Getting Marshall mods in the UK?

[Brow]

Hey guys.

I recently read Jeff_H's post about the mod he had done on his Marshall and it sounds awesome! Something I'd really like for my 2210 head.

The main thing stopping me asking Jeff Seal to mod my amp is that I live n the UK. Now I dunno if the mod he performed on Jeff_H's amp is 1 he came up with or not, but does anyone know anywhere I could get a similar mod done in the UK?

Thanx for any info guys.

Craig

[darkshadow54321]

Re: Getting Marshall mods in the UK?

You don't have to send the whole amp I believe. You can just send the actual control bit... so the box thingy (chassis?). That makes it lighter, especially for combos since the speaker weighs so much...

Otherwise, I don't know any people in the UK.

[Brow]

Re: Getting Marshall mods in the UK?

*bump*

[zak]

Re: Getting Marshall mods in the UK?

I would recommend contacting Chandler Guitars (0208 940 5874), who are based in Kew in london. They have some very knowledgeable repair people, and I spoke to one of them in depth about possible mods to my marshall jmp, and they were very helpful and seemed to know what they are talking about. Obviously, the only thing is, if you cant get down there you will have to deliver it to them, which will cost you a bit.

[Simon_F]

Re: Getting Marshall mods in the UK?

Thanks for the tip zak. I was in Chandler's a couple of weeks ago. Nice shop. I want to get my Jubilee serviced and biased some time but I've been unable to find anyone I'd trust with it near where I live (Winchester).

I bought some Celestion speakers from Stuart Ward last year - he's the guy behind Session amps and he's based in Basingstoke. While I was at his place I asked him about servicing the Jubilee and, being something of a solid state guru, he just went into a lengthy anti-Marshall rant.

He demonstrated one of his latest SS Session amps to me and I have to say it sounded excellent - in his living room anyway. The guy clearly knows his stuff, but the anti-Marshall thing wasn't a lot of help. Pretty funny though.

[zak]

Re: Getting Marshall mods in the UK?

Hi Simon
Its nice to hear about different guitar/amp repair-type guys in the UK, because there dont seem to be that many.
I have had the most luck with Chandler Guitars (Kew), Charlie Chandlers Guitar Experience (Hampton Wick) and Machinehead Music (Hitchin). None of them are necessarily the cheapest, but their service is better than anyone else I have tried.

Machinehead and Chandlers are fantastic for trying equipment out - both of them have almost soundproof rooms in the basement and they just leave you to it, so you can turn up as loud as you want and give something a real go for as long as you want. I have spent a small fortune in machinehead. They both also have good repairs.
CC Guitar Experience is great for boutique type stuff, used vintage marshall amps, and repairs.
The guitar shops in Denmark Street in london are mostly terrible. You cant try anything out properly, the staff know nothing, and just want to shift as much stuff as they can. I for one will not buy a valve amp for £500 if i cant turn it above volume 1 in the shop, and they wont let me play it for more than 10 minutes.

[Brow]

Re: Getting Marshall mods in the UK?

The guitar shops in Denmark Street in london are mostly terrible. You cant try anything out properly, the staff know nothing, and just want to shift as much stuff as they can. I for one will not buy a valve amp for £500 if i cant turn it above volume 1 in the shop, and they wont let me play it for more than 10 minutes.

I found this to be true when I went to London last year.

At the time I was G.A.S.sing for a Burns Brian May guitar, and although about 3 of the shops had them, no-one that worked in the shops knew anything about them! I had a few questions and whoever I asked in the shop, no-one could answer me. They were too busy trying to push sales on younger, less experienced people.

Not a place I'd like to go again in a hurry. Although Rare and Vintage Guitars was kinda cool

Thanx for the info.

Craig

[proxy]

Re: Getting Marshall mods in the UK?

Its that good old american know-how

[Norman_T]

Re: Getting Marshall mods in the UK?

There are very few good amp places in the UK and that is a fact, whilst Chandlers and Machinehead are good what you are asking is for someone to do to your amp what Jeff Seal has done to Jeff_H amp. I am not sure exactly sure what all the mods are but I would not think thet Jeff S would be willing to tell you unless he's that generous. One place you may try is Torres amps they build and do various kits go to www.torresamps.com

If you are keen in having something done to your amp then why not find out what Jeff would be charging and then see if it is possible for you to ship just the innards out to him (minus the cabinet) then work out the postage. I suspect that it is going to be a lot cheaper than having it done in the UK. Have a check with the customs people as to whether you would be able to get around having to pay any duty and what sort of procedure you may need to go through.

