Marstran C1998 Rewind OT Installed - Clip

[jnew]

Late to the party as usual. A little nutty on the verb there but otherwise, the amp sounds really good. There is a tad of hardness in the mids but I'm going to chalk that up to the 6402's. Mine seem to pronounce that in the same fashion. Job well done.

[echoplexi1974]

Yep, I agree. A little too much verb listening back. And I think my mic placement was not in the most ideal place. The mids are a little too bitey. But having lots of fun recording lately! More clips to come!

[darkbluemurder]

Those bitey mids are part of the VH 1 tone.

And yes, the Marstran C1998 is great. I got one in my modded SLP 1959 RI.

Cheers Stephan

[jnew]

The mids are a tricky part of it. Yes, overall mids are present and even dominant in early VH tone but there's a fine line between "The Sound", and then hardness. Like the first step towards the dreaded cocked wah thing. It's like a wide band of mids that stand out and not one, or even a couple Hz's. Variacs get plexi circuit going in the right spectrum of things. Throw in the echo-plex pre-amp circuit and PU's, and you are on your way.

[echoplexi1974]

The hardness is coming from the mic placement. The pu, echoplex, one variac, transformers are all there. This amp really sings. No need for a second variac Imo, that whole thing has been overblown.

I've been spending a lot of time with mic placements as of late. I'm working on converting a 1979 marshall MV into a mod 5 spec. Mic placement is so critical to getting the mod5 to sound good. I learned that I need to spend more time finding a sweet spot with the 68 plexi too.

[jnew]

Do you have other Greenback types to compare? Just saying that by my experience, 6402's (which I've two sets of quads of over the years, and still a pair today) do pronounce a tad of that harder mid thing. They are distinct in that way. Not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation.

And as far as a 2nd variac, if you think it's overblown, I just wanna ask if you've tried it, because it is REAL. Your amp sounds good and if you're happy with it, that is the absolute end result. I would agree you don't need a 2nd variac if you pickup, plug in and feel totally happy and free. But one who has tried the 2nd variac will not deny that it is something very unique.

So have you tried one?

[echoplexi1974]

I do have a quad of reissue heritage gm12. Havent spent too much time with those. I really should revisit those.

No I have not tried it. From the clips you posted I didn't hear a big enough difference to want to try. Can you post some new clips with different VH riffs and A/B between the two setups? I just can't see it being a key element in Eddie's brown sound. Maybe this is something he tried for awhile but I'm sure he deemed it as unnecessary.

I'm not saying the 2nd variac is a dumb idea, just seems like its not making that huge of a difference in your clips. That's the way I hear it anyway....

[jnew]

Heritage G12M's would be a good comparison to hear the differences.

rgalpin has posted some clips with his 2nd variac. Should raise no questions about it. Not saying Ed did this or not. No real way to confirm whether or not he did but just using your ears suggest some serious possibility.

[echoplexi1974]

I hear ya. Who knows, maybe I'll give it a whirl one of these days

[jnew]

Easy to do and very worthwhile if the early VH tone is in your head.

[ttowne]

Fantastic sounding clip as well as the others from the 68 on your soundcloud page, of the best I've heard. Very nice! Stock values all around?

[echoplexi1974]

Thanks ttowne! Pretty much the Friedman specs with some some very minor changes. Both transformers were rewound through Brian at Marstran