RefD wrote:actually, my uncle is the one who performed the modifications (he's an EE at Raytheon), but he's got a pretty hectic schedule.
OTOH, he only followed some instructions my cousin found with a quick Google search.
he did have to "fix" a few things cos, in his opinion, the guy who came up with the mods was a bit of a hack and had all sorts of bits in there that were pointless.
Good stuff.
However, the main mod was supposed to take about 5 minutes, and not even need soldering skills, if you don't mind splicing together a couple of wires with electrical tape. All this extra stuff is nice sure, but the average budget minded tape-opers doesn't need al this extra stuff. In fact, I don't think I've heard what one of these sounds like with all this extra stuff - to get the classic sound, apparently you just need a pair of pliers, some electrical tape, and a part ordered off digikey.
are you sure about the silver ones being bad, tho?
cos he just found a pair, one black faced and one silver faced, and my uncle says the only real difference is criminally cutrate chassis and a messy soldering job at the factory...well, that and the silver one doesn't have those huge orange drop caps and the large power transformer.
I have no idea - I'm just going on what I've been told, and what I recollect from the original thread. However someone was saying that yes, the silver ones are definitely crap, and listed all the reasons. It wasn't the silver face though - it was when they were made, so maybe the one your uncle saw was silver with the old insides?
I've been told by people that they compare to vintage pultecs and the smoothing sound of high tube compressors run on '1-1' ratio. I'm sure this is bullshit - you know how it is - everyone on this board thinks their own gear is about the best thing in the world, and how many have actually heard a real pultec or fairchild? Still, It's got to sound pretty good, especially for the price, or people wouldn't be saying this stuff, or buying them up. Have you played with your cousin's much?
I've only got to see one in someone's studio, and it was the middle of a session, so I couldn't exactly ask them to let me twiddle the knobs. All the other expensive stuff in the signal chain was certainly making a difference, but the 'tracking' mix certainly sounded good. The only had the 'crimp some wires together with a resister (?)' mod going on - none of the extra pimping out that your uncle's done.
i'll ask him about doing his version of these mods.
Extheelleent! Ask him if he knows where I can get ahold of one, too.