Lone Star Reeder Mod #1: Channel 2 Pot-Swap

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Maury said:
my pleasure, DJW ... do you think the camcorder captured a significant difference?
The difference I heard was fairly subtle... more subtle than what I hear in my own environment. But there obviously could be many reasons for this -- camcorder recording being what it is, your particular amp settings, etc. (I wished I could see your settings better in the clip, by the way) However, the way you describe your findings is right in line with how I hear it: the tone still has a lot of girth and fatness, but a more pronounced high-end edge and clarity. Great playing too, by the way!
 
Thanks I was really just fishing for compliments ... "good answer" :)

but seriously - the camera's compression is hiding some of the clarity found from the ReederMod. I played the amp in a larger room today, and cranked it up a bit - MUCH more noticeable and I liked what I heard.
 
I just did the mod last weekend. Before, it sounded like the speaker had the proverbial wet blanket over it. After the mod, it sounds cleaner and brighter; not nearly as muddy as it was before.

It was easy to do as well. If you know how to solder, then it's a piece of cake.
 
Just did both mods over the weekend on my LSS! Before this never really had much love for Ch2 but now wow!! Thank you Mr. Reeder!!
 
Hi all!
My first post, but i've been enjoying reading this forum for about a month. I'm very grateful for the fantastic expertise shared here! Thanks to each of you for providing an absolute wealth of info and ideas. Very smart crew here!

Since i'm not very tech savvy i had a real tech do the ch2 drive ftswitch mod-very cool! i'm still experimenting with how to balance the 2 levels...

Still undecided re reeder vol pot mod.
is ch2 still higher gain than ch1 after the mod? or are they identical sounding?
to my ears ch2 can be a bit 'nasally'-is that the 'murky/wet blanket' folks say gets removed by the mod?

an observation: while experimenting, i maxed the gains of both ch1&2 (tone settings identical) and got identical sound w comparable vol levels by turning the ch1 a bit lower than ch2. so, maxing out the gains understandably mitigated the pot taper differences. but it was surprising to me that ch1 is louder than ch2 when the masters are matched!
any thoughts?

btw ch1 sounded great with that extreme setting:
gain: max
treble: 12 noon
mid: 9:00
bass: 12:00
pres: 3:00
master: 12:00
power: 5watts
output: 11:00
using an es-333 (same as es-335 w less fancy cosmetics) the sound was full and rich with alot of overdrive, but turning down gtr pots yielded beautiful cleaner sound.

thanks again to all of you!
 
hi all

another question re reeder mod#1:
i saw a post that complained that the mod made ch2 master "hair-trigger".
this kind of makes sense given that the taper is different.
the stock configuration is easy to fine control the volume of ch2.
does this fine control get lessened by switching pots?
if so, then perhaps leaving ch2 master pot#581739 where it is and just replacing ch2 gain pot#591047 with another pot#581739 purchased from mesa would open the sound up but still allow fine control of ch2?
thoughts?

thanks!
 
Hey Dangit, those are good questions. It's not surprising that the channels sound the same with those controls maxed. The only differences between the channels (when the drive switch is disengaged) is the tapers between those pots, so when they're maxed their active values should be identical. As stated, theoretically you should be able to get the same tones with the pots in their stock positions, but many of us found it difficult to zero in on that sound with the pots set up that way. Mesa tone and gain controls are so sensitive and interactive that it can take a long time to get THE sound you're after. A common complaint.

I can't emphasize enough: I think the biggest benefit to the mod is increased USABILITY for those users who want the two channels to basically behave the same way. Many users (maybe most) don't really have that issue for whatever reason, so they should just leave theirs alone.

Keep in mind: merely being able to "clone" channel 1 isn't really the point in and of itself. The point is that what many of us wanted was a Drive channel that had the same character, at the core, as Ch 1. At least for me this meant maintaining this character within the range of control settings that I typically use. For instance: I don't use my amp with the Gain maxed. Sure, the channels sound the same then, but what's the point of that?

