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llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 6:56 pm Yes, maybe not for your setup specifically, but for general PC setup for music recording, there’s a lot here:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/windows- ... de-part-1/

It’s windows 10 or 11 centered, so not sure if it applies to you, but I wish I started here instead of the Latencymon rabbit hole - and definitely wish I had read it before buying my laptop.

Awesome. Thanks

Disabled sleep on windows, SSL Madixtreme card hasn't disappeared since. I got sick of messing with its WDM driver for non-DAW stuff. That driver is almost unusable so I just removed it. I ended up settling on Voicemeeter to just fake the WDM stuff, and it works fucking great. I can now do general listening and goddamn zoom calls through this Stagetec tower of power. SSL ASIO driver works great.

If you haven't checked out the voicemeeter stuff, it's worth having a look at. Bridged the WDM/ASIO gap nicely. Pretty straightforward. I don't care for the aesthetic, but I'm not gonna mess with it now that it's doing what I want. There's different versions with more flexibility/features, but I'm just using the basic one. Banana and Potato were more than I need it for.

https://vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/index.htm

thecr4ne wrote: Sun Jan 26, 2025 10:17 pm Disabled sleep on windows, SSL Madixtreme card hasn't disappeared since. I got sick of messing with its WDM driver for non-DAW stuff. That driver is almost unusable so I just removed it. I ended up settling on Voicemeeter to just fake the WDM stuff, and it works fucking great. I can now do general listening and goddamn zoom calls through this Stagetec tower of power. SSL ASIO driver works great.

If you haven't checked out the voicemeeter stuff, it's worth having a look at. Bridged the WDM/ASIO gap nicely. Pretty straightforward. I don't care for the aesthetic, but I'm not gonna mess with it now that it's doing what I want. There's different versions with more flexibility/features, but I'm just using the basic one. Banana and Potato were more than I need it for.

https://vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/index.htm

We use VB Audio Virtual Cable all the time and I've used Voicemeter a few times to route stuff for OBS. Works really well. I am interested in their networking protocol "Matrix" and VBan looks cool too. They make some useful fucking tools.

1965 Kay Vanguard 706-A


"passes a very weak signal"

Solid state, all germanium transistors, including the two big guys on the heatsink. 15" alnico speaker, made by Gefco, dated "6528". Would have originally been covered in yellowish-tan tolex, but somebody ripped that off a long time ago and threw some stain and finish on the wood instead. Back panel would have been covered in matching grill cloth, but that was also removed.

It worked when it arrived, but channel 1's volume control did nothing and the trem for that channel wasn't working at all. Channel 2 had low output and working trem. I did a full recap and replaced the burned out lamp with a bayonet-base 12 V LED replacement. Also swapped out the two-prong power cord for a grounded 3-pronger and removed the death cap. Still the same symptoms as before. I started measuring for differences between channels and eventually found that channel 1's tone pot was wired incorrectly at the terminal strip. One leg of the pot was supposed to be grounded and it was connected to the adjacent terminal instead. May have come from the factory that way, as it was old solder that I hadn't touched during the recap. ASCIISHRUG

Swapped the wire over to the adjacent ground terminal and everything started working normally again. Pretty warm sound from this thing, breaks up nicely, in a germanium way, and the trem is pretty usable. Maybe 15 W output? Definitely a cool little recording amp. I'm going to add some aluminum screen to the back panel to keep hands from touching the circuit and maybe provide a bit more shielding, but I don't think I'm going to do any more cosmetic stuff to it.

Oktava MK-319



I've probably modded a dozen of these over the years for myself and other people. This one was sold as "it works when it wants," which I took to mean something intermittent. 1995 based on some component date codes. It's the series 3 board, which means you have to remove the bass cut and pad switches completely from the circuit to improve the response, but that's fine. To be honest, I didn't even test it before I tore into it. Did all the common stuff that people do to these, minus the FET swap because I've found that it really doesn't matter too much as long as the original Russian one works and isn't noisy. Also damped the ringing in the headbasket with some adhesive rubberized stuff. Got a $10 shockmount, and now we're in business. Whatever was intermittent doesn't seem to be a problem anymore.

