Best mods for Brahma and Grail

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Steven Latch

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Hello,

I have these two modules lying around. Great tone, but the usual complains:

- Brahma: Not enough gain and bass

- Grail: Not enough gain unless used with really high output pickups

What would be the best mods to take them to the next level?
 
I haven't tried anyone else's mods for the Brahma but my JF Brahma is the module that all of my others are judged. It has a gain boost on a push/pull along with the usual tweaks he does.

Plenty of bottom and lots of gain. I also have a JF Mr Scary that does have a touch more gain than the Brahma but the Scary is a bit more saturated/compressed and the Brahma is more open. Both love a boost out front to go even further but it's usually not necessary.
 
One quick thing to add about the Grail, I had one for a while and almost always used it with a boost. Keep in mind, George uses a Cusack Screamer on his board that stays on all the time. In short, his modules work best with a boost IMHO. That is the way he was using them.
 
eyeball987 said:
I haven't tried anyone else's mods for the Brahma but my JF Brahma is the module that all of my others are judged. It has a gain boost on a push/pull along with the usual tweaks he does.

Plenty of bottom and lots of gain. I also have a JF Mr Scary that does have a touch more gain than the Brahma but the Scary is a bit more saturated/compressed and the Brahma is more open. Both love a boost out front to go even further but it's usually not necessary.
I have the jf brahma and scary as well and eyeball is right...amazing tones
 
I've always been completely satisfied with my Grail. It's probably spent the most time of all in my RM100. I don't understand the whole "not enough gain" thing. I've hardly turned it past 3 o'clock. I use 6L6's and have mucked around with different preamp tubes a lot and settled on a JAN 5751 in V1 and a Mullard reissue in V2. Not that they made much difference to the gain level, to my ears. Just a warmer, more open sound with better clarity. My recorded tones with my Grail (gain at about 2 o'clock) are heavier, fuller and ballsier than all my others, including my 5150ll. And when playing loud in a metal band situation my Grail rhythm tone has gain at about 1-2 o'clock. No boost. I may like it to have a tighter sound than some. Am I the only one who has more than enough gain on tap?
 
RADE01 said:
I've always been completely satisfied with my Grail. It's probably spent the most time of all in my RM100. I don't understand the whole "not enough gain" thing. I've hardly turned it past 3 o'clock. I use 6L6's and have mucked around with different preamp tubes a lot and settled on a JAN 5751 in V1 and a Mullard reissue in V2. Not that they made much difference to the gain level, to my ears. Just a warmer, more open sound with better clarity. My recorded tones with my Grail (gain at about 2 o'clock) are heavier, fuller and ballsier than all my others, including my 5150ll. And when playing loud in a metal band situation my Grail rhythm tone has gain at about 1-2 o'clock. No boost. I may like it to have a tighter sound than some. Am I the only one who has more than enough gain on tap?

My modules have plenty of gain. I had a Plexi & that needed more gain. The GTO fixed that problem without going high gain. I guess it depends on what you are trying to do with the modules. If it's a mid gain module that you want to be a high gain sound you won't be happy, so you will need a boost pedal or a gain mod. Are you looking for more saturation/compression. I think that is what a lot of people want when they say more gain. Granted loads of gain will do that, but there gets a point where it just becomes mush.
 
You should check out my hardly viewed older post, Lovin my self modded Brahma. It states the mods I ended up with from experimenting with mine.

It sounds awesome.

The stock Brahma is based on a modded bright channel of a Marshall Plexy. with my old Marshall's from that era I would plug a patch cord between the bright and the normal channel so you could blend the two.

On my mod one of the things I did was install a trim pot so I could do the same thing and dial in just the right amount of brightness. The other thing that made a huge difference was changing out the thin sounding treble cap.

My modded Brahma is my main rhythm module.
 
Fair enough, I've wished there was more gain in the Brahma at times, before I had the Judge. But my Brahma does low to almost mid gain tones so well that I'm happy.
 
Thanks for the replies.

When I talk about "gain", I am indeed talking about saturation. I have shied away from clean boosts since they tend to make the sound thinner at a comparable saturation level. I have done many AB tests by putting a module with the gain at 12 and a booster and then the same module at 4-5 without a booster and the second options always leads to a much fuller sound. The grail and brahma just fall short in my opinon to get the required saturation without a booster.

I however have the GTO which has actually replaced the brahma in my rack as it has more than enoug of everything: Overdrive and Bass.
 
