HRDX - Taming bass

What are some ways to tame the bassy sound. i read on the unoffical hot rod sight about the mod but i would be curious to what that does to the midrange of the amp. any advice on chages at tubes or something for this problem?

Not being a smart ass or nothing. It depends on what guitar I'm using. I just turn the bass down, treble up and use the bright switch if I need it. I threw a set of JJ's in it and it dramatically improved the tone.

I assume the mod you are referring to is the short on the mid pot. It does reduce the bass but makes the bass and mid controls interactive. ie one affects the other. I have done this mod to mine and I am happy with the result. (That does not mean I'm happy with the HRDx but that's another story). Even with the bass turned all the way down the circuit as stock leaves 25KOhms to ground. On most Fender amps this is only around 6.8K. The higher the resistance the more bass you get.

Pete

interactive? i just usually have my mids at 12 and i heard this increases the bass but if i lower the bass knob will that overall bassy sound still be there or be fixed with the mod?

The mod does fix the overwhelming bass. I get a good tone now with Bass and Mid at 6 and Treble at 12. I'ts an easy mod and easily reversed if you don't like it.

Pete

A better speaker might help too. If it's under warranty, don't mod it or you'll void it.

To me every Fender tube amp I've played sounds over-the-top with bass. I used to keep the bass knob on my old twin below 2 at all times. So this sounds overly simplistic but I just turn the bass way down on my DRRI and HRDlx and my prior Fender amps were all the same.....

I use EL84 power tubes in mine and it completely changes the bottom heavy character of the amp. It sounds a lot more like a Vox ACsomethingoranother now, in a good way. Nice and sparkly!

Another plus of using El84s instead of 6L6 power tubes is that it drops the power down to about 25w so I can crank it all the way up to 4 or 5 before it gets ear splitting. ;D

To answer the original question of unkn0wn:
that mod does essentially nothing to your mids, but it will affect bass, so you'll get relatively more mids.
In your particular case, however, as in your second post you say you usually keep your mid knob at max, this mod would be completely useless, because it doesn't change anything if you keep the mid pot at max... unless you change your habits and begin to use lower levels for the mid pot, of course...!

My opinion is, anyway, if you can get the right amount of bass by keeping the knob at a certain position (2 in my case) why bothering with changing things? The stock wiring, which is the same as in Marshall tone stacks, gives you more independence between the mid and bass pots, so this might be very useful for quick and easy changes in the EQ.
We often search for remedies when we must keep a knob lower than about 9 o'clock in an amp or a pedal, as if it was a sin...! I realize it sometimes means we are not having a complete control over that parameter; but if we can get our favourite sound anyway, I think we can simply live with it and concentrate in playing!!
In this case, it is true these amps have an excess of bass; if lowering the knob to 0 still gives you too much, than I think you might need to do some mods. The best mod for this problem, however, would be lowering the bass pot value to 100k, while keeping the stock wiring for the mid pot. This would give you the best of both worlds: less bass and independent control over mids and bass. In this case you should also cut R105 (a resistor added to reduce bass - I know, it doesn't do its job that well...!). I didn't do this mod, and probably never will, so try at your own risk! I'm basing my thought on the Duncan Amp's Tone Stack Calculator curves.

If you want to, you can also read about my mods to the Hot Rod in this thread:
http://www.thefenderforum.com/forum/...ad.php?t=35825

Giulio

thanks for the long and intelligent responce..i think i understand it now. the problem is like you said..i have the bass on 0 and still get a over the top boomy bass sound on the lower strings. i think i will look into lowering the bass pot like you said

Actually it is very strange you still get a lot of bass with the mid pot at max and the bass knob at 0... This should give you a flat EQ in the bass-mid range.
What guitar are you using? What pickups? You might have your pickups set very near the lower strings and far from the higher strings, giving you an unbalanced sound across the six strings. Check for this.
Also try different settings for the mid pot: it might be some lower mids annoying you, instead of bass. Try bass at 2, mids at 5, treble at 7 and presence at 7 (bright switch off).

Giulio

Where is the amp? Two rules of thumb are; Get it off the floor and away from corners. To experiment, put it on a chair away from any walls. Turn down the bass control. Still too much bass?

TT