Monomyth and other modded Marshalls

[shar-vell Dan]

 

[cragginshred]

I've had a ton of modded Marshalls:

• Cameron Ocean Mod SLP
• Cameron Atomica Mod SLP
• David Bray Plexi Rework I
• BFG Cantrell Modded 800
• Lee Jackson Modded 800
• Hermansson 3-Stage JMP
• Hopkins Pandora 50w

The only one I've kept is my 1990 Friedman-modded 1987 "4-Hole" JCM 800. It came with a "Kitchen Sink" mod but I had Dave put a couple of other options on it too: bright switches, negative feedback switch, JBE Thump value, etc. It's 2.5 channels (Clean/BE/HBE) with masters for each channel, and it's all footswitchable.

The OG Marshall iron and the bright switch options make it sound like a gnarly old Marshall if you want it to, or it can sound like a super-saturated, ultra modern Marshall. It sounds good with every cab I've ever paired it with. It's impossible to make it sound bad. In fact, of all the amps I've brought to practice, my bandmates all agreed this was the best sounding one, beating out amps by: Benson, Carstens, Mesa, and Bogner. It's just quite simply the best modded Marshall I've ever played.

After owning every Freidman, Slo 100 and 30's, Mezzabarba trinity, EVH's, and a Wizard MC II Mk II I have a 1979 J<P 2204 arriving tomorrow
Loop was added already (Metropolis)

My take is every amp listed has so much gain on tap it loses the string clarity. EVH is the worst being so compressed. Hopefully the JMP delivers!

 

[shar-vell Dan]

After owning every Freidman, Slo 100 and 30's, Mezzabarba trinity, EVH's, and a Wizard MC II Mk II I have a 1979 J<P 2204 arriving tomorrow
Loop was added already (Metropolis)

My take is every amp listed has so much gain on tap it loses the string clarity. EVH is the worst being so compressed. Hopefully the JMP delivers!

You prolly want 6550's in the 2204 if it doesn't already.
I prefer 2203 : EL-34's / 2204 : 6550's.

 

[itsgoodnow]

I have a 1978 JMP 2203 and with a boost it is still very hard to beat.

 

[braintheory]

My 4-Stage Recto is a MW, so it doesn't have the tightness control separated (it's juiced into the gain knob) but I don't think it needs it.

I'm going to do a video on this too (eventually, sigh...) but IMO the secret to the Hermansson 3-Channel and MW is that you want to use the third channel for rhythm work and the second channel for lead work. I know this is counter-intuitive but give it a try. My third channel has a much wide range of tones available if you know how to work it. The gain knob has a much wider sweep on Channel 3 and the Raw/Vint/Modern switch does a lot more on that channel than on Channel 2. Channel 2 is just a wrecking ball. Brutally tight, with an insane amount of gain, but interestingly it sounds amazing for leads and cuts through a recording like a hot knife. Give it a try! You might be surprised.

My 3 Hermansson Rec’s are all 2 channel models. On my Dual G I prefer everything on the orange ch and on the triple everything on the red ch, which surprised me. His mods seem to all come out a bit different. Both also have punch knobs added that I find helpful and the triple has a bright switch and tight push-pull to go further. All good features

 

[hellzington]

After owning every Freidman, Slo 100 and 30's, Mezzabarba trinity, EVH's, and a Wizard MC II Mk II I have a 1979 J<P 2204 arriving tomorrow
Loop was added already (Metropolis)

My take is every amp listed has so much gain on tap it loses the string clarity. EVH is the worst being so compressed. Hopefully the JMP delivers!

This is definitely true. My Hermansson 4-Stage is awesome, but the string definition is not that great. Just kind of medium.

The only two high gain amps I've played that have insane string clarity are the Omega Granophyre and the Carstens Grace. The Granophyre, especially, has an absolutely ridiculous amount of string definition for the amount of gain available. You can crank the gain on that bastard, play really mushy riffs like "I Am One" (Smashing Pumpkins) or "Sex Type Thing" (STP) or "Letting Go" (Torche) and the strings all stay crystal clear. It's kind of unreal.

