benadrian wrote: Fri Apr 26, 2024 12:16 am I just picked up one of those 15 watt Monoprice amps that’s based on the Laney Cub amp. It was “broken” and dirt cheap. I swapped some tubes and got it working. It sounded okay. The reverb is total dog shit. Then I plugged it into one of my 1-12 cabs and holy crap! It was not life changing, but for a super budget amp it sounded quite good. It seems like the two biggest weak spots are the speaker and the cabinet materials.

This amp is kind of un-mod-able due to a lot of surface mount stuff. Still, I did a relatively easy mod yesterday.

The effects loop and reverb are on the same, separate PCB. There are socketed wires on the inside connecting the boards. The reverb is dog shit, and I'm never going to use the effects loop. So I pulled the Loop/reverb board, and that removed all the solid state circuitry. Using one of the leftover, two-connector wires, I was able to jump right from the preamp out to the power amp in.

The amp came to life a bit more, and got a little bit of extra volume. The loop and reverb mixing circuit was padding the level into the power amp. I think this was to make the master volume more smooth, and to keep people from always slamming the power amp. The sound now is like a cool, modded JCM 800. This might turn into my "practice loud rock at home" amp until something fries. Then, sadly, it might just become e-waste.

benadrian wrote: I just picked up one of those 15 watt Monoprice amps that’s based on the Laney Cub amp. It was “broken” and dirt cheap. I swapped some tubes and got it working. It sounded okay. The reverb is total dog shit. Then I plugged it into one of my 1-12 cabs and holy crap! It was not life changing, but for a super budget amp it sounded quite good. It seems like the two biggest weak spots are the speaker and the cabinet materials

This was exactly the same experience I had w/ that little Vox T4V that was out like 15-20 years ago. Amazing in a 4x12 & a little different sound than I was used to hearing. Was hoping to keep it as a contrasting flavor for recording distorted guitars but....yeah, absolutely e-waste. It died extremely quickly and while it was much more moddable/repairable than what you're describing for the monoprice amp, it just wasn't worth it for the $50 or whatever I paid for it.

Yamaha YC30 combo organ... I owned one for around a decade back in the late 90s early aughts and sold it to Kerble (it's how we met!) and have missed it ever since. Got a deal and it's fantastic. Feels and sounds so familiar and I'll never let it go again. I love you yc30

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Wed May 15, 2024 2:25 pm kind of halfheartedly tried the KSM137 as well and it sounded totally fine.

I take this back. For the track in question I was literally hitting a tambourine head with a percussion mallet and the KSM137 did it’s job plus some.

Aside from adding a little bit of the signal to the reverb send, I didn’t do anything to process it and the sound really works. I’m sure it’s not shit compared to what a real drummer could do, but it propels the track quite nicely and I’m going to leave it. It just took getting to end of the song and turning it up with all of the other elements in place to notice.

I'm sure some of you have used a T-60 before, but I'd thought I'd compare it to my Gibson Les Paul Studio. The Les Paul is a mahogany body with a rosewood fretboard and standard Gibson humbuckers. I mention all of this, because the sound between the two could not be any more different when it comes to humbuckers. I had the switches on the T-60 in the humbucking position and in-phase. Maybe it's the fact that the T-60 is the later series with the pickup blades, maybe it's the maple fretboard and the bolt on neck, maybe it's the ash or alder body. It sounds more "tight" and in some ways, more "metallic" (with respect to the fact that it has new strings on it). The Gibson is more "fat" and "wide", with the bridge pickup being more nasally. Very different guitars overall. The T-60 has a lot of options, but it cannot do what the Les Paul can do (and visa versa), so it's an addition, rather than replacement.

I almost never use the bridge pickup on the Les Paul, but I would definitely use it on the T-60 with the single coil and phase options. I can see the versatility in it for recording. Not sure if I'd do a lot of that in a live setting. I'm just too clumsy.

