I third that. That is the first thing that popped into my mind

Then you will have no extra brightness or at lower volumes. It works just like a treble retention circuit on a guitar. It allows more treble to bypass ground so you hear more high frequencies at lower volumes.

It's a perception thing. The sound will be brighter or darker depending on what size cap you have on the pot. If the sound is brighter your ears will hear this as being louder, which is why the bright caps are there in the first place, to help the amp sound the same at low volumes as it does when it is singing at full volume, at least as your ears perceive it.

Gregg

It may have more of an impact than you realize. More presence not only adds "sparkle" to your sounds, but it can also add more bass content as well and make the amps response stiffer over all as well. It may be more perceptible at higher volumes, though, or if you are using a c-lator and can get off of the bright caps on the masters.

Gregg

Yes, put it in standby mode first


Gregg

I can agree with that. almost 2 months after switching to my old Emi's i have switched back to the Weber 1265A's. Sure they arent' as punchy in the lows, but they are much better i think for my rig. I shoulda stuck with em all along. Go figure.

rule of thumb is to have a speaker or cab or set of cabs rated at 15-20 watts over the stated wattage output of the amp at minimum to be on the safe side

Gregg

I don't know much about the HRM MkII, but I know that my Bluesmaster can saturate the power section, and depending on the tubes i have in there, can sound damn awesome doing it. The BM is a good candidate for Power Section saturation, due to the design of the PI. Sometimes i actually use the Normal channel as an overdrive channel (preamp volume and master dimed), and the OD channel as a clean channel by backing off the drive.

On mine the HRM tonestack is disconnected, and i haven't put a different resistor on mine to work on the volume jump yet, but i will soon.

Power scaling has been done on the OTS series, but the OTS actually has a very good and effective master volume system that doesn't suck tone very much, and if you use  a c-lator as a global master volume, it really eliminates the need for power scaling.

Switchable Fixed/Cathode Bias was something i was toying around with, and i think a few guys have added it to their rigs. My reasoning for doing it was two fold.
1) Financial. I wanted to have both a fixed and cathode biased amp in one.
2) I like to see if i can do things
in the end i decided it wasn't worth the hassle, and the real estate inside the OTS is kinda tight, so that project went by the way side.

The only mods i have on mine, besides the bypassed HRM stack are:

1)Half power switch (Pentode/Triode on 50 watters like mine)
2)Sag Resistor switch, a switch which places a switchable resistor on the center HT Tap to lower the HT voltage down and simulate the sag that comes from having a tube rectifier (common mod on amps with ss rectifiers)
3)A Mega PAB switch which switches the resistor connected to ground on the PAB circuit to allow for alot more gain. This is either very useful or completely worthless, depending on the situation, believe it or not. I usually leave it on the stock value unless i want a very dramatic sound change.

All that being said, it is very possible that you could play through the stock amp and be completely satisfied with it.

As far a what Nik will do, the best way to find out is to email him.

Hope this helps!

Gregg

Picked up the Boss RE-20 Space Echo the other day, and i gotta say, so far it is sounding awesome through the C-Lator and Loop of my HRM Bluesmaster. No noticeable tone suckage from lack of a true bypass, and IMHO it is WAY better than the Tape Delay setting on the Line 6 box. Boss did a pretty good job of simulating the RE-201 if my memory serves me correctly (i got to play through one years ago when the local guitar shop had one laying around). It's a pretty fun and cool effect, although the built in reverb is a little wonky, but i just pipe it into my reverb pedal if i want reverb too. Just thought you guys would like to know that it is a cool option if you are into tape echo effects!

Gregg

beautiful cab!!

I have and yep, it does the trick.

It won't say FM anywhere on it. Maybe handwritten on the chassis by Nik or the final builder. That being said, have fun and wail the hell out of it for a few days and have fun breaking it in!!

The power rating isn't a big deal, as long as you aren't looking for speaker breakup. I also have a 50 watter l, and run two eminence speakers rated at 400 watts each. With two 8 ohm speakers your choices are 4 ohm x2 parallel, 16 ohm x2 series, or 8 ohm x1.

nice looking unit!!

interesting, and not surprising in the least.