Bassman mod?

[richedie]

Anyone done the Bassman upper mid bite mod? What did you like about the change in tone? I might eventually go that route. I did it to the SL2 and like it, not sure I would do it to the EG3/4 though.

 

[aeroic]

Anyone done the Bassman upper mid bite mod? What did you like about the change in tone? I might eventually go that route. I did it to the SL2 and like it, not sure I would do it to the EG3/4 though.

Yep. Nick did the "GNR" mod to my BMAN...and I LOVE it. Tightened up the lows...puts the BMAN more on similar territory w/ the SL2X. The modded BMAN sounds like a BMAN had sex w/ a SL and the baby that was produced was my modded BMAN. The following clip was done w/ ChB of the BMAN w/ the gain maxed, bass at noon, mids all the way up, treble all the way down.

For me...I wouldn't want the BMAN any other wise. The stock BMAN for me I never clicked with. Wasn't tight enough for me on the low end...and it was always a bit too mushy for me. Modded, it sounds awesome...exactly what I expected from it. On ChA it's got a bit more spank to it...but didn't change gain at all. The BMAN sounds f-in amazing w/ a JP5751 in V1. I know Nick was floored once he heard my BMAN modded w/ the GNR style mod and a JP5751. It's definitely "money!!!"


I have the same "GNR" mod done to my EG3/4..and also the 1000pf tube board cab replaced to a 120pf. I am really digging it a lot. It's still smoother than a GNR, and has more low end than a SL2X. Similar to a GNR, but still different. I just much prefer the mids of a SL2X honestly. Just doing the "GNR mod" to the EG3/4 will make it fit more at least for me into what I personally like. Adjust the 1000pf cap to your liking as far as darkness goes. 500pF would be a good choice IMHO.

Eric

 

[Doubleneck]

Like your chops but it sounds dark to me, maybe because you had the treble rolled all the way down?

 

[RockStarNick]

Disclaimer: I'm no amp tech. I'm no modder like Jaded Faith. I'm no expert module modder like Jeff. I'm no guru like Bruce. I'm just a guy with a steady hand and a soldering iron, who is learning alot as I go along. And I stumbled upon something cool.

Basically, I did two small tweaks, one of which was just applied the upper midrange element of the "X" mod (formerly known as the GNR mod) to the BMAN, and liked the results. Jason and Eric have affectionately dubbed it the XMAN, which sounds awesome!

I will say that the XMAN mod REALLY jives well with the 5751. Very, very well. The 5751 adds clarity to the increased mids.

The result is a little more crunchy, a little less crispy. That's the best way I can describe it. It's the same BMAN that we all know and love, with a little less glass, and a little more upper mid crunch. Nothing too crazy, but it does match up great with the SL2x.

 

[RockStarNick]

Like your chops but it sounds dark to me, maybe because you had the treble rolled all the way down?

Eric was specifically going for a uber-smooth, eric johnson kinda vibe. Treble was all the way down on that clip.

Trust me... with the treble at noon, it's got plenty of bite and crunch.

 

[aeroic]

Like your chops but it sounds dark to me, maybe because you had the treble rolled all the way down?

Yeah...it was cause the treble was all the way down. I was trying to show how you can get a "Eric Johnson" type plexi tone w/ the BMAN.

It's not dark at all. It gets nice, bright and spanky w/ the treble at 9 oclock!

 

[aeroic]

Disclaimer: I'm no amp tech. I'm no modder like Jaded Faith. I'm no expert module modder like Jeff. I'm no guru like Bruce. I'm just a guy with a steady hand and a soldering iron, who is learning alot as I go along. And I stumbled upon something cool.

Basically, I did two small tweaks, one of which was just applied the upper midrange element of the "X" mod (formerly known as the GNR mod) to the BMAN, and liked the results. Jason and Eric have affectionately dubbed it the XMAN, which sounds awesome!

I will say that the XMAN mod REALLY jives well with the 5751. Very, very well. The 5751 adds clarity to the increased mids.

The result is a little more crunchy, a little less crispy. That's the best way I can describe it. It's the same BMAN that we all know and love, with a little less glass, and a little more upper mid crunch. Nothing too crazy, but it does match up great with the SL2x.

I agree 100% with all that Nick said here. I never really jived w/ the BMAN until I had Nick try this out on my BMAN module. Now it's one of my favorite modules. I use it more for semi-dirty stuff....and it's a friggin joy to play.

As w/ the SL2X...the knobs have a much better range IMHO with this mod. The treble all the way up is more usable...as well as all the way down...as is the same w/ the mids and bass. The bright / bass switches really change the tone on the module too in great ways.

