Brahma

[eyeball987]

I'm resurrecting an old thread
:lol:
Sent my Brahma to JF for some upgrades. Base mod, Saturation trim pot, & Caswell #39 mod. Now I just have to wait.

Your patience shall be rewarded.... 8)

Agreed. 8)

I know everyone is sick of hearing it but, my JF Brahma is the one all others are judged against. I am interested in hearing your thoughts after you get it back.

 

[Hamner1]

I'm resurrecting an old thread
:lol:
Sent my Brahma to JF for some upgrades. Base mod, Saturation trim pot, & Caswell #39 mod. Now I just have to wait.

Your patience shall be rewarded.... 8)

Agreed. 8)

I know everyone is sick of hearing it but, my JF Brahma is the one all others are judged against. I am interested in hearing your thoughts after you get it back.

I am not sick of hearing about it. In fact I have been thinking of modding the Brahma for some time from your many endorsements of yours. When I finally tried the Judge side of my newest mod, the Brahma was less than stellar, & the decision was made. Off she went to JF.

 

[Hamner1]

All I have to say is wow. The Caswell #39 mod is killer. It adds girth. With it engaged the Brahma is definitely not thin sounding. Without doing a side by side comparison I have Steve Stevens Atomic Playboy tone in my opinion.

With Caswell mod engaged I have the gain at noon. It doesn't need to go further.

Anybody not looking for a replica mod but wanting to improve their Plexi or Brahma, get this mod. As Rob said in another thread, this is an awesome take on 80s rodded Marshall tone.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I would have thought that the Caswell/Levi mod should be the farthest thing from thick or full. It should cut like a knife. I did the Levi #34 on my JCM800 at one point and it was kickass but def. not thick. Can you get some clips up?

 

[Hamner1]

If all goes well, I should have something up tomorrow. The thickness may have something to do with the saturation trim pot that enters the circuit when the Caswell mod is engaged.

 

[Dr.G]

Care to share which values or caps on the board you modified? I find the same thing... somewhere under there is a good module yet it seems muffled.. C3 I am assuming was one of them?

Also the one thing that sucks about the judge, is the fact that below 1 pm it is brutally thin. (and people complain about the brahma being thin)

So far just the two caps that sit next to each other near the front panel
C16 and C17
I kept the value the same at 0.022uF (223) and 600V rating - the new caps were huge compared to the old ones

Here is a picture I took by putting the module on the scanner

There will be more tweaks to come , although I need to learn a lot so that I actually know what does what on the circuit

This mod seems to have freed up the top end that didn't sound right.
It sounds more like a bright plexi now .
I need to investigate a bit more to add a little more warmth and grainy texture I feel.
It certainly does a close voicing to Tooth and Nail album , although a touch more warmth will help.

I also fitted a pair of Yugoslavian Ei tubes - like Lynch tries out with Dave Friedman - that helped too compared to the Ruby Tubes that it came with.

Mode 2 still seems a bit lame - like the life has been drained from it somehow - or just a more subdued response.
Would be keen to see what we can do to liven that up.

Try to put some polyester caps in this position for adding warmth. OD 715/716P are polypropylene caps which have a rather shrill analytical tone as I remember.
Also for more warmth use carbon composition resistors. Don't ask me in which position as I don't know and keep in mind that they can add some noise as well.

 

[ricky]

Is the Brahma not made in white anymore? Sorry, I'm new to the module amps.

I am not aware that the Brahma or any others are made at all. Is there still a stash of new modules out there?

 

[Jaded Faith]

Is the Brahma not made in white anymore? Sorry, I'm new to the module amps.

I am not aware that the Brahma or any others are made at all. Is there still a stash of new modules out there?

No there isn't, that post was over a year old.

 

[Hamner1]

True but reading through this 2nd page made me think, **** I've had the #39 for quite some time now. :lol: Add a little chorus & delay & 1987 is back in full force. :twisted:

 

[Rod]

I must of had an original early Brahma because it had no bottom end and was very thin sounding. Rob at Jaded Faith saved the day by doing what he calls a Brahma +???now a great rhythum or lead module!!

 

[felineguitars]

Care to share which values or caps on the board you modified? I find the same thing... somewhere under there is a good module yet it seems muffled.. C3 I am assuming was one of them?

