Ultimate Rhoads

I saw this picture of Eddie's Marshall and it appears he is using less than 3 preamp tubes. I heard it was called the direct bypass mod, but I cant find any other info on it. Anyone know what this is or every tried it? seems interesting...

Are you talking about Edda first marshall ?

ACCORDING to Eddie and his techs his marshall was 99% stock

The only thing I think was changed was his tubes in his marshal

There was a device that edd used to control the wattage on the Marshall CANT REMBER WHAT THAT THING WAS CALLED if you look you will find what I am talking about

Otherwise the only thing you need is to change the tubes of a 1959 Marshall
(BAM YOU HAVE A EVH MARSHAL CLONE) better get that frankstrat out


HOPE THIS HELPS

Same amp, but 3 preamp tubes. This was during recording VH2.
Maybe he was just changing tubes there?

He could have been changing tubes, I noticed the VH2 picture had all 3, but im not sure when this photo was from. He had a few minor mods done only to do with the caps used, not the design of the circuit and he used a variac transformer and most of the VH1 sound is due to in-studio EQing, reverb,miking, etc... and the amp didn't actually have the tone that comes across on the album. I was intrigued by the missing preamp tubes though and was wondering if anyone has tried it or knows if its safe to do

Oke, tried it tonight with my 1977 jmp. V2 preamp valve removed. Volume 1 channel was a little past 8. Normally this setting would destroy the house..... Didn't expect any sound but to my suprise there was a very clean sound at bedroom level, couldn't get it any louder than that. And no distortion at all. So maybe Ed did remove the V2 to practice quietly backstage? Anyways I like it much better with the V2 back in place.

Some pics of the 'experiment':





On 'full throttle':