It went from a module i "sorta liked" to a module I LOVE now. There are NO modules I'm getting rid of in the future anymore. They all have their place in my "module stash" now!

 

[Doubleneck]

Disclaimer: I'm no amp tech. I'm no modder like Jaded Faith. I'm no expert module modder like Jeff. I'm no guru like Bruce. I'm just a guy with a steady hand and a soldering iron, who is learning alot as I go along. And I stumbled upon something cool.

Basically, I did two small tweaks, one of which was just applied the upper midrange element of the "X" mod (formerly known as the GNR mod) to the BMAN, and liked the results. Jason and Eric have affectionately dubbed it the XMAN, which sounds awesome!

I will say that the XMAN mod REALLY jives well with the 5751. Very, very well. The 5751 adds clarity to the increased mids.

The result is a little more crunchy, a little less crispy. That's the best way I can describe it. It's the same BMAN that we all know and love, with a little less glass, and a little more upper mid crunch. Nothing too crazy, but it does match up great with the SL2x.

I agree 100% with all that Nick said here. I never really jived w/ the BMAN until I had Nick try this out on my BMAN module. Now it's one of my favorite modules. I use it more for semi-dirty stuff....and it's a friggin joy to play.

As w/ the SL2X...the knobs have a much better range IMHO with this mod. The treble all the way up is more usable...as well as all the way down...as is the same w/ the mids and bass. The bright / bass switches really change the tone on the module too in great ways.

It went from a module i "sorta liked" to a module I LOVE now. There are NO modules I'm getting rid of in the future anymore. They all have their place in my "module stash" now!

Like the name! How does it affect the A channel?

 

[richedie]

Nick, I don't think you did anythig to tighten bass. You added upper mid bits and took some highs off channel B. I like channel B mod but the upper mid bite I may skip since this is my clean module, and only use the gain of channel B once in a while. I tend to run the treble at about 1:00 since I mostly use it for clean.

 

[RockStarNick]

You're correct Rich. I didn't mess with the bass. But it is possible to tweak that, if anyone desired it.

 

[aeroic]

Nick, I don't think you did anythig to tighten bass. You added upper mid bits and took some highs off channel B. I like channel B mod but the upper mid bite I may skip since this is my clean module, and only use the gain of channel B once in a while. I tend to run the treble at about 1:00 since I mostly use it for clean.

Dude..the upper mids help the A Channel just as much as the B channel. Like I said...I didn't like the ENTIRE module (both ChA and ChB) until the mod was done. The lows definitely feel like they were tightened up as well even if not directly modded . Both ChA and ChB really benefited from this mod. I definitely don't want to go back to stock after it was done. Definitely sits MUCH BETTER w/ the SL2X after the mod was done.

HUGE thumbs up for this.

Eric

 

[Jeff Hilligan]

What you all forget is that the mods being done are done to both channels. They share signal path and eq. Gain is really all that is switched in and out on the cleaner modules.

If you like cleaner tones the X mod will all mids and high end doesn't fit. Example take a twin and turn off the bass. It sounds terrible. The more you tighten up the low end the more audible the mids will be even before a mod. So if you add to it and cut the bass the audible effect to your ears are even more mids and high end. Get where I am going with all this. Clean tones don't sit well with a lot of mids. Dirty tones do! Just a FYI!

We did the Bman for a clean tone for guys who are in control of their right hand. They can get it clean. When they dig in it gets dirty. This module above all others is very much dependent on the control of the players right hand. It can do clean, semi dirt to AC/DC dirt all in one module.

 

[RockStarNick]

What you all forget is that the mods being done are done to both channels. They share signal path and eq. Gain is really all that is switched in and out on the cleaner modules.

If you like cleaner tones the X mod will all mids and high end doesn't fit. Example take a twin and turn off the bass. It sounds terrible. The more you tighten up the low end the more audible the mids will be even before a mod. So if you add to it and cut the bass the audible effect to your ears are even more mids and high end. Get where I am going with all this. Clean tones don't sit well with a lot of mids. Dirty tones do! Just a FYI!

We did the Bman for a clean tone for guys who are in control of their right hand. They can get it clean. When they dig in it gets dirty. This module above all others is very much dependent on the control of the players right hand. It can do clean, semi dirt to AC/DC dirt all in one module.

This is why I didn't cut any lows! Jeff knows what he's talkin' bout here. He's right - you take away lows, and the entire EQ curve changes, and you get a mid hump, even before any mods.

There's a very cool program called the Duncan ToneStack Calculator that you can download. It really is a neat thing, to visually show what an amp's EQ curve looks like, and how by changing one thing, everything effects everything. The EQ's are very interactive.

The BMAN has a different tonestack than the SL2x, right off the bat, which yeilds fewer mids, which in turn gives better cleans.

