Guitar Dreamer

Harley Benton TE-52 NA telecaster mods

2022-11-27T22:00:00.000+02:00

This is the famous Harley Benton TE-52 telecaster guitar.

This guitar has been released by Thomann years ago but its latest iteration features are slightly roasted (a.k.a. "Caramelized") neck and a solid ash body.

To be honest I used to own one of the models of the previous generation and it sounded really nice but the neck felt a bit "unfinished" while the body was quite heavy.

The new model seems to have a neck that is finished nicely and the body seems to be a bit lighter.

When I received the latest model, I was not disappointed at all. I was actually impressed by the fit and finish and its sounds, right out of the box.

Link to this guitar model:

https://thmn.to/thoprod/223985?partner_id=73786

The official guitar specs are:

Body: American ash

Bolt-on neck: Caramelised Canadian maple with Roseacer skunk stripe

Fretboard: Caramelised maple

Dot inlays

Neck profile: C

Fretboard radius: 305 mm

21 Frets

Scale: 648 mm

Nut width: 42 mm

Pickups: 2 Roswell TEA Alnico-5 TE-style single coils

1 Volume and 1 tone control

3-Way switch

Deluxe chrome hardware

Kluson-style machine heads

Factory strings: .010 - .046

Colour: Natural High- gloss

The good:

There were no sharp fret edges, sharp fret tops or weird neck relief (despite the guitar arriving cold). Also, all the electronics work nicely, without scratching noises or any on/off potentiometer taper feel/operation.

The Roswell TEA Alnico-5 TE-style single coil pickups actually sound really good! There is plenty of treble that you can of course control via the tone control and no feedback or microphonic noises. They are not very high output pickups of course, but the bridge pickup can still be used for some heavy metal riffs with the right amplifier or distortion pedal.

The bad:

The only downsides were 1) After adjusting the action, the action adjustment screws were protruding from the saddle and thus hurting the palm during palm muting, 2) The stock string tress were producing clicking and rattling noises.

The fix: Let the (minimal) mods begin!

Shimming the neck:

The issue with the action adjustment screws is of course very easy to fix by replacing the screws with shorter ones, grinding down the bottoms of the screws or simply adding a neck shim to the neck pocket. I chose the latter since it's easy and totally free of charge!

Adding a thin neck shim made out of paper or carton is the easiest modification you can do to an affordable bolt-on neck guitar and fixes lots of issues such as high action, weird intonation and even tuning stability issues sometimes.

In this case, I just cut out a piece of laminated paper and created a neck shim that is about 0.5mm thick. The shim was placed at the base of the neck pocket.

I used a tiny drop of glue and secured the paper shim to body. Then a bolted the neck back on and adjusted the guitar. The action was nice and low (1.2mm on the high-E string side and 1.3mm on the low-E side). Also, the action adjustment screws do not protrude anymore.

Upgrading the string tree:

The stock string trees are very simple and they were not tightened very well.

We I tightened their bolts, the rattling noises went away but while tuning the guitar I could still hear some clicking noises. I lubricated the nut using an HB-2 type pencil (classic trick! for tuning stability: https://youtu.be/5mvD8vgROJI ) to make sure the clicking noise was not being produced by the nut. However, the noise did not go away. I remove the string tree of the G and D strings altogether and replaced the one for the High-E and B strings with a roller type tree. The noises went away and the guitar stays in tune for long. An upgrade that costs a few bucks fixed all the remaining issues of the guitar. Cost of the mods so far: 1.90 Eur (!).

Would I modify this guitar further?

-The short answer is: No(!). This guitar sounds and plays nice as is.

-The long answer would be: Yes, I can modify the guitar even more, but it does not really require any improvements at the moment. In the future, I am thinking of replacing the saddles with compensated brass ABM VCS-Saddles to get a perfect intonation and slightly different tones

The 250K Ohm 17mm housing controls can be replaced with quality 24mm ones.

The tone control capacitor can be replaced by an Orange Drop one.

The stock 3-way switch can be replaced by a 4-way Fender switch for additional in-series pickup tones:

The jack can be replaced by a high quality Switchcraft one.

The tuners can be replaced by Kluson vintage ones for even more precise and easier tuning.

The nut can also be replaced with a bone or a graph-tech one.

Overall, this is a very nice guitar for a very low price and it is definitely worth a shot, regardless of mods or upgrades. It's a good base for mods but it will play nicely in its stock form too.

Just adjust it to your liking and playing style with the strings of your choice, and take it on the road!

Owning a few more expensive telecasters I can say that I really don't mind adding some miles to this guitar, maybe physically relic'ing it in the process, all while having lots of fun!

Cheers,

Thanos

Harley Benton CST-24 DLX mods and upgrades

2021-08-16T19:43:00.003+03:00

This is a beautiful PRS style copy by Harley Benton at a fraction of the cost.

I was looking for a PRS looking guitar and found this guitar at the official Harley Benton source, Thomann of course!

This is the CST-24 Black Cherry Flame Deluxe model with Rosewell Alnico5 humbucker pickups and a set-in neck joint!

The guitar was fine right out of the box but I wanted to customize it and set it up to my liking of course.

Here are the specifications of this guitar:

Body: Mahogany
Arched top: Flamed maple
Set-in mahogany neck
Fretboard: "Roasted" jatoba
Neck profile: C
Fretboard radius: 350 mm
24 Frets
Fretboard inlays: Pearloid dots
Neck and body binding
Scale: 635 mm
Nut width: 42 mm
Graphite nut
Pickup: 2 Roswell HAF AlNiCo-5 open coil humbuckers
3-Way switch
1 Volume and 1 tone control with push / pull function for coil split
DLX chrome hardware
DLX GTB wrap-over bridge
DLX machine heads
Ex-factory stringing: D'Addario EXL-110 .010 - .046
Color: Black Cherry Flame

Thomann link for the current model:

https://www.thomann.de/de/harley_benton_cst_24_black_cherry_flame_dlx.htm

First impressions before the mods:

The fist thing I did when I unboxed the guitar was to check it for any visible issues, check its neck relief action and also the action.

