New LSS Owner - Reeder?

[markgett]

Oh BABY! My sweetie got me one of these beauties for the Holiday and I was FLOORED! I'm still trying to come to terms with receiving this thing as a gift. In the meantime, I thought it might be prudent to peruse this board ('cause y'all were so helpful to me last year when I was considering buying my teacher's MK IIb) and see what kinds of settings people were using, how owners were liking their LSS's and to basically gather info and breathe in anything and everything people were saying.

I've seen a number of comments regarding the Reeder mods - I've tried following message board links to explanations for these, but they seem to be broken or no longer valid. Can someone help me out with that? Why would one consider those mods? I play rock and classic rock and I've been DROOLING over the chance to finally add the Mesa tone to my sound. I'm also considering adding a 1x12 matching cabinet to the amp for gigging.

I'm not going to ask that common topics get repeated here - I'll take my time and read through the board. I've come across topics on tube life, tone settings and general troubleshooting issues thus far and it has all been very informative - thank you all in advance!

 

[screamingdaisy]

The gist of Reeder mod #1 is that in stock configuration channel 2's gain and master volume pots are opposite channel 1.

I believe that Mesa's intent was that channel 1 would be used for cleaner tones, so they gave channel 1 a gain pot that has more sweep in the low to mid gain regions and less in higher (for an LSS) gain regions. Whereas channel 2 was meant for higher gain (again, for an LSS) tones, so they gave the pot more sweep in the mid to high gain regions.

Reeder experimented and found out that if you swap channel two's pots around then channel 1 and 2 will dial in identically. Myself, after reading this I turned the gain down on channel 2 and found out I could accomplish the same thing.


The hang up that a lot of people have is that the manual mentions something about the amp sounding better with the gain up higher than the drive, but the reality is that some people prefer the drive higher than the gain. Some people get all bent out of shape over this and they feel that what they prefer is somehow wrong because of some comment made in the manual. The Reeder mod allows you do physically set the gain knob much higher than you would've prior to the mod, which helps some people as their settings now visually correspond with the comment made in the manual.

Myself, I just ignored the manual.

 

[markgett]

Well, that's about as clear an explanation as anyone could expect - thanks so much for walking me through that; I believe I'll be keeping my new baby stock and working with the pots as they are.

Thanks again! :mrgreen:

 

[fredster]

+10000000000

The LSS is awesome as designed. Play it for a while, you'll love it as is!

 

[screamingdaisy]

Well, that's about as clear an explanation as anyone could expect - thanks so much for walking me through that; I believe I'll be keeping my new baby stock and working with the pots as they are.

Thanks again! :mrgreen:

Obviously my view is biased, but I think too many people see the mod and rush into it. During my time on this forum I've seen a number of people do the mod and be delighted with the results. I've also seen a number of people reverse the mod and go back to the way it was before.

I suppose that the mod is ideal for people who want to use channel 2 for lower to mid gain since the new pot sweep will give you more control over that region. However, for those that want more control in the mid to high gain regions then I feel stock is the better option.

 

[Vogelsong]

Well, that's about as clear an explanation as anyone could expect - thanks so much for walking me through that; I believe I'll be keeping my new baby stock and working with the pots as they are.

Thanks again! :mrgreen:

Obviously my view is biased, but I think too many people see the mod and rush into it. During my time on this forum I've seen a number of people do the mod and be delighted with the results. I've also seen a number of people reverse the mod and go back to the way it was before.

I suppose that the mod is ideal for people who want to use channel 2 for lower to mid gain since the new pot sweep will give you more control over that region. However, for those that want more control in the mid to high gain regions then I feel stock is the better option.

SD I agree with a lot of what you said. I did the mod and was thrilled with the results. I worked hard to get the amp to do what I wanted it to do stock. But in the end I just couldn't make it happen. I did the mod and I was thrilled. Like SD said it may be because I don't use channel 2 with high gain. I have the amp set up with 3 channels and that is what the 3rd is for. For me channel 2 was about having a clone of a clean channel 1 with a good blues driven sound. With the mod I was able to do just that.

 

[markgett]

VS that makes total sense. I'm a high gain type of guy and we cover a few Santana songs in our band. The Mesa sound is absolutely REQUIRED to pull this off, and the built-in preamp gain is exactly what I'm looking for; gives me the sustain (that I LOVE so much). This discussion completely straightens me out on the Reeder mods and I am grateful for everyone's input. When I first saw the comments regarding them I thought, "Wow - brand-spankin' new amp and I may have to take it in for mods???!!!"

Thanks again, guys - I look forward to contributing here (I promise not to only ask questions; I'm not a savvy electronics guy, so I'll not be able to add a lot to discussions regarding circuitry, etc. but will contribute where I can).

Peace-

 

[Jared Purdy]

Well, that's about as clear an explanation as anyone could expect - thanks so much for walking me through that; I believe I'll be keeping my new baby stock and working with the pots as they are.

Thanks again! :mrgreen:

Yes, I would agree with screamingdaisy. I've had mine for a month now, and have found what I like. Play with it for a while before you try anything, and record what settings you like so that you can go back to them.

Personally, I found the manual's "classic" (i.e., not super high gain) settings to be of some use, though I did tweak them a bit. I play mostly blues, and bluesy rock. I have come to love the 2nd channel. I've been playing through a PRRI for quite some time now, so it's really nice to have that versatility.