Upgrades before speedball?

[ghostyjack]

After a bit of assistance here with some troubleshooting, my Crack is working great. It seems to need a bit of a warm-up, as I get some crackle noises for up to 10 minutes or so at the beginning, so I turn it on early and leave it for a while. Other than that, all seems good.

I've got the speedball waiting to install, but I will leave that for a few months first so as to get a feel of the amp without it.

I'm wondering though, if I'm going to put the speedball in, is there any other upgrades that could go in first so I don't have to take out the speedball just to do them later.

This is more a matter of convenience that trying to push the amp as far as it can go, as I expect the speedball to provide a massive improvement anyway.

[Paul Birkeland]

You'll want to put the Speedball in before you install anything else.  The Speedball has a very specific space and mounting requirement, and if other parts that you put in interfere with where the Speedball goes, you'll end up having to pull those parts out to fit the Speedball into the amp.

[ghostyjack]

That makes sense.

I've read a few posts about changing the wires, does this add much improvement?

[Paul Birkeland]

That's not really a question that's so easy to answer.  What I can tell you is that the Speedball makes a measurable difference on the Crack (and quite audible).  Different potentiometers will also make a measurable difference (channel balance, and to a lesser degree distortion/noise). 

Everything makes a difference, it's just that sometimes those changes can be difficult to hear.

(Also, the wire that comes with the Speedball is quite premium, I wouldn't make any substitutions)