Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

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Old School
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Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

Post by Old School » Thu Feb 21, 2019 12:35 am

Im sure if you had three mini controls you could fit them to front panel and have a tmb tone circuit for the clean channel. I've not found any mention of anyone doing this or producing a mod, anyone know if it can Indeed be done by a competent amp tech ?
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Jondog
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Re: Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

Post by Jondog » Thu Feb 21, 2019 12:38 am

It can be done. You’ll have some signal loss though. Theres a reason its called Natural channel and not Clean.
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Old School
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Re: Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

Post by Old School » Thu Feb 21, 2019 12:42 am

What do you mean by signal loss , power reduction ?, Lack of top end sparkle ?

I love telecasters and when using the natural channel the bridge pickup can be on the bright side, whereas the middle position is beautiful. Introducing a little treble roll off for the natural channel would be perfect for me.
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Jondog
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Re: Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

Post by Jondog » Thu Feb 21, 2019 12:53 am

The added tone stack will cut volume coming from the single gain stage that makes the Natural channel. that will affect how the signal hits the phase inverter and power amp. If you don’t crank the Natural channel, you can make up for that signal loss with the volume control, but you might not get that same crunch the Natural channel is capable of cranked. Can always have a bypass switch for the tone stack. I’ve done that on a couple builds. Personally with the Rocker I like a pedal for tone shaping the Natural channel.
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Old School
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Re: Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

Post by Old School » Thu Feb 21, 2019 1:13 am

Jondog wrote:
Thu Feb 21, 2019 12:53 am
The added tone stack will cut volume coming from the single gain stage that makes the Natural channel. that will affect how the signal hits the phase inverter and power amp. If you don’t crank the Natural channel, you can make up for that signal loss with the volume control, but you might not get that same crunch the Natural channel is capable of cranked. Can always have a bypass switch for the tone stack. I’ve done that on a couple builds. Personally with the Rocker I like a pedal for tone shaping the Natural channel.
I have a Joyo American sounds pedal which is supposed to produce fender clean tones and it has a tmb tone stack. I ran it into the natural channel and for cleans it sounded lovely. The drive sounds from the pedal stink and for doing my Jeff Healey songs I ran a maxon od808 and diamond CPR1 compressor into it and it just over compressed like crazy. I would just like a workaround that would take out a bit of the top end of the natural channel that would agree with me using the nocaster bridge pickup on my Tele.
Fender USA Ash Telecaster
Orange Rocker Terror 15 Head
Sonic Research ST300 turbo tuner
Diamond CPR1 Compressor
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Les Paul Lover
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Re: Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

Post by Les Paul Lover » Thu Feb 21, 2019 7:14 am

You could use your tele tone control to roll off a little treble?
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Arthon
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Re: Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

Post by Arthon » Thu Feb 21, 2019 3:05 pm

A eq pedal in the effect loop is the easiest and less expansive way to shape your natural channel... The Boss EQ is noisy but the MXR is good.
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afjungemann
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Re: Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

Post by afjungemann » Thu Feb 21, 2019 4:04 pm

Les Paul Lover wrote:
Thu Feb 21, 2019 7:14 am
You could use your tele tone control to roll off a little treble?
My thoughts exactly. If it was too dark, there isn’t much your guitar can do but too bright is easy.
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Old School
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Re: Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

Post by Old School » Thu Feb 21, 2019 7:22 pm

Arthon wrote:
Thu Feb 21, 2019 3:05 pm
A eq pedal in the effect loop is the easiest and less expansive way to shape your natural channel... The Boss EQ is noisy but the MXR is good.
The mxr is a good pedal, but sadly it adds presence whether switched on or off, is the ge7 totally neutral when it is in FX loop and switched off. The added presence is why I sold my mxr EQ pedal
Fender USA Ash Telecaster
Orange Rocker Terror 15 Head
Sonic Research ST300 turbo tuner
Diamond CPR1 Compressor
TC Electronic Sentry
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Naga Viper
Suhr Riot
Zilla 1x12 Cab with Greenback

Mystic38
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Re: Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

Post by Mystic38 » Thu Feb 21, 2019 8:57 pm

If the Rocker 15 is the same natural channel as the Rocker 30 then there is one single gain stage on this clean channel.. With a Telecaster and adding the signal loss of a TMB cct you will lose at least half of the signal and may not have enough to drive the power amp into saturation...particularly with a telecaster.

The response of the natural channel is essentially flat with a bright cap, resulting in a brighter amp at low volumes and an increasingly flat response as the volume is increased.

as a PSA, for every guitar i have, the Rocker simply sounds better with a clean boost in the front of the amp.. in my case i use a TC Spark..others here rave about the EP booster which i have yet to try.