Action:

The setup was Ok despite the action being a bit higher than I would personally prefer. It was set to about 2mm on each side of the 12th fret but still normal and under the manufacturer's specs:

https://www.thomann.de/gb/onlineexpert_page_guitar_care_string_action.html

You can read more about guitar action measurements at:

https://www.guitaranswerguy.com/guitar-action-good-string-height/

I lowered the string action to about 1.5mm for extra comfort, without any issues.

Fret polishing

The sides of the frets were smooth but the the tops needed a bit of polishing.

Polishing the fret tops with some polishing pads or rubber while using a fret guard to protect the fretboard was not hard at all:

https://youtu.be/BA7XUd4yjVs

The nut

Also, the B string was dragging and clicking a bit on the nut. For this price, I cannot complain though. I run a pencil across the nut slots which solved the clicking issue and improved tuning stability a lot:

https://youtu.be/baWDXgTWlfI

I also stretched the strings to render the tuning really stable:

https://youtu.be/2oNjus6iAUA

The electronics worked beautifully and the tone had a nice and mellow midrange to it.

The guitar has been set up in standard E-tuning with 10-46 D'Addario strings from the factory but I prefer Ernie Balls to be honest.

The guitar is now highly playable, with low action. It also has a wrap-around bridge for tuning stability.

The electronics

The electronics worked beautifully and the tone had a nice and mellow midrange to it. The pickups both split into single coils for extra tonal options!

Video demo of the guitar: https://youtu.be/ayY_jApPqmI

Let the mods begin!

The humbuckers were at first replaced with a set of nickel covered Roswell LAF pickups. The difference was not huge but the covered pickups sounded a bit more mellow with less bighting treble and less low end. I think the main tonal difference was due to the covers and different distance of the pickup bobbins from the strings. I liked the covered pickups a bit better on the guitar for some Santana-inspired tones. Nothing wrong with the open coils though.

https://roswellpickups.com/product-category/guitar/

More mods!

I wanted to see if replacing the pickups to something way different would make a huge tonal difference.

I have therefore installed a custom handmade set of very special SALAY pickups on the guitar. The neck pickup is an AlNiCo-V P90 style pickup with a frame and the bridge pickup is an AlNiCo-V mini humbucker. These pickups are very special and all hand-made. They sounded really awesome on this guitar. Suddenly, it was like the treble was turned to 11 and the midrange was still there, apparent. The custom set costs maybe more than the guitar itself but it was a good experiment. I wanted to test this set on a more affordable guitar just to see how much of a difference a set of pickups can make on a guitar that does not have the most exotic wood and therefore does not cost thousands. I was positively surprised.

Although handmade pickups used to very expensive in the past, there are affordable options currently online. A search around eBay and Reverb will get you across some affordable yet decent hand-wound pickups.

Conclusion:

Harley Benton guitar of this price range are decent and I would recommend them to people that wish to buy a guitar for their home studio or to experiment with a new guitar shape they are not familiar with. A bit of TLC, work and some minor upgrades can get you a really decent guitar at a low price. You do not have to replace the pickups to something handmade of course. The stock pickups are actually way better than most stock pickups of well known guitar brands at the same price point. Even if something is wrong with your guitar, bear in mind that Thomann offers a 3-year world-wide warranty on these guitars! The risk is therefore even lower when you buy an HB guitar new from the Thomann store.

Cheers,

Thanos

Easy Behringer UM-300 mods!

2021-07-18T11:51:00.001+03:00

The Behringer UM-300 is a very affordable distortion pedal and it's actually a copy of the famous "metal pedal" Boss MT-2 "metal zone". In its stock form, it sounds pretty close to the original:

https://youtu.be/WK1CTRhdfqg

https://youtu.be/6y8sxE01Uys

The metal zone pedal is famous for its high gain sounds but it usually sounds like a wah wah pedal is connected just before it, as it has this "nasal" mids sound to it.

It's like having a wah pedal connected between your guitar and the MT-2 and the it sounds like to pedal is set to a certain "middle of the way" position. Sometimes, turning down the tone control of your guitar makes little to no difference when using the metal zone pedal. This means that the pedal has a built-in pre-filter (before the clipping stage) and that's actually true. This is what provides this pedal with its specific voicing. This is a love or hate feature of the boss MT-2 and therefore the Um-300 as well.

Let's now get to the easiest mod ever:

If you check the schematic of the Um-300, you will notice the following components on the 1st stages of its circuit:

Removing C18 (10nF) will eliminate one part of the pre-distortion "gyrator" filter. This will make the pedal more sensitive to the treble and the tone control settings of your guitar. Since C18 is a surface-mount component, you can easily remove it by heating up both solder joints of the capacitor almost at the same time. C18 can then be lifted from the board. This small capacitor will most likely stick to your soldering iron if you heat up both solder joints.

You could also clip the solder joints of the capacitors with a pair of diagonal pliers but this could damage the component and the pcb as well.

I would suggest to keep this small capacitor in case you wish to revert the pedal back to its stock form but such tiny components are very affordable if you happen to damage them or loose them. Likely the whole UM-300 pedal is very affordable in case you wish to experiment even further.

Further easy mods:

If you liked the result of the first stage of the easy UM-300 mods, I would suggest to proceed further and remove even more components. The C19 and C20 capacitors also contribute to the gyrator type filter that produces the characteristic "nasal mids" and scooped EQ tones of the UM-300 pedal.

Removing these 2 capacitors the same way -by heating up both solder joints - will result in a more "open" type distortion and a way more versatile EQ controls section. No more weird and scooped middle frequencies!

Please let me know if you liked the results of these pedal mods. Should you require any assistance, please feel free to write a comment below.

