Dan Gower Jose mod vs Cali mod differences?

[Thunkful]

How different these two mods are in terms of sound and feel?

 

[wIsEbLooD]

cali is high gain jose. like the meshuggah.lol

 

[Thunkful]

cali is high gain jose. like the meshuggah.lol

I see, so for the 80's stuff the Jose mod would be better then?

 

[wIsEbLooD]

not necessarily, the cali will do 80's stuff just fine and still sound like a plexi if you want.

 

[FourT6and2]

cali is high gain jose. like the meshuggah.lol

I see, so for the 80's stuff the Jose mod would be better then?

Same thing. Everyone's take on the Jose mod is slightly different.

Jose, the actual man, did lots of different mods. But the "Jose Mod" that everybody's been doing for the past 30+ years has some variations here and there. Sometimes Jose, the person, never used clipping diodes. Sometimes he did. But the "Jose Mod" people typically do now involves a master volume Marshall circuit with some form of clipping diodes (zeners or transistors), as well as any number of voicing tweaks to the stock Marshall circuit. For example, upping the plate load on the first gain stage. Or adding voltage dividers and extra gain controls. Or changing the slope resistor value, etc. etc. etc.

It's all the same amp. Just one chef adds more salt, another chef likes more pepper.

Chef A might make two versions of the "Jose Mod" and give each one a different name. Like one is called the Jose and the other is called the Cupertino... Same circuit at the end of the day. As far as a Gower Jose vs a Cali mod... ask him.

 

[Racerxrated]

They're pretty much the same thing, both guys offered the same mod and worked together to develop it. Or maybe Mike taught Dan, not exactly sure..but I had a Fortin Cali Ceriatone 2204 and later had a Gower Cali 76 Superbass, both were very similar in tone and feel with the Marshall being the best to my ear, not surprising considering the vintage iron.
The Cali mod, afaik, is a Jose.

 

[scottosan]

Most original Jose's didn't have the power section mods. Mark Cameron started adding his punch/depth which is heavily influenced from the Bogner XTC excursion circuit, but with potentiometers. Fortin and Growler heavily copied Cameron. The Meshuggah is closer to a standard Jose and the Cali is closer to the Cameron version.

Also the BE100 is much closer to Jose than people think. The biggest difference here is the where the diodes circuit taps into the tone stack.IMHO, the BE sound.bets of the bunch without the diodes engaged, but least favorite with them engaged

 

[FourT6and2]

Most original Jose's didn't have the power section mods. Mark Cameron started adding his punch/depth which is heavily influenced from the Bogner XTC excursion circuit, but with potentiometers. Fortin and Growler heavily copied Cameron. The Meshuggah is closer to a standard Jose and the Cali is closer to the Cameron version.

Also the BE100 is much closer to Jose than people think. The biggest difference here is the where the diodes circuit taps into the tone stack.IMHO, the BE sound.bets of the bunch without the diodes engaged, but least favorite with them engaged

Spot on. Cameron really helped pioneer this stuff. And I think he even offered help/advice to many builders now out doing their own thing.

 

[peterc52]

I've had both a Hermansson and Gower José. The Hermansson won.

As for Gower my favourite was Killerkali++. Not too much a fan of his José and Aldrich.

 

[Thunkful]

I've had both a Hermansson and Gower José. The Hermansson won.

As for Gower my favourite was Killerkali++. Not too much a fan of his José and Aldrich.

That's weird as i've listened bunch of clips from Hermansson and none of those sounded like the "Jose" that i've used to hear. More like a british amp pushed with a mild OD pedal.

 

[tokyo tapes]

Henric can do pretty much what ever you want him to do. As far as I understand, his focus has never been to replicate the "José" thing even if he has the knowledge to do so...

 

[Detroit1973]

I have always thought Gowers Contributions were warmer sounding. would i be off base here?

 

[scottosan]

Stock Marshall amps have always been highly inconsistent in terms of schematics and parts sourcing, transformers, etc... get 10 JCM800s 2203 and 2204 from various years/runs and stock will yield drastically different tones. Thus, do the same mod to these 10 amps is going to yield the same varation in results. Some donor amps have "it" and some don't. The key is to start with one that has "it's before the mod.

 

[mooncobra]

henric's mods sound really good. gower also has killer mods.

 

[eraserhead101]

I have both a Fortin Cali and a straight up Jose Modded by Fortin both 100 watt Marshall’s.

I can tell you straight up the Cali mod is still very much a HG Jose with a Slightly Evolved version of the Traditional Jose Circuit. The Cali has a little more gain on tap and a tity bit smoother. But the Cali has a lot more tonal options like bright switches on both gains and 3 way sat switch middle position gives yu pure 3 gain stage with no clipping and the feel switch. Mine also has 2 master vol Fxloop and depth.