Post-mod Ch2 still has scads more fat, rich gain than Ch1, it's only when the Drive switch is disengaged that they are "identical". Switch it on, and you're in saturated gain heaven.

Regarding the nasally/wet blanket thing, that is one of the complaints that the modders seem to feel is fixed with the mod. It sounds like you might be happy modding your amp if that's something you don't like.

Hair-trigger volume: This may be a setting-specific problem, but I do not have this problem with my amp at all. Again, usability: if that were a problem for me, I'd reverse the mod in an instant. I use my amp in situations that require very civilized volume levels, and I feel like I have pretty handy control over my volume.

I also found Ch2 needed a bump in setting compared to Ch1 after I did the mod, even as they were "cloned" tonally. By now, however, my settings and tubes are all different and I find my Ch1 volume is about a click or two higher than my Ch2 most of the time.

That brings me back to the cloning thing: again, it isn't really the point, it's more a way of referring to the basic character of the channels being more aligned. Usability. And I found that once I'd swapped all the Mesa preamp tubes out of my amp for a cocktail of different tubes, I actually can't quite clone the channels anymore. Probably just having two different tubes in V1 and V2 will make the channels sound slightly different. However: my amp sounds AMAZING. So I couldn't care less. :)

Hope that helps! You should probably just do the mod, if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself it should be an easy one for a tech.
 
hi djw!

thanks very much for your thoughtful detailed, prompt reply!
(btw i've gotten alot of good info from your posts in the last month or so!)

i'm gonna have my tech do the mod right after christmas. i'm looking forward to hearing the results. if anyone else thinks the ch2 volume becomes 'hair-trigger' please post.

have u tried the reeder mid-mod? do u hear a difference? improvement? thoughts?

thanks again!
 
Yes, I did the mid mod on Ch2. I did it on the clean channel too, but undid it soon after; ch1 really doesn't need anything, it's pretty perfect as-is IMHO. But ch2 does benefit from the mid mod. It's more subtle than the pot swap, but at higher volumes it seems to keep the low-end fartiness to a minimum.
 
I apologize if this has already been answered before, but I've done some preliminary searching and couldn't acquire my answer. My question is: Is this mod okay to be done on all three versions of the Lone Star (Classic, Classic with Duo-Class and Special)?
By the way, good job to the poster of this! Nice clean instructional layout! :D
 
j.d.hall said:
I apologize if this has already been answered before, but I've done some preliminary searching and couldn't acquire my answer. My question is: Is this mod okay to be done on all three versions of the Lone Star (Classic, Classic with Duo-Class and Special)?
By the way, good job to the poster of this! Nice clean instructional layout! :D

it works on the lss
 
j.d.hall said:
I apologize if this has already been answered before, but I've done some preliminary searching and couldn't acquire my answer. My question is: Is this mod okay to be done on all three versions of the Lone Star (Classic, Classic with Duo-Class and Special)?
By the way, good job to the poster of this! Nice clean instructional layout! :D
Thanks!

The mod works on, and benefits, all versions of the Lone Star.
 
hi all...new to the board...just did the Reeder mod #1 and #2...easy to do. The channel swap really made ch2 usable now. Before I wasn't able to control the drive and gain so i never used the drive channel. Now the drive interacts with the gain so well it's hard to get a bad sound. Not that it was bad b4 but so much better now. I also did the mid mod while I had it open. It's subtle but more control over the mids and lows. I've had my LSS 1-12 combo for about 4 weeks now and use a podx3l. I tweaked all my patches and is sounding really good. I play in a classic rock band and at my church and the soundmen commented on how good the sound is. Instead of putting a mic in front I use the slave out straight to the board and it's amazing how close the sound is to what comes from the speaker! I can't figure it out but I'm happy. I bought the LSS used,a 2006 model. I could use some recommendations on a speaker extention and i want to change out the tubes. My other amps use JJ's but i would like to go NOS if it doesn't break the bank. This board is invaluable and I was lurking on it months b4 I got the LSS. Hearing what u guys had to say and hearing some Youtube demos sold me. Thanks for all the valuable info...priceless :D
 