The best way to "tighten" up the BMAN, if you want it tighter, is probably just to turn down the bass knob. For real.

Now the upper mids that I added... again, I'm NOT an expert amp modder/tech at all. It was just a shot in the dark idea, and I tried it, and liked it - and that's just my personal preference. (and I guess Eric's too. )

 

[aeroic]

What you all forget is that the mods being done are done to both channels. They share signal path and eq. Gain is really all that is switched in and out on the cleaner modules.

If you like cleaner tones the X mod will all mids and high end doesn't fit. Example take a twin and turn off the bass. It sounds terrible. The more you tighten up the low end the more audible the mids will be even before a mod. So if you add to it and cut the bass the audible effect to your ears are even more mids and high end. Get where I am going with all this. Clean tones don't sit well with a lot of mids. Dirty tones do! Just a FYI!

We did the Bman for a clean tone for guys who are in control of their right hand. They can get it clean. When they dig in it gets dirty. This module above all others is very much dependent on the control of the players right hand. It can do clean, semi dirt to AC/DC dirt all in one module.

I didn't forget that Jeff. I couldn't agree with you more here Jeff. For me...I was wanting the BMAN to me more like a "lower gain SL." To get a more "middy" clean tone...that does the "semi-dirty" thing well..and a plexi'ish vibe on ChB. Doing the "X" mod on it really gave me the tones I was wanting from the BMAN and from the SL both. There's a reason why I have the VX and Twin...which are my more "sparkly" clean tones for sure!

I don't disagree with how you guys designed the BMAN...stock it just didn't fit me out of the box. But w/ the X mod...it sounds awesome for ME. Everyone else's mileage my vary though. In my M4...I have the Twin, XMAN, GNR, and EG5. The Twin is my super high headroom "Eric Johnson" type cleans....XMAN is my "King's X" summerland type cleans and Plexi tones...and the other 2 you understand

So. For me...didn't want the SL...because I loved ChA of it..but didn't vibe w/ ChB with the gain above 10 oclock as much...and loved ChA of the BMAN, but didn't care for ChB with higher gain as much....with the XMAN....i get similar semi-dirty tones to ChA of the SL and a good plexi type tone on ChB with one module. That's ultimately what led to my decision to do it...as well as fitting w/ the GNR better.

Eric

 

[Jeff Hilligan]

The moral of the story is this....we came up with the modular idea so that the amp could be yours. Not the masses!
If it works for you that is all that matters. If it doesn't don't buy the module or do the mod, we really don't care!

My input to all this is for anyone who does mods understands really what they are doing. Not just shoving parts into areas that seem to be the logical place to put them. A module is much different than a stand alone amp. Size of parts, locations of parts, type of parts all matter. The overall concept of what we want the module to do is determined in it's layout and design. If you stumble on something great! Just want everyone to understand better!

 

[RockStarNick]

The moral of the story is this....we came up with the modular idea so that the amp could be yours. Not the masses!
If it works for you that is all that matters. If it doesn't don't buy the module or do the mod, we really don't care!

My input to all this is for anyone who does mods understands really what they are doing. Not just shoving parts into areas that seem to be the logical place to put them. A module is much different than a stand alone amp. Size of parts, locations of parts, type of parts all matter. The overall concept of what we want the module to do is determined in it's layout and design. If you stumble on something great! Just want everyone to understand better!

I've learned a heck of a lot in the past month by modding some stuff. What some of the parts do, what some of them sound like, voltage rating, cap rating, etc. Some knowledge gained by reading, some by testing out different cap values, some by trial and error, some by making mistakes and fixing them , and some by just plain annoying the HELL out of Jeff.

 

[aeroic]

The moral of the story is this....we came up with the modular idea so that the amp could be yours. Not the masses!
If it works for you that is all that matters. If it doesn't don't buy the module or do the mod, we really don't care!

My input to all this is for anyone who does mods understands really what they are doing. Not just shoving parts into areas that seem to be the logical place to put them. A module is much different than a stand alone amp. Size of parts, locations of parts, type of parts all matter. The overall concept of what we want the module to do is determined in it's layout and design. If you stumble on something great! Just want everyone to understand better!

Couldn't be better said. Very true. The modules are definitely more prone to oscillation if you don't really know what you're doing.

 

[RockStarNick]

Screw oscillation. Whatever!!!! My goal is toneful time travel.

Jeff, I'm installing this tonight into my BMAN.

 

[aeroic]

Screw oscillation. Whatever!!!! My goal is toneful time travel.

Jeff, I'm installing this tonight into my BMAN.

LOL. that's damn funny!

 

[richedie]

Sorry guys, good point! Done.