Tools I like to use for my projects:

www.thomann.de/gr/ersa_multi_pro_20w.htm?partner_id=73786

www.thomann.de/gr/rockcare_fret_rocker_fret_levelling.htm?partner_id=73786

www.thomann.de/gr/ibanez_multitool_hex_wrench_mtz11.htm?partner_id=73786

www.thomann.de/gr/groovetech_tools_stagehand_compact_tech_kit.htm?partner_id=73786

www.thomann.de/gr/goeldo_ws045_fretboard_guard.htm?partner_id=73786

www.thomann.de/gr/dunlop_lemon_oil.htm?partner_id=73786

Cheers,

Thanos

Kustom KG100 Hfx mods!

2018-04-18T11:46:00.003+03:00

The Kustom kg100hfx guitar amp is a solid state head that puts out 100W of pure analog power (no class-D or switching systems here) and it costs only 180Euro! I bought the previous generation (2010) KG100Hfx model and I modified it! The new model is basically the same amp with a different front-side tolex colour and different plastic knobs.
The control panel itself is pretty simple and basic with two channels, a common EQ setting, high and low inputs for passive/active pickups respectively and 3 effects (2 can be used simultaneously).
Over to the back panel, there is a speaker output capable of driving 4 to 16 Ohm speaker cabs and a classic serial FX-loop (only send and return jacks).
I opened up the amp and found a big transformer for the power supply which is good and rare for this price nowadays. Transformers can last forever while switching power supplies in most solid state and digital amps have all kinds of problems after a few years of regular use. The PCB design and the quality of the components is decent.
This is a highly serviceable amplifier with large electronic components. Maybe it's the last amp head of its kind since most companies produce low cost and low quality pcbs with switching power supplies, digitally controlled channels and settings plus class-D output amplifier modules (similar modules can be found on eBay for 7$...).
There is no footswitch included but Thomann is selling a compatible two-button one for 12.90Euros:
www.thomann.de/gr/lead_foot_fs2.htm?partner_id=73786

So, how does it sound?
Ok, all this build quality stuff is good, but how does it perform? I would say that it sounds decent. There is no huge tonal variety but it's like having a simple super-clean amp and a Boss distortion pedal that you can turn on and off to get some dirty sounds.
The basic clean channel has plenty of punch and bass and it sound good with a strat/tele guitar. A les paul guitar could sound a bit bassy even with the bass eq turned down.
The overdrive channel on the other hand has less of low end punch and more treble. The amount of gain is Ok for blues, rock and even hard rock stuff but you are going to need a booster pedal for metal stuff, shredding or simply riffing with low output pickups. That's why I modified the amp!
The effects sound subtle and don't make a huge difference in tone which is why there is an added FX loop. You can turn the effects wet signal up a bit by modifying the amp as I will explain in a moment.

The mods!
At first, I wanted to get a bit more gain and less muddiness out of my humbucker equipped guitars. A treble booster pedal can solve this issue but there is a more permanent fix. This one was easy as I simply cut the legs of the R55 (220K) input resistor and removed it. The amp gained a bit of treble for the clean channel and a hint of gain boost for the OD channel.
The rest of the mods are pretty easy and reversible! You can do all of them without even removing the pcb. All I did was to bypass a few resistors with other resistor/capacitors simply by soldering their legs across the legs of the old components. I did not remove any old components (except R55 as mentioned previously).
Here are the mods for extra overdrive gain and a wet signal boost for the on-board effects:
1)Bypass R32 with a 1Mohm (MegaOhm) 1/4W resistor
2)Bypass R22 with a 22nF (nanoFarad), 63Vdc film capacitor
3)Bypass R27 with a 10kOhm 1/4W resistor
4)Bypass R8 with a 4,7kOhm 1/4W resistor

The amp sounds decent now and I can turn the reverb up quite a bit. There is also plenty of OD gain available on tap. I use the 1st input (Hi) mostly and I only operate the chorus effect on the clean channel. I tried a few overdrive and distortion pedals in front of the amp. The clean channel sounds good with most effects, even metal distortion ones. It's not performing like a clean tube amp but it's closer than most modern solid state amps of this price range.
The Kustom amps are nice underrated amps that can produce some interesting sounds when paired with a good cab and a couple of simple effect pedals.

Here are some photos:

Cheers,
Thanos

Joyo JF-03 mods!

2018-04-07T12:46:00.001+03:00

So I bought the JOYO JF-03 Crunch Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal from Thomann.de with the harley benton logo. It's basically the Joyo electronic board and housing with a different brand logo.

The pedal is well built and it sound really good. It's supposed to be a clone of the MI audio CrunchBox pedal. There's plenty of gain from this really simple two-stage circuit and the tone is marshall-like.

It's strongly based on the V.2 CrunchBox. The schematic diagram is shown below. However, the electronic component markings of the Joyo pcb and the schematic DO NOT match in most cases:

(Credit: http://revolutiondeux.blogspot.gr/2012/01/mi-audio-crunch-box.html )

There are many youtube demos available and the pedal is really worth a try for 30 bucks. However, I wanted to tweak its circuit a little bit in order to unlock its full potential and try a few different tones.

Let the mods begin!

-Different clipping distortion flavor:
This one is an easy & classic mod. The pair or red LEDs are responsible for clipping the boosted guitar signal. Replacing only one of these leds with a different color led or a diode (e.g. 1N4001) will lead to asymmetrical clipping which sounds more tube-like with richer harmonics. I simple bypassed the LED marked as D2 with a 1n4001 diode. The diode has a smaller forward voltage drop so you don't have to remove the red Led from the pcb. Just solder the diode across the led's legs. You don't even have to pay much attention to its polarity as the leds are wired back to back in parallel.

-Less bass and muddy response:
The goal here is to roll off a bit of low end in order to get a clearer british tone when using a guitar equipped with humbuckers. I replaced c4 and c5 capacitors with 0.1uF=100nF/63V film ones.

