Studio .22 love story - speakers and mods I've tried

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hgus

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I am a lurker on the forum, but I wanted to gather my thoughts on my all-time favourite amp, and get others’ input on mods and speakers. If you tried other speakers and have ideas for other mods, please add them!

Basically, I've played for 20 years, and am looking for a very open sounding amp, capable of whatever is thrown at it. I mainly use a Les Paul std with low output splitable pickups (and Nash style wiring, i.e. coil split on the regular tone control) for anything from jazz and funk to classic rock and gainy blues à la Bonamassa (I like his tone on the live in London recordings in particular). I generally do not use pedals, but I use the volume and tone knobs to vary the sound constantly. I feel that this amp pretty much nails the tones in my head in the current state. 8)

Anyway, this is what I have done to it:

I’ve tried a few speakers in the Studio .22, remember this is mainly from a home use perspective, trying to find the ultimate living room tone basically, with some jams and small gigs thrown in, but my current focus is not gig level volume, quite the opposite (but an sm57 should fix that when I do get on stage again)

Speakers I've tried:
- Stock Black Shadow – stiff, fizzy, cold and sterile. Not my alley at all.
- 70s 50w cast frame Fane – I know it sounds great LOUD, I've used it extensively when I rehearsed and played out fairly regularly, but in the boogie it’s too stiff and gets a bit sterile at modest volumes the way I mainly use it now.
- EV 12L – Love it. Clear and articulate, it makes you stand on your toes when you’re playing due to it showing everything. But it’s HEAVY, it’s LOUD so it’s hard to get the amp to breathe and since I sold the Mark IV I don’t have one anymore…
- Creamback – Very nice. Efficient with nice woody tone. Brings in quite a bit of weight, but I personally found the bass overbearing and too efficient for home use.
- Celestion G12 30 from 1980 with the silver sticker – low efficiency and small magnet. Makes the amp breathe much better at low volumes, also makes the amp very light (14,2kg) and just sounds great, woody and warm with nice bite and sizzle without overbearing treble. This is by far my favourite speaker so far for home use at least. Additionally, it was extremely cheap when I finally found one (I paid the equivalent of $20).
- Jensen C12Q –low efficiency, small magnet, easy to find and cheap. Sounded best with single coils, it is quite bright, but almost too much on the treble. Sounded like a hint of speaker breakup even on fairly low volume. I liked this very much as well, but the old celestion is more warm and woody and more to my liking, but I would rather have this at home than a more efficient speaker.

I want to try:
- A Greenback, especially an old one. I am curious as to how close the G12 30 is to a classic greenback.
- Neo speakers, especially the original Celestion Century, a few amp tech friends swore by it back then, and it sounded fantastic, very transparent and articulate. I’m thinking it would have the same kind of transparency of the EV without the weight? If I needed the amp louder, this is where I would go.


Other mods:
-single ended output – I simply yank one el84 so it runs in class A single end. Before I dared I calculated a bit and chatted to Kevin O’Connor about it. Works great, I’ve run it that way for a few years now. Current output tube is a really old and dusty telefunken el84 yanked from an old radio. I like it, but I always keep a spare pair of el84s and a few fuses around…

-Pre amp tubes – pre amp tubes are very important in this kind of amp (as well as in the Mk IV). I have yet to find new tubes remotely as good as vintage. My favourites are a pair of RCA ECC83s that go in V2 and V3, V1 is a 5751 of unknown brand for slightly lower gain. (V1 is different in the studio .22 than most other mesas, in that is is basically a parallel triode connected boost. I think this is why the amp sounds so good, the gain is earlier than in all other Mesas I’ve used, and a bit more raw in a good way.)

-There is a cap that has exactly the same function as the Fat switch on the mk IV (and others). I find the amp to sound more open, less muddy and basically much better with one leg lifted.

-I have the non-plus, so I went through the upgrade of the foot switch circuit and recapped all the electrolytics, pots were scratchy so they got some contact spray and pot lubricant.

-I also replaced the worn feet and put a “Boogie” logo on instead of the Mesa/Boogie logo. 

