Keep HRD III and mod it?

BenSirAmos

ICBM said:

You mean I typed all that passing on hard-won experience stuff for nothing?

No, because now I am tempted. I have a celestion greenback that yearns to be tried.

ICBM

BenSirAmos said:

No, because now I am tempted. I have a celestion greenback that yearns to be tried.

Not wise if you're likely to be playing it at any real volume - it's only a 25W speaker and a 40W amp. Even though they don't usually quite put out the full 40W, it's still a lot more than 25.

randomhandclaps

I've tried lots of speakers in HRDs and the Cannabis Rex was my favourite although not so much for most other Fenders (as in it wasn't bad but there were better speakers).  For the HRD a new speaker would be my first mod and the CR my first port of call.

phase3

Jim @ Omega Amps is a VERY clever ( and friendly) guy. However he doesn't really sell mod kits because his mods are pretty substantial. He does ( as most others) upgrade the coupling caps etc etc but also does a lot of work on the power supply, tone stack (post od) and customises component values as per individual customer requirements. So basically....you send him your amp, tell him what you want and he does it.  Most of the big sonic changes are on the drive & more drive. So it's a rebuild rather than a mod.  Clever guy though and he's building his own amps now.

Fromel mods are a waste of money.... if you can work on your own amp...you can do all of these mods with ease and much cheaper. Loads of info on the web.

The HRDX 3 had some of this stuff already done, but in some respects they made it worse, although the 'build' issues were resolved.  I've done a LOT of mod work on these amps and have come to the conclusion ( as ICBM) that  (a) They are a pretty good basic platform (b) By far the most effective mods are speaker and valves  (c) Other minor tone mods with cap and resistor values can deal with fine tuning etc -- but beyond that if you're not getting what you want ... get another amp.

 

Wazmeister

To the op, really simple - sell it.

Find an amp you enjoy and love the base sound of. Sorted !

TheMarlin

phase3;928928" said:

Jim @ Omega Amps is a VERY clever ( and friendly) guy. However he doesn't really sell mod kits because his mods are pretty substantial. He does ( as most others) upgrade the coupling caps etc etc but also does a lot of work on the power supply, tone stack (post od) and customises component values as per individual customer requirements. So basically....you send him your amp, tell him what you want and he does it.  Most of the big sonic changes are on the drive & more drive. So it's a rebuild rather than a mod.  Clever guy though and he's building his own amps now.Fromel mods are a waste of money.... if you can work on your own amp...you can do all of these mods with ease and much cheaper. Loads of info on the web.The HRDX 3 had some of this stuff already done, but in some respects they made it worse, although the 'build' issues were resolved.  I've done a LOT of mod work on these amps and have come to the conclusion ( as ICBM) that  (a) They are a pretty good basic platform (b) By far the most effective mods are speaker and valves  (c) Other minor tone mods with cap and resistor values can deal with fine tuning etc -- but beyond that if you're not getting what you want ... get another amp.

 

There person who had my Omega HR Deluxe before me sent the entire amp to Jim, who did all the mods.
I deeply regret selling that amp. Damn unemployment....
M

BintyTwanger77

@Wazmeister To be honest, when I put TV Jones Powertrons in my Doublejet, it sounded fantastic through the HRD III even without the change of speaker.

BenSirAmos

ICBM said:

BenSirAmos said:

No, because now I am tempted. I have a celestion greenback that yearns to be tried.

Not wise if you're likely to be playing it at any real volume - it's only a 25W speaker and a 40W amp. Even though they don't usually quite put out the full 40W, it's still a lot more than 25.

I'm just gentle strumming at the moment, so it's a good time to take a chance and mess about. 

Wazmeister

BintyTwanger77 said:

@Wazmeister To be honest, when I put TV Jones Powertrons in my Doublejet, it sounded fantastic through the HRD III even without the change of speaker.

Cool. Happiness !

p90fool

Wazmeister;929000" said:

To the op, really simple - sell it.



Find an amp you enjoy and love the base sound of. Sorted !

Why? My Princeton was one 12 pence capacitor away from perfection for me. Taking a punt on a different 750 quid amp would've been silly.

ICBM

p90fool said:

My Princeton was one 12 pence capacitor away from perfection for me. Taking a punt on a different 750 quid amp would've been silly.

That's very true - and that's a simple change which achieved a lot. But with the HRD I feel it's not a particularly easy amp to mod, and the results will probably not be as effective unless you really do something major to it - eg moving the tone stack - at which point you are into better-with-a-different-amp territory.

One of the very few amps which is worth major modification like this is the Fender Concert/Deluxe Reverb II, purely because moving the tone stack is so easy - it helps that it's an eyelet-board amp. I'm much less inclined to do it on PCB amp.

Other people may disagree but I don't like to do extensive work to PCBs - it's almost always a bit too close to hacking, to me.

Danny1969

It's not a great PCB on the HRD either. least is hasn't been on any of the ones I've worked on. It's not exactly quick to get out either!

ICBM

Danny1969 said:

It's not a great PCB on the HRD either. least is hasn't been on any of the ones I've worked on. It's not exactly quick to get out either!

I don't find it a problem, but I'm quite used to working on them now...

Leave the amp standing upright. Undo the pots and jacks and the row of screws in the middle of the PCB, and the one attaching the ground wire. Then you can push the board down just far enough for the pot shafts to come out past the chassis lip - you usually have to start at the jack end, and work along one pot at a time. Then tilt the board downwards to work on it. 5 mins max, and no need to undo any cabling.

You can also run the amp on test with it hanging down like that if you attach the ground wire to the top of the last PCB post using the same screw.

Danny1969

ICBM said:

Danny1969 said:

It's not a great PCB on the HRD either. least is hasn't been on any of the ones I've worked on. It's not exactly quick to get out either!

I don't find it a problem, but I'm quite used to working on them now...

Leave the amp standing upright. Undo the pots and jacks and the row of screws in the middle of the PCB, and the one attaching the ground wire. Then you can push the board down just far enough for the pot shafts to come out past the chassis lip - you usually have to start at the jack end, and work along one pot at a time. Then tilt the board downwards to work on it. 5 mins max, and no need to undo any cabling.

You can also run the amp on test with it hanging down like that if you attach the ground wire to the top of the last PCB post using the same screw.

Yeah there's enough room - scuse the messy bench 

Danny1969

Found a pic of my 470R resistor mod 

ICBM

lol - nice bit of overkill there . I'd have been lazier and bolted them straight to the chassis right below where the old ones were.

I actually find they very rarely cause trouble if they're the later slightly larger ones and the amp is properly set to 240V.

Danny1969

Yeah I wasn't aware of the 240 tap thing until you spoke about it. I'm not that experienced with valve amps, although I understand their workings -  my background is analog SS design and most of my musical repair work is mixing desk, samplers and digital kit

ICBM

Danny1969 said:

I'm not that experienced with valve amps, although I understand their workings -  my background is analog SS design and most of my musical repair work is mixing desk, samplers and digital kit

Shame we're so far apart, or we could share the work out - that's the stuff I'm least familiar with and unable to fix usually.

The supply voltage disproportionately affects those resistors because unlike any other voltages in the amp which all rise in proportion, the lower end is fixed of course - so when running at over the tap voltage, all the rise is applied to the resistor. It's not a very clever way of deriving LT at all really.