-Top Boost!
Rolling off a bit of bass leads to less gain but we can make up for it with a bit of top end boost! I simply replaced R4 (1K resistor) with a 680ohm 1/8W resistor.

-More lead!
-To get some extra gain and lead distortion, I replaced R5(10K resistor) with a 4.7Kohms 1/8W resistor.

-Treble adjustment:
The pedal has a built-in presence trimmer control! I adjusted this one for less treble in order to get an amp-like response with less nasty/fuzzy high frequencies.

Cheers,
Thanos

Flying-V project goes nuts!

2017-08-13T12:23:00.000+03:00

Building a custom relic'd Flying V guitar with a set-in neck and two powerful value-for-money zebra buckers! The guitar...
Posted by Guitar Dreamer on Sunday, August 13, 2017

"Hot-rails" light telecaster build!

2017-07-28T12:11:00.000+03:00

"Hot-rails" light telecaster build! I was not so much into "tele"-shaped guitars until recently.This is a new telecaster...
Posted by Guitar Dreamer on Friday, July 28, 2017

Laney RB-8 "Richter" bass amplifier repair

2017-07-15T21:27:00.001+03:00

Laney RB-8 "Richter" bass amplifier repair and maintenance! This is a monstrous 300W bass 1X15" combo with a 1" tweeter...
Posted by Guitar Dreamer on Saturday, July 15, 2017

Squier classic vibe stratocaster pickup upgrade!

2017-07-13T12:09:00.003+03:00

Squier classic vibe stratocaster pickup upgrade! The bridge position of this very nice guitar was in need of some extra...
Posted by Guitar Dreamer on Thursday, July 13, 2017

Fender Classic Player Baja Tele upgrades and mods!

2017-07-11T12:57:00.000+03:00

Mexican Telecaster upgrade and mods! Richie Kotzen style!
Posted by Guitar Dreamer on Saturday, June 24, 2017

Yamaha mc1602 mixer repair

2017-07-11T10:23:00.001+03:00

This vintage Yamaha mc1602 mixer was brought in by a friend. Some of its channels didn't work properly and most of the control pots were scratchy or even unusable. The previous owner claimed that the mixer had been thoroughly cleaned. Still, I found quite a lot of dust inside the board, on its back cover and on the pots. First I removed the dust with a piece of cloth and then sprayed the PCBs with compressed air. The pots and jacks were cleaned with contact cleaner spray, one by one to ensure all dust and filth was removed. Luckily, the pots of this mixer are classic open type metallic "guitar" pots, not cheap plastic closed type ones. The pots are not scratchy anymore but there were still a few issues with the VU meters and switches. I noticed that one of the four internal fuses was not making a good contact. I replaced the fuse and tightened up its holder with a pair of pliers. The mixer is now back in service and everything works as it should! What a classic sound it produces!

For more info, check this manual out: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/mbrs/recording_preservation/manuals/Yamaha%20MC802%3B%20MC1202%3B%20MC1602.pdf

Cheers,

Thanos

Line6 mods and improvements !

2017-07-07T14:39:00.002+03:00

The Line6 amplifiers are deeply hated or appreciated by their users and that's normal. Digital modelling amps can produce a variety of tones but not all of them sound good for everybody. I've owned and played most of the Spider and Spider-valve series amps, the PODs (portable + rack mount) and I've tested the Vetta mk1 2x12" combo. Surely, there are many more line6 products out there but in this article I am going to suggest a few tweaks, mods and Easter eggs for the Spider I-IV and Spider-valve amps.

http://line6.com

http://www.zzounds.com/item--LINSPII112

Easter eggs:

Did you know that every line6 spider-series amplifier has a switchable built-in 23dB clean booster and noise gate feature? Well, it does. The clean booster function is very useful even for the insane channel as it allows you to turn the gain of the channel down and get a more open/organic sound while maintaining the amount of overdrive and signal sensitivity.

How to turn ON/OFF the Clean Booster:

Turn the Gain knob from zero to ten while pressing and holding down the TAP button. This trick will turn the clean booster On. If you want to turn it off, turn the Gain knob from ten to zero while pressing and holding down the TAP button.

What about the noise gate feature? Well, you can turn On the built-in noise gate of your spider amp by turning the Reverb/Delay knob from zero to ten while pressing and holding down the TAP button. This trick will turn the noise gate On. If you want to turn it off, turn the Reverb/Delay knob from ten to zero while pressing and holding down the TAP button.

Channel tweaks:

Most of the line 6 spider amps have four channels marked as A, B, C and D. These are essentially memory banks where you can store your settings. The A channel is usually a clean setting, the B is usually a crunch/mild overdrive tone and the C and D channels are high gain distorted ones.

Here are a few tricks and tweaks for these channels:

1. Don't simply use the stock memory settings as they are usually awful! Don't be afraid to make changes to the stock settings and store them by pressing the A to D channels for 10 seconds. Always bear in mind that the current position of the knobs DOES NOT represent the stored settings of the channel expect for the Master Volume knob. Line 6 does not use a "what you see is what you get" interface. Therefore, you have to re-adjust the gain, EQ, level, modulation, reverb, delay etc. knobs to your taste in order to create a custom setting and store it.

2. Don't be afraid to alter the stock channels as you can always turn the amp back to its stock factory settings. The factory reset process is described in the manual of your amp. Here are the most common factory rest procedures for line6 products (Be careful though, this will ERASE all your settings and stored channels): http://line6.com/support/page/kb/_/general-faq/line-6-device-factory-reset-procedures-r435

3. Turn the gain and treble down! Yes, line6 amps do sound a bit trebly and the insane channel has some nasty highs. That's because people tend to turn the gain and treble very high... Even metal tones do not require tons of gain and treble & bass to sound go

he mids and level. Spider amps can sound good at high volumes, just like any other amp with Celestion-designed speakers IF you fiddle with the EQ/gain settings a bit. If you turn the gain pot down but you feel the need for some extra boost, you can always turn the hidden Clean Boost feature On and turn the noise gate Off! The "metal" channels do sound differently with the noise gate turned OFF.

