Pete Thorn explores different bright cap effects in Marshalls.......

[harddriver]

 

[Dino 939]

Legit.
I bet he’s a fantastic guitar instructor.
F’n dude toured with the chief architect
of the Seattle sound.. Chris Cornell.
I can talk all the shit I want, but that..shuts me up
and gets me super stoked for the dude.

 

[psychodave]

This video take me back to the early 1990’s when me and my friends messed with all of this stuff except we weren’t using amps with master volumes or attenuation, so you had to tinker with caps unless you ran the amp on 10. Typically, we would rank the amp, then roll back the volume a bit so the bright came effect came on ?

 

[blackba]

Thanks for sharing, mostly dealt with bright caps from 47 to 250pf, so was really interesting to hear the 4700pf on the Suhr.

 

[gtrwun]

I saw this one the other day. Great topic and a great video as always. Pete is one of the few that knows how to balance the chit-chat with actual playing. He gets to the point.

 

[SpiderWars]

Typically, we would crank the amp, then roll back the volume a bit so the bright came effect came on

That's why I love the 4700-5k pF cap. For that 6-8+ range on the Volume where you can dial the cap in and out.

 

[psychodave]

That's why I love the 4700-5k pF cap. For that 6-8+ range on the Volume where you can dial the cap in and out.

Yeah, volume is all relative. My old 71 SL did heartbreaker tone around 5-6. Turn it up more with a DOD preamp 250 and it was metal.

 

[harddriver]

For Marshall 1959 Superleads and Plexi the 5000pF ceramic cap give the aggressive grindy kerrang and bite that Marshall are known for IMHO.
I thought Pete's video was quite on point with what I hear as well.

Here's my 1969 NOS Marshall build that had a 5000pF Mallory Ceramic on a push/pull pot switch. Without the bright cap it is kinda Jake E Leeish like on Badlands dusk more akin to super bass bright channel but it just really comes alive with the 5000pF bright cap. Some people like them dark like a Superbass(no bright cap) but there is a noticeable difference.

The beginning of the video is the amp without the bright cap then at 3:40 I switch in the 5000pF cap, Volume 1 is on 7 and is being pushed by an SRB in SD-1 mode and an 83 Kramer Pacer with an 80's Seymour Duncan Custom pickup nothing else in the signal chain totally dry. The amp is a stock Marshall spec 1969 Superlead with a 50K midpot.

 

[Bronco]

For Marshall 1959 Superleads and Plexi the 5000pF ceramic cap give the aggressive grindy kerrang and bite that Marshall are known for IMHO.
I thought Pete's video was quite on point with what I hear as well.

Here's my 1969 NOS Marshall build that had a 5000pF Mallory Ceramic on a push/pull pot switch. Without the bright cap it is kinda Jake E Leeish like on Badlands dusk more akin to super bass bright channel but it just really comes alive with the 5000pF bright cap. Some people like them dark like a Superbass(no bright cap) but there is a noticeable difference.

The beginning of the video is the amp without the bright cap then at 3:40 I switch in the 5000pF cap, Volume 1 is on 7 and is being pushed by an SRB in SD-1 mode and an 83 Kramer Pacer with an 80's Seymour Duncan Custom pickup nothing else in the signal chain totally dry. The amp is a stock Marshall spec 1969 Superlead with a 50K midpot.
Man that sounds glorious! Well done!

 

[panhead]

Early 80`s Bradshaw brown mod involved removing the bright cap on your marshall $150.00 and that was it but nobody knew that at the time He made a killing.

 

[Racerxrated]

Cool vid. I always laugh at threads I see about “you have to remove that bright cap on your Marshall!” that I’ve mostly read on TGP. I tried it once in a 2203, and in my 72.
All it does is neuter the amp. No thanks.
Tried lower values in my 72, still preferred it stock.

 

[CarlF]

I notice his SL68 is modded. I would have liked to have mine modded to not blow fuses.

 

[gtrwun]

Cool vid. I always laugh at threads I see about “you have to remove that bright cap on your Marshall!” that I’ve mostly read on TGP. I tried it once in a 2203, and in my 72.
All it does is neuter the amp. No thanks.
Tried lower values in my 72, still preferred it stock.

I made this mistake of removing the bright cap on a lot of my old Marshall’s. Live and learn…..

 

[SpiderWars]

As much as I agree with him I'm just gonna point out the elephant in the room...that tone he was getting with that beautiful guitar was way too bright/crashy and kind of sucked. I wanted to wait to listen at home before I posted tho. Could have been the recording I guess. A 4700-5k pF bright cap doesn't have to sound like that even not variac'd. I think that tone is why many people remove it in the first place.

 

[blackba]

For the longest time I didn’t know that my silver jubilee had a push pull pot for the bright cap as it had been modded by the previous owner and never though to pull the input gain for the clean mode. It’s a 1000pf cap and I don’t run it all the time, but I sure like it with some guitars.

I think Pete’s tone in the video with the big bright cap would be really nice in a mix. Long found what works in the mix may not be my ideal tone isolated.

 

[Greazygeo]

I hate that 5 k bright cap. Well unless its on ten and out of the circuit its fine. 100pf is more my speed.

My thinking is that they started with the 100pf in the 60’s and then by the 70’s everyone had lost there high frequency hearing from this. “Quick, get that 5 k in the new ones, so we can get the rest of it!”