Just a thought- but have you experimented with tubes? A high gain in V2 will thicken up your tone...Adding a front boost is always something I do as well with any gain-oriented module...I like to tighten up the signal and then EQ the bass back in...Sounds silly but works for me...

Otherwise, have a modder throw a gain boost on there...Or do it yourself...I can try to help you but am no modder, just a tinkerer...

I really think a boost along with hot tubes will make you smile...The Grail is one of the best stock modules available....
 
I have found the same thing with boosts as Steven Latch. They usually seem to thin out or change the tone somehow, often losing the magic that I was loving about the amp tone. I want to like boosts/overdrives, but I always find myself going back to the raw amp tone. I do however use an MXR CAE boost/overdrive in the loop to boost volume. I also have a Jeckyll & Hyde & find the overdrive works well with lower gain modules. Definitely check out different tubes as MattFig suggested, they have made a HUGE difference in all of my modules.
 
I have actually gone from "boosting" to "unboosting" my modules. I use a BOSS EQ pedal with the settings flat and drop down the input level a bit. So instead of setting a module with a mid-gain setting, and then using a boost for the higher gain stuff, I set the gain higher and then fire up the pedal for the mid gain stuff.

Regarding the Grail, it's true I haven't experimented with tubes a lot and should give it a try. It doesn't miss that much distorsion on it's own, just a tad.
 
I love the Brahma for the mid gain stuff and for high gain stuff I go with my stock Mr. Scary.
 
RADE01 said:
I've always been completely satisfied with my Grail. It's probably spent the most time of all in my RM100. I don't understand the whole "not enough gain" thing. I've hardly turned it past 3 o'clock. I use 6L6's and have mucked around with different preamp tubes a lot and settled on a JAN 5751 in V1 and a Mullard reissue in V2. Not that they made much difference to the gain level, to my ears. Just a warmer, more open sound with better clarity. My recorded tones with my Grail (gain at about 2 o'clock) are heavier, fuller and ballsier than all my others, including my 5150ll. And when playing loud in a metal band situation my Grail rhythm tone has gain at about 1-2 o'clock. No boost. I may like it to have a tighter sound than some. Am I the only one who has more than enough gain on tap?

Yeah man, I'm with you. I got my Grail a couple of weeks ago and as far as I'm concerned it has boatloads of gain. 1:00 is about as far as I would ever go on it. Actually, I feel the same way about the other two high gain modules I have (SL+ and XTC).
 
Yeah, every high gain module I own has more than enough gain for me. I'm not a fan of losing note definition because gain is up too high with too much compression or whatever it is. 1086 would be my only high gain module that I'd turn past 3 o'clock.
 
Whoopysnorp said:
Yeah man, I'm with you. I got my Grail a couple of weeks ago and as far as I'm concerned it has boatloads of gain. 1:00 is about as far as I would ever go on it. Actually, I feel the same way about the other two high gain modules I have (SL+ and XTC).

What tubes are in your Grail? I have one too but I find it lacks some gain ; )
 
Katash said:
Whoopysnorp said:
Yeah man, I'm with you. I got my Grail a couple of weeks ago and as far as I'm concerned it has boatloads of gain. 1:00 is about as far as I would ever go on it. Actually, I feel the same way about the other two high gain modules I have (SL+ and XTC).

What tubes are in your Grail? I have one too but I find it lacks some gain ; )

Good question--I don't even know. I haven't messed around with trying to swap tubes in my modules yet. They're whatever the former owner had in it.
 
Katash said:
Whoopysnorp said:
Yeah man, I'm with you. I got my Grail a couple of weeks ago and as far as I'm concerned it has boatloads of gain. 1:00 is about as far as I would ever go on it. Actually, I feel the same way about the other two high gain modules I have (SL+ and XTC).

What tubes are in your Grail? I have one too but I find it lacks some gain ; )

Chinese r5, r8 or r9 work great in Grails.....I think they were shipping with JJs at one point....they are not so good in there IMO.

The Ruby HG that ship in the other sig modules work well...since they are basically more rigorously tested Chinese tubes.
 
JKD said:
Chinese r5, r8 or r9 work great in Grails.....I think they were shipping with JJs at one point....they are not so good in there IMO.

The Ruby HG that ship in the other sig modules work well...since they are basically more rigorously tested Chinese tubes.

Ah, actually, I think that's what is in my Grail. I saw 'HG' labels on there but I didn't know what that meant.
 
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