20/20

[JMMP]

I have a few questions about my rack gear. I was looking at the fuse holder on my 20/20 today, and on top of the fuse holder it says "2A SB," which is also the fuse that is in the amp. At approximately 7 o'clock and 4 o'clock to the fuse cap, there are "1A" and "SB" stamped or something similar in the faceplate, but has been gone over with black paint or similar to where I have not noticed until today (almost 3 months after I got the amp). Any idea why it is like this? The serial number is in the mid 2100s, and the seller told me it is from 1999.

And question 2: I have been running my quad through the 20/20, and compared the sound to slaving the quad into my roadster power section, the 20/20 is a lot thicker. The quad/ roadster combination sounds great,great as well, but just isn't the same .The 20/20 delivers the sound that I want for the msot part, but it does something to the upper mids that isn't jiving well with what I'm wanting. All that said I am debating: A) sell it(20/20) and buy a 50/50 (older model) B) doing the deep mod to see if that chills out those mids some, but I am worried about resale if I don't like the sound afterwards or C) look into various tubes. I am thinking it might be the EL84 that I am not liking, but I don't really know as I don't have much to compare to. I am running the JJ's that the amp came with, but I might put back the mesas that I think are original to the amp that were also included. Would changing the phase inverters help?

Sorry for the long read and thank you in advance for any comments or ideas!

 

[crane]

About the 1A SB, it's for 220V operation (1Ax220V = 220W = 2Ax110V)

I think you should go with the deep mod on. First do it only on one channel, so you can compare both sound. It's only about unsoldering one end of a capacitor.
If you didn't like it, resolder and sell it.
If you like it, I suggest to put the mod on a switch, one for each channel, so you can easily switch the mod on or off for each channel.

!!! Be carefull about the lethal voltages inside the amp !!! Give it to a tech if you didn't feel good at soldering.

 

[JMMP]

I have done a bit of reading on the deep mod both here and other boards, and it seems a lot of people say to wire a larger value capacitor in where the old one was because it has the same end result with the exception of not losing headroom. I figured if i was going to modify it, that would be the way i would do it. I see in your sig you list an unmodded 2020. Did you mod it before then go back?

And that makes sense about the faceplate, but my amp is a US amp, or is at least wired and labelled as such. Did mesa use the same face plates on all and paint over the unneeded specifications?

Thanks again for the response. Between what you said and reading the 2020 deep mod thread again, it definitely seems I should try that before deciding to sell it.

 

[crane]

Right about the bigger capacitor, I haven't put one in but I should do it. I suggested you to just unsolder one side of the original cap because it's easy to do and give a good idea of what sound you'll get (with a bit less gain).
So yes, my 20/20 is modded (with a switch in the front so I can easily switch the mod on or off) and I should write it in the sig.

I'm sure Mesa build only one faceplate and just put a different sticker or paint on it, depending of the input voltage needed.

PS I prefer the 20/20 unmodded for its huge attack, and let the "balls" part to my 50/50 or 295. But I should definitely put 2 switches in it, so I can engaged the deep on one side only. Could be a good solution.