4. What about the onboard effects? Do they all suck? No, they don't. It's just that their stock settings are not good at all. For instance, the stock clean/A channel has loads of phase/chorus and delay which usually sounds terrible if you are used to clean tones with just a bit of reverb.

MODS!

There are quite a few mods one can perform on his/her line6 amplifier and the easiest ones have to do with the speaker. The stock speaker on most line6 amps is a celestion copy. They are Ok speakers but there is plenty or room for improvement. The rule is that the less treble a speaker can produce, the better the overall tonal response of the modelling amp. These digital amps suffer from treble harshness and they do produce some nasty highs. These frequencies should be filtered out. Most digital audio devices (DACs, class-D amps, sound-cards) filter the distorted high frequencies their processors and output devices produce. A speaker that has less sensitivity at high frequencies is preferable for digital amps as it physically filters out the harsh high frequencies of the audio signal. For instance, I replaced the 8ohm celestion seventy-80 of my SpiderII 75 combo with a 16ohm g12k100 speaker which is more powerful in the middle-frequency and bass region and easier to drive. The result is awesome. The power amp stays cooler now and it does not produce harsh distorted (non-linear) harmonic frequencies. That's because the higher impedance and the different frequency response of the speaker favor this amp.

A speaker replacement is not always the cheapest or best option. It will make a difference but you can reduce the treble of the speaker using simple external crossover-type electronic filters. This is something almost every hi-fi speaker incorporates.

Here are a few articles on electronic speaker crossovers and filters:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_crossover

http://www.audioholics.com/loudspeaker-design/crossover

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-YK6M3LIUYY0/learn/learningcenter/car/crossovers.html

The simple idea is that you need to build a very simple crossover that will be connected to the speaker output of the power amp and the woofer. There is no tweeter on the spider guitar amps so you don't have to build the tweeter section of a crossover circuit. Here is a simple design tool that will help you design your own crossover for your amp:

https://www.diyaudioandvideo.com/Calculator/SpeakerCrossover/

All you need to know is the impedance of the stock line6 speaker and the cut=off frequency. Most celestion 12" guitar speakers are designed with a cut-off frequency of about 5kHz (=5000Hz). My line6 spider II has an 8-Ohm 12-inch "seventy-80" speaker so the treble cutoff frequency is around 5000 Hz according to celestion:

http://celestion.com/product/22/seventy_80/

However, with a 5000Hz crossover, the treble will be dramatically reduced as both the filter and the speaker will be reducing the amplitude of the audio frequencies above 5000Hz simultaneously. That's not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you like muddy tones but I decided to build a slightly less aggressive filter with a cutoff frequency of 9000Hz.

According to the design tool, I have to build or buy a 0.14mH coil for my woofer. I don't need the capacitor as I don't have a tweeter. I bought a 0.15mH coil instead that can handle currents up to 6A. The current handling is very important as the coil will get a bit hot and it should be able to withstand the output current of your power amp. Is my case, the spider 75 can produce P=75watts of power into an R= 8-ohm load. Here's the simple formula of P = R * I^2, where P=power, R=load resistance/impedance, I= output current. The output current "I" of the spider II 75 is around 3.06A, well below the 6A rating of the crossover coil.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5pcs-Toroid-Inductor-150uH-6A-23-5mm-x-11mm-/152593320651?hash=item2387454acb:g:OKYAAOSwWxNYt-Tm

Note: the new Spider V series amplifiers are all equipped with a woofer and a tweeter. A modification would be very simple in this case as you would only have to unplug one leg of the on-board tweeter to reduce treble. Let us know if you have performed this simple mod on a spider-V and what where the results in the comments below!

Not a fan of the V-series spiders and their price tags? Check out the cute little spider classic 15W practice amp: http://line6.com/spider-classics/ , www.thomann.de/gb/line6_spider_classic.htm?partner_id=73786

Cheers,

Thanos

Krank Distortus Maximus DIY and Mods!

2017-03-23T23:29:00.000+02:00

This is a Krank Distortus Maximus (DM) diy build with a few tweaks. This high gain pedal made originally by Krank is quite an interesting distortion pedal with minimum parts and an unconventional clipping circuit. The heart of the DM is the classic LM-386 chip (or JRC386). This is a small power amplifier chip designed for portable low-wattage devices. When this chip is overdriven, it sounds pretty much like an overdriven power amplifier and this is a good thing! Power amp distortion is what guitar players are seeking when they drive their tube amps to 11! The power tubes produce rich harmonics when driven near their limits. The decibels produced can be ear-bleeding though. That's why many low wattage high gain tube amps are being produced nowadays (such as the Blackstar Ht-1 1W tube amp). The DM is NOT a tube pedal but it sounds really good as it's based on the same principle.
Here's a photo of the original DM:

(Source: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/krank-distortus-maximus-distortion-pedal )

And here's the schematic diagram of the stock DM:

(Source: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=111870.0 )

Here's the board layout of the DM, suitable for DIY builds:

(Source: http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.gr/2011/01/krank-distortus-maximus.html )

Here's a couple of photos of my DIY DM that was built by a friend:

MODS!

Here's the modified schematic diagram for the DM:

Here are the mods:
I replaced the 56kOhm resistor just before the gain pot with a 220ohm one for extra gain.
Also, the 4.7nF capacitor at the input pin 3 of the LM386 chip was completely removed for a bright boost effect.

This pedal does not produce loads of low end like other metal distortion pedals do but I like it this way. It's more versatile and more "focused". It suits low tuned guitars and metal riffs but the lead/solo action is also pretty good with these extra modifications.
It's certainly a fun DIY pedal project for high gain tones!

