Dave Meniketti's '74 100 watt

Post by **VelvetGeorge** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 6:40 pm

I had the pleasure of speaking with Dave today. Definitely a fan of old Marshalls! No surprise that his #1 is a '74 100 watt Superlead. Those 73-74 amps are paint peeling monsters.

Thought you guys would dig seeing a pic of his amp. This is the one from all the Y&T records and live shows.

George

Flames1950 · Post by **Flames1950** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 6:44 pm

Sigh....you have all the fun........

bluze81 · Post by **bluze81** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 7:21 pm

Nice amp! why is that these era amps have so much power? just curious, thanks bluze

Post by **VelvetGeorge** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 7:22 pm

Hey Flames, that was the highlight......

the rest of the day was spent pacing the shop. Looking at the (5) '68 builds sitting here waiting for PT's. The Sound City PA on the bench that was supposed to ship yesterday for delivery this Saturday. The Marshall impedance switches that are almost gone (6 week lead time for 100)....

You get the idea.

Anyway, you always have a home here at Metroamp. Just say the word. And you did say that payment in amp parts and authentic tamales was OK, right?

VG

Post by **VelvetGeorge** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 7:25 pm

bluze81 wrote:Nice amp! why is that these era amps have so much power? just curious, thanks bluze

The 74's bound for the US had 6550's. Which meant some component changes, and the NF attached to the 4 ohm tap. Also, the presense control was wired different: .68uf/4.7k and a 5k or a 25k pot.

Notice there's no boost cap in V2. And yet these amps have more gain overall than earlier Superleads.

VG

toner · Post by **toner** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 7:26 pm

VelvetGeorge wrote:...the rest of the day was spent pacing the shop. Looking at the (5) '68 builds sitting here waiting for PT's...

Still sounds better than most of my days!

bluze81 · Post by **bluze81** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 7:30 pm

VelvetGeorge wrote:
bluze81 wrote:Nice amp! why is that these era amps have so much power? just curious, thanks bluze
The 74's bound for the US had 6550's. Which meant some component changes, and the NF attached to the 4 ohm tap. Also, the presense control was wired different: .68uf/4.7k and a 5k or a 25k pot.

Notice there's no boost cap in V2. And yet these amps have more gain overall than earlier Superleads.

VG

Yes that does make sense,my buddy has a 74 superlead like that in the picture,we have noticed it is really loud when cranked,deafening type vol, thanks George

Post by **VelvetGeorge** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 8:07 pm

toner wrote:
VelvetGeorge wrote:...the rest of the day was spent pacing the shop. Looking at the (5) '68 builds sitting here waiting for PT's...
Still sounds better than most of my days!

Sorry, I won't complain any more. Thanks for the perspective.

VG

toner · Post by **toner** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 8:27 pm

VelvetGeorge wrote:Sorry, I won't complain any more. Thanks for the perspective.

Everything is relative. Most of us are very fortunate compared to other people!

Thanks for this forum and your expertise George. I learn something new from you and the forum members all the time.

BTW, is that an MV on the volume II pot that I see?

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:13 pm

Man, that is a CLEAN looking amp, considering how many gigs it's seen. I used to dig some of his Y&T stuff. "Summer Time Girl's", man, summer of '86 was good times.My old '73 could open a door without twisting the handle

.

rockstah · Post by **rockstah** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:37 pm

real nice! I grew up listening to DAve. Vicious vibrato he has. Thanks for posting that G!

Flames1950 · Post by **Flames1950** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:49 pm

Ooooooh, tamales..........

Masa · Post by **Masa** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 1:15 am

I and Dave were just checking the amp 2 days ago. Yes, the normal volume acts as MV. I'm thinking about updating the MV to Type 2 or something.

Trust me, you don't want to play this amp. It's way too bright. I and Dave were just playing my 50W plexi clone. Then, tried his. We were like "ouch, too bright."

Anyway, we're trying to fix it. I told Dave to order PTP kit from George. He just ordered last night, and George shipped it out today.

rockstah · Post by **rockstah** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 2:22 am

u mean the Lar/Mar master?
so right now its a rich mod using a 1 meg pot?

Masa · Post by **Masa** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 3:38 am

rockstah wrote:u mean the Lar/Mar master?
so right now its a rich mod using a 1 meg pot?

Mark,

I don't know much about MV, but it looks pretty simple. We took some pics a few nights ago. Let me take a look.

As far as I can tell, there're two wires from the output coupling caps. They're connected to the normal volume pot, one goes to the middle, and the other goes to the right terminal of the pot (looking at the amp up side down from the front panel.) There's nothing else on the pot. I can't tell the value of the pot. I'll take a look, when I go to his house next time.

Long time ago, Dave told me that he installed the MV by himself in the late 70's or the early 80's.

When we get the PTP kit from George, we'll just put it in there without changing the MV. If it sounds good, we'll leave it. If not, maybe, you can help us.

This WAS his main amp during the 80's. It's been sounding super bright for at least last 10yrs. The amp used to sound good, as you can hear on Y&T records. And, he pretty much always had the MV.

He has another 100W from 74, and it's a little less bright, but still too bright.

Dave has been using Mesa Boogie for a while. I finished modding my Plexi 50W, so I took it to Dave's studio to check out some of his cabs. Mine sounded pretty good, so we got curious about his 100W, just too hear how much brighter it was (we knew it's very bright, and that's why he stopped using it). It's just way too bright. I'm not an expert like you guys are, but I've been messing with a few of my amps lately. So, we decided to try to fix it. I'm pretty sure we can fix it. Maybe, we need some help from you guys later.

He ordered George's kit with Sozo caps. We may try NOS Mustards in the future. It all depends on how it sounds, when we finish fixing it.