+1 on the TADs.  I actually put a TAD 7025 in the Clator too!  Does in fact sound good.  I prefer the Tung-sols for cost effective choices for the V2.  The TADs I have in the power section have been there for almost 2 years, daily playing, running pretty hot.  Really good choice.

Hey Strat,

So a couple of things:
1. I can get the sound that Chris is getting on his recordings pretty easy.  Using just a LP and the BM with the Clator controlling global.  Note, though, that it sounds like he's running a delay, so that will add to the dimensionality.  
2. Change the tubes sooner rather than later.  I'd definitely recommend an ANOS RCA in V1 for the clean side.  Makes a world of difference.  In V2 (gain channel), I've tried TAD 7025's, the JJ's, a JAN Phillips 5571, and the RI Tung-Sols.  Of all those, I like the Tung-Sol's best BUT you should only buy from a seller that tests the tubes well.  Unfortunately, the TSs are notorious for failing, but I got mine from a reputable dealer, and haven't had an issue.  Again, you could also go NOS or ANOS GE or Sylvanias in the V2.  I also have a Sovtek 12ax7-LPS in the phase inverter, and that sounds great.  Power tubes are TAD 6L6GC.  I may not change the power tubes, though, until you decide to take the amp in for a tuneup or to have someone get into the internal trims as you will need a rebias.  If you can do this yourself, good on ya.  I certainly cannot, hehe.
3. For me, making my strat sound good with the BM means I have to turn up the Input knob.  Right now, I plug into LO with the LP and HI for the Strat, unless I really want to push the preamps in clean mode.  Another option that many use is to get a good clean boost pedal (more money, I know).  The Keeley Katana and the Xotic EP-1 are known for sounding great.  I have been demoing the latter and it does live up to they hype.  Or you could get a Zendrive to use for clean and solo boosting.
4. Gregg is fully correct when he says this amp makes you learn to vary your pick attack.  So much control over the sensitivity is daunting at first, but with some practice, you can learn to tame her down some, but still get growl when you want.  In fact, for most of what I'm playing (save some alt-rock stuff), I've left the plectrum and gone back to finger picking.  
5. Just as a comparison, I'm running my OD trim at 8 or 9 o'clock, and with the above tube/speaker choices, have usable OD throughout the enter drive knob sweep, which with the PAB engaged easily gets into heavy distortion.  
6. This is just a heads up but a guy near me is selling 2x EV 12Ls for US$80/each.  Shipping would be about $60 via USPS.  I will be in the area by this guy sometime next week can could check them out, so I wanted to give you the heads up.  Here's the link:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/msg/2955324899.html

Did you buy a buffer unit (kleinulator or Clator) with it? These can be used as a global master...

You can get plenty of great tones off this amp at bedroom levels using the Clator.  Will it sound better at gig levels? Yeah it will, but you can still do some great work at quieter volumes.  The weber Michigan ceramic may be a good alternative to the EV for you.  Affordable and they ship internationally.

Tube and Speaker change are your best bets, I think.  Seriously, check out Mike at kcanostubes.com.  Great guy and you can get what you need. 

A used EVM-12L shouldn't cost more than $120.  Keep checking local craigslists. 

Third Post in a Day!

haha

Dialing in the OD on ANY HRM is, well it's a bitch.  Too true, too many options.  So, let me offer this bit of advice that I just tested and found to be pretty awesome:
1. Turn on the PAB.  The tonestack passthrough is best for testing this.
2. Set the OD trimmer below 9 o'clock. 
3. Test all settings on the Drive Control.  If they don't ALL sound good AND give you the amount of drive you're looking for, adjust the OD trimmer appropriate.
4. Repeat until you get it set to something that does work.
5. Remain Awesome.

Here's the thing: that OD trim would be better left on the inside.  Like many other people, I thought you needed to set the trimmer at a respectable level to get a respectable amount of drive.  Not True.  You can get about as much gain out of the Drive control as you can out of the OD trim.  It's become a "set and forget" thing for me now.  Hope I don't bump it around on accident...

Let me know what you guys think of this. 

Edit: Here is the thread.  You need to create an account, but it's not a big deal.  Great guys on that forum.

http://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17550

Hey Guys,

So been searching/asking questions on ampgarage.com (which most of you probably know, but is a GREAT resource) and found this post by Ayan about setting the HRM trimmers, so I'm x-posting it here:


[Having built enough HRMs, I think I have some global settings that will probably work as a starting point for someone new to tweaking the HRM beast. To me, those controls proved to be almost as difficult to tweak as the PI trimmer. Let me qualify my answer below, my goal was to try to set the HRM tone controls so that the OD would be more or less an extension of the clean sound, and not sound buzzy when the gain was turned up. If, on the contrary, you want to dial a radical overdrive with tons of low end, the HRM will probably be much easier to fine tune. Having said this:

1. The bass trimmer is 1 Meg and linear which means most of your bass will come on all of a sudden as you turn up the trimmer. I think I found my sweet spot around 90-100 Ohms beween the wiper (which is tied to the CW end) and the CCW end. Some people set this higher, but I think in most cases replacing the 1 Meg trimmer with a 500K ohm one would make the range more usable.

2. The middle control is 20K and, IMHO, it can make or break the sound of the amp. I would set mine around 8 K between the wiper (again, tied to the CW end) and the CCW end. Now, the advantage of turning the bass up from my starting point is that you will have more of a usable range in the middle and treble controls before the amp sounds harsh. The problem to me was that turning the bass higher would make the OD sound less like the clean channel.

