Vintage Modern Mods Question For SteveD or other modders

[Slashwannabe1]

The only real mod I can see modding the Vintage Modern for is the Lead Master so you can have rhythm work and lead work volume seperate.

Other than that I like my cleans on the verge of break up anyway so my playing dynamics on how hard I pick and how I use my range selector can do convincing clean work.

As for the volume difference I don't see it that big anyway.. distortion is supposed to be more in your face anyway when you switch to it.

Here's an Elvis Presley Cover I did with my drummer, I use everything from low range light picking to full on High Dynamic range at the end. For most of the song I'm in low dynamic range and I don't even use my volume knobs to adjust for gain, just the footswitch and my pick attack. all 4 volume/tone knobs on my guitar are on full.



Lets see how many of you can guess the exact time I switched into High Dynamic Range.

I am pretty proud of the fact that the VM went from mostly clean to full on distortion so smoothly. I think most of you will be suprised at the smoothness of the transition from LDR to HDR.

[surfnorthwest]

I say at 2:00 if not by 2:19 you were.

[Slashwannabe1]

I say at 2:00 if not by 2:19 you were.

Believe it or not 2:46 is where I switched into High Dynamic Range.

At 2:00 I was just hitting the strings harder for the end of the bridge part, and by 2:19 I switched from my rhythm pick up to my Bridge pick up and kept upping the pick attack and where I was picking/strumming.

I don't know of another amp that could do all of that the way the VM did just by using player dynamics.

That is the exact reason I bought the Vintage Modern.



All the volume and tone pots were dimed on my guitar the whole song from start to finnish.

[frank9310]

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However, what about the possibility of adding a cloned PPIMV with one for the low range and one for the high range and have those footswitchable by some kind of relay coming off the hi-low switch with maybe a cap and a diode and or shielding to help cut any popping sound from the relay?

SD: I suspect you would just end up reducing the master volume level of the High range only, in an attempt to get the two levels more like a dual channel amp. But the sound of the High Range would always sound like it does with lower master volume settings. Maybe this would work for you I don't know.

Ok sorry to open up a whole can of worms here and since you mentioned that doing so would probably change the character of the amp, but just trying to understand how I can do this manually without taking heads off when switching from LDR to HDR. So forgetting the possibility of modifying things...

Let's say I'm in LDR with master volume at 8-9 with an overdrive such as a fuzz or OCD pushing the front end into a nice fat overdrive if the guitar is on 10 or cleaned up when backed off to 4-7. So before I can push the HDR button or footswitch, I need to back off the master volume to a lower level which would effectively lose the full potential of the HDR anyway right?

So here's the thing... I know I can have i.e. an overdrive or fuzz setup for LDR and then when I'm ready to jump to HDR, I can use more of lower output clean boost like the Trower overdrive and Fulldrive for solos that would balance out the volume differences. My biggest problem is that I keep forgetting to turn off the overdrive or fuzz before kicking on the HDR. That said, is there any type of footswitch or way I can to avoid this mistake which could either blow my speakers or get a lot of folks in the audience ticked off for blasting them out? (I mean using all analog pedals).

Thanks SteveD for hanging in with us hard heads!

[ClubAndCountry]

Green Manalishi - the Single Rectifier is a good amp, but it's very different from the original Dual... it has two semi-independent channels with different signal paths, the clean is much more Fender-like and the distortion more firmly 'Recto'. It doesn't have anywhere near the options of the Dual, or (in my opinion) the great tone... it can't sound as much like a Marshall on either channel, and the really brilliant things you can do with the Dual (the different rectifier/power modes, and the channel cloning) are missing completely.

There has been a surprising lack of "you're crazy" responses so far :-), but if you ever do get to try an original Dual Rectifier, look beyond the silly deckplate front panel and forget about the type of music you normally associate it with. Then set it about as far away from that high-gain, scooped-mids, loose "Recto" sound as you can, and see what it sounds like. You may want an original Plexi for comparison... ;-)

Anyway, my point is not that it can sound very like an old Marshall, but that its huge range of sounds can be achieved just by varying the controls and switching between the two sets - and it can sound as different or as similar as you like on the two channels, which are really just the same channel. You could just as easily do that with any other amp. It's not an easy thing to mod an amp to do though - the switching is very complex, and it's actually easier to alter the voicing than to add that sort of control.

What Frank is asking for on the VM is far simpler, and *would* be exactly to turn down the master volume slightly when using the High range. If that would ruin the sound and purpose of the amp, why does it even have a master volume you can turn down at all?! This is what I can't understand about the "channel switching" argument against it - it's nothing that the amp can't *already* do, just not automatically. It's absolutely no different from just reaching over and turning the knob manually at the same time as pressing the switch... but obviously you can't easily do that while you're playing.

If you can't see the logic of that, I'm sorry! I won't go on about it any more. Promise :-).

[Slashwannabe1]

it's nothing that the amp can't *already* do, just not automatically. It's absolutely no different from just reaching over and turning the knob manually at the same time as pressing the switch... but obviously you can't easily do that while you're playing.

If you can't see the logic of that, I'm sorry! I won't go on about it any more. Promise :-).

Don't Worry I get it!

I don't see the big deal about adding a foot switchable "lead" master For built in solo boost. Have 2 masters run off a dpdt style switch that you can set to different settings. Maybe I have the switching method wrong but if you could switch between the 2 volume pots for rhythm & lead work on the fly that would be great! (refference the Jubilee Marshall amps for what I'm talking about).