[Jeff Seal]

Re: Getting Marshall mods in the UK?

Brow, I will be more than happy to send you schematics if you feel you can find someone there to perform them.... I would be a little hesitant too about shipping my amp around the world!!!

However, a few things you need to consider......
First off...If you ship it anywhere, you would be better off shipping it whole (since your 2210 is just a head unit) regardless of where you ship it to....

Secondly, the mods that I do are based entirely upon what you're after...(not just what I offer) and can be somewhat overwhelming.... Since I play in a band all the time....( for the last 22 yrs. ...seemingly nonstop...) the requirements I have from my 2210 may or may not apply to your style and some of them may seem rather unnecessary....

Since I usually just convert the 2210's (for that matter all amp's of considerable "Vintage value") to PTP anyway, the list of "amps" you can choose from for the new 2210 design are almost limitless....I.E. you can have BF Fender Clean and Marshall 2203 OD, or Fender Clean and Marshall 2555 OD or even Fender Clean and a Mesa..if that's what you're after.....(don't even think about attempting the Diezel route...Peter's close enough to you already!) or other options like Plexi's, Orange, Hiwatt, Red Bear....pretty much take your pick for any two amps in one chassis....can't do the VOX's though..sorry...

Other options are not quite so "tone altering" as they are useful....

Efx. loop.... truly bypassable at either line or instrument level....(yeah that last one is the same as just running a stompbox, but with the unit only a foot or so away from the input jack as opposed to using an additional twenty foot cord which deteriorates signal) footswitchable....either way.. of course!

Master Volume boost.... single or dual (one for clean, one for OD) again footswitchable....sorta pointless any other way... Although the original idea for this seemed to based around just soloing, I have found it most useful to accentuate some of the softer passages that include harmonics and fingerpicking without the huge level decrease associated with their use. E.g. "Hotel California" intro or "Barracuda" harmonics after first verse..

"silent mode"....Since I'm sure you've noticed that when the MV is set at 0, the tone controls are useless, and by the time they kick in..you're setting off car alarms in a two block radius....the original MV isn't real useful....Marshall's aren't known for being quiet....sorta like Laverda's aren't mopeds!! (if you're into motorcycles!) This feature allows you to retain most of the tone without killing your ears, but it is limited.....I'd be lying if I said it was perfect...

Mid Shift..... what you think it does....just shifts the low/mid cutoff point between these controls.....somewhat dangerous when coupled with the substantially beefier Power supply section which is standard upgrade.

Channel switch....The 2210 is the only amp ever made...(that I know of) that requires you use a footswitch to select the other channel......This mod is the only one that comes on all channel sw. 800's I mod...seems kind of obvious....

Gain boost....depending on what type of tone you're after this may or not be a usable feature.....since I like the gain my 2210 delivers originally and I base my guitar volume knob settings on it....it's not something I like to change....however when I adopted the "cleaner" clean channel, all the sudden I had more gain than I was used to since the circuit was no longer also tied to the original "normal" circuit....so a "duplicate" circuit was created to replicate the original and a switch was added to bypass it..if desired....
Do remember, if you're looking for a 2203/4 type tone, there is also the "modded" 2203/4 OD tone and this could easily apply here as well!


Let me know what you're after, and I'll help as best I can......

Jeff Seal

[Brow]

Re: Getting Marshall mods in the UK?

Thanx for the new posts guys.

I wasn't specifically asking for Schematics of Jeff's Mods, as I wasn't sure if it was a 'regular' mod or something that Jeff Seal worked up for specifically Jeff_H's requirements

There are certain aspects of my Marshall head that I love (the tone and power when it's cranked) but also things that I don't like so much (The fuzzy sound of the OD channel, the less than awesome cleans, the less than average MV control etc).

I dunno if what I'm asking would be a 'simple' mod, or if I'd need a more experienced person to sit down with me and try to talk me through what I want (if that makes sense?)

Thanx for any info

Craig