3. The treble control will adjust the overall brightness of the sound. The trimmer is 250K and I would set mine with about 100K between the wiper (not tied to the CW end) and the CCW end.

Mind you, speaker choice will change things radically, and my settings were tamer than everyone else I ever talked to about this. I use EVM speakers, which most people consider to be bright, and in 1x12 configurations. If you use a 2x12 or 4x12 cabinet with Celestions, you will probably be able to -- and need to -- turn all trimmers up, especially midrange and treble.

Agreed that, ideally, these controls would be outside the amp so that you could go for midrange heavy to scooped tonality at will. The most elegant implementation I have seen was by Gary Johnson, since he worked towards customizing the range of the controls to where there is not a bad sound to be dialed in on his amps -- can't say the same about some Marshalls, for example.

Hope this helps a bit,

Gil]

Now, I'm no electrical engineer, but I'm guessing that a decent tech could set this up for you.  Also, the goal on this was to get a smooth OD, so there you go.

Another thing: Checking the PI Trimmer is also a good idea to get your notes to bloom.  Run a search on the ampgarage for this and see what you come up with.

Last, (and Gregg, this is definitely for you), if you decide to go the EV route like me, I highly recommend a Thiele ported cab.  The ports allow great bass dispersion, keeping it from being boomy.  I can run my Bass up as high as 5 on my BM with the neck pup of my Les Paul, no boom-boom.  My recommendation re builder would be Alf Hermida at Hermida Audio.  Great prices, great work, light materials. 

Stephen

Well I'll be a sonuvabitch.  Ha! I've been using the drive as the overall master for like a year now.  Geez. About to fire the girl up so I'll let you know how it sounds when done correctly! Hehe.

Gregg, a couple of quick things.

It was my understanding that on the clator, the drive knob controlled the overall master out.  On mine the order of knobs, from left to right, is drive, in, out.  Drive is the overall master for the unit, in sets the signal back down to avoid overdriving time based effects, and out is the output of the unit back into the effects. So drive is kinda of a volume recovery for any volume lost in the unit due to use of the in knob. This is how Nik explained it to me, but I could be wrong. 

Second, if you want to try an EVM, I would just sit and wait for a used one to pop up on my local craigslist. You can usually get them for $100 or so, they are pretty fully broken in, and it's the real thing. Another great option though is the weber Michigan 15" speaker. The 15 can handle bass like no other. Just a thought.


Stephen

Hey SUltra,

Your concern is totally understandable.  From personal experience, I too had to wait for the amp to burn it before I could really bond with it.  Word on the forum from other folks trends the same.  

Since it's both the OD on the amp and your OD pedals, odds are that it is a speaker break-in issue.  I remember having a WGS 65 with a C-tone 36w clone and that the speaker did need some time to break in (I use EVs for the OTS).

I have pretty much exactly the same amp as you minus the mods.  Mine is a 100w too.  Here is some basic setup advice for yah:

Set your Master/OD level above 5 and use the C-lator as a Master.  Upping the signal into the power amp adds tons of sustain and creaminess to the OD.  It MIGHT (not sure) also help speed breakin.

Set the Input knob at around 5 - 7.  This may have been covered and you may already know this, but just in case, the input knob is your preamp vol.  It cascades into the tonestack and OD channel.  Setting this too low will give you grainy, fizzy OD.  In order to get the sustain you want, this needs to be up there.  It also warms up the cleans a lot.  

Set it to the Jazz channel, engage the mid-switch.  Trust me, this will get you a long way towards JM's sound.  

The Presence control not only sets chime, but also attack.  Fast attack when dialed up, slow attack when dialed down.  This can have a significant affect on your tone depending on your playing style.  

Do not set the OD trim above 11 o'clock.  After that (at least on mine), the OD gets fizzy with my LP.  Different with the strat, but I still don't go into any afternoon positions.  

If you can, put a NOS RCA into V1 and a JAN GE Phillips into V2.  V3 likes the Sovtek 12ax7LPS.  The first and last you can get from Mike at KCANOS Tubes for reasonable prices (get an A(lmost)NOS RCA from him, much cheaper, still great).  I like the TAD 6L6's in the Power section, but you don't need to switch out if you don't want to.  Likely the JJ in V1 is causing some of the darkness in the tone--I find them darker to the ear, others may not.  
Here's his site:
http://www.kcanostubes.com/
His prices may be a bit higher than other companies for NOS stuff, but I have to say that he knows his tubes, thoroughly tests, and is great at recommendations.  If you were to go through him, you could get the whole setup for around $200.  But again, you don't NEED to do this.  And I'm sure others can chime in with other tube recommendations.

2 years in and this is what I've learned with this amp.  And I'm still learning, which I think is great.  

EVM 12L would be a good choice for speaker.  Try switching to Jazz channel and cranking the Input up to around 6.5.  Warms up your tone.  Switch the V1 to a good RCA blackplate or Telefunken.  Do a bias check on the power tubes as well, it may have drifted.  If you're still not into the tone, sell it and get the bluesmaster.  I'd also think of getting the 100w; bigger tone and better cleans in my opinion.  Keep the c-lator use on the BM.

This was originally my idea.  srsly

Edit: Now using:

V1 - RCA Greyplate
V2 - JJ
V3 - Tung-Sol

I like this best.  Plus the amp was built around the JJ tube, and the OD for me is better with it.  Strange, but good.

Yes, definitely try the Jazz mode.  I'm using it almost exclusively right now for both clean and OD.  I really like the PAB (with and without OD) using this setting.  I have a 100w Bluesmaster, though.