Worst atrocity committed against an amp?

[Steve Ouimette]

Seems like my thread on the worst amp decision sparked a lot of feedback. Anyone ever do anything to an amp that you regretted? I have...more than once.

Back in 1988 I read a great Guitar Player article on the amp mod kings (Soldano, Jose, Rivera, Harry Kolbe, Lee Jackson...I think) and got the idea that I too could mod Marshalls. Not ever having opened one up it seemed simple enough.

1973 Superlead. Mint. Surplus military electronics shop. Me. Soldering iron. Copy mod from a friends (not similar) amp. Lousy results.

Take another trip to Black Market Music in San Francisco to buy another one. Not so mint this time. $300 for a metal panel, $500 for a plexi. Bought two more metal panel '73's. Did it again.

Amps sounded like shit. So sorry Jim:horse

If there's an amp hell, they've got a room there with my name on the door.

How about you?

[Steve Ouimette]

BTW, I've made it my mission to correct my past sins and now have resurrected over a dozen butchered Marshalls and brought them back to stock. Jim had it right the first time.

[VacuumVoodoo]

Steve, resurrecting old Marshalls that have gone through Frankensteins butcher shop is a honorable endeavor, often a real challenge. Like the one below that once upon a time was a JCM800 . It showed up on my bench a few years ago, I think Frankenstein must have had one of his "better" days.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c149/VacuumVoodoo/Modified%20by%20Frankenstein/jcm800_guts03.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c149/VacuumVoodoo/Modified%20by%20Frankenstein/jcm800_guts01.jpg

[Chrome Dinette]

Nice use of purple wire to tie the relay in place. I generally use red or green wire for this application.

[VacuumVoodoo]

Nice use of purple wire to tie the relay in place. I generally use red or green wire for this application.
That's not a relay, it's a 12V transformer, note a round rectifier and a radial electrolytic cap next to it. It powered a couple relays, hidden under the nest of snakes in upper left corner in the first photo.

I committed an attrocity that could have ended really badly. I was 14 yrs old in mid 1960s spending vacation at a summer camp in the mountains. There was a non-functioning sound distribution PA system and being the only one who has seen a soldering iron - my vast experience at the time was having built a crystal radio...well, I was given the task of connecting the loudspeaker net to the distribution amp. Easy enough as the fault was a missing plug on main loudspeaker cable and corresponding socket on the 150W distribution amp was missing too. Now, the only sockets and plugs that were available in local hardware store were for mains cables....oh well, mains, loudspeakers, same difference, no?
A mains plug got installed on the loudspeaker cable and corresponding socket on the amp. Somebody else assumed that a dangling cable with a mains plug on the end must be plugged into the mains socket on the wall. Some illiterate idiot didn't read the labels I put on the sockets and plugs. All loudspeaker coils throughout the compound burned out before they could set everything on fire. Those were the days of teenage innocence...and perhaps it explains why I routinely install fuses on all power transformer windings in my amps.

[Don A]

I had my 1966 Vibrolux Reverb modified with EL34s, cascading gain, channel switching, effects loop, etc... 20 years ago.

I've since had the amp returned to "stock" condition. Luckily, the original transformers, speakers, most of the components, faceplate/front of the chassis were untouched, though there are plugged holes on the bottom and rear of the chassis and a few resistors and caps have been replaced.

After returning it to stock condition I wasn't using the amp much so I installed a Metro Amps LarMar PPIV master and a Hicks Mender (with a 12AT7) in it and couldn't be happier. This was all that I really wanted done with it in the first place!

[Tuberattler]

Not a butcher myself- I have found zero highly moddified amps that I like the tone of...

Almost all mods that I've come across was an attempt to get more gain out of the amp. Never works out... more gain usually means that it sounds tinny and buzzy...oh yeah, these usually aren't engineered modifications, usually morphidite electro experiments that some one tried and it didn't blow the amp up so it's a winner...NOT!

[tapehead]

VuTLl1JbUdM

First thing that comes to mind. Even prior to playing this video, note the styrofoam cup of who-knows-what on the suede ODS:facepalm


Fav moment: HK saying "most people <sucks teeth> they use the same old, standard boring effects" with Dumble's board in view. Anyone know what his pedals are?

Dumble's tone sounds so good and then it's completely engulfed by that.....evil, evil rack of effects and its misguided user.
The things a businessman has to endure with some customers...no wonder he's become a hard man to reach.

