VH Fools through a stock Epiphone amp and a Weber attentuator

[Nitro Express]

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[jhale667]

Nice..have you heard one of those amps with the Mercury Magnetics transformer upgrade? Unfuckingbelievable. Sounds like that or better even without the attenuator...

[Nitro Express]

No. I put Mercury Magnetics transformers in my 5150 II and one of their chokes in the power supply. Warmed it right up and made the amp a keeper!

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by jhale667
Nice..have you heard one of those amps with the Mercury Magnetics transformer upgrade? Unfuckingbelievable. Sounds like that or better even without the attenuator...

Build a little isolation boot and mike the speaker and run it to the PA board and there ya go! LOL! Even the cheap stock transformers are getting the vibe. It screams!

[DeadOrAlive]

That was... GREAT. What is this tank??

[Nitro Express]

It's a tottaly stock Epiphone tube Jr. amp with a Weber 25W attentionator running between the output transformer and 8" speaker. A Fulltone OCD peddle is being used to increase the harmonics and dynamics of the tone. The overdrive is completely off and a Marshall digital delay is being used.

Basically the distortion is the amp and the speaker. The peddles are just shaping the sound.

[Nitro Express]

Here's the same dude playing through a 1987 plexi reissue with a master volume added. No resistive load being used this time. Just the Fulltone OCD peddle and Marshall digital delay peddle.

[Nitro Express]

Here's the same dude playing through a 1987 plexi reissue with a master volume added. No resistive load being used this time. Just the Fulltone OCD peddle and Marshall digital delay peddle.

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[Don Corleone]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
Here's the same dude playing through a 1987 plexi reissue with a master volume added. No resistive load being used this time. Just the Fulltone OCD peddle and Marshall digital delay peddle.

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That's not bad.... not bad at all.

[Eddie's Booze]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
No. I put Mercury Magnetics transformers in my 5150 II and one of their chokes in the power supply. Warmed it right up and made the amp a keeper!

Mercury transformers are what soldano use....

How much did it cost you?

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by Eddie's Booze
Mercury transformers are what soldano use....

How much did it cost you?

Around $500 for both transformers and the choke. I picked the amp up for around $500. I also put a wide sweep bias pot in. What all this does is take the harshness out of the amp and smooths it up. A lot of people think the crunch channel is a Marshall. It is not. The voicing is stock Peavey but the bias is hotter, the power supply has more reserve power than before and Mercury Magnetics transformers are the best available. They smooth things up.

I've been running my amp hard for two years and no breakdowns of any kind. I don't use anykind of hotplate either. It's sounds good at low and high volumes now. You can practice in your bedroom with it and slap the audience good in the club with it. Very versitile and reliable.

[Nitro Express]

I only got to play a Soldano SLO 100 in a music store. It would be interesting to have one on hand and compare it to my modded 5150 II. I know Mike Soldano uses top notch components and he knows his shit about tube amps. Not too many people making quality transformers now. They require special steel and you have to have it made in special runs. I know the guys who started Matchless had a real nighmare time hunting down good core steel for their transformers.

The Peavey transformers are fine but I would deffinately still get a Mercury Magnetics choke and put it in the power supply. It really helps the amp when the power amp starts sucking juice.

I would do a choke mod and a wide sweep bias pot mod first. Then if you want to spend $400 for a little more smoothness, flip for the transformers. If you are trying to get a browner tone you need those.

[Nitro Express]

But fuck, buy a Epiphone head for $100. Get the Mercury Magnetics upgrade kit for $250. Run a good speaker cabinet with a Webber attenuator and run the line out from that to the PA or mike the cab or do both and mix the signals.

I think those little cheap amps sound better than some of the big high powered stuff. Dime the fucker and use what ever coloration you want peddle wise.

I wish this shit was available when I was in high school.

[Eddie's Booze]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
Around $500 for both transformers and the choke. I picked the amp up for around $500. I also put a wide sweep bias pot in. What all this does is take the harshness out of the amp and smooths it up. A lot of people think the crunch channel is a Marshall. It is not. The voicing is stock Peavey but the bias is hotter, the power supply has more reserve power than before and Mercury Magnetics transformers are the best available. They smooth things up.

I've been running my amp hard for two years and no breakdowns of any kind. I don't use anykind of hotplate either. It's sounds good at low and high volumes now. You can practice in your bedroom with it and slap the audience good in the club with it. Very versitile and reliable.

$1000 for the Amp and the Mercury transformers is a fucking steal, man. Those Mercury transformers are really quiet(no line noise).

Perhaps you already know this but Mike Soldano never pushes any of the components in his amps past their capacity either.

My soldano is 11 years old now.....no problems with it....original tubes.

Ultra reliable. Reliability is something ALOT of people overlook with tube Amps.

[Nitro Express]

Atomic Punk

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[Nitro Express]

Watching that little amp crap out it's delightful magic drives it home a lot to do with Eddie's original sound was speaker distortion. That's over looked. In the studio Ed used old 25 watt Celestians. Live he used the higher rated speakers so they wouldn't blow. But a lot of his sound is those low rated Celestians being pushed into distortion. You can hear it on that little Epiphone amp. Same vibe.

[Nitro Express]

A 4x12 cab with greenbacks is rated for 100 watts. Ed dimed his amp full up. Tube amps of the day were rated for the average output of a clean signal and not a clipped one. When pushed full blast a Marshall plexi could put out 50% more peak power making the amp hit peaks of 150 watts or even more.

Those peaks would overload the speakers in the cab and make them distort. Not constantly but at the peak of the power curve. That's the sound we all dig.

[Eddie's Booze]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
A 4x12 cab with greenbacks is rated for 100 watts. Ed dimed his amp full up. Tube amps of the day were rated for the average output of a clean signal and not a clipped one. When pushed full blast a Marshall plexi could put out 50% more peak power making the amp hit peaks of 150 watts or even more.

Those peaks would overload the speakers in the cab and make them distort. Not constantly but at the peak of the power curve. That's the sound we all dig.

We all dig that sound but for me it's annoying having crank the amp all the way up to get that "sound" we all love.



:(

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by Eddie's Booze
We all dig that sound but for me it's annoying having crank the amp all the way up to get that "sound" we all love.



:(

That's why Mike Soldano while modding people's Marshall came up with the idea of trying to emulate power tube distortion in the preamp. The tubes are cheaper, no expensive transformers to blow. In other words, the sound of an amp comming apart but not doing so in reality. It's a trade off. Obviousely he was onto something because everyone copied his circuit design.

Does it sound like a plexi dimed? No, but you have the balls and warmth without constantly replacing the output transformer and tubes. So that's the trade-off. I can live with it.