5150 - Recent Mods & Opinions ???

[Anonymous]

i put a 490 in there, and i dont like it...its still too loose sounding and feeling to me....i have some time today, i might mess around with values in the r9 spot some more. i usually try to put a new value in, take notes, play, take notes...sit on it for a day or two, then go back. if i dont love it off the bat, i revert to what i liked before it.
so far, in r9 i like a 68k-ohm resistor the best....i put it back to no resistor at all, and i dont like it.
i made a little jumper system for it so i dont have to keep soldering to the pc board too....

i have my silver mica caps now too, so i'm going to mess around with some more combinations tonight too. i'll keep you posted.

 

[Anonymous]

i put a 490 in there, and i dont like it...its still too loose sounding and feeling to me....i have some time today, i might mess around with values in the r9 spot some more. i usually try to put a new value in, take notes, play, take notes...sit on it for a day or two, then go back. if i dont love it off the bat, i revert to what i liked before it.
so far, in r9 i like a 68k-ohm resistor the best....i put it back to no resistor at all, and i dont like it.
i made a little jumper system for it so i dont have to keep soldering to the pc board too....

i have my silver mica caps now too, so i'm going to mess around with some more combinations tonight too. i'll keep you posted.

i think the silver mica sounds best at 7 & 8.. so you dont think having the resistor lower than 120k doesnt start choking the amp out???? what are your setting at when you have the 68k in there??? for some reason i didnt like it but i am going to try it again.. becasue i am wanting the amp to sound tighter.. im going to try the c15 jumper as well... ill let you know later on tonight what i think.. and thanks for help and info on what your doing

 

[Anonymous]

no problem dude. i'll snap a few quick pics for you so you can see some of what i'm stepping in.

i was going to try and just heat up c15, but didn't want to risk messing the board up, so i figured, theres not that much to pulling it.

i have to stress, again, DRAIN YOUR CAPACITORS!!!!!!!
even before you pull the board.
my experience, JSYK has been, with this amp, the few times i've checked all the caps...they've been pretty low...as in millivolts low...but they're all holding something. i dont know what that means or tells you, as i dont know if that's super dangerous...id' think it isn't but....i digress...

so, to drain your caps...unplug the amp...switch it to on/play...then off/play. then turn it on/play again...and let it sit for a bit....this SHOULD get you down below dangerous levels...DRAIN THEM as soon as you pull the board though.

also, when i put pics up, i'll put one up for you to show you a simple way to figure out where each "plug" goes inside the amp..and how i did it. i'll be back in a bit.

 

[Anonymous]

ok man. i took some pics of what i was talking about above...kinda self explanatory.

i put the silver mica mod at pins 7-8, and then clipped it...i didnt like it.
i'm going to try it on 6-7 at some point soon.

my r9 is currently 490k ohm....i left it from before, and when i started playing it, it felt and sounded pretty good, so i didn't go back to 68k ohm.

you can see the marks im talking about on the plugs that i made with a marker b4 i pulled the board:


here's the jumpers i made off the pin and ground for the r9 mod...i figure it's better than soldering to the board and putting repeated heat to it and risking ruining it.. once i figure out if im going to keep it at 498, i'll pull them and put the resistor right on direct:


here's the c15 mod. once you get the board up and loosen this cap a bit and raise it off the board, it's easy to jumper a wire under there when you put the board back in (from the top). put the wire in on the top though, for removal later without any fuckery to the component or board or having to pull the board again. also, a reminder to tin your jumper wire ends and use flux on them too...dont heat that cap up too much..mine stuck right to the legs after i tinned and fluxed the wire ends. also, right above c15 and to the left in the pic, you can also see the one leg of c26 resistor is lifted with the black shrink tube on it too:


heres a closer look at c26. i put the solder iron to the top leg for like 2 seconds and pulled gently..it lifted right out of the hole very easily. i also used a small alligator clip on the body side of this resistor to serve as a heat sink of sorts...


good luck, drain those CAPS! and be careful in there, dont drop any tools in it!

debating installing the bias mod. i really dig the feel of the amp the way it is, so i might just leave that as is.

 

[Anonymous]

oh, heres my settings..almost flat!
both buttons in on rhythm. my presence is where it juuuuust starts to fizz a bit..pretty useless knob until you get it around 7ish or so..then you start hearing it...if i knew which component or resistor controlled it, i'd replace that with a value that would allow the presence to be more useable at lower volumes....i really dont notice the presence much unless i have your masters each at 3 or above..then the presence starts kicking in earlier.

im also trying to figure out a way to make the silver mica mod switchable, and how to do it safely.

anyways....

 

[Anonymous]

hey man thanks for all that info and pics... i am getting inside mine 2morrw if you could pm me which will be easier on the both of us..