Clean to Mean Rack Tones 12/27/25

[Code001]

Speaking of your rig, @mentoneman , do you have a solution to jacked encoders on the DL8000R besides swapping the warp encoder over? Not sure if you can easily clean them; I thought they were fully sealed, but I haven't taken a good look inside. If you email Korg, they say they're long discontinued, and I can't seem to find a part that exists to replace it with on Mouser or Digikey. Vaguely recall you had work on yours done a couple years back?

 

[mentoneman]

Speaking of your rig, @mentoneman , do you have a solution to jacked encoders on the DL8000R besides swapping the warp encoder over? Not sure if you can easily clean them; I thought they were fully sealed, but I haven't taken a good look inside. If you email Korg, they say they're long discontinued, and I can't seem to find a part that exists to replace it with on Mouser or Digikey. Vaguely recall you had work on yours done a couple years back?

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetai...nUbLm6cJNloXuYKBw==&countrycode=US¤cycode=USD

the shaft diameter is a little different than the original but my repair tech got it to fit no problem.

i cannot tell you how much nicer life is with perfectly functioning encoders on that box!

he had to throw in the towel on my H3000 through so looks like i have to send that one to Beamish or Foley and pray it comes back to life and not a fortune!!!

 

[Code001]

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Bourns/PEC11L-4220K-S0015?qs=Zq5ylnUbLm6cJNloXuYKBw==&countrycode=US¤cycode=USD

the shaft diameter is a little different than the original but my repair tech got it to fit no problem.

i cannot tell you how much nicer life is with perfectly functioning encoders on that box!

he had to throw in the towel on my H3000 through so looks like i have to send that one to Beamish or Foley and pray it comes back to life and not a fortune!!!

Thank you!!

Also, please don't send it to Beamish. He's really bad lately. Check out the latest reports on them. Foley is great, but they're $$$. If you do decide to do it, definitely get the transformer mod done. That will solve a good 90% of the issues. Maybe also get a new screen soldered in, and make sure you get the H3500 upgrade for all the presets if you haven't already.

 

[mentoneman]

Thank you!!

Also, please don't send it to Beamish. He's really bad lately. Check out the latest reports on them. Foley is great, but they're $$$. If you do decide to do it, definitely get the transformer mod done. That will solve a good 90% of the issues. Maybe also get a new screen soldered in, and make sure you get the H3500 upgrade for all the presets if you haven't already.

thank you for that wisdom!
if they can bring it back to life i definite want the power supply mod, display screen and 3500 rom upgrade done.

 

[mentoneman]

speaking of DL8000 how nice would this have been to have around when first digging into the edit menu?

 

[mentoneman]

inside the DL - Value and Warp encoders exposed to show how they connect to the small dedicated PCB with attached wire terminal

after thinking a bit, it might be that the replacement encoder shafts are a little longer not wider…increasing the shear risk.

 

[harddriver]

ok VH fans i’ve never seen this before-
iso’s of Ed’s fabled celestion + ?? speaker cab mics from the VH1 session!!??

@harddriver as the resident RT VH guy is this old news??

I listened to some of it and it does sound like a new isolated clip of the track different from what I have hear. Seem like less effects on the guitar amp tones and the amp sounds less raspy and aggressive than what we hear on the final mix for sure.

I listened to his entire clip and it seemed he found two speaker tracks, one on axis (brighter) and one off axis (darker) but he didn't broach the JBL thing.

It was cool to listen to Mentoneman, thanks for posting that.............you know I love the obscure deep dive VH stuff..........

 

[Code001]

inside the DL - Value and Warp encoders exposed to show how they connect to the small dedicated PCB with attached wire terminal

This was a huge help, thank you! Didn't realize they had dedicated boards per pot. This makes replacement so much easier than I expected!

 

[mentoneman]

I listened to some of it and it does sound like a new isolated clip of the track different from what I have hear. Seem like less effects on the guitar amp tones and the amp sounds less raspy and aggressive than what we hear on the final mix for sure.

