replace all of the electronics in your amp and see what happens...

[cactuskeeb]

So many of you might know that I recently (July '10) bought a 66 deluxe and replaced just about everything in there except the heater wire and the transformers.  I've noticed that among other things, the better the electronics in the amp the louder it gets, while the noise floor gets quieter.  I can crank it up to seven on both channels and hear nothing but when I strike a chord, it's nearly deafening.  I have to wonder if this was the way Leo intended it.  The break up is so awesome after the volume goes above three our four on both channels that it doesn't seem like a Fender anymore, as they are known for high-headroom clean sounds.   And it sounds like my overdrive pedals add a gimmick-y kind of sound to it, to the point where I don't feel like they're contributing to the overall feel of the amp.  They're just not needed.  And the ross compressor...well, the amp is already compressing so much it sounds like a volume pedal or some kind of clean boost; definitely not the compressor sound I heard when I was running it through a DRRI.

[sour d]

On the left side of the screen under gender it shows how many posts you have contributed. I'd like to be the first to congradulate you on your 420th post! As far as the amp, it makes sense that new components would make the amp sound quieter and tighter. A lot of the mojo of great sounding amps comes from the slow "aging" of it's components though. That's why people pay big bucks for those old amps. That's why that Caruth guy has large stashes of old used caps, resistors, etc. to dial in the sound of an amp with. Your amp will be a lot more reliable and road worthy with the new parts but I bet it will sound a lot sweeter in 30 years. Just my dumb ass opinion.

[picture_of_nectar]

The components in my Rivera are top notch military grade. There is no way i could improve upon it myself.

[cactuskeeb]

As far as the amp, it makes sense that new components would make the amp sound quieter and tighter. A lot of the mojo of great sounding amps comes from the slow "aging" of it's components though. That's why people pay big bucks for those old amps. That's why that Caruth guy has large stashes of old used caps, resistors, etc. to dial in the sound of an amp with. Your amp will be a lot more reliable and road worthy with the new parts but I bet it will sound a lot sweeter in 30 years. Just my dumb ass opinion.

New components were not necessarily what I meant by "better [i.e., good] electronics."  For instance, I use a lot of resistors that are at least 25 years old.  I weed out the bad ones from the good by baking them at close to 400 degrees, for several cycles, and then measure their resistance against the resistance I got before baking them.  The ones that do not drift more than 10 percent are keepers.  And, of course, they have to still be close enough to the values required based on the schematics of the amp.  Like, for example, I'll have a group of 100k 1 watt carbon comp resistors that originally measure between 101 and 105K.  Then, I bake them (this is the optimal scenario btw because it's 1 watt rather than 1/2 watt carbon comps, the latter of which tend to go all over the place when you expose them to that much heat) and I get anywhere from 99 to 107K, which is perfect: they are all useable, in the sense that they make for "better" components in an amp.

[picture_of_nectar]

Hm, interesting stuff.