The ultimate bedroom practice head for metal?

psychodave":3444rb96 said:
paulyc":3444rb96 said:
And the friend is MC, don’t leave that out...
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Indeed. He never modded one so he gave me ideas and I had to test out lots of things.

If you look closely, I even changed out the output transformer. It made is sound smoother/better. I’m also running NOS Russian 6P14P EL84’s (I like the non-military version the most). I bought a shit load of them from someone in Europe.
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I’m not knocking you/it just to be clear, but he has pretty damn good ideas, the friend isn’t some schmo off the street amp guy lol
 
psychodave":2h37lslf said:
riffermadness":2h37lslf said:
psychodave":2h37lslf said:
I had such a hard time with this topic. I love my 100 watt amps, but playing st super low volumes all the time was kinda a waste IMO. So I got a JCA20 and modded it into a ripping Jose type amp. It sounds amazing at all volumes.

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I modded a Custom 22 and it didn't sound as good as this did..can you tell where or how to get the Jose mod for the JCA20 ?
The Custom 22's board was tricky doing mods to without pulling out tracers and the pads,I barely put heat on a couple of them and the traces pulled up,had to do some serious repairs but I fixed it,and then sold the 22..and it really sounded good with preamp tube swapping.
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I did the mod myself with a friend feeding me ideas. It really wasn’t simple. I have mods in both the preamp and power amp section of the amp. Lots of little tweaks to get that tight yet massive bottom end out of el84’s and zero fizz. I am using 5 volt zeners in this clip.
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Sounds good to me..I might just buy another one and send it to BFG and let him do his magic.
I just made my last payment on my EVH head and cab so I will have a few extra bucks to spend and might be the best route for me to go.
 
Dave, would you mind just hitting the highlights on the mods ? What do the 2 toggle switches do ? Whose transformer did you use ? What model ? Any other specs you can share ?
 
Speeddemon":1shso7vg said:
How would you compare your Randall Thrasher to the Ironball?

Ironball is tight enough, but still juicy. More akin Powerball II than Powerball I. I get the impression from some reports that the Thrasher may be too tight and lacking lows.
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The Thrasher is 120 watts so it sounds bigger than the Ironball 20 watts. The gain structure is a little dryer on the Randall but I find that any decent pedal boost will juice it right up. It's a very tweakable defined amp and you can zero in on an awesome tight and very clear tone. As far as the bottom end goes it's not a boomy amp but super focused and defined. To me that's win, but for others who want scooped and boomy tone might not dig it. I am all about defined focused mids and tight bass so the Randall is fantastic to me. The Ironball is an ENGL so it has the typical powerball/fireball sound in a nice small scaleable package. It's super fun at room volume and can even hang with band mixes and bigger amps. They really don't compare as they each are unique in what they do. I am happy to have both.
 
paulyc":2yxdqelj said:
Dave, would you mind just hitting the highlights on the mods ? What do the 2 toggle switches do ? Whose transformer did you use ? What model ? Any other specs you can share ?
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Its basically a Cameron Jose.
V1a and b are 1.0uf/2.7, v1a and b 0.022uf bypass caps, 220k v1a plate resistor, 560/560/39k tone stack, .1uf pi coupling caps, 1meg depth pot with .0033uf cap. .0022/.0047 brite caps on the gain pot. eliminated R13 and R53. 3 way switch with 5volt and mpsa06 transistors (center off) saturation switch. From there I just tinkered.

Classic Tone output transformer # 40-17688
 
Thanks dave!
10n output PI cap?!
Would you check the ot reference plezse? Probably a typo, that ref you gave doesn t exist ;)
 
nico22":3faab21c said:
Thanks dave!
10n output PI cap?!
Would you check the ot reference plezse? Probably a typo, that ref you gave doesn t exist ;)
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Yep. Typo. .1uf. I edited the above post.

OT is correct.
 
nico22":24m0mxi2 said:
:LOL: :LOL: those little phones with ours big fingers :no:
Also maybe a typo the 22n coupling caps? Maybe more 2,2n...?
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.0022uf is correct. Need it a bit brighter in the Preamp to keep it tight later on in the circuit.
 
yes that's why i asked, 22n both coupling looked too much, compared with the sound of your clip.
You put 220k first R plate because 330k was too fizzy maybe?
 
nico22":n54q95bu said:
yes that's why i asked, 22n both coupling looked too much, compared with the sound of your clip.
You put 220k first R plate because 330k was too fizzy maybe?
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Kind of...just wasn’t clear enough. I even tried 3.3k cathode resistors with it and it still wasn’t right.
 
I shouldn't post sometimes. :doh:

Anyways lots of great low wattage options out there now but the modeling stuff is really great for this type of situation.
 
napalmdeath":dckb0a2z said:
In all seriousness, I found the Peavey Triple XXX excellent for low volumes, and even the EVH 50 watt. It's excellent at bedroom levels. I found that to be one of it's best features.
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This a million times over. Both do low volume really well.

That said, you should also look into the MT-15 if you want a small footprint.
 
if you have a tube amp already just spend $400 or less and get a Rivera Rockcrusher used. I can play my BE100, Helios, EVH Stealth and JCM800 at whisper volumes and the tone sounds huge. I play this way 90% of the time at home through 2 - 412 cabinets and it sounds amazing. Maybe add a little boost in front to compensate the juice from the sheer volume loss and it sounds glorious. For all of the lunchbox type amps you are going to spend more and still have a louder than wanted tone for a bedroom. Seriously the Rockcrusher on Studio mode is the way to go if you already have a tube amp.
 
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