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Post by LVF on Sept 20, 2020 17:06:23 GMT -5
This picture(s) is huge so that you doesn't have to squint.  Just move your mouse around to examine all the pics located in this...pic. Ok, with that out of the way, I was sitting around today and a light bulb appeared above my head. It came to me that it was a good day to add a extra speaker jack to my black Blues Jr and so I went about gathering the parts (pic 1) to make this happen. I know that many of you have done this mod to your own amps be they blues jrs or what not but, this is what I did to mine. Anyway, you also have to be able to plug your new cable into the same place your speaker is attached so, you need a (pic 2) spitter. Now to the bones of the project. You have to have a location (pic 3) on the back panel and as you can see, I decided that were the big hole is, is where I would mount the jack so, I made a big hole in the fibrous back panel. It's that big to accommodate the jack I chose to use. This jack may be familiar to you all as it is the jack I pulled out of this vary blues jr when I did the 'Fromel mod' to this amp and I decided, why not use it for this project and so, I did.  With that big of a hole, I needed to have a separate mounting surface to mount this jack and having a jack plate for a Les Paul handy, I used it...as you can see. Now mounted (pic 4) in place, I had to ferret out the hole a bit to accommodate the jack I used. Next of course, the cable and male jack from a Planet Waves kit needed to be soldered (pic 5) to the female jack. After that accomplishment, it was tested to ensure it operated properly and then the assembly was mounted to the fibrous backboard and mounted back on the amp. With that, this project was completed (pic 6). The real reason for me to do this project is because I bought a Two Notes Torpedo Captor X load box, attenuator, cab sim, etc., that I didn't really have a good impression of in the beginning but now, I've warmed up to a bit. Adding this jack makes it easier to hook up the Blues Jr to the Captor X. In the future, I'll be doing this same mod to my other [tweed] Blues Jr. Now, I'm going to press the 'create thread' button and find out what happens with such a large pic....   |
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pdf64
Wholenote
Posts: 556
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Post by pdf64 on Sept 23, 2020 8:29:42 GMT -5
I don’t think those jack splitter adapters provide a solid enough connection to use in an OT secondary circuit. If the connection becomes intermittent, as they tend to do, the amp will become prone to significant damage.
An intermittent connection is the worst case scenario for a tube amp, as the OT becomes analogous to the coil in an old auto ignition system, with the intermittent connection the contact breaker points. Hence sparks and arcing may get generated in the OT primary circuit, causing big trouble.
If you need to send the amp’s output to 2 places, it’s much better to fit 2 jacks.
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Post by LVF on Sept 23, 2020 10:22:27 GMT -5
Interesting. I have no idea what you just explained. However, I think adding another jack to the chassis is a better idea than using the splitter of which, I found out what I wanted to know in making this connection for use with the Torpedo Captor X. Making the connection to use this load box with this amp required disconnecting the speaker from the amp and connecting the amp output to the load box. On most modern amps, they have speaker out jacks already installed to make this connection. That's all I was doing with the Blues Jr, making a speaker out connection to make it easier to use the Captor X but, I fail to understand how using a spitter in the speaker out connection from the amp would cause any problems with the amp itself other than the possibility of the amp losing its load under use at which time I would shut the amp off and diagnose. So far, there hasn't been any problems.
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Post by kito75 on Sept 23, 2020 15:26:34 GMT -5
I think that what is being pointed out is that splitters aren’t necessarily designed to high quality or rated for carrying any significant power/current so they can add a potentially unacceptable risk for intermittent failure. This intermittent failure might reveal itself not in just the sudden loss of sound but also with the simultaneous and always exciting release of smoke which is a little late for diagnosing a problem. I haven’t had this experience yet but from what I have heard, failing to have a correct load on the output of a tube amp can lead to catastrophic failure of output transformer, miscellaneous parts in circuit can burn up and copper traces can be lifted/blown off the PCB. A lot of repair work for an intermittent event.
Also, does the splitter make a parallel connection to its two output jacks? if you have the amp speaker AND the Torpedo plugged in parallel not sure what this does to the load impedance on the amp’s output transformer. Simultaneously connecting both the amp speaker and the Torpedo to the splitter probably isn’t a good thing. You might want to check out the recent “Speaker Load Question” thread in the Amplifier forum if you haven’t already seen it.