Mods I haven’t done yet
-“midboost” mid pot like the subway blues and some other later Mesas. I almost always run the mid on 0 however, so I haven’t bothered yet, but it’s just a different value mid pot.
-pull lead channel on volume pot, I currently have a mini toggle instead of the footswitch jack on the front. I never change channel anyway, I just turn down the guitar’s volume…
-I want to move the reverb out from the chassis to make room, but I am still a little uncertain of what will fit. I like the reverb sound, so I want the same but outside the chassis.
-triode switch, did this to my old one, makes the sound a bit quieter and a bit more mellow.
-power scaling – I have a kit lying around, but once I yanked a tube and got a low efficiency speaker, it feels unnecessary, because it sounds really good on my home playing levels.
-Head conversion - I always feel like doing this, haven't got around to it yet.

Live control:
-lead master and lead gain, easy mods to do to balance the channels, but I usually never change channels anyway, and I like the amp as simple as possible.
-foot control reverb and eq – also very easy to do but I haven't yet


If there's a mod you'd like me to explain further, just ask! I'd love to hear if there's something you did and liked.
 
I don't have a .22 (yet!) but I've been using a Celestion Century Neo since they came out, with a couple of Fuchs mods and a Ceriatone (dumble style amps) and really like it.

I recently got a Mark IIA combo and pulled the EV (the weight of which makes the combo basically unusable for me) and put in the Celestion Neo and once again I think it sounds great. I assume Celestion replaced them with the 'Vintage' Neo because they didn't 'sound like a Celestion' so nobody bought them. But for an EV12L replacement I think they work well. Probably don't handle the same amount of power but they seem to be pretty sensitive and I've never needed to project as much bass or sheer power as an EV can handle anyhow.

The other speaker I've used most has been a (pair of) Celestion G12-65 which might work in the Boogies too, but it weighs quite a bit so I probably won't bother unless I go to a head shell with the MKIIA. I do have a more recent Mesa CL90 or whatever it's called and a V30 and those may be worth a listen but again they are fairly heavy and I'm really more interested in a lighter and less efficient speaker like you have with your G12 30.

I am really interested in trying a Studio .22 since it seems to get a lot of love from Mark players so any details on your mods would be interesting. Basically to show to the guy who I have work on my amps, since I have minimal inclinations that way, never mind the time.
:)

PS anybody with a .22+ w/a GEQ that wants to sell, feel free to contact me. (hopefully that's not a ban-able offence on this board, but if so let me know and I'll edit it out)
 
So much that I can say relating to a lot of these mods...

-The most important thing that I've found so far is speaker choice. As I said in another thread, I though the original speaker was fine until I tried an Eminence Private Jack in it. I believe this is their take on the Greenback. It tamed the honky mids and gave the amp much better articulation.

-I also just mentioned in that other thread that I have a Mesa EVM12L Thiele cab that I use with this amp. It sounds great when used along with the Private Jack in the combo cab.

-My amp is a plus so it already had the lead master control. I added a lead drive pot and moved the reverb pot to the rear (to the whole that'd be used for the GEQ footswitch).

-Rather than removing the tone shift/fat cap, I put it on a switch. When it's on, it only affects the lead mode like the stock amp. With it off, the lead mode just sounds more like a cranked amp. I used a small enough switch that it fits in the vent slots in the back of the amp.

-I put the bright cap on a switch so I can have it when I want it and not when I don't.

-I have not added a mid boost switch yet, but I installed an Allen Amps style "Mids/Raw" 250k mids pot on my Princeton Reverb and I have to tell you, it's much more than a mids boost. When it's cranked it almost completely removes the tone controls from the preamp for a measured 18db increase in volume. It sounds HUGE and it's not all mids.

-My amp has the small external reverb tank mounted on the inside side wall of the cabinet. I have experimented with full size tanks with very little difference in sound. The circuit is what keeps this amp's reverb on the tame side. After over thirty years of keeping the reverb in my Fenders set at about 2-1/4, I like the Studio +'s reverb!

These mods haven't changed the amp into something that it wasn't before the mods. They just enhanced a really good amp.
 
