So I want to get a Mercury Magnetics transformer on my DC-5, to open up the sound a bit an improve tone. The question I have is which one is the most dramatic in terms of improvement, the output or power transformer? Or should I just bite the bullet and upgrade both?
MM Transformer Upgrades: Power? Output? Both?
- Thread starter polaris20
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No tech but I would try the OT first personally. Swapped the OT on my Crate Palomino V32 without giving the PT a second thought. I used a Hammond since it was a lot cheaper. More open sounding and a bit more definition in the OD which actually makes it sound thicker. I guess it depends also on how it was "spec'd " to the amp . Bob
bhsbhswarp
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polaris20 said:
I think the tone difference is in the OT,power is power IMO.
eschoendorff
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Interested in seeing how this works out for you. Been thinking of doing something like this myself.
scottcrud
Well-known member
Hi, I have 2 .50 Cal+ heads. Both have had one or both transformers swapped out. My latest .50Cal has a MM TRUE 50 watt OT and it is worth it. It now is actually putting out 50 watts. I've had my other .50 cal head since 91 and have played in a band with another guitarist who plays a MKIII, his master volume is on 2, with my amp in its stock form I'd have to turn my master volume up to 5 or 6 and at 5 or 6, the amp loses a lot of definition and compresses, the low end becomes flabby etc. Which is great if my band played Kyus, Queens of the Stoneage type music, but we play metal, similar to Slayer.
Andy "Monstatone" Turner worked on my newest .50Cal, I'd try and email or pm him, he has a wealth of knowledge and has swapped out ot and power trannys when he owned a DC-5.
My other .50 cal has had both trannys swapped to 100 watt ot and power trannys and now runs on a set of 6550's instead of 6L6's. Kendrick amps did the mod, and they only told me the trannys were custom made for their amps.
Both are kick *** amps, and a lot better now than in stock form. In my opinion you only need to swap out the OT tranny...
Andy "Monstatone" Turner worked on my newest .50Cal, I'd try and email or pm him, he has a wealth of knowledge and has swapped out ot and power trannys when he owned a DC-5.
My other .50 cal has had both trannys swapped to 100 watt ot and power trannys and now runs on a set of 6550's instead of 6L6's. Kendrick amps did the mod, and they only told me the trannys were custom made for their amps.
Both are kick *** amps, and a lot better now than in stock form. In my opinion you only need to swap out the OT tranny...
Thanks for the input, guys. I think you're right though, I should probably shoot Andy an e-mail too. I've already conversed with him before anyway, because I've got his effects loop mod PDF on my site for hosting, so everyone can get at it.
No, because honestly I'm pretty happy with the C90. I've never been a V30 fan, and I'm not sure where to go from there. I detest speaker shopping almost as much as pickup shopping! :lol:
I was thinking of giving one of these a try though:
http://www.eminence.com/speakers/speaker-detail/?model=Maverick
BobR said:
No, because honestly I'm pretty happy with the C90. I've never been a V30 fan, and I'm not sure where to go from there. I detest speaker shopping almost as much as pickup shopping! :lol:
I was thinking of giving one of these a try though:
http://www.eminence.com/speakers/speaker-detail/?model=Maverick
You say you like the MC90 sprk, but are loking for "improvement" in a tranny swap...I don't get it. What kind of tonal improvement are you looking for? More this, less that, of what?
Personally, I am interested in what you get from the tranny swap, so please chime in with details!! But spkr swaps, loathsome, timely, and costly they can be, are the one place where you will arguably get the most differences in tone. So what, if I may ask, are you looking at swapping just the trans and not the spkr?
Edward
Personally, I am interested in what you get from the tranny swap, so please chime in with details!! But spkr swaps, loathsome, timely, and costly they can be, are the one place where you will arguably get the most differences in tone. So what, if I may ask, are you looking at swapping just the trans and not the spkr?
Edward
edward said:
I was told that swapping the OT to an MM OT is like "lifting a blanket" off of the amp; providing more clarity, note definition, etc. I don't think you're going to get that with a speaker swap necessarily.
Well ...not to be a contrarian, but yes and no. Speakers have everything to say about your tone. Some changes are subtle; others dramatic.
