Marshall Mode Four

[Rex_Rocker]

Just taking a walk down memory lane.

I used to have one of these like 10 years ago. I was late to the party, but I mean... by that point, these were ridiculously cheap because no one liked them. I must have gotten mine for like 250.

You know what? It wasn't that bad!

It wasn't my dream amp, but with a boost, these handled Metal really well.

They were expensive when they were new for what they are, and they were marketed to the Nu Metal crowd, but if you set them up right, they sounded great!

Big bottom-end, sizzling high-end. You really had to keep the treble, bass, presence, and resonance knobs in check. And forget pushing those scoop buttons. But I mean, if you didn't go all retarded on the settings, it was a mean-sounding amp!

For sure not your AC/DC or Guns 'n Roses type of Marshall, but great for playing some heavy chuggz.

JMO.

Anyone have similar experiences? I'd recommend anyone who likes heavy tones to gives these at least a chance. Of course, it's not the be all end all of amps, but the way people are basically paying you to take these off their hands, I mean, why not? LOL

 

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

I love the hell out of mine, it's the amp I gig.

 

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

I generally use amp 1 side crunch channel with a boost in front, it's raw and middy and still very Marshall flavored. Amp 2 side is so dirty it can get a little sluggish if you have too much gain thru it.
I agree that scooped sounds not great... Push the mids up. Especially drop tuned.

I've compared it to my DSL, my TSL, and my JVM. It's still the one I take to play on stage. It's just right, loud, brutal, tight, and sounds amazing.

It gets a lot of hate because of the whole numetal label thing... But people who can't set up an amp to sound good generally do the most complaining in my experience.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I actually liked Amp 2 OD1 the best. OD2 was just too much for me. OD1 was on the verge of being too much as well, but I just kept the bass and treble down as well as the gain. I liked how you could choose which mids the mid knob affects, and that's what sells me on Amp 2, since you can scoop the "bad" kind of mids (the low mids) with the mid knob, and keep the "good" Marshall-y high mids intact. I liked keeping the Tone Matrix on the setting that brought the mid freq the lowest. Bad thing is, however, the sub-lows got even more out of whack at that setting. But a thinner-sounding boost like the Boss SD-1 or MXR GT-OD/Wylde OD took care of that to an extent.

Crunch was also good, just a bit too Marshall-y for my taste. But I really liked that you could control the sub lows with the resonance knob which is a weakness I find JCM800's have. The bass knob is too high on the freq spectrum on those for my taste.

I also liked that you could assign the FX loop to either "amp".

Funny enough, I didn't find it as obnoxiously loud as the 350W rating would suggest. My 20W Krank could very well keep up with it volume-wise. It did have A LOT of low-end even at loud volumes.

I want to find another at some point, TBH.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Cool clip, BTW. Are you using T-75's? K-100's? I hear that kind of glassy top-end that I remember my T-75's had. You can't hear it in my clip because it's just a laptop mic that's REALLY off-axis, but it had that. I bet the Mode Four would be marvelous through those Marshall Vintage 30MF's the MF cabs had.

 

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

Cool clip, BTW. Are you using T-75's? K-100's? I hear that kind of glassy top-end that I remember my T-75's had. You can't hear it in my clip because it's just a laptop mic that's REALLY off-axis, but it had that. I bet the Mode Four would be marvelous through those Marshall Vintage 30MF's the MF cabs had.

On that clip it looks like the mic is in front of a Manowar. Pretty bright speaker with lots of glassy highs.

 

[El Dunco]

I have a friend who has one. I tried to use it at a rehearsal. Admittedly, I didn’t spend a lot of time with it, didn’t have any outboard overdrive or EQ, I got a sound that was technically useable and audible but I just found it too fizzy for my liking.

With the time I had I just couldn’t get a smooth but present top end happening. I do attribute it not being to my taste rather than it being a poor amp. I’ve seen a band play with one, I don’t know how they set it but it worked perfectly for the suitably heavy death metal they were playing.

The cabinet on the other hand is absolutely fantastic and really puzzles me as to why the Mode head was so fizzy when the other heads I tried through the matching cabinet sounded so good. If it had V30s or G12K-100s, I’m not surprised. The GK line is my favourite sounding metal distortion speaker. Every time I’ve been A/Bing speakers and finally been feeling it, thinking “wow, what was that?!” It’s been a GK 9 times out of 10. I have the 100 and a 75 with the old logo which sounds absolutely beautiful.

