7DT Swears at soldering irons and cabling (56k go get takeaway)

[7 Dying Trees]

Hmmmm.... I've just been handed a package by a nice man at the door. It's not my birthday any more, and am no longer an illicit catnip distributor (after discovering an allergy to cats, my career in crime was swiftly ended as I could simply not sell to the end users). Hence, I wonder what it is?

Just in case it's exp[losives, I let my trusty (and fearsome in the extreme) guard dog Grymm investigate...

All seems to be fine, but Grymm is not satisfied yet, and conducts another investigation...

Right, it seems all is well, so I open up the box, and uh oh, that looks like something is missing :s

Well, may as well find out what is hidden inside....

Cool! It's a midi amp switcher so I can switch my VHT! THis is really quite exciting!

Ah, but no adapter. I ring them up, and the nice lady tells me they don't sell them with adapters. Hear that Diamond Amplification? You suck. For the amount of cash these things are, I'd expect at least the decency of providing me with an adapter.

Luckily, this thing will take an AC/DC or AC/AC adapter, and any adapter that produces between 9-18volts. Which is cool. As I have a 15V adapter lying around that I was going to throw away, and, woo hoo! It fits. Problem solved. Sucks not getting an adapter, but it is cool that you can use any adapter lying around. Plus and Minus points therefore flex at each other and cancel each other out. good.

So what now? Well, I got another delivery of parts and wires, and then spent the next few hours swearing at soldering irons, and din plugs (which melt if you accidentally solder for too long, good thing i got two plugs, or I'd be swearing). Suffice to say if I'd of had the camera near me it would have gotten thrown at the wall. Especially when I finished the cable, and then realised after plugging it all in that I needed to ground the outer plug casing (retarded, really retarded, but as a note to anyone else that is going to make themselves a cable like this, you HAVE to ground the casing. Now this was annoying as I had to cut the plastic shielding I'd spent ages getting on, and then had to use temporary sellotape which looks like this:

Anyway, something to fix later, but at least now it's all working

And then it's not exactly what I wanted (the other ones thaat you can use a custom cable with just weren't in stock anywhere) but still, I will colour code the jacks, and at least I can use it for other switching things which is nice, and one cable would have been cool, but to be honest, I'm just happy I can switch the amp! Anyway, 3 mono 1/4 and one stereo 1/4 jacks give me 5 switches, which is exactly how many things there are to switch on the UL! Woo Hoo! Efficiency!

and then set up the midi foot controller to see if all is well..

and hey presto! blinky lights time! The amp heads complete with the ts7 LoC modded for me, but minues the blue LED I'll have to buy a green one to go in it at some point, as there's nothing cooler than a green LED!

So now all I have to do is find an FX unit and possibly a noise gate, and the VHT rig will be complete

 

[zimbloth]

Deemed true

Looks great. Both the G-Force (!) or G-Major have good noisegates, otherwise the Boss NS-2 is awesome. People seem to like the ISP stuff as well but I've had nothing but great times w/ the Boss so I haven't had a reason to stray

PS: My new Chaos modded TS7 is coming tomorrow, I asked for a green light ov chaos to match the VHT's green power button

PPS: Are you keeping that JSX?

 

[Stitch]

Score!

What was that about coming to London?

 

[Psychoface]

NO FUCKING ADAPTER!! fucking dimond amps makes me wanna puke all over lucky seven... or JJ, you know whatever...

 

[7 Dying Trees]

Deemed true

Looks great. Both the G-Force (!) or G-Major have good noisegates, otherwise the Boss NS-2 is awesome. People seem to like the ISP stuff as well but I've had nothing but great times w/ the Boss so I haven't had a reason to stray

PS: My new Chaos modded TS7 is coming tomorrow, I asked for a green light ov chaos to match the VHT's green power button

PPS: Are you keeping that JSX?

yeah, the G-Major should do for the VHT, as it's nowhere near as noisy as the triaxis. Plus i can't afford another ISP (At the moment) haha!

TS7 is nice, i like mine, but it needs the LED to be green to be tr00 and br00t4l

I am probably selling the JSX, even though i do like it still, slapped the TS7 in front of it, and it really does good things to this amp (with the FX loop trick as well).

