rodvonbon wrote:Great score, Mike. The 2204 is an awesome amp and by far my favorite Marshall. It's such a simple design and rocks balls, loudly.
Cheers man, I know you built one of these right?
Yeah, it's in an open back 2/12 combo and gets pretty bright sounding, but I pair it up with a closed back 2/12 for an awesome full sound. I've done a couple of cool things to it like adding a tube buffered fx loop and a 6 way gain switch. I have been thinking about building a second one and just for the aesthetics it will look like a Fender. I'm thinking a '64 blond Bandmaster :}
When I first joined the boards I also had a killer '81 half stack that was moded out. I didn't play it too much because it didn't really fit the style of music I was playing and was a bitch to move about.
Yeah I remember that amp and being excited by it. You have exquisite taste in both amps and guitars.
Yeah Fran a lot of people use Attenuators with Plexis and other Non Master Volume amps
Played with the band at rehearsal last night and it was glorious. I had the amp set up dirty on the High input so that when I was digging in with the bridge pickup wide open and the tone control rolled off a little bit it gave me my main crunch rhythm sound, and I would kick on the Klon or my SD-1 for lead sections or more gain, for cleaner stuff I would just roll the volume back a bit or if I had to do fast switches I had the Jag rhythm circuit (which I made as bright as the lead circuit when I first got the guitar) volume rolled off to cleanish so I could just use the Jaguar rhythm switch to flip between nice warm cleans and full-bore Crunch.
I'm a happy man, guys in the band were loving it too.
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:05 am
by Doog
Mike wrote: the Jag rhythm circuit (which I made as bright as the lead circuit when I first got the guitar)
Eeenteresting, was it just pulling a cap?
Glad it fits so well with the band, Mikey. It keeps edging me towards "Wow, maybe I should track down a 2205", but it's just silly(rabbit)talk, really. I'm probably gonna do the following mod/s, just to keep my TweakSense happy:
[youtube][/youtube] The mods are simply a 100pF c12 treble bleed cap on the od channel and a JJ ECC832 tube in the V1 position. Together they bring the od2 channel sound much closer to the crunch channel so I can just set the od volume a bit higher for solos.
Gonna have to do this, if only for the modlols. Although, I've already cut out C12 ages ago, the guy said to me "the C12 value doesn't have any effect on the sound if the gain is turned all the way up.".
ECC832 fo' meeee!
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:12 am
by Mike
Nah, I tacked a resistor into it.
Basically the circuit is a 1meg Volume and a 50K Tone pot with a cap on it.
The Lead circuit is 1meg Volume and Tone. The 50K Tone pot is what makes things really dark, the guitar signal sees two choices; go through however much resistance the volume pot is set to the output, (from 0 ohms with the volume maxed to 1meg with it all the way off) or go through the 50K tone pot setting and the cap to ground. Only treble will be passed by the cap to ground. Seeing as 50K is pretty damn small you leech off a shitload of treble this way. I added a resistor into the tone circuit so that it's effectively a 1meg volume and 1meg->1.05meg Tone control. I never roll off of the tone on my neck pickup so this is perfect for me. You could also just disconnect the tone control from the volume control to remove it completely which would leave you with maximum treble from the rhythm circuit.
Stock:
Modded:
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:13 am
by Mike
Doog wrote:
Mike wrote: the Jag rhythm circuit (which I made as bright as the lead circuit when I first got the guitar)
Eeenteresting, was it just pulling a cap?
Glad it fits so well with the band, Mikey. It keeps edging me towards "Wow, maybe I should track down a 2205", but it's just silly(rabbit)talk, really. I'm probably gonna do the following mod/s, just to keep my TweakSense happy:
[youtube][/youtube] The mods are simply a 100pF c12 treble bleed cap on the od channel and a JJ ECC832 tube in the V1 position. Together they bring the od2 channel sound much closer to the crunch channel so I can just set the od volume a bit higher for solos.
Gonna have to do this, if only for the modlols. Although, I've already cut out C12 ages ago, the guy said to me "the C12 value doesn't have any effect on the sound if the gain is turned all the way up.".
ECC832 fo' meeee!
Nice! Go for it mate. No sense in not having a play if these things are easily done.
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:17 am
by Mike
BTW 2205's are dead nice, although I'm not sure whether the Clean Channel would be as nice as you'd want it to be after the DSL50, they're a bit darker as I recall, but you do have Bass and Treble controls to tweak it a bit. I'm not sure of their market value at the moment. Now that the Morellols is out of the game for a while they might be more reasonable?
Wicked, I just looked up the ECC832 and it's the same as the 12DW7 I put in my DSL401 when I had it. Great tube - one side 12AX7 which will mean your classic channel is unaffected, the other side is a lower gain 12AU7 which will make your Ultra channel more classically voiced and gained, so you can up the gain to thicken the sound without it getting silly saturated.
