did the series mod on my recto (pics)

so i did the mod last night, i hear a lot of people saying that the fx loop is unusable cause its parallel not series. i found some instructions on the boogie board and did it to my amp.
before:



the i removed the green wire from the mix pot, and moved the orange wire on the mix pot to the middle lug where the red wire is, so it basically just bypasses the mix knob so the wet signal isnt mixed with the dry signal. just goes out then back in.
after:




i cant believe people pay $75-$100 to have this done... it takes 5 minutes. it sounds pretty good, but i didnt mind the parallel loop before, they both work well with my rv-3.

Is that a 3 channel?

no, its a 97 2 channel

I might have to try this once I get my 2 ch home.

Hey there, Would this work the same for the 3 channel???

i dont know, i think it is different, but it wouldnt hurt to look inside to see if it looks like mine. i have also read that you lose the solo boost ability if you do the mod on the amps with solo boost.

I actually looked inside and it does look different. Does anyone have instructions on what to do for the 3 channel models??

Thanks a lot!!!

I really want to do that to my 3ch.

Me too. Please someone hook us up!!

Wow, that's it? I had no idea it was so simple. I might do that to my Racktifier.

So what so you do with the green wire once it is floating? I would guess that you would want to insulate it at the very least to keep it from contacting anything else.

Well done commander!

A word of caution to others who are considering playing inside their own amps... the filter caps need to be discharged before you stick your hands inside the chassis... the stored charge is enough to stop your heart, and enough to burn your skin badly... I know this from personal experience!

Otherwise, have fun and save some cash!

so how would i go about discharging the filter caps? cause im thinking of doing some more minor mods. it does kinda sound like fun to get shocked by the amp, but the heart stopping part would kinda suck. and Russ, yea i took the green wire, folded it in half, then put electrical tape around it. and now im running an isp decimator pedal and its working great in the series loop where it probobly wouldnt have in the parallel.

Cool. 8)

Be sure to post your work. I know everyone liked this one.

nice job!

you could use a DPDT switch and have a series/parallel switch on the 2 channel. I tried this with my 3 channel but I'm not sure if its accomplishing the same thing. The circuit is much more complicated than the 2 channel. It still has a pot with dry on one side and wet on the other but it also has lots of other stuff.. transistors and such so without a schematic its hard to tell whats going on. Still, when I flip the switch I get 100% wet regardless of the position of the mix pot BUT when I disengage the FX loop with the footswitch I get no sound at all... :?: which I can't quite figure out..

hey dude thats awesome, thats on of the things on my list of stuff to do. im also thinking of changing the switch that does modern-modern/modern-vintage/vintage vintage to 2 separate switches, 1 for red and 1 for orange so i can do red vintage and orange modern. another one i was thinking of was a switch to kill 2 power tubes and a recto tube. but i don't know when i will get around to that stuff.

please don't tell me this is the same mod people are paying v***** amps 150.00 without the deluxe or standard mod **** it's 100 bucks for this with the deluxe mod or standard mod. not that it's my business, Hell they are a great company and yes you have overhead and **** so thats cool, it just shows you learning a little can save you alot of cash.

and if this is not the same mod that is done by v***** then i apologize for the confusion

Commander Coo1 said:

so how would i go about discharging the filter caps? cause im thinking of doing some more minor mods. it does kinda sound like fun to get shocked by the amp, but the heart stopping part would kinda suck. and Russ, yea i took the green wire, folded it in half, then put electrical tape around it. and now im running an isp decimator pedal and its working great in the series loop where it probobly wouldnt have in the parallel.

Click to expand...

Personally, I put a 10W 20k resistor accross the filter cap for about 10 seconds. This webpagehas alot of info on safe filter cap discharging etc.

This thread is very cool as it highlights the coolest thing you can do about the weakest link feature of the mighty rectos. That dreaded parallel fx loop, it SUCKS ! And not just as a term of dislike, literally sucks tone, at least on the 2 channels.

I have a 93 DR with original series loop in transit so I don't have to muck with this.

Some of us use the fx loop ON even without running efx through it as the Master Volume (LOOP ACTIVE MASTER), after setting chn's 1&2 volume, right?.
We've all experimented with the best way to run it to sound the best, right?

OK, if you don't use efx through the loop, check this out and it will either help or haunt, either way you convert yours to series, which is much, much better.

I usually run my SEND LEVEL around 1-2 oclock and used to run my MIX LEVEL at 100%
Huge mistake !

This is just to show how much this feature is affecting your overall tone !

Experiment with the MIX LEVEL when you turn everything on.

See how it sucks tone at 100% after you turn it down to 0% ? :shock:

Crazy, isn't it ?

This simple mod will save your tone and once again make your loop usable !!