[teemuk]

http://ampgarage.com/forum/files/thumbs/t_cameron_marshall_1_187.jpg

Also, I cringe every time people take a very good solid-state amp and gut it to build a POS AX84 or a Champ or VJ clone.

[6AM]

I remember some guy about 10 years ago buying a brand new Soldano SLO then immediately sending it to a (name withheld) amp modder. After the fact, the guy had realized what he had done. The pictures were horrific.

[Jahn]

plugged sony walkman headphones into the speaker jack of a Silverface Bassman 100. Instant meltdown.

[teemuk]

First thing that comes to mind...

Who else but Henry Kaiser can simultaneously rape listener's ears and the tone of a revered ludicrously expensive amp, while making Alexander Dumble seem both like a total tool as well as a sellout.

This guy rules on so many levels. :cool:

[zenas]

Only amp I butchered (no holes) was a about a 75 Twin Reverb. I did every mod I could find and in the end took them off and just went with a black face mod.
What I found was if you what a high gain amp just go buy one or a few pedals.

[Kiwi]

I bought an early-70s Marshall Lead & Bass 20 that had been modded (allegedly by a famous amp modder, name withheld) to internally jumper the channels, as I was told by the seller.

Gain monster, no cleans at all. As a rockin' buddy said in admiration, "That's an angry little beast." Sounded good if you wanted nonstop crunch, but another friend advised me to get it looked at; said it wasn't supposed to have that nearly much gain. It also started redplating some rather expensive 7189 tubes and emitting burning odors.

My amp tech opened it up. He described it as having been re-wired to cascade the channels' gain stages, as well as some other mods for even more gain, and the plate voltages were all screwed up. He took it back to stock. Completely different amp!

Sadly it got stolen, so I bought the 2061x RI ... a dead-nuts copy of the original. Jim indeed got it right the first time.

=K

[Kiwi]

http://ampgarage.com/forum/files/thumbs/t_cameron_marshall_1_187.jpg



My dog left better-looking messes on the sidewalk!

=K

[support]

Cool thread. Not exactly on-topic, but, when this one arrived the owner claimed it was under warranty. This was after we sent a replacement power transformer to his "tech" who had also done some "improvements" :)

Before:

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m587/tubenut/AuroraCLtop.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m587/tubenut/AuroraCLworks1.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m587/tubenut/AuroraCLworks2.jpg

After:

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m587/tubenut/AuroraCLrepair3.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m587/tubenut/AuroraCLrepair1.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m587/tubenut/AuroraCLrepair2.jpg

[axpro]

I've modded and ruined a lot of amps (most i have recovered after the fact) built a few hotrods for buddies, by my worst atrocity was trying to teach myself amp mmodding with my classic 30...

-It was my ONLY amp at the time, so i fi messed up a mod, no practice or jams till i fixed it....

-I had BARELY any electronics knowledge.

It's not that i butchered a good amp, it was a cheap-o POS that got no love, but it was the slow methodical torture as i added each and every switch, pot and cap network... it was a CATASTRO-F*CK! Killing that amp was by far the one i feel worst about... in the end i got another amp or 2, and left it out beside the trash bins... modded into oblivion, broken and lifting solder traces all over... my only hope is that someone found it and gave it some love....

[guitarstar2005]

Oh these are about bad mods! I have a quick story. 6 years ago at Michigan State the singer of the band let some attractive co-eds on stage to dance. During the dancing my beloved SLO 100 stops working... I check all my connections and turn around to see the pilot light was off. One of the girls put a drink on top of my amp, it spilled into the amp dripping out the bottom- blew every tube and melted a couple parts. I was so pissed I kicked over my entire rig. I had the privilege of playing a Vetta for the rest of the night...that was dialed like ass.

[agradywills]

Oh these are about bad mods! I have a quick story. 6 years ago at Michigan State the singer of the band let some attractive co-eds on stage to dance. During the dancing my beloved SLO 100 stops working... I check all my connections and turn around to see the pilot light was off. One of the girls put a drink on top of my amp, it spilled into the amp dripping out the bottom- blew every tube and melted a couple parts. I was so pissed I kicked over my entire rig. I had the privilege of playing a Vetta for the rest of the night...that was dialed like ass.

:eeks Hey girlie...........tit for tat.

