Mystery Knob on Back of Ed's Amp Was FET ?!?!?

Here's a EVH story that has something to do with THE amp. The 1984 tour was underway and me and some friends drove to B-ham Al to see the concert with no tickets. Of course it sold out and we missed the show. We hung out in a bar and finally got ready to go back home. Drove down the street and there's a big hotel with maybe twenty people standing outside. We think VH maybe staying there so as we slow down two limo's pull into the hotel. We zip in there and I jump out about the same time as Ed and Valerie get of a limo. I run over and shake Ed's hand and he ask me "Did I like the show"? Nah man I missed it because it sold out I tell him. He says bummer and then I ask for a guitar pic. He digs around in his pocket and gets one and then Valerie says I have some and gives me two more. We chat for a few seconds and then his bodyguard gets the Marshall out of the trunk of the limo. I ask Ed is that the one and he said yes I take it everywhere with me. So we all start walking to the Hotel door and Im about a foot away from Ed, Valerie and the Marshall. I did notice a sticker on the back left side of it but do not recall seeing the little white knob thing. Wish I could have got a photo but nobody had a camera. Ed and Val were really super nice.
 
RaceU4her said:
this dosent sound very far off the letterman vid to me, yours might have a little more hair even.
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The question is though, how high were the volumes? Even a 50w 1987, in order to get that distortion needs to still peel the paint off the walls from my experience. A 15w non master amp, in order to get the power tubes to distort/compress into distortion still gets REALLY loud. Again, for Ed's amp to reach the kinds of distortion on the Letterman show, let's say he pulled 2 tubes(he never insinuated that I don't think) and variac'd down..it's still pushing 15-25 watts easily, and you'll still need to crank it...I still think that Letterman show volume is way too low, no matter how he ran his 68 for it to be stock yet have that amount of gain.
 
Racerxrated said:
The question is though, how high were the volumes? Even a 50w 1987, in order to get that distortion needs to still peel the paint off the walls from my experience. A 15w non master amp, in order to get the power tubes to distort/compress into distortion still gets REALLY loud. Again, for Ed's amp to reach the kinds of distortion on the Letterman show, let's say he pulled 2 tubes(he never insinuated that I don't think) and variac'd down..it's still pushing 15-25 watts easily, and you'll still need to crank it...I still think that Letterman show volume is way too low, no matter how he ran his 68 for it to be stock yet have that amount of gain.
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timestamp linked where this gets real interesting..

 
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PLX said:
He talks about that in this video.. 31:30 time stamp

Those quotes are from the guys (Suhr, Friedman, et al) who saw it after Van Wheelden returned it to stock, but used Teflon wire.

Friedman then took the amp, and gutted a vintage donor amp (given to him by Ed) to return it to even "more" of a pristine stock status.
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This is incorrect. The amp went to Lee Jackson, who rewound the transformer. Then it went to Steve Fryette, who changed the transformer to a Pittbull transformer. Then John Suhr replaced the Pittbull transformer with a Marshall. Then it went to Van Wheeldon, who completely butchered the amp. Friedman completely rewired it years later.
 
RedPlated said:
No, it was not a volume that Jose put on the back. I have two original Jose’s and have seen numerous others in person. The MV was placed on front where the presence is. The presence then moves to the rear in a speaker jack hole. Sometimes the MV is where the pilot light is. But I have never seen one on back.

The pot in the back is for the extra tube stage. Pulling it engages the stage. Turning it up or down controls the amount of gain in that stage. Clearly not the case here.

I doubt it’s a rotary as it’s got a nylon shaft. Same for a push pull. The specific push pulls he used were metal shafts.

If it was a master with zener diodes on it that means the amp was converted to a pre-tone stack master. Not only do I not hear this in his tone at all, again it’s physically unlikely as to where the master is placed in the amp.

The drop in gain on 1984 has been attributed to Eddie’s pickup shorting and eventually only outputting partially on one coil. I think that’s a lot more likely than worn diodes.

I’ve seen may Joses as I previously mentioned. He always placed pots nearest to their respective circuits. When presence was moved, it was moved directly to the rear, as close as possible to the original location. Same with the other controls.

I just don’t see running from the V2b cathode to the back corner of the amp and then back to the treble pot for a Jose master with diodes on it. I don’t see any see any reasonable rationalization for placing it there. Especially when Jose put the presence in/ next to the speaker jacks. If there was a concern of hot power tubes he wouldn’t have done that. I don’t personally think the power tubes had anything to do with the thought process on that.
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Keep in mind that Ed could have asked to have a master put in the back. 😎
 
sideburns said:
Here's a EVH story that has something to do with THE amp. The 1984 tour was underway and me and some friends drove to B-ham Al to see the concert with no tickets. Of course it sold out and we missed the show. We hung out in a bar and finally got ready to go back home. Drove down the street and there's a big hotel with maybe twenty people standing outside. We think VH maybe staying there so as we slow down two limo's pull into the hotel. We zip in there and I jump out about the same time as Ed and Valerie get of a limo. I run over and shake Ed's hand and he ask me "Did I like the show"? Nah man I missed it because it sold out I tell him. He says bummer and then I ask for a guitar pic. He digs around in his pocket and gets one and then Valerie says I have some and gives me two more. We chat for a few seconds and then his bodyguard gets the Marshall out of the trunk of the limo. I ask Ed is that the one and he said yes I take it everywhere with me. So we all start walking to the Hotel door and Im about a foot away from Ed, Valerie and the Marshall. I did notice a sticker on the back left side of it but do not recall seeing the little white knob thing. Wish I could have got a photo but nobody had a camera. Ed and Val were really super nice.
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Pics or it didn't happen.
 
