They Mod Stomp Box's Don't They?

Why not solid state guitar amps? No one seems to be doing this, not even component upgrades. Why?, thier not that complicated. Anyone have a source?

You'll probably find that people do mod solid state amps but there just isn't a great deal of a solid state amp that is worth modding.

Lots of mods can be made to a tube amp. OT upgrade, different tubes, change out component values to adjust tone, cascade mods/other gain mods, etc.

When it comes to a solid state amp, some are digital modellers like Line 6 stuff making them impossible to make any significant mods, they don't have OTs, they usually have more than enough gain and don't require any gain mods and component "upgrades" are a waste of time more often than not. If you started swapping out op amps/transistors, you'll just find that whatever you replace it with makes no difference to the tone.

Bummer!

I work and have worked for major electronics manufacturers all my life. Unless you have an engineers degree you wont know what your doing on the newer stuff. Engineers make great money with their original designs so why would they get involved with modifying their original design except to design a new model and charge you more for it. Techs who do repairs have been dumbed down to the point where they change parts computers or experience and use of tools tell them to. On small boards they black box the problem and just plug a new board and away it goes. Then they might send them back to the orient and get the bad boards repaired if its cost effective. With shipping costs now it rarely is for amps.

Re-designing new amps has this question attatched. If you're good enough to do it, you can make a hell of alot more money doing something better like designing a new amp model and earn big bucks doing it. Fixing up lacking models doent make you any money so why do it. The guy paying for the mod would do better buying a model that has what he wants, and the same guy couldnt afford the engineers time no less the parts to redesign it.

Also most amp designs have patents. Its not worth a manufacture chasing children messing with pedals, but amps are a whole different ballgame. Guys who have the education to do reengineering are usually making better money on the other side of the fence. Why would they jephodize their reputation with a possible lawsuit if they are earning their bread and butter in the same business they are trying to rip off?

First thing you do when hired is sign a non diosclosure agreement. Any work or designs you come up with is owned by them not you. You cant claim a mod you come up with using their products as being yours. The laws get very complex of course as does the possibilities of modding amps. Things like revoicing the tone circuits or adding line and cabinet simulations outs, effects loops etc as well as improving some of the components used isnt a big deal. Others are.

Problem comes down to many factors that would make parts readily available. First the amp and designs of the amps need to be around for a long while, usually after patents exire. Mods done to old tube amps like say a fender Bassman has been duplicated throughout many different simular designs over past 40+ years.

How many valvestate amps are out there and how long have they been around? Next what mods would be needed that the manufacturer hasnt already put in there that would actually make the amp sound better? Would generic mosfets sound better than the ones chosen by the manufacturer? can you even buy generic versions?

Next you really need an amp engineering program installed on your computer that does alot of the math and know how to use it. It can tells you what changes occur to the supporting components if a slightly different tolerance component is installed. Theres plenty of math involved reworking circuits and its all done on computer now, even the testing of the amps is done this way to stress test and troubbleshoot the circuits. Key in the values and tolerances and the thing will tell you what components are needed to support and sypply voltages etc.

Another issue. Major amp manufacturers contract parts from a provider and they'll buy unique components in bulk to fill their specs based on their designs. Many of the designs have patents that take many years to expire. Getting matching components is often impossible unless you buy from the manufacturer and sometimes the supplier (if you know who they are and they are available to the public).

If I was say the owner of Marshall, I'd have that contractor not only sign non disclosure agreements, but if they still sold the same parts on the side, I wouldnt be using them as a supplier. And with the lawsuit I'd apply, I'd own them and take over production myself.

Now what does this lead to? By law the manufacturers have to supply parts to those who want to buy them. Theres no restrictions on cost for those parts though. 1-2-300% markups are normal. Manufactures are only required to supply parts for 5 years after discontinuing manufacturing, most keep them in stock 7~10 years. After that its considerd obsolite and theres nothing forcing them to make new parts. This is where the generics buy rights to manufacturer patented parts.

Next, if the parts dont fail, theres no market, so noones going to make the parts if theres no demand. Thats the key word "Demand".

Theres plenty of kids who diddel around with simple circuits in college, designs when they are learning etc. When they get their degree and go to work for a manufacturer where the money is, all that ends. You cant use manufacturers designs no post them on the net unless you want to loose your job and go to jail and believe me, manufacturers have no problem taking you out even if they suspect you are doing funkey things on the side. So what it comes to here is do you want your 60K+ paycheck or do you want to diddel around on the internet giving away proprietary info for free that will weaken your company and cost you a job through lost sales and repairs?

Anyway, you can see how complex the issues can get here. The main thing is most amps have patents on circuit designs and if you tamper with them you're actually breaking the law. I know that doesnt mean diddely squat to many who visit this site, but the guys who are educated enough to do mods arent stupid enough to give them away for free. They may build their own and sell them if they have the capitol but why would they give away hard earned knowlege to a bunch of leaches?

Hope this brief explanation explains how manufactures fight to prevent their designs and reputations from being damaged. If mods are needed, manufacturers are usually the ones to install them during repairs or as they are being manufactured with revisions.

Had something in mind like component upgrades, not re-engineering.

Still takes alot of knowlege. What cap is better than another, what transistor is better than another etc. With simple transistors theres usually 5+ manufacturers who make the same thing. They dont make say a superior or pro version of say a T-20 transistor. Other components like caps become popular because people like the tone from them. With Transistors, you have to test each one to see if the responce curves are the best. You can buy 20 transistors from the same manufacturer and have 20 different responce curves all within tolerance. You have collector, emmitter currents, leakage, internal resistance, noise, temp etc. Lab/bench testing is the only way of knowing which is the best of the bunch.

The first amp I owned was a Moserite amp with its famous Fuzz built in. The fuzz transistors blew within a couple of months. Tool it to a repair shop and they put some substitute transistors in there and it lasted a few weeks or so. If I knew what I know now I would have gotten exact replacement transistors and tested them and I'd probibly still have that amp today.

Other components make zero difference in sound quality upgrading like most of the resistors and many of the transistors for that matter. I would say the coupleing caps that pass the signal might if you have a really good ear. Heftier filter caps in the power supply would be the other item that could save the amp from voltage spikes.

The way to find out would be to inject a signal into the amp and use a dual trace scope and compare the signal to the original in each stage of amplification. If you see distortion after a stage, you got weak components, noise, possibly caps etc. If each stage is clean all the way to the output, then what improvement is needed? You see if an amp performes as designed then you are getting into altering the design. Different caps in the tone circuit could revoice the controlls, question is does it need it because the current controlls cant cover the ranges or you wnat to change them because you can?

In your case it would be easier though if you let us know what amp you're using. I'm sure there would be several things you could do to make improvements but they would be unique to your amp model. If I remember right you have a Fender amp of some type? Post the model and I'll take a look at the schmatics. If theres anything that can be done to make it truely superior to another one I'll see whats there. Possibly better power caps would protect the amp from spikes and noisy line voltage. It might prevent some sag in the sound and tightesn it up a littel.

Keep this in mind though. Once you put an iron to an amp it looses value. People figure an amp had parts solderd in because it blew out, and parts that arent made by the manufacturer as being generic substitutes because the hack tech was to cheap to use exact replacements or unknowlegeable about how to obtain the right parts.

Another issue is component accessibility. A lot of stomp boxes are still made mostly the same way they were years ago with discrete components and through the board mounting. If you look inside of a lot of recent solid state amps you'll see a lot of surface mounted (SMD) components and entire chunks of the system compressed into single chip components.

There are a few groups out there messing around with original solid state designs and mods, but they are few.

http://www.ssguitar.com/ is a good place to start.