Hi All,
I've been reading and listening to all this great info for a couple of months as I prepared to buy, then did order a OTS 50W, MM OT, assembled by Nick--first time buying a pre-made amp in many years.  Have had it for a week, and gotta say I'm pretty frustrated at how it sounds.

A little background: I have built a couple of Tweed Deluxe's 5E3's, a Deluxe Reverb, JCM800, Champ, Firefly, and a homebrew single-ended deluxe reverb----and love all of them.  And have built most of my effect pedals.  I gig with this stuff about twice a month in your typical "party rock" type cover band.  I have to cover many different styles.  Play Strats mainly, sometimes Tele or LP.

The clips on-line are fabulous sounding, the wonderful single note breakup and near infinite sustain, that can sometimes verge on feedback sold me on this amp.  Granted I'm not a fusion player or in the league of most of you, but have played for 30 years or so, in front of people.

So to the point.  Have tried an open back cab with either a Weber Silver Bell, or a Weber 12F150 which is a DR, (Jensen), type speaker.  Boxy sounding.  Also tried it with a Marshall 2x12, (1966A) unknown speakers, but does great blues to rock with my JCM800.  But is like a blanket is over it--very sterile and flat.  BIAS is OK.  Need Prescence up to 7 or 8 out of 10.  Most everything else is around noon as people and the manual say to try---not happening.  Overdrive is more like fuzz.  Clean is just characterless.

Where to go next--yeah have read where people say give it a month or so---really? (My JCM800 was GREAT a day after I built it.)   Or do I need a speaker shoot-out?

any info or ideas would be greatly appreciated
Chris

ah yeah, I have used the tone knobs--not my first amp.
but thanks anyways

Pretty much the same reaction I had when I first got mine. I have modded mine a few times (I now have a three way bright switch amongst others) and I still want to mess with the OD channel as mine is the non-hrm and the od channel is a tad too bright.

Anyway, mine improved massively with a long burn in, it is now too bright and chimey with the bright on and treble above about 6-7.

So, do the burn in.

Check your wall voltages, I sometimes feel underwhelmed by my amp, its as though it has moods and I am convinced its because of varying wall voltage, I have only recently bought a plug in meter and have seen 227-238. I didn't have the OTS fired up when it was 227 but I bet it would have had a notceable difference.

Bias, maybe go a little on the hotter side.

Too obvious I know, but guitars that sound fine through my Plexi 50 sound cack through the OTS when the strings have dulled. Change em.

OD trimmer. Play with it, it sounds like you might have it too high if your OD sounds fuzzy. It won't like pedals if you have it too high, I personally like it with just a touch of hair, more like a pushed celan channel.

PI balance. It might be your PI has drifted since Nik set it up. You need to set it with 6 volts more on pin 1 than pin 6 (double check this before doing it- search this forum I might have got it the wrong way round).

Speakers. Hmmm...... we could all spend a fortune trying different ones. I have a 4x10 closed back ported Jensen P10r's and it sounds nice and bright but these speakers are not good when loud, a bit hard on the ears. I also have a 2x12 open back with an Eminence Tonespotter and an EVM12-L and that is much better, not completely convinced by the Tonespotter and have a Red Fang waiting to go in there but I don't have much opportunity to play loud anymore so I'm in no hurry. I have also played it through  my combos speaker a G12-65 and for moderate volume this is really good.

Where do you stand? Some speakers can be very beamy and what you are hearing might not be what others are hearing. When testing make sure you move around and check this. Google 'Jay Mitchell donuts' if you want a simple solution to a beamy cab.

Valves. If you don't like what you hear now valves (and speakers) will only make a marginal difference, but it will make some.

Presence only makes a difference above 7 so thats normal.

So, if you have a Hotplate or something else you can use as aloadbox, plug a source in and let it burn in for a good while. Alternately just run it in the ON position with nothing plugged in for 3 or 4 spells of 8 hours (while you are around, not while you are out!) Don't play it in the meantime, just come back to it later and see if you can tell a diference.

For me the same story,amp sound nice with a compressor and a little delay in the front otherwise it sounds bad.(popping,harsch)
The overdrive channel is the biggest dissapointment, indeed fuzzy,i am still thinking something is wrong with the amp.

Stil searching for some one to check the amp.

This will be my first post on this site, after months of trying to learn as much as I can about the D style amp. I also have a
Nik assembled OTS 50. As much as I didn't want to believe the burn-in mojo, as time goes by it becomes more and more
evident the amp over time keeps gettng better, and better. I also agree with the "ditch the JJ's" There  is just something
harsh about them in this style of pre-amp.(I  do use these in my Zinky MOFO with great results, but it's kind of a apples/
oranges kind of thing.) Above all be patient, use your ears, I tried 20 different speakers/cabs/tube combos etc. The tones
are there, it's just a matter of finding the correct recipe that suits the sound in your head. One man's ideal tone formula
is anothers disaster. After chasing tone for 40+ years ( With enough $ to have bought a Porsche or Two...LOL...) I can
say without a doubt, Nik's take on this stlye of amp is worth the time, and effort to find your voice. Keep searching the
magic is there....

Hey Chris,

The amps come from Nik stocked with JJs, so just an assumption on us.  These amps are great for changing out tubes, so experiment away.  Nik can give you an idea of what kinds of plate voltage the transformers can handle.

my BM50 breaks up beyond 2 (clean) with my Kinman single coils, and 2 with my Fender SCN

Is this normal?
I want a clean tone when no boost or OD is on, but just about going into compression, and I add a little grit with the ODs both on 5 and the trimmer on 2 o'clock.
Are the JJs just too hot for me, or am I just the odd one out wanting a clean tone? Should I put a 5751 or a 12AT7 in v1 like in my 5E3 ??
(http://thetubestore.com/gainfactor.html)

Cheers
Tone

my BM50 starts to break up at 2 (as in 2/10), not 2 o'clock (and 3 o'clock with a quieter strat SC pickup). I run the master vol at 8 (3 o'clock)
both OD at noon (i.e. 5/10)
tbh, most of my amps do break up at 9 o'clock, I'm talking about breakup rather than overdrive. I run my Fuchs ODS30 at 10 o'clock, and that's very fendery clean there. I'm just wondering if anyone's tried different tubes in the BM50. I do like its sound (although it's a little dark, even with a Celestion Gold I'm setting the presence and treble very high, which is very unusual for me), so I'm not looking to mod it (other than to reverse the deep switch and lower the PAB gain)

Cheers
Tone