Pierre
Stratologist
Well my ol' Laney AOR30 needed some work... so I ordered some caps (16uf/475V to replace 15uf/450V) and a new speaker, an Emincence Cannabis Rex.
First things first... speaker. Open it up, try to put it in and... it doesn't fit! ARGH! Didn't know what to do. So I tried to find out why, and figured it out. And then I had the genius idea of attacking my amp with THIS:
That ledge there was what was keeping the Emi out.
On the picture I'd already sawn out most of it. I then used a file to smooth things out. Then in went the speaker.
Then I had to wire in 4 caps in. Here's the old board:
Two days ago I'd also replaced the main filter cap, an old LCR 50uf+50uf by a JJ of equal specs.
And here it is now:
Tada! Was dead easy. With the help of some TGP guys I managed without ANY issues. I simply undid all the pots from the chassis, desoldered the reverb tank terminals that were in the way, and lifted the PCB off one side. Then back in without a single issue.
After that I tightened the power tube sockets. I don't have any contact cleaner so I didn't do that, but next time I think, at least on the preamp valves.
Valves are a 12AT7 in V1, a TAD 7025 in V2, a quiet EH12AX7 in V3 and a JJECC83S in the PI. Dunno if I'll keep these in this order... we'll see. Two JJ6V6S in the power valve sockets.
Fired it up and... nothing wrong at all! Much more quiet, I have now a little more volume, the bass don't fart out when I crank up the input, and the gain channel is not very useable, fantastic crunch in fact! Very JCM800 alike, A LOT more than before. Takes the Plexitone and ACTone even better now too
Which is awesome. I think now it's sounding just about as good as it could. I only have about 160 pounds in this amp by the way... not too shabby. It's VERY tough finding a balance between a clean sound and a nice OD by the way, as it doesn't have an OD channel, but more of a boost. You get three gain stages + another footswitchable... but it's actually even weirder.
You have preamp1, preamp2, preamp1 level, master volume. Gasp. Still not entirely sure of what is what... but anyway with this you can't really have a nice clean sound and a light OD. It's mostly very ligth crunch, cleanable with your volume pot, and very nice medium gain OD. Not so bad. It's still not a very loud amp though, but it's also got boosts on the EQ pots and a lot more gain on tap.
Also quite a bassy amp. I still have to keep the presence down some, but it's not as piercing and annoying as before. Just right in a way, in that I still have some room if I need more brightness!
Awesome stuff.
First things first... speaker. Open it up, try to put it in and... it doesn't fit! ARGH! Didn't know what to do. So I tried to find out why, and figured it out. And then I had the genius idea of attacking my amp with THIS:
That ledge there was what was keeping the Emi out.
On the picture I'd already sawn out most of it. I then used a file to smooth things out. Then in went the speaker.
Then I had to wire in 4 caps in. Here's the old board:
Two days ago I'd also replaced the main filter cap, an old LCR 50uf+50uf by a JJ of equal specs.
And here it is now:
Tada! Was dead easy. With the help of some TGP guys I managed without ANY issues. I simply undid all the pots from the chassis, desoldered the reverb tank terminals that were in the way, and lifted the PCB off one side. Then back in without a single issue.
After that I tightened the power tube sockets. I don't have any contact cleaner so I didn't do that, but next time I think, at least on the preamp valves.
Valves are a 12AT7 in V1, a TAD 7025 in V2, a quiet EH12AX7 in V3 and a JJECC83S in the PI. Dunno if I'll keep these in this order... we'll see. Two JJ6V6S in the power valve sockets.
Fired it up and... nothing wrong at all! Much more quiet, I have now a little more volume, the bass don't fart out when I crank up the input, and the gain channel is not very useable, fantastic crunch in fact! Very JCM800 alike, A LOT more than before. Takes the Plexitone and ACTone even better now too
Which is awesome. I think now it's sounding just about as good as it could. I only have about 160 pounds in this amp by the way... not too shabby. It's VERY tough finding a balance between a clean sound and a nice OD by the way, as it doesn't have an OD channel, but more of a boost. You get three gain stages + another footswitchable... but it's actually even weirder.You have preamp1, preamp2, preamp1 level, master volume. Gasp. Still not entirely sure of what is what... but anyway with this you can't really have a nice clean sound and a light OD. It's mostly very ligth crunch, cleanable with your volume pot, and very nice medium gain OD. Not so bad. It's still not a very loud amp though, but it's also got boosts on the EQ pots and a lot more gain on tap.
Also quite a bassy amp. I still have to keep the presence down some, but it's not as piercing and annoying as before. Just right in a way, in that I still have some room if I need more brightness!
Awesome stuff.
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