Cool - love Matt's playing too - cheers for the heads up.

 

I remember you suffered a break - did this stop you playing? I broke the pinky on my fretting hand 2 years ago - now when I play a note with my pinky, my third finger moves down 'in sympathy' with it which is a bit crap - but I'm still gigging so it hasnt slowed me down too much :/

I'd totally agree with Gregg - burn that baby in for as long as you can before gigging it - I'm still getting 'used' to my Bluesmaster - currently I like the OD side for crunch/dirty rhythm and kick onto the clean channel with a Rangemaster clone or Zen drive for leads - just seems to cut through better...YMMV of course and I'm finding it changes from gig to gig. Tonight for example I got my best tone with the clean channel +PAB and the Zen - just used the guitar volume to control things....next week it'll probably change again! I really need to get the chassis out and see if I can get more mids from the HRM trimmers because thats what I'm missing on the OD channel atm...

Marin

Nice to see you on here - love your videos - helped me decide that I needed an OTS :/

Cheers

Kieran

Blue would be pretty cool for the BM :-/

Sorry for a daft question but what wattage should the resistor be? Nik sent me a spare lamp for my amp but I haven't had a chance to put it in yet..

I've had my Bluesmaster for going on a year now and I'm still loving it without any mods..

I checked the bias on it today and 3 of the tubes were reading 32 and the other read 34 mv. I tweaked it so that 3 tubes now read 35 and the other 37mv - should I be concerned about the tube that's 'out'? After reading lots of other posts I think it should be ok - just wondered what setting you guys with Bluesmasters bias to?

Can't really tell until next gig what tonal differences this will make but at home volume the amp seems a little 'livelier'.

Output tubes are JJ 6L6GC's and V1,2 & 3 are NOS Brimar, Tungsol & Sovtek LPS.

On my Bluesmaster 100 I'm noticing a serious increase in bass level on engaging the PAB on the OD channel - I know these are pretty bass heavy but I can get a lovely on the edge sparkly OD tone with a Strat without PAB and the bass control set pretty low.. Can I remedy this by lowering the bass HRM trimmer?
Really didn't want to have to mess with the HRM trimmers unless absolutely necessary...

With an LP the problem isn't as noticeable but my Strat seems to be fussy...using a Klein in the loop with the controls at 2, 5 and 2 o'clock and both bright switches off..

Is the HRM bypass switch mod hard to do? I have a builder mate who could help me with it...

EDIT

I'm running the amp through a slightly oversized 1x12 semi open back cab with EVM12L...

Thanks for any tips guys

Out of my 5 guitars my Tele is the only one I keep in standard tuning - the others are kept in E flat - helps our singer but I just love E flat anyway

I can relate to that - I prefer my LP too but I keep a Strat for 3 big reasons - Jimi, SRV and E flat tuning - nothing beats the sound of a loud snarling cleanish neck pickup on a 6L6 amp that's ready to explode

Gregg

Would you have a link to your mod described above? I'm finding with my Bluesmaster that the PAB works nicely as a level boost on the clean channel but on the O/D channel it just adds more gain without any perceptible change in level. I'm using a clean boost in the loop (with Klein) to get around this currently.

I can get a fatter tone with my Strat if I use the clean channel on my Bluesmaster with a boost from a Zendrive- still haven't managed to get a sound with Strat and O/D channel that cuts through in a live situation as good.

For sale on EBay (Not mine)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280679755407&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123

The way I've been using my Bluesmaster sounds messed up - Settings are usually in an around the following: volume 5, treble 4, mid 4, bass 2, master vol 5, overdrive trim 12 o'clock, overdrive 4, overdrive volume 4.

I've been using the overdrive channel for dirty rhythm sounds and switching to the clean channel (sometimes with a slight boost along with the clean PAB, for solos.. The clean channel seems to cut through and emphasise each note much better than the O/d channel, which no matter how much I tweak, just seems to have washed out mids...

@ Tone - u said the amp gets brighter with the input volume pushed and the master kept low.. Does this not overly compress or saturate the O/D channel or do you set the o/d trimmer pretty low...

Do you gig your Bluesmaster?

I have an really old EVM12L which I use in a slightly oversized 1x12 (Zilla Cabs Mini Modern) with my Bluesmaster 100. Initial impressions at home volume were that this amp has a serious amount of bass end which was hard to dial out - opening the cab back tamed this slightly but the amp is not as bass heavy at gigging volume. I haven't noticed any ice pick tendencies - maybe because of the speakers age?

I'm liking the amp better with the bright switch on ATM so it may be worth considering changing or modding this at some stage. The amp can sound quite muffled with it off but I'm still experimenting with adjusting the presence (currently set high) and treble (set around 4/5) controls.

I've had this speaker up against a loud 4x12 and it actually cut through better than the half stack! These speakers seem to be bomb proof so I think you're making a good choice.