More Bass, more level, less components:
If you need more bass, just a tone pot instead on an EQ and more output level, here'a modified DM schematic diagram:

Cheers,
Thanos

Marshall MG10 modification

2017-03-10T12:20:00.000+02:00

This is the Marshall MG10cd guitar amplifier. It's a really small amp with a 6.5" speaker, two channels with gain, volume and "contour"/EQ controls. It's a cheap unit that sounds better than most solid state 10W amps of this price category. The new MG10CF model does NOT share the same electronic circuit as the older gold-face MG10cd model. The new model is built with surface-mount components and it has a different pcb. The tone of the mg10cf is really close to the old model but the modifications I did only apply to the old model pictured bellow:

Here's the inside of the old MG10cd model:

And here's the inside of the new MG10CF model:

Source: http://www.twotrackmusic.com/ttmforums/index.php?topic=1032.0

There is a very thorough analysis of the MG10 electronic circuit here:
http://www.electrosmash.com/marshall-mg10

I modified this amp based on the analysis and the schematic diagrams provided by ElectroSmash.

Here's the schematic diagram of the mg10cd:

External Cab output!

This is an essential modification that can be done in most combo amplifiers. I wanted to hear the small mg10 amp through a 2X12" cab loaded with celestion V30 speakers. The tone would definitely be different. I didn't want to drill the tiny chassis of the mg10 but I also had no use for the headphone output jack. The amp sounds terrible through headphones by the way... This mod was easy. I removed the back of the amp (4 bolts), then I disconnected the speaker and removed the chassis of the amp from its wooden cab. I then removed the knobs and the washers that hold the main PCB of the amp in place and traced the headphones output jack. This is a stereo jack.

Here are the steps:
I replaced the R41 resistor with a jumper wire/short circuit. Then, I scraped the trace of the pcb that connects the middle pin of the stereo headphones jack to the hot/tip pin. The middle pin is not connected to anything now. Check the pictures bellow:

That's it! It's done! The amp can now be connected to an external cab via the phones jack. The internal speaker will be muted when an external cab is connected. I hooked it up to my 2X12" cab and it sounds huge! The tone is way better and of course the sound pressure level went up!
Important notice: Do NOT drive 4 ohm cabs with this little amp. The power amp runs colder with 8-16ohm cabs (even 4X12" and 1X15" ones). The low impedance loads (4 ohms or less) could damage the chip of the power amp.

Tone mods:
Here are a few more modifications that change the tonal characteristics of the amp. These mods do not alter the tonal character too much but they do provide extra gain and reduce the fuzzy treble.

Extra gain:
I replaced the R1 (10kOhms) resistor with a 100ohms (100R) one. This is how you get a couple dBs of a bright boost. It's a subtle modification.
Then, I replaced the R4 (6.8kOhms) resistor with a 10kOhms one. This will provide the amp with a clean boost. The clean channel does not sound overdriven at low volume settings but it sounds crunchier when you crank the volume up.
I also removed the R9 resistor for less OD/Clean channel crosstalk.
I removed the R6 resistor in order to increase the gain of the OD channel a bit more, without affecting the clean channel.
Less nasty/fuzzy treble:
The extra gain increased the fuzzy highs a bit so I had to replace the C22 (4.7nF) capacitor of the power amp with a 47nF one (code: 473) to reduce the treble.

Here's the modified schematic for the mg10cd amp (open in new tab for full size view):

How does it sound?
The amp sounds like a proper amplifier head unit via the 2X12" cab now. The tone is really good. The clean channel has plenty of punch and it sounds like a 5w tube amp when the clean level is cranked up. The OD channel sounds full with plenty of gain on tap even for dropped tunings and metal solos. It can also sound bluesy when the gain is set at lower levels.

Cheers,
Thanos

Boss HM-2 New Mods!

2017-01-02T15:31:00.003+02:00

Happy new year everyone!

Here's a Boss Hm-2 "Guitar Dreamer" modification! Can the death-metal-oriented HM-2 sound like a tube-screamer or other overdrive pedals? The answer is Yes!

Here's the schematic diagram of the stock Hm-2:

http://www.hobby-hour.com/electronics/s/schematics/boss-hm2-heavy-metal-schematic.png

Here are the steps to modify the Hm-2 and turn it into a way more usable Od /dist pedal:

1)First of all, If you own an older "ACA" type Boss pedal designed for power supplies up to 12Volts DC, simply replace D1 and R2 with two jumpers and use a regular 9Vdc regulated power supply. If you own and old ACA type psu and the Led indicator of the pedal lights up bright, just skip this 1st step.

2)Replace the C11 capacitor with a 1nF to 10nF one. Less capacitance equals more trebly, british-like response and less "muddy" tone. If you like fat tones, skip this step.

3)Remove the D6 and D7 Germanium-type diodes and place jumpers in their place. This will remove the "nasty" fuzzy crossover distortion character of the hm-2 and turn it into a normal distortion pedal.

4)Remove the D3,D4,D5 "overdrive" diodes completely to get a different distortion "DS-2"-like character. Keep them in place while removing D8,D9 for more overdrive-like tones. I chose to keep the D8,D9 and removed the D3,D4,D5 for this mod. You could also replace these diodes with LEDs. The red leds are closer to the diode distortion character while green leds sound softer. You can mix the colors of the LEDs (eg. D8 = red Led, D9 = green Led) for assymetrical clipping which sounds more tube-like.

5)Replace C16 with a 10nF, 22nF or 47nF capacitor. This will remove many of the nasty fuzzy highs and make it sound amp-like (it's sort of like a cab sim). Higher capacitance = less treble and fuzz.

6)Replace R53 with a jumper for extra output level. This mod will increase the output level so you can dial in "booster" like tones with less gain and more output.

