Ken Fischer Marshall mods

[erigm]

I got this off the trainwreck website:

Les Krygier: I saw Ken’s ad in a local musician’s paper and had heard about his reputation, for hot rodding Marshall amplifiers, by word of mouth. I always had at least six Marshall Super Lead, Model 1959, 100-watt heads and scores of cabinets on hand. The sound I was going for at the time was the tine on the first Van Halen album.

Ken dialed that one right in, but said he though he could do better on the solo tones if he modded an amp just for lead work. With six heads I had nothing to loses, and within a few weeks he had developed a one channel, one input pre-amp and phase inverter for one of my heads. The modified amp had more gain on two than it did stock on ten. It was very thick and very loud, and harmonics literally jumped out of it.

When my band started plying the Marshalls were too loud. Ken converted them to 6V6 output tubes run on a variac at 95 volts. This was nice, but I really like the EL-34 sound. I had played his Liverpool amp and really liked it, but still wanted EL-34 power. By the first month of 1984 the Express amp was born. I bought two and sold all my Marshall heads except one that had been modded. Later I also bought a Liverpool head and a Strat with single coils.

Does anybody know what types of mods Ken did to the marshalls? Do they have anything in common circuit wise to the production trainwreck models?

[Mark]

Dear Erigm

I wrote to Ken last year and asked him about the mods he did to Marshall among other topics and he didn't say anything about them. I should point out, this didn't bother me, as I didn't really expect a reply due to Ken's illness, I was quite grateful Ken took the time out to write to me.

[doctord02]

There is a section of the old Angela catalog where the "Trainwreck Pages" were reprinted, and it may also be in various editions of the Pittman tube amps book. Many of Ken's Marshall mods were printed there, most of them are common knowlege now, but were voodoo at the time. Better master volumes, screen and grid resister changes, diode or varistor protection circuits, etc... As for specific tone enhancing tweeks, I'd bet they were on a case by case condition and depended on what the customer wanted...

[Mark]

The amp "Guru" thing is sometimes quite confusing.

In the beginning there were guys like Ken Fischer, Dan Torres, Gerald Weber giving us tips and circuit mods.

Then the whole thing really took a turn with Kevin O'Connor's books which really opened up the whole idea of what to change and the components you'd use to make the change. Of course Randall Aiken is up there with Kevin O'Connor and I think his pages on his web site are a must to read.

I suppose the bottom line is try everything and report back. I'm still having to try all the different caps in the amp and see which ones are the most sensitive. I'm thinking that little "Moonlight" version of the Express could be good for such an experiment as my neighbours will find it easier to not kill me due to the noise.

[erigm]

Doctord02,

Do you have a scanned copy of the old Angela catalog? Is it available online? I would like to see any info you have. Thanks!

[erigm]

Mark,

What is the "moonlight" version of the Express? Thanks!

[doctord02]

Erigm - I dont have a scanner, but I do have the old Angela reprint. I'll see what I can come up with. If I can get them scanned, I'll turn them over to Omar so he can post them on the site.

[Mark]

Dear Erigm

The circuit is in the files section, it's called the 2 watt mini Express or something like that. I probably shouldn't have called it the "Moonlight" version, but I did think at the time the Moonlight amp was a similar circuit.

http://maximoaudio.com/download/schemat ... ess_v1.wmf

This where it is located. I shall have to eventually do something about it all, I'm wondering how closely it reacts and sounds compared to a good clone?

Hope this helps.