I listened to his entire clip and it seemed he found two speaker tracks, one on axis (brighter) and one off axis (darker) but he didn't broach the JBL thing.

It was cool to listen to Mentoneman, thanks for posting that.............you know I love the obscure deep dive VH stuff..........

ok good i’m not nuts

yeah sounds like raw individual gtr mic tracks he’s pulling up with some echoplex delay printed during performance and prior to Donn & Ted mixing in the legendary Sunset Sound reverb.

the magic room at 7:25



yikes!

 

[mentoneman]

This was a huge help, thank you! Didn't realize they had dedicated boards per pot. This makes replacement so much easier than I expected!

glad to be of service!

i think Italo was the one who initially identified that part #. his clips for that box on his website sounds really nice.

 

[mentoneman]

one more Bruce Egnater story

i sold my TOL 100 to a friend who was into heavy stuff and playing in crazy environments.

6 months in he says the amp wasn’t working so i took it back and traded him a Vox valveverb combo i had and he loved.

sent it to Bruce who had it for many months because he was in the middle of the modular stuff and the GC thing, and planned to bring it at the NAMM show.
when the anp wasn’t done in time, he gave me and my son VIP tickets to the first Extreme reunion show in 10 yrs because he had built Nuno his Randall signature amp and was just being cool to me for having my amp so long.

Our long ago forum brother Ralph is seen shredding on the Nuno amp at 6:55 on this NAMM 09 highlight vid i shot



i thought the amp looked retro cool with the VU meter but it never took off.

 

[GuitarVacation]

one more Bruce Egnater story

i sold my TOL 100 to a friend who was into heavy stuff and playing in crazy environments.

6 months in he says the amp wasn’t working so i took it back and traded him a Vox valveverb combo i had and he loved.

sent it to Bruce who had it for many months because he was in the middle of the modular stuff and the GC thing, and planned to bring it at the NAMM show.
when the anp wasn’t done in time, he gave me and my son VIP tickets to the first Extreme reunion show in 10 yrs because he had built Nuno his Randall signature amp and was just being cool to me for having my amp so long.

Our long ago forum brother Ralph is seen shredding on the Nuno amp at 6:55 on this NAMM 09 highlight vid i shot



i thought the amp looked retro cool with the VU meter but it never took off.

Man, what a stand up move. That's very consistent with things I've heard pertaining to Bruce. Dude always had his hands in so much that there could be long turnaround on stuff. But you never had to worry about him not coming through.

Then, another perfect example. No idea he designed a Randall amp for Nuno. When I think about all the stuff I know he was involved in designing etc., there's plenty more I have no idea about.

Especially some of the cheaper brands that I'm sure I snubbed my nose at back in the day. Now they're known as great bang for the buck sleepers designed by Bruce.

 

[mentoneman]

handy resource page for the tc G Force owners out there

https://www.christianjacobsson.se/g-force/

 

[Anje]

Great thread again!

TSC, PCM70, and PCM42 are kinda the only things I'm passively seeking out. But even seeing some of these units at decent prices, I really wonder how much better they'll be than my other gear. The PCM81 with Italo's presets an Dual FX card is mind bogglingly good. Did you know the PCM42 doesn't remember your delay time, and you have to set it every time you power it up? Man, that would be such a pain haha.

I've had some PCM41/42 and 81 in various rigs for years; as much as the 80/81 are great powerful units that can do beautiful unique things, they don't "sound" like a 41/42.
Quick illustrative story:
I recently got a 41 again after foolishly selling my previous one 10+ years ago; as much as I love my 42s I've always regretted that particular 41 for some particular applications.
Anyway, I wanted to quickly check everything was working fine after unpacking that new one, so I plug my son's EMG loaded Charvel straight in, in front of his small JC-22 Roland combo; crank the PCM input level so that it flashes red as it should be; output level at noon; bring the volume up; "BAM", just a beautiful fat yet clear sound with great feel where the effect -whatever it is set at- just perfectly "blends in" with your main -improved- dry tone.
Decided to do a quick A/B test with the 81 I had next to it just to make sure I was not dreaming it, with the exact same setup: "it sounds too clean!!" (in Michael Thompson's voice & words ). Just a much thinner & clearer core tone.
The PCM81 can do some wonderful complex stuff and I love it with an EXP pedal for some particular special effects/parts, where the "clean Hi-Fi" character fits in.
But it just doesn't have the "sound" of the older 41/42, period. Even with Italo's nice presets . The 41/42 also affect your core dry sound with their internal preamp and I/O analog stages, in a beautiful way. Feels like adding "good glue" to your sound. Just makes everything sound better just by running through them.