Cheers,
GuitarDreamer
Jan 2017

Blackstar HT dual distortion pedal retube

2016-12-04T16:09:00.000+02:00

Blackstar HT dual distortion pedal retube. Contrary to other low voltage tube pedals, the HT black star pedals do need a replacement 12ax7 tube every couple of years of frequent use. That's because their internal supply does supply high voltage B+ to the onboard valve, just like in any all-tube amp. Ht pedals are not all tube of course but a tube change will greatly affect their tonal response and that's a good thing for those who like to experiment a bit. Good maintenance and official support of these pedals is essential...
Posted by Guitar Dreamer on Saturday, December 3, 2016

Digitech RP250 expression pedal repair!

2016-12-01T22:51:00.000+02:00

So, the expression pedal of your Digitech RP250 is not working... What could be wrong? Before you start searching for a new RP pedal-board, read this simple guide on how to fix the non-working expression pedal of your rp250/255/350 pedal-board 99% of the times.
The digitech RP-series multieffects have a built-in calibration procedure for the expression/whammy pedal. Whenever the effects gets a firmware update, a factory reset or its CPU encounters an error for some reason (could be a power supply fail, overheat etc), the expression pedal has to be recalibrated in order to work. Sometimes, dust accumulation under the pedal can lead to improper function as well. The trick here is to ensure the PCB is intact and free of dust/humidity.

I opened up the rp250 and checked the ribbon cable that connects the main PCB to the optical expression pedal sensor. I removed the expression pedal pcb and cleaned the optican sensor with some contact cleaner and a piece of cloth. Some solder joints of the optical sensor chip looked a bit tired so I did a solder reflow with plenty of fresh flux. Also, the main pcb was removed after I pulled all the knobs off. The pcb and all its jacks were sprayed with contact cleaner and the up/down plastic buttons were tightened up a bit (there are two metal springy clamps that hold the two buttons in place). The pedal could still not work but these steps were carried out to ensure the reset does not happen again for no reason. Then, the expression pedal was calibrated using the following guide of the operation manual:

"Expression Pedal Calibration
The Expression Pedal on the RP350 needs to be recalibrated for use after a factory reset has been performed. This calibration procedure is automatically entered after a factory reset procedure.
(You can also initiate the calibration procedure by pressing and holding both Footswitches
for approximately 5 seconds.) In the event the Pedal’s calibration fails, or if the Pedal does not function properly, it can be re-calibrated using the Pedal Calibration procedure. This will not erase the User presets. The procedure for Calibrating the Expression Pedal is as follows:
. Press and hold the Up/Down Footswitches until PDLCAL appears in the display (BYPASS, TUNER, and Exit will be displayed before PDLCAL is accessed, after about 5 seconds.)
2. When the Display prompts you with TOE DN, rock the Expression Pedal forward (toe down) and press either Footswitch.
3. When the Display prompts you with UP, rock the Expression Pedal back (toe up) and press either Footswitch.
4. The Display now prompts you to calibrate the V-Switch sensitivity (VSwxxx), where XXX is the current V-Switch threshold. Rock the Expression Pedal forward and press firmly on the toe once to turn the V-Switch on (wah ON), and again to turn the V-Switch off (wahOFF).
5. If the V-Switch is too sensitive, press the right Up Footswitch to raise the threshold (range is 0-200). Keep testing the V-Switch sensitivity and adjust the threshold until it only engages when you want it to (too sensitive a setting will lead to the V-Switch falsely triggering on or off when using the Expression Pedal).
6. When the V-Switch sensitivity is set to your satisfaction, press both Up/Down Footswitches simultaneously to exit."

The expression pedal works really well now and the rp250 sounds good!
Note: Bare in mind that you HAVE to use the right power supply for your multi-effect. Do not mix up 9VAC and 9VDC power supplies used with boss pedals and other effects. This is very important as a fault caused by wrong use of power supplies, wrong polarities or wrong voltage is usually not covered by warranty and could do serious damage to your effect(s).

The Whammy effect now works! Yeah!

Cheers,
Thanos

Classical guitar broken bridge repair!

2016-12-01T21:54:00.002+02:00

So, you've got this old classical guitar lying around. You grab it, tune it to pitch and then, snap!... Oh dear, the bridge came off producing a heart breaking sound and all the strings are now loose. It almost wounded me...
This is the result of old wood glue going bad from humidity/temperature especially when high tension strings are used. Don't worry though, there is a classic solution to this problem. If the bridge came out in one piece (it usually does), you can glue it back on the body securely. If it broke, there are numerous bridges available on the market. Don't forget to order a new bridge saddle, a nut and maybe a new set of tuners. These plastic/bone parts tend to break and go bad as well after many years. This particular 3/4-sized guitar was probably made in Greece during the 70s-80s era so I had to replace its plastic parts as well to ensure it stays in shape for many years to come.

Here are the steps I took to re-attach the old bridge on the body.
1. I removed the strings and cleaned up the surface of the body where the bridge used to sit on
2. I sanded down the old glue remains with low grit sandpaper. Be sure to sand both the bridge bottom surface and the top of the body where the bridge was installed. Be careful not to scratch the rest of the guitar top.
3. Then, I cleaned the surfaces with alcohol and let them dry
4. I mixed some two-part cream-colored Epoxy glue. I found the clear-colored 2-part glue to be weaker than the cream-colored one. Not sure why...
5. Once the Epoxy was well mixed, I applied the glue on both contact surfaces with a putty knife and quickly installed the bridge on the body. It's essential to apply the glue before it starts to harden (less than 5 minutes).
6. The bridge was clamped on the body and the excess glue was removed with a moist scarf.
7. If you don't have long clamps, you can place a stack of old books on top of the guitar. Just make sure the book covers do not make contact with the excess glue...wipe it down.
8. 24hours later, I removed the clamp and the bridge was firmly attached to the body. There were a few signs of the cream glue but nothing too obvious.
9. I installed a set of nylon medium tension strings on the guitar and it stayed in tune!
Problem solved!

