The Marshall mods versus stock/boosted

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Cracking up at the sausage fest in front of the guitar player. :lol: :LOL:
 
Okay, I'll be the lone decenter on this. Owned quit a few JMPs, 800s, 900s.,, never could bond with them. Not much of a variety in tone to start with. the 800 was my favorite but even then it seemed more fizzy then defined.
 
any love for attenuators being used to bring the volume down? Not many mention using them, just curious as to why?
 
yep,my 80's JCM800 2204 "s" smallbox Marshall head,boosted with an o/d pedal,is "as good" as ANYTHING modded that i've owned or still own ;) covers ALL my tones!!! i will never get rid of it,especially since i got it for $500/shipped :D :rock:
 
I've never had an attenuator that I thought was any good, but the ones I had/have were/are old school (Scholz power soak, Altair, and Marshall SE100). The SD1 JMP combo sounded good to me at low volume, but the master knob on a Marshall is a hair trigger anyway.
 
Ive had a couple modded ones back in the day, but now i prefer them unmodded. The mods always seem to take away some of the clangy character of the marshalls, which is one of the reasons i like them. I understand why people dig modded ones, and i dont hate on them for going that route, but a 50$ pedal, two cords, and a loud old marshall.. Perfect imo.
 
Hmmm, pedals driving an amp can sound great, no doubt. But I never thought that kind of setup feels as solid and together as having all that gain built into the amp.

I'll have to go against the grain and say Marshalls are made to be modded :yes:
 
I am going to qualify this saying "tone is subjective," but I wanted to throw some props to James Lugo and the fabled Amp Shootout. I got so much mileage out of that exercise. My favorite tone of the bunch was Dave Friedman's '68 Marshall Plexi. Sounded best alone and in the mix, to my ears. Saved me thousands of dollars and days of trial and error/comparing to find the tone closest to what I like; I went and bought a Super Lead after that.

I think a stock Super Lead as a core clean/rhythm sound and boosted for more gain is about as good as it gets; no need to mod what is already the standard.
 
thegame":163wi57a said:
Hmmm, pedals driving an amp can sound great, no doubt. But I never thought that kind of setup feels as solid and together as having all that gain built into the amp.

I'll have to go against the grain and say Marshalls are made to be modded :yes:
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Agree
 
RSRD":2b276bwz said:
Okay, I'll be the lone decenter on this. Owned quit a few JMPs, 800s, 900s.,, never could bond with them. Not much of a variety in tone to start with. the 800 was my favorite but even then it seemed more fizzy then defined.
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That's part of the signature Marshall cuts like a knife tone :)


Daneyo and I have compared several Marshalls (moded and unmoded) at my place and I agree with him...but I do own a moded Mojave Peacemaker at the moment :D
 


How about Rowan Robertson? Fast forward to 3 minute mark for lead dweedlie doos. JCM800's in the studio pushed with a BOSS turbo overdrive (same sorta thing as SD-1 flavour wise) Live I think he used JMP-1's pushed with the turbo overdrives again. Someone on this forum had got this info straight from Rowan. Add some thick Chorus and welcome to the 80's! The rest is chops and squeely harmonics and you are a bad ass if you can fit into the tight pants.

Oh, and I think the cabs were all G12T-75's. I bet they sounded pretty damn good after a full tour being opened up like that.
 
I think both methods are great.

BUT, modded Marshalls are its own thing. At least mine (golub mod), has a lot of gain but its really "open" and agressive. You could run the gain at 6 and boost for leads withouth any trouble.

IMHO when you boost a 800 you get this killer lead tone, really focused but definetly different.
 
Roawns rhythm tone on that video sounds pretty wicked. That old San Dimas Charvel he is playing sounded phenomenal. The guy who works for me bought it from Rowan when he went into a Les Paul phase. That was one of the most bad ass sounding Charvels I have ever heard or played. Jay ended up selling it about 10 years ago because someone offered him a ton of money for it. He is still tormented by it to this day. Every now and then I bring up, "Hey, remember how killer that Rowan Robertson Charvel was?" and he gets all bent. I think I will send him this link right now.

That thing had an EMG 81 in it.
 
mchn13":2t5aep7x said:
The mods always seem to take away some of the clangy character of the marshalls, which is one of the reasons i like them.
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I strongly agree.
 
JohnSykes":32j43rne said:
I think both methods are great.

BUT, modded Marshalls are its own thing. At least mine (golub mod), has a lot of gain but its really "open" and agressive. You could run the gain at 6 and boost for leads withouth any trouble.

IMHO when you boost a 800 you get this killer lead tone, really focused but definetly different.
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:thumbsup:

for old school hard rock, nothing can beat a boosted stock 2203
really depends on what you need it for
it's not just about amount of gain and sustain
I play modern rock and I can achieve the amount of gain I need with a mild gain set JCM and a booster, but I can't get the type of the warmth I need without a higher gain circuit

my '73 JMP lead 50w ("1987") is a single channel with 4 gain stages + cathode follower (1 extra pre tube), but I use it in a quite light crunch setting (gain around 5 is equivalent to a jcm at 7)
fine tunings were made by me and my friend zambelli, but I have no idea who did the all the mod/rebuild (but it's definitely an LA shop job)
it also has a tube buffered loop (another extra preamp tube)
the way it reacts to a booster is completely different to a stock 2204 or 1987
I get a very fat and open shiva-like tone that's impossible to get from any marshall I know
in higher gain settings it goes into suhr/custom audio territory (not as saturated, though), but I'm still able to make it sound like a plexi in low gain settings
tons of dynamics

if I was a hard rock gig player, I'd be more than happy with a stock 2203
 
petejt":2ug69k6g said:
mchn13":2ug69k6g said:
The mods always seem to take away some of the clangy character of the marshalls, which is one of the reasons i like them.
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I strongly agree.
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+1
 
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