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Hey all. I just got a DRRI, and while I think it sounds great, the vibrato channel is just too bright to use with my Jazzmaster and dirty pedals. Sounds good clean, but as soon as I apply any distortion or overdrive, it gets insanely fizzy and ice picky. The normal channel is much better, but I'd really like to be able to use the vibrato channel.

So, what's my best bet for taming the shrill?
- Changing the speaker
- Putting 500k pots in my JM (it has 1 megs right now)
- Clipping the "Bright" cap
- Re-biasing the output section

I'd like to avoid clipping the bright cap unless that's the only option... I've modded amps before and I'm capable of doing it, but I'd like to keep the warranty intact unless I really need to. What do you guys think?

If it is a new amp with a new speaker, or an old amp with a new speaker.... break the speaker in before making any change. A buddy put a new Weber speaker in his DRRI and it was piercing. He replaced ti with a used Cannabis Rex. Later he connected the Weber speaker to his stereo and ran it loud for a couple of days and now it is great.

Yeah good idea. I should have mentioned that I do plan on breaking the speaker in first.

Also I'm having an interesting problem where the reverb will feed back if the verb is turned up higher than 6 or so. It gets louder and louder until I turn the reverb down. Bad tube?

adamrobertt wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 11, 2020 4:28 pm

Yeah good idea. I should have mentioned that I do plan on breaking the speaker in first.

I couldn't stand my DRRI for a long time.. It sounded horrible! I was ready to get rid of it. But, after about 100 hours it started better & better.. I accidentally left it on overnight in Stand By a few times. It's great now.. Completely Stock.

It does take a long time...

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Lower the distortion/fuzz pedal so there is less fizz. Change the order you stack the pedals.
JM runs off the clean channel and adjusts his fuzz the loudest and turns the other pedals down otherwise his fuzz is too compressed and fizzy.
I stack like the first video here and never put the distortion above 50% gain or it gets too fizzy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07ho45_yq0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLjLBNmuO9c

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jvin248 wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:03 am

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Lower the distortion/fuzz pedal so there is less fizz. Change the order you stack the pedals.
JM runs off the clean channel and adjusts his fuzz the loudest and turns the other pedals down otherwise his fuzz is too compressed and fizzy.
I stack like the first video here and never put the distortion above 50% gain or it gets too fizzy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07ho45_yq0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLjLBNmuO9c

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I kind of already do this (although not using his specific methodology) and I don't even have a fuzz on my board. My drive section is basically 3 low gain overdrives stacked and then a Rat clone after the overdrives. The gain on all 3 overdrives is around 9 o'clock and none of them have the volume above 50%. The Rat has the volume quite low and the gain around 1 o'clock, but to be honest that pedal is the least offensive of all. I'd say my Fulltone OCD is the primary offender which I guess isn't surprising, since they can be bright pedals... I have the tone at like 8 o'clock which is almost all the way rolled off and it still fizzes out in the vibrato channel with the treble on 2 and the bass on 7.

Since you mention it being under warranty, it sounds like this is a new amp. Truly, speakers need to break in to sound good. At least 10-20 hours at 80+ dB has been my experience.

Just to throw in another option, if the amp doesn’t sound any better with those pedals once the speaker’s been broken in.

This is assuming that there are 2 inputs (1 for each channel) that always stay on. I don’t have an actual Fender Deluxe, so I’m not sure of its configuration - what I have is a Frenzel with separate inputs (Deluxe & Plexi) that are always on (no channel switch).

You could get an ab/y switch, and line up the pedals that you want to use with each channel after each output of the switch, and then just use the switch to go between the channels & pedals.

That way you’d have dedicated paths, clean(er) into the vibro channel, and dirt into the normal channel. Could also use both on together at the same time - might be interesting, might suck.

Hopefully it isn’t necessary once the speaker breaks in, but that is another option.

On the reverb issue, are you sure that’s not just a part of having a real spring reverb?

I mostly use pedals for reverb, the only amp I have that has its own spring reverb is an AC15, and I replaced the reverb tank a while back with a better one. I don’t usually have the reverb turned too far up (maybe halfway), but it does seem like the more it’s up (especially with distortion), the springs pick that up and keep processing it over and over, sort of like an oscillation switch on a reverb pedal.

They also make bags to go around the reverb tank to isolate it more, that could help. A different tank might could help, too (?). It helped with my AC’s reverb, but I don’t know what kind of tank comes in the DRRI. The AC15’s are known to come with meh reverb tanks.

I’m not an expert on reverb or anything, but I think that’s just the nature of them.