volume mod

[eschoendorff]

Photo:

i don't know where you live, but if you were close enough to me, I'd love for you to hear my DC-5 with the volume mod. I, personally, do not like it.

Now I just need to find someone who is really good with a solder iron in a tight spot to put it back the way it was for me...

 

[photogold]

I live in San Jose, CA.

Actually I'm hoping that someone can put a short jumper wire on that resistor so it can be switched in and out to compare the sound. I'm also hoping that someone with connections at Mesa can contact someone there and ask them why the resistor was added.

I can't hear a difference after I did the mod on mine. It seems that if I turn the output just slightly higher, I get exactly the same sound. From looking at the schematic, there is absolutely no difference in the circuit. With the possible exception that with the original factory configuration, the bias on preamp tube V3B may change slightly from 95V to 87V at low output levels. But why would Mesa do that? What benefit would that have?

I think Mesa added the resistor to simply boost the volume a little quicker, and to possibly fill in a dead spot below 1. But all that affects is the number showiing on the knob.

Nobody has any comments about my recent post in volume mod technical discussion...

 

[scottcrud]

Photo, you could always call Mesa Boogie Monday through Thursday and ask to speak with Mike Bedinelli. I'm sure he would tell you why that resistor is there.

 

[kartoffel]

Yes, I find it odd we have 3-4 volume mod topics on this first page about if it changes tone or not. and what it technically does. And yet no one has asked Mesa personally why they put it there. Personally it didn't touch my tone and didn't effect the taper as much as I was hoping for, but I'm not going back because it's still somewhat of an improvement over the burst your eardrums at lvl 1 mode.

 

[jutsin]

I called up Mesa just the other day with a few questions, and asked about the 220k volume resistor while I had the guy on the phone. He didn't seem overly familiar with the DC series (judging from the responses to my questions) but he said that it's funny people remove the resistor because it is put there to smooth out the taper of the output volume control. Funny- it does exactly the opposite haha. I just did the volume mod on my DC-3 and immediately noticed a difference in the sweep of the ouput volume. There is no longer such a huge jump in volume.

 

[edward]

I called up Mesa just the other day with a few questions, and asked about the 220k volume resistor while I had the guy on the phone. He didn't seem overly familiar with the DC series (judging from the responses to my questions) but he said that it's funny people remove the resistor because it is put there to smooth out the taper of the output volume control. Funny- it does exactly the opposite haha. I just did the volume mod on my DC-3 and immediately noticed a difference in the sweep of the ouput volume. There is no longer such a huge jump in volume.

I've called Mesa in the past regarding my DC5 (different questions, before I did the vol mod). My impression is that there there may be only a few guys who really know these older amps ...and if you ever have the great fortune to talk to Mike Bendinelli, he is THE man to speak with.

Keep in mind how long these calibers have been out of production, and how few they must see come back in. And as for their old amps, they certainly see more Marks as the entire Mark line spans mannnny more years, and overall represent a much larger number of amps, not to mention how much street cred Marks have so that added to their popularity. So I am not surprised that this "tech" (if indeed he is one, even) is not at all familiar with the actual guts of the DCs.

Edward