I am not familiar with the Torpedo. Just out of curiosity,
Are you using it simply as an in-series attenuator for the amp’s speaker? i.e. the amp output plugs into the Torpedo and the Torpedo output connects to the amp speaker
or
are you NOT using the amp’s speaker but running the amp output into the Torpedo and using the Torpedo as a cab simulator/speaker load with the Torpedo audio out then going to an independent set of speakers via the XLR outputs?
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Post by LVF on Sept 23, 2020 17:20:02 GMT -5
The Torpedo is a load box among other things including having a cab simulation feature. The basic hook up is the amp out connection from the amp to the amp in connection of the Torpedo. The Torpedo has a USB hook up and a headphone jack so that you can run amp sims from your computer, smartphone, tablet, etc. By disconnecting the speaker from the amp and connecting the Torpedo in place of the speaker, the load is placed on the Torpedo. Redundant to say but, that's how it basically works. The Torpedo also has a speaker out jack where you can run an external cab. Well, the Torpedo doesn't know the speaker from the Blues Jr isn't an external cab nor, should it matter. It's a speaker with the same components just the same. The only thing that the Blues Jr was missing was an extra speaker out jack thus, the addition. From what's being said, Using a splitter from the output jack of the amplifier to connect to the Torpedo and the amp speaker is bad because intermittent connections that can occur. I've done this, have had a connection issue, recognized this and corrected it. I have a different splitter coming that will be a better match, IMO, so connection issues should be minimal. Not that they already aren't. As far as XLR connections, the Torpedo has two. Left and right connections that I can plug into my Focusrite Scarlett 6i6. Along with the powered speaker monitors connected to the 6i6, this arrangement works well. In this configuration, the amp, in this case, the Blues Jr, is connected to the Torpedo's amp in, the XLR outputs to the inputs on the 6i6 and so on. The speaker for the Blues Jr is disconnected. The connection I want to make that should work as the 6i6 does is the amp out to the in on the Torpedo, the Torpedo speaker out to the Blues Jr speaker now disconnected from the amp. This configuration would be: Blues Jr amp to Torpedo to Blues Jr speaker, Torpedo being in between. With this type of connection, I should be able to use the amp/speaker sim software with the Blues Jr speaker in place of a set of headphones and that's the crux of it. So far, I haven't found the right combination to make this work. Probably need to use a pre-amp for it to work. I'm also coming to a point in which I'm wondering if the Torpedo really has any worth in my situation. As an attenuator, it does control the volume to be able to use the full range of the volume controls on the amp without blowing out the windows but at too low a setting of which it has three with the lowest level being absolutely useless. It should enable you to get the best amp tone at low, attenuated, volume levels. However, I get better tone with my amps without such a device and on their own merits. So, the only thing the Torpedo has going for it, IMO, is the amp simulation feature which to me, is merely a toy. You can use this function if you are recording however and for some, it would give the advantage of using the cab simulations in recordings. I'm thinking maybe it would be a good idea to return this thing to Sweetwater for a refund. I have a good amount of time left to use that option so, I'll keep it a while longer. Maybe I'll discover something about it that will change my mind but for now, I don't know what that would be.  |
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Post by kito75 on Sept 23, 2020 17:52:34 GMT -5
"Blues Jr amp to Torpedo to Blues Jr speaker, Torpedo being in between."
Check out section "5.2.2 With a cabinet" in the Torpedo user manual.
Doesn't appear that you can use the built in sims/effects directly like that.
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Post by LVF on Sept 23, 2020 18:45:36 GMT -5
You are absolutely correct. It can't be used that way in order to use the software which is why I suggest that it might be done with the use of a pre-amp in line. On the other hand if you were able to use it with the software, I doubt you actually get any beneficial result from the amp sims. How could you expect to get say, a twin reverb to sound like one using the speaker from a Blues Jr or the effect of the room atmospheres presented? I'm not sure why they added the use of a interface so as to have sound coming out of powered monitors in the same way? However, I suppose it would be like, 'this is how a twin sounds through monitors' kind of thing. This thing is suppose to be a good tool to use for its attenuation aspect for playing different venues. In that aspect, IMO, it fails. DB levels are set too negative. Especially, the first level (lowest) which should accommodate living room levels. Complete fail, IMO. I found that the highest level is adequate for living room levels. So, again, I'm not sure what this thing is good for. |
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Just move your mouse around to examine all the pics located in this...pic. 
