My 800 sounds very good with an SD=1 in front (better with some other boosts). I don't care what you say, add a hot mod, boost etc.
It will be interesting to see if you find something better than the SD1. It's crazy that there are so many choices out there but for goosing a 2203 the $35 SD1 is still tops imo. You can then double boost if that's not enough.
The Sd-1 I used last night was a clone I made a year or so ago ..... exact circuit but with all WIMA and Nichycon caps ...true bypass also ... no buffer
I’ve been through 6 Cameron mods and 2 Monomyth mods. Most were quiet, but 2 of those 8 were very very noisy and my tech said nothing could be done to tame it, so seems like it varies
Over 40 years later still a very tough high gain sound to rival. Before covid I was very surprised of all the guys choosing Splawn’s or 5150’s when a 800 or JMP with a boost could be had in a similar price range
It really depends on the amp, both modded and stock + pedal. At this point, I’ve probably had 20+ modded Marshalls (7 Cams) by all the names except Langner, a real Jose A and a Morin. Most of them can be duplicated pretty easily with 1 or two boosts in front; the feel I don’t think is much different except for the Cameron’s and my old Mono. But, I recently got that cheap 4211 (2210) chassis that was in the classifieds and after 3 small simple mods, like stupid easy it now reminds me of my old Aldrich with the white headshell. This is with an OD1X in front.
mine works great in my JCM800 !!!
in the crunch channel ...... it slays .... at least in my old DSL50 it did ....
Well there’s a great deal that you can do to an amplifier to change its voicing, gain, dynamic responsiveness etc.. And at least 80% of those modifications don’t require an additional dual triode (2 more amplification stages) requiring grid load + plate load resistors + cathode bypass capacitors & resistors + coupling capacitors to connect with the rest of the preamp and to each new triode with one another. Lead dress, routing the new wiring to the new tube socket’s pins connecting to the new components has to be done right or it’s all squealing screeching & hum. which need to be carefully selected so that the tubes’ voltages are biased to proper operating conditions, As well as contributing to bass response eq voicing and gain levels. Oh and even done right adding 2 more gain stages to an already hot preamp means increasing noise by 2x.
My favorite boost varies literally by the day, but I’d say the OD1X is the most Cameron sounding boost I’ve played. Opens up the low end, thereby reducing the appearance of mids a bit, and bounces without being too tight or too loose. It really has that same vibe and they’re cheap. But the OCD has my heart currently if I had to pick one
I didn’t know you’re a proficient pedal builder (as I mentioned signed up here less than 12 hrs ago) so if you’re able to scratch build nice pedals directly from a schematic, and breadboard new ideas for fx circuits, you’re certainly doing well and not as far from valve amplifier work as I may have thought!!
yeah ...... I've built a ton of pedals ..... sold some .. traded some ... kept some ....I didn’t know you’re a proficient pedal builder (as I mentioned signed up here less than 12 hrs ago) so if you’re able to scratch build nice pedals directly from a schematic, and breadboard new ideas for fx circuits, you’re certainly doing well and not as far from valve amplifier work as I may have thought!!
You must be new here.Well there’s a great deal that you can do to an amplifier to change its voicing, gain, dynamic responsiveness etc.. And at least 80% of those modifications don’t require an additional dual triode (2 more amplification stages) requiring grid load + plate load resistors + cathode bypass capacitors & resistors + coupling capacitors to connect with the rest of the preamp and to each new triode with one another. Lead dress, routing the new wiring to the new tube socket’s pins connecting to the new components has to be done right or it’s all squealing screeching & hum. which need to be carefully selected so that the tubes’ voltages are biased to proper operating conditions, As well as contributing to bass response eq voicing and gain levels. Oh and even done right adding 2 more gain stages to an already hot preamp means increasing noise by 2x.
Now remember it’s a dual triode, So the component’s carefully selected & tweaked to get the right voltages and voicing all must be done.. TWICE! I honestly have way oversimplified this and left out far far more than I’ve mentioned.
**Ive said all this not to make myself look smart or to overwhelm & discourage you @griff10672 from getting your hands in the chassis and getting your amp sounding like you dream about. I do it to caution you about the many potential pitfalls and (more than likely) turning your amp into a bench ornament. Because I tore my hair out exasperated as I routinely murdered perfectly good amps and built a junk museum of mod attempts, badly or never-working scratch build heads and assembled kit builds. Which eventually lead to becoming proficient with audio equipment electronics and I’m sure you’ll get there if that’s what you want. But I don’t want that frustrating wasteful path for you, and wish an experienced forum member (this is my first day on here) had done so for me..
With that background, you are totally ready to tackle a ground up build.
that's what I'm thinking !