Mesa M6 Carbine



I had one of these that I sold a few years ago and kinda regretted it. This one popped up for about half the going rate, supposedly tested and working. The seller shipped it in a filthy 2U rack case/bag with no padding in the box, so of course the corners of the case were damaged. I plugged in the amp and it had almost no output. Bypassed the preamp by injecting a line-level signal into the effects return and it sounded fine. When I went to plug back into the main input, I got shocked by the cable (my bass wasn't connected yet). Measured about 500 V on the input jack. Something was definitely shorted in the tube preamp circuit.

At that point, I contacted the seller and asked for a partial refund and sent him my photos. He asked for a video documenting everything, maybe to ensure I wasn't trying to scam him or something. He agreed to a partial refund. I'll give him credit, he was very responsive and I think this may have been his first ever reverb sale, as he didn't have any feedback.

Tube tester showed a short in the 12AX7 between pins 6 and 7 (plate 1 and grid 1). That voltage also took out the first stage opamp (TL072) to the point where it was sagging the +/- 15V rails, so I dropped in an OPA2134PA and a new tube. Everything seems to be working now. I glued the rack case back together and ran the bag through the washing machine.

Reverb eventually gave me a full refund and told me to just keep it. So... yeah, free amp.

Nate Dort wrote: Wed Mar 12, 2025 7:21 pm Mesa M6 Carbine

Reverb eventually gave me a full refund and told me to just keep it. So... yeah, free amp.

Free amp, at the cost of a substantial electric shock. Plate voltage on the cable!?!? Damn, dude.

P.S. I modeled the M9 Carbine for Helix, and I love that damn amp!

I havent seen a schematic for that amp but it seems crazy that plate voltage could event get to the input jack. Does it not have a standard 1M grid resistor?

No idea, I didn't trace it out and there's no schematic to be found for this guy. You'd think that there would be some sort of series decoupling cap on the grid input, but here we are. Next time I have it open I'll take a look. That may be sooner than later, as I want to do the same mod to this on that I did on the previous one I owned: swap the 100k linear master volume pot for a log pot. The linear one is nearly unusable because it's skull-crushingly loud at about 2.

The shock was fairly mild since it was current limited by the plate resistor, but I still felt it. Way less than the one time (young and dumb) I got B+ voltage across my chest straight from the power supply. My left arm was tingly for about 20 minutes after that one. Dodged a bullet there.
I also may have caught it before it got all the way up to 500V, as there was about a 10-15 second rise-time on it when I measured it afterwards.

Supro S6497



This is kind of an enigma of the Supro lineup. There's no model name on it (like Thunderbolt, Taurus, Royal, Statesman, etc). It's got a single 15" Jensen like the Thunderbolt, but with two channels and tremolo. Circuit-wise, it's closer to a Gretsch 6159 "Dual Bass" (also made by Valco). Very similar knob layout, and the power amp section is also mounted remotely. Cathode-biased 6L6GC output stage, bias-wiggle tremolo. Three 12AX7s.

It was filthy when I got it, as the photos above show. All of the chrome was pitted and rusty. Date codes place it to 1965.
I completely disassembled it. Soaked the control panel in evaporust overnight and then hit it with chrome polish and then wax. Scrubbed the tolex with dish detergent and blasted it with the hose. It wasn't nicotine, just a yellowed layer of grime. Came off fairly easily.



Before and after scrubbing:



The speaker had a couple of obvious holes and a hidden tear in the cone. I repaired those with rubber cement and tissue paper glued to the back side.



Somebody had recapped it about 20 years ago and converted to a diode rectifier. I only replaced that silver cap because it was bulging at the positive end (you can see it in the photo) and two 'lytics in the preamp that hadn't been replaced.



I 3D printed a new logo for the front.
Replaced the rubber feet.
Cleaned the knobs and handle in the ultrasonic cleaner.
Replaced all of the rusty jack washers and nuts.
Added a 3-prong cord and removed the death cap.
Replaced all of the trim screws with new chrome ones.
Glued down a few loose flaps of tolex here and there.
Cleaned and lubed all the pots, jacks, and tube sockets.

New Supro grill cloth is nowhere to be found, so I'm going to leave it for now. Sounds awesome.