 

[braintheory]

I have a 1978 JMP 2203 and with a boost it is still very hard to beat.

Agreed. I seriously prefer that with the 1979 JMP2203 to all the modded Marshall’s I’ve had (including Cameron’s) besides just Langner and this no name modder from Chicago. Once you compare to a good stock one boosted you hear how distant and tonally bland most modded ones come off comparatively. It seems that for all that extra gain, tightness and compression that’s very impressive at first you realize later how much character (especially in the mids) got lost in the mod

 

[itsgoodnow]

Agreed. I seriously prefer that with the 1979 JMP2203 to all the modded Marshall’s I’ve had (including Cameron’s) besides just Langner and this no name modder from Chicago. Once you compare to a good stock one boosted you hear how distant and bland most modded ones come off comparatively. It’s seem that for all that extra gain, tightness and compression that’s very impressive at first you realize later how much character (especially in the mids) got lost in the mod

Most accurate statement I've read on here

 

[braintheory]

Most accurate statement I've read on here

It used to shock me how pre-covid I was getting those amps all day for $1200 and thinking why are all these other morons spending twice the price or more on all these worse sounding flavor of the month amps lol, but I guess eventually they got to their senses lol

 

[hellzington]

Agreed. I seriously prefer that with the 1979 JMP2203 to all the modded Marshall’s I’ve had (including Cameron’s) besides just Langner and this no name modder from Chicago. Once you compare to a good stock one boosted you hear how distant and tonally bland most modded ones come off comparatively. It seems that for all that extra gain, tightness and compression that’s very impressive at first you realize later how much character (especially in the mids) got lost in the mod

Very true. My go-to for most things is still my 1970 100w Plexi. @RedPlated tuned it up for me and it's been my number one amp for recording ever since.

 

[braintheory]

Very true. My go-to for most things is still my 1970 100w Plexi. @RedPlated tuned it up for me and it's been my number one amp for recording ever since.

I have myself a 1972 SuperLead 100. 50 years later and they’re still really tough amps to rival. Sometimes we forget with all these trendy new amps distracting us lol

 

[braintheory]

After owning every Freidman, Slo 100 and 30's, Mezzabarba trinity, EVH's, and a Wizard MC II Mk II I have a 1979 J<P 2204 arriving tomorrow
Loop was added already (Metropolis)

My take is every amp listed has so much gain on tap it loses the string clarity. EVH is the worst being so compressed. Hopefully the JMP delivers!

It should deliver as long as it’s all good and healthy

 

[hellzington]

I have myself a 1972 SuperLead 100. 50 years later and they’re still really tough amps to rival. Sometimes we forget with all these trendy new amps distracting us lol

Totally! The OG stuff is still the best. I feel like I could cover almost any situation or tone as long as I had my '70 Super Lead, '83 IIC+ DRGX, '87 Jubilee, and '04 VH4. Everything else is kind of superfluous (but fun!)

 

[braintheory]

Actually, fun fact... (and I'm putting together a video on this) the VH4's from the early 2000's are total "secret weapons." They have the same or a very similar circuit to the old Blueface VH4's. Peter didn't start making changes to the VH4 until 2007, when he added a resistor to make the amp brighter with more gain. If you can find an early 2000's VH4, for the love of God, BUY IT. It's like getting a $20,000 Blueface VH4 for less than a quarter of the price. It's one of the best amps I've ever heard and sounds NOTHING like the new VH4's. (Yes, I have mic'd clips to prove this that I'm putting in my video ).

