Ch.2 mods???

[Catthan]

Here's one for the tech-savvy lads;
Are the Edge and Crunch modes inspired by any Brit amp design in terms of circuit topology?
In a way that changing a cap or resistor value somewhere would generate a more , say, Marshall or Vox tone?
I believe that Mesa did great in giving these modes a Brit flavour for rhythm (IF that was the intention), but I find that while ch.2 offers a choice between Vox-like bite and sizzle (edge) and Marshall-like growl (crunch), it doesn't quite get there at least for my tastes.

So i was thinking, if the circuit topology in ch.2 bears any resemblance to, say, a Marshall maybe some tweaks in component values in certain places in the layout can further refine it and get it closer to the amp it tries to resemble. (Again, IF there was ever any intention of resembling a British amp originally).

Not flaming ch.2, in fact it handles all my dirty rhythm duties very well; just wondering what people who know about amp circuitry have to say on this.

thank you

 

[bandit2013]

I would not bother to modify the amp or circuits. There is a lot of things that go on with the voltage shifts and cathode bypass caps that meets the eye. The key to the CH2 is V2. I do like the tone of the Mesa preamp tubes but have rolled in many thought this amp to consider.

A Mullard reissue 12ax7 will really put some bite into CH2 when used in V2. Mullard CV4004 will also give you a notable difference. Tung Sol, EH not bad. My favorite tube for the V2 spot is an old Mesa Chinese 12ax7a with the square getter. I believe this is close to a Ruby/shingung 12ax7B, you can find these from the 1990's as NOS. The more recent versions of this tube just do not cut it. I would definitely experiment with V2 first before modifying the amp in any way.

the key to Crunch, push the gain, This is one of the features I love about this amp is CH2 Crunch with a high gain setting and no EQ (or at least use the preset).