BesaMoogie said:
Change my mind:
The knob opened a secret compartment where Ed was hiding his blow
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nah, Ed was a heavy smoker back then.

Mystery solved:

cig.jpg
 
RaceU4her said:
i want to know what that boombox is in front of the bass drum?? is it a boost?? tape delay?? what tape is it in the cassette player?? sureley a 30min high bias tape epitaxial is gonna sound different than a 90min TDK bullshit?? i need to know!!!!
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you know it was a type IV metal particle cassette. he was always on that next shit. ;)
 
PLX said:
Watch the video in the OP..

He completely destroys that theory.

You'll get it, if you listen to what he's saying, because the location for that mod is all wrong.
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If it was an FET boost then why would Ed be using the MXR 6 band on that looper pedal for a boost? I also tried out the Colorsound overdriver as did many others on the EVH Metro amp forum and I personally didn't find it to be the IT factor over the stock, vintage MXR 6 band EQ IMHO but if you love it and it gets you the tone more power to you!

Ed's 12301 was the house amp from the Rose Palace that everyone would use, so my money is on a Jose Master that doesn't work well at all in a 1959 circuit but even dimed with the diodes in line it does affect the tone. It works much better in a 2203 circuit. I will keep an open mind on this so well see..........

How do you explain such killer tone without 12301 during the 9/22/78 Selland Arena show? Which was done with Marshall's other than Ed's usual Marshalls since they all lost by the Airline coming back from Japan. Rudy said they had to scramble to scrape up some amps for these shows until they got the amps back. I doubt he rushed them to Jose for an FET mod, but that's just my opinion.



My last comment is there are too many people getting the tones with a variaced or non variaced pretty much stock Marshall with an EP echoplex MXR phase 90, MXR flanger, MXR 6 band up front of the Marshall with a 9K PAF....................................... It's a great theory and very enjoyable to debate so thank you for posting, you know I love this stuff!

I also think the Mighty Mite 1400 versus the 8-9K PAF affects the amp's tone more drastically. The Echoplex has FET's in it so is it an FET driver?????

Exhibit A I rest my case....



Exhibit B, Stock 69 Marshall NOS Metro amp build with EH6ca7's, Boss GE7 Clinch EPPRE, Ash Franky with a 78 model Duncan, Run at wall voltage biased at 50% dissipation no variac, This amp even had a Lar/Mar PPIMV.

 
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CrazyNutz said:
This is how the Jose MV would be wired with the pot in the back. Looks like a perfectly reasonable spot to me.

View attachment 242228


@psychodave what do you think?
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YUP............!:2thumbsup:

Exhibit A...............My 68 Ed Spec NOS build Marshall with a Jose master/diodes on a push pull switch.......Can you get great Ed tone without the diodes? Sure you can.......Does the Jose Master even if it is turned up all the way out of the circuit affect the tone somewhat? Sure it does...........but you are splitting hairs at this point....But I love splitting hairs regarding the TOPIC of VH1 Ed tone....:yes::2thumbsup: My 69 NOS build DID NOT have a Jose and got killer Ed tone so YMMV!
 

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Yeah, the circuit Ossie built - he referred to it as a "Dumble circuit".

Something Dumble used to place on one input of the amp, and was intended to be used for acoustic guitars with a piezo-electric pickup.

It's very similar to the ClinchFX version of the EP-3 pre-amp pedal, in that Peter uses an additional FET after the EP-3 boost circuit.
 
harddriver said:
YUP............!:2thumbsup:

Exhibit A...............My 68 Ed Spec NOS build Marshall with a Jose master/diodes on a push pull switch.......Can you get great Ed tone without the diodes? Sure you can.......Does the Jose Master even if it is turned up all the way out of the circuit affect the tone somewhat? Sure it does...........but you are splitting hairs at this point....But I love splitting hairs regarding the TOPIC of VH! Ed tone....:yes::2thumbsup: My 69 NOS build DID NOT have a Jose and got killer Ed tone so YMMV!
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There you go, it is practical after all (y)

I was about to start modding a plexi to prove it :ROFLMAO: Thanks!
 
Steve from the old MetroAmp forum (SDM) sent me a gut-shot of an amp once with this circuit in it.

He had built as a small perfboard circuit board (roughly 3"x3") and it was situated next to V1.

I'll see if I can located that image.
 
PLX said:
Steve from the old MetroAmp forum (SDM) sent me a gut-shot of an amp once with this circuit in it.

He had built as a small perfboard circuit board (roughly 3"x3") and it was situated next to V1.

I'll see if I can located that image.
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So do we know what this Marshmellow guy is doing? Clearly he has it loaded (even more than 20ohms as he says) But Im trying to figure out what the hell he is using.

Whatever load it is, it still needs to dissipate all that wattage
 
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