Cheers,
Thanos

MXR 1976 Original Phase 45 modification

2016-11-28T01:57:00.002+02:00

MXR 1976 Original Phase 45 modification. A 9V jack and an indicating red Led were added. The bias trimmer was adjusted...
Posted by Guitar Dreamer on Saturday, November 26, 2016

Ibanez BTB-series neckthrough bass guitar

2016-11-23T12:06:00.000+02:00

Ibanez BTB series neckthrough bass guitar repair/rewiring! This bass is excellent and it sounds good too, but there are...
Posted by Guitar Dreamer on Friday, November 11, 2016

Ibanez RGA72 neckthrough guitar

2016-11-23T11:57:00.001+02:00

Ibanez RGA72 neckthrough guitar repair. The RGA72TQMZ is an RGA series solid body electric guitar model introduced by...
Posted by Guitar Dreamer on Friday, November 11, 2016

Vintage (Wilkinson) v96 bass guitar pickup upgrade!

2016-11-23T11:26:00.002+02:00

Vintage (Wilkinson) v96 bass guitar pickup upgrade! The new MWM4c pickup I installed sounds way better than the old no...
Posted by Guitar Dreamer on Monday, November 14, 2016

A washburn X-series superstrat project!

2016-11-23T11:22:00.003+02:00

A washburn X-series superstrat project! This black super-strat guitar from the early 2000s was bought used after...
Posted by Guitar Dreamer on Sunday, October 30, 2016

Harley Benton te20-bk model review

2016-10-11T16:34:00.002+03:00

This is the Harley Benton te20-bk telecaster-copy guitar.
It's available at Thomann.de for around 80Euros new (!):

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbt16bk_egitarre.htm?partner_id=73786

So, is it any good?
The short answer is Yes! But, it needs a little bit of work to get 100% of its full potential. That's also true for MOST fender Squier guitars that cost 2 or 3 times the money...
So, once you get it, replace the strings with your favorite gauge, adjust the guitar and tighten up the tuner screws. Don't forget to lubricate the nut and string trees with some nut sauce or a simple pencil!

TE-20 Cons:
Apart from the initial setup of the guitar, if the frets are a bit sharp on the edges, it's because wood and metal expand at different rates. There are many USA-made instruments that leave the factory with perfect fret edges and then become a little sharp due to temperature/humidity changes during transportation. That's also true for many low price instruments as you would expect. The solution is to get a small file (even a nail file) with one of its sides completely smooth/flat and treat the fret edges. Here's a video on that:

The following tools are very handy and every DIY guitarist should own at least one of these:
www.thomann.de/gr/gewa_bundfeile_150mm_hieb_3.htm?partner_id=73786
www.thomann.de/gr/goeldo_ws045_fretboard_guard.htm?partner_id=73786

TE-20 Pros:
It's a really good guitar, not just for the money. The price is actually a steal. The body is made out of thick and solid basswood and the neck is made out of hard maple. This is no plywood or fake copy. It's a Thomann house-brand model with 3 years of warranty(!). What that means is that you can return the guitar for free should you encounter any problems with it once you receive it.

It's available in sunburst as well:

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbt16sb.htm?partner_id=73786

TE-20 Specs:
Bolt-on neck
Body: Basswood
Neck: Maple
Neck profile: Modern C
Fretboard: Rosewood
Fretboard radius: 350 mm
Dot fretboard inlays
22 Frets
Scale: 648 mm
Nut width: 42 mm
Dual action truss rod (Wow!)
Pickups: 2 TE-style single coils (probably made by Wilkinson)
1 Volume control, 1 tone control
3-Way toggle switch
Hardware: Chrome (probably made by Wilkinson as well)
Die-cast machine heads
Ex-factory stringing: .009 - .042
Color: High gloss black

Is this worth modifying?
Well, of course! That's exactly what I am going to do next. I want to spend a little to get a fancier bridge with individual saddles, a 4 or 5 way switch for extra tonal options and maybe a new pickguard. It's good in its stock form but it can become much better or simply closer to my taste.

Here's quick demo of the TE20bk on the clean channel of an old line6 spider II amp:

Cheers,
Guitar Dreamer
https://guitar-dreamer.blogspot.com

The Guitar Dreamer App!

2016-09-05T12:52:00.000+03:00

The new G-Dreamer App is up and running and it's got some interesting new features such as an interesting poll/survey! Check it out (desktop/tablet version) here: http://snappy.appypie.com/html5/gdreamer

Or you can download it to your android/iOs smartphone:

http://snappy.appypie.com/marketplace/app-market-place/id/4c94a1121b14

Installation instructions:

1. For Installing your Android App from your Browser

Please follow these steps to install your app on your Android Device. To start with, please ensure that the “Unknown sources” box is checked (in the browser) to allow installation of non-Market applications.

1) Simply Open the below URL on your Android Phone Browserhttp://d2wuvg8krwnvon.cloudfront.net/appfi…/4c94a1121b14.apk

2) This will download the .apk file.

3) Tap install and the app will be installed onto your device. Once the app is installed you can delete the .apk file which you had downloaded as it’s no longer needed.

4) Once the installation is complete, turn off the wifi/data before opening the App. Once you've entered the App, turn the wifi/data On gain to browse the contents of the App.

2. For installing your iPhone App from the Safari Browser

Please follow these steps to install your app on your iPhone:

1) Simply Open this URL on your iPhone Safari Browser

http://snappy.appypie.com/…/download-pli…/appId/4c94a1121b14

2) Click the Launch button which will open a dialog box that will say 'snappy.appypie.com would like to install "APPNAME"

3) Tap install and the app will then install onto your iPhone

4) If you are getting “Untrusted App Developer” message when trying to run Appy Pie’s test App on iPhone then follow the instructions as given in this link.

For feedback or any issues with your App, please email us at support@appypie.com

Cheers,

Thanos