[Harp-L] Amping up and looping UR amp

[Michael Easton <diachrome@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The speaker blew out on one of my vintage amps a few weeks ago during  
a gig.  Rick Smith was kind enough to rush home and loan me his DR  
reissue for the remainder of the evening.

Durning the rest of the gig I noticed his DR was nicer to work with  
then my vintage 65 DR.  I put my Deluxe Reverb in the shop last year  
for a general tune up.  I didn't want to wait for something to fail
when my amp tech could find a problem long before I could find it.    
He replaced what needed to be replaced except for the original  
speaker.  He said it was starting to go.  IT sounded fine to me so I  
figured I would use it until it starts to sound bad.  Speakers don't  
start to sound bad, they just die... mid gig.

After the speaker blew up on my backup amp I decided it was time to  
replace the DR speaker before it died.   I own a couple 8 inch Weber  
speakers so when it came time to replace this one
Weber was my first choice.    They recommend using a 50 watt instead  
of a 22 watt speaker for the DR with light doping of the cone if  
effects are going to be used.  I use a couple pedals including the  
full size POG 2 for organ effect.  IF anything can kill a weak speaker  
the POG will in a heartbeat.  The speaker arrived yesterday and was  
installed a few hours later.

DAMN. what an improvement.  It was like my ears popped and I could  
suddenly hear the tone and growl of the amp.  The speaker sounds a bit  
mid heavy with my 545 but the eq's on the dry channel now have more  
functionality to dial in. I was locked into one setting before just  
trying to get it to sound good.   Also while the DR could be loud on  
stage the sound would thin out in the room if the band was playing  
loud. My old band use to tell me to turn down while the audience told  
me to turn up.  I think the weak speaker had volume but lacked the  
balls needed to hold and project the tone.   Now when I honk out a  
note I can feel the vibration in my gut.  I haven't felt that since  
owning a 1961 Concert amp.  IF you DR owners want to step it up a bit  
without having to buy a new amp try the replacement amp Weber  
recommends on their website.  It is geared toward RI  DR owners but if  
you have a vintage amp/speaker it might be good to have an amp tech  
check it  out then get a Weber if needed.

The next thing I did was unplug the original RCA jacks from the reverb  
tank and replaced them with gold tip RCA's.  75% of  the hum that is  
inherent when using reverb in this vintage Fender was gone.
There is still some but it's not noisy like it use to be.   I still  
have all the original parts and they will go back on the amp if I  
decide to sell it someday. Original = $$.

The final change I made was how I connect the pedals and processor.   
This will work for any amp that has 2 inputs each for wet and dry  
channels.  Most of us here know about channel bridging (running a jack  
from the dry channel to the wet channel to make use of both).  You can  
also use that method to get better tone from your effects if you don't  
have an amp with effect loop input.   This works real nice for pedals  
like Dano's that are tone suckers or processors that aren't made for  
the high input of mics.

Plug your mic into the #1 input of your dry channel, then run a jack  
out of #2 dry input to your effect(s) then back into either the #1or  
#2 input of the wet channel.  What you end up with is all the fat tone  
of the dry channel and complete control of the level of mix of your  
effects in the wet channel without washing out your tone. You no  
longer need to sacrifice tone for effect.  Dust off some of those  
pedals that didn't quite make the grade and reconnect them using this  
method.   While I gave away my tone suckers years ago this still works  
nice for pedals that have direct bypass.

Those of you that use Digitech and other processors may find you like  
this method of hookup better.  I know it works great with my Yamaha  
Reverb processor which wasn't made for direct mic input.



Michael Easton
www.harmonicarepair.com