1979 Bogner Modded Marshall (Pics)

[NewWorldMan]

I was digging out a few files early today and ran across these. Thought they might be of interest to some folks here, so I decided to post them.

These are pics of my old ‘79 Bogner Modded Marshall. This is probably from 7-8 years ago (maybe more), been a while since I owned it (before you ask, it’s long gone). This was one of the very first mods Reinhold did after coming to the US. This isn’t a “blue board mod.” This is an original.

This came from Lon Cohen’s stash in LA and I purchased it when he was thinning out a lot of inventory. As Lon tells it, Reinhold brought the infamous modded white Marshall into Andy Brauer’s place, and they all loved it. It’s what convinced them to go into business with Bogner and provide support so he could start making preamps like the Fish. The partners wanted one of the modded Marshalls, so Reinhold did a few more of them for Lon and crew that were replicas of the white Marshall (which later went on to be owned by EVH). This is one of those few amps. Reinhold confirmed this is the same as the “Cantrell” mod.

Like I said, been many years since I owned it. It was a cool amp, but not something I believed I would consistently use. Nothing is sacred around here, so it was sold when someone reached out offering to buy it a long time ago. It wasn’t a modern mod by any means. Much more vintage sounding, moderate gain by modern standards, etc.

Enjoy!

 

[acidvoodoo]

That’s a cool story and an epic amp!

 

[Racerxrated]

Awesome! Love the chassis pics.....

Good to see you back here.

 

[Ben Waylin]

LoL!

He jammed a wall-wart AC adapter in there to provide DC heaters for the preamp tubes.

 

[Racerxrated]

LoL!

He jammed a wall-wart AC adapter in there to provide DC heaters for the preamp tubes.

Cameron would sometimes do that; as well as Jose from what I've read.

Whatever works, works.

 

[NewWorldMan]

Awesome! Love the chassis pics.....

Good to see you back here.

I’m around, just not on forums a lot these days!

I have tons of junk like that in the archive…somewhere. I’ll post more whenever I run across them. I have shots of all kinds of modded Marshalls that have passed through here over the years - Bogner, Friedman, Cameron, Elam/Metalhead, Lee Jackson, an old 50W JCM 800 that was modded by Soldano in the ‘80s, etc. Forgot I even had this until I ran across the pics, haha.

 

[Techdeth]

I’m around, just not on forums a lot these days!

I have tons of junk like that in the archive…somewhere. I’ll post more whenever I run across them. I have shots of all kinds of modded Marshalls that have passed through here over the years - Bogner, Friedman, Cameron, Elam/Metalhead, Lee Jackson, an old 50W JCM 800 that was modded by Soldano in the ‘80s, etc. Forgot I even had this until I ran across the pics, haha.

Love to see all these

 

[psychodave]

Was it really that good? I mean, you did sell it...

I ask because Steve K had one and he told me it didn't have a lot of gain, but had cool tone.

 

[NewWorldMan]

Was it really that good? I mean, you did sell it...

I ask because Steve K had one and he told me it didn't have a lot of gain, but had cool tone.

I agree with that. It wasn’t for me. Don’t get me wrong, it was a cool amp, and I can I understand why it was probably a popular thing back in the ‘80s. It’s a little primitive and limited by modern standards, though.

It was allegedly rented out by a lot of studios back in the day when they were stocking up with artists coming in to make albums, but it was sold off because it didn’t get much traffic any more.

I think a standard ‘ole Ecstasy 101B can do everything it can do while having more gain, options, and versatility…all while doing it better. Just my $0.02 on it. I’m sure someone else would think it’s the best thing ever.

 

[itsgoodnow]

Very cool. I have a Bogner snorkler but have never opened it up. Super cool. Mine has a negative feedback and depth control. Not a ton of gain but sounds really fucking good and unique

 

[NewWorldMan]

Very cool. I have a Bogner snorkler but have never opened it up. Super cool. Mine has a negative feedback and depth control. Not a ton of gain but sounds really fucking good and unique

View attachment 344184

Very cool! That one of mine had a “mode selector” on it, but only one mode really appealed to me. I think I flipped through and found the one that sounded best to me when I first got it, then never changed it again after that.