But if I have to be honest, I have a rack setup and two amps, so I think the JSX has to go :/

 

[7 Dying Trees]

Score!

What was that about coming to London?

Eh? I already live in London!

 

[7 Dying Trees]

NO FUCKING ADAPTER!! fucking dimond amps makes me wanna puke all over lucky seven... or JJ, you know whatever...

I know, it's a total shit. Lucky I had one lying around... Still, all worked out, and the switchy box thing is cool. Blue and Green lights FTW!

All i need know is a rack drawer to mount it on, and then it's the perfect excuse to fill the other side with a bloody murder maybe

 

[zimbloth]

I am probably selling the JSX, even though i do like it still, slapped the TS7 in front of it, and it really does good things to this amp (with the FX loop trick as well).

But if I have to be honest, I have a rack setup and two amps, so I think the JSX has to go :/

What 'fx loop trick' ? Yeah, triaxis and a vht, my two favorite amps ever and you have both. Fuck the JSX. Twos company, threes a crowd

 

[Stitch]

I didn't think you were that out of it on MSN. Maybe I was wrong. Heheh.

 

[7 Dying Trees]

What 'fx loop trick' ? Yeah, triaxis and a vht, my two favorite amps ever and you have both. Fuck the JSX. Twos company, threes a crowd

You put a patch cable across the FX send/return, have the loop permananetly engaged, and then use the send/return levels to boost the preamp signal going into the poweramp. Makes it sound like a 120w amp, and jesus, is it loud when you do that, gives the JSX some "extra balls" as it where. Without it, it just isn't loud enough and doesn't cut. Good amp, but compared to the triaxis and vht, well, yeah, it just won't really get used...

 

[7 Dying Trees]

I didn't think you were that out of it on MSN. Maybe I was wrong. Heheh.

Yep. I was slightly, errr, "gone"

 

[SHREDTOKILL]

really nice rig dude!
thats gotta be a awsome setup.

 

[zimbloth]

You put a patch cable across the FX send/return, have the loop permananetly engaged, and then use the send/return levels to boost the preamp signal going into the poweramp. Makes it sound like a 120w amp, and jesus, is it loud when you do that, gives the JSX some "extra balls" as it where. Without it, it just isn't loud enough and doesn't cut. Good amp, but compared to the triaxis and vht, well, yeah, it just won't really get used...

Interesting. Yeah that really wouldn't work so well with the VHT. Luckily it doesn't need it anyways. I hear you about the Peaveys. All of the derivatives of the Ultra Plus (XXX, JSX) really aren't very loud. They sound like 60w amps at best.

Interesting, that wouldn't really work with the VHT. I doubt you'd need/want to do

 

[budda]

You put a patch cable across the FX send/return, have the loop permananetly engaged, and then use the send/return levels to boost the preamp signal going into the poweramp. Makes it sound like a 120w amp, and jesus, is it loud when you do that, gives the JSX some "extra balls" as it where. Without it, it just isn't loud enough and doesn't cut. Good amp, but compared to the triaxis and vht, well, yeah, it just won't really get used...

or you do it my way: dime the FX send and return, and engage the loop. no cables needed lol

 

[7 Dying Trees]

or you do it my way: dime the FX send and return, and engage the loop. no cables needed lol

You don't need a cable across it? never knew that, I just assumed it was like some amps where if a cable isn't plugged in that it will just bypass the loop!

Interesting. Yeah that really wouldn't work so well with the VHT. Luckily it doesn't need it anyways. I hear you about the Peaveys. All of the derivatives of the Ultra Plus (XXX, JSX) really aren't very loud. They sound like 60w amps at best.

Interesting, that wouldn't really work with the VHT. I doubt you'd need/want to do

i think there's no need with the VHT, it's loud enough!

But yeah, first time i gigged the JSX it just didn't cut through or anything, with all the volumes cranked, was shocking that a 120w amp could just not compete with a pod-xt through a 50w mesa poweramp.

I think peavey really should sort that out, what's the point in making tube amps rated at 120w if they can't be driven hard?

 

[Apophis]

nice