Guardians of the analog
Papi Fuego
- Build Rating
I apologize if this is a lengthy post, well maybe not, I have a lot to say. Last you saw me was the beginning of October. I have had a big shift in my life. At the beginning of October I had surgery and while the surgery was fine there were complications during the operation and after. What should have been an outpatient operation ended up being a three day stay with me coding twice. Once during the operation and once after. Needless to say, I was lucky to be going home. After many doctors appointments, tests and some new medications I had to make some changes in my life.
So admittedly, I took a step back from my online presence and building. I hadn't actually built anything since early August and I wasn't missing it. So I started playing again, really playing. I found a great deal on a used marshall amp. I got a JTM studio head and cab. After a couple weeks I opened it up and started pouring through schematics online and in typical fashion for me I realized that I could mod it to super lead spec because they are built on the same PCB. So I'm finally turning my iron on. Man this felt great working on an amp again.
So that leads me into the build. I wanted to build something but I had ran out of projects this past summer. Since getting my new Marshall amp I had shifted my use in pedals to the bare minimum, using only 5 or 6 pedals now. Going back to using a guitar into a cranked tube amp and getting all my sounds from the amp/guitar knobs I was only using an SD-1 as a boost. Pedals once again felt nonsensical. I was going back to my roots. So what do I build? An amp. While doing research on Marshall amps and mods I stumbled across Jason from headfirst amps on YouTube. A nice guy and Aussie who answered some questions of mine and in the process learned about his diy offerings. Turns out he had a project for a diy modded JCM800 that used the Marshall origin20 as a donor. The drop in replacement boards would be populated and use the existing chassis and transformers. Turns out there was a used origin20 head at my local guitar center for 360 dollars so I snatched it up and started ordering everything.
After a month and a half or ordering parts, waiting for the pcbs to arrive and salvaging parts from the original amp I had everything and was ready to start. The amp build went fast because it was pcb based. A great setup with lots of thought went into the design. The build went smoothly. It fired up without issue and calibration was simple. At the advice of a couple people I went through amplifyfun to do the front panel faceplate. Spencer was great to work with and it came out fantastic.
This amp as a whole has been a long time in the making and has become my ride or die. This is my daily driver, my ride or die. This made me rethink everything in my playing and how I use gear. I think it not only made me a better builder, but also a better player. I finished the amp at the beginning of December and have been playing it non-stop since then. I feel I've lived with it long enough to share it. It's the perfect amp for me. I get all my clean tones and main rhythm sounds by working the controls on the guitar, and if I need more I can kick on the SD-1. In the front end I also use my wah and a phaser. The loop is super transparent and based on the metro zero loss and I'm running a delay, trem and chorus. Simple, all killer no filler.
The amp is basically a JEL modded JCM 800, which in turn is essentially a tightened up 2203/4. The input has the fat trimmed and the back end adds some back in at the negative feedback line. Outside the few component changes to tighten it up, there are also a few push/pull pots to kick it up a notch. The gain pot a has a gain boost, the tilt knob acts as a variable mid slope resistor, the bass knob has a v2 bypass cap for a bass boost and the treble has a Jose style clipping mod on a push/pull. At 20 watts it's perfect for how I'm using it.
For my demo/sound clip I used ripX to extract the stems and record my own guitars over a track that really shows how perfect the amp sits in the mix. No EQ. All guitars straight into the amp. The lead lines had some delay from my boss dual digital delay and that's it.
So admittedly, I took a step back from my online presence and building. I hadn't actually built anything since early August and I wasn't missing it. So I started playing again, really playing. I found a great deal on a used marshall amp. I got a JTM studio head and cab. After a couple weeks I opened it up and started pouring through schematics online and in typical fashion for me I realized that I could mod it to super lead spec because they are built on the same PCB. So I'm finally turning my iron on. Man this felt great working on an amp again.
So that leads me into the build. I wanted to build something but I had ran out of projects this past summer. Since getting my new Marshall amp I had shifted my use in pedals to the bare minimum, using only 5 or 6 pedals now. Going back to using a guitar into a cranked tube amp and getting all my sounds from the amp/guitar knobs I was only using an SD-1 as a boost. Pedals once again felt nonsensical. I was going back to my roots. So what do I build? An amp. While doing research on Marshall amps and mods I stumbled across Jason from headfirst amps on YouTube. A nice guy and Aussie who answered some questions of mine and in the process learned about his diy offerings. Turns out he had a project for a diy modded JCM800 that used the Marshall origin20 as a donor. The drop in replacement boards would be populated and use the existing chassis and transformers. Turns out there was a used origin20 head at my local guitar center for 360 dollars so I snatched it up and started ordering everything.
After a month and a half or ordering parts, waiting for the pcbs to arrive and salvaging parts from the original amp I had everything and was ready to start. The amp build went fast because it was pcb based. A great setup with lots of thought went into the design. The build went smoothly. It fired up without issue and calibration was simple. At the advice of a couple people I went through amplifyfun to do the front panel faceplate. Spencer was great to work with and it came out fantastic.
This amp as a whole has been a long time in the making and has become my ride or die. This is my daily driver, my ride or die. This made me rethink everything in my playing and how I use gear. I think it not only made me a better builder, but also a better player. I finished the amp at the beginning of December and have been playing it non-stop since then. I feel I've lived with it long enough to share it. It's the perfect amp for me. I get all my clean tones and main rhythm sounds by working the controls on the guitar, and if I need more I can kick on the SD-1. In the front end I also use my wah and a phaser. The loop is super transparent and based on the metro zero loss and I'm running a delay, trem and chorus. Simple, all killer no filler.
The amp is basically a JEL modded JCM 800, which in turn is essentially a tightened up 2203/4. The input has the fat trimmed and the back end adds some back in at the negative feedback line. Outside the few component changes to tighten it up, there are also a few push/pull pots to kick it up a notch. The gain pot a has a gain boost, the tilt knob acts as a variable mid slope resistor, the bass knob has a v2 bypass cap for a bass boost and the treble has a Jose style clipping mod on a push/pull. At 20 watts it's perfect for how I'm using it.
For my demo/sound clip I used ripX to extract the stems and record my own guitars over a track that really shows how perfect the amp sits in the mix. No EQ. All guitars straight into the amp. The lead lines had some delay from my boss dual digital delay and that's it.
. But I appreciate the sentiment and kind words
Dirt pedals have their place (mostly on a shelf