 

[itsgoodnow]

Very cool! That one of mine had a “mode selector” on it, but only one mode really appealed to me. I think I flipped through and found the one that sounded best to me when I first got it, then never changed it again after that.

That is fascinating. Mine definitely does not have that. I know there are a few of these floating around and they all seem to have some unique feature different from another.

 

[EddyLenz]

That's a nice amp you had there! It's very interesting to dive into the gutshots. Here are some things that I've noticed:

This is 100% not a Cantrell/Snorkler mod, as the Cantrell mod has a 4 stage design without a cathode follower, which means it has a plate-fed tone stack. Circuit-wise, this looks more like an XTC Red Channel Prototype, which is awesome! That's also why he had to add the 4th preamp tube.

The mode selector looks like it's changing between 2 different gain pot bright caps and also switches in/out a resistor and cap on the 2nd cathode, which would add gain and probably more growl if it's a .68-1uF as I'd expect.

LoL!

He jammed a wall-wart AC adapter in there to provide DC heaters for the preamp tubes.

He's only using it for the small relay glued to the PCB, which is getting switched by the mode selector. I have no idea why he didn't just put those components on the rotary switch without the relay, but maybe he had it there because he was experimenting with some other stuff...

Very cool. I have a Bogner snorkler but have never opened it up. Super cool. Mine has a negative feedback and depth control. Not a ton of gain but sounds really fucking good and unique

View attachment 344184

Nice! When was it modded?

 

[dcburn]

Great stuff.
Just makes me wish Dave would get Bogner on Tone Talk already.

 

[shar-vell Dan]

I'll show you mine if you show me yours ...

 

[NewWorldMan]

That's a nice amp you had there! It's very interesting to dive into the gutshots. Here are some things that I've noticed:

This is 100% not a Cantrell/Snorkler mod, as the Cantrell mod has a 4 stage design without a cathode follower, which means it has a plate-fed tone stack. Circuit-wise, this looks more like an XTC Red Channel Prototype, which is awesome! That's also why he had to add the 4th preamp tube.

The mode selector looks like it's changing between 2 different gain pot bright caps and also switches in/out a resistor and cap on the 2nd cathode, which would add gain and probably more growl if it's a .68-1uF as I'd expect.

No clue, just repeating what I was told in regard to what it was. Either way, cool info!

 

[Jdub]

Was it really that good? I mean, you did sell it...

I ask because Steve K had one and he told me it didn't have a lot of gain, but had cool tone.

Steve K got that amp from me. It had to be crazy loud to get the goods and even then it was not super high gain, but it did have serious balls. I had another Bogner Modded Marshall back in the 90's and again, not super high gain. Actually less than the one I sld to Steve K, but it had a much more gradual taper on the volume.

 

[Swervecity413]

Here’s a snorkler I received a few months back. I asked for more with an internal boost and modes

 

[Swervecity413]

Also picked up off reverb a few months back this jcm with xtc blue prototype mod.

 

[Infernal_Death]

He's only using it for the small relay glued to the PCB, which is getting switched by the mode selector. I have no idea why he didn't just put those components on the rotary switch without the relay, but maybe he had it there because he was experimenting with some other stuff...

I would assume the reason is that he wanted to keep the audio signal on the board and not having it go back and forth to/from the switch.
At least this is what i understood why you want to have relays on the board: To keep the audio signal on the board and with short signal paths and only have the control signal "travel" to the switch on the panels. Also helps to avoid shielded cables if you have signals in the part of the circuit where you want to avoid exposing them to outside interference. In the picture of this part of the circuit you can already see several shielded cables so i guess Reinhold wanted to avoid the audio signal also to have to travel to the switch.