NGD: Laboga Annihilator Mr. Hector

Ermz

Ermz

¯\(°_o)/¯
Apr 5, 2002
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Melbourne, Australia
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It arrived today.

Laboga-Mr.Hector.jpg


First impressions are: This is the dullest amp I've ever used! It's inherent character is quite pleasing to me. It's very gentle, very 'vanilla'. Nothing really offensive about it (apart from the faceplate).

The only retarded thing is the tone stack. The treble is set to boost at a really stupid point in the high mids, rather than the actual high frequencies, and the mid knob doesn't scoop enough around 700hz. So I'm thinking mods to add a sweepable mid and alter the center frequency of the treble control are in order.

For now though, here are some clips.

The familiar Rose of Sharyn DIs to make you suicidal: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285689/Forum/Jeff Sharyn - Ermz Hector & Kalthalen Reamp.mp3

Something I'm working on now. 2 tracks of Mr Hector combined with 2 tracks of Framus Cobra (courtesy of Eddy Apolonia), both completely 100% raw: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285689/Knightmare/Cobra & Hector.mp3

Cobra needs some de-fizzing, and Hector needs some high passing, but we'll sort all that in the mix!
 
i love the character of this one, wish there was less bass though sounds way to boomy for my taste
 
I have been endorsed by Laboga for some years and used a Mr. Hector in the studio and on the road quite a bit. I really like the character of the amp - like a duller, defizzed cross of a Mesa and a 5150 - but what I missed badly was a Presence Control to give it some shine while not raising the high mids too much. But it's a cool and usable Amp for sure! The clean channel is really nice I think and got quite some use in recording session.

Markus
 
Capitancambarro said:
I have been endorsed by Laboga for some years and used a Mr. Hector in the studio and on the road quite a bit. I really like the character of the amp - like a duller, defizzed cross of a Mesa and a 5150 - but what I missed badly was a Presence Control to give it some shine while not raising the high mids too much. But it's a cool and usable Amp for sure! The clean channel is really nice I think and got quite some use in recording session.

Markus
Click to expand...

Agreed. Do you think that modding the treble knob to change its center frequency would be a good move, or better to just add a presence control to do the super high stuff?

@StefTD: Well, let me know. I'm thinking to start offering reamping services again in the near future.
 
I think you should learn the tonestack a little more before modding the amp. It might have some magic settings in there somewhere.


Congrats, dude! I've always been interested in this amp.
 
Ermz said:
Agreed. Do you think that modding the treble knob to change its center frequency would be a good move, or better to just add a presence control to do the super high stuff?

Personally I'd rather add a presence control if you want to mod it. I always ended up with dialing in a sound that was nice and balanced sounding but missing a little bit of that in-your-faceness and shine a presence would add - so back to the recording room and adjusting the mic where on a different amp I'd just turn up the Presence s slight bit.
Click to expand...
 
hi emrin,
a standart-presence-circuit can not be implementet in the mr. hector, because this amp doesen`t use negative feedback from the power-amp (similar to a mesa recto in modern-mode).
here is the schematic of the amp http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5298811/Elektronik/LABOGA_MrHector.pdf (i drawned it two years ago. component-labels do not refer to labels on the pcb!!)
the strange mid- and high-voicing is not the tonestacks "fault", its more the whole preamp-design.
let me know if i should go in-deep with the circuit and modifications... ;)

cheers!! markus :)
 
k.h.e. said:
hi emrin,
a standart-presence-circuit can not be implementet in the mr. hector, because this amp doesen`t use negative feedback from the power-amp (similar to a mesa recto in modern-mode).
here is the schematic of the amp http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5298811/Elektronik/LABOGA_MrHector.pdf (i drawned it two years ago. component-labels do not refer to labels on the pcb!!)
the strange mid- and high-voicing is not the tonestacks "fault", its more the whole preamp-design.
let me know if i should go in-deep with the circuit and modifications... ;)

cheers!! markus :)
Click to expand...

With my limited knowledge of amps etc, despite not being able to implement a Presence circuit, altering the frequency seating of the other knobs should still be quite possible, no? My understanding was that these are independent from each knob except in overall tone response (cascading tone settings??)
 
@melb shredder: the tone-stack is highly interactive with each knob. most of the components have more than one function in the circuit. it`s a bit hard for me to desribe it, but here is a little programm to simulate the tonestacks response (just enter the values from my schematic in the "marshall"-tab, and play arround with the values to see the influence) http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/
but keep in mind that these graphs are nearly useless, because the circuit before and after the tonestack has a big influence to the overall sound.

@emrin: the strong midrange comes from the preamp-design. the high-end is cutted at serveral stages, then distorted and then regenerated. my first try would be C13 in my schematic (4,7nF). if you lower the value of this capacitor (say 2,2nF to start, maybe completly cutted-away later), you let more of the high-frequencys to distort, which will reduce the honkyness. you also get more hi-end, but probably too much. if this is the case, try to lower the value of C15. And also C17 has a big influence (similar to C13). i guess this would be a big try-and-error-game to find a good combination.
to increase the overall-highend, you can play arround with R29 and C21 (in series, after the tonestack). increase the value of R29 or decrease the value of C21 to get more hi-end.
just to say, this amp is not fun to modifie. it has one very big PCB inside. you have to remove it completly to get access to the solder-points (and you have to remove serveral cables and the pots from the front-plate ect).
i can post some gutshots of this amp tomorrow, so you can see it ;)

the other guitarrist in my band has a hector, and he loves the midrange, it really cuts through in live-situations...
cheers, markus
 
Ermz said:
hey k.h.e. thanks for that clarification. What could be done to get around the amp's lack of high-end, and over-abundance of ~700Hz content though?
Click to expand...
Judging by the schematic posted, there are a pair of things that can be done about it...

For the high end, that huge 4.7nF cap (C13) could be replaced with a smaller one, like 2,2 or 1nF, but you risk to ruin the dark character of the amp, adding fizz...
A better solution would be to redesign that R29-C21 part. That's basically a passive presence control (like Mesa in modern mode), but the resistor is fixed, so it could be replaced with a big value pot used as a variable resistor (instead of the small R29) and a different C21 value to tune the cut frequency accordingly (it's basically a passive hi-shelv filter).

As for the 700Hz thing, reducing that 470pF (C28) on the tonestack to something like 330p may help, although that stereo treble pot thing they've used bugs me a little bit, as it influences the overall tonestack response in both channels...

EDIT: damn, k.h.e beated me on everything :lol: cool to see we had the same ideas though!
 
Cool clips! I wouldn't mod an amp unless you're 1000% sure you're going to keep it, way harder to get your money back. I would throw a nice EQ pedal in the loop, way easier.

Also OT but Jeff Waters is a fucking BEAST guitar player, seriously robo-shred.
 
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