Repaired Amp Break in?

[myque]

Hi There,
I need some help - i have a 1970 West Grande 100 watt amp. I recently took it back to the guy who originally built it way back when (gotta love the internet for helping to track that stuff down)

Anyways, he replaced the power cable to a 3 prong ( i was getting shocked severely) replaced the power supply filter caps, pots, resistors, and tubes. I was afraid it was going to change the sound of the amp, and it has - it is now about 5x louder than it was and i can't get it to "break up" into a distorted sound like i used to be able to. I would've left it alone but the power cable needed to be replaced and it did need an overhaul.

So now i have a super loud tube amp that i don't know if i like the sound of anymore. Does anyone have any advice as far as "breaking in" an amp so it starts to distort or reccomend a good distortion pedal that sounds like a tube amp or anything else i could do to try and make this thing sound better? Would a product like a hotplate be the way to go?

Thanks in advance...

[Ray Ivers]

You could ask for the old tubes back and put them in, or ask what exactly was done to the amp... FWIW, it sounds to me like the amp is working correctly (i.e., as designed) now, and may not have been before (I know - duh! - but just thought I'd throw that out in defense of West Labs).

There are a lot of things you could do, but this seems to me to be the most direct route back to a sound you know you like.

Ray

[myque]

thanks for the advice, i did keep all the old parts - so i will try that - i don't fault West - they told me that it may change the sound, but it really needed an overhaul...i hope that works!

[Enzo]

It is like a comfortable old pair of shoes. They have broken in well and fit you. But the way they did that was for the leather to soften and break down, the stitching to stretch and start to unravel, the sole to compress where your foot bears the most weight, etc. That shoe might not fit someone else near as well. And if you rebuild the shoe, it will no longer be shaped the same nor have the give in it.

You liked the way the amp sounded with the weak filter caps, possibly leaky coupling caps, tired tubes, etc. Make it back to spec and it won't sound the same. I don't think it is a matter of breaking in so much as it is letting the amp age again to where the parts are 40 years old once more.

[myque]

Thanks for the advice - since i now have a solid "clean" sound can anyone recommend a pedal that simulates tube saturation well? I want a crunchy sound but not overly so - i'm looking for grit that could be used all the time as opposed to a sound just punched in for a solo or something...

I found my old Danelectro Fabtone which sounds like something a heavy metal guy would use (don't know what i was thinking when i bought it) do any of those pedals with the preamp tubes in them help since they are not in the gain stage?

[Rick Erickson]

can anyone recommend a pedal that simulates tube saturation well?

How about an Ibanez TS808 tubescreamer. Need more drive? Try TWO tubescreamers in series.

RE

[Steve Conner]

Can't you get in touch with the guy who overhauled it and explain that you don't like the tone any more? He might help you figure out what happened and how to get your mojo back, especially since he built it in the first place. Having said that, I agree with Ray that it probably sounded grungy because it was ill. If you're trying to practice at home, you should find that a 100 watt amp will blow your socks off (and your neighbours' socks too) before it starts to get dirty- unless it's a modern master volume design that lets you adjust gain and volume separately.

The Tube Screamer type pedals that Rick mentioned seem pretty good. I've heard some very nice sounds from a silverface Fender Twin driven by a reissue Tube Screamer with the "Level" up full and the "Drive" to minimum. It made the first tube in the amp distort and grind up even with the volume down. The guitarist in our band likes to use one of my homebuilt amps sometimes, but rather than use the dirty channel, he prefers to leave it on the clean channel and drive it with a Tube Screamer.

steve

[bob p]

i've never really understood all of the fuss over tubescreamers, so i just thought i'd ask -- if you want to overdrive the first stage of a fender amp, why not just adjust the voltage divider at the input?

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

i've never really understood all of the fuss over tubescreamers, so i just thought i'd ask -- if you want to overdrive the first stage of a fender amp, why not just adjust the voltage divider at the input?

??
What divider at the input?
On the jacks?

[Rick Erickson]

I've heard some very nice sounds from a silverface Fender Twin driven by a reissue Tube Screamer with the "Level" up full and the "Drive" to minimum.

I use one (TS808) with the drive at about 10:00 (on the watch dial)
And my second one has the drive full up. Tone is set to 9:00PM (AM is way too early for me) I adjust volume levels for minimum level shift when the pedals are engaged. This gets me a pretty good variety of tones from clean to scream in 4 steps. Then by selecting the appropriate guitar I can nail (aproximate) most any sound I need.

RE

[Enzo]

Well, when you plug into the low gain jack, those resistors form a divider. But nothing you can do to the resistors at the input can make the signal from the guitar larger than it is.

[HTH]

build a mosfet 'booster' pedal - they always keep the tone of your amp while driving it harder. not enough gain? - add a 2nd mosfet stage. I'd advise breadboarding it out till you get it sounding like you want it.

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

I'm very pleased with the way these are working out for a fairly simple bolt on hot rod mod if you are into replacing one of your input jacks.

http://www.missionamps.com/turbojax.shtml

http://www.missionamps.com/pdf/Turbo_Jax_internet1.pdf

[greekie]

That is also a really cool way of solving the lack of input drive Bruce. MacGyver'ish, done by a professional :-)

[Gtr_tech]

Clever!