Blues Custom Front Panel..

[Dannyboyee82]

Before people get sick of the amount of topics on the BC 30 I thought I'd ask this question.. Somebody may have already asked so feel free to re-direct.

 

Does anyone else think that the diagonal strip of wood going across the front panel in front of the right speaker is a) a stupid design and will cause issues with projecting the sound?

 

I find that the BC 30 only sounds good when you stand in certain positions in front of it.. move a little to the left or right and the sound dulls quite dramatically. I wonder if this has anything to do with that strip of wood going across the right speaker? Or just that the speakers are themselves of poor quality?

[Andyroid]

Treble beaming forward is a common problem with guitar speakers, the Lady Lucks are not too bad for it though. The diagonal strip of wood should actually improve the situation slightly by breaking up the high frequency beam. For a better solution have a look at Weber Beam Blockers. Or for an even better alternative do try higher quality speakers. I've just put a pair of Red Fangs in my BC30 and the tone is way more refined, especially off axis, rather than getting muddy it gets warm and brown, but still properly usable. I can't explain, you'll have to hear it in person to understand. Where ever you stand, the tone just sounds different, never damaged.

[Dannyboyee82]

I've been looking at Weber Blue Dogs.. has anybody had any experience with these speakers? £180 for a pair. I wish there was a way of trying out different speakers before buying. I can do that at the rehearsal studio, but only using different cabs - not the same as putting different speakers in the BC 30.

 

By the way, I've got some Svetlana Winged C's on the way, along with a Sovtek GZ34 and some JJ ECC83's. About to re-solder C5 and C6 this week as well. I just can't believe that people don't find this amp really dark with the cap mod, with single coils it isn't bad but with humbuckers.. jeeesus, it sounds awful.

 

It's a matter of taste I suppose.

[Andyroid]

The amp is sort of set up to be very dark, unless you use the drive channel. The best ballance I've managed so far was by replacing C1 (4.7uf) with 0.022uf, this brightens up the tone right from the first gain stage. All bright caps on the drive channel are as stock (for now) except around the extra MID control, I've added a 250pf silver mica in parallel with C13 and removed C14 to disable the MID control (which for me has always been redundant). So now the clean channel is brighter and the drive channel hasn't changed much, so they're pretty damn close to each other now!

 

BTW Nice choice of valves, the JJ Ecc83s sound very nice to me and I've heard good things about Winged C. My Sovtek GZ34 has died, but I think thats because I always used the standby switch, those filter caps are quite big, so the GZ34 got slammed every time. Best to just leave it in play mode PERMENANTLY. Let the voltage grow slowly as the heaters warm up. Saves blowing fuses too.

[jefrs]

Before people get sick of the amount of topics on the BC 30 I thought I'd ask this question.. Somebody may have already asked so feel free to re-direct.

 

Does anyone else think that the diagonal strip of wood going across the front panel in front of the right speaker is a) a stupid design and will cause issues with projecting the sound?

 

I find that the BC 30 only sounds good when you stand in certain positions in front of it.. move a little to the left or right and the sound dulls quite dramatically. I wonder if this has anything to do with that strip of wood going across the right speaker? Or just that the speakers are themselves of poor quality?

 

The diagonal strip is artistic and adds a certain je ne sais quois. I like it. But yes, it affect the sound.

 

We have found the BC30 to be very directional. In a band situation is blasts its sound around the player's legs. It is very loud amp, flapping trousers job. This deafens the drummer, and he's a muscular bloke, so turn it down.

 

Solution: tilt the amp back. I used Long Fender amp legs, excellent.

 

Now the sound is projected at the player's head and we have to remember to turn it up.

 

In a band performance situation the projection of the BC30 is actually very good, it can fill an entire hall, it is so good that it can entirely drown out the rest of the band. Go and stand outside the hall whilst someone-else is playing it, it is the only thing you can hear: they have got it too loud because they cannot hear it around their trouser legs.

[jefrs]

I've been looking at Weber Blue Dogs.. has anybody had any experience with these speakers? £180 for a pair. I wish there was a way of trying out different speakers before buying. I can do that at the rehearsal studio' date=' but only using different cabs - not the same as putting different speakers in the BC 30.

 

By the way, I've got some Svetlana Winged C's on the way, along with a Sovtek GZ34 and some JJ ECC83's. About to re-solder C5 and C6 this week as well. I just can't believe that people don't find this amp really dark with the cap mod, with single coils it isn't bad but with humbuckers.. jeeesus, it sounds awful.

 

It's a matter of taste I suppose. [/quote']

 

We found the BC30 ever-so very harsh!

 

The natural choice for replacements were big woofy Celestion Classic G12M-25 Greenbacks. That worked.

 

+42! = Svetlana =C= 6L6GC (very big and open) and Sovtek 5AR4 (wow! you wouldn't think a rectifier could affect the sound so much)

 

and Mullard-clone ECC83 (except reverb which don't care)

 

see other thread re mods, there's another cap and resistor after the first valve stage, that strangles the sound, not the 'bright cap' mod, and a very easy fix to do. Unfortunately I did not update my diagram but I think it was the R6/C5, R5/C3 pairs, the solution, not to replace the cap but to shunt the resistor to half its value with another 1M in parallel. I need to pull the chassis to check.

[Parabar]

Interesting what a variety of perceptions there is. My BC30 sounds bright (similar to Fender amps I've played in the past) --- and I play it most often with jazzboxes (Joe Pass, Broadway, Gretsch 5120) or semi-hollows. I can get a darker sound when I want it by adjusting the tone controls (and/or the guitar's tone knobs).

 

The tonal variety possible with the BC30 is one of the reasons I bought it. Between the normal and interactive modes and the clean and drive settings, there is a huge range of tones possible, from icepicky clean to fat and warm to snarly and gritty.