Friedman PT20

[ToneWitch]

I have a PT20 on the bench with an issue. It has almost zero bass/mid control except for very early on in the sweep. And when the treble is turned all the way down it cuts all the volume off the amp.

It appears to be original. I’m away from my bench now but will post a pic.

I’m leaning towards short to ground on one of the pots. What do you think?

 

[ricksdisconnected]

damn fine amp right there.

 

[ToneWitch]

damn fine amp right there.

Haven't heard it at full potential yet. But have heard good things about them.

 

[ToneWitch]

Gut shot

 

[ToneWitch]

Swapped out the bass pot. And took it for a test run. Sounds excellent.

 

[ricksdisconnected]

Swapped out the bass pot. And took it for a test run. Sounds excellent.

um yeah. lol its a Friedman and one of his best too.

 

[ToneWitch]

um yeah. lol its a Friedman and one of his best too.

The owner of this bought it on reverb and it arrived with a shorted pot. (Previous owner told him it was always like that) He’s had it for a while in that state… he’s going to be blown away by the way it sounds now. It was unusable when I took it in. The eq was all screwed up and not adjustable. I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he plays through it. I ended up playing through it for a couple hours and totally lost track of time lol

 

[Leonard Neemoil]

What lead you to replace the bass pot?

Thanks.

 

[ricksdisconnected]

The owner of this bought it on reverb and it arrived with a shorted pot. (Previous owner told him it was always like that) He’s had it for a while in that state… he’s going to be blown away by the way it sounds now. It was unusable when I took it in. The eq was all screwed up and not adjustable. I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he plays through it. I ended up playing through it for a couple hours and totally lost track of time lol

now you see why i like them so much.

 

[ToneWitch]

What lead you to replace the bass pot?

Thanks.

Checking the pots with multi meter. It was shorted to ground.

It just happened to be the first pot I pulled the leads off and checked. Continuity between wiper and ground lugs was continual through out the entire sweep of the pot. So that’s obviously a short.

Doesn’t always work that way where I get lucky and it’s the first one.

But the way this amp it is the first pot. It had excessive solder applied to the back of it and doesn’t actually need to be grounded like the rest of them.

 

[ToneWitch]

it’s funny, the guy loved the Friedman but also purchased one of my Hexe 50 watters after playing through it. Really good day for me today!

 

[ricksdisconnected]

it’s funny, the guy loved the Friedman but also purchased one of my Hexe 50 watters after playing through it. Really good day for me today!

hexe 50 watter?

 

[ToneWitch]

hexe 50 watter?

The 50 watters I build

 

[ricksdisconnected]

oh wow you did do good today. nice.
any video clips of this amp of yours.

 

[ToneWitch]

oh wow you did do good today. nice.
any video clips of this amp of yours.

 

[ricksdisconnected]

very nice.

 

[ToneWitch]

I have since redesigned the preamp filtering of my amps.

So I need to update the sounds. It’s much better now. Instead of adding gain etc., I took a different route with the tone chasing and what I have done is created a design in the preamp which shoots the mid/high frequencies over the preamp into the PI. What this does is creates unreal harmonic sustain in all the right places. Leads stand out and cut through. Also, I redesigned the tone stack from an original 1987x to something much different. My amps sound great clean or cranked. I’m not a very good videographer. I just set up my recording studio again so I am in the works of getting some quality sounding bytes.

 

[ricksdisconnected]

I have since redesigned the preamp filtering of my amps.

So I need to update the sounds. It’s much better now. Instead of adding gain etc., I took a different route with the tone chasing and what I have done is created a design in the preamp which shoots the mid/high frequencies over the preamp into the PI. What this does is creates unreal harmonic sustain in all the right places. Leads stand out and cut through. Also, I redesigned the tone stack from an original 1987x to something much different. My amps sound great clean or cranked. I’m not a very good videographer. I just set up my recording studio again so I am in the works of getting some quality sounding bytes.

you should do ToneBitch, Tonewitchs lil sis. a 20 or 10 watt amp.

 

[ToneWitch]

you should do ToneBitch, Tonewitchs lil sis. a 20 or 10 watt amp.

Haha

I’m currently designing a monster.

But I am looking into possibly popping out a few smaller ones called “Broomsticks” or something of that nature. I’m just a one man builder designing, building and doing my repairs in my living room.

 

[ToneWitch]

Also, in all of those videos from around last summer I had nearly lost my left index finger in a welding accident at work. So my playing was super rough as I couldn’t barely press the frets. I still can’t bar chords like I used too. So it’s definitely time for me to update those videos.