6 minutes with a Cameron CCV

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* velcro-fly * said:
I sold the Cameron in my avatar that Mark did for me to buy a JVM :ROFLMAO: I've done some dumb F'ing moves with music gear but that's right up there with the best of the worst, but I was also under immense pressure from J.B. who threw enough cash at me that I couldn't say no (he sold it too...)

Even worse though is our friend who was a very early adopter of modded Marshall's, who sent Mark an original 1987x, got it back quick, couldn't figure out the switches, missed the push / pull pots, and sold it for $800 without mentioning it to us......he later said he broke even w/ the amp + cost of mods at that time so he was happy.
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I know the feeling. When I turned 17 I traded an original 1964 Gibson John Lennon J160E for...a crate solid state, to a music store!
 
Samhain said:
Ive heard 5150 amps that would destroy that including my own Mesa's & Marshalls.
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If any of that was even remotely true people would not be paying what they are willing to pay for a Cameron amp. You may love your 5150's and Mesa's as I love my plexis and superleads but they do not in any way sound like a Cameron, Cameron amps have distinct qualities usually due to Mark's ability to fine tune every circuit he builds.

That is a great sounding Brad era CCV fatbagg thanks for posting the clip.
 
fatbagg said:
I know the feeling. When I turned 17 I traded an original 1964 Gibson John Lennon J160E for...a crate solid state, to a music store!
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Hahah you win....to be fair, at that time Mark was on speed dial with me (2007) and it was relatively easy to reach him and have him complete stuff...he was actually living in his workshop and I was overly confident that it would be easy to get him to mod another one, and JB was / is a good buddy that wanted it......rear view mirror stuff, oh well.

Nice clips BTW.
 
PDC said:
I have run across several of your videos - you play really, really well. Very cool phrasing and note selection. And you always wind a really nice tone out of whatever amp you are playing through.
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Much appreciated! I go through a ton of amps because I can never seem to find many that feel right for me. I can get many pretty close, but I have stupid ears, haha!
 
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Back when the Brad era ones were being built I owned one and a red Atomica. The Atomica did not have enough gain and I sold it. The CCV sounded great until something on the board fried. Dave Friedman fixed it (I had to ship it across the country to him). I remember him telling me that the boards were installed upside down to prevent reverse engineering the circuit. This made it tough to repair. I got to thinking about who would be able to repair it 10 years or so later, convinced myself that repairs would be next to impossible and sold it. Yup, I am sorry 😢 I did that.
Yours sounds great, enjoy!!
 
guitarmike said:
Back when the Brad era ones were being built I owned one and a red Atomica. The Atomica did not have enough gain and I sold it. The CCV sounded great until something on the board fried. Dave Friedman fixed it (I had to ship it across the country to him). I remember him telling me that the boards were installed upside down to prevent reverse engineering the circuit. This made it tough to repair. I got to thinking about who would be able to repair it 10 years or so later, convinced myself that repairs would be next to impossible and sold it. Yup, I am sorry 😢 I did that.
Yours sounds great, enjoy!!
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I mean...it’s a pretty level headed way to think of it. I have had that concern with some amps as well, and have heard these ae hard to work on!
 
guitarmike said:
Back when the Brad era ones were being built I owned one and a red Atomica. The Atomica did not have enough gain and I sold it. The CCV sounded great until something on the board fried. Dave Friedman fixed it (I had to ship it across the country to him). I remember him telling me that the boards were installed upside down to prevent reverse engineering the circuit. This made it tough to repair. I got to thinking about who would be able to repair it 10 years or so later, convinced myself that repairs would be next to impossible and sold it. Yup, I am sorry 😢 I did that.
Yours sounds great, enjoy!!
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I scored a MK IV last year. Outstanding amp but as a gear whore i traded it for a Les Paul. One of the factors that i traded it was i have some of the best Engineers in town at my disposal [personal friends]. Everybody turned me down for a cap job. Nobody would touch it with a ten foot pole.
My only other option was to send it to Bendinelli @ Mesa. Didn't want to go that route.
I also realized the longer i had the amp the more likely it would need work.
Also have many other amps.
 