EDIT:

I actually liked Amp 2 OD1 the best. OD2 was just too much for me. OD1 was on the verge of being too much as well, but I just kept the bass and treble down as well as the gain. I liked how you could choose which mids the mid knob affects, and that's what sells me on Amp 2, since you can scoop the "bad" kind of mids (the low mids) with the mid knob, and keep the "good" Marshall-y high mids intact. I liked keeping the Tone Matrix on the setting that brought the mid freq the lowest. Bad thing is, however, the sub-lows got even more out of whack at that setting. But a thinner-sounding boost like the Boss SD-1 or MXR GT-OD/Wylde OD took care of that to an extent..

You see, it sounds like there’s a lot of settings and features I wasn’t aware of when I tried it. I didn’t have a manual.

I love the hell out of mine, it's the amp I gig.

It may not be tone I would use for my stuff but it’s heavy and suits your riffs great. I suspect that exact sound, same mic position would sound absolutely killer doubled in a mix. I imagine it would have the modern Children of Bodom cut.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I have a friend who has one. I tried to use it at a rehearsal. Admittedly, I didn’t spend a lot of time with it, didn’t have any outboard overdrive or EQ, I got a sound that was technically useable and audible but I just found it too fizzy for my liking.

Yeah, that's kind of its charm. It's got a really nasty raspy high-end. It's not a refined-sounding amp. That's kind of its charm. Like I said, it's kind of an amp marketed at the Nu Metal crowd that kinda turned out to be a hidden gem for Death Metal. Kinda.

But yeah, it's actually got more sounds in it that what most people realize. Like I said, Amp 1 is just kinda like a bigger-sounding solid state JCM800. It's Amp 2 that starts getting kinda caricaturesque if you're not careful.

 

[DankStar]

I remember Alex Skolnick doing a video where he praise them up and down. I believe I heard of reliability issues with them, but people said that about the JTM 30/60 line and mine was fine.

Skolnick: https://youtu.be/debaT9Ry3zo

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Mine was fine as well, but yeah. I heard they overheat. But I mean, DSL's from that era had bad bias drift issues as well, supposedly.

 

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

My first one blew up in like 30 minutes.
whomever had replaced the power chips in it before me had used waay too much heat sync grease.
It overheated while I was playing it and literally pushing every button in and out and on and off while I was testing it out....and popped big blue sparks...sounded kinda cool.
I had it repaired and played it awhile, then sold it off.
But some of those tones.... Were so good, I had to buy another one.

I've learned they are finicky about loads and that changing cabinets can cause an issue if you don't really let the amp cool down a bit between switching.

I switch my new one all the time without issue. I think the first one I bought just had issues.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Funny that the reliability issues with these comes from the solid state section rather than the tubes, LOL.

 

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

Funny story, the guy that I sold my first Mode Four to already owned 4 of them, he was trying to effectively daisy chain them all together! Each head with its own full stack underneath!
can you imagine the absolute wall of sound coming from 5 full stack mode fours cranked up...all at once!
It could peel the paint off the walls!

​​​​​Ha ha I still think about that guy sometimes.

Tinnitus anyone?

 

[El Dunco]

Funny story, the guy that I sold my first Mode Four to already owned 4 of them, he was trying to effectively daisy chain them all together! Each head with its own full stack underneath!
can you imagine the absolute wall of sound coming from 5 full stack mode fours cranked up...all at once!
It could peel the paint off the walls!

​​​​​Ha ha I still think about that guy sometimes.

Tinnitus anyone?

Daisy chaining amps? I’ve got to hear that. So he didn’t split the guitar signal? Was he using the tuner outs to go into the next amp? I have heard of people doing that.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Hahahaha, I would've loved to hear that. MASSIVE amounts of low-end.

But to be fair, I don't remember the MF being obnoxiously loud? Rather just having TONS of bottom-end. Lows take the most power to amplify. Like ridiculously so. More than a Recto.

I mean, it could hang in a loud full-band easily, it wasn't disappointing or anything... but not any more than your average 50W tube head?

Then again, you have one right beside your tube amp, so I'd trust you'd know more how loud it gets. I never got to crank mine in fear It'd destroy my cab. Luckily, back then, my 1960 had V30's/T75's. It would surely pulverize my 1960 with Greenbacks now, LOL.