Also the one thing that sucks about the judge, is the fact that below 1 pm it is brutally thin. (and people complain about the brahma being thin)

So far just the two caps that sit next to each other near the front panel
C16 and C17
I kept the value the same at 0.022uF (223) and 600V rating - the new caps were huge compared to the old ones

Here is a picture I took by putting the module on the scanner

There will be more tweaks to come , although I need to learn a lot so that I actually know what does what on the circuit

This mod seems to have freed up the top end that didn't sound right.
It sounds more like a bright plexi now .
I need to investigate a bit more to add a little more warmth and grainy texture I feel.
It certainly does a close voicing to Tooth and Nail album , although a touch more warmth will help.

I also fitted a pair of Yugoslavian Ei tubes - like Lynch tries out with Dave Friedman - that helped too compared to the Ruby Tubes that it came with.

Mode 2 still seems a bit lame - like the life has been drained from it somehow - or just a more subdued response.
Would be keen to see what we can do to liven that up.

Try to put some polyester caps in this position for adding warmth. OD 715/716P are polypropylene caps which have a rather shrill analytical tone as I remember.
Also for more warmth use carbon composition resistors. Don't ask me in which position as I don't know and keep in mind that they can add some noise as well.

OK - swapped to some mallory type caps and it seems to have helped a lot
I also removed the 100k ohm resistor from R7 to unleash the gain that I felt was missing.

First impressions at low volumes seem favourable, although I do wonder if I have given it too much gain by removing R7. Is it possible to put a trimpot in the position and dial in the amount of gain till you are happier with the range?
It seems a bit SL+ like at the moment (which is good because I LOVE SL+ but I already have enough of those and would love to have it be more hot plexi.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I thought there was way too much flubby/uncontrolled gain from the brahma with R7 removed. I kind of liked it stock gain wise..

 

[felineguitars]

yes - I might try to reign it in a bit - this is actually on a GTO/Judge pictured above (haven't started on the Brahmas yet)

 

[rblyn]

how many of these Judge/ Brahma discussions we gonna have??? All I know is my old white Brahma sucked! Lol...I had it modded (only gain wise) and it still was thin. So maybe mine was one of those with wrong values...I have none of the issues mentioned here with the Judge and still use the crap out of it- No blanket, no problems with changing modes...just killer brown Friedman style tones. Im not a big gain ***** and the Judge is not a high gainer to me but sits in a perfect place for my music. I've had two of those as well- And so I guess I've been lucky...I think if I could get a newer Brahma (black face) I'd give it another shot...None of the other Lynch mods sucked IMHO so I bet my old one was just a dud.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I've owned 3 brahmas. First white faced one was pretty awesome. Picked up a second white faced brahma and it was horrid! I bet that is the same revision or module you had. Then i got a Friedman brahma and it also was bitchin. All three were white faceplate. I say give a black faced one a try as it for sure was the final revision. Tighter and more defined than the judge. If I were to have only one, this would be it.

 

[rblyn]

Im sure the Friedman one kicks @ss....I would def try a newer stock one too. Not sure it would unseat my Judge but sounds like something I would use for sure if the right specs.

 

[Jaded Faith]

I've owned 3 brahmas. First white faced one was pretty awesome. Picked up a second white faced brahma and it was horrid! I bet that is the same revision or module you had. Then i got a Friedman brahma and it also was bitchin. All three were white faceplate. I say give a black faced one a try as it for sure was the final revision. Tighter and more defined than the judge. If I were to have only one, this would be it.

Do keep in mind that the color/style of the plates was strictly a financial move to more affordable materials and designs. They do not signify any type of circuit change at all. There were some changes to various modules throughout the years, but most of that happened around 2007-2008 (long before the black Brahma). The Brahma has been the same ever since the first batch (a small number in the big picture).

 

[felineguitars]

Here are my two Brahmas
The older one is apparently a Pete Modded one- had a gigmods label


The other one is still stock and from a later date


Neither seems to be 100% what I'd like them to be - would like at least 1 of them to be 100% correct as per what George had.

 

[eyeball987]

The Brahma I have is my cold dead hands module. Rob originally modded it in 2009 and then updated it in 2011.

No fancy faceplate and no fancy toggles other than a push/pull gain boost on the gain knob. It just delivers. I am not going to send it in for any additional updates either.

 

[MarcoR]

Here are my two Brahmas
The older one is apparently a Pete Modded one- had a gigmods label

Woe... Way to melt up a pcb Pete! :shock: