Anyone have a BE Deluxe modded to make it meaner?

  • Thread starter Thread starter cragginshred
  • Start date Start date
cragginshrd said:
Dude thats killer info. Dave replied to an inquiry an said "I can do a few things to the whole amp" ......thats it.
I have an amp builder a few hours away that could do what your suggesting. Is it easy to put back if I don't like it?
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Since Dave is willing to make some changes that might be the best way to go to keep any warranty....Just say'in.....:dunno:
 
cragginshrd said:
@RedPlated the caps you spoke of would go in the amp or in a Les paul? I know nothing about modding amps
My alta headfirst needs no extra brightness so I would not want to set my LP up to be brighter. I do not have the BE deluxe eyt but am negotiating to get one en route

Not sure if I need to take it to Dave or have my tech do some tweaks you mentioned which as a write this seems absurd if I can sit down with Dave and see what he suggests and be able too sample it while he is doing it
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If you have a tech that will make the changes and then allow you to play it to see if you like it then that might be your better option. I don't know if Dave will grant you that much personal time to tweak with you there to see if you like like what he does. He probably will just tweak it towards your desired end tone goal and if you don't like what he does you're kinda stuck.........
 
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FourT6and2 said:
If there's a schematic of this circuit, I can offer some suggestions to make it more aggressive/angry.
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I'd be interested in seeing that.. the BE has the right amount of gain, it just doesn't cut or have the teeth I would want. Would be interesting to see where you make those changes. Can you do it for the known BE schematic?
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
I'd be interested in seeing that.. the BE has the right amount of gain, it just doesn't cut or have the teeth I would want. Would be interesting to see where you make those changes. Can you do it for the known BE schematic?
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Post a schematic and I'll have a look
 
RedPlated said:
Friedmans have a 220k or 470k resistor between treble wiper and master volume. Remove it and it’ll be more aggressive. Volume will increase slightly as well.

Can also remove the snubber cap on 100k cathode for v2b CF.

Try a small bright cap on gain pot maybe. Like 220pf.
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Holy crap! I just pulled the resister between the volume and treble pot, and I'm floored. Way more open, aggressive and punchy. I can also hit it harder with an overdrive or boost without it smushing out. Thanks so much for this!
 
Nitrobattery said:
Holy crap! I just pulled the resister between the volume and treble pot, and I'm floored. Way more open, aggressive and punchy. I can also hit it harder with an overdrive or boost without it smushing out. Thanks so much for this!
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Makes you think, Friedman might want to update his design with a "Raw" switch. I wonder if I can do this with the Synergy Plexi module. It's better than the others but still lacking a bit of cut to my ear.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
Makes you think, Friedman might want to update his design with a "Raw" switch. I wonder if I can do this with the Synergy Plexi module. It's better than the others but still lacking a bit of cut to my ear.
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I was genuinely considering letting it go because as great as it sounds, it just didn't work for my style of playing. I always go back to my Splawn or Wizard. This simple change though gives me more of that tightness and punch that I love about those other amps, but with a great loop and a good clean channel. I'm pretty floored really.

Now I'm curious what removing the snubber cap will do.
 
Dave can make it more raw; he modded something for me and did just that.

I had a JJ100. Got a hold of an Egnater 50 Boutikit (crazy good value) and sent it to Dave. I told him I wanted a JJ50 DLX (JJ and JBE channel, some more switches, etc.).

The JJ50 he sent back to me was the most raw Friedman out of all I owned: 2017 BE100, Slax, JJ100, Be50. Reach out to him and see if he's able to fit it in.
 
Nitrobattery said:
Holy crap! I just pulled the resister between the volume and treble pot, and I'm floored. Way more open, aggressive and punchy. I can also hit it harder with an overdrive or boost without it smushing out. Thanks so much for this!
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Can you post a pic of what you did, any vid of the tone? Man I'm stoked! Easy I assume, did you cut it or how did you remove it? If you do the snubber cap -whatever that is please post a pic(s) of the process !!!
 
