Soldano Hot MOD incoming. *UPDATE*

[nevusofota]

Happened to come across this for my all-original Marshall 2204. I’ve heard mixed reviews, but for the price of a pedal I thought I’d give it a try. Anyone have experience with it?

 

[ChurchHill]

I remember when these were around, but never heard or played one. I'll be looking forward to what you think of it.

 

[Exo-metal]

I need this, pm me if it's not for you.

 

[Jack Luminous]

I have one I used in a 2203. Sounds incredibly good IMHO. Takes 15 seconds to install, instant tight, liquid, molten-lava high-gain. Only downside is the noise. It is quite noisy but still manageable, especially if you already use a noise gate.

 

[Detroit1973]

I used to have 6 of these. Do some research on them as Soldano Released these with 2 Different Tubes from what I remember. 1 Tube was super High Gain & the other was Also High Gain but was a Tad Less in the Gain Department. This is the Stuck Mojo Sound on the First Few Stuck Mojo Records.

 

[maddnotez]

This seems pretty awesome. I dont think it would benefit any of my amps as they are already pretty high gain but this seems like a cool item.

@ exo-metal. I found this link on the SD forum. http://www.kashaamplifiers.com

Some guys were saying Kasha made this first and has the patent which is why Soldano does not make them anymore. Not sure if that is true but it seems like you can still get one from Kasha.

 

[Racerxrated]

The Hotmod is different from the Quickmod in the type of tube used. The reason Soldano stopped making these is the original pre tube used aren't made anymore, so when it comes time to replace the tube good luck finding one.
I had the Kasha and it's a nice alternative to the Soldano. The Kasha uses a 12ax7 so no worries replacing the tube.

 

[maddnotez]

The Hotmod is different from the Quickmod in the type of tube used. The reason Soldano stopped making these is the original pre tube used aren't made anymore, so when it comes time to replace the tube good luck finding one.
I had the Kasha and it's a nice alternative to the Soldano. The Kasha uses a 12ax7 so no worries replacing the tube.

Do you think either one of these would help an already high gain amp?

I do not think I need one of these but now I really want one

 

[Racerxrated]

The Hotmod is different from the Quickmod in the type of tube used. The reason Soldano stopped making these is the original pre tube used aren't made anymore, so when it comes time to replace the tube good luck finding one.
I had the Kasha and it's a nice alternative to the Soldano. The Kasha uses a 12ax7 so no worries replacing the tube.

Do you think either one of these would help an already high gain amp?

I do not think I need one of these but now I really want one

I had the Kasha loop mod and the quickmod, and they do what is advertised when it comes to a good vintage Marshall that you don't want to hack up. Cool stuff. But I still had to put an eq pedal to tighten it up a little, sounded good though. Not sure about an already high gain amp...you plug it into an existing pre tube slot, and I believe instead of one gain stage being used the quickmod splits the tube into 2 gain stages so you get that additional gain stage. Might be redundant if your pre tube is already being used for 2 stages.
The loop mod(not sure of the name lol) goes into your PI tube slot and inserts a loop there.

 

[paulyc]

12AX7s are twin triodes, the tube used in the Hot Mod is a tri-triode, so it's a clever way of adding another stage of gain without hacking the amp, I had a friend that had a 2203 Marshall with one, it sounded pretty good, but not as good as an SD-1 in front of a stock 2203 to my ears, or Egnater's Megadrive mod (another 12AX7 in front of a stock 2203 circuit) which Bruce told me was designed to emulate an SD-1 in front of a 2203/2204.

 

[Mad Axe]

I had a Hot Mod in my old 2204 for a while. It added tons of gain but (as mentioned above) was noisy. I lost some of the range on the gain knob too, it went from zero into high gain territory pretty quick.

I ended up going back to using a boost. It sounded better to my ears (I prefer a cleaner, tighter high gain sound) and if I wanted to go unboosted I could just click it off.

