Jeff_H
Dean Hardtail Fanologist
Holy Freakin' Sh!t :eek2:
I finally got a chance after a week of unpacking and working to put it back together and play it for an hour. This mod is far more than I ever expected. Absolutely amazing, and I haven't even scratched the surface as far as the settings go. I'll give a brief rundown of the changes.
First off, the amp has been completely changed to a point-to-point wiring scheme. The old PC board has been removed and is sitting in my closet completely intact.
Clean Channel - modded to Fender Black Face specs. Sounds as good as any Fender amp I have ever plugged into...period. Sparkling clean, warm, articulate...all the things you want from a clean channel. This channel will go from jangle and spank with my Strat to warm and smooth with my Dean. Also on the inside of the chassis is a mid control, which was not a standard BF option, but some of the original Twins did have them. It has a 100k sweep on it for amazing tonal range. I cannot tell any real difference between the clean channel on my Marshall now and the Twin Reverb patch on my Boss GT-6.....it's that good. Jeff also included a bright switch. Not my cup of tea normally, but I haven't had a chance to explore all of what it really does. It's a nice feature none the less.
Drive Channel - annother big WOW. Modded to 2204/Plexi specs. Simply amazing is all I can say. All of that classic Plexi grind up to the roar of a 2204 at full throttle. No buzzy or thin sounding distortion at any level. With the standard 2205 controls...my gain sweep only really came into effect between 7 and 10. Below 7 I noticed more volume change than gain change. Now, I have a useable gain sweep from 2 thru 10. Nice blues crunch thru classic rock crunch range all the way to balls to the wall classic Marshall gain. Like most Marshall's, if I want metal type distortion a pedal will still be necessary.
The gain mod is like having the best of the Marshall tone I used to get at max gain and volume levels (but thicker and more refined) available at much more useable levels. The tone is still classic Marshall....I can just dial the gain down to 2-3 and not loose that Marshall crunch. It stays saturated and thick...not watered down. It also stays articulate and does not muddy up, even when I dime the pre-amp and master volume. As I turn up the master volume, I find I need to turn down the pre-amp gain a litte...the power tube saturation is much more noticable. It's also noticably louder since the power transfer is cleaner. I can really get those Drake transformers cooking now! Also, I have never heard the bridge on my strat sound as thick and full on any amp. I had to look down to make sure I wasn't playing my fat strat!
Some other features I have now are:
Gain Knob (drive channel) - Push/Pull knob for a gain boost. Puts me in TSL teritory, but with the noise as well.
Bass Knob (drive channel) - Push/Pull to engage a bass/mid freq shift. This helps optimize sound at lower volume levels. It also helps the amp push more low's at max volume than most other amps.
Master Vol Knob - "Silent Mode"...allows very useable tones for quite practice or recording with the volume knob under 1.5. Sounds killer with the bass/mid shift option.
The amp also now defaults to the clean channel as opposed to the drive channel when I turn it on...a really nice feature. Annother cool feature is that there is now a green led for the clean channel that switches to red for drive....neat!.
I finally got a chance after a week of unpacking and working to put it back together and play it for an hour. This mod is far more than I ever expected. Absolutely amazing, and I haven't even scratched the surface as far as the settings go. I'll give a brief rundown of the changes.
First off, the amp has been completely changed to a point-to-point wiring scheme. The old PC board has been removed and is sitting in my closet completely intact.
Clean Channel - modded to Fender Black Face specs. Sounds as good as any Fender amp I have ever plugged into...period. Sparkling clean, warm, articulate...all the things you want from a clean channel. This channel will go from jangle and spank with my Strat to warm and smooth with my Dean. Also on the inside of the chassis is a mid control, which was not a standard BF option, but some of the original Twins did have them. It has a 100k sweep on it for amazing tonal range. I cannot tell any real difference between the clean channel on my Marshall now and the Twin Reverb patch on my Boss GT-6.....it's that good. Jeff also included a bright switch. Not my cup of tea normally, but I haven't had a chance to explore all of what it really does. It's a nice feature none the less.
Drive Channel - annother big WOW. Modded to 2204/Plexi specs. Simply amazing is all I can say. All of that classic Plexi grind up to the roar of a 2204 at full throttle. No buzzy or thin sounding distortion at any level. With the standard 2205 controls...my gain sweep only really came into effect between 7 and 10. Below 7 I noticed more volume change than gain change. Now, I have a useable gain sweep from 2 thru 10. Nice blues crunch thru classic rock crunch range all the way to balls to the wall classic Marshall gain. Like most Marshall's, if I want metal type distortion a pedal will still be necessary.
The gain mod is like having the best of the Marshall tone I used to get at max gain and volume levels (but thicker and more refined) available at much more useable levels. The tone is still classic Marshall....I can just dial the gain down to 2-3 and not loose that Marshall crunch. It stays saturated and thick...not watered down. It also stays articulate and does not muddy up, even when I dime the pre-amp and master volume. As I turn up the master volume, I find I need to turn down the pre-amp gain a litte...the power tube saturation is much more noticable. It's also noticably louder since the power transfer is cleaner. I can really get those Drake transformers cooking now! Also, I have never heard the bridge on my strat sound as thick and full on any amp. I had to look down to make sure I wasn't playing my fat strat!
Some other features I have now are:
Gain Knob (drive channel) - Push/Pull knob for a gain boost. Puts me in TSL teritory, but with the noise as well.
Bass Knob (drive channel) - Push/Pull to engage a bass/mid freq shift. This helps optimize sound at lower volume levels. It also helps the amp push more low's at max volume than most other amps.
Master Vol Knob - "Silent Mode"...allows very useable tones for quite practice or recording with the volume knob under 1.5. Sounds killer with the bass/mid shift option.
The amp also now defaults to the clean channel as opposed to the drive channel when I turn it on...a really nice feature. Annother cool feature is that there is now a green led for the clean channel that switches to red for drive....neat!.
