Final modifications to my Marshall 1959-SLP

bmf5150 · Post by **bmf5150** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 3:31 pm

weird!!

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 5:50 pm

Ahhhhhhhhh screw that last post. That dummy just had a chapie mic cable and the 3 prong end was sliding in and out. BAD!

bluefuzzguitar · Post by **bluefuzzguitar** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:46 pm

Hey Shane,

How did the I-Rock thing go? Give us the lowdown...

Mike

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:51 pm

Ah I-Rock you ask. Well here you have it.

As i said i wanted to avoid putting the HotPlate on my head for this pretty big place. After all the shitty Korn wannabees got off stage and i gave them the bowlshit "good job" when they really sucked ass i powered up the beast. I had the HotPlate switched off so it was wide open whoop ass. The soundman was like, "Woa, turn that down a tad!!" So i said "Shiet" to myself and turned the HotPlate to about -4dB. That made things better. I have to admit that my head scared me a bit with how much of a roar it emitted. It was bone chilling

. The sound was very good exept that i was stuck right in front of my amp getting blown down by my cab. It was a good thing i had my ear plugs so i stuck those i my head and that soothed it a bit. The sound was absolutely searing though. I could feel it through my body. It was intense. The Korn kids were looking at my equipment wondering what the hell this thing was. They didn't ask after the show because i think they were embarassed because of their Marshall Triple Suck Lead heads.

There was a thing that was also pissing me off equally how i was being satisfied. The amp hum. It's not as evident when i reherse but up on stage that hum coming from my amp had room to spread and it was god dang annoying especially during softer parts. I heard that this might help from Clay Finley over at the Plexi Palace Forum...

Definately shielded wire works. Any noise picked up early in the amp gets amplified.

Shield the connections from the jacks directly to the grid on the tube. Put the 68k resistors right on the tube socket and connect the coax to it (use heat shrink tubing over it; don't use the 68k's on the board). Only ground one end of the coax on the input jacks.

Also shield the grid wires to the second stage if it's still noisy. I had one amp recently that had lots of noise on the second stage.

I've done this before and had an amp so quiet that I had to play to tell if it was even on sometimes. Great for recording. I've done this alot on the MV series.

My amps are all stock now though and buzz a good bit too...

I think i'm gonna discuss this with George. The gay nightclub neon lights didn't help either.

Here's some more observations on somthing besides the amp. My 1960AX cabinet with greenbacks. Ever since i changed my primary string set on my Les Paul to 12's (12 16 19 30 40 56), i noticed that when i really nail my lower strings that my Greenbacks like to flub out a bit. I try to compensate by putting the bass at about 2-4 but the sound thins out and i wan't Marshall BALLS!! This wasn't a problem when i was using 9's and 11's that i bought in standard packs, but the special order 12's are pushing the greenbacks off the edge.

I've been reading on the Plexi Palace Forum that G12H speakers are the way to go for rockin'. I know you like Vintage 30's BlueFuzz, and they are no doubt one of the best blues speakers out there, but i need a good mix of rock with a slice of the blues. People say that these speakers have all the smoothness of the greenback in the high freq. rage but the low end is a lot more defined and tighter. I think this is what i need. Since the greenbacks are flubbing out and sounding fuzzy when i've got the bass knob up real high, the G12H's will compensate and make that a lot better.

Tell me what you guys think about these thoughts before i shell out dough down the roadl.

Thanks forum chums...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:25 pm

Shane,

Turning the Hot Plate to -4dB kinda takes the edge off without much of a volume drop. It's a good compromise between you and the sound guy. Of course you could also angle the cab slightly away from you. If you don't like the in-your-ear sound of the cab without having to resort to earplugs you can always stick duct tape over the center of your upper two speakers on the cab to take the edge off that as well. Or again simply angle the cab slightly away from you.

Shane, you keep referring to the Vintage 30 as a blues speaker but I beg to differ. I'm sure that if the V30's had been around in Hendrix's day he would of used them too! It's that headroom thing I keep going on about. The V30's are 60 w each, as opposed to the greenbacks (25 w) and the G12H's (30 w), so they handle a lot more power. If you're going for a tight sound, rock OR blues, with lots of low end and chimey mids and highs with very little speaker distortion then the V30 is your speaker of choice.

The G12H30 is basically a greenback with a bigger magnet (Hendrix used to blow up those 25 w greenbacks all the time and welcomed the upgrade to G12H30's). These speakers will still give you that greenback sound, only tighter, but they will also distort when driven hard. This is not necessarily a bad thing! After all, the G12H30 has been an integral part of the classic rock sound all thru the 70's. Shane, you might find it's the perfect speaker for you since you like the compression you get from your amp as you push it. The GH12's respond in much the same way and will therefore likely compliment your amp better than the greenbacks.

