i finally got a chance to really dig in play it for a good solid couple of hours, and i have to say i am very, very impressed by it. I had initially sort of planned to switch out all of the electronics, based on my experiences with other korean made guitars (my dano and my epi sheraton), but to my surprise, everything actually sounds really nice! I popped open the control cavity and was greeted with Alpha pots, very clean, tidy wiring, and a treble bleed capacitor on the volume control!! i was shocked! The stock pickups sound like slightly overwound PAFs, and are a perfect match for the HRM BM so far. One of my fave settings so far is the clean channel cranked with the master about 5 and the c-lator controlling the master. this gives a nice growly overdrive and singing leads, and then i kick in the Mega PAB and it really sings!

One interesting thing about PRS guitars is that the wide fat neck. to me it seems neither overly wide nor fat, it feels just right, almost like the neck on my 76 les paul that i foolishly sold all those years ago. I am very very happy! 

i'm doin the dc voltage difference that nik has in the manual. you are correct of, course i should be doing measurent in AC with a tone generator, just haven't gotten around to it yet. Although, if i have it set to where it sounds good now, is it worth doing it via the tone generator method, or should i just leave it alone for now and let it ride?

i should probably restate what i said

i think it's more in my head than anything not so much that it sounded bad, just wasn't getting quite what i wanted out of it. sounded good, but not great, and indeed when i put the meter on the pi trimmer circuit it was perfectly balanced, ie no voltage difference V3a and V3b at all, so the "balanced" triodes were doing what they were designed to do, and the amp sounded great and, well, balanced, for lack of a better term, but didn't quite get the bloom as i was after. after i made the adjustment though, i got that elusive bloom and all is well.
i think it had more to do with the tube that anything, not that it was bad, just that it is a lower gain tube and set up to be balanced and needed a little help getting that voltage swing. Long story short, making that adjustment made a great amp sound even greater

I finally got around to adjusting mine the other day. mine took a little more twiddling to get the balance where i wanted it due to the fact that my PI tube is one of the Mullard CV4024's with "balanced" triodes, and brother they mean balnced!! I had to set the trimmer to 3'o clock (looking from the rear of chassis to the front) to get the voltage difference of about 6 volts, and then about 4'o clock to get it where it wanted it. It does take a little more of inbalance on the HRM BM (at least on mine) to get that bloom, but when it gets there it is tonal nirvana, and when i engage the Mega PAB holy crap!!!

I was about to sell my Strat because it sounded like crap through the BM (awesome amps can show either how good or bad your guitar is), but after tweaking the PI trimer, i have fallen in love with my strat again, and all my other axes sound even better now.

That being said, i don't think it's voodoo either, but i encourage everyone to give it a try, especially if you are using non stock PI tubes...

Hope this helps!

Gregg

So far it is very nice! Ordered it from Sweetwater.com. They do a very nice inspection/setup. All the guitar needed was a little truss rod adjustment to suit my preferences. It was even in tune an perfectly intonated when it arrived! Can't beat that!

So far it sounds awesome through the Bluesmaster. I will probably change out the wiring and pickups later and add some locking tuners, but for now I am very happy!

very nice!!!

You are hearing your mesa preamp inserted into the poweramp section of your ots. Volume and tone shaping will be controlled via your preamp and c-lator. You are bypassing the preamp of your ots altogether.

Looking foward to seeing it! By the way, kinda sad that we live in a world where you have to throw that disclaimer in there...

absolutely! it's interesting that you found that the Celestion was louder than the Fane. I was thinking that if i went with the EVM it would overpower the Weber. Hmm.

As far as recommendations go, the 3 top recommendations I got were #1 EVM12, #2 G12-65, and #3 Celestion Gold. My final choice was determined ultimately by putting them in a hat and pulling out the 1265. I went with Weber because i have used their drivers before and have always been happy with em. So far, they seem to be a great match for my particular Bluesmaster, which doesn't seem to be as bass heavy as some of the others now that it has broken in and the OD channel defintely isn't since i bypassed the HRM tonestack. I def want to try the EVM's though. I think two of those will be my next purchase

I agree with that as well. I went with the G12-65's as that was what the majority of guys recommended for the OTS. I will be trying the EVM-12 and Celestion Golds as well, just to see what the sound differences are, and may even try mixing them up

i don't think the Red, White and Blues sounds close to a G12-65 at all, in my opinion. although the design is similar with the ribs on the cone and the mesh dome, it is a different magnet structure all together, and has a higher wattage raiting as well, which effects the overall tone of the speaker. that being said, it couldn't hurt to try it, or its "cousin" as emience says, the governor.

In reality, it all comes down to what your ears like, and what tone you want to hear. Try out a bunch and see what ya like! ya never know, having a vast collection of speakers could come in handy one day, as they all sound different and may help you find a tone that is "in your head" down the road

if there is room at the bottom of the head cab, to mount it facing backwards then you could do it. there is certainly enough room in my 2x12 combo for it. do you use yours as a global master? it seems like it would be kind of pain to access if that is the case?

Yup, that's what i'm gonna be building, but with the clator on top. I could be wrong, but i think the OP was wanting to know if the clator could be mounted inside the amp chassis itself, not the cab

If you are set on using a 100 w amp, I would build 2 speaker cabs a 2x12 with G12-65 type speakers to use full 100 w power, and a 1x12 with an EVM-12 for full power. The weber cerwin vega clone would not be a good match for the OTS IMHO. Also, you can do as bluesfender suggested and pull two tubes and switch the impedance selector to 4 ohms, or have a half power switch installed, which in 100 w models switches two tubes off instead of going into triode mode AFAIK

FWIW i use weber 12-65's with pre-rola treatment and they sound great. I've heard the scumbacks sound great too

Not alot of room in there for it, plus you would need to punch a hole for the tube and find a place for the knobs and transformer. You could easily build a head cab or combo cab with the clator on top and build a lil support shelf for the amp chassis. I plan on doing this and having the chassis on drawer rails so i can slide it in and out easier