BE100 vs Small Box

Rdodson

Well-known member
Dave,
I’ve had a BE100 for 2 years which has been a great amp. I played a Small Box for the first time yesterday. Whoa. LOVED it. It had a bit more give a chewy midrange or something going on. I’m guessing that in addition to the EQ being a bit different there is a filtering difference and perhaps a bit less NFB?
 
My BE-100 (2015 build) originally I felt was great but I also wanted more of the "raw" Marshall voice rather than the "refine/polished" tone the amp came as. After Dave modified both Gain & Clean Channel's, I felt made a huge difference and playing it next friends Small Boxes, the 100w just kills, beautiful sounding amp! The gain has that High-Gain Plexi/JCM800/JTM45 that I love and the Clean Channel was also modded more Fender-like Twin/Deluxe that sounds great either very-clean for jazz to finger style classical to "slight-breakup" for blues, Wonderful Sounding Amp.
 
Rdodson":g7tr2i9a said:
Dave,
I’ve had a BE100 for 2 years which has been a great amp. I played a Small Box for the first time yesterday. Whoa. LOVED it. It had a bit more give a chewy midrange or something going on. I’m guessing that in addition to the EQ being a bit different there is a filtering difference and perhaps a bit less NFB?

Dave can correct me if I'm wrong but specifically the BE channel of the two amps, there's 3 differences (other than 100 to 50 watts).

1) SB 1st coupling cap in the preamp is a little bigger allowing more bass to flow and that is probably the give your feeling more than anything.

2) The grid resistor after the 1st stage is a little higher in resistance on the SB. This reduces the gain just a bit, tone wise its doing something but can't put my finger on it.......its subtle.

3) Dave has some secret sauce he does coming off the Treble pot that smooth's out the high end and gives it that BE100 polished and refined tone. This is not on the SB which in return is more open and raw sounding.

I'm sure Dave could mod your BE channel of your BE100 to be a SB clone BUT this would effect the HBE channel also.
 
BrentSP":1yykf77c said:
MantraSky":1yykf77c said:
Hey Brent! I have an SLO I want to trade you

:D Hey Mantra, in all seriousness, does your son still have his SLO?
Hello Brent "Yes" he does and Loves it! with all the news of Mike Soldano people are a bit crazy these days with the "selling prices" but my son wants to keep his SLO all of his life. My son was going through a lot of amp changes over the years (Soldano Atomic, SP-77, Avenger)
also had a Mesa Roadster. He keeps his SLO in my home studio and I'll tell you I was playing it yesterday and it sounded Great! I've also owned three SLO's in the past and they've Always been awesome & consistent, Never a problem on the road and in the studio.

That being said my son does also state that My BE-100 has the "absolute best" Marshall modified high-gain to Fender clean from the amps I've owned (Bogner XTC 100b, 101b, Shiva, CAA PT-100, VHT, Mesa etc) Dave did an wonderful job to the amp,
I really liked in it's original version 2015 but with all the circuit addition/change there is this "raw voice" that I preferred over my BE-50D, even the "Small Box" had better tone. I do like for rock music the English EL34, but now the Cleans sound great for Jazz DiMeola to Metheny.
my son feels the SLO has a specific (not Marshall) tone but the BE-100 has a wide-defined focus, Marshall-like Kerrang, killer sounding amp.
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Brent that's a beautiful Strat! there one of my all time favorite. My son's taste for guitars tend to look like this:
TK Instruments
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This is as standard look as he gets... "Thank You though".
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Thanks Brent, my son's style is like Holdsworth meets Steve Howe meets Lynch, and the Soldano SLO is the amp he loves most, wonderful sounding amp.
 
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