King Guitar
Banned
New member
Hey Guys,
I sent my stock Marshall 100 Watt Vintage Modern to Mike Fortin up in Canada for him to mod. I gave him the free rein to do whatever he wanted and he made a monster out of it. As he stated the Vintage Modern is the perfect mod platform as it already has a good FX loop, digital reverb and is easy to work on and can be had very reasonably second hand.
This amp is very comparable to the tones I got from my Cameron CCV. A hell of a bargain for a 100 Watt head modded by one of the best amp techs on the planet IMO.
Now I am a hard room with a Marsha, Cameron CCV, Bogner 20th XTC, SLO, Diezels, etc...so an amp has to be pretty damn special for me to take notice of it. This does that for under $2K, If I were thinking of getting a high gain head mod and wanted to get my feet wet this amp would be a great choice IMO.
Here is Mikes Description of the work:
Hey Brad,
Cool man, I tried not to go drill crazy like in the past haha. Footswitch still functions the same.
I redid the circuit to be cascaded instead of parallel. Yes, Gain 1 and Gain 2, it is similar to my Cali mod but this has no solid state clip circuits, all tube.
The circuit is different but tried to achieve the same outcome working around the extra ftsw tubestage. It breaks into the octave feedbacks at low level if you desire.
The High mode brings in another tube gain stage so that is the main reason for no need of the clip circuit as it has lots of gain on tap.
Master is no longer a PPIMV style and the pull Hair function changes the power configuration giving it a rawer Plexi style response. Pushed in, it is smoother and more modern sounding.
The Mid Boost is now different. Button out, very tight percussive gain structure, pushed in more gain in the lows and changes the touch sensitivity.
Gain 1 and Gain 2 work together all the time, so running them at multiple settings will go you all kinds of tonal choices. Plug in a strat, push the Thick switch in to gives the tone some girth. With a LP, Thick switch out gives a different balance etc. I also added a choke.
To get a very close Plexi tone, pull the master and set full on, set eq as desired, gain 2 9 to 10 o'clock, ride gain 1 as you would on a non master volume amp, in Low mode and toggle the Thick switch to see which you prefer.
High gain modern tone, master set to taste and pushed in, eq set to taste, gain 2 and gain 1 at 2 o'clock, in High mode, toggle the Thick switch and feel the difference.
A note about the Thick switch. With that switch in, Gain 1 settings above 2 o'clock might get over taken by bass. This mainly depends on the type of guitar and pickup strength. You can always dial up Gain 2 if you need more signing gain when in the Thick mode.
Tomorrow here at Yamaha we've got PhilX http://www.philx.tv/ coming it to test some guitars. Your amp has been requested for the sound room by the Artist rep. I'll make sure nothing happens to it. I might be able to break out a video camera
Here are two clips Mike recorded and the last one I recorded today.
My Clip:
Pics:
I sent my stock Marshall 100 Watt Vintage Modern to Mike Fortin up in Canada for him to mod. I gave him the free rein to do whatever he wanted and he made a monster out of it. As he stated the Vintage Modern is the perfect mod platform as it already has a good FX loop, digital reverb and is easy to work on and can be had very reasonably second hand.
This amp is very comparable to the tones I got from my Cameron CCV. A hell of a bargain for a 100 Watt head modded by one of the best amp techs on the planet IMO.
Now I am a hard room with a Marsha, Cameron CCV, Bogner 20th XTC, SLO, Diezels, etc...so an amp has to be pretty damn special for me to take notice of it. This does that for under $2K, If I were thinking of getting a high gain head mod and wanted to get my feet wet this amp would be a great choice IMO.
Here is Mikes Description of the work:
Hey Brad,
Cool man, I tried not to go drill crazy like in the past haha. Footswitch still functions the same.
I redid the circuit to be cascaded instead of parallel. Yes, Gain 1 and Gain 2, it is similar to my Cali mod but this has no solid state clip circuits, all tube.
The circuit is different but tried to achieve the same outcome working around the extra ftsw tubestage. It breaks into the octave feedbacks at low level if you desire.
The High mode brings in another tube gain stage so that is the main reason for no need of the clip circuit as it has lots of gain on tap.
Master is no longer a PPIMV style and the pull Hair function changes the power configuration giving it a rawer Plexi style response. Pushed in, it is smoother and more modern sounding.
The Mid Boost is now different. Button out, very tight percussive gain structure, pushed in more gain in the lows and changes the touch sensitivity.
Gain 1 and Gain 2 work together all the time, so running them at multiple settings will go you all kinds of tonal choices. Plug in a strat, push the Thick switch in to gives the tone some girth. With a LP, Thick switch out gives a different balance etc. I also added a choke.
To get a very close Plexi tone, pull the master and set full on, set eq as desired, gain 2 9 to 10 o'clock, ride gain 1 as you would on a non master volume amp, in Low mode and toggle the Thick switch to see which you prefer.
High gain modern tone, master set to taste and pushed in, eq set to taste, gain 2 and gain 1 at 2 o'clock, in High mode, toggle the Thick switch and feel the difference.
A note about the Thick switch. With that switch in, Gain 1 settings above 2 o'clock might get over taken by bass. This mainly depends on the type of guitar and pickup strength. You can always dial up Gain 2 if you need more signing gain when in the Thick mode.
Tomorrow here at Yamaha we've got PhilX http://www.philx.tv/ coming it to test some guitars. Your amp has been requested for the sound room by the Artist rep. I'll make sure nothing happens to it. I might be able to break out a video camera
Here are two clips Mike recorded and the last one I recorded today.
My Clip:
Pics:
