I have recently build a #183, sourcing the parts myself, and using a set of tranformers from an old 72', EL34 equipped Laney Supergroup, which was a Marshall Plexi knockoff, but with much better transformers from Partridge in England.

The amp is not that different from a standard Non Hrm High plate or even the #102 (=Ceriatone FM). However, Dogears aka Scott Lerner (super forumite at ampgarage) also knows TAG and has played his amp a number of times, claims that the V1 and V2 preamp tubes, GE 12AX7 short plate, were an essential part of the original #183 amps tone. So I'm gonna chase some of those in order to get the TAG sound.

TAG is a humbucker player (like yourself? you mention, that you 'came' from the PRSforum), I mainly play strats therefore, I have found that I need a 100k slope resistor and a 47n mid cap. - like on the TWOROCK OPAL, as discussed on the AMPG forum.

If you want to convert your own HRM to #183, its actually not that hard, you only need to change four caps - or something like that. You could try that and see if the #183 is 'better' than your present amp. If you decide that you need both a HRM and a #183 you can easily convert the HRM amp back to its present setup.

IMO, the OD on the #183 is quite bright so you might want to up the snubber cap on V2B from 25p to appx. 270p +/- 50p.

One tip regarding all the Dumble amps is to use a dumblelator (=C-lator) in order to get a more 3D sounding tone out the amps.

Another finding is that the HRM (+Bluesmaster) amps are more all reound amps, whereas the NON HRM (Standard, #102, #124 and #183) are more soloist amps.

This off course is just my experience - your mileage may very, as they say 'over there' :-)

Man, thanks for all the great information. Even though I'm a PRS guy my "go to" guitar for the last 2 years is this PRS Swamp Ash 513 w/maple neck. I use the single coils probably 60% of the time. So good SC tone is important to me. I also owned a 92' Jeff Beck Sig Strat that I loved and then like a fool, sold. You're right though I use to play nothing but humbuckers for the first 15 years of playing.

Hmm, interesting about converting my amp to a 183...I would have to give that some thought. As far as C/D-lator, I'm saving up the money to build one, but a great forumite, Todd Wilcox, loaned me his Klein-u-lator for a little while to try it out. I know it's not like the C-lator, but it has given me a good taste of what it's all about. I didn't think it was possible to get even better sound than before.

You're right Scott Lerner is incredible. I was playing last night to some backing tracks and getting some great tones and was feeling rather proud of myself. Then I happened to pull of this thread, and got a dose of reality. Man he's good. And the bloom he's getting on this clip is outrageous.
http://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12182&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=ac650f464ab1fddb2e63609c4a946f2a

That's one thing I can't quite get my amp to do. That's bloom easily anywhere on the neck. It's getting better, but in it's present setup and tube configuration, I don't see it ever being like that clip. But it does have it's own unique character. I do want to try some different tubes in the PI.

I can see your point on HRM's being an all round amp. Mainly, due to the fact that they sound great with big over driven chords. Big Marshall sounding at times. But it solos nice too.

Thanks again for the tips. I may have to hit you up for some advice down the road if I decide to dig into my amp.

Since you mentioned this, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I don't want to hijack this thead (too late I guess ) but I take it you mean just changing some caps in the preamp. Some of the main differenes I see are the two caps coming from the power tube grids. Also my ceriatone HRM doesn't use any snubbers on V2. Another main difference I see is the cap circled in red. Also I believe the value on the LNFB of V1 is a bit different. I used a Ceriatone 183 layout here with circles around the caps I see that are different in the preamp section. Would it really be this easy to get closer to a #183?

I often wondered why there were no snubbers on V2 on the HRM and what difference they would make. From what I can tell all other D-type designs utilize them.

Is there a thread you know of that discusses this in more detail? Thanks

Whoa! THANKS for that! That's great. I need to figure a way to convince my wife to let me order the parts for a D-lator and I'll just put these parts in with it. She actually said she tought is sounded better with the Klein, so I was just telling her at dinner it will be even better with a D-lator. Although, she really has no idea what I'm talking about.

I actually was looking on Doug's Tubes at NOS. Right now I have Tung Sol RI all preamps with a balanced one in V3. & TAD 6L6 WGC STR's. Looks like the JAN GE's are hard to come by.

I don't know how long until I get to it, but I'll let you know for sure what I think. Oh, and I'll watch those lethal voltages.
Thanks again.