Best Modded Marshall you ever heard/played ?

Re: Best Modded Marshall you ever heard/played ?

One of the Lee Jackson modded 800's that Daymon Johnson had when he was playing with Brother Cain. That particular amp was just a freeking tone MACHINE!! Had a shot at buying it from him and now wish I would have bought that amp!!
Was the amp on this session
 
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Re: Best Modded Marshall you ever heard/played ?

Ayrton's friedman-modded marshalls BE/HBE (he had a red tolex head and an orange one, not sure which had which mods but both were killer).

As far as just heard - I don't know what they did to Gary Holt's (Exodus) Marshall to make it sound as it does, but his rhythm tone was always so gnarly.
 
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Re: Best Modded Marshall you ever heard/played ?

I played an MG15 that had an Ernie Ball sticker on the side. The amp was sick.
 
Re: Best Modded Marshall you ever heard/played ?

Why, my own modded c.1996 JTM45RI, of course. :naughty:

Bought used in 2003 stock for $650. Sounded like complete ass (the older Marshall RIs were a joke).

I slapped a turret board in there with the correct mid-60's values, correct mid-60's filtering, Mercury Mags OT, Mullard pre's, Valve Arts KT66s, etc...

Night and day difference.

Then last year I changed the tone stack, NFB resistor, tap, EHX 6CA7s, etc... to be more like a Superlead instead of a JTM45.

Paired with a Celestion Alnico Gold. Variac'd to 100v.

Goes from clean to mean with a twist of the guitar volume knob:

 
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Re: Best Modded Marshall you ever heard/played ?

I was gonna say a Friedman is the best modded Marshall I've heard (partial to the Dirty Shirley, or for more gain, the BE).
 
Re: Best Modded Marshall you ever heard/played ?

Best Ive ever owned? Well, if I can count my Splawn QR...?? I did have a JCM800 that I bought from a forum bro that had a modded gain knob to where the last part of the sweep sounded more like a driven Jube...

Best Ive heard? Well, that would be EVH's, and the one Slash/Lynch used.. (SIR#34?)
 
Re: Best Modded Marshall you ever heard/played ?

Best I've played...my 2204. It's only been modded with an additional vol/gain so it's not hot rodded. But step on an OD and ooooh baby!

Best I've heard? See Bloodrose above
 
Re: Best Modded Marshall you ever heard/played ?

The best I've played/heard in person: My own work, and I've seen many Marshalls modded by the top dogs come through my shop.

The best I've heard on a recording: Too many to list!

As far as just heard - I don't know what they did to Gary Holt's (Exodus) Marshall to make it sound as it does, but his rhythm tone was It always so gnarly.
One of his was modded by Todd Langner from ADA in the late 80's early 90's when Todd was still modding amps. Todds 5 stage circuit sounds pretty good, but quite honestly its a little dated nowadays and it has the potential to be a little unstable and noisy, plus most 4 stagers will produce the same amount if not more distorted goodness with out the noise potential that's inherent in the design. I reproduced it once a few years ago and had to build an internal noise gate to get it quiet enough for studio use.
and the one Slash/Lynch used.. (SIR#34?)
They both used 34 in rehearsals, but slash used 36 on the AFD recording because 34 was on loan at the time by lynch I believe for the BFTA sessions. Certainly sounds like it on that album. Slash owns #36
 
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Re: Best Modded Marshall you ever heard/played ?

Has anyone been able to document some of these epic Marshall mods?

For example, as listed above isn't the SIR mod used on albums by Slash, Lynch and another high profile 80's player?
Wasn't the Dookie amp used on Dookie, Smash and Out Come the Wolves or some similar trifecta of 90's pop punk?
You'll never know the truth with Van Halen, but were the first two albums cut with a relatively stock Plexi or were there some mods to get there?
 
Re: Best Modded Marshall you ever heard/played ?

Has anyone been able to document some of these epic Marshall mods?
You'll never know the truth with Van Halen, but were the first two albums cut with a relatively stock Plexi or were there some mods to get there?

Mike Soldano has looked that amp over and has confirmed it is bone stock.
 
Re: Best Modded Marshall you ever heard/played ?

I'm partial to OD2 orange in my JVM 410H that I nodded myself. I did the plexi cap, variable slope resistor, variable negative feedback, one wire, and recto mods to it.
 
Re: Best Modded Marshall you ever heard/played ?

You'll never know the truth with Van Halen, but were the first two albums cut with a relatively stock Plexi or were there some mods to get there?

There's only really a question regarding the first album. There have been some studio pics that surfaced during the time that vh1was recorded that show there was either a master volume or line out fitted to the back of eds #1, that may have been used to reamp it into another super lead type amp that is also pictured in the studio. There was also question whether the variac set to 90v was also used as well as the ghetto attenuator across the whole OT primary. Honestly who knows....

VhII is said to be just the #1 by it self, and you can tell eds sound is much tamer on that one, so I believe it.

Mike Soldano has looked that amp over and has confirmed it is bone stock.
Ah but Mike Soldano and Reinhold Bogner both looked at it much later in the late 80's, early 90's respectively after it had been put back to stock. There have been other accounts of it not being stock by earlier techs that had looked at it. Truth is who knows.
 
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