[GT100]

Only amp I butchered (no holes) was a about a 75 Twin Reverb. I did every mod I could find and in the end took them off and just went with a black face mod.
What I found was if you what a high gain amp just go buy one or a few pedals.


...or even better go buy an amp that is designed to be high gain.
There is much more to a proper high gain design than simply adding more gain...

Lloyd

[GT100]

Oh these are about bad mods! I have a quick story. 6 years ago at Michigan State the singer of the band let some attractive co-eds on stage to dance. During the dancing my beloved SLO 100 stops working... I check all my connections and turn around to see the pilot light was off. One of the girls put a drink on top of my amp, it spilled into the amp dripping out the bottom- blew every tube and melted a couple parts. I was so pissed I kicked over my entire rig. I had the privilege of playing a Vetta for the rest of the night...that was dialed like ass.

I hope she paid for the repair...
Seriously

Lloyd

[Rupe]

In my young experimental days, I ran the speaker out of a blonde Bassman head into the input of a mid-70's metal panel 1959 thinking I could get a souped up version of the Bassman. It worked for about 15 minutes (and sounded awesome!) until the Marshall decided it had had enough. Oddly, it didn't harm the Bassman.

[itstooloudMike]

When I was 15 years old (1967) and in my first garage band, we needed a PA system for a gig at the county fair. At a yard sale with my mom, I found an old amplifier, which had been spray painted black. It worked, had 4 speakers and 4 input jacks, so I begged my mom to buy it. I promptly took it home to our garage, removed the amp chassis, and proceeded to cut the cabinet in half, making two PA cabs with two 10" speakers each. It really didn't end up making a very good PA system, so I later sold it for a few bucks less than the $30 my mom had paid for it. I guess the moral of the story is that a 1959 Fender Tweed Bassman was never really designed for sound reinforcement. I've made lots of stupid (and costly) mistakes with now-vintage equipment over the years since then, but nothing haunts me more than that tweed Bassman. Sure wish I'd have known what it was when I had it.

[Steve Ouimette]

Man, those are some scary pix. I can't believe the paint job on the circuit board...that takes the cake.

BTW, another winning idea was putting an FX loop in my '73 Superlead. In and of itself it doesn't sound THAT bad as an idea, it was the Digitech DSP128 I put through it that sucked all life out of the amp.

[fusionbear]

This one came across my bench:

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u223/fusionbear/IMG_3665.jpg

Took me a while to bring back to stock!
It was a Marshall 1987. It had a built in tube screamer circuit in the upper left!

[guitarstar2005]

No it got worse- the girl just shrugged her shoulders like ' it wasn't me'... The next day I was in Ft. Wayne, Indiana and tried tracking down 6l6's... well I found a 'pair' at the local gc. I broke the guide pin and blew the new tube and the fuses at soudcheck...

I played that night through a korg pandora. :barf


In my young experimental days, I ran the speaker out of a blonde Bassman head into the input of a mid-70's metal panel 1959 thinking I could get a souped up version of the Bassman. It worked for about 15 minutes (and sounded awesome!) until the Marshall decided it had had enough. Oddly, it didn't harm the Bassman.

[stratsnboogies]

I bought a solid state rectifier block to replace the tube for a Marshall Blues Breaker amp.. It went right in no problem. I turned on the amp and it smoked the out put tranny.
Great product huh..

[Tommy_G]

In my young experimental days, I ran the speaker out of a blonde Bassman head into the input of a mid-70's metal panel 1959 thinking I could get a souped up version of the Bassman. It worked for about 15 minutes (and sounded awesome!) until the Marshall decided it had had enough. Oddly, it didn't harm the Bassman.

Funny....I came into my music room, and my son (age 5) was there with the speaker output cable plugged into my prized anniversary edition guitar. Ouch.

He was trying to get the amp to play the guitar, I guess. Anyways...I drew him some schematics showing him how to connect the pieces together. Now everytime I'm looking at amp schematics he makes a show of pointing out to me where it says "input".

[macmax77]

fab amps/ end thread

[teemuk]

It had a built in tube screamer circuit in the upper left!

At least that was moderately neat.

