Ground Zero Detonator / Modded Marshall 2204 clip

[RedPlated]

Thought I'd make a quick clip of my 83' Marshall 2204 50w. This video doesn't even really scratch the surface of what this amp is capable of. It will get more gain, more compressed, or a lot cleaner all the way down to an actual full clean tone. Single channel amp with some nice tone shaping options that lets it go from super tight high gain to clean.

Highest the gain is set in this video is only 1 o clock. Using my Suhr Modern with a Duncan Alternative 8 pickup. V30 speakers. A little bit of delay from an El Capistan. Volume is extremely low. I didn't feel like getting loud in the room with an iPhone mic, and the amp really doesn't need it necessarily. But it does sound better turned up, of course. No boosts etc... Just straight in.

 

[El Mariachi]

Sounds KILLER Jeremy! Excellent work my friend!

 

[SpiderWars]

Nice! Still sounds Marshally. Very open and throaty.

 

[DragonCrestPC]

Cool stuff!

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

Really like it, man. I need to play it. very tight, but not too much.

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

Also, just read no boost. Perfect boosted tone, though.

 

[FondledDuck]

I can attest having personally played this amp in its early stages of development that this is an incredible mod. Jeremy is definitely honing his craft and is becoming, in my opinion, a rising star. Jeremy not only has a great ear for tone but is also an exceptional player. This mod captures and nails the coveted single channel amp "clean to mean" as demonstrated in his video. Congrats Jeremy!

 

[LP Freak]

Damn, that sounds great ??

 

[Racerxrated]

Killer! Great work there!

 

[thenine]

I live close and have an unmolested 4 holer!

 

[RedPlated]

Wow, I really appreciate all the kind words. It means a lot.

The main goals for me in this build were a few things... Figure out how to get a one channel amp to do clean, low, mid and high gain and do them all well. I haven't been able to find an amp that does that yet. I wanted it to be tight and have enough gain without a boost. This is in many respects a high gain Jose mod, but it's got some unconventional values and approaches that allow it to do what it does. Lots of hours with alligator clips dialing in the fine details. That really seems to be where the production amps fall short. Isn't practical to dial each one for a lengthy amount of time. The amp has a great sag to it while still being surgical tight if needed.

I just fired it up and made one more clip for the higher gain guys. This is a Les Paul standard in drop C. Hopefully it comes across ok. Youtube seems to pull some of the highs out of the sound. You'll notice at the beginning it's pretty quiet for how much gain it's generating. There's still more gain on tap but this seemed to be plenty. This is straight in and totally dry. No effects or pedals.

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

Yeah. You this sounds like it would be an intense ride. You nailed it. Where are you located? I would love to play that, even just to see how it feels.

 

[SpiderWars]

It still retains fullness when you roll back the volume instead of getting thin/tinny. Often Jose mods get thin when rolled back.

Do you mind if I inquire more about the mod? Not specifics but more general stuff. Like...Is that a multi-position rotary Gain Style switch? And what is the far left knob? And did you add a tube?

Very cool mod! It takes a lot of time/effort to get all those switch positions to have good, useable tones.

 

[Kidkramer71]

Killer sounding amp !
Great playing too.

 

[DistortED]

Yeah Bro, amazing stuff !!

 

[Monomyth]

Sounds very good! Nice job j.

 

[RedPlated]

Shea - thanks so much. You know you were the one who really gave me the motivation to take on this venture. I will always appreciate that.

Spiderwars- sure, ask any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

The Gain Style knob is in fact a 6 position rotary with different value clipping in each position. Can go from a more open sound to a super thick, compressed sound. The switch hidden in the lower input "jack" is a 3 way clipping level switch.

No added tube in this one. I actually really prefer the sound of diodes over extra tubes, if done right. They just feel great and have a great compression. Far left knob is what I labeled "(-)FB", for negative feedback. There's also a 3-way switch on back that allows either 4, 8 or 16 ohm nfb tap to be utilized.

For anyone that asked, I am located in the LA area.

Here is one more clip with a clean tone and a strat. It honestly baffles me a little just re-watching this clip and realizing how clean and jangly this amp will get. All on one single channel. If you compare the last high gain clip to this one it's pretty crazy.

This is the kind of flexibility built into this mod. It will do all the tones in-between as well. The options on the front panel are designed to alter the tone in any gain setting so that it sounds great. They also do a great job of adapting different guitars that may sound darker, brighter, etc....

 

[paulyc]

PM sent

 

[harddriver]

It's rare that I find tones in any amp that I can't find things that I don't like about it. This amp is one that I can't find anything that I don't like...

It has the Marshall Kerrang, clank, grunt/grid, growl, open gain yet percussive, not over compressed, very aggressive and crunchy on fretted root notes.

I would venture to say that this outperforms alot of modded Camerons Marshall's and even the CCV which it quite tight and doesn't seem to sag like the Detonator does.

Great job there Redplated, you definitely have some great ears and put your alligator clips to good use. I also venture to say quite a few top shelf amps would have a hardtime overtaking this amp if you an Uber Marshall guy like me.

 

[harddriver]

What's the knob to the left of the Depth pot? Some type of NFB feeback control?

If so I would imagine that's where you are going form sag to tight as you decrease the negative feedback values and so forth.

I installed one(NFB control) on a high gain 2203 build I did and it was cool being able to get that quacky plexi clank and sag running it a 27K-47K. If I remember right it went from 27K to 220K. I tended to run it a 68K for tighter stuff yet still had a little bit of sag.

That also sound fantastic for a V30, I usually hear V-30's a bit strident in the mids with certain Marshalls the only V30 I don't hear that in is the Mesa Boogie version V30. I'm usually a 12H-30 75hz 55hz kinda guy but the Detonator makes those V30's sing.

Again nicely done Redplated.