Jake E Lee mods

D

Detroit ABA

Active member
I have watched alot of the videos on the Jake E Lee mods and am looking for input/opinions. Should I have a 2204 replica/clone modded or just look at getting the Friedman 20 watt? I prefer single channel amps and I don’t know how much I would use the Plexi channel. Any other good candidates for a donor amp, like the PT 20 or SC 20?
 
An old 800 or JMP is the best donor.

Jerry at Luxxtone has a JMP 2203 that Friedman modded to JEL specs. It’s been in his shop for years. I believe he’s going to sell it. Hit him up.
 
I recommend Burger's st1 based board. Pretty easy to build IMHO plus he already has the documentation. You would come out cheaper vs even getting a PT20
 
ClintN667 said:
Personally I have yet to find an EL84 amp that I liked. They always sound small. You could always do a ground up build
Click to expand...
Same. I've had much better luck with 6V6's, but at the end of the day big bottles are the only way to go for serious rock n' roll.

griff10672 said:
per Jason Tong's vid over at Headfirst ..... I changed the 100K to 47K and added a 220K parallel with a 4n7 cap into the 4 Ohm tap as a fixed depth ..... he suggests a 1M Linear if you're going to install a pot instead .
Click to expand...
Tweaking to taste to suit your own setup and donor amp is the way to go, but yeah this is a good place to start and would work a good majority of the time I reckon.

I modded a mid-80's 2203 to something close to Jason's JEL spec and it's a fun amp to play. Not ridiculous gain - the Marshall DNA is well and truly preserved - but enough to justify the mod. It was very easy to do for anyone that's thinking about it.
 
Last edited:
The mod sounds good but to my ears Jake boosts anyways so.... is there really any improvement to a 2204 or JMP opened up and ousted with an OD-1 or similar? He apparently runs his own friwdman JEL on the cleaner channel with the master opened up for his crunch and then hits it with his body blow boost for the gainz. So he's not even really using his mod. He's doing what he always did with stock Marshalls.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
The mod sounds good but to my ears Jake boosts anyways so.... is there really any improvement to a 2204 or JMP opened up and ousted with an OD-1 or similar? He apparently runs his own friwdman JEL on the cleaner channel with the master opened up for his crunch and then hits it with his body blow boost for the gainz. So he's not even really using his mod. He's doing what he always did with stock Marshalls.
Click to expand...
I think the JEL mod is less about sounding like Jake and more that its just a good sounding tweak.

Its basically an optimised JCM800, not too far apart but the amount of gain is more like what people THINK JCM800's have rather than what they actually have. And then an a smidge more low end, and some tweaks just to make the gain suit the amp.
 
RedPlated said:
An old 800 or JMP is the best donor.

Jerry at Luxxtone has a JMP 2203 that Friedman modded to JEL specs. It’s been in his shop for years. I believe he’s going to sell it. Hit him up.
Click to expand...
I modded that amp in his shop after Friedman modded it.... I think all I did was add a 5uf cap on the V1b cathode.... I removed the 2.7k resistor and put back the 10k that goes there..... I think... it's been a while....
 
Fusionbear said:
I modded that amp in his shop after Friedman modded it.... I think all I did was add a 5uf cap on the V1b cathode.... I removed the 2.7k resistor and put back the 10k that goes there..... I think... it's been a while....
Click to expand...
It has a structure switch on it for v1b. Not sure who added that.
 
JimAnsell said:
i was sadly disappointed the first time i bought a used, stock, jcm 800 on ebay. yeah, not the gain i expected, even cranked.
Click to expand...
yeah me too.. then I discovered pedals and that is the sound of the 80s I love. It is amazing the different amount of tones you can get out of a 2204 with different pedals.
 
Thanks again for all the replies. I have been using the Headfirst JEL mod schematics and Jason's great video explanations to learn more about different mods (SIR #34) etc. I am a long way from picking up a soldiering iron but now trying to learn how much and what impact different values in those positions have overall. The 2200pf or 2n2 on the input vs 1000pf. The V2-3 (fat cap), 22uf vs .68uf. The V2-8 (cathode follower) 470pf vs 330pf.
 
Detroit ABA said:
Thanks again for all the replies. I have been using the Headfirst JEL mod schematics and Jason's great video explanations to learn more about different mods (SIR #34) etc. I am a long way from picking up a soldiering iron but now trying to learn how much and what impact different values in those positions have overall. The 2200pf or 2n2 on the input vs 1000pf. The V2-3 (fat cap), 22uf vs .68uf. The V2-8 (cathode follower) 470pf vs 330pf.
Click to expand...
I'm about ready to start modding my Ceriatone 2204. I'm going to start with alligator clips and try one mod at a time to see if I like it. It will be hard to make some mods to my amp because it is a work of art but I'll be using Jason's method to install them so they are reversable and I can bring the amp back to stock without changing the perfect placement of the parts in this beautiful amp.
Screenshot 2023-10-28 104536.png


My amp doesn't have a bright cap on the preamp and I gator clipped some in and found it to sound much better with 1000p. It is pretty amazing how much better the amp sounds with it. I'll be soldering one on soon.
 
Just my opinion here but I think the more powerful the power section is, the better the capability to sound better. I can’t prove this or back it up on paper…but in my personal experience this is true.
 
In the Headfirst videos, Jason references The 2200pf or 2n2 on V1B-6 as cutting bass and tightening up the amp, how much different or noticeable in feel would having the 1000pf in that position? Also on the V2-3 (fat cap), 22uf vs .68uf & V2-8 (cathode follower) 470pf vs 330pf. would the different values be apparent?

I like the 1000pf bright cap as well, would it be worth having a different value like a 440pf on a switch?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top