Mini Amp and BBQ Fest

[311boogieman]

This went down a few weeks ago. @Floyd Eye , @SgtThump , @harddriver were present.

It took a lot of planning and rescheduling but we had a hell of a time. These 3 guys are all around fun to hang with and much better at guitar than myself

I won't remember all the guitars that were there so I can let those guys tell you more if they see this. @SgtThump brought his new Mezzabarba Trinity and Mesa Mark VII. @Floyd Eye brought his Fender Deluxe Brownface. @harddriver brought 4 Marshalls - all very different. I had my Splawn Quick Rod and Dual and Single Recs. I do know that SGT mostly played his Les Paul Custom. Floyd played his Tele. And HD played his EVH SS (Super strat). Next time I plan to play these a bit more. I think we were all together a good 5 or 6 hours but it went so fast. I wish it could have been a whole weekend. Generally speaking, ALL the tones had were really good as was the comradery, story telling and overall vibes. Would. Do. Again.

I will try to describe HD's Marshalls in a bit more detail below. I will let the guys provide their own descriptions and clarifications.

Overall, HD's JCM800 with a Cameron mod stole the show for me as it was super tight and articulate. SGT's Mark VII also sounded incredible. This was at my house, in my basement mancave and it was warm enough outside that we could leave the sliding glass door open for all the neighbors to enjoy It also allowed for my BBQ to waft in. All around a great time. Thanks you 3 for making it happen.

HD's 4 Marshalls.

Top right = Stock '72 50w JMP
Bottom right - Stock '68 100w JMP
Top left = Splawn modded '79 100w JMP
Bottom left - '84 50w JCM800 w a Cameron mod.

HD / @harddriver mods his own amps so he has a lot of interesting things he's done with some of these amp to get them to their best. They all sound superb.

On the far left you can see @SgtThump 's Mezzabarba Trinity. Sadly, we didn't get any clips of this beast but it is one hell of an amp with a fair amount of tweakability. Maybe not as much as his Mesa Mark VII, but it has a lot of great tones in it. I believe it is based on an SLO and has a lot of Marshall vibe in it too. The Splawn Quick Rod, 2 ch Dual Rectifier, and 2 ch Single Rectifier Rectoverb are mine. The Dual Rec has the "Pre 500" Rev G to Rev C mod, the Series FX loop mod, and the loop was patched. As mentioned @Floyd_Eye brought his Fender Deluxe. Oh, and HD had an attenuator, power conditioner and some kick ass pedals I can let him talk about.

 

[griff10672]

Nice !!

 

[311boogieman]

Here are some videos from a 'floor cam'. This was my Zoom 4KnQ2 that was turned on at some point and was mostly set and forget. If we do this again, I will get a little more sophisticated with this aspect. I also have some cell phone videos. Sadly did not use my SM57 nor get any recordings of the Mezzabarba. I don't have the energy to describe the videos in detail but I did do some labling. Basically:

Vid 1: Marshalls. All Marshalls. Specifically the JMP 50 on the top right, the Splawn modded JMP, but mostly the Cameron mod Marshall bottom left.
Vid 2: Mesa Boogies but starts with @harddriver 's JCM800 that he applied some Cameron mods too (bottom left). This was my favorite. The video follows with my Single Rec a bit and then the rest I believe is mostly the Dual Rec + my Splawn Quick Rod together.
Vid 3: Fender Deluxe Brownface - it is the perfect bell like Fender tone that we all know. A classic.










Questions? Ask away

 

[311boogieman]

A few more pics and almost forgot the BBQ

 

[SgtThump]

Had a great time meeting everyone and hearing all the badass amps! It always goes quickly!

 

[The~Kid]

A few more pics and almost forgot the BBQ

Fucking sick!!!!



Cheers and that's what's up *_*

 

[Techdeth]

I Would have brought my Larry

 

[Lightning]

Very nice machines !!!! What speakers were in the cabinets

 

[Floyd Eye]

I had a great time meeting Harddriver and Sgt. Thump ( both of whom are fantastic players) and hanging out with the Boogieman, who's no slouch on the guitar and the grill. I've never been in the same room with as many great amps in my life.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Hard to bead a good day of amps, food, and friends. Glad y'all had a great time.

 

[BeZo]

I miss throwing amp parties.

 

[SgtThump]

Also, big thanks to 311 for having us over and cooking some great BBQ!

 

[harddriver]

I first want to thank 311Boogieman for being such a gracious host and a killer grillmeister making awesome food for the event! I had always thought the ampfest's that James Lugo threw would be great fun so when 311boogieman threw around the idea I PM'd him and said I'm in and it was as much fun as I thought it would be. I had not played in a few months so the riffs were rough but I had fun anyway.............

Even though I'm a Marshall guy the standout amps for me that I enjoyed playing were 311Boogieman's 1995 Two Channel Dual Recto boosted with a Boss SD-1 and SGTThump's Mesa Boogie MKVII. The 1995 Two Channel Dual Recto was nothing like my old 2001 Three Channel Dual Recto, it had more, highs, bite and some Marshall clank that was evident on the first notes which surprised the hell out of me and you hear me going on about that to Floyd in the vid. Yeah... the Two channel Dual recto is Kings X Dogman tone to a tee.................

