XTC Mod Project Discussion

[fearnloathing]

Here is a clip of my XTC
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8721708
Slashnstrings is familiar with this module :lol: . Id be happy to tell you what I did, but out of respect for the paid modders on here I prefer to just pm info.

 

[khingpynn]

I'm all set to do some mods this weekend... will post before and after sound clips...

 

[kurtisqpublic]

I was reading this, and thinking to myself, wow another thread bashing my favorite stock module the XTC for being muddy... I just don't hear it... THEN I finally realized. Since nearly day one I have had a Rane parametric EQ in my rack that has been set and used full time in my rig. My stock XTC is awesome for rhythm or leads and is my go to gain module. They key may just be in the sweep or values of the stock pots on the modules....

 

[khingpynn]

thanks for the feedback... good to know... here is something interesting... I purchased a Danelectro Transparent Overdrive on the weekend... a version one... I've heard so many good things and L&M were blowing them out at $35 !!!

I placed it first in my signal chain ( will try last later ). I set it for unity gain and volume and then tweeked the highs and mids via the pedals controls only... the results are astonishing... the XTC sounds incredible with a little low end tweek and a strong signal going in. The TO adds a claruty and definition to every module... you need to here the Mr Scary with it... WICKED :twisted:

 

[Jaded Faith]

...

 

[khingpynn]

doing some mods on the XTC right now...

 

[GtrGeorge!]

I love my stock Plexi...but I think it needs more gain and more.."richness"..its a little 2-D.
Is the XTC supposed to be a better "Marshall"...forgive my naivete..but isnt that what a Bogner Exctasy is trying to be, after all?
GtrGeorge

 

[Jaded Faith]

Per your requests.......

 

[fearnloathing]

I love my stock Plexi...but I think it needs more gain and more.."richness"..its a little 2-D.
Is the XTC supposed to be a better "Marshall"...forgive my naivete..but isnt that what a Bogner Exctasy is trying to be, after all?
GtrGeorge

Sounds like you would be really pleased with either my Plexi or XTC from that statement. And yes, the Bogner design was very similar to a Marshall, given the fact that he virtually copied the 1959/2203 amps with his own twists.

No offense but the point of this thread is for people interested in documenting and discussing self modded XTC's not to advertise your modding services. There are plenty of threads for that. If you look above I have posted a clip of my XTC that I modded and out of respect for some of the paid modders on here did not post specifics in a public forum, but will share details with anyone that pms me.

GtrGeorge the plexi module is really easy to get more gain out of . All you have to do is add the 4th gain stage in since the plexi is only using 3 gain stages or 1 side of tube 1 and both sides of tube 2. The conversion allows it to use both sides of tube 1. The PCB is already setup for this mod. PM me if you would like instructions on how to do this.

 

[khingpynn]

+1 on that and with all due respect to the modders doing it for income... this thread is dedicated to sharing knowladge amongst the members who are interested in modding.

There is plenty of realestate here for promotion and advertising. I'm not asking anyone to give away any secrets and all the mods I do I will openly discuss and post sound samples of the results. I'm certainly not going to compete with the Modders doing it for profit. There will be enough people not interested in doing thier own mods to satisfy that means. Anyone who shares knowladge in confidence will be given due respect.

I also intend on discussing the basic priciples of tube amp operation in an effort to share knowladge and help others understand how to do thier own mods.

No hard feelings... no harm no foul... however please remove your add and feel free to advise us in any way as to what details you may want to share about modding the XTC. Or other modules.

Just so I'm clear on this I have a working knowladge of tube amps which I have learned over the years. I'm an electrician by trade and understand basic electronics. There are several great books out there that will help anyone in learning about this topic. I recommend the Tube Amp Handbook ( understanding tube amplifiers and getting great sounds ) by Dave Hunter. This book takes a great no nonsence and easy to understand approach to disolvong the mysteries surrounding tube amps and what aspects are essential to great tone. Since in this thread we are discussing modding preamps only there is more than enough info in this book to enable the interested in achieving their own goals as a modder. This book walks the reader through the details of the working amp circuit and breaks them down into thier respective categories and identifies the critical tone shaping components of these aspects. It also provides details on the components and describes what various individual effects they have on shaping the overal tone of an amp.

