tcr45
Tele-Meister
Bit of background: Several years ago, I built a Ceriatone DC-30 (or "Dizzy 30") from a kit. It's ostensibly a clone of a Matchless DC-30: 2 channels (12AX7 in Ch. 1 and an EF86 in Ch. 2), four el-84s running Class A, approx. 30 watts plus a half-power switch. Channel 1 sounds absolutely fantastic (similar to a Vox Top Boost channel). The EF86 side (Channel 2, high gain) has never sounded right. It's SUPER muddy, and the 6-position Tone knob does very little. Only other "tone control" is the Cut knob, but that doesn't fix the issue either. So I've only used Ch. 1 for the past 10 years or so...until a few weeks ago. I borrowed a JHS Haunting Mids pedal from a friend. On a whim, I plugged it into the FX loop of the EF86 channel (each channel has its own FX loop). Within 30-45 seconds of turning knobs on the pedal, the EF86 channel finally sounded the way I'd imagined: rich, complex, glorious, high-gain goodness! And it sounds great with any guitar I plug in.
My question: Is it possible to build a passive, cut-only mid control that would sit in the FX loop of the EF86 channel? I don't want another pedal that needs a battery or other power supply. The settings (that I'd like to replicate) on the Haunting Mids are: Volume at 2 o'clock, Mids at 9 o'clock, Sweep at 9 o'clock, toggle switch at "Hi." I'm guessing what I need to do is take off the back of the pedal, measure the resistance/value of the pots at those positions, then create a circuit using fixed-value resistors instead of pots. I intend for the mid-cut circuit to be "always on," so I shouldn't need a volume pot. Or any pots, really...just a fixed, mid-cut circuit in a small metal box that sits in the FX loop. Maybe "mid-filter" is a better way to describe it?
Is this a good idea/feasible? The FX loop on this channel is like a "Insert" jack on a mic-preamp: It's a "stereo" (TRS) jack that normally requires a "Y" cable, but the box I'm considering building could possibly also use a single stereo jack, thereby allowing a single TRS cable to handle both "send" and "return."
My question: Is it possible to build a passive, cut-only mid control that would sit in the FX loop of the EF86 channel? I don't want another pedal that needs a battery or other power supply. The settings (that I'd like to replicate) on the Haunting Mids are: Volume at 2 o'clock, Mids at 9 o'clock, Sweep at 9 o'clock, toggle switch at "Hi." I'm guessing what I need to do is take off the back of the pedal, measure the resistance/value of the pots at those positions, then create a circuit using fixed-value resistors instead of pots. I intend for the mid-cut circuit to be "always on," so I shouldn't need a volume pot. Or any pots, really...just a fixed, mid-cut circuit in a small metal box that sits in the FX loop. Maybe "mid-filter" is a better way to describe it?
Is this a good idea/feasible? The FX loop on this channel is like a "Insert" jack on a mic-preamp: It's a "stereo" (TRS) jack that normally requires a "Y" cable, but the box I'm considering building could possibly also use a single stereo jack, thereby allowing a single TRS cable to handle both "send" and "return."
