Maybe, maybe not. Best to bring a mic for the cab so you can hook up to the PA in case that small venue turns out to be an arena. You sound man will love you for it. Gil... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertjohn Posted July 21, 2008 Author Share Posted July 21, 2008 Maybe' date=' maybe not. Best to bring a mic for the cab so you can hook up to the PA in case that small venue turns out to be an arena. You sound man will love you for it. Gil...[/quote'] Yes absolutely. I forgot to say it would be fed through a PA as well. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricach Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Feeling like a stuck record - err CD - everytime I say this but........ Bypass the DSP section on your Special for a huge, no-cost, boost to volume and improvement in tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cGil Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 The OT and speaker are arguably the final factors in your tone, but how the tone gets to 'em can just as easily make or break your tone in the end. From the fingers to the strings and wood to the pickups to the cables to the amp to the OT to the speakers and the cab. It all matters. Everything is everything. So the cheesy DSP and its nasty TL072 opamp driver chips and the 7.5k OT all gotta go! Most Definitely! Bypassing that DSP is the most dramatic improvement you can make for the lowest cost (scrounge a wire and it's free). It'll also give you something to do while you wait for the new transformer to arrive! Actually, the v1/v2 VJr/VSpcl OT isn't that bad for a 6V6, but it was a dismally poor choice for a single el84 cuz the bottom is muddy and the top end's being strangled. Like a blanket. This may be a good thing for some players because there's definitely nothing to hide behind with a v3 VJr's 5k OT. Just listen to stock v2 and v3 VJr's side by side sometime and you'll hear the dramatic difference. It's like night and day. No one's suggesting anyone blow stupid money on the Mercury Magnetics iron. It's good, sure, but not THAT good. But if you do both the DSP bypass and swap the OT for a worthy cheepie like the MTS, that amp can generate genuine boutique amp tone that'll stand up with big money amps and piss off its owners. The VSpcl has potential that just needs to be let out, and it doesn't take much to get it there. Which is a real good thing cuz that green board can't take any serious parts swapping like the v3 VJr. Gil... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zatoichi Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 *just* because I can't remember at the moment: does the OT swap require pulling the PCB? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricach Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Don't think so. Xformer mounted to the chassis, and the wires should plug into the top of the board. But the connector tabs are very flimsy (at least for the PT, don't know about the OT) and its best to solder the wire directly to the boards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cGil Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 No pulling the pcb. Just the two OT primary wires plugged into the pcb. Some folks just cut the stock wires and use crimp connecters to attach the new wires. I always use solder to connect my OT wires for the best possible signal transfer. Depending upon the OT, you may have to drill one hole, but even that is easy. Just bolt the OT in using the hole closest to the end of the chassis, and use the hole in the OT's other "foot" as a template for drilling the new hole. Nuttin' to it. Gil... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zatoichi Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 Hey, Gil! On the OT swap: I haven't been able to make heads or tails about the recommendations for hooking these things up electrically, here or at sewatt. Do you know of a site or PDF or whatever that says "put this lead here, put this lead here, etc" for the Special? Both outputs. I'm really not an idiot, but my peak skill is matching colors (where this sort of thing is involved). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cGil Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 It all boils down to what OT you're talking about. If it's the Heyboer from turretboards.com, the color code on the wiring is the same. The stock color code is on a label on the stock OT, so that's easy. A Hammond will have it's own color code, as will most others I suspect. In case you've got a Hammond OT. Here's the chart. http://www.hammondmfg.com/125SEsch.gif Just connect the White to the 16ohm jack Yellow to the 8ohm jack, and Green to the 4ohm jack. Black goes to the jack and chassis grounds. Blue goes to T4 (B+1 on turretboard), and Brown goes to T3 (pin 7 on turretboard) Gil... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zatoichi Posted November 26, 2008 Share Posted November 26, 2008 Thanks, Gil! The Special only has 2 speaker outs: one to the combo internal (8 ohms), and the extension out (MIN 8 ohms) - would that be yellow to the internal & white to the external? