TAF Marshall JCM 800 Hot Mod

The only hot mod I know of, is the soldano hot mod. Not sure if this is what andy is referring to, he doesn't really specify, however it only makes sense. It's a soldano 12ax7 that people often ( or did, don't hear much about it anymore) place in V1 of their amps, basically adding an extra gainstage. I always heard it was noisey, which obviously isn't a problem with the Kemper, but sounded great.

If you're asking if the golub mod is the same mod as the hot mod, then I can almost guarentee you the answer is no. There is no "Marshall hot mod" that I've ever heard of in my 20 years around guitar equipment, I'm sure others will back me up on this as well, other than the said soldano hot mod. Maybe Andy can shed some light on this?

Quote from VESmedic1

If you're asking if the golub mod is the same mod as the hot mod, then I can almost guarentee you the answer is no. There is no "Marshall hot mod" that I've ever heard of in my 20 years around guitar equipment, I'm sure others will back me up on this as well, other than the said soldano hot mod. Maybe Andy can shed some light on this?

Also Fargen did made "Hot Mod" for Marshalls (Transformer), and there are a lot with the Soldano one in it.

Im no electrician, so I can only tell you briefly. - it was a old JCM800 head that had a few caps rewired, something to do with parallel gain stage, and all it was is a more aggressive JCM800, there have been loads of these through the years..just no-one really called it a real name..
Oh there were mullard tubes?? in this head too (IIRC) its going back a long while this is..
None the less It sounds great

Quote from VESmedic1

There is no "Marshall hot mod" that I've ever heard of in my 20 years around guitar equipment, I'm sure others will back me up on this as well, other than the said soldano hot mod. Maybe Andy can shed some light on this?

You are a bit too young then

Hot Rodding Marshalls was THE thing in the late 70s and early 80s. This went to the point when you couldn't even find a Marshall on any stage that wasn't hot rodded in one way or another. Plexi and Metal-panel Marshalls don't have that much gain - though some rare examples of stock plexis with larger amounts of gain do exist. But generally people wanted more gain than stock Marshalls could deliver. In the early 70s people used pedals but later they wanted more gain right from the amp.

Soldano actually started business with hot modding Marshalls before he started building his own amps.

Every modder had his own receipt, but one trick was using an unused (in the stock circuit) half of a preamp tube as an additional gainstage. Another mod was using the tremolo part of an amp and using that as an additional gainstage. Slashs famous amp was supposed to be a modded tremolo head. I'm no amp tech and can barely read a circuit diagram so I can't explain other mods that have been frequently used back then (swapping some resistors and caps for example).

The JCM800 was Marshalls take on making an amp that sounded "hot rodded" right out of the factory. The circuit was not that different from previous amps, so the tricks used with plexis and metal panels would basically work with a JCM800 as well and I know many people who had their JCMs hot rodded as well for even more gain.

Andys JCM seems to be one of those but since there are so many mods it is impossible to tell what was done exactely without opening the amp.

Slashs JCM800 - which he used after said modded JMP tremolo head - was also not stock and when Marshall made the AFD amp they copied the mods.

So basically: Marshalls are THE platform for hot mods, just not the models from the past 20 years

Quote from Garrincha

You are a bit too young then

Hot Rodding Marshalls was THE thing in the late 70s and early 80s. This went to the point when you couldn't even find a Marshall on any stage that wasn't hot rodded in one way or another. Plexi and Metal-panel Marshalls don't have that much gain - though some rare examples of stock plexis with larger amounts of gain do exist. But generally people wanted more gain than stock Marshalls could deliver. In the early 70s people used pedals but later they wanted more gain right from the amp.

Soldano actually started business with hot modding Marshalls before he started building his own amps.

Every modder had his own receipt, but one trick was using an unused (in the stock circuit) half of a preamp tube as an additional gainstage. Another mod was using the tremolo part of an amp and using that as an additional gainstage. Slashs famous amp was supposed to be a modded tremolo head. I'm no amp tech and can barely read a circuit diagram so I can't explain other mods that have been frequently used back then (swapping some resistors and caps for example).

The JCM800 was Marshalls take on making an amp that sounded "hot rodded" right out of the factory. The circuit was not that different from previous amps, so the tricks used with plexis and metal panels would basically work with a JCM800 as well and I know many people who had their JCMs hot rodded as well for even more gain.

Andys JCM seems to be one of those but since there are so many mods it is impossible to tell what was done exactely without opening the amp.

Slashs JCM800 - which he used after said modded JMP tremolo head - was also not stock and when Marshall made the AFD amp they copied the mods.

So basically: Marshalls are THE platform for hot mods, just not the models from the past 20 years

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Dude... Absolutely NO REASON for the history lesson... NO ONE is saying Marshall's Were not the platform for modding; what I AM SAYING, Is that outside of the TRADEMARKED name the "soldano Hot mod", there is nothing that has come close to being used as such... Please do not get this misunderstood. The term "hot mod" at this point, atleast over on this side of the pond for the last 20 or so years, is recognized as an actual "product" made by soldano. Wether or not Andy was using that term as such or not, obviously was NOT made clear, which was my entire point of my response. Furthermore, I have NEVER heard someone using the term "hot mod" to describe a generically modded Marshall. Again, that term is specific to an actual product, not the generalization of a "modded Marshall"..... But thanks for the history lesson

As pointed out previously also Fargen commercialize his product under the name "Hot Mod". They have a broad offering for many amps but Ben Fargen actually started modding Marshalls for Joe Satriani and Steve Vai at the end of the 80s