M
Meathead
New member
This from a guy that met him and saw the gear first hand...this is from the Gear Page.
I always knew Eddie's tone sounded like it was some kind of single coil. My P90 guitar has always gotten the closest to his tone, more so than double coils.
Originally Posted by Husky
OK , The bottom line for me is when I saw it the amp was 100% untouched except for filter caps and 1 added part which I prefer to keep to myself (Dave knows it well of course too). It is a very minor addition that Jose did giving it a slight bit more bass in the treble channel, when Ed demo'd the amp for me he dimmed every control. The circuit other than that was STOCK.... BUT !! it was not the every day Normal circuit, there were a few oddball parts that Marshall did use from time to time. Not every Marshall follows the schematics. The ONLY Change besides the minor tweaks when I saw it was the VHT transformer. My job was to replace that transformer with a donor from another plexi with a similar circuit and close serial number that belonged to Matt. I know my information and amp are correct since Matt not to long ago asked me for Schematics because He said I was the last person to see it in a basically stock form. After me it went to Europe and everything was rewired and became a mess he wasn't happy with. I believe Dave has the amp right now and is trying to breath life back in to it, Dave and I have talked about it as well. Ed even told me personally as he stood 2 feet away that this was "the" amp and the only amp he used up until F.U.C.K for recording. Now why would Ed lie to me when he was trusting me to restore the amp back to it's original condition, he told me everything he could remember.
I still have all voltages notes and scribbles in my old groove tube book. When I asked about what he did to pump it up for more gain he didn't really remember except that he probably had the Echoplex goosing it, turned the light dimmer down (variac) until the pilot light started to go out or dimm when you hit a single note (85~90V). I believe the amp also had a standby jack in the back that disconnected the power tube cathodes. Now please understand me... when ED played through this amp in my shop it sounded EVERY bit like Ed and the first albums with and without the Variac. When I played thru it it sounded every bit like me (cry). Bottom line is Ed tired of less gain and wanted more, I think that amp sounded great back then but Ed was trying to move on. On F.U.C.K he used my Preamp for many of the tracks as well as a SLO100 for solo's , that is the time I was working with him, 90~92. Everything JTM100 says is spot on as far as the engineer, room and specifics of the recording and mix are EVERYTHING here. Ed would make any decent amp sound like Ed. If you heard the dry clips from the original recordings like many of us have you would hear so much was done in the production side.
Dave or I are both capable of making a reproduction for you but if you don't play like Ed did back then and don't slap whatever he did in front back in the day then you wont get too far. This is not a friendly bedroom amp, it is loud, not as dirty as you think and in your face.
...and
Originally Posted by Husky
It is just a great loud plexi, I have heard many similar. The Variac brought it down to 50W and gave it some brown. Personally I still cant play that amp cause it is too raw for me. It takes someone like Ed to pull it off, or Pete or Al or Mark (Rockstah).
I also got a chance to check out his old pickup which had a shorted coil and was basically working like a single coil. Many years ago he caught his string under the lip and damaged it, when I don't know but he loved the sound of it even if it was noisy and said it has been like that for as long as he could remember. So.... if I was going for that exact tone I would put a single coil in the position of the forward coil of the humbucker going straight across. Use a Plexi based circuit, dime the controls, Bright channel, variac to 85V, feed the 8ohm tap into a 16ohm load, run a line out into a good power amp and some scumbacks, pedals of your choice and call it a day. You will get close at low volumes. Better have a good wallet for the tubes though since they don't last long running this way.
I always knew Eddie's tone sounded like it was some kind of single coil. My P90 guitar has always gotten the closest to his tone, more so than double coils.
Originally Posted by Husky
OK , The bottom line for me is when I saw it the amp was 100% untouched except for filter caps and 1 added part which I prefer to keep to myself (Dave knows it well of course too). It is a very minor addition that Jose did giving it a slight bit more bass in the treble channel, when Ed demo'd the amp for me he dimmed every control. The circuit other than that was STOCK.... BUT !! it was not the every day Normal circuit, there were a few oddball parts that Marshall did use from time to time. Not every Marshall follows the schematics. The ONLY Change besides the minor tweaks when I saw it was the VHT transformer. My job was to replace that transformer with a donor from another plexi with a similar circuit and close serial number that belonged to Matt. I know my information and amp are correct since Matt not to long ago asked me for Schematics because He said I was the last person to see it in a basically stock form. After me it went to Europe and everything was rewired and became a mess he wasn't happy with. I believe Dave has the amp right now and is trying to breath life back in to it, Dave and I have talked about it as well. Ed even told me personally as he stood 2 feet away that this was "the" amp and the only amp he used up until F.U.C.K for recording. Now why would Ed lie to me when he was trusting me to restore the amp back to it's original condition, he told me everything he could remember.
I still have all voltages notes and scribbles in my old groove tube book. When I asked about what he did to pump it up for more gain he didn't really remember except that he probably had the Echoplex goosing it, turned the light dimmer down (variac) until the pilot light started to go out or dimm when you hit a single note (85~90V). I believe the amp also had a standby jack in the back that disconnected the power tube cathodes. Now please understand me... when ED played through this amp in my shop it sounded EVERY bit like Ed and the first albums with and without the Variac. When I played thru it it sounded every bit like me (cry). Bottom line is Ed tired of less gain and wanted more, I think that amp sounded great back then but Ed was trying to move on. On F.U.C.K he used my Preamp for many of the tracks as well as a SLO100 for solo's , that is the time I was working with him, 90~92. Everything JTM100 says is spot on as far as the engineer, room and specifics of the recording and mix are EVERYTHING here. Ed would make any decent amp sound like Ed. If you heard the dry clips from the original recordings like many of us have you would hear so much was done in the production side.
Dave or I are both capable of making a reproduction for you but if you don't play like Ed did back then and don't slap whatever he did in front back in the day then you wont get too far. This is not a friendly bedroom amp, it is loud, not as dirty as you think and in your face.
...and
Originally Posted by Husky
It is just a great loud plexi, I have heard many similar. The Variac brought it down to 50W and gave it some brown. Personally I still cant play that amp cause it is too raw for me. It takes someone like Ed to pull it off, or Pete or Al or Mark (Rockstah).
I also got a chance to check out his old pickup which had a shorted coil and was basically working like a single coil. Many years ago he caught his string under the lip and damaged it, when I don't know but he loved the sound of it even if it was noisy and said it has been like that for as long as he could remember. So.... if I was going for that exact tone I would put a single coil in the position of the forward coil of the humbucker going straight across. Use a Plexi based circuit, dime the controls, Bright channel, variac to 85V, feed the 8ohm tap into a 16ohm load, run a line out into a good power amp and some scumbacks, pedals of your choice and call it a day. You will get close at low volumes. Better have a good wallet for the tubes though since they don't last long running this way.
