Visible evidence of Randy's modded Marshall?

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skezza
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Post by skezza »

Possibly extra overdrive or polarization
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The Flying Dutchman
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Post by The Flying Dutchman »

skezza wrote:Possibly extra overdrive or polarization
I don't think his heads were 'gain modded'. There is really no need for that. No matter what power tubes are used, if you push them hard enough and in the right way you can get as much distortion you want. Think about this: Randy used an MXR dist+ for clean boost, but to push his amps even harder he also added a MXR EQ after it for a big mid boost. He pushed his heads a lot harder than most other players did. He also needed to push his heads a little more to get the desire overdrive because of the possible usage of heavier tubes which do break up usually a little later than regular EL34 tubes.

I think he maybe only changed some caps, maybe the OT and switched to 6550 / KT88 tubes. But 6550's when pushed sound less musical than pushed KT88's tubes imo, so I think he used KT88 tubes. But that's just speculation......
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Post by dannyahansen »

ok guys. randy went through a couple of diffrent amps with his days with ozzy. i know in most of these photos he is useing master volume jmp 100 heads. look on ebay. youll see them. i have a 50 watt master volume jmp. the led switches on the amp with the 4 inputs are a dead give away. also the amp with the 3 switches is a polarity switch for the canadian models. i used to work a guitar center for 5 years so i saw alot of things. any how, if you listen to the boots legs that are out there you will hear randys tone change some time in mid 81. the concerts from 82 sound way diffrent than, lets say the concert from the tribute show or any thing from the first part of 81. i heard randy switched to jcm 800s later but ive never been able to confirm that. hope this helps
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Post by dannyahansen »

sry i have more to add. the types of tubes used do matter in the sound but mostley for power out put. el34s have been claimed to give the "classic marshall crunch". 6550 give more headroom but less power. zakk wylde is big on these tubes. kt88 actually boost wattage. vht used these in thier pitbull models. they sounded a lot like 6550s. generally it seems that the 6550s, and the kt88, went for more headroom. fender amp used these kt88 tubes alot in earlier years. 6l6 tubes have alot more treble in them than el34s. randy probably used either el34s or 6550s. they seemed to be the most used back then. so anybodies guess is as goods as mine. ill tell you that a good jmp marshall head with a boss sd1 through a marshall 4xc12 gets great tone. sounds almost identical to the afterhours foottage.
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The Flying Dutchman
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Post by The Flying Dutchman »

dannyahansen wrote:i know in most of these photos he is useing master volume jmp 100 heads.
Sorry, but I have to correct you here.
Randy only used none-master volume Marshall plexi heads as far as I know, I've never seen any pics where he used a master-volume head though.

But if you found one, hope you can post it here then! :)
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Post by dannyahansen »

you are correct they are non master volume heads i didnt read what i had wrote and made a small error. however i know he used jmp heads witch are diffrent then the 1959 slp. witch is what plexi generally refers to. any how im not sure exactly what modle of jmp he used there are a few out there like 2203 and 2204. any ways i think im just babbling now. thanks though for the correction
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Post by The Flying Dutchman »

dannyahansen wrote:you are correct they are non master volume heads i didnt read what i had wrote and made a small error. however i know he used jmp heads witch are diffrent then the 1959 slp. witch is what plexi generally refers to. any how im not sure exactly what modle of jmp he used there are a few out there like 2203 and 2204. any ways i think im just babbling now. thanks though for the correction
No problem Dann! :)

His amps were definitely all Marshall Superlead amps. It looks like he had at least four of these and they all looked a bit different. I never seen him using a 2203 / 2204.

See:
Image

The most well known are the white and black heads he used in the After Hours show, those were superleads with the larger logos and rocker switches. They look like transition amps and those were probably '76 Marshall heads because that was a transitional year with odd combinations of old and new features.

Then he had one superlead with an extra polarity switch as I pointed earlier in this thread. I heard those polarity switches were only on the export amps and were gone completely sometime in early '74. So this head was from '74 or earlier.

See:
Image


Then finally he had a fourth black superlead with no polarity switch but with a larger logo it seems (the older super leads had smaller logos) , so it looks like one from the transition year as well. See:
Image

Here a pic of a '76 transition superlead with a larger logo, it looks exactly like the one Randy used in the pic above:
Image


So I think he used three '76 superleads and one '74 (or earlier) superlead.
Last edited by The Flying Dutchman on Mon Mar 09, 2009 10:23 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Ell
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Post by Ell »

Flying Dutchman wrote:Then finally he had a fourth black superlead with no polarity switch but with a larger logo it seems (the older super leads had smaller logos) , so it looks like one from the transition year as well. See:
Image
That's a very cool picture, I've never seen it before.
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Post by The Flying Dutchman »

Ell wrote:That's a very cool picture, I've never seen it before.
Very cool pic indeed!
'Day on the Green' july 4th 1981
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Post by Ell »

Flying Dutchman wrote:
Ell wrote:That's a very cool picture, I've never seen it before.
Very cool pic indeed!
'Day on the Green' july 4th 1981
That one was apparently filmed right?

Looks like he's playing Crazy Train solo to me, could be flying high again but I seem to remember that one being on the Jackson.
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Post by The Flying Dutchman »

Ell wrote:
Flying Dutchman wrote:
Ell wrote:That's a very cool picture, I've never seen it before.
Very cool pic indeed!
'Day on the Green' july 4th 1981
That one was apparently filmed right?

Looks like he's playing Crazy Train solo to me, could be flying high again but I seem to remember that one being on the Jackson.
Yep, lots of rumors that this gig was filmed somehow....... (see the footage topic above)

Yeah, it looks like he is doing the tapping part of the Crazy Train solo. :)
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Post by GUITARIDOL5682 »

In the 1980 UK tour programme Randy's equipment used on tour is listed as (Tony Franks) customised Marshall amplifiers and cabinets.
The 1981-82 USA tour programme has his equipment listed aswell:
3 Marshall 1960A 4X12 speaker cabinets
3 Marshall 1960B 4X12 speaker cabinets
(all speaker cabinets fitted with Altec 417-8H speakers)
4 Marshall 1959 Super Lead Amplifiers
Ive noticed on a few photographs from the Portvale Heavy Metal Holocaust concert Randy is playing through hired Marshall amps and 4X12 cabinets.So i could imagine that he would of played through hired gear more then once.
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Post by The Flying Dutchman »

GUITARIDOL5682 wrote:Ive noticed on a few photographs from the Portvale Heavy Metal Holocaust concert Randy is playing through hired Marshall amps and 4X12 cabinets.So i could imagine that he would of played through hired gear more then once.
Yeah, I really wonder what he used for that Port Vale gig?
At least it seems he didn't use his regular white Altec loaded cabinets. And for amps it looks he borrowed them as well from somebody.

At that time he was already used to use superleads so I'm sure he could get a sound out of every decent superlead. One thing I still wonder is if he used the 'dummy load' setup like Eddie did. It's not unlikely since he knew about Ed's variac as well.
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Post by Follis »

Dummy load?
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Post by GUITARIDOL5682 »

Flying Dutchman,
If you check the "fantastic shots" out if you look closely you can notice the Hire firms logo stuck on all the Amp heads and cabinets.The heads look like very early models as the Marshall logo is the smaller size.
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