I think I'm getting the hots for a Cameron

[mentoneman]

i’ve played several mods, the ccv and had Zach’s atomica at my house for a while and in my friend’s studio to makes some Kemper profiles:



hung out with mark a few times and he was always really cool to chat and jam with. i wish he hadn’t done what he did to so many people here.

that being said, his amps/mods are pinnacle rock tones in my experiences. optimized marshall top end explosive tight attack mixed with boogie mark grind/grease and slippery legato touch dynamics. playing Zach’s Atomica dialed in and cranked through his wdw rig at his shop was a benchmark rock tone moment in my mind. used his VH bumblebee (duncan 78 pu i think) and my Tyler and both sounded incredible.

this is Zach playing the Atomica rig lower volume with his valley arts lukather clone through my iphone 6 so not great audio- just a look at the rig



he had some cameron modded marshalls in that wall too.
dave’s Jose is great but i was hoping for more of the greasier thing i heard and felt in the atomica.

 

[FourT6and2]

Never played one. But from all the clips I have heard online, I totally get what is so appealing about them. I do hear that same slippery, greasy, fun/easy to play quality in all of the Gower clips I have heard as well. And there is a Gower Kali on the 'verb right now unless someone has snapped it up.

I played that amp. It didn't seem "slippery" or "greasy". It's quite tight and aggressive due to the plate-fed tone stack. Kicking in the extra gain stage does add a bit more saturation. But the overall vibe is on the tighter, more aggressive side. Same circuit as the Fortin Cali. Very different sound/feel compared to the Atomica/Molecular and Meshuggah/Gargoyle and Chupa, Yeti, Cameron Jose, CCV, etc. The former is plate-fed stack + tube gain stage. The latter are all 3 gain stage amps + diode clipping.

Seriously - I'd hit up one of the excellent amp techs on this forum who are familiar with the circuit and send them an clean, unmolested, 1959 reissue as a donor to mod to your specs. That sound and feel is out there in a much more reliable and cost effective format than sourcing an OG.

For the diode clipping Jose thing, a 2203/2204/800 works great too because the gain stages are already cascaded and there's already a master volume. But a Super Lead works fine as well. Just slightly more work.