Not saying swapping the OT is wrong, mind you. The OT clearly has lots to say about your tone, no doubt! Just offering that you can perhaps get what you want, or darned close, with sprk swaps ...which is a far easier task, to boot. It's just that it is timely and costs you in trial/error. And ultimately, you may not get the tone you want. ...just sayin.
And FWIW, I AM interested in your results. Please post back your findings when you end up doing the swap! Details and objective review, and A/B recording would be great!!
Edward
Not saying swapping the OT is wrong, mind you. The OT clearly has lots to say about your tone, no doubt! Just offering that you can perhaps get what you want, or darned close, with sprk swaps ...which is a far easier task, to boot. It's just that it is timely and costs you in trial/error. And ultimately, you may not get the tone you want. ...just sayin.
And FWIW, I AM interested in your results. Please post back your findings when you end up doing the swap! Details and objective review, and A/B recording would be great!!
Edward
edward said:Well ...not to be a contrarian, but yes and no. Speakers have everything to say about your tone. Some changes are subtle; others dramatic.
Not saying swapping the OT is wrong, mind you. The OT clearly has lots to say about your tone, no doubt! Just offering that you can perhaps get what you want, or darned close, with sprk swaps ...which is a far easier task, to boot. It's just that it is timely and costs you in trial/error. And ultimately, you may not get the tone you want. ...just sayin.
And FWIW, I AM interested in your results. Please post back your findings when you end up doing the swap! Details and objective review, and A/B recording would be great!!
Edward
I guess my point is that I am aware of the dramatic changes a speaker can provide, it's just that I'm happy with how my amp sounds now with the C90, and I'm just looking for that extra push over the edge, not a dramatic tonal change.
I am curious how a V30 would sound though. I've generally not been a fan, but I've been reading that some people like them with Rectos and Marks, so it has me interested. Unfortunately, I sold the only V30 cab I had.
BobR said:
Yeah, I dig the speaker quite a bit. I've played it in the DC-5 of course, and also the Mark V, Express 5:50, ROV, and even a Stiletto Ace head attached to a C90 2x12, and it's always sounded good to me.
I owned an Avatar cab closed back, with a Peavey JSX head, and the cab had V30's, and I just didn't get along with it. It might have been the EL34/V30 combo though.
I think the C-90 is a good compromise speaker.
It sounds really clear on clean tones, without as much coloration as the V-30.
Plus, it doesn't have that huge mid hump like the V-30, which makes me like it much more for overdriven tones. I like darker, less ice-pick tones than the V-30 has to offer in a 1x12. That being said, I used to own an Ampeg 2x12 with V-30's and it was one of the best sounding cabinets I've ever had for metal tones. Couldn't get a clean tone I liked out of it to save my life though!
Speaker swapping will definitely give you the most noticeable change in tone.
If you like your tone though, and simply want the amp to sing more or just to make the amp feel more lively, then an OT swap works wonders!
It will change the tone, but not so much that you can't just re-eq it and get really close to where it was.
I hated my Maverick when I 1st got it. Couldn't understand why some guys like it.
Then....I swapped the OT and pulled the end bells off of the choke. Now, I just love to play it!
Mesa amps sound great, but they can definitely benefit from a larger OT. The ones that Mesa uses for their amps are very small. I'm thinking that the reason for this is so that the amps will saturate the transformers and distort more. Really though, to get the best cleans and od tones out of the same amp, I like larger transformers.
Mercury is really great, but expensive. Probably the best quality control though!
Heyboer is really great and affordable.
Hammond is really great and pretty affordable too.
I've built several amps using Heyboer & Hammond transformers and every one of them has knocked my socks off!
Here's how I look at it:
Mercury - when you want to go the Lexus route. Great resale value too!
Heyboer - greatest bang for the buck! May lower the resale value, but it's a DC-5. Probably won't be worth much until Scottcrud or Edward become famous!
Hammond - the 1600 series are taller and may not fit in a head. Probably looks the most different out of all of them. They do make direct Fender replacements though, which will look fairly similar to the original.
