SpiderWars
Well-known member
I had always thought the FX loop in the SLO was part of the sound. But I recently found that Soldano does a loop bypass mod and I listened to some comparison clips and tone was very similar. Some (allegedly including Mike himself) prefer the amp with the loop bypassed.
So I was thinking; if we can bypass the loop and get 'the same' tone then we have two unused triodes. Better yet, one is already setup as a cathode follower (great for a SEND stage) and one as a typical gain stage (great for RETURN stage). The issue now is that the tone stack is after the last stage and that last stage needs to be a cathode follower (in order to properly drive the tone stack). Our new last stage is now the RETURN stage which is not a cathode follower. So our RETURN stage isn't exactly what we want as our last stage as-is. So why not move the tone stack so it's after the first cathode follower (i.e. - at the very end of the 'preamp'), then to the SEND stage, then to the RETURN stage, then to the MVs, then to the PI.
This puts two cathode followers back-to-back though (with a tone stack in between). Is this a problem? Can I go straight from Treble wiper to SEND grid? Maybe a 1M from SEND grid-to-ground as well? Not sure if this will load the tone stack in some weird way such that this won't work. Anybody know any issues with this? Thoughts? Tips?
MY SLO is a home-brew and I made my own layout and circuit boards. So while it sounds a bit involved it's actually very simple.
Full frontal:
Knobs go to 11:
So I was thinking; if we can bypass the loop and get 'the same' tone then we have two unused triodes. Better yet, one is already setup as a cathode follower (great for a SEND stage) and one as a typical gain stage (great for RETURN stage). The issue now is that the tone stack is after the last stage and that last stage needs to be a cathode follower (in order to properly drive the tone stack). Our new last stage is now the RETURN stage which is not a cathode follower. So our RETURN stage isn't exactly what we want as our last stage as-is. So why not move the tone stack so it's after the first cathode follower (i.e. - at the very end of the 'preamp'), then to the SEND stage, then to the RETURN stage, then to the MVs, then to the PI.
This puts two cathode followers back-to-back though (with a tone stack in between). Is this a problem? Can I go straight from Treble wiper to SEND grid? Maybe a 1M from SEND grid-to-ground as well? Not sure if this will load the tone stack in some weird way such that this won't work. Anybody know any issues with this? Thoughts? Tips?
MY SLO is a home-brew and I made my own layout and circuit boards. So while it sounds a bit involved it's actually very simple.
Full frontal:
Knobs go to 11: