blues deville mods

[phsyconoodler]

Does anyone know any blues deville mods,particularly the reverb mod? I have all the Hot Rod series mods but the Blues models are quite different.
  I'd gladly share my Hot Rod mods with anyone that has the Blues series mods.

[jjasilli]

Only thing I found is this mod kit on ebay:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&item=180610262966&nma=true&rt=nc&si=cTikrTski0CdEEQNFn2bvigPiek%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc#ht_2378wt_952

Does sound similar to the hot rod style mods.  Maybe good for some ideas.

[phsyconoodler]

Yeah those are the Fromel mods.They really work for the hot-rod amps but the reverb is different on the Blues series amps.The other mods are great,especially the tone stack mods and the drive master pot change from linear to audio.
  The hair trigger clean volume is addresses to.Nice tones.

Just gotta figure out the reverb mod for the Blues deville/deluxe and I'm done.

[jjasilli]

The schematics for the Deluxe & Deville models are available online.  Looking at the Fromel mods to the Deluxe it should be possible guesstimate similar mods to the Deville.

EDIT:  also checkout this, even though it pertains to the Deluxe, as the mod alters the reverb's return treble-cut circuit, which apparently is the thing to duplicate in the Deville: http://www.justinholton.com/hotrod/reverb.html#dallman

"REFERENCE: K. O'Connor, "Solid State Reverb Drivers," "Solid State Reverb Returns," The Ultimate Tone: Modifying and Custom Building Tube Guitar Amps, pg. 8-10 & 8-14

By Justin Holton"

[plexi50]

I dont know of the reverb mod for the Blues DeVille but what about lowering the cap C50 value and see what happens. Or just cliping one lead and see what happens. Looks like this cap could be contributing to the splashy reverb people complain about. Im not sure. What is the function of Q2?

[sluckey]

What is the function of Q2?

Turns the reverb on/off via a footswitch.

[jjasilli]

Thanks Sluckey for clearing up Q2.

Here's the entire Blues Deville schemetic:  http://www.blueguitar.org/new/schem/fender/blues_deville.gif

The Blues Deville reverb circuit can be compared to the known mod (Justin / Fromel mod) for the Hot Rod Deluxe reverb circuit shown here:  http://www.justinholton.com/hotrod/reverb.html#dallman

In the Hot Rod circuit the reverb pot is bypassed by R103 & C52.  The Hot Rod mod defeats this bypass.  So, as you point out, clipping one lead of C50 seems to be the logical choice in the Blues Deville.  

If that doesn't work:  Note that the HRD has different values for the surrounding circuitry following the reverb recovery opamp, which circuitry is cleverly disguised by reversing the 5 & 6 pin positions on the schematics!  Both amps use the same opamp TL072.  So, if clipping C52 C50 doesn't work, perhaps its possible to duplicate the HRD circuit after U2B; and do the Fromel mod to that.  

BTW:  While searching I blundered into these other Blues Deville mods:  http://www.blueguitar.org/new/schem/fender/modnotes/bldvlmod.txt   from this webpage:  http://blueguitar.org/schems.htm#Fender

Note that http://www.ampage.org/ may be a resource for this topic.

[phsyconoodler]

Thanks guys!
 I tried some of those mods and the slope resistor change is ok but a bit too much for me.Half way is best. 
   The removal of C22 I don't care for at all.Not a great idea in my opinion.
The removal of C50 did help the reverb but not like it does on the Hot Rod amps.Still more needed here.
  The drive channel really is rather poor on these amps.I added a cap to R10 but I think it could be more.
The master really needs a better taper,but it's already an audio taper pot.Hmmm... Tried a resistor across the pot but it didn't do much.
   It simply comes on too quickly.I may try a 250k pot here instead of the stock 1 meg.The range isn't needed at all here.
  Still more experimenting to do.........

[phsyconoodler]

Tried a 220k plate resistor on V1B and it perked up the drive channel a lot.When you bypass V1B cathode it gets rather nasty sounding( not good)with single coils,but kicks ass with humbuckers.It is blues all the way with low output single coils and it drives hard with hot humbuckers.I play mostly single coils so out the bypass cap came.
  The mid jumper did nothing I liked with the slope resistor change,so off it came.Still not totally happy but closer.....
 this amp does not respond(to mods) the way the Hot Rod amps do.I also noticed the HRD's have different values of pots.....

The reverb is totally useable with just the cap clipped out.Could be better,but......for now it's pretty good.

[plexi50]

What value resistor did you use across the volume pot? The stock 1Meg pot is fine. I use a 47k across the outer terminals of the Volume,Drive and Master. It ramps up slowly and evenly up to roughly 7 and then gets real loud. Below 7 it is much more managable like a normal volume pot should be. Any value below 47k does not make a noticable difference. I tried other values below 47k and was never happy. 47k is king for me

[phsyconoodler]

The volume pots are 250k not 1 meg. I will try 47k and see what happens.

[phsyconoodler]

Ok, for the drive channel on the Blues amp I dropped the cathode resistor down to 820 ohms and removed the bypass cap I installed earlier..too bright....even at 22uf.It depends how hot the guitar pickups are as to how much drive it gets.With my Epiphone Special it screams,but it's quite a bit less drive with my Tele with Nocaster pickups.The drive is way more than the stock Blues Deville was before.WAY more,but not even approaching the HRD amps.Nice IMHO.

  I'm going to try the 47k on the volume control but the pot I put on the master is fine,it ramps up nicely as is.I don't need a resistor on the drive pot as it isn't an issue on this amp at all.
  I changed the slope resistor from 100k to 68k and it works fine.Nice chime.
I think I'm going to change the 1meg bass pot to 250k like the hot rod amps use and THEN use the stack jumper.With the stack jumper it makes the bass and mid almost unuseable.

 I may change the mid cap to .015uf and see if that does something.It's .022uf now and I don't like it.
I think I may change the filter caps just to make them fresh,I don't expect any tonal change here.
  The Blues amps' cleans are good stock but modded they start to sound pretty damn good.
I ended up with the presence mod back in;it works great with hotter humbuckers and not much with single coils.Take it or leave it.
  The reverb is just fine with the one cap clipped out.Very useable.