Omega Mods for Fender amps

TubeDude22 · Post by **TubeDude22** » 03 Mar 2008, 13:49

Does anyone know what the Omega mods for fender amps are? I keep reading about the Omega Mods for the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe on other forums and wonder what the mods entail.

Thanks!
TD

Post by **modman** » 03 Mar 2008, 17:53

TubeDude22 wrote:Does anyone know what the Omega mods for fender amps are? I keep reading about the Omega Mods for the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe on other forums and wonder what the mods entail.

Thanks!TD

Don't know was the Omega mods are but the Unofficial Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Owner Guide website certainly details a lot of points for improvement.

Reading through that stuff last week wants to make me buy ever HRD that comes on the second hand market. And, here in Belgium, everybody's dropping them like they're hot... read this and you'll understand why.

I found the problem with the lead mode volume control was pretty straightforward: these turkeys had put a LINEAR taper pot in there where an AUDIO taper pot belonged. All volume controls should be audio taper. That’s why they’re called “audio” taper. The ear hears sound levels exponentially, on a logarithmic scale. A sound with ten times the power of another sound we perceive as TWICE as loud, not ten times as loud. If we use a linear taper potentiometer in a standard volume control circuit, we will hear “10” as only twice as loud as “1.” If we use an audio taper pot, “10” will sound ten times as loud as “1,” which is what we expect. Since 10=10 no matter what, an audio taper pot will have a much lower level “1” than a linear taper pot. Fender’s engineers know this. Therefore, Fender has been using this trick for some time on their solid-state amps, which are primarily targeted to the lower end of the market where the less experienced players buy. A player walks into the music store, plugs in and turns up to “2.” The amp wails like a banshee, and he/she immediately turns the volume down to about “1/2” so as not to be expelled from the store. The player thinks, “wow, if this thing is this loud at 2, it must have just gobs of volume in reserve. If I buy this amp, my drummer will never be able to drown me out again!” Cha-ching, another amp sold.

bacaruda · Post by **bacaruda** » 03 Mar 2008, 20:19

I've noticed that on several PCB amps from Fender, but not the reissues. On an already super-loud 6L6 amp like a Prosonic, non-audio pots especially suck. Unfortunately, they can be a major pain to replace on the PCB amps.

TubeDude22 · Post by **TubeDude22** » 04 Mar 2008, 05:45

Thanks, Modman. I am quite familiar with the Unofficial Fender Hot Rod Site and have done the reverb mod on my HRDlx. It is my #1 amp and I got it from a pawn shop for only $250! All it needed was new output tubes. Good tubes make all the diference in the world but, I digress...

I was just wondering if anyone knew the actual Omega mods for these amps. Getting the PCB pulled back to work on these amps takes all of ten minutes so, I don't mind replacing a part or two.

TD

Post by **modman** » 04 Mar 2008, 12:51

TubeDude22 wrote:Thanks, Modman. I am quite familiar with the Unofficial Fender Hot Rod Site and have done the reverb mod on my HRDlx. It is my #1 amp and I got it from a pawn shop for only $250! All it needed was new output tubes. Good tubes make all the diference in the world but, I digress...

I was just wondering if anyone knew the actual Omega mods for these amps. Getting the PCB pulled back to work on these amps takes all of ten minutes so, I don't mind replacing a part or two.

TD

You means this?
http://www.omegaamps.com/mods2.html

TubeDude22 · Post by **TubeDude22** » 04 Mar 2008, 13:44

I would like to know what parts get changed, added or removed, their values and a schematic.

TD

phishmarisol · Post by **phishmarisol** » 13 Jul 2008, 01:02

There are quite a few people on TGP that have had the Omega mods done to their amps, perhaps a few PMs over there would get you some gut shots. I'd be interested as well but Omega is pretty hush-hush about it (and for good reason I suppose) but I bet someone at TGP would help you out.

drumslinger · Post by **drumslinger** » 16 Jul 2012, 00:32

i know this is an old thread but has anyone ever uncovered the actual parts used in the mod/s?

groovtubin · Post by **groovtubin** » 11 Aug 2012, 16:39

drumslinger wrote:i know this is an old thread but has anyone ever uncovered the actual parts used in the mod/s?

Hi it`s jim@Omegaamps, you guys have fun a tweaking!! Spent 13 yrs plus just on this one, all it takes is uhhhh a lile work..

respectfully, jim@Omegaamps.com home of the infamous HRD mods, be a leader, or a follower, or just get out of the way...

sinner · Post by **sinner** » 12 Aug 2012, 20:13

No shitstorm? You guys are getting old