gibson58 said:
hi all...new to the board...just did the Reeder mod #1 and #2...easy to do. The channel swap really made ch2 usable now. Before I wasn't able to control the drive and gain so i never used the drive channel. Now the drive interacts with the gain so well it's hard to get a bad sound. Not that it was bad b4 but so much better now. I also did the mid mod while I had it open. It's subtle but more control over the mids and lows. I've had my LSS 1-12 combo for about 4 weeks now and use a podx3l. I tweaked all my patches and is sounding really good. I play in a classic rock band and at my church and the soundmen commented on how good the sound is. Instead of putting a mic in front I use the slave out straight to the board and it's amazing how close the sound is to what comes from the speaker! I can't figure it out but I'm happy. I bought the LSS used,a 2006 model. I could use some recommendations on a speaker extention and i want to change out the tubes. My other amps use JJ's but i would like to go NOS if it doesn't break the bank. This board is invaluable and I was lurking on it months b4 I got the LSS. Hearing what u guys had to say and hearing some Youtube demos sold me. Thanks for all the valuable info...priceless :D
Ah ha! These are showing up on the used market with these mods. Good show Gibson. :D
 
I registered with this forum to personally thank Mr. Reeder for his "pot-swap" mod. I just got done trying it out on my LSS and I couldn't be happier. Thanks again!
 
So I did the Reeder Mods 1 and 2 a couple of weeks ago, and then immediately left town for a week so I couldn't check out the amp. I spent a week worrying that I wouldn't like it. The only way I could not stress about it was reminding myself that it was easily reversible.

So I 've been playing it for a week now, and I've got to say I'm very happy with the results. Before the Mods the only sounds I liked out of Channel two were the cranked power chord kind of tone. Couldn't find a slightly dirty sound.

Now it is easy to find just the sound I want.

Thanks Mr. Reeder.

Swen
 
Hi all,

I've read about the Reeder Mod's a lot and am seriously considering opening up 'my baby' now to try it. I've watched a lot of videos and they are always difficult to get a good idea of the mod sound, so thought perhaps I'll ask the people that have done the mod directly, especially as I have a specific tone in mind. I am aiming for 90's clapton (see/hear link below). It not massively gainy except in the solo's though many would consider that medium gain. His sound is fat, which the LSC does, but it just turns to mush, even with the bass at 0, treble at 2 on normal voicing, with the drive at 12. The neck pick-up is almost unusable.

The thing i am struggling to understand is that many say the mod gives you a slightly gainier version of Channel 1, which doesn't sound as though it will get anywhere near 90's Clapton (he used SLO100 heads then). Video clips of the mod sound much gainier than CH1 though.

Anywhay, here is a clip of where I am trying to get to, it is the smoothness of the sustain whilst retaining the clarity of the lower strings. A lot of it is of course in his fingers and picking, but I don't want to take my amp apart if it is a waste of time :) BTW - I have a clapton strat, so have the mid-range boost which is small part of the solo sound.

http://youtu.be/4FPUvdwvBIs
(3:12 and 5:40 are the solo's -second is all on neck PU)

All thoughts gratefully received on whether this type of sound is achievable - as I can take no more mush!

D
 
Clapton sounds great on the clip u referenced. then again he pretty much always sounds great.

i play humbuckers thru LSS so my sounds lean in a different direction than single coils thru LSC, but i got the reeder mod done and like it. i just consider the channel1 sound more to my taste so it makes sense to have a similar foundation for channel2 also. i know u said the sound was too 'mushy' for u, so u r considering the reeder mod. trying it isn't a big investment. i had a tech do mine ($50) and i'm told it's easily reversible. u may like it too, but, before u do it, perhaps some more tone/gain knob tweaks may give what u like. eg perhaps cranking the drive to 2-3, treble up to 4-5 may get u closer to the sound u hunt. i find that minute knob tweaks have big impacts. also, remember that master master knob for each channel can pump in some fatness/low-end unless kept below 12. perhaps that could control some of what u hear as 'mush'

don't forget, that all the mod does is change the taper of the gain knobs so u get more control of medium gain turf.
 

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