Here's the second round of mods to my thrift store MA104 amp. The previous mods were to add an external speaker jack and make a pigtail to run it off a 9v battery. In this mod I added a DPDT switch and two red LEDs for clipping diodes. The switch lets me choose between the original clipping diodes and the red LEDs. The red LEDs give a much louder sound and better distortion with a lot less sizzle than the originals. In the video I play first with original distortion and regular speaker. Next is the LED distortion with regular speaker. Third is original distortion into external speaker (jumpered into the Peavey speaker). And last is the LED distortion. I took the 4558 IC out, soldered in a socket and replaced the 4558 with a TL082 IC. The amps seems quieter and more responsive with the TL082, but that could be imagination. With the LEDs switched in and the gain turned down, the volume is better and cleaner on the clean sound. It was another worthwhile round of mods on the little amp. Now I'm eyeballing my Crate GX-15...
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Thank you Wes!
Thanks Roadkill! I found some schematics on the Internet and they helped me do the mods. I have a new Boss DS-1 pedal coming today I hope. Gonna make it my next hot rod project. See Ya!
You have certainly found a way of getting a very good sound from that little amp. I wouldn't know where to start.
Thank you Kevin! Gonna try to build a hum eliminator later today for my pedal board power supply. Gotta keep the pot boiling...
Thanks for the comment Uncle John. At 30 seconds I plugged the Peavey amp's speaker into the external speaker jack I added to the small amp. The first riff after that was on the amps original distortion diodes and the next was on the LED distortion diodes. I highly recommend the LED clipping diodes to give an additional voice to an amp.
Thank you James. That amp has been a lot of fun and a great learning tool.
i have that same amp
Mike, whatever you did at 30 seconds in sounded great. My fave tones are warm and human voice sounding. You got it.
you are a very industrious one, with all those modifications mike, sounds really good.
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