Hicks mender

[Alf]

For some time I have been trying to find the schematic of this thing but failed. I would like to change my dirty channnel of an acoustic G100T into a good sounding one with this mod.
Can anyone help me to a schematic ?

Tia , Alf

[Leo_Gnardo]

Crikeys, I suffered with a customer who insisted on using a Hicks "Fender Mender" in the early 90's. Waaaayyy too much gain, it tended to go to hi frequency oscillation at the drop of a hat, whistling and howling miserably. It was sort of a good concept but when I found I had to modify the heck out of an ordinary Fender amp in order to make it work well with the mender, the tail was wagging the dog, that didn't impress me much at all. Post your G100T's schemo. Also let us know what it is that bothers you about your OD channel and how you would prefer it to sound and I'm sure you'll get some mod suggestions that will steer you in a good direction.

For those who aren't familiar, the Hicks Fender Mender was a plastic contraption that had two 9-pin tube headers that fit into the V1 & V2 positions on any Fender dual-channel amp with vibrato, IOW Deluxe Reverb, Vibrolux Reverb, Pro Reverb, Super Reverb, Vibroverb, Twin Reverb, Dual Showman Reverb, and a couple others. On the other side, 2 9-pin sockets, and in the middle a circuit board that rearranged the order of appearance of the Fender's pre stages for overdrive capability. Unfortunately for Mr Hicks it didn't catch on like wildfire and make him a fortune.

[Alf]

Hi Leo,




This is the preamp schem.

The distortion channel sounds way to buzzy and I haven't liked it since I got this amp.
What I am after is a sound with lots of sustain, as low in gain as possible for this type of sound and enough bite in it.

R8 is 47 K not , 91K .



Alf

[dmartn149]

Hi Alf. I have an Acoustic G60t that had a horrible sounding distortion channel. It lacked bass and treble, making it sound like a cheap buzzer, or like it was inside a cardboard box. I changed the coupling caps in that channel, and disconnected a treble bleed cap. The coupling caps would be c6 and c8 in your amp. the treble bleed would be c9 and/or c10 Mine only had one cap to ground in that area. I'm certainly no expert at this stuff, so maybe some of the more experienced amp guys can weigh in on the advisability of this mod for your amp.

[52 Bill]

I've used a Mender for a lot of years back in the day. Never had the problems that Leo described. Sold a few through the store as well with no problems either.

David Hicks was a member here a few years back. Maybe you can contact him through the board.

[Alf]

I've used a Mender for a lot of years back in the day. Never had the problems that Leo described

That's what I read about the mender, people are generally very enthusiastic about it.

I changed the coupling caps in that channel, and disconnected a treble bleed cap.

I am going to try that Dmartn but I have already done some tinkering on that channel and I believe I changed the couplingcaps and I remember putting a tonestack behind it and that changed the sound for the better. I have to open it up again.
But I would like a really good distortion sound.


What I really like is the sound I can make with my brown sound in a box pedals in front of my diy el84 amp.

But there is a challenge to do this with tubes in the acoustic.

Alf