Master Volume for the Peavey Delta Blues

[seizethedave]

Hey guys,

I recently placed a Master Volume control into my Peavey DB 210. It sounds absolutely amazing for the clean channel (Normal volume at 12, MV at 3/4) but dismal for the Gain channel. (Pre Gain at 6, Post gain at 12, MV at 3/4). There's a huge volume loss and I pretty much lose all "personality" of the gain channel. It sounds like a crappy distortion that I wouldn't let a beginner use. If I place the MV at 12, the Pre at 6 and the Post at 6, it sounds normal, which is what I want it to sound like....

I'm getting ready to mod the amp according to Steve Ahola's C30 Mods. Will any of those mods help remedy this problem? Is there another way around it? Is there a way to disable the MV control while the gain channel is selected? Any ideas?

Thanks!

[tubeswell]

Where did you insert the MV? In the Ahola mod, it comes in before the grid of the first half of the PI, in place of the grid load resistor.

[seizethedave]

Tubeswell, I followed Steve's mod to the T

[tubeswell]

Hi seizethedave

Sorry about the delay in replying.

Did you do any of the other mods to the O/D channel?

[Steve A.]

I think that the solution would be to take the MV out of the circuit when you switch over to the Gain channel. You could add a second relay parallel to the channel switching relay to engage or disengage the Master Volume. (It could be as simple as disconnecting the ground connection from the MV so there would be some series resistance but no load to ground.)

FWIW the Classic 50 comes stock with a Master Volume, and I don't recall anyone bringing up this issue with that amp.

Steve Ahola

P.S. I forget if you did the mid boost mod- perhaps the Gain channel would be more usable with the MV engaged if you kicked in a decent sounding mid boost...

P.P.S. One more suggestion- the main idea of the MV was to be able to set a good OD sound and then turn back the MV a little bit so as to not overpower the room (while maintaining a good OD sound). With that setting I believe that it would improve your Clean sound as well...

P.P.P.S. The first MV I tried was the Bruce Collins-style Post-PI design, but all of the flying leads were such a hassle every time I pulled the boards out so I switched to a pre-PI MV and thought that it worked just as well. But perhaps that would work better for you.