Samhain said:



I scored a MK IV last year. Outstanding amp but as a gear whore i traded it for a Les Paul. One of the factors that i traded it was i have some of the best Engineers in town at my disposal [personal friends]. Everybody turned me down for a cap job. Nobody would touch it with a ten foot pole.
My only other option was to send it to Bendinelli @ Mesa. Didn't want to go that route.
I also realized the longer i had the amp the more likely it would need work.
Also have many other amps.
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These engineers must not be very good. It's not overly difficult to change the caps in that amp. Nick (dawnofadream) posts about it here: https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/threads/filter-cap-question.215259/#post-2353853

dawnofdreamx97 said:
Hey guys,

Just a heads up, you DO NOT need to remove the board to replace the 3 ) 8200uf 16v or 10,000uf 16v switching supply caps.

I warn you to proceed with caution ... but here is what you'll need to do.

The good news is you can rock the existing caps back and forth very gently and slowly while pulling straight up on them. Eventually the caps will break and leave the leads exposed for you to desolder. Once you get everything desoldered and cleaned up you can decide whether you want to either

A) make fly leads and mount the new switching supply caps on top of the 30uf 500v preamp caps secured with some silicone and zip ties

Or ... B) You can snip the new radial cap leads short and solder them in and then use silicone to secure them. You'll need to leave just enough space so you can get your iron in under the caps to solder to the pads BUT NOT to much otherwise the caps stick up out of the chassis.

I just fully retubed and recapped my 92 mkiv including all of the small electrolytics caps, bias supply caps, main power supply caps, preamp caps , and the dreaded radial switching supply caps mentioned here.

It isn't that bad honestly , but I wouldn't reccomend to someone as a first project... took me about an hour taking my time.

Hope that helps !

Nick
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psychodave said:
These engineers must not be very good. It's not overly difficult to change the caps in that amp. Nick (dawnofadream) posts about it here: https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/threads/filter-cap-question.215259/#post-2353853
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Hey @psychodave do you know how much (even a rough ball park range) it would cost to have the guys at Mesa re-cap a Studio Preamp? The date inside says 1990, and some dude in a FB group said I should probably get it re-capped along with my Mesa 50/50. Seems like something I should do I guess, never done that kind of stuff before.
 
harddriver said:
If any of that was even remotely true people would not be paying what they are willing to pay for a Cameron amp. You may love your 5150's and Mesa's as I love my plexis and superleads but they do not in any way sound like a Cameron, Cameron amps have distinct qualities usually due to Mark's ability to fine tune every circuit he builds.

That is a great sounding Brad era CCV fatbagg thanks for posting the clip.
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100%.

CCV's have their own unique sound. And it's lovely; esp for lead stuff.

I get a lot of that with my Larry, especially in Facebook groups. Everyone's 5150/Rectifier "can tOtAlLy KiLl my Larry" or "yOu wAsTeD yOuR mOneY".....until they hear it.

Then they tend to pipe down.
 
psychodave said:
These engineers must not be very good. It's not overly difficult to change the caps in that amp. Nick (dawnofadream) posts about it here: https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/threads/filter-cap-question.215259/#post-2353853
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It's not that big of deal , all of the caps are axial with solder pads on the top of the board... except the 3 low voltage switching supply caps which are radials. To get those 3 caps out takes a little skill and finess...you can gently rock them back and forth while pulling straight up at the same time and pull the "barbs" out of the caps essentially breaking them. You can then desolder those and clean everything up and make fly leads and stack those 3 switching caps on top of the 3) 30uf preamp caps , securing them with zip ties and silicone or you can put the axial caps back in but have them stick up about a quarter inch so you can get your iron in there and silicone them just to be sure.

No need to take the fricken thing apart, I wouldn't wish that upon anyone lol
 
Ive had certified Boogie techs with full schematics that couldnt fix certain Boogies! Granted, I live in a smaller area and a Mark IV is beyond most here.
 
errrrrl said:
Hey @psychodave do you know how much (even a rough ball park range) it would cost to have the guys at Mesa re-cap a Studio Preamp? The date inside says 1990, and some dude in a FB group said I should probably get it re-capped along with my Mesa 50/50. Seems like something I should do I guess, never done that kind of stuff before.
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I’m not sure these days since it’s a preamp and doesn’t have the same amount of work. I’d have to guess it’s $150.
 
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