To add further clarity I will not be offering any mod services for fees in the future.
I started this thread in the spirit of the Forum/Community whereby members share knowladge of common interests. Again with all due respect it is not for promotion and advertising for the purpose of financial gain.

Cheers
Craig

 

[deadcat]

If anyone has any ideas how i might gain/compression boost an xtc please pm me or discuss.

 

[fearnloathing]

www.tubenewbie.com is a great resource for those starting out with these modules to get the basics of how to modify them. I point alot of people in that direction when they have questions. I am working on a couple of tutorials to post in here that show the parts of these modules and the effect they have on the sound. I will gladly share with anyone what I have done to my modules but I wont help you duplicate someone elses work. Learning to read schematics is an invaluable tool this will allow you to look at schematics of classic amps you want to emulate and give you a starting point for values of components to get you in the ball park and then you can tweak the tone from there.

 

[khingpynn]

Looks like a good resoarce... I will look into it further tonight.

I believe what you said captures the spirit of this thread... in many ways there are several common mods and I'm sure there will be many personal maods that end up having common aspects it's inevitable. Best approach IMHO is to share the basic knowladge and allow modders to make thier own ultimatly unique mods.

Cheers
Craig

 

[m0jo]

There's something I would like to add here due to the mud or no mudd debate:

My stock XTC sounded fine, I didn't get what all the mud-fuss was about.
And then I droptuned from drop-D to drop-C# .. and out came the mud!

It's remarkable how much it changes, but it's definitly tight and pretty clear in normal tuning and turns into a useless mess when drop-tuned.

Maybe this is why the debate goes on, I can guess that a lot of people here will be permanently drop-tuned and they will only see that side of things!

 

[deadcat]

www.tubenewbie.com is a great resource for those starting out with these modules to get the basics of how to modify them. I point alot of people in that direction when they have questions. I am working on a couple of tutorials to post in here that show the parts of these modules and the effect they have on the sound. I will gladly share with anyone what I have done to my modules but I wont help you duplicate someone elses work. Learning to read schematics is an invaluable tool this will allow you to look at schematics of classic amps you want to emulate and give you a starting point for values of components to get you in the ball park and then you can tweak the tone from there.

cheers for that. i'll definitely be dabbling at some point, v. interesting.

 

[Lotus1]

I checked out tube newbie.com and it says you can replace the cathode reistor with a mini potentiometer. I have some at 1 m ohm, but they have 3 lugs for soldering. A resistor has 2 poits of contact. How can you wire this in and have it work? seems like the center pin and 1 of the outside pins manipulate the ohms reading as you turn the pot. Can you simply hook up the center and outside lug and have it work?

 

[fearnloathing]

You wire it up as a variable resistor.

I would recommend putting an 820ohm resistor in series with the pot. By doing this you are setting an 820ohm bottom which is as low as you should really go on the cathode resistor but still allows you to run the resistance up as much as you think you need. Although 1m is a bit excessive.

 

[fearnloathing]

Here is the terminal layout if anybody wondered.

 

[Lotus1]

Thanks alot! I just saved that information. We all should compile this type of stuff in one area. I'd love to map out these modules one by one. Ya there is a schematic available, but it is a pictorial schematic. I want to know how stuff is hooked together on these modules.

 

[khingpynn]

First Mod is complete... I changed out C1, R9, R15, R19

The C1 cap was not to spec so I got an NTE cap at .0022mf. I changed out the listed caps which are all to spec ( 100k ohm at 1/2 watt ) to to same value carbon comp resistors.

As I see it this XTC is now to spec according to the schematic I got.

See post mod photo.

No sound samples yet... just got back from visit with family out of town.

Sound samples will be recorded today.

Anyone with some orange drop caps and carbon comp resisters for sale should contact me here in a PM. I've gone through all my stuff and not much is useful for these mods.
I will need these values for the XTC C1 and for the Brahma as I would like to mod the Brahma to same values of these components.

I will also be looking for

Cheers
Craig