NAD - Blackheart Handsome Devil

[rjwilson37]

Another mod. Do you find the bass to be kind of farty or flubbery (especially when higher gain)? Change the second stage cathode R/C (C4,R6) from 22uF/1.5K to 1uF/1.8K. Use a polypropylene cap for C4 instead of electrolytic. This will also tend to push it closer to Marshall voicing.

Yes, it does do that. I thought it was the speakers not being able to handle it. I will make sure to write this down and maybe I can pay someone to make the change for me.

 

[rocknhorse1]

Yes, it does do that. I thought it was the speakers not being able to handle it. I will make sure to write this down and maybe I can pay someone to make the change for me.

If you don't know what you are doing, you really should NOT go inside that amp. There are things in there that can hurt you, even if the amp has been unplugged for a long time.

Modding amps is for professionals, or people who know at least the very basic safety precautions.

 

[rjwilson37]

If you don't know what you are doing, you really should NOT go inside that amp. There are things in there that can hurt you, even if the amp has been unplugged for a long time.

Modding amps is for professionals, or people who know at least the very basic safety precautions.

Yea.. I would not be doing this, notice I said I would pay someone to do it. I would take it to my tech who does this type of stuff all the time.

I did find that the stock speaker has a decibel of 101, so maybe just a couple of mods are neccessary to clean it up a bit since the Emenence support guy states that it is a good speaker. He suggested the Wizard if I wanted something a little louder and tighter, but maybe just a slight modification in the amp is needed and I'll be set.

 

[donw]

Agreed. Here are the parts if you want to order from Mouser:
R6, 1.8K: PR01000101801JR500 Vishay/BC Components Metal Film Resistors - Through Hole
R8, 33K (Marshally tone slope res.) PR01000103302JR500 Vishay/BC Components Metal Film Resistors - Through Hole
C4, 1uF: FK24X7R1E105K TDK Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors (MLCC) - Leaded
New 470pF cap across vol wiper res R5: K471J15C0GF53L2 Vishay/BC Components Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors (MLCC) - Leaded
And here's a link the the Handsome Devil Schematic to help your tech: http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/6021/bh15schematiccorrected.png

 

[rjwilson37]

Agreed. Here are the parts if you want to order from Mouser:
R6, 1.8K: PR01000101801JR500 Vishay/BC Components Metal Film Resistors - Through Hole
R8, 33K (Marshally tone slope res.) PR01000103302JR500 Vishay/BC Components Metal Film Resistors - Through Hole
C4, 1uF: FK24X7R1E105K TDK Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors (MLCC) - Leaded
New 470pF cap across vol wiper res R5: K471J15C0GF53L2 Vishay/BC Components Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors (MLCC) - Leaded
And here's a link the the Handsome Devil Schematic to help your tech: http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/6021/bh15schematiccorrected.png

Thanks, I just need 1 of each of these 4 items?

 

[donw]

They're so cheap, you could order two each, in case your tech goofs one up.

 

[donw]

You may also want to order a couple of large resistors to experiment placing them in parallel with R9, say a 1M-ohm and a 2M-ohm so you could get more gain. These would be easily clamped on and removed and only soldered if you like the extra distortion.

 

[rjwilson37]

They're so cheap, you could order two each, in case your tech goofs one up.

Funny... I was thinking the same thing of ordering 2 or 3 just in case.

 

[rjwilson37]

You may also want to order a couple of large resistors to experiment placing them in parallel with R9, say a 1M-ohm and a 2M-ohm so you could get more gain. These would be easily clamped on and removed and only soldered if you like the extra distortion.

I would not want more gain if it meant sacrificing some of the headroom on the clean side. I like that this amp has more clean headroom than a lot of other 5w-15w amps I was looking at.

 

[donw]

Changing R9 would drive the power tubes into distortion a little sooner - not the input gain stages. So yes, I suppose you'd have a little less volume without getting some distortion.

 

[rjwilson37]

Another mod. Do you find the bass to be kind of farty or flubbery (especially when higher gain)? Change the second stage cathode R/C (C4,R6) from 22uF/1.5K to 1uF/1.8K. Use a polypropylene cap for C4 instead of electrolytic. This will also tend to push it closer to Marshall voicing.

Hey Don, it only does this when I start to put the volume up past 1/2 when I am using higher gain on the amp. You are only showing 2 changes up here, but have me needing to purchase 4 items listed here below, what are the other items for besides the 1uf/1.8K.

