So much crazy wiring - wouldn't know where to begin. You've got power wires running next to signal wires all over the place. Take a look at the commercial builds and HAD's builds and see how the wiring is on those - you really need it to be cleanly laid out as far as the wiring goes or you're going to get noise, hum and squealing. I'm not an amp tech, just someone who built one that works, so I don't know if this is fixable without a complete rewire.

Wow! That is an exquisite guitar sound, and some seriously excellent guitar playing! Thanks for sharing that!

Nik helped me out when I was trying to figure out my MM trannies - as he's a dealer he knows which wire is what. Shoot him an email...

I wish I could remember - I'll have to make a note of it next time I have it out of the cabinet. All I know for sure is that I kicked the treble up to 1 or 2 oclock, and the middle pretty low, and the bass almost off, and it finally sounds right - it was really muffled sounding before.

Sometimes you just gotta go BIG

I've got a 50w BM, that I built from a kit. It's green. It's completely stock, no mods, the only things that are odd are the power and standby switches are installed upside down (by mistake), as is the deep switch (on purpose), which actually makes it right side up (comprende?). No klein/c/lator or anything. It's sitting on top of a Mesa Boogie Mark IV and a Mesa Theile 1x12 extension speaker, and I switch the speakers in these between these 2 amps. I tend to prefer whichever one I'm playing at the time - they're both amazing!

Knobs are typically used in these settings. I back off the front volume control a bit for humbuckers. The OD knob on the back is set at about 11 oclock I think. I almost always use the PAB when in OD mode - I spent a lot of time getting those internal tone knobs set - I have them quite a bit different than what Nik recommends.


Green Amp front by sduck409, on Flickr


Green Amp back by sduck409, on Flickr

No, I just put the tubes in and powered it up, set the bias and went from there. I figured that if there was a problem I could check all the voltages, but it works and sounds fabulous, so I'm happy!

No, I don't think it matters - it's AC anyway.

Cool pics! Looks like things are moving along. I really like the white chassis - is that a special order, or do they all come that way now?

And you probably know this by now, but Nik is (or at least was a while back) a mercury magnetics dealer - he can get you the dealer price on your trannies and have them ship it direct to you (if you're in the states that is) - great trannies for cheap this way! Send him an email about this.

Hopefully you'll have as good luck with your build as I did - mine worked perfectly at first power up, and still works perfectly!

I was able to get the transformers for my bluesmaster directly from MM at wholesale through Nik - he's a dealer - you paypal him the cost, and he sets it up so MM sends you the transformers. Got them for a great price that way! Although it does sound like you need to find the problem first.

The relays weren't pre-installed with my bluesmaster kit either. There should be 2 rectangular box like components with a pinout that'll fit those sockets in one of the bags of parts. Then it's just a matter of determining the correct orientation of insertion - I ended up doing a google search for the technical docs of the part - it was easy once I had that.

Sounds fabulous! And some great playing! I really like your "ambidextrous" string bending - sometimes you'll bend notes up pulling downwards, sometimes up - it's great to mix it up like that.

Based on my very limited reading on this I think you'd want it on the power section instead of V1 on these amps.

http://damacleod.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/installing-variable-voltage-regulator-vvr-in-a-valve-amp/

Yes. To clarify: All the HRM models (the plain HRM, the Bluesmaster, and the MK2) have the pull bright switch on the first volume control - this is similar to the bright toggle switch on the OTS models. BUT what the OP is referring to is the other pull knob on the Level pot in the overdrive section - this is apparently a different bright switch just for the overdrive channel. So no, you do not have this on your bluesmaster. Unless it's been modded. I don't have it on my bluesmaster.

No, that first volume bright switch is on all of the HRM models - this one on the OD level knob is unique to the plain HRM model.

Interesting - I didn't know these had this. It's just the plain HRM's, not the Bluesmasters or MkII's.