I had a 2001 VH4S. It was definitely darker and grittier than the later VH4’s I’ve played, so more in that direction, but it was also much drier and stiffer to play than my Blueface, didn’t have that chewy quality of it, but the most obvious part was the difference in powersection. I know some of that is from the S version being 2 50w’s, but a guy I talked to who has a ‘96 Blueface VH4S said his also has that crazy powersection. My Blueface is one of the biggest sounding amps I’ve had. The 2001 VH4S I had was nowhere near as big in sonic footprint. I did like it’s voicing better than the later ones though that I recall sounding more filtered

 

[itsgoodnow]

Honestly, if you have a marshall style amp, a rectifier, a SLO, a 5150, a fender or vox for cleans, a mark amp and a dozen boost types you could probably do any sound convincingly. Now with that being said...its more fun to try all this weird stuff which is why we are all here.

 

[shar-vell Dan]

 

[hellzington]

I had a 2001 VH4S. It was definitely darker and grittier than the later VH4’s I’ve played, so more in that direction, but it was also much drier and stiffer to play than my Blueface, didn’t have that chewy quality of it, but the most obvious part was the difference in powersection. I know some of that is from the S version being 2 50w’s, but a guy I talked to who has a ‘96 Blueface VH4S said his also has that crazy powersection. My Blueface is one of the biggest sounding amps I’ve had. The 2001 VH4S I had was nowhere near as big in sonic footprint. I did like it’s voicing better than the later ones though that I recall sounding more filtered

Interesting! The first thing I said about my '04 is how chewy it is. It's got a lot more Marshall DNA in it than later VH4's I owned (2010, 2021). It's a lot juicier, darker, and less gainy than new VH4s. It is not dry at all, like my 2021 was. It has a much more musical midrange and less negative feedback. It's far more open, raw, and uncompressed than other VH4s I've played or owned. That said, I've not played a legit Blueface so I can't validate how mine would sound against one.

 

[braintheory]

Honestly, if you have a marshall style amp, a rectifier, a SLO, a 5150, a fender or vox for cleans, a mark amp and a dozen boost types you could probably do any sound convincingly. Now with that being said...its more fun to try all this weird stuff which is why we are all here.

Agreed. Although the Hermansson’s are a distinctive flavor (not for everyone) and it would be hard for me to live now without my Hell Razor KT150 I just got (top 3 for me). I personally could do without a 5150. I love my ‘64 Vibroverb and ‘63 AC30TB for cleans, but I were to keep one clean amp it would easily be the Alessandro DAZZ

 

[itsgoodnow]

Agreed. Although the Hermansson’s are a distinctive flavor (not for everyone) and it would be hard for me to live now without my Hell Razor KT150 I just got (top 3 for me). I personally could do without a 5150. I love my ‘64 Vibroverb and ‘63 AC30TB for cleans, but I were to keep one clean amp it would easily be the Alessandro DAZZ

Fascinating. What are you thinking of the hell razor? It’s been on my radar but of course I’m in clearing mode. But I am curious.

 

[Racerxrated]

I've had
8 Cameron Marshalls, both Jose and Aldrich, 1 Modern mod 2203x. 2 MiGs, an Ocean and a Jose.
2 Splawn modded Marshalls
2 Friedman modded Marshalls
2 Golub Lead modded Marshalls
FJA modded Marshall
2 Fortin Marshalls
1 Gower Marshall
1 Lee Jackson Marshall
1 Voodoo Marshall
1 Monomyth Marshall
4 Nick K modded Marshalls
Played 1 GZero Marshall
+ 40 stock pre 1990 Marshalls, down to 1 1967 50w.

After all of those, the Camerons were my favorite with the 1 Modern being above the rest. The Monomyth and Nick mods are tied for #2; Mono is very thick and modern and heavy, didn't clean up at all but who cares lol...My Nick modded Marshalls were all killer and right there with the Mono but it did clean up well if you needed lighter gain.

If I'm looking to have a guy mod, I'd go to Nick and not look back. His mods have all been killer, and he works fast and gets it all done for less than a grand.

These days though, I'm happiest with my 2 stock 72s and a pedal or two in front. The pedals out there today are just fantastic...Griff's BE clone sounds killer in front of my amps.