Love/Hate relationship with my SOB 100 watt head...

[es336td]

I've been playing in a country/southern rock band since 1995. I started with a 66 Tremolux... sold that... bought a Boogie DC-5 head and ran it on a 2X10 JBL E110 speakers. I loved it! It was stolen in 1998... bought a .50 Caliber combo... hated it... sold it. Bought this SOB and got two Weber California Custom 10s... put them in a Tremolux clone a friend made for me. For the longest time, I loved the amp. I then ran into the constant "turn that thing down" syndrome and started using my BillM modded Blues Jr. All was right with the world...

In 2009 I joined a classic rock act and needed something a little beefier than the BJ. I reactivated the SOB and have had magic nights, crappy nights, and mostly mediocre nights. This past weekend, I tried something new; I set Channel 1 to 8 and channel 2 to 4... I A/B'd them with a Morley ABY switch. It gave me a clean tone and then a little crunch. Anything more, I would kick in my V-Twin. Once again... mediocre. Has anyone used an SOB like this? I know it's not really designed to work like this, but... I guess I need to sell the **** thing and buy another DC-5. That thing did exactly what I wanted right out of the box. I know the SOB is the red headed step child of Boogie, so any users out there with experience... any suggestions? Thanx.

 

[stokes]

I had one that I loaned to a friend who took it to Calif back in the late '80's when I got my IIC+.He passed away and I lost the amp in the transition,long story...lets move on.When I had the amp I used it with a simple A/B switch I made.With the right tubes and biased right,that amp was the best sounding amp I ever used or heard.My IIC+ comes close,but that SOB was untouchable.I used it for blues and classic rock,a lot of Santana.Before you give up on it,learn to adjust that bias or get someone to do it for you and bias it up into the 70% area.Use it on the 60 watt mode as well.I never used it on 100 watts.

 

[es336td]

Thanx. Just had it recapped a couple of years ago... didn't think to have the bias set. I'll have to take it back to my tech.

I get a good tone with a Morley ABY, but setting the two volumes is eluding me. I currently have Vol1 set to 8 and Vol2 set to 4. I've seen sample settings, since I posted this, somewhere that reverses that. I think the Mark I manual does something similar to that. I've been able to get what I thought was great tone in the basement, only to be disappointed and annoyed at a gig. I have a Sennheiser 609 mic'ing it and that goes directly into my Shure PS200 IEM. This past weekend it was too buzzy or not loud enough... or too loud. Very frustrating. I'll play with it some more. I don't have another gig with the classic rock band until April, so that'll give me some time to tweak.

Thanx again for the input. The SOB is the red headed step child and no one wants to talk about it except that it sucks... yeah, it does when you don't know what you're doing... which I guess I don't, but when you get it right, it is magic.

 

[stokes]

Yeah,a lot of people give it a bad rap,but like I said,if it is tweaked right,it is a killer.Mesas amps are typically biased cold.There is a reason they do that,it has a lot to do with selling a wide range of tubes thast will still operate at a safe,if less than optimal,way.
Vol 1 should be your "clean" channel.So that makes Vol 2 your overdrive channel.This channel actually has an extra gain stage.If you bias your power tubes up in the 70% range,that should be around 50ma's in that amp.It is probably set closer to 25ma's factory.That is very cold.Anyways,setting the tubes to 70% will allow you to get more power tube saturation in your clean or Vol 1 channel.You will find that when setting Vol 2 you wont be setting it as close to max and the distortion you get wont be as "buzzy" sounding.I was able to use Vol 1 almost exclusively just cranking my guitar volume for dirt and rolling it off to clean it up.Vol 2 or the overdrive channel was used only for those over the top Santana type sounds.I do use NOS tubes,which make a big difference,but I have re-biased many Boogie amps with current production tubes and they sound much better than the stock bias setting.

 

[es336td]

Learn something new every day... I was always under the impression that Vol2 was the clean and Vol1 driving into Vol2 made the overdrive... I'll definitely have to play with it. The only manual I can find is for a Mark I... the controls are close... so I assumed... and you know what that does... Thanx!

 

[stokes]

Sorry,I think I was mistaken,on that amp 1 is the drive channel and 2 is the clean.Its been a long time.

 

[sultan_of_sound]

I have an '85 SOB combo. I love the tone of this amp, but I agree that what you are trying to do is tough. The gain stages (a.k.a. vol 1 and vol 2) are stacked in series. It is easy to set up vol 2 for a clean sound, and but then somewhat difficult to set vol 1 for a good overdriven/distorted sound without being too loud. When you get the distortion you're looking for, you then have to turn down the second gain stage (vol 2) to compensate, which unfortunately turns down your clean tone!

What you are doing with the A/B box is the right approach. I have the original Mesa A/B box that came with my SOB for that purpose. It is the only way to do it, but it comes up short. In the end, I use pedals for overdrive and distortion when I play live.... It's the only way to balance the two sounds and have fast access to them by stepping on a foot-switch.

 

[es336td]

I have an '85 SOB combo. I love the tone of this amp, but I agree that what you are trying to do is tough. The gain stages (a.k.a. vol 1 and vol 2) are stacked in series. It is easy to set up vol 2 for a clean sound, and but then somewhat difficult to set vol 1 for a good overdriven/distorted sound without being too loud. When you get the distortion you're looking for, you then have to turn down the second gain stage (vol 2) to compensate, which unfortunately turns down your clean tone!

What you are doing with the A/B box is the right approach. I have the original Mesa A/B box that came with my SOB for that purpose. It is the only way to do it, but it comes up short. In the end, I use pedals for overdrive and distortion when I play live.... It's the only way to balance the two sounds and have fast access to them by stepping on a foot-switch.

I have a V-Twin to kick it into overdrive. I just wanted a nice clean tone (2) for a majority of stuff, and a crunch tone when I go to both channels (1). Lately, the venues we've been playing only allow for me to use my Blues Jr. I set it clean, and loud enough, then use the V-Twin and my Line6 M9 to get the other shades of overdrive. I'll have to play with the SOB a little during down time so it'll be a little closer to what I want when the bigger venues come this summer.

 

[es336td]

I'm a little slow... back in 2000, I recorded using a Dr. Z MAZ-38 through a 4X12 Marshall cabinet. An amazing amp. I was able to plug my PRS Standard into the MAZ and use the volume on the guitar to go from clean to full out... I haven't had the chance to check it yet, but was the original idea of this amp or the Mark I was; plug into channel 2 and get a good clean tone, then use pedals to dirty it up for crunch or lead. Without pedals, you would plug into channel 1, get the full out tone, then use the guitar volume like I did the MAZ? Seems it would work... I will have to use this long weekend to test this theory.

On another note... what mods could be done to this head to make it better? I've been told it could easily be modded to a Mark I. I know this is a stretch, but aren't Dumble Overdrive Specials 6L6 amps? What is the basic difference in the circuit? I know Alexander/Howard has the secret gooped circuit, just curious if this beast could easily be tweaked. I know if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. This amp sounds a lot like a Fender Twin at times. Dumbles are supposed to be Fenders done right...

Thanx for listening to the rambling... just trying to think of everything before I sell this amp. Like I said, I love it some times and hate it others.

L