And No I don't want another amplifier when the VM does 95% of what I need it to do for my sound! thats still 90% more than what a channel switching head of another brand would do for me.

I also think having another range where you can adjust the body and detail separate would be great too, but it may be more economical to buy a 2nd head and set it for clean sounds. I don't really need to use it though.

Right now I'm not exactly playing for the Queen of England or for some head of state where complete perfection is a must, so I can deal with switching the range selector foot switch to low range and change my pick attack to accommodate a cleaner sound. If I ever get to the point where I can perform for a head of state I'll most likely have enough money to buy another Vintage Modern strictly set for cleaner sounds.

I Must be totally Honest I have grown to love the current tone and method of how I get my cleaner sounds, they sound great on recording!. I must say too that I love my 1966 Fender Bandmaster cleans as well.

[MKB]

If somebody wants to modify their Vintage Modern to sound different, of course that is their right to do so. And if somebody is wanting to modify their Vintage Modern to get it to do things it won't now, that's fine. But they have to be careful to make sure they get the results they desire. It's also easy to make so many mods that you ruin the essence of what makes the amp great. Once you cut PCB traces or drill front panels, they can't usually be repaired to as-new. It would be simple to go to a boutique builder and have them mod a Plexi to the Vintage Modern circuitry, and then add all the switching modifications.

I'd bet that in the future the Vintage Modern will have significant value, much as Jubilees do now. Modifications will hurt this value. Not to mention the total disdain heaped on the modifier (just look what is said about modding original Plexis now, it is currently considered insane where in the eighties it was highly desired). In the same view that a Plexi is its own animal and should be appreciated as such, the same can be said about the Vintage Modern.

I suppose this makes me a bit of a hypocrite as I modded my Haze 40 the day after I got it. It was only a few capacitors though, and I kept the originals to put it back stock. The mod helped it A LOT BTW.

Does anybody recall modifications being done to the Jubilee circuitry? I can't think of any, folks generally seemed to leave it as-is. Same with the JCM900's.

[Slashwannabe1]

If you make it famous and your amp is modded it will be worth $$$.

Look at the Appettite Amplifier Slash used... Garunteed somebody would shell out a ton of cash for it!

[SteveD]

.

However, what about the possibility of adding a cloned PPIMV with one for the low range and one for the high range and have those footswitchable by some kind of relay coming off the hi-low switch with maybe a cap and a diode and or shielding to help cut any popping sound from the relay?

SD: I suspect you would just end up reducing the master volume level of the High range only, in an attempt to get the two levels more like a dual channel amp. But the sound of the High Range would always sound like it does with lower master volume settings. Maybe this would work for you I don't know.

Ok sorry to open up a whole can of worms here and since you mentioned that doing so would probably change the character of the amp, but just trying to understand how I can do this manually without taking heads off when switching from LDR to HDR. So forgetting the possibility of modifying things...

Let's say I'm in LDR with master volume at 8-9 with an overdrive such as a fuzz or OCD pushing the front end into a nice fat overdrive if the guitar is on 10 or cleaned up when backed off to 4-7. So before I can push the HDR button or footswitch, I need to back off the master volume to a lower level which would effectively lose the full potential of the HDR anyway right?

So here's the thing... I know I can have i.e. an overdrive or fuzz setup for LDR and then when I'm ready to jump to HDR, I can use more of lower output clean boost like the Trower overdrive and Fulldrive for solos that would balance out the volume differences. My biggest problem is that I keep forgetting to turn off the overdrive or fuzz before kicking on the HDR. That said, is there any type of footswitch or way I can to avoid this mistake which could either blow my speakers or get a lot of folks in the audience ticked off for blasting them out? (I mean using all analog pedals).

Thanks SteveD for hanging in with us hard heads!

You could always turn your guitar down to match the levels when changing to High Range, then switch your pedal off and simultaneously turn your guitar back up.

There's nothing to stop you from adding another master volume if that's what you want (it certainly won't ruin the sound). It will simply unrelate the two ranges dynamically. If that's not an issue then go ahead. But that won't stop you from forgeting to turn your fuzz off when 'shifting between your two channels'.

[frank9310]

[gmp3][/gmp3]

Those mods all seem useful if someone really felt they wanted more gain out of the Vintage Modern or found the second channel useful while performing. Many guys still struggle with the two ranges and the volume difference but us old school players are used to playing using the guitar volume and don't need two three channel amps, I hate them and all my amps are single channel.

Thanks SteveD & Surfnorthwest & C&C, etc,
I'll try that. I didn't mean to cause an uproar. I just want to try to make it work. If the FJA Mod would simply do just adding the master volume without changing the dynamics of the tone, then I would probably consider adding it. However, if it would change the tonal character of the amp in any way then I wouldn't want to fiddle with it.

If I was just dealing with the VM it would be easy, but since the VM is kind of darker voiced, I like to use it in stereo with a brighter sounding Plexi clone amp so to try to remember to step on 2 pedals to disengage one and enable another in preparation for the transition between LDR & HDR while simultaneously backing-off the volume before the switch is sometimes too much for my puny brain to handle, also being an old school type player.

Now this below looks like the ticket! Something cool to be able to switch between several analog effects, while simultaneously switching channels! A bit costly but cool because you can loop non buffered pedals like a fuzz in combination with buffered without coloring the tone of the other and set a whole bunch of different pre-sets. Open the video up in youtube as he has several videos using it with TRS insert, etc.

[youtube][/youtube]