The cleans on the Mezzabarba and MKVII were awesome and those were played through a Mesa 4x12 cab with Mesa V-30's.

The Mezzabarba was alot like an SLO, it had a rounder low end but it was tight and it had solo boost on all three channels and ton of user/gig freindly features, it had the refined SLO tone to it but it still ripped.

The Splawn( 6550's) and Cameron(6550's) were played through a 1979 Marshall 1982A cab with original cone 12H-30 75Hz Blackbacks.

The 72 50 watt EH6CA7's was played through a 1978 Marshall 1982B cab with Heritage reissue 12H-30 55HZ speakers.

Thump also brough his Marshall 4x12 B cab with Greenbacks and the Cameron sounded great through Greenbacks as well, I think the last vid with Thump playing the Cameron was through the Greenback cabinet.

All the 1984 JCM800 HG/LG Cameron clips were straight into the amp, no boost's or Eq's... nothing.

The gear rundown is as follows:

68 Ed spec Metro 100 watt plexi, we didn't get clips on that one, maybe another time.

1972 Marshall 50 watt SL, Lar/Mar PPIMV set to 5(half in the clips), All stock values on the high bright input, and an RT gain mod on the other two which we didn't play much, Thump liked the stock channel so much we didn't get clips of the Modded channel.

The Splawn Modded 1979 2203, boosted with a VFE Standout/Fortin Zuul+ for the Pantera stuff and an SRB OD808+ for the non Pantera riffs.

The 1984 HG/LG Jose is footswitchable for two levels of gain, NFB control and Depth mod, two gain controls, 20V zeners, and 2n5400 transistors wired for about 9V zenere diodes for the clippers, and 4 different bright cap selections on the first two gain stages.

*The White Charvel is my Warmoth Jake E Lee guitar, maple body with brass charvel hardtail, SD AH-1 JB with the screw poles( built by MJ)
*The Franky is a Musikraft, (Northern Ash body) with a 78 model humbucker(built by MJ), Callaham S/S fender bridge.
*The Black guitar is a 1983 Kramer Imperial(poplar body) with SD Whole Lotta humbucker bridge(8.8K) and SD 59 N in the neck.
*The Copper color guitar is the Duno KNE Kramer(poplar body) guitar with a Bill and Becky L500XL bridge and a SD 59 N in the neck used for all the Pantera tunes.

As Thump said the day went by fast and we really had to focus on getting through playing all the amps there. It was alot of fun...... where else can you demo all those different amps at one time.................................Kudos to the St Louis crew... 311boogieman, SGTThump and Floyd!

It was great meeting you all in person, having some drinks, great food and some laughs jamming on some great amps

I hope to do it again sometime!

 

[Anje]

Looks like a great time, love those tone fests!
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Lightning]

I looking for another 4x12 cabinet more then likely a Soldano 4x12 but I’m debating having it loaded with celestion greenback or just the stock celestion UK vintage 30. I’ve been using the EVH 5150 III 4x12 cabs( celestion EVH speakers) with my Soldano SLO 100 and my Rockstah Mod 5 modded Rockitt Retro would there be any advantages going with celestion vintage 30.

 

[311boogieman]

Yeah thanks guys. Good times for sure.

Whittling down 5 hours of random 'floor cam' footage was the hardest part

@Floyd Eye - I just realized at the end of the Fender vid you are not playing your Deluxe. Do you remember what you were playing through? (not gonna change it though, that would be too hard)


And just to clarify on the Splawns. I have my Quick Rod which is the red stripped one on matching cab. That has Splawn Smallblocks, which are a higher watt (55w) Greenback variant made by Eminence. The Mesa cab has Mesa V30s as @harddriver said. So @harddriver 's "Splawn" is a Marshall JMP that Scott Splawn modded for him a long time ago. Like 2006? Thanks @harddriver for the detail, clarifications and kind words. You were a true gentleman as well. Glad you liked the Dual so much. A big reason I think for the brighter/tighter feel is the Pre 500 "C" mod. It was much looser before. It was on red/silicone/bold the entire time. As opposed to orange/tube rectified/spongy. You might like that too - we'll have to play with that next time

 

[Floyd Eye]

Yeah thanks guys. Good times for sure.

Whittling down 5 hours of random 'floor cam' footage was the hardest part

@Floyd Eye - I just realized at the end of the Fender vid you are not playing your Deluxe. Do you remember what you were playing through? (not gonna change it though, that would be too hard)


And just to clarify on the Splawns. I have my Quick Rod which is the red stripped one on matching cab. That has Splawn Smallblocks, which are a higher watt (55w) Greenback variant made by Eminence. The Mesa cab has Mesa V30s as @harddriver said. So @harddriver 's "Splawn" is a Marshall JMP that Scott Splawn modded for him a long time ago. Like 2006? Thanks @harddriver for the detail, clarifications and kind words. You were a true gentleman as well. Glad you liked the Dual so much. A big reason I think for the brighter/tighter feel is the Pre 500 "C" mod. It was much looser before. It was on red/silicone/bold the entire time. As opposed to orange/tube rectified/spongy. You might like that too - we'll have to play with that next time

One of your amps. Or maybe it was when Thump had your Splawn going in to one of the Boogies.

I really just wanted to play his Les Paul. Which is super fuckin sweet by the way.