Barber Direct Drive Mod question

[awilson40]

I just picked up an older Direct Drive, the one without the trim pots inside.
Its just a little dark sounding with my rig so I want to boost the highs a bit.

On their website they list 2 mods.
http://www.barberelectronics.com/Tweaks%20page.htm

the 'open air mod'  which I have done.
and the deep bass and presence mod.

Can anyone tell me the difference in sound between the 'open air mod' and
the presence mod.

Also , has anyone modded these to the current version with the internal trim pots or any other mods.
Thanks

[alfafalfa]

Sorry can't help you on that because I don't own one.
But has anyone looked at the Barber page and tried the Paralel opamps mod in TS clones for example ??
http://www.barberelectronics.com/parallelopamps.htm

This one of the weirdest mods I've ever seen but it could make sense to get a thicker sound.
Must start an experiment on this !!

Alf

[markm]

I can't rightly say but,
I'm sure you could find the answer on the Barber BB.

[awilson40]

thanks,
I didnt notice that they had a forum....I'm off to search.

[JHS]

There are trimpots on the newer ones for tayloring the sound to your liking, no need for further modding those circuits parts.

On the older drives I would do nothing, they sound good to me. The added deep midrange is a Barber signature and typical for all DD.

The DD had been inproved over the years and there are a lot variations in the circuits, some have allready the open air and presence mod.

If you want to mod them, try the mods from the tweak page (they can be removed w/o problems if you don't like the sound) or add the trimpots and modifications found in the newer DDs. To me the new presence circuit is way bettet than the open air mod and can be installed w/o problems and the new volume response circuit is cool too, aks Dave for details. I like changing the 914 diodes in the hard clip circuit for BS170 or other Mosfets (like in the OCD) too for even more midrange bark.

Another really cool mod is swapping the tone pot for a 50/100k std-pot and adding a DPDT switch for a quick sound/channel switching.

I don't recommend opamp stacking, for running w parallel opamps some more tweaks to the circuit must be done (for. ex, load balancing) to get optimum results. My suggesstion for more output current, use other opamps like Brown Burr, NE ect.

JHS

[awilson40]

thanks a lot of the input.
Is the presence Mod found on there tweaks page the same as the new circuit but with Pot
added instead of a fixed resistor.

Can ya give me a feel for the difference in sound of the open air mod VS the presence mod.

Thanks again

[JHS]

I've done some tests w stacked opamps on a TS-clone and can't recommend this for a TS or other ODs. A OP833 will give a smother, thicker tone too, so there's no need for opamp stacking (to me stackes opamps sound muffled w/o any treble, and very bad load balancing due to none decoupling).

Those DD mods on the Barber page are for the DD (the circuit somewhat similar to a Proco Brat), due to the different circuit they are useless for a stock TS or TS-clone.

If I ever have the intention to mod a TS-clone the LTD circuit is way more inspiring for me (very good tone-control and recovery stage).
Barber uses caps w good quality (Silva Mica for ex.), resulting in a clear treble response and good string definition.

I don't like modding original TSs in general, changing caps and chips, it way easier and faster to built a very good clone on perfboard with true bypass and w/o those useless I/O buffers only good sucking headroom and sound (they are only needed for this silent FET-switching).

JHS