"Liverpull" upgrade/mod suggestions

[D-Day]

Hi guys. I've been lurking here since finding a Ceriatone "Liverpull" on Craig's List. It was this forum that made it seem like a good thing to pick up and now that I want to mess around with it a bit I thought I'd ask for advice here.

First of all I'm a total rookie and you may have to break things down quite a ways for my cromagnon brain to understand. I solder well and read a multimeter okay but I have no real electronics knowledge. I'm working on changing that but it takes time.

Anyhow, I just want to get my hands dirty so I figure I'll upgrade the caps to start with. But of course I'm lost in the big world of electronic component brand names and all that so I could seriously use some suggestions.

I'd like to learn more about tube amps by tinkering with one so any fun mods or other upgrades that you might suggest would fall on enthusiastic ears. I'm including a pic of it as it sits right now just in case it means anything to anybody.

Thanks in advance guys!

[billyz]

If it is a fairly new amp I doubt you will hear much with the Capacitor upgrade. The originals used Mallory mostly for the Power supply.
You will get more bang for your buck by upgrading the tubes. Especially the very first 12ax7. I believe most TW guys prefer the Tungsram ( no longer made but still available) for the 12ax7's. Not sure what Ken used for el84's but I think the Sovtek el84m are good. There are better ones New old stock. like Amperex, Mullard, GE , Tungsram.
They call it Tube Rolling, it is very informative and fun. Trying different brands of tubes. my favorite is Telefunken, never heard one I didn't like.

The only other Mod/upgrade I can think might be worthwhile would be the Transformers, upgrade to the Toneslut models made by Heyboer.

[dartanion]

Russian military output tubes are the way to go. Saratov, Roznov, and even the Sovtek EL84M (as billyz mentioned) work well in this circuit. For V1, use the lowest noise, lowest microphonic tube you can find regardless of brand or country of origin.

Transformers make a big difference with the OT more so than the PT. I would swap in a Heyboer/ToneSlut OT.

You can also upgrade the signal caps from Mallory 150s (which is a fine cap) to Mallory PVC or SBE 6PS.


I'd also ditch the MV. Doesn't belong in a Wreck.