TSL100 Channel Layout Topology Valve Assignments

[RickyLee]

First place I figured seems to be a good fix for my swelling reverb problem. I lifted the positive side of C26 and no more reverb fading in and out when switching from the Dirt channels to the Clean channel. And no pops so far. I first tried a smaller cap and it only improved it slightly.

And the TSL100 is now even more fun to play. CH2 and CH3 have a sharp attack and like Wilder explained in his thread, I can really hear the pick. The leads are singing AND snappy at the same time - on both CH2 and CH3 with Gains at 5. More crunchy than before for sure.

I am probably going to put the choke in. But I am now wondering if the Mercury 10H choke would be better for this amp (you out there Wilder?)?? I would try both, but the 10H has different mounting holes than the 3H. I could just wire them in and then set it on the chassis to compare. Maybe I can put spade connectors.

Decisions decisions . . .

 

[Jason77]

No news yet. I had to leave the house earlier than expected and won't be a le to get to it until tomorrow. The amp is still how I left it - all the alligator clips are in the same spot so I can go back and make sure nothing was touching anything else.

I'm very careful with that because of how close a lot of the components are. I do know I used the alligator clips on the v2b plate resistor and the v2a cathode resistor because there was enough room where it wouldn't be an issue. For the v2b cathode resistor, because space is tight, I use 24g bonded wire. I stripped the ends and bent them into little hooks so I could grab the resistor legs without accidentally touching the resistors next to it. I've done this before without issue and just in the areas where the voltage is too low to cause problems.

It's just really weird to me because the spark/smoke came from the hole in the chassis where the choke wires are coming from. I really think this is unrelated to my jumper set up and just bad coincidence but I won't really know until tomorrow. But, I'll make another thread later when I get time and hopefully Wilder or Micky will jump in.

 

[RickyLee]

I measured that V2AA cathode bypass cap C24 negative side of the cap with the amp on. The Ground/Common side of it is at 48 Ohms while in CH1, and then switches to 100K when the amp is in CH2 & CH3.

So that clears that one up. That cathode bypass cap is for CH1 only. It was at the 48 Ohms yesterday, before I lifted this ducking circuit C24. So my information up in post #1 regarding C24 and V2AA was not correct.

 

[RickyLee]

I put a ClassicTone 3H 40-18058 choke in the TSL100 yesterday. I performed an ABC comparison at cranked volume with that choke as well as the Mercury Magnetics M-67C 2H and the Mercury Magnetics MC10H. The Mercury MC10H had the most voltage drop at idle at 5V (measures 294 Ohms) while the M67C had a 2.3V drop (measures 130 Ohms). The ClassicTone 40-18058 had a 2V drop (measures 110 Ohms).

I looked at the size of the Mercury 3H MAR100-C that I have in my DSL100 and it is the same size as the ClassicTone 3H and the Mercury M-67C 2H. The Mercury MC10H is quite a bit bigger and was part of the reason I chose not to use it in the TSL100.

Now on the tonal comparison, the only characteristic I could honestly say I heard for the better was that all of the chokes removed a slight bit of low end breakup and vibration that my 1936 cab was doing cranked up. I really could not hear any difference between the three chokes. I heard no improvement in hum either. I was actually leaning towards the Mercury 10H choke, as I thought I was hearing a bit better smooth crunch on CH2 CH3. Plus, I was liking the bigger voltage drop on the EL34 screens, which is what I liked about R71 as it dropped 5V as well. But the size of that 10H choke is what made me go with the 3H.

I got the choke installed just in time to make it to a jam last night. The TSL100 was impressive and it had good compliments from everybody there LOL . I never even used CH3. I stayed on CH2 with the Gain set at 5. No boost pedals either, as I usually have to have one set as a clean boost for leads. CH2 covered many bases last night. We played old UFO, Scorpians and it nailed the Thin Lizzy tone on "Cowboy Song" with my guitar volume slightly rolled back which slightly brightened up the tone. Played quite a few Hendrix songs as well. And CH2 nailed Cream "Sunshine Of Your Love" and "Tales Of Brave Ulysses".

CH2 had it all, ZZ top type pinch harmonics and grind. And I had that snappy pick attack as well as controlled sustain and feedback with that singing lead tone. And CH1 was badass to say the least. Now I am bugging on what I will need to do to get my DSL100 Clean channel sounding "cleaner". Obviously the DSL is limited from sharing the Gain control with the Crunch mode, but I need to figure out something to alter in that front board voicing circuit to get it sounding better. The DSL Crunch mode is good to go already.

So maybe a slight bit of the good things I heard last night was from adding that choke? Could be. But really, I never tweaked anything on this TSL100 CH2. Most of the changes were for CH3. The TSL and DSL amps always sound quite tasty if you can get the volume cranked up a bit. And last night, a buddy was so stoked by my rig and wanted to play it. So it gave me the opportunity to hear my setup out front as well as I walked outside the building as well.

 

[RickyLee]

Just wanted to add a bit of info to this thread relating to the TSL100/122. Somebody out there might stumble upon some of this stuff I am Rambling On about and actually need it possibly. But of course, this is mostly for MY OWN Bad Memory.



I was looking at the TSL100 schematic and getting a headache tracing out the FX loop signal path, without looking up the PCB to PCB CON jumper numbers that have been posted above. So since the amp was right in the Living Room, I turned it on to verify that the FX Loop A (Master Loop) Return is AFTER/bypasses/downstream all channels and their respective controls (EQ & Volumes). And the Loop A Return is also after the reverb as well.

 

[Arpeggio]

I need to replace the channel select circuit board in it's entirety. PT#TL10-65-00. Any Ideas where to go to order this part? North America preferrably.

 

[RickyLee]

I need to replace the channel select circuit board in it's entirety. PT#TL10-65-00. Any Ideas where to go to order this part? North America preferrably.

How about Korg USA? Try contacting them. Hopefully somebody here might know.

 

[Dylfish]

Hey @RickyLee Did you end up managing to find out which channels utilise which valves in the Tsl60? I'm trying to work out the functions of each triode and how they are used together on each channel. The 60s schematic is an absolute birds nest.

Im thinking of reducing the gain available on the red channel 3 but I'm not sure which path to follow. Any help would be great.

Cheers and sorry for the necro post

 

[RickyLee]

Hey @RickyLee Did you end up managing to find out which channels utilise which valves in the Tsl60? I'm trying to work out the functions of each triode and how they are used together on each channel. The 60s schematic is an absolute birds nest.

Im thinking of reducing the gain available on the red channel 3 but I'm not sure which path to follow. Any help would be great.

Cheers and sorry for the necro post

I am remembering the Clean channel bypasses one entire 12AX7. Possibly V2? I will try to look at that headache causing schem later. I used to know this stuff but I am forgetting a lot these days and years.

I would think CH2 uses all gain stages while obviously CH3 does.

 

[Dylfish]

yeah, the TSL100 looks alot easier than the TSL60 to read.

Is it possible that both gain channels use the same stages but just have differing gain pot values that increase the gain of said stages? Looks like the crunch has a 200k while the lead has a 1M. Assuming I'm correct would lowering the value of the lead channels pot value in theory lower the gain on tap?

Cheers

 

[RickyLee]

CH3 gets a bit more saturation from the 2nd stage cathode bypass cap that gets switched in, just like the TSL100 and DSL100.

You can lower that CH3 gain pot value by putting a resistor across it/in parallel. Take a look at the DSL100/50 as that is how Lead 1/2 gets different Dirt levels.