BE 100 vs Kitchen Sink Marshall

lespaul6

Well-known member
Can anyone lay out the circuit differences (if any) between the BE mode of the BE 100 and a Kitchen sink mod BE? Is the preamp circuit the same and if not what exactly are the differences? I've read the "snubber" values are different for instance... how does that alter the tone?
 
I can't say for sure what the differences are as I've never owned a Kitchen Sink modded amp, but I'm pretty sure the KS mod IS the BE circuit that Dave designed quite a while ago. He may have made small adjustments in the mod due to the donor amp, but I believe it's all basically all the same general BE circuit.

Any changes in snubber cap values would affect the high end and how smooth or aggressive the amp would be.

The consensus seems to be that the earlier KS mods and "Marsha" amps are brighter and more aggressive and "Plexi-like", with the first "Friedman" branded BE100 amps being a bit darker and smoother. The newer BE100 amps have been getting brighter and more aggressive again with changes to the NFB, filtering, going to Synergy caps from M150's, and the addition of the Response control.
I don't think the snubber cap values have changed in the BE100 since it became "Friedman" branded, but Dave did say in another thread here that he's recently switched from Silver Mica to Vishay ceramic for small value caps.
No idea if he's adjusted the values due to the change in cap type.
Hope that helps answer your question.
 
I've seen a few. Basically they are just marshals that people sent in to be modded to the BE circuit by Dave. Out of the ones I've seen they vary. Most of the difference would be more filtering, but Dave later added the lager filter caps to the BE line anyhow. I think some had no plate load bypass caps, so it would be more aggressive.
 
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