I wish I could find photos of one amp (also a Marshall) that also had insides of some effect pedal fitted in. ...Only that the modder had not bothered to remove and hardwire things like pots or the footswitch (which were hanging loose inside the chassis), and had used a generic wallwart unit for power supply (!!!) ...that was held in place with something like zip ties, had few meters of (9VDC carrying) wire from the wart coiled up inside the chassis, and a really dubious looking mains wiring where the wart's mains cord was hardwired to amp's mains inlet with a pair of cold solder joint "blobs".

[robertkoa]

plugged sony walkman headphones into the speaker jack of a Silverface Bassman 100. Instant meltdown.

......But it sounds amazing for the first .04 seconds !

[guitarstar2005]

IN 1989 after de-tasseling corn all summer and saving every penny. I bought my first tube amp. A used Laney AOR 100 like my shred hero's played: Kotzen, Saraceno, Vinnie Moore etc.

I took it home plugged the speaker out into my Crate G-10 amp input and blew it up within 20 seconds. ( The Laney)

I was devastated and it took 5 weeks to get the amp back.




......But it sounds amazing for the first .04 seconds !

[Sirloin]

......But it sounds amazing for the first .04 seconds !

Yes...check my sig...

[Mantraoverdrive]

Well, this isn't a real technical atrocity, but - I saw a guy with a vintage AC30 decide he needed a little "ambiance" in the practice room - so he lit a bunch of candles, and placed them on top of the amp where they burnt down and dripped wax all in the chassis, pots, and grill cloth. I almost wanted to punch him in the face.

[conundrum]

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k517/conundrum67/2012-07-27_11-53-29_26.jpg

1964 Blonde Bassman.
Thankfully the insides are untouched.

[teemuk]

^ It's corny as hell but I actually like that colour scheme a lot. ...Too bad it was applied to ruin an initially very, very nice looking - not to mention very, very valuable - amp.


...Like tolex/tweed covering a Trainwreck. Probably looks equally good than the original but simultanously destroys part of the value and uniqueness of the original design.

[GarMan]

HAHA. Recently I purchased a great 1973 or 74 Fender Super Reverb, at a pretty good price. The amp raised a lot of questions for me. For instance, the cab was a drip edge from the late sixties, it had the original speakers in it. The seller was very honest, and told me the chassis was a 1973. He also said the amp had a trem mod, so I was of course a little skeptical. The amp had a great sound though.

I took to an amp tech here in town to see what he can tell me about the amp. He put the chasis on the bench. I told him about the mod, he said, "Oh yeah, I see that already. I see this crap here in Austin all the time. Leo Fender was a genius, yet people think they can improve upon his designs all the time. I have seen some butcher jobs." Thankfully, the mod done on mine was a good sounding one, but he had to clean up all the messing solder work the modder left behind.

[harryjmic]

Pretty sure that guy who dragged his Matchless behind his truck a few years ago. Here is the thread.

I found it!

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=458332

[Baxtercat]

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k517/conundrum67/2012-07-27_11-53-29_26.jpg

1964 Blonde Bassman.
Thankfully the insides are untouched.
Reminds me of the tweed Bassman pic in the back of an old GP mag. Found covered in fur or carpet, hanging on a wall as a jukebox speaker, something like that.

[Sirloin]

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k517/conundrum67/2012-07-27_11-53-29_26.jpg

1964 Blonde Bassman.
Thankfully the insides are untouched.

No worse than some of the suede D*mbles I have seen :hide

[LPVM]

My first service attempt was done on my Sound City L120 when it needed a cap job. Changing the filter caps sounded easy and as it turned out it actually was.

http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/ww70/2266vm/Feb18capchanges.jpg

What ended up being hard was stopping there. "Gee that was easy, I bet those nasty old yellow caps need changing too." Bye Mustard caps, hello Orange Drops. :bonk


http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/ww70/2266vm/IMGP0149.jpg

[Rockyrollercat]

My cousin has a 50w hiwatt plexi that he's kept in his cold dank basement for about 40 years. I keep asking about it but it's something he played back in the day and doesn't want to mess with it's mojo. I'm thinking max corrosion.

RRC

[GarMan]

My first service attempt was done on my Sound City L120 when it needed a cap job. Changing the filter caps sounded easy and as it turned out it actually was.

http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/ww70/2266vm/Feb18capchanges.jpg

What ended up being hard was stopping there. "Gee that was easy, I bet those nasty old yellow caps need changing too." Bye Mustard caps, hello Orange Drops. :bonk


http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/ww70/2266vm/IMGP0149.jpg

Oh man...