I bought a Liven Lofi 6, which is kinda a little groovebox, sampler thing. I bought it hoping it could stand in for a Optigan type of thing, which it kinda can, but using it kinda pushes you into a sort of loop glitching construction which is fun and sometimes frustrating since my brain has no real aptitude for that sort of music. Still figuring out what it is really for, but it sounds kinda cool and is cheep enough that I don't miss the cash. weird thing.

https://sonicware.jp/pages/liven-lofi6

The DSM Humbolt Simplifier DLX is a dual-channel analog amp pedal, with one channel being hot and the other not. You can choose your preamp style and power amp tube simulation for each channel, as well as cabisms. It comes with a switch pedal that can also turn on reverb. It sounds great going into a DAW directly from the XLR DIs. The headphone jack is a little more complicated and confusing, as I change the mic position, it appears to change the panning, which is not what I would expect. I haven't played it with a cab yet. I got it to have a more streamlined live amp pedal, but after making some concessions, I might just stick with my Opus with one amp setting for live and be more creative with a drive pedal. That being said, I'm not really sure what to do with the DLX, but it's nice to have an extra amp pedal around. It sounds great, but not that different from what I can do with the Opus. The only plus side IMO is that it has 2 channels and comes with a footswitch, if switching between amp channels were a thing one would like to have.

Baroni Labs Bass AMP 200




It's a pedal amp. 200 W @ 4 ohms. However, the brick power supply it comes with is rated for 40 V @ 5 A output, which is 200 W, so unless the class D amplifier in this thing is 100% efficient, you're never going to actually get 200 W out of this thing. Or maybe the power supply is conservatively rated and can actually put out more power. Regardless, it's plenty loud as-is.
The tone stack controls don't have enough range to be super useful, but I was still able to dial in something that sounded good.
It has a built-in optical compressor, which is handy. The footswitch toggles the compressor. There's no main power on/off switch, so it's on as soon as you connect the power jack. Includes an effects loop and a DI output, which is nice to have, but you'd likely need to carry a 1/4" to XLR adapter if you want to use the DI on stage.
The weak part is the internal construction. I bought this one cheap with an intermittent low volume/distortion issue, which I traced down to a bad solder joint at the master volume pot. All of the pots have a small PCB soldered to them, which has a 3-pin connector that runs to the main board. It's a lot of extra solder joints and potential points of failure, but I'm sure it makes assembly much easier at the factory.
Additionally, there are some fairly large components on the board which aren't really secured to protect them from breaking due to vibration, including a large electrolytic cap and the two class-D output filter inductors. I put some silicone adhesive on them to help brace them. The ceramic 1uF input cap that comes right off the input jack was also pretty microphonic when I tapped on it, so I replaced it with a 1.5 uF film cap.
The power supply brick is as big as the pedal itself, so you need to manage that, but it's not a big deal to hide it under your pedalboard or something.
Overall, it's not a bad option to keep in your bag or on your pedalboard as a backup amp on tour or something, but I don't know that I would rely on it as my one and only amp without doing some simple preventative maintenance to counter some of its mechanical shortcomings.

Benchmark Media DAC1. I've never really used a decent DAC before. Picked it up used for cheap on audiogon of all places. It's the model without USB input but the seller included an Anedio USB to SPDIF converter. This isn't the latest and greatest, but jebus it's nice. I'm not even listening to anything lossless yet and it makes a big difference. The internal preamp and headphone amp are no joke. PC usb to Anedio coax to DAC1, XLR to Hypex UcD400's to B&W Matrix HTMs. Sounds effortless, to use dumb audiophile terminology. Lets good recordings sound like they should.

I got a decent deal on a couple of used Golden Age Premier 1073 Neve preamp clones. Good transformers. No surface mount, all through hole. Pretty good feel to the quality. Sound really good, especially for stuff with girth like a Kick or as a Bass DI. Great as a Bass DI actually. I like them.