That hum may well have come from the neon lights. I suggest you try the amp on various stages first and find out if it was the neon lights causing the hum.

Mike

gnugear · Post by **gnugear** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 5:21 pm

I dig the G12Hs! I've got them mixed with some Greenbacks in my 4x12. I think they sound quite different from each other. The G12Hs are more open sounding, with a tighter bottom end. I used to have V30s before the G12Hs and I can tell you for a fact that the G12Hs are WAY warmer sounding. They've got that '70s thing written all over them!!!

When recording my past and present amps, I've always found the G12Hs to sound the best. That being said, I like the Greenbacks better now that I've got George's P2P board in my 1987x reissue. It's like they were made for each other.

I've only played my amp on 10 (without an attenuator) once. Man, what a sound! No harsh distortion, just a huge whalloping thunk that feels like you've been defibrilated!!!

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 5:21 pm

I'm pretty sure the hum happens from Halogen style lights/ Neons. I'll walk up the stair from my basement into my kitchen where we have some little halogens at the breakfast bar and those when turned on drive the amp crazy. I've also checked the solder from the pickup cover to the actual pickup assembly and that's fine. I have to replace a volume pot in my twanger so while i'm at it i might put some aluminum shielding inside the control cavity. All the grounds are fine in the cavity too so i've pretty much ruled the twanger out, but will put some shielding for safe passage. I would really like to try Clay Finleys approach to shielding in the amps chassis. It seems like it could work well.

I heard that SRV did the duct tape on the cloth above the 4 speaker's center. I know i'm being a nag about the Vintage 30, but in my case i think i would just use it for blue stuff. I tried one of my friends cabs with V30's in them and they sounded awesome with his Strat but not with a Les Paul. When i get a Strat from Warmoth Custom Guitars i'm absolutely getting ones with V30's in them for sickening tone.

Along the lines of my Les Paul and my plexi, i REALLY like to push the amp with a hard attack and feel as i play and as i said before... the 12's are flubbin out those 25watt greenbacks. I'm really convinced from a lot of people over at Plexi Palace (and now) you that i would like the G12H for my rockin' style. That bottem end has got to be tight and not flubby like Momma Cass. I now know that i'm gonna order these bad boys.

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 12:00 pm

Here is yet another post about my sickening tone i have achieved through MetroAmp and Mercury Magnetics.

My band played a show last night in Mt. Clemens at the really happenin' place Pub 1281. Despite it's corny name, this place is very classy setup and can hold 300+ people. Last night it had about 200 people in there and it was crazy! Great turnout! I love a atmosphere where the people can get right in your face if they want to and check you out.

The band before us well... i won't say their name to protect themselves from their generic power punk sound.... but otherwise they were loud, obnoxious, and little sissies. These guys in the band were obviously yuppies. They must have carried in 20 road cases just for guitar equipment. So the dudes pull out their gear and it's just massive amounts of effects, rack units, and processors. One guitarist had a reissue JCM 800 (which i think are a bit too bright and brittle) and the other had a TSL 100. Both were loud and soulless. Their tone was absolute crap and all it was was a deafining mix of flanges, choruses, shitty guitar chops, and uninspired tone. Then they pulled the ultimate sin... they were driving some hot ladies out of the bar because they were so awful!!! ARGHH!!!!!!!!

Well they finally left and i kid you not, actually oppologized to the crowd for driving some people out because our band was coming up and they heard we were rockin'. Obviously he was not wrong we were up to kick their ass up and around again. I fired up my SuperLead and let it warm up along with my Hughes and Kettner Tube Factor pedal. That pedal is the best lead boost i've ever had. I got it off of eBay for $150 when they go for $380!!! It makes your hard rock leads really sing. We started playing at the people just drew to us. It was a great sight to see. My tone was absolutely digusting guys... the room had this sweet echo and you could just sense all the sweetness of my amp and guitar just airating through the whole place. After we did a 45min set, there was a huge attack of applause! I know this wouldn't have been possible without my bodacious SuperLead and Les Paul Standard.

I hope more people read this thread and realize what they are missing if they don't get their reissues in top shape.

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 10:47 pm

Went ahead with the shielding over at George's. After the quick mod and letting the beast warm up, we got our mits dirty with some twangin'. To my ears it was quite a bit quieter, i was pretty impressed. Even when pushing 8 on the High Treble volume it still managed to keep a lot of the hiss out of the signal which i liked very much. A job well done indeed.

