Drake's vs Dagnall tranny's ????

[OlinMusic]

When did Marshall start using Dagnall? I own a 6100 and have yet to open it (it sounds sooooo good I want to avoid the temptation of touching it. Are 6100's with Dagnalls? How about 900's? I hear the Slash model sounds perfectly like a Jubilee and it has Dagnalls.

Anyway, I have tried the Marshall HW's against my old Marshall's, and I actually feel the difference is that the Dagnall loaded one's when Hot Plated (you cannot crank without one IMHO) are sweeter and balanced with more treble. On the other hand, dealing with the people I have played with - I have found old Drake loaded marshalls to be nastier, more robust in the low mids, creamier, darker and just plain RUDE!

Both are a good thing. I play my friend's 69 Marshall 50 watter and enjoy the sweet tone, and clear breakup. However, NOTHING will ever match the brute force of a Drake loaded vintage Marshall.

I can say one of the bigger rock bands I have worked with uses Ards and Wizards, and those sound pretty nasty, but I have never heard them sans Marshalls.

I have had some friends mod their Marshalls with Mercury Mag tranny's and rave how creamy it made them.

What are your thoughts and experiences?

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Drake's vs Dagnall tranny's ????

When did Marshall start using Dagnall? I own a 6100 and have yet to open it (it sounds sooooo good I want to avoid the temptation of touching it. Are 6100's with Dagnalls? How about 900's? I hear the Slash model sounds perfectly like a Jubilee and it has Dagnalls.

Anyway, I have tried the Marshall HW's against my old Marshall's, and I actually feel the difference is that the Dagnall loaded one's when Hot Plated (you cannot crank without one IMHO) are sweeter and balanced with more treble. On the other hand, dealing with the people I have played with - I have found old Drake loaded marshalls to be nastier, more robust in the low mids, creamier, darker and just plain RUDE!

Both are a good thing. I play my friend's 69 Marshall 50 watter and enjoy the sweet tone, and clear breakup. However, NOTHING will ever match the brute force of a Drake loaded vintage Marshall.

I can say one of the bigger rock bands I have worked with uses Ards and Wizards, and those sound pretty nasty, but I have never heard them sans Marshalls.

I have had some friends mod their Marshalls with Mercury Mag tranny's and rave how creamy it made them.

What are your thoughts and experiences?

Can't speak about the Dagnall but the MM OT I just put into my own Marshall is sweet....I also put the MM Choke in there too.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Drake's vs Dagnall tranny's ????

Dagnells became the standard tranny for the 100 watt models around early 1967. Drakes became the standard tranny for the EL34 and SS rectified 50's around the same time. Some of the first 100 watt models used Drake, but these are rare. Even most of the first JTM45/100's that used KT66 tubes had Dagnells specially designed for KT66 tubes. They then superceded that one with one specially designed for EL34's. The arrangement of Drakes for 50's and Dagnell for 100's is the traditional arrangment for Marshall, at least till the JCM2000's. I know that even the early DSL 50 watt's used Drake as well.

 

[shredaholic]

Re: Drake's vs Dagnall tranny's ????

There's different models of Drake and Dagnall transformers. The latest Dagnall ones are the C2668, that came into use in the early 70's (around that time I think. Before that there was the C1998 that had self leads (the leads were covered with weaving and were thicker), these in my opinion are much nicer sounding. I've found the modern Dagnalls to be harsh and ratty sounding. They tend to choke the signal a bit and don't let through as much harmonic detail.

Then there's also the issue of size - the Drakes in 60's Marshalls were 2" when the Dagnalls were 1.5", the Drakes had more headroom while the Dagnalls compressed earlier.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Drake's vs Dagnall tranny's ????

The hand wired JTM45/100 (with KT66) reissue uses a reissue Dagnell OPT that is suppossed to be based on the original blue prints. Maybe that's just marketing, but it does point out that there are diffrent models of both Drake and Dagnell and the specs and quality have drifted away from those used in the plexi era.

 

[shredaholic]

Re: Drake's vs Dagnall tranny's ????

Yeah, how close it is I'm not sure, but the HW series do use a C1998 clone. The normal vintage reissues though use the later C2668, I made sure I replaced it with a Metroamp C1998 clone and the improvement in tone was huge.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Drake's vs Dagnall tranny's ????

Nice posts guys,great info!