What gear have you modded?

[BP3]

There are some easy mods that make average gear sound much better. One I did a while ago was replacing the TI chips in an ART Tube MP with Burr Brown OPA2604 chips. It opened up the top and made the pre much faster. Any mods by folks here that they'd like to share?

[Sylver]

[quote]Originally posted by Kringle: [b]There are some easy mods that make average gear sound much better. One I did a while ago was replacing the TI chips in an ART Tube MP with Burr Brown OPA2604 chips. It opened up the top and made the pre much faster. Any mods by folks here that they'd like to share?[/b][/quote]Oooooo, that sounds like a good one. I'll have to try that.

[Gtoledo3]

[quote]Originally posted by Swoop: [b] [quote]Originally posted by Kringle: [b]There are some easy mods that make average gear sound much better. One I did a while ago was replacing the TI chips in an ART Tube MP with Burr Brown OPA2604 chips. It opened up the top and made the pre much faster. Any mods by folks here that they'd like to share?[/b][/quote]Oooooo, that sounds like a good one. I'll have to try that.[/b][/quote]Well, you may need to do some research, seeing as how "TI"- Texas Instruments just bought Burr Brown and crapped out some of the parts already. If you get new Burr Browns they are actually going to be TI. I don't know if the opamp in question has been fucked with, but I do know that Sytek saw fit to start using Jensen FET's instead of the usual BurrBrown's in their preamp's due to noticeable inferiority in the Texas Instrument's product.

[Sylver]

Well, that sucks. I guess I'll have to keep saving up for that Avalon.

[BP3]

I did not know that Burr Brown had fallen to the Borg. Do the Linear Technologies video opamp chips still exist?

[Sylver]

Well, that sucks. I guess I'll have to keep saving up for that Avalon.

[linwood]

I'm not a do it yourself kind of guy, but I had Stephen Paul mod an 87 for me. What a difference! I've sent stuff to Audio Upgrades, as well.

[BP3]

[quote]Originally posted by Linwood: [b] I've sent stuff to Audio Upgrades, as well.[/b][/quote]Jim Williams certainly does some incredible things.

[Rod S]

Well, not so much as modded, but I'm currently designing a 3 piece electronic drum set (Kick drum and two drums). By January I hope to start getting some parts. It's just going to have a midioutput, and then I can send it to a synth or something.

[Mats Olsson.]

Marshall 412's are an easy fix. Their sound is greatly improved with better bracing, better cables, sealing of the handles/box joint - front baffle - back lid (and if you also switch the stock chip board back lid for a new made out of ply wood, the sum of all your efforts will be greatly rewarded). This whole operation cost next to nothing and you don't have to be a skilled solder jockey or carpenter to do a proper job. /Mats

[D. Gauss]

<> i duct taped my guitar strap to the guitar body so it won't fall off..... d. gauss

[Boggs]

I modded my Washburn MG600F by changing the two single coils and adding GraphTech FAAS piezo pickup system to it. I also minimally modded my Carvin X60A tube combo by changing a few cap values and the ICs and changing to JJ tubes hand-picked to deliver the tone I was looking for by Bob at Eurotubes. I also built a rack for it so I can stack effects and power strip and wireless units on it so it is easily removable as a unit. I made big changes to my small practice Fender amp by adding a crossover and tweeter, dual reflex ports, and the primary speaker as well as putting an L-pad to the tweeter. All my stuff can be seen on my website at [url=http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/boggs.com]www.angelfire.com/ny5/boggs.com[/url] . Look for the gear page for the amps. The rest is all self-explanatory. It is pop-up free, so no worries about that. Boggs

[miroslav]

Hey Kringle, I have the ART PRO MPA dual pre...wondering if the same mod can be done on it too like you did for the Art Tube MP? Where do you get the Burr Brown OPA2604 chips? Give some details if you dson't mind.

[BP3]

A friend I worked with had a bunch of the chips and sold me a couple for $3 a piece. You could do a google search and see if digi key or some other company sells them. I also put some chip sockets in at the time so that I could swap the TI chips back if needed. If I find a source for the BB chips, I'll post it here. As far as the Pro MPA goes, I don't know if the same mod would work.

[theom]

it's fun to mod isn't it? I have put jensen output trannys in lots of gear. it is really something. put burr browns in LA4 (big upgrade in top end) The most fun is the kludge audio board for cheap mics. you get the board and a fet as the "kit" then you digi-key the other parts. the board replaces the board in mics by marshall, nady, GA, MCA. This is what i would consider a intermediate skill level kit for the following reasons: 1 the board is not labeled with part numbers so you need to be able to read a circuit diagram to make sure the parts are in the right place. the photos in the article are a big help but also misleading because there is a jumper shown that isnt in the kits final circuit, and there are parts on both sides of the board in the photos, (in the real kit you only stuff one side). 2 there is some medium difficult soldering to do. That said it is really a great step forward for those with a little kit building experience. It is quite rewarding to hear the difference in the sound of the mic. Also it may encourage intermediates to go on and try more difficult DIY projects. Here is a link to the original article about the kludge audio / scott dorsey mod. http://www.pfarrell.com/music/shanghaimic.html not sure is scott ever gets to this board, if he does... scott, you rock!!!

[dlbmusic]

Here is a post of mine from another forum: Shhh don't tell anyone I recycle, wait.... recycling is good, save them Cans!!! :thu: We have a 1979 Altec/Lansing 1678 'Automatic mixer' we tweaked - It's a 8 ch mono mixer that can be used as a auto mixer, It was made for install into a concil chamber where whoever is speaking's channel is on and the rest mute. It can be set in manual mode and work like a normal mixer. Each Channel has a Direct out. When your tech opens it and sees the mic pre transformers he is going to shit. When you hear them, you will now, these things retailed for about $2500 in 1979, to say the least, they are built like a tank. "made in the USA' I came across one many years ago and sold it not knowing what else to do with it. A year ago I wanted to add some better preamps to replace the $2 one that come on boards these days for when I track drums, mostly. So I got one that wasn't working off ebay for $150. First, I told my guy to bypass ALL the extra crap in it. and fix each channel so they work only as a preamp feeding its output. We also had to swap out some resistors to cut the gain. It had a way to much out put. we only used the best parts we could get our hands on. took about $500 total to rebuild with lots of testing and trial and error, also about 4 months. The end resuld was a preamp that is Hands down the best Solid state pre I've ever used. the bottom is as nice and round as our manley but clearer, and the highs are clear, strong, smooth and go on for ever. Amazing!. I used it more than our manley pre, and on everything. So there you go, 8 ch of amazing mic pres for $500.

[BP3]

Cool! :cool: Keep 'em coming, recycles are welcome.

[offramp]

Simple stuff, on my end. When I get used gear, I tend to re-cap it right off the bat, power supply, etc. I have two UREI 1178's that were THROWN OUT (yes, friends, in a dumpster) at a station where I used to work. They worked, but I re-capped 'em and now they REALLY work. The most recent one was lining the cavities and pickguard backside of my '96/'62 RI Fotoflame Strat with copper foil, new pots and replacing the pickup leads with shielded, thicker gauge wire, heatshrinking every joint. One of my earliest mods was making a little-used button on a Neotek Series IIIC console start a coffee machine.

[BP3]

[quote]Originally posted by offramp: [b] One of my earliest mods was making a little-used button on a Neotek Series IIIC console start a coffee machine.[/b][/quote]I bet that ended up being one of the most used features on the Neotek. :D

[stanner]

i modify all my strats by removing all the pots. pick/ups to preamp tubes is the most critical connection in my signal chain. also, i play leftee guitars righthanded(strung rightee)-dont know if thats a mod er not... s :cool:

[Gtoledo3]

I think my best mod is my "figure 8 pattern" sm57.

[Philip OKeefe]

I've modified a lot of stuff... I did some mods to my JBL 4412's - replaced the woofers and did a few "secret" thing with the crossovers. I've modded my Presonus MP20 mic preamp with Jensen transformers and 627 opamps. I rebuilt my Fender Princeton II from the ground up - basically going with the stock circuit, but adding a bridge rectifier to convert the tube heaters from A/C to D/C - it reduces hum quite a bit - and hand testing all the resistors to 1% tolerance, etc. Very similar to Myles' (on the Guitar forum) "blueprinting" approach. I also rebuilt my Super Champ with a Vox AC15 front end and EL34's on the output stage. It's sick! :D There's other stuff I've done, but that's the stuff to save for another post. ;)

[offramp]

kringle: Hey...that console was sweet, I don't care what anyone says. GT3: details on the figure-8 57?

[KenElevenShadows]

I didn't do the mods myself and don't have specific details, but my Audio Technica mics are modded with a bigger capacitors and are all juiced up a little. I have a modified AT4060 and two modified AT4051s. My AT4060 also has a different tube. I have been toying around with the idea of either modding my two Aphex 651 Expressor compressors (Jim Williams/Audio Upgrades) or selling them and getting a couple of RNCs, but I haven't decided yet. If you have opinions on this, please voice them!!!! :)