LukeCurd":cbjrmqgo said:
mods added to the list:
David Bray
Reinhold Bogner
Peter Diezel & Peter Stapfer
Scott Splawn
Mike Soldano
......... to be continued.
Bray
not sure about the difference between his mods
but checking pictures of my friends JTM45 and some plexis around internet, I only noticed that he installs a post phase inverter master volume and gets the inputs jumped internally
he also replaces a few cathode capacitors (do not confuse with a cathode follower) with some sort of oil cap, but I'm not sure if he changes the values (which would change the amps voicing)
and he adds a cap to the v1b gain stage as well, and that must boost the gain and picking response... depending on the value it might boost upper mids as well
noticed some swapped components, but they had stock values, so I'm not sure Bray did these changes
everything else in the amps was stock
so basically: PPIMV control, jumpered input, some mysterious mojo cap and a bit of gain boost
his mods are probably the most natural Marshall sounding ones, as he just tries to achieve what a cranked marshalls sounds like with very small changes
no hair metal monster, just pure classic marshall tone
Bogner
probably one of my favorites
not sure what he did in his Marshall mods, but doubt it was much different from his amps designs
the shiva and blue channel of the ecstasy follow the idea of the jose, but without diodes
they're voiced to sound fatter and warmer than a JCM 800
the red channel adds one stage, driving it into high gain level
the uberschall doesn't fall so far from the tree, but it has a very modern preamp voicing, with tons of gain and low end
the power section has lots of mad science in it, with preset depth and presence tricks in a way that the presence pot act completely different from a regular amp, so it tweaks up to midrange levels
a shiva or blue channel circuit could be done on a JCM/Plexi without messing a lot and wouldn't require extra tubes (unless you want the shiva clean as well)
an uberschall preamp mod on a marshall without the extra gain stage of the uber would be a lot like an Egnater Seminar
Diezel
only familiar with the Einstein and VH4S
I have no idea what's going on inside the einstein, but tonewise, it's pretty close to the vh4s, but without all the dedicated channels and controls
talking about the mega and lead channels only (ch1 mode3 and channel 2 on the einstein, ch3 and ch4 on the vh4s)
first thing is that a lot of the diezel tone comes from the power amp and the materials
the ch3 and ch4 sound very close to each other, the ch4 being more bassy and saturated (adds one gain stage)
the ch3 is already very saturated as it is, so people tend to prefer it over the lead channel
circuit is actually a lot like the shiva and some of the jose children, which was a big surprise for me
very small tweaks and voltage differences just makes it a completely different sounding (pre)amp
it's a lot more saturated and much tighter sounding
very different crunch going on in the mids, but it's also a VERY mid heavy amp, not the scooped metal monster some people fear
Peter's mods on marshall were VERY extensive, almost like his later amps, but a ch3 type mod would be possible and not really a huge work
I doubt he's accepting mod jobs these days, though
my bandmate built a ch3 based circuit in a MXR sized pedal with 2 tubes laid inside it
it's the best preamp I ever heard in person, and gets pretty close to the amp
he did the same circuit in a cheap rack preamp I have, but mine sounds more like a shiva without the boost switch engaged than like a vh4
no near as much saturation as his pedal or the diezel, but still gets pretty high gain with a proper booster
I might record something if I find my interface
Splawn
his amps are also pretty close to his old mods
the rewires the cathode follower as a 4th gain stage and tweaks all the others for a different less mid spikey voicing
the also adds a lot of switches to tweak the amps voicings and gain levels
he usually adds a solid state loop, so no extra tube unless you want dedicated clean channel
as I said before, no cathode follower, so it's a cutting and articulated hot rodded tone
not really a round souped up 70's marshall tone, but more of a hard rock edgy thing
tons of articulation
Soldano
his circuit changed the face of modern distortion
he added a couple tubes, gain stage and a tube buffered loop
well... not much different from the other guys... but he came up with a different idea for hot rodding a marshall
he did add a ton of gain to the regular stages like some of the others, but then he added an almost clean stage right in the middle (what they called "cold clipping")
this stage adds very little gain compared to the others (even a stock marshall stage), but it boosts the sustain and compression in a different way that doesn't oversature the tone, putting things in a new conception of clear high gain, instead of the midrangy, grainy and saturated 80's hotrodded marshall tone
that's pretty much what mesa, hughes & kettner and framus copied in the rectifier, triamp, dragon and cobra amps
this and the higher quality parts combined with 6L6 tubes instead of EL34's changed everything
as a marshall mod, you can only do a soldano mod if you want the crunch channel only (3 stages, and no cold clipping stage) and no loop... but the classic soldano tone is the lead channel, so you need at least one extra tube