Upon getting the beast home, I connected it to my 2 Marshall cabs with G12H 30watters and got ready to rock. The head still sounds bad-to-the-bone as it always had but so much quieter as i said before! Awesome.

If you are a gigging musician where some soundmen dare to put a mic on your Marshall, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO THIS MOD TO HUSH THAT HISSIN'!!

jkmcgrath · Post by **jkmcgrath** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 11:07 am

bluefuzzguitar wrote: The 'mojo' is about the right combination of parts. That's why some vintage Marshalls don't have the mojo either! You can make your RI plexi sound as good as or even better than a vintage plexi using all-new parts!

I couldnt agree more with this, the more I have researched and learned about tube amps the more I see "Hype" in alot of the talk on some of the forums.

The two main things that I think people forget to account for is the power in your outlet will affect tone based on the amount of volts it is providing as well as most of the caps/resistors are +- 10% in rating so that in and of its self will account to large variance in tone from one amp to the next.

Which is what is so cool about the PTP wiring is the ease with which you can change a component to get the desired affect.

Cause lets face it. Tone is subjective to begin with and on top of that values of the components have drifted over the years so taking into account what I said earlier there is just no way to know today what that amp sounded like 30 years ago with out all the test conditions being the same.

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 8:12 pm

Hopefully by next week i'll have a update with what my plexi sounds like with SoZo caps. I just ordered these wonder-caps and am gonna be installing them next Friday afternoon. I can't wait to finally here what all this hype is about!

flemingmras · Post by **flemingmras** » Sun Mar 28, 2004 11:37 am

Try changing the 9 volt battery in the mic. That always helps.

Then again there WAS something I heard about MM OTS emitting a strong magnetic field that opened up a portal that will make you travel through time back to 1969 when Marshall made the bad ass plexis...oh wait! That's the new Sozo flux capacitor that George has been testing in peoples amps lately. But the only way that it can work is to dial in the year on the EQ controls, jump the channels and set the Bright volume and the Normal volume on 8.

flemingmras · Post by **flemingmras** » Sun Mar 28, 2004 11:39 am

Try changing the 9 volt battery in the mic. That always helps.

Then again there WAS something I heard about MM OTS emitting a strong magnetic field that opened up a portal that will make you travel through time back to 1969 when Marshall made the bad ass plexis...oh wait! That's the new Sozo flux capacitor that George has been testing in peoples amps lately. But the only way that it can work is to dial in the year on the EQ controls, jump the channels and set the Bright volume and the Normal volume on 8.

flemingmras · Post by **flemingmras** » Sun Mar 28, 2004 11:43 am

Try changing the 9 volt battery in the mic. That always helps.

Then again there WAS something I heard about MM OTS emitting a strong magnetic field that opened up a portal that will make you travel through time back to 1969 when Marshall made the bad ass plexis...oh wait! That's the new Sozo flux capacitor that George has been testing in peoples amps lately. But the only way that it can work is to dial in the year on the EQ controls, jump the channels and set the Bright volume and the Normal volume on 8.

Country Boy Shane · Post by **Country Boy Shane** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 7:26 pm

SoZo Update! SoZo Update! SoZo Update! SoZo Update! SoZo Update!

Got my set of SoZo caps in this Friday and immediately started to hack at the beast. Getting the crap Mallory's out of the board wasn't to hard but i did run into some great happenings when putting the Sozo's in. When i was soldering the leads into the turrets, the wires that were wrapped around some of the turrets liked to jump up and say, "Hello Shane! I don't want to behave so i'm gonna get in your face

" I promptly responded with a, "Oh yea biatch," and proceeded to pull out some hemostats for some extra assistance. After that it was all a breeze. Fired the amp up and let it warm while i had some chili.

Got back down into the basement after the chili fest and strapped on my twanger and got ready to rock. I put the caps to the ultimate tonal test by cranking my amp to 10 to make sure i wasn't getting any mush or flub. Then i slammed out a chord... WOWIE WOW WOW WOW! The mush was absolutely gone. I had all the gross warmth of the 10 setting without any of the flub that i usually got from the Mallory's. Using 12's on my guitar wasn't helping the Mallory's out to well either but now that SoZo is on my side i have to say this.

SoZo Capacitors are the best capacitors on Earth

Before i wasn't able to link channels to much because it sounded to much like an elephant - too fat and too warm. Since switching i'm able to patch the channels with a lot more success in shaping my tone.

I didn't think that these caps would make that bit of difference, but i've been proven wrong fo sho. If you've got any other brand of cap in your amp right now do these easy steps. SCRAP EM' DANNO!!! I've got a gig this weekend at Jimmy's and am looking forward to hearing it in a room with badass acoustics. Talk about Marshall EXCITEMENT!!!