NAD - Voodoo Modded JCM 800 2204

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bad.Seed
  • Start date Start date
can't comment about the Mod, but i had that exact amp with the checkered front and green tolex and gold piping. I Loved that amp! Should not have sold it.
 
Got this baby back last night. Had all of 5 minutes to crank it, but it certainly sounds better now that the issues have been address.

No more volume bleed, all pots cleaned, solder reflowed in multiple areas, bias set correctly (was set far too high)

The amp sounds more full an punchy, by far. This thing gets super saturated as well. The low end still isn't quite as tight as I'd like. Currently has Winged C EL34's in it. I'm thinking about swapping to KT77 to see how those do in this amp, possibly KT88, but I'm not sure yet.

The other thing is, this amp is BRIGHT. Even through a dark cab like my RL Uberkab, I have the presence at 0 and the Treble at 1. The mids above 6 can get pretty nasty too, but I can still dial it in the get a good tone, despite this. It's also stupid loud. The girlfriend was outside doing some yardwork, so I cranked the amp for a minute, and holy hell. It was painful.

MY tech mentioned that the board was gooped, and even if he could get it off cleanly, that he would have a tough time figuring out what values were changed without a schematic of what was done. I may just leave as is for now, but I'd still love to tighten the lows up a bit more.
 
Nice :rock:

If the amp is really bright you might want to have your tech de-goop the treble peaking circuit and look at those values. Also, I’m not sure a KT tube would help with the brightness as they can be pretty chimey too, but the KT77 is drop in for EL34s so no harm in trying it out :) Have you considered 6CA7’s? Kind of like an EL34 with some 6L6 characteristics.
 
LP Freak":1wuo1scu said:
Was this ever confirmed to be a Voodoo mod?
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I emailed voodoo with the pictures today. I'm waiting for a reply.
 
Update:
After someone at the Voodoo Amps facebook page wrote back to me and told me to send them an email for a "Tonal Consultation", I did just that.

They responded last night with a personal message up top, and then a copy and paste section about what's required for the "Tonal Consultation" As I got towards the bottom, I got to the billing portion. $62.50 per 15 minute segment, just to speak to someone. Talk about customer service!

I kindly said, no thanks. I said if they can provide any info based on my serial number, that'd be great. Otherwise, not interested.

What a joke! I get that time is money, but I've spoken to a couple modders and amp manufacturers in the past, and none of them tried to charge me just for their response. Guess I'll just live with it the way it is and move on.
 
Bad.Seed":1bk9f3ar said:
Update:
After someone at the Voodoo Amps facebook page wrote back to me and told me to send them an email for a "Tonal Consultation", I did just that.

They responded last night with a personal message up top, and then a copy and paste section about what's required for the "Tonal Consultation" As I got towards the bottom, I got to the billing portion. $62.50 per 15 minute segment, just to speak to someone. Talk about customer service!

I kindly said, no thanks. I said if they can provide any info based on my serial number, that'd be great. Otherwise, not interested.

What a joke! I get that time is money, but I've spoken to a couple modders and amp manufacturers in the past, and none of them tried to charge me just for their response. Guess I'll just live with it the way it is and move on.
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That is quite unfortunate. I had two amps modded by Trace and each time he was always available and we spoke multiple times on the phone without time constraints. That said, I know he is extremely busy but perhaps you can try to reach him directly through one of their media outlets. I know he does look at them as we recently had a brief exchange in one of them (I think FB). That said, it is utterly ridiculous that there would be any type of fee for researching your amp. I really hope that it's some kind of mistake....it's certainly not good business. Good luck.
 
This is disappointing to hear but not surprising in todays market. My dealings with Trace on 3 marshall mods were nothing less than stellar. Voodoo has a sub-forum here too.
 
Bad.Seed":294e3k2b said:
$62.50 per 15 minute segment
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Wow, that is bizarre.

This is like one of those fantasy RPG games where you take the magic sword you found in the dungeon to the blacksmith in town and pay him to identify it for you. Seriously though, there must have been some mistake, they can’t be that cheap?

Well, either way what matters is how the amp sounds. If it rocks then who cares! :)
 
If someone charges me to simply speak with them for a few minutes then that will be the last time we speak. Customer service is shit and if guys like Dave Friedman and Kyle Rhodes, to name a few can answer emails personally and help in any way then these clowns don't deserve the business. Just my opinion of course...
 
I played one of these voodoo modded 800s at GC, much preferred the amp with the mod switch off. Go figure.. :confused:
 
Apex1Rg7X":n7xjcu70 said:
If someone charges me to simply speak with them for a few minutes then that will be the last time we speak. Customer service is shit and if guys like Dave Friedman and Kyle Rhodes, to name a few can answer emails personally and help in any way then these clowns don't deserve the business. Just my opinion of course...
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Agreed. I got prompt responses from both Dave Friedman and Scott Splawn any time I reached out to them. Both at no charge.

Like I said, I have no problem keeping the amp and just riffing it as is. It roars. Was mainly curious to see what exactly had been done so if I ever resell, I can identify it properly.
 
Bad.Seed":6pxdv8d0 said:
$62.50 per 15 minute segment, just to speak to someone. Talk about customer service!
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The only other amp builder I've heard that charges like this was Alexander Dumble. My, what a lovely reputation he's had !
 
Wow. $250/hr? I'm in the wrong line of work. Maybe building guitar amps is profitable after all. :jerkit:
 
Update:
Trace called me today after seeing the email I had sent to Voodoo. Nice guy, definitely not shy. Haha
He explained to me that basically some of their records had been lost from the early days, but the amp either had the Hex mod or Witch Doctor Mod, and they weren't terribly different. He also said that these mods were not cheap, and after hearing what I paid, said I got an insane deal. So that's good.

He recommended me having a cap job done on the amp, as the caps in this one are stock, which attributes to the low end being slightly slow and mushy, so I've already got that in the works for this baby. It screams, and I'd love to be able to use it live, so I'm willing to dump some money into it. Glad I was able to speak to Trace on this, and even more so that it didn't cost me $240, HA!
 
Bad.Seed":1y93giap said:
Update:
Trace called me today after seeing the email I had sent to Voodoo. Nice guy, definitely not shy. Haha
He explained to me that basically some of their records had been lost from the early days, but the amp either had the Hex mod or Witch Doctor Mod, and they weren't terribly different. He also said that these mods were not cheap, and after hearing what I paid, said I got an insane deal. So that's good.

He recommended me having a cap job done on the amp, as the caps in this one are stock, which attributes to the low end being slightly slow and mushy, so I've already got that in the works for this baby. It screams, and I'd love to be able to use it live, so I'm willing to dump some money into it. Glad I was able to speak to Trace on this, and even more so that it didn't cost me $240, HA!
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Glad to hear it worked out! Everything else aside, Trace has always been a stand up guy.
 
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