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cGil Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 If it's a Hammond OT, and you want the 8 & 16 ohm taps hooked up. Yes! But be advised, that stock speaker jack pcb is setup for those pcb-mount jacks connected in parallel to that one 8ohm tap, so you probably oughta pull that and just use standard individual solder-lug jacks. Drill a hole and add a 3rd jack for 4ohm tap. Or just tape that wire off. Also tape off the orange OT wire, since you won't be using that one either. Gil... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chefman Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 Gil, Do some of these same mods apply to the Valve Standard as well? I am picking one up used tomorrow. Remove the DSP, and replace the OT. Anything else that is good bang for the buck on a Standard? Thanks in advance. I've learned a lot just reading the threads. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cGil Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 The mods for the Valve Standard that concern bypassing the DSP are similar, but swapping the OT requires a different horse altogether. The VSpecial, like the VJr, is Single Ended. The Valve Standard is a Push-Pull amp, meaning, the OT's primary winding is center tapped. The center tap goes to the power supply, while the ends of the windings go to each one of the two power tubes. So, for the Valve Standard you would need a traditional 18watt OT. I recommend any of the Heyboer clone variants of the original Marshall 18watt's Radio Spares OT for that job. Where to find 'em? Pick one. http://gdsamps.com/?page_id=7 http://www.musicalpowersupplies.com/ http://store.bnamp.com/bn18watrset.html http://www.turretboards.com/transformers.htm http://www.trinityamps.com/ http://www.ceriatone.com/ and on, and on, and on! Gil... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zatoichi Posted November 29, 2008 Share Posted November 29, 2008 If it's a Hammond OT' date=' and you want the 8 & 16 ohm taps hooked up. Yes! But be advised, that stock speaker jack pcb is setup for those pcb-mount jacks connected in parallel to that one 8ohm tap, so you probably oughta pull that and just use standard individual solder-lug jacks. Drill a hole and add a 3rd jack for 4ohm tap. Or just tape that wire off. Also tape off the orange OT wire, since you won't be using that one either.[/quote'] Yes, a Hammond 125DSE (sorry - lost all my typing & was not thorough in re-creating) I see the PCB w/ the jacks mounted on it - I can trash that, & use 3 standard switchcraft-style jacks, & wire internal yellow, external (16) white & the 3rd as 4 ohm/green? If I can recycle the DSP footswitch hole, then I don't need to drill a third hole, do I? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zatoichi Posted December 3, 2008 Share Posted December 3, 2008 It all boils down to what OT you're talking about. If it's the Heyboer from turretboards.com' date=' the color code on the wiring is the same. The stock color code is on a label on the stock OT, so that's easy. A Hammond will have it's own color code, as will most others I suspect. In case you've got a Hammond OT. Here's the chart. http://www.hammondmfg.com/125SEsch.gif Just connect the White to the 16ohm jack Yellow to the 8ohm jack, and Green to the 4ohm jack. Black goes to the jack and chassis grounds. Blue goes to T4 (B+1 on turretboard), and Brown goes to T3 (pin 7 on turretboard)[/quote'] I notice the leads from the stock OT are NOT connected to T3 & T4: yellow connects to T8, and white to T9. T3 & T4 take the black & blue leads (respectively) off the power transformer. What's the key to getting the OT hooked up correctly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cGil Posted December 3, 2008 Share Posted December 3, 2008 Ooops. My bad. The T3 and T4 numbers relate to numbered quick connects on the Valve Junior board. The VSpcl schematic actually has a "T1" next to the OT, so I had to dig my VSpcl pcb out of a junk box to check that. It's probably marking the polarity of the OT, obviously not referring to a quick connect terminal. Okay, so transcribing the Hammond color codes for the Valve Special pcboard goes like this... The VSpcl's T8 llug connects with the el84's pin 7, so the Brown Hammond OT primary lead connects to T8. The VSpcl's T9 lug connects with R49/C28, so the Blue Hammond OT primary lead connects to T9. Sorry 'bout the confusion. Gil... edit: Here's a handy dandy picture from another current thread that shows the stock OT's white and yellow primary wire connections to those connectors. How conveeenient! http://pages.videotron.com/username/images/IMG_4153A.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zatoichi Posted December 3, 2008 Share Posted December 3, 2008 Thanks so much: that was EXACTLY what I needed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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