1973 Cameron Carlsbro Repairs

[NS10Fan]

After debating selling/trading over some initial disappointment with the EQ section on this guy, I finally decided to do a little investment and make this guy work for me. I brought it in to Todd Sharp & crew at Nashville Amp Service to see about getting a more usable EQ put in. They finally had a look at it today, and gave me the news that somebody had tried to do their own repairs on this thing, and in the process completely f'd the EQ section. lol...they said it was practically disengaged. I suppose it's a risk you run when you get a hold of an amp that has changed as many hands as this one has. So, the long/short of it is that they re-engaged the eq section, and left the rest of the mod intact (which was my intention, cause the base tone was so money...just not that flexible).

In addition, I'm also going to be getting the filter caps replaced, as the current/original ones were starting to get bubbly, and the amp is getting up there in years.

I'll keep you all posted on the progress, but I'm really interested to hear how this thing was supposed to sound when I first got it!

 

[halebox]

Wow your doing it. I remember one of the knobs having no effect when turned. Still sounded killer and I would not consider this a mod just a standard fix. I believe I still have the schematic that the seller gave me when I bought it.

 

[goldwing68nv]

Mark may have disconnected the controls as part of his mod. I am not sure you can consider it a "Cameron" modded amp after the "repair" since he is not the last person to have made changes. Just my .02

true...i would not consider it a "cameron" modded amp,once someone else has tweaked/altered the circuitry....just my 2 cents too.

 

[dawnofdreamx97]

the lifted tone stack is probably part of the mod

 

[goldwing68nv]

fwiw...i have a modded amp(from another mod guy) that has poor e.q. response,which is due,in part,to the mod(and also a characteristic of this particular older amp circuit).

 

[Marshall Law]

fwiw...i have a modded amp(from another mod guy) that has poor e.q. response,which is due,in part,to the mod(and also a characteristic of this particular older amp circuit).

must be a bray

 

[RACKSYSTEMS]

Doubt Mark bypassed the eq. Someone else was playing around or Mark made a mistake and did not catch it.

 

[goldwing68nv]

fwiw...i have a modded amp(from another mod guy) that has poor e.q. response,which is due,in part,to the mod(and also a characteristic of this particular older amp circuit).

must be a bray

hey Troy! yeah,my old Bray amp was like that too...but the amp mod that i'm referring to is from "rockstah"(on metro boards forum).it's a great mod,dont get me wrong and i'm def keeping the amp,but it's like the mod has a certain tone "dialed in" and the bass,mids,& treble knobs make very little effect when rotating them.oh well,either way i like the mod,but i figured i'd mention this to lend some support to what psychodave & dawnofdreamx97 have mentioned.

 

[NS10Fan]

I know it's blasphemy! I had to psych myself up to do it, but I think it'll be worth it (at least to me). I saw pics of the original mod from way back, and it at one point had a white little wire running between the empty preamp sockets. I know, at the very least, that's been cut out, and (hopefully) replaced, but as the following quote demonstrates for certain, this isn't the first time the amp's interior has been played with.

This is a PM I received the week before I actually acquired the amp:

TheGainDeli wrote:
I think I still have the heat sink/shield that goes to that amp. I forgot reinstall it after I rewired the pots... Oops!

So, in that sense, it's not been a "cameron" for a little while.

 

[glip22]

If it makes the amp better, Who cares. My Wizard is modded and redone in many ways. Bottom line was the amp had all kinds of issues. The grounding has been completely changed, allot of lead dress shortened, shielded and redone properly(as much as could be done),a coupling cap added between the last screen filter and ground. Bottom line the amp is 10x better and super quiet now. So is it still a Wizard?
Now if I could just find the last Gremlin in the fucker A little bit of ac ripple getting to the output casing some slight oscillation in the high notes (not filtering) but the amp kicks ass.
Mine is an earlier model and from what I am told allot of this has been corrected.

 

[rafterman1969]

The white wire you were referring to was causing hum in the preamp. It was re-routed - not removed. At least that's the way it use to be... The eq section was never messed with that I know of - and I wouldn't change anything on that amp. If you mod it, it's no longer a 100% "Cameron" modded amp. The bass was a bit boomy, but you could cut that with a "Timmy" pedal, or another transparent line driver pedal. It's nice to have that extra bass "on-tap" if you ever want it?

