Hey dude, I can relate.  Some techs are awesome, some are shite.  Hard to find a good one. 

So, I live in the the East Bay and I found a guy down in San Jose that builds his own D-clones.  Bill at Sebago Sound.  I had put some questions up on Amp Garage and he responded with a PM.  Did some great work on my Bluesmaster 100w and is just a good guy.  I'd suggest contacting him. 

http://www.sebagosound.com/

It is nice to see that you are still here. I don't know how to do any of this. What is TAG. When they passed out brains they forget to put electricity in mine.
[/quote]

TAG - The Amp Garage, a site dedicated only to Dumble and Trainwreck builds.  I believe the url is www.ampgarage.com

I've used the ET-65s before.  Great all around speaker.  The GT65s from Celestion are one of the recommended speakers for use with a Dumbles/clones.  The ET is a great clone of the GT.  I don't think you'll be disappointed.   

I've recommended this tube combo on this board before and others have enjoyed it so you may as well.  Try new Tung-Sol 12ax7s in the V1 and V2 (I use a NOS RCA in V1, but mine is a Bluesmaster, so it's voiced differently).  Make sure you buy them from a shop that tests them first--they have a higher fail rate than other tubes.  Shouldn't cost too much either. 


S

Nico,

What you are asking is better put to the guys at the Amp Garage forum.  It seems to me that you are wanting BM cleans and classic Dumble OD.  There is an Dumble (I believe it's Larry Carlton's) that fits this bill.  It's called the Ripper.  You may want to check into that. 


Stephen

Try TAD Power Tubes.  Either variety sounds great.  The 6L6GC-STR are like the old RCA 6L6s and the 6L6WGC-STR are like GEs from the 50s and 60s.  Good stuff and affordable.

Gigs, another way to drop the chassis is stack books under the trannies.  I've also seen guys have pieces of 4x4 cut to the right length to act as support under the trannies.

The Dumble builds are VERY complex and while I don't doubt that someone could do one as their first build, it might be a good idea to check out Nik's 5E3 kit.  It's simply a classic Deluxe circuit, and so it's pretty straightforward.  That may be a good intro to the entire concept.  If you decide to go forward with a BM, though, head over to ampgarage.com and check out the community there.  All these guys do is build D-clones and Trainwreck clones. 

I'd probably get the C-lator to use with the outboard tank.  It's more than just having a loop buffer; the unit adds presence and depth to the tone. 

The TIM is an excellent pedal and Paul is is a great guy to deal with.  Personally, I couldn't get it to work right with my setup, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try it out.  Go for the Timmy, though.  @ $135, you can't beat it.

OK, guys, I have to update y'all on the tube selection after I started running the WET Stereo reverb in the loop.  You guys NEED to hear this pedal, BTW.  Simply the most impressive, beautiful verb I've ever heard.  I'll do some vids, but my playing has suffered a bit recently, and I don't have any cool recording gear.  Suffice to say that the pedal is a 3-knob piece of awesome with stereo inputs AND expression jacks for depth and mix.  And with the Pedal Customizer software that Brian invented (I think?), you can add shimmer to the verb, or modulation, or even just change the pedal into his Chroma Chorus.  It sounds like a lot of digitizing and fluff, but it's not and you guys would kick yourselves for not checking it out.

Now, back from the hijack.

I put 2 "new" NOS RCA grey shorts in V1 and V2 recently.  Had to replace the old RCA.  Now, I liked this setup--originally I had an RCA in V1 and a Tung Sol RI in V2.  This new combo sounded good on both cleans and OD, but after I plugged in the Wet, the pedal just did not get along with the OD.  It was fizzy.  I HATE fizzy.  So I tried the JAN Phillips 5751 I had laying around, and I liked it (and I KNOW some of you love this in V2), but it wasn't rich enough in harmonics.  So I went back to my original setup (V3 is Sovtek LPS and power tubes are TAD 6L6-GCs, also 100w), and I have to say guys, this is THE setup.  Everyone should give it a go.

St.Ephen

Really stoked that everyone is enjoying the RCA grey shorts in V1.  And I do want to clarify, the only reason I tried one in the first place (and recommended the same to you) is because Mike at KCANOSTUBES suggested it.  Like I said, guy knows his stuff and deserves credit for being a badass.

Stephen

[/quote]

You are totally right Pick -  I have no excuses like Gregg, I have a music room set with a Zoom MRS (multi recorder), I have teh backing tracks loaded, & I can make a recoding with my couple mikes,

Part of it is laziness of course. The other part is that this forum is intimidating: it's got stellar players (in that "dumblish" jazzy style) & my bag is straight blues.

I will try to have a take at it, & post it real soon - anyways

I just returned home, had to try that RCA short gray plate in V1. It rules , really, in a fenderish kind of way.   
[/quote]

This makes sense, as the RCA shorts were used in earlier Fenders and the Bluesmaster is Blackface derived. 

As to clips, YES.  Let me get some practice done and I'll put up a couple of them, using some clean, low gain, and high gain.  You'll get to hear the Java Boost in action.  I also have a WET stereo reverb arriving today.  YOU GUYS NEED TO CHECK THIS PEDAL OUT. 

St.Ephen

Hey Guys,

Was wondering if any of you were using a ZD with your C-tone.  I had one years ago that I used with my Fender RI 59 Bassman and while I liked it, I don't think I appreciated it fully for what it was.  Also, I think I wanted something with a bit more gain. 

Anyway, I know that Mayer has used them with this 2Rocks and Dumbles, so I thought I'd give it another whirl.  Also, found a local guy here in NorCal who would do a clone for $130, so that cool! 

Thoughts?

I played a High-Plate Skyliner not too long ago side by side with the Bluesmaster.  The main difference to me was that the OD on the Skyliner was just raging open.  Not compressed or even tight.  Raging! hahaha.  It wanted to feed back on itself with little to no effort.  I was able to set it up darker, not sure if I was trying to emulate the BM, but with the deep switch (actually mid booster in those, but whatever) and playing with the presence control, I could take some of the sparkle out.  I could safely say it could get as dark as a BM on normal settings.  That said, I prefer the BM for its cleans and I like the blackface inspired OD.  I'll be getting a Zendrive here soon, just to have other flavors of OD though.

I've never had problems with darkness on the BM.  Can you make it dark?  Yes.  Can you make it bright and sparkly?  Definitely.  There is a different feel between the normal high-plate and the BM, but I don't think it's something that can be easily described as dark/bright.  Also, I play humbuckers.