So in terms of speakers, I have one of the light magnet Celestions in my Laney Lionheart and love it there.

But back to the Boogie, I put a Celestion A type in mine and really, really like it. I bought my amp used and it had a Jenson P12N in it which was great for cleans with humbuckers, but pretty much useless for anything else. I did have a Heritage G12-30 55Hz (from the Laney) in there for a good while but was never totally happy with it.

in fact I spent ages adding different cathode resistor bypass capacitors (sort of like a deep switch) in order to get it workable with a Strat until I worked out it was a speaker issue. I've done the lead drive mod fitted into the reverb pot position. The reverb pot got moved into a small hammond-type box screwed to the upright batton on the rear.
The box also has a switches to add a fat setting to the lead channel, a bright cap defeat and the three position deep switch. The deep switch and the bright defeat are pretty much now redundant following the speaker swap.

The box makes it it all reversible with only a couple of screw holes in the batton.

I also changed V1 to an ECC82 (12AU7) to drop the gain down on the lead channel as it's way to much for my tastes with stock valves.
 
Hi all,

I have a .22+ with EQ, been using it as my main gig amp for more than 20 years. I've done the lead drive mod and put a 12AY7 in V1. I currently use a 15W Celestion alnico blue speaker, also tried a Greenback and Mesa MC90, but the blue is most to my liking.

Don, would you be willing to share details about making the mod to put the tone shift/fat cap on a switch?

Greetings from Sweden
 
Kortlanda said:
Don, would you be willing to share details about making the mod to put the tone shift/fat cap on a switch?

Remove C12 (680pF ceramic disc capacitor) from the board. You can de-solder it from the top and pull it out through the opening in the chassis for V2 (or was it V1?) with a hemostat. Put the cap in series with a single pole toggle switch and run the wires to the solder points that the cap was originally mounted.

I did the same with the bright switch.
 
With respect to speakers, you might want to try a WGS ET-65 - I've got one in my DC2 combo, and I feel it's a great speaker. Much more articulate and punchy than the stock Black Shadow and a V30. It's also almost 4 pounds less than the V30. The MC90 sound good as well, but is heavy, like the EV. My 2 cents.....

Al
 
Anyone had or heard both generations and know if the lead channel is voiced differently in the original .22 versus the .22 plus version? Or are they pretty much the same amp?
 
mkVplayer said:
Anyone had or heard both generations and know if the lead channel is voiced differently in the original .22 versus the .22 plus version? Or are they pretty much the same amp?

Judging by the schematics, they are almost the same exact amp. Other than the obvious change of adding a lead master, a few small capacitors were added to the Plus.
 
Don said:
Judging by the schematics, they are almost the same exact amp. Other than the obvious change of adding a lead master, a few small capacitors were added to the Plus.
Thanks!
 
On the topic of speakers, have any of you tried using a 16 ohm greenback (or other celestion) from the 8 ohm jack? I've done that kind of mismatch with a 4 ohm fender head into an 8 0hm load and liked the results and since someone in my area has some old 16 ohm Celestions for sale I'm wondering if that might be a good bet. Probably knocks off some volume too which might be useful.

Since this thread started I lined up a .22+ GEQ that's on it's way, thus my interest!
 
Here to bump an old thread but I just want to get extra clarity based off of what I've read here. It is indeed perfectly safe to run the Studio 22 on one EL84? I shouldn't see any unexpected damage or mishaps along the road after attempting this? Any feedback is appreciated! Thank! Nick
 
Here to bump an old thread but I just want to get extra clarity based off of what I've read here. It is indeed perfectly safe to run the Studio 22 on one EL84? I shouldn't see any unexpected damage or mishaps along the road after attempting this? Any feedback is appreciated! Thank! Nick
Anecdotally it should be fine. I'm dubious to the long term health of the amp myself as the phase inverter splits the signal to a pair or set of tubes.

There's some info here

https://gearspace.com/board/so-many-guitars-so-little-time/719770-using-only-one-power-tube.html
But seemingly, and anecdotally, it seems fine if you're running the amp quiet.

I don't see the point myself.
 
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