Check out the pictures on the web site - if you look closely at the right ones you can figure out how and where to use the backing boards. I don't know exactly how the mounting situation is with your kit - mine didn't come with anything that worked, so I just used some other stuff that I had on hand.

The pics on this page - http://www.ceriatone.com/productSubPages/OTS%20Series/OTSFM50WPics.htm - it looks like the backing boards are used on the 2 boards that are on their sides over on the PT side. That's how it is in my BM 50w. The other small boards are mounted up on standoffs, so don't need backing boards.

You might look around on the board for an assembly picture thread - here's one - http://ceriatoneforum.com/index.php?topic=1160.0 - I also had one, but the site where my pictures were hosted kacked, and I haven't bothered replacing the pics yet.

Mercury Magnetics. They make one specifically for your kit. And Nik is a dealer - email him about it - he'll sell you one for a bit less than the regular price, and they'll ship it direct (I.E. not via Singapore)

I don't know if this will still work, but a while ago Nik was a mercury magnetics dealer - he could sell you them for his price, which is much lower than you'd get them for directly. You'd contact him, pay him for them, and MM would send them to you directly, not via Malaysia - fast and cheap!

They're not standard, and as such don't have a standard setting. You're going to have to get in touch with the person who built the amp, or the person who added them, and find out what the different settings are for.

My Bluesmaster 50w is still almost completely unmodded - the only thing that's nonstandard is I installed the Deep switch correctly. Still sounds perfect to me more than a year later, although I don't really play it that much these days as I bought a really nice Mesa Boogie Mark IV which suits my playing style a bit better.

You're using shielded wire for these connections. The green part indicates the shield layer outer wrapping, where it connects to the ground part of the jack. The red line indicates the inner signal carrying wire. You then run this wire over to the connector lug near V1. At that point you cap off the shield layer, and only connect the inside signal wire.


It's a switching jack - and the top lug is the switched lug - when a plug is inserted the ground connection is disconnected.

Thanks! That's very helpful!

Something that was mentioned by a friend has me wondering. I trust this guy and he probably knows more about this than I do, but I've never heard this mentioned before.

When pulling the 2 outer tubes in a 4 output tube amp to reduce the wattage, he says that its a good idea to reduce the impedance setting from what it was to half of that. So if you had it set for 8 ohms you'd set it to 4 ohms.

I've not heard about this before - anyone know if it's true, and a good idea, or bogus?

The knob things sound fairly normal - I've also got a bit of wiggle on the first volume knob, and the sudden on thing that you mention doesn't sound bad, although it can be annoying until you get used to it.

The amp does this odd cap discharge thing when you turn it off, the obvious solution if it annoys you is to turn down the guitar before powering off.

The other stuff does sound wrong, and may require some attention. The going silent part - first I'd make sure that everything in the signal chain is working reliably, then see if you can reproduce the problem with a minimal setup - I.E. play for an hour with just the guitar and a reliable cord, and one speaker, no effects, and see if the problem occurs when switching channels - and make a note of which channel switch causes the problem.

The mid boost switch clean channel problem - not a clue.

Before your dad messes with it make sure he knows about the safety issues - discharging capacitors, the 400v's coming from the transformers if you forget and leave it plugged in, etc. Working on amps isn't the same as fixing a radio or something.

Has anyone tried putting a mxr 6 band EQ in the loop? The EQ is kind of the key to a certain high gain sound on my mesa boogie mark IV - and I bet it would do the same for one of these amps.

link doesn't work

Ah, the simple joy of having a BM with the OD trimmer on the back.

Yes, clockwise for more drive. I find the biggest change is from about 9 oclock to about 12 oclock. I keep mine right about at 11 oclock. After noon you get more compression, but not a lot more gnarliness, if you know what I mean. The combination of your main (left-most) volume control and your Drive knob will have more effect on your overall distortion sound. Of course, YMMV.

Oh yea, no problem. There's a ton more gain available in these things than 95% of the youtube demos show. I've also got a mesa boogie mark IV, and the BM has more gain than it does. You will have no problem getting the "Santana" sound with it. And with 3 knobs controlling aspects of the gain, and the 2 tone stacks, you get a ton of control over the sound. Put reverb and the GEQ on one of these, and it would blow the mark IV out of the park!

BTW I really enjoyed your playing on the clip you posted!

I'd suggest the Bluesmaster version if you're really interested in the fender cleans sound. And all of them have ways of balancing the relative volumes of the 2 sections.