Which Bluesmaster Should I Build?

[dorrisant]

I have been looking at posts for a while now....

What are your suggestions? and why? I know some of you have built them... care to comment?

I'm gonna build one in an old PA. Should be interesting

[norburybrook]

I've built 3 Bluesmaster HRm's as per the layout in the files section. 2x 100w at a 50w. I put a 50/100 switch on the 100's.


Great amps everyone. Last one I put the FET on a a footswitch with the gain pot in the fet jack on the front. If you do that make sure you wire the 3 button footswitch so you can't have FET,Boost and OD on at the same time


the BM has a great clean tone and a really great OD, the FET boost gives a nice bright clean boost on a switch. The OD is purer with the PAB to bypass the tone stack but they sound great whatever. I've never bothered with a HRM bypass. Tune the OD tonestack to taste and use a 250k pot instead of a 1M on the bass.




M

[xtian]

+1.

Is there a CHOICE of BM builds?!?

[JD0x0]

Not sure, I heard Sonny Landreth's amp is a Bluesmaster circuit, and that's one of the best D-style tones, IMO. Such thickness and maintains full chord clarity.

[JD0x0]

Great amps everyone. Last one I put the FET on a a footswitch with the gain pot in the fet jack on the front. If you do that make sure you wire the 3 button footswitch so you can't have FET,Boost and OD on at the same time






M

Why not!?
Yeah, probably a bit much for some people, but my Glaswerks has that and it works well, IMO. Definitely have to pay attention to keep the noise floor down, though.

One of my personal builds has an LND150 input stage for the FET and I also like that with the PAB and OD for really heavy sounds, but you're definitely starting to push it out of D-style tones with that much gain.

[stelligan]

Built a 2 x 6L6 Bluesmaster with a D'Lite power section in 2012. Still my favorite clean tones from Dumble type amps - probably a combination of that PI and no LNFB at V1. Can get a little crunch out of the clean especially with that mega boost on.

Here is some wankery from back when I had just finished it.

BMtest.mp3

[dorrisant]

+1.

Is there a CHOICE of BM builds?!?

Not sure. There is this one... https://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3344

Know of others anyone?

[Abe5150]

I have a chassis coming on Friday and I’ve been thinking about doing a Bluesmaster build as well. Has anyone built an El34 version?

[norburybrook]

edit

[norburybrook]

Great amps everyone. Last one I put the FET on a a footswitch with the gain pot in the fet jack on the front. If you do that make sure you wire the 3 button footswitch so you can't have FET,Boost and OD on at the same time






M

Why not!?

Instant howling feedback

blue suede Bluemaster 100w

Bluesmaster 1.jpg

M

[dorrisant]

This is what I'm focusing on... Should I be looking at anything else?

Schematic and layout:

[Abe5150]

The schematic in this thread shows a choke/standby/RF dpdt switch, did the original Bluesmaster have that?

[Mark]

The thing to remember about the Blues Master is that the pre-amp loses a lot of gain through the tone control. I found that I liked the overdrive tone but the clean tone didn't really do it for me. I think the issue might have been using a Mesa Boogie SOB as a platform. Despite the output transformer being a reasonable size it lacked bass response. The Schumaker output transformer favoured by HAD does have a big bass response.

EDIT: With a Strat/Tele I prefer the deep switch than the mid switch. I like having the mid boost controlled by a footswitch. What type of output valves would you use, EL-34's or 6L6's?

[norburybrook]

The thing to remember about the Blues Master is that the pre-amp loses a lot of gain through the tone control. I found that I liked the overdrive tone but the clean tone didn't really do it for me. I think the issue might have been using a Mesa Boogie SOB as a platform. Despite the output transformer being a reasonable size it lacked bass response. The Schumaker output transformer favoured by HAD does have a big bass response.

EDIT: With a Strat/Tele I prefer the deep switch than the mid switch. I like having the mid boost controlled by a footswitch. What type of output valves would you use, EL-34's or 6L6's?

Mark, that's interesting as I'd say the Bluesmaster has the best clean tone out of all the ODS amps I've made. All 3 of mine have the same great clean tone. In fact if I were going to use any ODS as a pedal platform and NOT use the OD I'd go with a BM every time.

Regarding output tubes, the ODS amps it's all in the pre amp so the output tubes don't make a massive difference IMHO. I tend to use 6L6's but I've tried EL34's...YMMV

it's a great amp and everyone should have one if you're into the ODS thing.


M

[Mark]

I've heard a lot of people say they like the Blues Master clean tones. I think the Mesa Boogie SOB wasn't a good platform for a Dumble. What output transformers have you used in your builds?

A friend used a Mercury Tweed Bassman output transformer that had a great clean tone.