 

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

Daisy chaining amps? I’ve got to hear that. So he didn’t split the guitar signal? Was he using the tuner outs to go into the next amp? I have heard of people doing that.

TBH I don't even know what or how he was planning on that feat...I just know 5 full bore mode fours would be deafening..

 

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

Hahahaha, I would've loved to hear that. MASSIVE amounts of low-end.

But to be fair, I don't remember the MF being obnoxiously loud? Rather just having TONS of bottom-end. Lows take the most power to amplify. Like ridiculously so. More than a Recto.

I mean, it could hang in a loud full-band easily, it wasn't disappointing or anything... but not any more than your average 50W tube head?

Then again, you have one right beside your tube amp, so I'd trust you'd know more how loud it gets. I never got to crank mine in fear It'd destroy my cab. Luckily, back then, my 1960 had V30's/T75's. It would surely pulverize my 1960 with Greenbacks now, LOL.

Agreed, if you ran greenbacks under that head, something would have to give
I run K100s and Manowars under mine when I crank it up.

And , well, they do push 350w...even though that doesn't always equate to raw volume, it certainly can't hurt.
Depending on the load of the cabinet, but full stack 16ohm cabinets it's pushing 350watts.
I have accidentally bumped my volume knob and it will hurt you. At least scare you really bad. It's a lot louder than every amp I've ever played through. My DSLs were notably loud amps. The 6505+ is pretty loud, the JVM is loud, the JSX is pretty loud. The more four is a whole lot of loud. I can't really imagine 5 of them together! Frocking stadium volume!

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Agreed, if you ran greenbacks under that head, something would have to give
I run K100s and Manowars under mine when I crank it up.

And , well, they do push 350w...even though that doesn't always equate to raw volume, it certainly can't hurt.
Depending on the load of the cabinet, but full stack 16ohm cabinets it's pushing 350watts.
I have accidentally bumped my volume knob and it will hurt you. At least scare you really bad. It's a lot louder than every amp I've ever played through. My DSLs were notably loud amps. The 6505+ is pretty loud, the JVM is loud, the JSX is pretty loud. The more four is a whole lot of loud. I can't really imagine 5 of them together! Frocking stadium volume!

Maybe the volume pot is more linear than on a 5150/6505. I remember runing mine in a band once with an obnoxiously loud drummer (with out of tune ugly-sounding drums), and I had it crank it up around 11:30 if not 12:00. I've never had to crank a 6505 past 3-3.5 (out of 10), and that's REALLY loud.

However, I won't doubt you since I've never had the two side by side.

I've also had an AVT150H, though at a different time. That one didn't struggle for volume either, but it wasn't painfully loud.

The Mode Four did had A LOT of bottom-end on tap if you want it to, though. I'm surprised more doom guys don't use one. I'm sure the MF put a Sunn to shame if you wanted it to.

 

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

Maybe the volume pot is more linear than on a 5150/6505. I remember runing mine in a band once with an obnoxiously loud drummer (with out of tune ugly-sounding drums), and I had it crank it up around 11:30 if not 12:00. I've never had to crank a 6505 past 3-3.5 (out of 10), and that's REALLY loud.

However, I won't doubt you since I've never had the two side by side.

I've also had an AVT150H, though at a different time. That one didn't struggle for volume either, but it wasn't painfully loud.

The Mode Four did had A LOT of bottom-end on tap if you want it to, though. I'm surprised more doom guys don't use one. I'm sure the MF put a Sunn to shame if you wanted it to.

Mode four also has channel volume and master volume.

​​​​​​my first one was louder than the one I own now. Maybe there is some differences between years of manufacturing.
doesn't seem like they made them for very long.
And I agree with you, I can't believe more people didn't really take to the amp. I think it got marketed as a numetal amp and that killed it. Tube snobs already hate hybrids to begin with, so...why not hate on it.
Ha ha ha I say, hate all you want, I'll buy them up!

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I wouldn't mind buying one again if I find one for a low price, which I'm sure it's not hard to come by.

The thing is right now I've only got a 1x12 with a 50W speaker. I'm sure just letting the Mode Four close would blow the speaker, hahaha.

Another good thing about the MF is you can have it unplugged from a speaker, and just run the FX loop into an IR.