They all will provide a dramatic improvement in your overall tone, sustain, and note clarity if you choose the right models.
It sounds really clear on clean tones, without as much coloration as the V-30.
Plus, it doesn't have that huge mid hump like the V-30, which makes me like it much more for overdriven tones. I like darker, less ice-pick tones than the V-30 has to offer in a 1x12. That being said, I used to own an Ampeg 2x12 with V-30's and it was one of the best sounding cabinets I've ever had for metal tones. Couldn't get a clean tone I liked out of it to save my life though!
Speaker swapping will definitely give you the most noticeable change in tone.
If you like your tone though, and simply want the amp to sing more or just to make the amp feel more lively, then an OT swap works wonders!
It will change the tone, but not so much that you can't just re-eq it and get really close to where it was.
I hated my Maverick when I 1st got it. Couldn't understand why some guys like it.
Then....I swapped the OT and pulled the end bells off of the choke. Now, I just love to play it!
Mesa amps sound great, but they can definitely benefit from a larger OT. The ones that Mesa uses for their amps are very small. I'm thinking that the reason for this is so that the amps will saturate the transformers and distort more. Really though, to get the best cleans and od tones out of the same amp, I like larger transformers.
Mercury is really great, but expensive. Probably the best quality control though!
Heyboer is really great and affordable.
Hammond is really great and pretty affordable too.
I've built several amps using Heyboer & Hammond transformers and every one of them has knocked my socks off!
Here's how I look at it:
Mercury - when you want to go the Lexus route. Great resale value too!
Heyboer - greatest bang for the buck! May lower the resale value, but it's a DC-5. Probably won't be worth much until Scottcrud or Edward become famous!
Hammond - the 1600 series are taller and may not fit in a head. Probably looks the most different out of all of them. They do make direct Fender replacements though, which will look fairly similar to the original.
They all will provide a dramatic improvement in your overall tone, sustain, and note clarity if you choose the right models.
I forgot.....
Paul Patronette from Mercury told me that replacing the OT and the Choke will provide the best bang for the buck as far as he is concerned.
That's the reason that I pulled the end bells off of the Choke.
I did this mod before replacing my OT and it seemed to make the amp sound a little more clear.
Paul said that any good amp will have a Choke without end bells. The reason for this is that the end bells dampen the magnetic flux in the Choke and prevent it from smoothing out the DC voltages in your amp. It makes sense that a more solid power supply would affect your tone in the same way that a properly tuned ignition system will make the engine in your car run more smoothly.
FWIW:
I have looked at tons of pictures and have been keeping track of a lot of amp's Chokes since I had that conversation with Paul.
Most of the higher end amps like Soldano, etc. use Chokes with no bell ends.
I've never seen a Blackface Fender with a stock Choke that did not have bell ends though!
Guess in the end, we're not playing through Macintosh power amps for a reason...............
Paul Patronette from Mercury told me that replacing the OT and the Choke will provide the best bang for the buck as far as he is concerned.
That's the reason that I pulled the end bells off of the Choke.
I did this mod before replacing my OT and it seemed to make the amp sound a little more clear.
Paul said that any good amp will have a Choke without end bells. The reason for this is that the end bells dampen the magnetic flux in the Choke and prevent it from smoothing out the DC voltages in your amp. It makes sense that a more solid power supply would affect your tone in the same way that a properly tuned ignition system will make the engine in your car run more smoothly.
FWIW:
I have looked at tons of pictures and have been keeping track of a lot of amp's Chokes since I had that conversation with Paul.
Most of the higher end amps like Soldano, etc. use Chokes with no bell ends.
I've never seen a Blackface Fender with a stock Choke that did not have bell ends though!
Guess in the end, we're not playing through Macintosh power amps for a reason...............
:lol: :lol: :lol: I should probably stop typing before my coffee too........ :lol: :lol: :lol:
MJ Slaughter
Well-known member
Monsta,
Where do you get the Heyboer at? I emailed them directly and was told that they don't have any Mesa specs or winding data.
Thanks
Where do you get the Heyboer at? I emailed them directly and was told that they don't have any Mesa specs or winding data.
Thanks