WIN
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:25 am
by Thom
Glad you liked it Mike. Recently I've more and more been playing without a "pristine clean" sound and using the guitar's volume which I love (think I told you I use the JVM crunch orange for my clean sounds at Doogfest).
Certainly gives a different sound - that amp seems to suit you
Wicked, I just looked up the ECC832 and it's the same as the 12DW7 I put in my DSL401 when I had it. Great tube - one side 12AX7 which will mean your classic channel is unaffected, the other side is a lower gain 12AU7 which will make your Ultra channel more classically voiced and gained, so you can up the gain to thicken the sound without it getting silly saturated.
WIN
Did you get yours from Watford Valves? Can't seem to find a JJ one in the Uk, and would rather not go with "Brand X"..
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:31 am
by Doog
Doog wrote:Can't seem to find a JJ one in the Uk, and would rather not go with "Brand X"..
Wicked, I just looked up the ECC832 and it's the same as the 12DW7 I put in my DSL401 when I had it. Great tube - one side 12AX7 which will mean your classic channel is unaffected, the other side is a lower gain 12AU7 which will make your Ultra channel more classically voiced and gained, so you can up the gain to thicken the sound without it getting silly saturated.
WIN
Did you get yours from Watford Valves? Can't seem to find a JJ one in the Uk, and would rather not go with "Brand X"..
Hahah, fuck- right at the bottom, I thought it was set out pre then powertubes..
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 10:47 am
by Sloan
Just a heads up, you probably already know this, but I've actually been reading this TUBE AMP BOOK or whatever and it just got to a breakdown of the JCM amps and the HIGH input actually has an extra tube that the LOW input doesn't use or something like that. Thought it was interesting.
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 10:48 am
by Mike
Sloan wrote:Just a heads up, you probably already know this, but I've actually been reading this TUBE AMP BOOK or whatever and it just got to a breakdown of the JCM amps and the HIGH input actually has an extra tube that the LOW input doesn't use or something like that. Thought it was interesting.
Yup, it has an extra gain stage which brings teh noise. The low input is completely clean up the preamp with my guitars, although when you crank it fucking loud you get power amp overdrive obviously.
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 10:52 am
by Sloan
I'm going through the JCM800 and Peavey Windsor schematics, which is taking forever because i'm SHIT AT SCHEMATICS. I know there's a way to clean up the Windsor, which would be great, you can get the whole damn half stack for $400 usd now. AMAZIN'. I love the way it sounds cranked the fuck up, but it's just not practical for me at all like that. I would like to get one, make it 50w and have some clean, it would probably be perfect then.
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 10:58 am
by Mike
If you pull two tubes and half the impedance output you're using then it's half the wattage, which is like 60W I believe.
Dunno about the cleans, I'd have to have a look.
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 11:00 am
by Doog
The head is 120RMS, runs four EL34s and can't get cleans? Jeez.
Couldn't you just stick some low gain preamp tubes in there?
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 11:03 am
by Mike
Doog wrote:The head is 120RMS, runs four EL34s and can't get cleans? Jeez.
Couldn't you just stick some low gain preamp tubes in there?
I know. They're complete idiots.
Check this shit out:
[youtube][/youtube]
As you can tell, it has way more gain than an 800. And a nasty saturated sound to it.
I think they completely fucked the preamp design up, and have overgained it. The headroom must be negligible, I wouldn't be surprised if the preamp tubes were biased way too hot. I think rebuilding the pre-amp as an 800 preamp would be a cool project. If I could get one for cheap I could consider doing it as a project. Just saw the PCB in half at the power amp and insert an 800 spec'd tagboard.
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 11:03 am
by Sloan
I was thinking maybe some lower gain tubes too, I just did this on my Ampeg with a 12au7 and it did wonders for the clean channel. I love that ampeg so much. The Windsor and JCM schematics are awfully close, i'm trying to figure out what kills the cleans on it, but of course it's gonna take me a while (forevar?).
The FJA mods dude Jerry has a switchable clean mod, that is advertised as another channel, but i'm thinking it just switches off whatever extra gain shit they have on it.
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 11:14 am
by Sloan
Windsor definitely has an extra 12ax7 in thar. I'm gonna stop posting this shit here, CLOGGING THRADS. I'm just gonna have to try to get a deal on one and start a new PROJECT or something.
EDIT:
fuck i'm fucking up shit everywhere, there is not actually an extra 12ax7, it was an optical illusion due to my lack of attention.
I've started a thread at this METAL forum I go to where I know two of the dudes have Windsors and use them for recording and stuff (i posted clips), so I'm going to work on this project over there. I have found some noticeable differences on some resistor values coming of the power tubes, but whatever. If anyone is interested in keeping track with this, then just pm me. If enough interest, I'll start a new thrad here.
