Marshall Randy Rhoads amp demo

[PPPMAT]

Yes its the normal channel that is the modded one - the bright channel is a standard plexi as said above. Just a shame they based it on the 1959slp rather than the HW head.

Still looks cool as f..... though.

[gwEm]

do people think most of the rhoads tone comes from the MXR Dist+ then?

[Twinfan]

Dist+ into Plexi = Randy's tone

That's my opinion anyway.

[gwEm]

its been ages since i checked out tribute, diary of a madman and blizzard of ozz....

in fact, i think the tone in the clip originally posted is rather nicer than randy's actually tone, which is rather fizzy and harsh at times

randy used the top left input, where as the japanese guy is using the top right (which we can presume to be the modded channel?). the mod seems to give the randy tone which is my head after not listening for a few years, rather than his actual tone back in the day.

wonder if that japanese guitarist is using any pedals...

edit: answer is maybe -

http://blog.marshallamps.jp/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/02/1959rr_shooting.jpg

[Crazy_Joe]

TBH if you get a Dist X you're pretty much there. If Randy wasn't a guitar god people would say his tone was muddy and awful. But so many classic songs have been made with it it's hard not to like.

[HTH AMPS]

But it was one of the inputs that was modded, and one not. Apparently he did not like the mod and used the other input

I think 'Normal-Hi' is the modded input, which runs the normal channel first stage into the bright channel input.  To bypass the mod, you'd plug into 'Bright-Hi' and have a regular plexi lead channel....

thats essentially it Dave, or certainly what the Marshall factory schematic shows.  the clips I've heard with the cascaded gain stages have that trademark Randy Rhoads tone leading me to believe he used the cascade mod.

[JamesHealey]

I would put my original '70 1959 Super Lead up against that amp any day of the week.  :shock:
yes mine doesn't have as much gain but pushed with the barber it slays anything u could imagine.

[JamesHealey]

the RR tribute Marshalls do sound good, but like the old non-master volume Marshalls, it's still gonna have to be cranked somewhat to get plenty of gain (the RR amp doesn't have a MV either).

it's a pretty crude 'mod' actually and a bit of a strange one since Marshall were already making their 2204/2203 amps at the time when they modded Randy's white 1959 head.  all they've done is to cascade the normal and brilliant channels into each other, but you can't argue with the results - it sounds great.  I'd personally have liked to see a (defeatable) master volume on the amp so you can balance the preamp and poweramp gain without having to crank it.

that said, it's a niche amp that does the job well - if only they'd got the cab right  :roll:

The "one wire mod" as it's known is a bit crude as you've mentioned, I've found it impossible to dial in a good tone using this mod which makes me think marshall might have changed a few values, eg the coupling caps on the first valve to 2200pf on both sides or something similar, I've designed a few mods with an extra gain stage infront of the first valve stage and I've also tried turning the cathode follower into a gain stage so you have a plate driven tonestack which is a nice way to do it, the lee jackson way of adding a gainstage after the CF stage is also well thought of but I've not tried this yet.

Still think the 2203 is the best way to get that extra gain but retain the crunch/dynamics of the Marshall sound though, and a stock plexi is great with a pedal pushing it anyway so why mod it?

[mikey5]

Damn that guy is one hell of a player. Good music

[HTH AMPS]

the RR tribute Marshalls do sound good, but like the old non-master volume Marshalls, it's still gonna have to be cranked somewhat to get plenty of gain (the RR amp doesn't have a MV either).

it's a pretty crude 'mod' actually and a bit of a strange one since Marshall were already making their 2204/2203 amps at the time when they modded Randy's white 1959 head.  all they've done is to cascade the normal and brilliant channels into each other, but you can't argue with the results - it sounds great.  I'd personally have liked to see a (defeatable) master volume on the amp so you can balance the preamp and poweramp gain without having to crank it.

that said, it's a niche amp that does the job well - if only they'd got the cab right  :roll:

The "one wire mod" as it's known is a bit crude as you've mentioned, I've found it impossible to dial in a good tone using this mod which makes me think marshall might have changed a few values, eg the coupling caps on the first valve to 2200pf on both sides or something similar, I've designed a few mods with an extra gain stage infront of the first valve stage and I've also tried turning the cathode follower into a gain stage so you have a plate driven tonestack which is a nice way to do it, the lee jackson way of adding a gainstage after the CF stage is also well thought of but I've not tried this yet.

Still think the 2203 is the best way to get that extra gain but retain the crunch/dynamics of the Marshall sound though, and a stock plexi is great with a pedal pushing it anyway so why mod it?

The schematic I have shows it to simply be the 'one wire mod' as you say.  no mods, just a straight up 1959 head except the bright channel doesn't have the 2200pF coupling cap, it's a 22nF cap on both sides.

I've tried a plate-driven tonestack recently and didn't like it at all - harsh and honky.  I added a DC-coupled CF and it smoothed out the tone considerably, much nicer.

I like a gain stage after the tonestack, but not setup for quite as much gain as the Lee Jackson stuff.  The way I've done it is to have an AC-coupled CF after the tonestack to drive the effects send, then have a 'recovery' stage (return).  I add a small amount of gain for more 'hair', but you could go crazy and drive the piss out of the recovery gain stage for more filth  :lol:

I agree that the 2203 is the best way to get more gain too - it's my fave Marshall.