 

[psychodave]

Here is something a friend made for me. I’m using a bone stock 1967 Marshall plexi. Zero mods. I won’t divulge anything about it, but as you can hear, it makes a stock non-master Marshall into a beast... a JCM800 is a fire breather. Of course it does everything else inbetween too. I plan on deleting this video in a little while.

https://youtu.be/Y57bIwwWeyw

 

[skoora]

I had one for a while for a JMP 2203 I use to have. They sound pretty good. Pedals today offer more flexibility but if you want plug and play without pedals these are pretty cool. It was designed specifically for 2204/03 type circuits. If the gain is too much you can try a lower gain pre in V1 to balance it. I ultimately had Soldano mod my 2203 but it was more out of boredom than anything else. Had owned the amp for 10 years before modding. Sold it a few months after modding it. A buddy's JCM800 sounded incredible with the mod but my amp, not so much. Of course many years later wish I had left the amp alone and kept it.

 

[Piero the Guitarero]

I´ve built one, ten years ago

We had a similar topic 2010 -> Soldano Hot mod?

here are the vids I´ve posted there

Marshall JCM 800 without Hotmod

3 minutes later - with DIY Hotmod

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I had a Hot Mod in my old 2204 for a while. It added tons of gain but (as mentioned above) was noisy. I lost some of the range on the gain knob too, it went from zero into high gain territory pretty quick.

I ended up going back to using a boost. It sounded better to my ears (I prefer a cleaner, tighter high gain sound) and if I wanted to go unboosted I could just click it off.

Ditto for me.. I had the preamp gain at about 6 and it was enough for me. I also preferred it dialed back and with an OD to tighten the lows a bit. At that point, I figured I was better off with an OD. I sold it and made 50$ more than what I paid for it. For a while there was a company making these but I guess they ran out of tubes a few years back or something as i was not able to find the link again.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Here is something a friend made for me. I’m using a bone stock 1967 Marshall plexi. Zero mods. I won’t divulge anything about it, but as you can hear, it makes a stock non-master Marshall into a beast... a JCM800 is a fire breather. Of course it does everything else inbetween too. I plan on deleting this video in a little while.

https://youtu.be/Y57bIwwWeyw

lol love it... pretty much any TS based or SD-1 will do it. I am using a japanese OD-1 clone right now and it cooks with my 2204. Cusak screamer is on the list to try someday though.

 

[zuel69]

Here is something a friend made for me. I’m using a bone stock 1967 Marshall plexi. Zero mods. I won’t divulge anything about it, but as you can hear, it makes a stock non-master Marshall into a beast... a JCM800 is a fire breather. Of course it does everything else inbetween too. I plan on deleting this video in a little while.

https://youtu.be/Y57bIwwWeyw

lol love it... pretty much any TS based or SD-1 will do it. I am using a japanese OD-1 clone right now and it cooks with my 2204. Cusak screamer is on the list to try someday though.

I don't think this is about those pedals...that sounds great!

 

[nevusofota]

The Hotmod is different from the Quickmod in the type of tube used. The reason Soldano stopped making these is the original pre tube used aren't made anymore, so when it comes time to replace the tube good luck finding one.
I had the Kasha and it's a nice alternative to the Soldano. The Kasha uses a 12ax7 so no worries replacing the tube.

With a quick internet search I found many 6k11 tubes (used in the Hot Mod) for sale.

 

[nevusofota]

Here is something a friend made for me. I’m using a bone stock 1967 Marshall plexi. Zero mods. I won’t divulge anything about it, but as you can hear, it makes a stock non-master Marshall into a beast... a JCM800 is a fire breather. Of course it does everything else inbetween too. I plan on deleting this video in a little while.

https://youtu.be/Y57bIwwWeyw

So that was just the Screamer. The Timmey wasn’t on?

 

[nevusofota]

The only thing that worries me is that the amp won’t clean up well with reduction of the guitars volume knob.