My suggestions are:
1. use the guitar knobs to tame the high end ..after all, it IS a tele :)
2. a clean boost with T&B into the front of the amp.
3. an EQ pedal in the loop to CUT frequencies thus helping to control noise... i use (on other amps) Empress paraEQ

ime EQ pedals screw with phase so the simpler your solution the better overall imo.
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Arthon
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Re: Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

Post by Arthon » Fri Feb 22, 2019 1:44 pm

Old School wrote:
Thu Feb 21, 2019 7:22 pm
Arthon wrote:
Thu Feb 21, 2019 3:05 pm
A eq pedal in the effect loop is the easiest and less expansive way to shape your natural channel... The Boss EQ is noisy but the MXR is good.
The mxr is a good pedal, but sadly it adds presence whether switched on or off, is the ge7 totally neutral when it is in FX loop and switched off. The added presence is why I sold my mxr EQ pedal
Didnt know that! thks
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beninma
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Re: Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

Post by beninma » Fri Mar 01, 2019 7:05 pm

I have a Rocker 15 and a Telecaster too.

You should be able to get what you want just with the tone control + adjusting your pickups, your pick, your attack, etc.. Modding the amp seems like an awful lot of work. If you work with the natural channel with the tone knob maxed out and adjust your pickups to that with the intention that you're adjusting for the brightest sound you want, you should then be in good shape and then you have the tone knob still in reserve to roll off highs.

I have a Two Stroke.. it can be used to EQ the natural channel just fine, either in the Rocker 15's loop or in the front end. If you stick it in the loop it will act after the preamp in the natural channel. I find it is a lot more useful as a boost+EQ in front of the amp. It doesn't color the amp at all when it's off, Orange's buffer design is fantastic. If the MXR is coloring the signal when it's off I'd imagine it's just a non-transparent buffer, or what you are actually seeing is a pedal board with too many true bypass pedals that are robbing your presence and the buffer in the MXR is restoring it.

I would agree with Mystic38 that the Rocker 15 responds to clean boosts really well, although that might have to do with not using it at a high enough volume a lot of the time.

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Re: Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

Post by stargazer747 » Fri Mar 01, 2019 7:27 pm

I have a Rocker 15 as well as the Brent Hinds. I was waiting on Orange to release a 2-channel Terror model that had a clean. I also have the Jim Root, Dark, and Micro Dark Terrors all single channel amps. I don't have a Dual Terror as it lacks the FX Loop which I make full use of. And I don't really need anything in the 50 or 100 watters for what I do. My 15Watt Terrors are fine for home practice, band rehearsals, and gigging as these lunchbox amps are really loud.

At first you would think that having the 2nd clean channel without a 3-band EQ or even a "shape" knob to adjust tone would be short changing it in a big way. But I think contrary to that, while with dirty we do want control of shaping the tone especially when pounding on the gain, I feel having the "Natural" channel which suggests the signal is as unaffected as possible from guitar to speaker with as little intervention you can achieve (electronics in between necessary of course) will give you the best clean tone your guitar and playing technique will have.

That is why I use a compressor always on and switch on my MXR 6-Band (pedalboard #1) or BOSS GE7 (pedalboard #2) EQ pedals set to enhance that clean tone with whatever flavor I want added. Right now, I have both EQ pedals set in the "V" shape which pulls some mids out and with the compressor makes my guitars sound like an acoustic/electric, can't get any cleaner than that, in my opinion. They are in front thru preamp, not in the FX Loop, that's where I have my modulations, delays, and reverbs.
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Old School
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Re: Modding a Rocker Terror 15 to add tone stack to clean channel

Post by Old School » Sun Mar 03, 2019 10:41 pm

beninma wrote:
Fri Mar 01, 2019 7:05 pm
I have a Rocker 15 and a Telecaster too.

You should be able to get what you want just with the tone control + adjusting your pickups, your pick, your attack, etc.. Modding the amp seems like an awful lot of work. If you work with the natural channel with the tone knob maxed out and adjust your pickups to that with the intention that you're adjusting for the brightest sound you want, you should then be in good shape and then you have the tone knob still in reserve to roll off highs.

I have a Two Stroke.. it can be used to EQ the natural channel just fine, either in the Rocker 15's loop or in the front end. If you stick it in the loop it will act after the preamp in the natural channel. I find it is a lot more useful as a boost+EQ in front of the amp. It doesn't color the amp at all when it's off, Orange's buffer design is fantastic. If the MXR is coloring the signal when it's off I'd imagine it's just a non-transparent buffer, or what you are actually seeing is a pedal board with too many true bypass pedals that are robbing your presence and the buffer in the MXR is restoring it.

I would agree with Mystic38 that the Rocker 15 responds to clean boosts really well, although that might have to do with not using it at a high enough volume a lot of the time.

I have an original Suhr Riot distortion pedal coming in a few days. I use my Naga viper with the dirty channel for Rory Gallagher tones and I'm going to use the riot on the natural channel for mid 80s high gain songs that have cleans too, i.e wanted man by ratt kind of tones, can't wait to blow the head off the daisies with the Suhr.
Fender USA Ash Telecaster
Orange Rocker Terror 15 Head
Sonic Research ST300 turbo tuner
Diamond CPR1 Compressor
TC Electronic Sentry
CAE MC 404 Wah
Catalinbread Talisman Reverb
MXR 234 Analogue Chorus
Naga Viper
Suhr Riot
Zilla 1x12 Cab with Greenback

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