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Beware the HELL JUNIOR!!


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A friend of mine has a print shop and has made some high quality vinyl stickers I have used for mic flags and have stood up to 2 years of abuse. I think the amp face will look great with the new red/black scheme. Now I'm thinking I need these skulls for my Tele.

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"Billy are they going to let you stay down there in Nashville with such a demonic rocker?"

Why do you think I had to leave Texas for LA?! The Hell Junior is catching on. Some local pickers are anxious to check it out.

I just got the speaker red cloth on and the skulls came in.

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SHE IS DONE AND SHE RAWKS!!

The Valve Junior now the HELL Junior is done. I'm going to see about prying the Epiphone badge off. I have a chrome badge with my last name on it from my Dad's truck dealership but that doesn't really work with the Hell motif. I'm also thinking that some ratrod/hotrod type pinstriping on the black tolex would be over the top and killer.

 

The Bitmo Trio mods really turned this amp into what I was needing and the attenuator/10-uator is very practical for the house and the ears. As am amp I'm way more than happy with it. I changed out the tubes and added a JJ and Tung Sol. I did install the 10-uator into the back grill of the amp. The box was just a pain and this was a better way to do it. All you need are some snips and time. Don't go too big too fast. I also ran the attenuator speaker cable through the back of the amp so it was always there and not in the way. I think it looks cool and I won't have to worry about not having it or knocking it off the side of the amp. My amps usually travel with me at least once a month. I might beat the hell out of this one in the next year (pardon the pun) but it looks good now!

 

For the amp face I printed it at home instead of using my buddies high dollar machine. I did it because I knew lining everything up was going to take a few tries. I also wanted to use something that anyone out there could use. It is photo paper for an ink jet that has a sticky backing. I wiped down the face of the amp with windex so I could pull it off if I had to move it around. You may notice the red and black stripe ends, that is because of the available paper size. I think it looks fine that way. The knobs are also sitting low. I guess it is the inherent nature of trying to make a skull a knob. It doesn't bother me that much and I could always get some different knobs.

 

This was my first time to mod an amp and I'm extremely happy with the sound and visual results. Thanks for all the help with this thing!!

 

helljrbig.jpg

 

helljrtop.jpg

 

helljrfront.jpg

 

helljrskulls.jpg

 

helljrfaceonoff.jpg

 

helljrback.jpg

 

helljr10u.jpg

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Oh man, I have some major hum going now. The more I have tried the find it the louder it's getting. The amp is quiet when the guitar is not plugged in but as soon as I plug in it is way more that a hum. I can live with a little hum. Just when I thought I was done.

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i've got house hum bad.. i've taken my guitar and amp to work and are quite as a mouse, take it home and since the guitar doesn't know the words; it hums along.

I can find a sort of dead spot by moving around the room and facing a certain way, while stepping on the cat... and that's with humbuckers...

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Oh man' date=' I have some major hum going now. The more I have tried the find it the louder it's getting. The amp is quiet when the guitar is not plugged in but as soon as I plug in it is way more that a hum. I can live with a little hum. Just when I thought I was done. [/quote']

 

Most likely a bad solder joint.......but weed out the simple sh*t first. Are you familiar with the chop stick method of trouble shooting? You basically tap around with a chop stick since it doesn't conduct and when the noise increases or decreases...you know your in the right area. Check all of your ground connections too...it could be that simple.

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The funny thing is I had everything working perfectly. When I pulled the knobs back to install the new face/sticker is when the trouble started. I have looked at each joint, reflowed about half and moved some wires around.

When the amp is on and doesn't have a guitar cable in it it sounds fine. When I plug in a cable it sounds like a loud hum, overly loud. So we know it didn't do it before and the amp doesn't hum unless the chord is plugged in with our without a guitar. I think my next step is to start disconnecting wires from the mods to see if that will tell me what's up.

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The funny thing is I had everything working perfectly. When I pulled the knobs back to install the new face/sticker is when the trouble started. I have looked at each joint' date=' reflowed about half and moved some wires around.

When the amp is on and doesn't have a guitar cable in it it sounds fine. When I plug in a cable it sounds like a loud hum, overly loud. So we know it didn't do it before and the amp doesn't hum unless the chord is plugged in with our without a guitar. I think my next step is to start disconnecting wires from the mods to see if that will tell me what's up. [/quote']

 

Yup good idea Billy...back the mods out one at a time till you find it......it's usually something stupid that bites ya....or at least it is with me!

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Think about it this way.. what are you really doing when you are plugging in the cable?

The input jack is opening up (I believe they normally short to ground when no cable is inserted) and you're attaching a big antenna.

 

Maybe look around the R1/R2 input side of things cause that’s near the input.

Does your Bitmo voice control get inserted around R6/r7 area or the R1/R2 section?

Also be careful when pulling the knobs on and off, you can damage the wipers of the pots.

 

On a side note, I know everyone has stated that you should scrub the chassis were your pot’s and switches connect in (and I see you’ve done that by the pictures); but I found the reverse in my one amp.

I had to use nail polish around all the holes and the area I scrapped off otherwise I had a big hum.

So I had to isolate them instead.

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Uh oh,

So I systematically detached each wire from the mods until all the wires were off - no mods attached. The amp was quiet until I plugged in my git and then the big hum was back. I have my MusicMan right there so I plugged the same cable and tele to that amp with no hum. So it's not the guitar and now I know it's not the mods. That would lead me to think it is the cable input jack but that never moved in any of this process. Could I have fried something on the board by getting it too hot during soldering? I did play the guitar and the amp sounds good sans the mods but it has the hum.

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NEW UPDATE - I plugged into multiple sockets in my shop - still hum. After all of the above thought, "take that thing outside and plug it in!". I did so and guess what...yep, no hum. All of this is a process so it is keeping my brain engaged. Who knows why I started getting a hum from a socket I didn't before but there you go. Now to systematically start soldering the mods back on.

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Ahh took me a few seconds to realize that your Musicman is another amp (that looks like a Fxxder black face).

 

Maybe the input jack broke, maybe not. try the chopsitck test stated by Lay by moving the wires around inside the amp (make sure you wipe the rice and noodles off the sticks first).

 

Alternate you can try my finger nail polish trick, coated the holes and area that you've touched (leave the stock stuff alone first).

Out of desparation I did and it worked. If the hum doesn't go away then you can remove it with nail polish remover. (if you feel too manly to pick these up, get one of the groupies to do it for you:d/ )

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"Now to systematically start soldering the mods back on. " Welcome to the Insanity!!! hahahaha

 

Yup you got that right! This is kinda funny and related......about a year ago I built up a super slick 50 watt marshall clone half stack....a real beauty spared no expense. I get it all put together and start playing LOUD of course...and something is buzzing like a blown speaker .... OH SH#T! So I tear the whole thing appart ....test the speakers and they are fine.....so I line the cab with acoustic foam put in an extra brace and put it all back together and crank it up.....still there.....WTF? So I plug into another amp and find out the buzz was a sypathetic vibration on another cab in the 10 x 12 bedroom. Moral of the story.....marshall stacks don't belong in bedrooms!:D/ :- #-o

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