Nitrobattery said:
Holy crap! I just pulled the resister between the volume and treble pot, and I'm floored. Way more open, aggressive and punchy. I can also hit it harder with an overdrive or boost without it smushing out. Thanks so much for this!
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That’s great. Glad to hear it worked out.

That resistor makes a big difference. Was it 220k or 470k?
 
This thread is very interesting to me. While most can agree that Dave's product is generally very good, it seems that the fairly consistent feedback has been that his high-gain amps sound to a bit too "polite" and "produced" and not "raw" enough...and perhaps a little on the "dark" side tonally. Seems that this may be a simple problem to remedy.
 
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angelspade said:
This thread is very interesting to me. While most can agree that Dave's product is generally very good, it seems that the fairly consistent feedback has been that his high-gain amps sound to a bit too "polite" and "produced" sounding and not "raw" enough...and perhaps a little on the "dark" side totally. Seems that this may be a simple problem to remedy.
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I had a custom 50 that had a similar problem and I wish I had known to try this
 
This will be my 3rd BE Dlx. I owned one within a month of the release and gigged with it. I could not put my finger on it but it was never exactly the tone I wanted. Second amp i dug and gigged with then got distracted with the allure of another amp.

Now I love the Alta but am selling my JMP for more flexibility - 3 channels system volume ect Hoping to get at least a pic of the resistor to be pulled and learn weather I need to solder the wire there or what. Don't wanna ruin it

Dave actually responded that I could bring it to LA and test it with him but the drive sucks and if this does the trick I'm good!!!
 
To test all you need is one alligator clip. Clip one side to the treble pot wiper and the other side to the input lug of the master volume pot. It’ll bypass the resistor and you’ll hear how it sounds without it.

To make the change requires soldering.
 
Easy enough to put that jumper on a switch too.

A few other things to try. Just going by what I've seen in the regular BE (not the Deluxe:))

1. Replace MPSA06 clippers with 2N5401 for a different flavor.
2. Replace the zeners with other values to taste.
3. Friedman uses "compliance" resistors on his SAT switch (diode clipping) to soften the effect. You can remove them for harder clipping.
4. Lower value of depth/resonance cap slightly to get a more focused low end. Anything between 2200pF - 4700pF is fine.
5. Bright cap values. Higher = more aggressive and more mid-range bump rather than just treble. 2200pF is pretty tame. 4700pF is aggressive.
6. Lower value of V1a input grid stopper. It's probably 33K stock. The lower you go, the better the amp will feel (subtle), but the more prone to RF noise it will become. You can experiment and go lower and lower until you start to hear noise/radio interference and then go back a little higher to be safe. This is a very subtle mod, but hey... worth trying if you want to mess with it. For example, the Bogner Helios omits this entirely. Fortin uses graphite beads.
 
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RedPlated said:
To test all you need is one alligator clip. Clip one side to the treble pot wiper and the other side to the input lug of the master volume pot. It’ll bypass the resistor and you’ll hear how it sounds without it.

To make the change requires soldering.
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Killer thanks! What does the snubber deal do and where is it?
 
Nitrobattery said:
Now I'm curious what removing the snubber cap will do.
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It will let the amp breathe more, make it more open/raw sounding and there will be more high frequencies present in the overall tone. You could also get some unwanted oscillations or parasitic oscillation that can't be heard or not. Daves also has some more snubber's upstream in the circuit to help tame them early on in the circuit and good circuit board layout and design also helps and I am sure Dave has done all his homework with an EE for best layout possible.


If you are handy with a soldering iron try......the worse that can happen is you don't like it and you put it back to stock.:thumbsup:
 
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cragginshrd said:
Killer thanks! What does the snubber deal do and where is it?
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A snubber capacitor is placed usually on plate resistors to attenuate out high frequencies that lead to unwanted oscillations and or parasitic oscillations( which are inaudible to the human ear)_ in a high gain tube circuit that leads to out of control squealing and possible damage to 12ax7 tubes as well as other components.
 
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