Tumnus & Budda II SD 30

[MTM105]

I am not a fan of OD channels. I accepted Budda clean. Phenomenal tone with Radial Tonebone Plexitube. 

I am never happy with the OD channel. Very muddy and unresponsive. Until today. I turned off the Radial Plexitube. Turned on the Tumnus.

THAT is THE TONE I've been seeking. Like a cascading waterfall...

[Jimbilly]

Brian Wampler seems to be doing a lot of things right. I've got a Deluxe Plexi Drive, found a Paisley at a pawn shop and promised it to a friend, thinking I wouldn't want it, but it was super cool.  I'm on the lookout for a Tumnus, and I feel like I would really like the Euphoria.

[Travis]

I’ll have to check out a Tumnus. I’ve heard good thing about Wampler pedals. I played thru a borrowed pinnacle for a very a short time and seem to remember it being a solid pedal. 

[HoboMan]

I've owned quite a few Buddas and still have one SD30 that I'll probably never part with. They are know for having a dark sounding gain channel BUT there is a very simple mod that with transform the amp into raging, fire breathing, aggressive rock machine.

It's one capacitor that gets swapped out. It makes the amp much brighter, tighter and more aggressive. Stock Buddas have a lot of low mids but this mod puts the emphasis on the upper mids. That change also makes the amp louder and gives it a very cutting aggressive tone.

The capacitor is proabably 25 cents and if you're good with a soldering iron you can do it yourself.. You can either swap the capacitor or like I did with mine, I added the capacitor and added a toggle switch to the back panel that allows me to switch between stock and modded modes.

I've been posting about this mod for years over at TGP and everyone who's done it has really liked it.

Here's a link to instructions for the mod: https://greentreeexpress.com/BuddaBriteMod.pdf

 

Here's a couple of videos of my SD30 after the mod.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMhMia4aJpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F09ZibPDn9Q

[alantig]

3 hours ago, HoboMan said:

That change also makes the amp louder and gives it a very cutting aggressive tone.

Because the one thing Buddas lack is volume. 🤣

I will have to check this out just to see what difference it makes, but my Budda has probably been the only amp that has taken every guitar I've thrown at it that I could find a good tone very easily.  I have the SD18 combo, and I don't think I've ever gotten it up to 4.  I'd been shopping for a Mesa Boogie Mark IV, and while I was trying it, my sales guy came over and said, "It sounds like you're not finding what you want."  Then he asked if he could show me something, and that was the Budda.  Didn't take long to convince me.

Also knew a guy who played through two SD45s, both cranked, in a small club.  Remarkably, the building held up.

[HoboMan]

2 hours ago, alantig said:

Because the one thing Buddas lack is volume. 🤣

I will have to check this out just to see what difference it makes, but my Budda has probably been the only amp that has taken every guitar I've thrown at it that I could find a good tone very easily.  I have the SD18 combo, and I don't think I've ever gotten it up to 4.  I'd been shopping for a Mesa Boogie Mark IV, and while I was trying it, my sales guy came over and said, "It sounds like you're not finding what you want."  Then he asked if he could show me something, and that was the Budda.  Didn't take long to convince me.

Also knew a guy who played through two SD45s, both cranked, in a small club.  Remarkably, the building held up.

 

Yeah, Buddas are the loudest amps I've played thru. I used gig with an SD45 with an attenuator. My favorite was and SD18 but when I was selling off some gear I decided to keep the SD30 because it had been modded and had the 4/8/16 ohm options. My 18 only had 8/16.

I had Jeff Bober put a half power switch on my SD30 but now I use a volume box in the loop. Allows me to get the MV up and I control the volume with the loop volume box.

I haven't gigged my SD30 in a while but in one of my cover bands I always let the other guitarist us it at gigs. He plugs it into a Peavey 4x12 and it sounds killer.

[Travis]

6 hours ago, HoboMan said:

I've owned quite a few Buddas and still have one SD30 that I'll probably never part with. They are know for having a dark sounding gain channel BUT there is a very simple mod that with transform the amp into raging, fire breathing, aggressive rock machine.

It's one capacitor that gets swapped out. It makes the amp much brighter, tighter and more aggressive. Stock Buddas have a lot of low mids but this mod puts the emphasis on the upper mids. That change also makes the amp louder and gives it a very cutting aggressive tone.

The capacitor is proabably 25 cents and if you're good with a soldering iron you can do it yourself.. You can either swap the capacitor or like I did with mine, I added the capacitor and added a toggle switch to the back panel that allows me to switch between stock and modded modes.

I've been posting about this mod for years over at TGP and everyone who's done it has really liked it.

Here's a link to instructions for the mod: https://greentreeexpress.com/BuddaBriteMod.pdf

 

Here's a couple of videos of my SD30 after the mod.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMhMia4aJpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F09ZibPDn9Q

 

2 hours ago, alantig said:

Because the one thing Buddas lack is volume. 🤣

I will have to check this out just to see what difference it makes, but my Budda has probably been the only amp that has taken every guitar I've thrown at it that I could find a good tone very easily.  I have the SD18 combo, and I don't think I've ever gotten it up to 4.  I'd been shopping for a Mesa Boogie Mark IV, and while I was trying it, my sales guy came over and said, "It sounds like you're not finding what you want."  Then he asked if he could show me something, and that was the Budda.  Didn't take long to convince me.

Also knew a guy who played through two SD45s, both cranked, in a small club.  Remarkably, the building held up.

I have this mod on my SD18 head. My SD30 combo is stock. They both sound great and they’re both loud as balls. 

[Dutchman]

I think the Tumnus is a very good Klon clone. I bought a "not a Klon" from JHS and it is another excellent Klon clone!

[Travis]

I’ve been researching Klon Klones a fair amount due to this thread. The Tumnus is on my short list. Another one that is looking very enticing is the Mythos Mjolnir. 

[draelyc]

Well, tbh, I love my SD18’s overdrive channel tone.  But, that said, I think the SD clean channel is terribly underrated!  I like that tone better than the clean channel on the Shiva that I had for years, and everybody raves about Shiva cleans.  I also LOVE my Tumnus, though it’s not currently on my board.

I will sing some more Wampler praises, though.  My current board has a Pantheon Deluxe, which I had been using for some edge of breakup + blues tones through my XTC 3534’s clean channel.  But my 80s metal band called a last minute rehearsal last week and I didn’t want to bring my full rig.  So I ran my board with the Pantheon into the clean channel of my singer’s DSL combo.  Obvi not quite as good as my Bogner, but I’ll be damned if that pedal didn’t keep up just fine.  Did not sound like “pedal distortion” at all.  Very satisfying to play thru.

So, yeah. 👍🏼

Edited August 29, 2024 by draelyc

[geoff_hartwell]

On 8/25/2024 at 10:42 AM, Travis said:

I’ve been researching Klon Klones a fair amount due to this thread. The Tumnus is on my short list. Another one that is looking very enticing is the Mythos Mjolnir. 

Try the Mosky Silver Horse. It is the best one IMHO and is $27.

[santellavision]

Like Geoff above said, these cheapo Klon clones are so close to the original, it's scary.