 

[Exo-metal]

handy resource page for the tc G Force owners out there

https://www.christianjacobsson.se/g-force/

Now I need another G-force lol
I always loved the Quad tap delays!

 

[Code001]

Speaking of great resources, have people seen this? https://h3000presets.com/

I always use that when I need to find a preset. It can also connect to your H3000 via MIDI.

 

[mentoneman]

Great thread again!



I've had some PCM41/42 and 81 in various rigs for years; as much as the 80/81 are great powerful units that can do beautiful unique things, they don't "sound" like a 41/42.
Quick illustrative story:
I recently got a 41 again after foolishly selling my previous one 10+ years ago; as much as I love my 42s I've always regretted that particular 41 for some particular applications.
Anyway, I wanted to quickly check everything was working fine after unpacking that new one, so I plug my son's EMG loaded Charvel straight in, in front of his small JC-22 Roland combo; crank the PCM input level so that it flashes red as it should be; output level at noon; bring the volume up; "BAM", just a beautiful fat yet clear sound with great feel where the effect -whatever it is set at- just perfectly "blends in" with your main -improved- dry tone.
Decided to do a quick A/B test with the 81 I had next to it just to make sure I was not dreaming it, with the exact same setup: "it sounds too clean!!" (in Michael Thompson's voice & words ). Just a much thinner & clearer core tone.
The PCM81 can do some wonderful complex stuff and I love it with an EXP pedal for some particular special effects/parts, where the "clean Hi-Fi" character fits in.
But it just doesn't have the "sound" of the older 41/42, period. Even with Italo's nice presets . The 41/42 also affect your core dry sound with their internal preamp and I/O analog stages, in a beautiful way. Feels like adding "good glue" to your sound. Just makes everything sound better just by running through them.

your rigs are amazing my man!
anyone with a PCM 41/42 is automatically cooler than i’ll ever be

and the sad truth is that i’ll likely never get the opportunity to really check one out in the wild.

cool story i get what you’re saying about the 41 v pcm too.

btw it’s Ryan’s/Analogkid85’s bday today! we have been nerd texting back and forth for the last few days about gear and he’s just a really cool (and very fx progamming skilled) dude!

 

[mentoneman]

i love massive wdw tones but there are many examples in history when simple is the right answer

 

[griff10672]

one more Bruce Egnater story

i sold my TOL 100 to a friend who was into heavy stuff and playing in crazy environments.

6 months in he says the amp wasn’t working so i took it back and traded him a Vox valveverb combo i had and he loved.

sent it to Bruce who had it for many months because he was in the middle of the modular stuff and the GC thing, and planned to bring it at the NAMM show.
when the anp wasn’t done in time, he gave me and my son VIP tickets to the first Extreme reunion show in 10 yrs because he had built Nuno his Randall signature amp and was just being cool to me for having my amp so long.

Our long ago forum brother Ralph is seen shredding on the Nuno amp at 6:55 on this NAMM 09 highlight vid i shot



i thought the amp looked retro cool with the VU meter but it never took off.

Ralphie !!!!!!!!

 

[mentoneman]

Ralphie !!!!!!!!

Gainfreak loved his super soaker tones!
I think he and Kage really loved the @raiken Saber that we checked out at NAMM. the good ole days!

this was stuff i shot but someone else posted low rez copy to YT



*EDIT* I originally posted a link to the classifieds thinking it was Bruce selling a BE-100 it was a scrammer!!