crack upgrade

[soundsgood]

I have run my stock crack for a year and loved it. My son gave me speedball for Christmas. I rewired the signal path with #20 teflon ohno continuous cast wire. Replaced output caps with ClarityCap px series 100uf/250v (these were a challenging fit). Replaced volume control with Valab stepped attenuator. I would like to thank JamieMcC and Caucasian Blackplate for their posts on the Valab. The top board was flipped upside down and unmarked. I was unable to fit more than 1 wire at ground solder pads, so i ran a bare wire hoop between L/R ground pads and attached the ground wires to the hoop. The small speedball board made contact with the Valab, so i ground part of the circuit board away taking out a wire trace and 2 pads not used in the circuit. I was concerned the steps would be too great but it works very well. This thing sounds GREAT now. 

 

[Nathan]

Superb! What's great about the Crack is that we start with a very able amplifier which is both easy and a hoot to build and then supported by an incredible on line community go on to modify, customize and personalize our Cracks. Aside from folks staying stock, which is a fine option, I doubt there are any 2 modified cracks that are exactly alike. Except that they are all superb.

 

[EniGmA1987]

It is great to hear another user with a very successful modification done! I am going to begin tweaking my amp very soon in some very serious ways. I am probably going to go with that same Valab stepped attenuator as well in the meantime until I can get around to converting the volume control to an LDR setup (which costs as much as the Crack+Speedball itself lol).