Agreed. Here are the parts if you want to order from Mouser:
R6, 1.8K: PR01000101801JR500 Vishay/BC Components Metal Film Resistors - Through Hole
R8, 33K (Marshally tone slope res.) PR01000103302JR500 Vishay/BC Components Metal Film Resistors - Through Hole
C4, 1uF: FK24X7R1E105K TDK Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors (MLCC) - Leaded
New 470pF cap across vol wiper res R5: K471J15C0GF53L2 Vishay/BC Components Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors (MLCC) - Leaded
And here's a link the the Handsome Devil Schematic to help your tech: http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/602...ccorrected.png

 

[donw]

The other items are not necessary if all you want to do is reduce the flubbery bass. They will give the amp a more Marshall-like tone. The 1uF/1.8K is all you need to reduce the flubbery bass (I think). Basically, the cathode RC pair is a high pass filter, and the current one is set pretty low, 4.8 Hertz, allowing more low frequencies to be amplified. The new pair is set at 88 Hertz. That's what Marshall used on many of their amps.

 

[rjwilson37]

I am still not sure if at all and when I might do the mod, but I have purchased a few pedals and I am liking this much more taking the RP150 almost completely out of the picture.

I will have to put together a couple of clips when I get a chance, this thing just sounds so sweet with the Boss and MXR pedals. I play it a lot with the pedals in bypass and just love to hear my guitar and the tone from the amp, it is just a sweet sound to my ears. The tone does not sound forced like it does on a SS, I think that is the best way I can put it, the sound just flows out with a full rich creamy tone. I think the Mustang III sounds good, but it almost sounds like it is forcing the tone out compared to the Handsome Devil. Anyway, using the Boss SD-1 and DS-1 seperately or together gives a nice crunch tone to die for in some instances, I will put a clip out sometime soon.

Anyway, I love this little amp. I am still waiting on backorder for my 1x12 cabinet to come in from GC, it has been over a month and may even be a month more. Blackheart is not shipping any cabinets, because they don't have them I guess.

 

[TWANG]

I put a switch over the ground on the middle pot.. that kicks out the tone stack and increase the gain by tons.
tone stack stops working correctly, but it's good tone.. just tweak your guitar tone pot a bit maybe.

I dunno if that works with the BH15 as I haven't opened mine up yet!

 

[The Outlaw]

how does this do when you have it in 7w mode with the master cranked down to hush it up a bit? i still cant decide between the LG and Hd. i dont want to order the little one and want more but i dont want to get the big one and be stuck playing clean

 

[ext1jdh]

I find the HD to be more Voxy in 15w and more Marshally in 7w, but not really entirely either.

 

[rjwilson37]

how does this do when you have it in 7w mode with the master cranked down to hush it up a bit? i still cant decide between the LG and Hd. i dont want to order the little one and want more but i dont want to get the big one and be stuck playing clean

It does great in 7w mode with the master down, plus I use the cheap Boss SD-1 and DS-1 to give me the crunch I need at the click of my foot. The amp has a nice overdrive, nothing hard core but still very nice and classic rock/to hard rock sounding. I like the total crunch I can get though at the flick of my foot and then just click it back off if I want and I did not spend a lot of money. $45 for the SD-1 and $35 for the DS-1 which are classic overdrive and distortion pedals that have been around a long time.

You will really like the master volume on the HD as well as the 7/15w switchable which can take you from bedroom playing to a small venue easily.

http://www.rj-zero.com/misc/guitars/soundclips/handsomedevil_20120204.mp3

I have the amp in 15w, Level at 11 oclock, Drive at 10 oclock so there is just a little bit of drive and I can back the volume down just a little and get cleaner.

 

[rjwilson37]

I find the HD to be more Voxy in 15w and more Marshally in 7w, but not really entirely either.

Yep, the 7w mode without any pedals and the drive at 3/4 and the level (master volume) only between 1/4 to 1/2 gets you a great drive towards marshall sounding and it is a low volume that does not bug anyone in the house.

The 5w Little Giant, you will have to turn it up much more to get a good drive which will make it a lot louder than the Handsome Devil to get the drive you probably want. The HD is defiantely worth it's weight in gold for the extra $100 your spending, I think you will really like it. I know I do.