If you really like it better, than that's cool... I wish I never would have sold that amp. Those Partridge transformers alone are worth some serious coin! Last I saw, someone "kyped" the brown-base TESLA EL34's out of it. Probably pulled them out to sell on ebay?

 

[NS10Fan]

Rework done! Not a straight-up Cameron anymore, a few knob characteristics have changed, but to me I'm now enjoying the amp. Still have the old caps, and a hairy-looking bundle of resistors soldered together that was removed if I ever want to put it back the way it was. Sorry guys!

I'll have clips up later tonight, but it's just what I was looking for...the same base sound with an EQ that really changes the tone. Oh, and bench tests put it at 110 watts.

 

[tubebury51]

It's cool to see this old gal floating around, still kicking ass and pleasing her new owners! I had that sucker modded by Mark originally, had it for a long while, sold it, bought it back, then sold it again! The old Tesla EL34s were awesome and it's too bad they iz gone.... As far as the EQ goes, when Mark did the mods, they were not all that active or variable except for the treble. I dug that mid range grind it had, but was buying and selling-off amps like a douche bag at the time.... once again: shoulda kept it.

I would love to hear some clips of that sucker! I bought a new Carlsbro 50 TOP early last yea,r but it sounded nuthin' like that 100 TOP either b4 or after Mark's mods.... The 50 TOP was raspy and shrill, so it went bye-bye via Flea-Bay or Fag's List, I don't recall...

 

[NS10Fan]

Here are a couple clips. I'm honestly not too thrilled with how they came out (the vid sounds more "real" than the mp3, I suppose). I find myself running the same riffs when the pressure's on. The MP3 in particular is pretty icepicky...most likely due to the crap mic I picked, crap preamp I used, crap interface on my laptop, and on-the-fly one-take settings.

With the way the amp sits now, the EQ almost works like my prosonic. Where the EQ actually affects the volume...so with the eq rolled all off, the volume drops pretty heavy. I'm used to that sorta style, so I'm happy. The presence knob still does its thing, but it's not nearly as pronounced...I'm almost running it to where it just kicks in, cause it can get really grindy (prolly had it a bit too high on the clips).

The other thing that changed a bit is that the MV really works in conjunction with the preamp instead of independently. So, to get a clean sound, you can still kick the MV about 50% and roll the preamp down, but the volume isn't as insanely touchy as it used to be. Using that method, the volume really stops ramping up around 50%. With the preamp dimed, then you're "allowed" to start getting into 110 watt territory...which is scary. So, again, rolling down to clean, I get around the same volume as my Fenders, which is plenty to play with, and then you can add pedals in as well!

I'm noticing the amp is a lot more "in your face" and responsive...prolly the filter caps.

Oh yea, the clips:

 

[halebox]

Nothing wrong with that sound I like it a lot sounds really good I think it sounds cooler than before more vintage and distinct. It may even suit your playing more. Bottom line its still a rare ass carlsbro 100 work horse. You can always get a jose master on it and it will sound closer to what it use to be but I would rock it as is for a while.

 

[rafterman1969]

Sounds good to me! Sounds more like a true vintage Plexi than most of the Marshall reissues.

I think I still have the heat-sink partition for that amp? I'll look for it... You don't really need it in there, as that amp doesn't run too hot anyway. It was annoying, as you had couldn't get to the tubes without going around the partition.

 

[jerrydyer]

did Mark do that mid mod too?

 

[rafterman1969]

The EQ did work. Someone did goof with it. I liked that amp allot. It has a post pi master.....with this type of master the EQ is less effective (this is why I don't like this master) but should still work. Its for the most part stock amp but with a Marshall type tone stack and the post pi master and pres and no feedback.

It's probably the one amp I regret selling. I can't believe anyone would change the circuit... To each his own I guess? I still get emails from people requesting pictures of the mods... Not going to happen! Even if they had them, it would take Mark's ear to properly tune it.