Oddly enough the Cali mod has a bit more of a raw tone to it on par with my Cameron ocean.

 

[yngwiestrat]

I have two Cameron Jose mods , one in a plexi reissue and one in a 78 JMP. They sound quite different. Both incredible in their own way. !

 

[Thunkful]

I have both a Fortin Cali and a straight up Jose Modded by Fortin both 100 watt Marshall’s.

I can tell you straight up the Cali mod is still very much a HG Jose with a Slightly Evolved version of the Traditional Jose Circuit. The Cali has a little more gain on tap and a tity bit smoother. But the Cali has a lot more tonal options like bright switches on both gains and 3 way sat switch middle position gives yu pure 3 gain stage with no clipping and the feel switch. Mine also has 2 master vol Fxloop and depth.


Oddly enough the Cali mod has a bit more of a raw tone to it on par with my Cameron ocean.

Interesting. Have you played Cameron's HG jose? I wonder how that would compare to Fortin/Gower Jose. Also by raw do you mean like sharper or?

 

[eraserhead101]

I have both a Fortin Cali and a straight up Jose Modded by Fortin both 100 watt Marshall’s.

I can tell you straight up the Cali mod is still very much a HG Jose with a Slightly Evolved version of the Traditional Jose Circuit. The Cali has a little more gain on tap and a tity bit smoother. But the Cali has a lot more tonal options like bright switches on both gains and 3 way sat switch middle position gives yu pure 3 gain stage with no clipping and the feel switch. Mine also has 2 master vol Fxloop and depth.


Oddly enough the Cali mod has a bit more of a raw tone to it on par with my Cameron ocean.

Interesting. Have you played Cameron's HG jose? I wonder how that would compare to Fortin/Gower Jose. Also by raw do you mean like sharper or?

When I’m comparing the Cali and my ocean mod it’s only on its rawness not tone as they sound and feel different. Raw for me is we’re the tone is very open and and you can hear the hair and Complexity of the distortion. Send me a PM and I can send you a raw clip of a recording I did.

 

[braintheory]

I have both a Fortin Cali and a straight up Jose Modded by Fortin both 100 watt Marshall’s.

I can tell you straight up the Cali mod is still very much a HG Jose with a Slightly Evolved version of the Traditional Jose Circuit. The Cali has a little more gain on tap and a tity bit smoother. But the Cali has a lot more tonal options like bright switches on both gains and 3 way sat switch middle position gives yu pure 3 gain stage with no clipping and the feel switch. Mine also has 2 master vol Fxloop and depth.


Oddly enough the Cali mod has a bit more of a raw tone to it on par with my Cameron ocean.

Interesting. Have you played Cameron's HG jose? I wonder how that would compare to Fortin/Gower Jose. Also by raw do you mean like sharper or?

When I’m comparing the Cali and my ocean mod it’s only on its rawness not tone as they sound and feel different. Raw for me is we’re the tone is very open and and you can hear the hair and Complexity of the distortion. Send me a PM and I can send you a raw clip of a recording I did.

That’s a good way to describe raw. I’ve had a Gower Killer Kali ++ and Rockmonster (haven’t had his Jose model) and they sounded really great, but heard next to my Cameron modded Marshalls (Jose, Aldrich and Atomica), the Gower’s just weren’t in the same league to my ears. They were in the same ballpark, but like others said the Cameron’s sounded more raw, nuanced and just bigger

 

[FourT6and2]

I have both a Fortin Cali and a straight up Jose Modded by Fortin both 100 watt Marshall’s.

I can tell you straight up the Cali mod is still very much a HG Jose with a Slightly Evolved version of the Traditional Jose Circuit. The Cali has a little more gain on tap and a tity bit smoother. But the Cali has a lot more tonal options like bright switches on both gains and 3 way sat switch middle position gives yu pure 3 gain stage with no clipping and the feel switch. Mine also has 2 master vol Fxloop and depth.


Oddly enough the Cali mod has a bit more of a raw tone to it on par with my Cameron ocean.

Interesting. Have you played Cameron's HG jose? I wonder how that would compare to Fortin/Gower Jose. Also by raw do you mean like sharper or?

When I’m comparing the Cali and my ocean mod it’s only on its rawness not tone as they sound and feel different. Raw for me is we’re the tone is very open and and you can hear the hair and Complexity of the distortion. Send me a PM and I can send you a raw clip of a recording I did.

That’s a good way to describe raw. I’ve had a Gower Killer Kali ++ and Rockmonster (haven’t had his Jose model) and they sounded really great, but heard next to my Cameron modded Marshalls (Jose, Aldrich and Atomica), the Gower’s just weren’t in the same league to my ears. They were in the same ballpark, but like others said the Cameron’s sounded more raw, nuanced and just bigger

I'm betting it's the NFB sections that make up most of the difference.