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DIY Stompboxes => Building your own stompbox => Topic started by: Transmogrifox on June 07, 2004, 04:34:37 PM

Title: Slightly OT Interesting Amp mod I saw
Post by: Transmogrifox on June 07, 2004, 04:34:37 PM
I have a buddy that has one of those "wanna-be" tube sim mosfet amps by Peavey.  He was severely disappointed at how thin and treble-ey it is so he took a power transformer (I think 120 to 15V or so) and put the secondary coil in series with his speaker to the output.  That amp sounds 100% better.  He showed it to me and it sounded like the amp was completely different.  I think he even got some saturation of the core from it.

So if any of you have a solid state amp that sounds a little weak you may want to give something like this a try.
Title: Slightly OT Interesting Amp mod I saw
Post by: Paul Marossy on June 07, 2004, 07:27:43 PM
Hmm.... that is interesting, indeed. So, I guess that is acting like an inductor of sorts?
Title: Slightly OT Interesting Amp mod I saw
Post by: davebungo on June 07, 2004, 07:46:28 PM
I would check that the impedance presented to the amp is not significantly higher before trying this.  Some amplifiers object.  In any case, it is worth consulting the amp manufacturer if you are not happy with the sound of an amplifier - they are probably in the best position to offer advice, and it is in their interest to provide proper support.  A company like Peavey should be very supportive I would have thought.
Title: Slightly OT Interesting Amp mod I saw
Post by: Lonestarjohnny on June 07, 2004, 07:53:39 PM
If you look at a lot of old amp's from the 40's, 50's, and 60's you'll see this done alot, on all the old Silvertone's that I like so much you'll find a small transformer tied between the speaker's from the sec. winding's, nuttin wrong with it if the amp seem's to like it, I know this much, if you take the tranny out of a Silvertone like a lot of them I've seen modified you do loose some tone, I'm no engineer so I can't explain this to you, maybe Peter or RG can.
JD
Title: Slightly OT Interesting Amp mod I saw
Post by: Paul Marossy on June 07, 2004, 07:55:37 PM
Being completely SS (I assume), it's probably more tolerant of an impedance mismatch. Unless we hear in the very near future that the amp blew up...  :wink: