Real talk… Headfirst Wizard clones

pipboy90 said:
That’s not how licensing works. These are “Merlin” PCBs. In the same way that Mojotone sells a “British 800” amp kit, or a “Blackface Reverb” kit. Jason would have to be selling these as “Wizard” kits for there to be any kind of legal issue. Electronic circuits aren't protected by copyright or trademark.
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Would have been pretty cool to go with “Mage”. Hey check out my kickass Mage 100…..with +50 casting.
 
pipboy90 said:
That’s not how licensing works. These are “Merlin” PCBs. In the same way that Mojotone sells a “British 800” amp kit, or a “Blackface Reverb” kit. Jason would have to be selling these as “Wizard” kits for there to be any kind of legal issue. Electronic circuits aren't protected by copyright or trademark.
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That’s not what I asked and you know it
 
thegame said:
That’s not what I asked and you know it
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I would say the answer you’re looking for is no, but he did clone some Friedman stuff iirc and seems to be friendly and fine with Dave, so who knows really. Gentlemen’s agreements and whatnot? Maybe Jason @burger can chime in and clear it up.
 
Infernal_Death said:
I have built both the mtl and mcii style amps from boards from Jason and both the amps are sounding great. They definitely have the quality that a lot of people say about the Wizards, being punchy and uncompressed.
Granted i never heard/played through a Wizard so i cannot comment about the direct comparison.
I have around $700-$800 in each of the amps so i highly doubt a real Wizard would be worthwhile over the clones, especially considering here in europe i guess a real Wizard would run more like $7K-$8K.
The boards from Evolve-DIY are defintely a great place if you want to get into amp building. I have built several amps over the years and the stuff from Jason is top quality and he is highly helpful and also has great content to learn a ton on his youtube channel.
Here is a pic of my two amps:
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How difficult were these builds? I have them on my list as future projects.
 
JerEvil said:
He’s asking if Rick has sanctioned these. I’d assume not, but that’s not for me to answer definitely.
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Gotcha, thanks. No, there’s no reason why Rick would need to approve these. In the same way companies that sell guitar pedal or amp PCBs/kits don’t need permission from the original designers. The only thing that carries a trademark is the name or brand.
 
pipboy90 said:
Gotcha, thanks. No, there’s no reason why Rick would need to approve these. In the same way companies that sell guitar pedal or amp PCBs/kits don’t need permission from the original designers. The only thing that carries a trademark is the name or brand.
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Thanks for the legalese
 
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Techdeth said:
You build the shelves ?I need
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Sorry, totally forgot to reply to this bit! Both sets of shelves are Ikea Billy Bookcases. I had to add the supplied backing piece to the tall set of shelves to add rigidity (the more tacks you use on it the better) and then cut holes in it for cables / ventilation, but the Billys work really well and look neat.
 
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Jimty said:
Sorry, totally forgot to reply to this bit! Both sets of shelves are Ikea Billy Bookcases. I had to add the suppled backing piece to the tall set of shelves to add rigidity (the more tacks you use on it the better) and then cut holes in it for cables / ventilation, but the Billys work really well and look neat.
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Thanks man . I need to do this
 
skoora said:
I can’t speak to the onstage experience, but as an audience member, I’ve seen a handful of bands over my bar/gig days, using them and even though I was stoked to hear what they were like and they did sound good, not one of those gigs left me with a, benchmark has been set for live rock tone, feeling. For me though, the sound through a mic, is more important than the sound in the room. It’s why I never gelled with Recto’s. Huge in the room but a lot of work to get decent recorded or live tone with (decent being a matter of personal taste of course).
Would always be open to trying a recent incarnation of a MC or MTL.
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Mine loves microphones. Live thru the pa, it’s awesome. Sound guys always love it. Still hard to think it has been twenty years with it now. I don’t do metal or VH tones though…classic, hard rock and fusion type tones are what I play.

I have a Triple, had it a long time and try it once in awhile. Never can get a tone I really like out of it. 7 string is ok thru it and clean channel is pretty good for country stuff.
 
Racerxrated said:
This.

The 2 Wizards I had were amazing. The MTL, a little to scooped for my taste, while the MC100 was just right. In the end I moved them in favor of some vintage Marshalls but I wouldn't hesitate grabbing one again. Not much amp wise hits like a Wizard..maybe a HiWatt, an old Superlead...great clarity and thump..like a carnival ride of awesome sound.
I think everyone on this forum should experience a Wizard at some point. New or used. For me it's part of my amp journey and I'm glad I got to experience a few of them.
The last outdoor gig I had was Rock Fest near here in 2016...I used a JMP 2203 in stereo with a C+...pretty cool and damn loud...but, it would have been even more fun if I had that 100w Wiz or 72 SL at the time.
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Ive always thought Hiwatts and Ultraleads have that bold powersection tone and feel like the Wizard stuff. I have a nice ‘74 DR103 that should get used more often. Marshalls are more soft and saturated to me. Marshalls just don’t stay consistent throughout a 4 hour gig for me. Bout halfway thru second set to end of third they sound good. Last set the power trans gets saturated and bottom end goes to mud. Everyone I have had does this. Wizard starts sounding great and never changes all nite. Rarely even need to adjust the tone controls anywhere we play. So much fun to play with the band.
 
Jer get a wizard . They are a must in a collection . I only say that about wizards and a Hermansson . So only 2 I’d name
 
MadAsAHatter said:
How difficult were these builds? I have them on my list as future projects.
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Well since they are 2 channels with some options and depending on the power section you are using (i opted for 4x JJ E34L / 100W for both of the builds) they of course will be more complex and difficult to build then lets say the regular 1 channel 5W beginner kit. But i still think that for what they are, they are quite straight forward to put together and Jason did a great job with the layout.
Of course as always you really should know what you are doing as there are high voltages in those builds than can potentially kill you. So you never should start working on tube amps if you don't have the basic knowledge of what is happening inside those amps and where to touch / where not to touch and so on.
 
Infernal_Death said:
Well since they are 2 channels with some options and depending on the power section you are using (i opted for 4x JJ E34L / 100W for both of the builds) they of course will be more complex and difficult to build then lets say the regular 1 channel 5W beginner kit. But i still think that for what they are, they are quite straight forward to put together and Jason did a great job with the layout.
Of course as always you really should know what you are doing as there are high voltages in those builds than can potentially kill you. So you never should start working on tube amps if you don't have the basic knowledge of what is happening inside those amps and where to touch / where not to touch and so on.
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Good to know they're pretty straight forward builds and knowing Jason's work I wouldn't doubt he made great layout. It sounds like I should be able to handle these builds once a get a little more experience. So far my completed mods & builds haven't been overly complex, but I do want to get another successful build or two under my belt before I take these on.

I'm in the middle of my Hilbish/Matamp GT120 clone build; still waiting on transformers from Mercury I ordered a month ago so I can finish it up. And I just got the SLO 100 PCB set from Sirius Amps/Alex Catlow as my next project after that. Sounds like If I can successfully complete those, one of the Merlin boards would be a good next step up in complexity.
 
Greazygeo said:
Ive always thought Hiwatts and Ultraleads have that bold powersection tone and feel like the Wizard stuff. I have a nice ‘74 DR103 that should get used more often. Marshalls are more soft and saturated to me. Marshalls just don’t stay consistent throughout a 4 hour gig for me. Bout halfway thru second set to end of third they sound good. Last set the power trans gets saturated and bottom end goes to mud. Everyone I have had does this. Wizard starts sounding great and never changes all nite. Rarely even need to adjust the tone controls anywhere we play. So much fun to play with the band.
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Agree on the VHT stuff; I've had both D60/120s and they also get a similar Wiz thing going.

Interesting on the Marshall thing...For the last 10 yrs of my playing out, it was mostly Jubilees/2204s boosted and modded 2204/3s....Never did the sound change like you experienced. In 2016 we played a festival where you play 8-9 sets from noon to 1am....that gig was a stock 78 2203 and a C+ in stereo. On all day and 2 nights worth of material in 10-12 hrs.
No issues with changing tone, saturation, feel, nothing.
I wonder what causes the change you experienced?
 
Racerxrated said:
Agree on the VHT stuff; I've had both D60/120s and they also get a similar Wiz thing going.

Interesting on the Marshall thing...For the last 10 yrs of my playing out, it was mostly Jubilees/2204s boosted and modded 2204/3s....Never did the sound change like you experienced. In 2016 we played a festival where you play 8-9 sets from noon to 1am....that gig was a stock 78 2203 and a C+ in stereo. On all day and 2 nights worth of material in 10-12 hrs.
No issues with changing tone, saturation, feel, nothing.
I wonder what causes the change you experienced?
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Hard to say. Mine were always 4 input plexis and Metalface amps. 2203/04 I have never liked, only had a few of those and they were just used as power amps. Those later amps don’t have the high voltages and not typically cranked like plexisI would guess is part of it. . I have had plenty of these and they all do it. Running 6550’s probably didn’t help either 😄 The power transformers get saturated with heat and they are done till they cool off. I also ran them slaved for a number of years, but only 60-90 minute shows then. No real issues with that. We were recording solos one day early 90’s and caught my Marshall on fire from the heat, the engineer still talks about it 😆 Around here it is very common to see fans in the side of the headshell to keep this from happening. I should have tried a fan in retrospect. A friend built me a small fan / heat sink setup to use with the plexis. Works great with his, looking forward to trying it.
8-9 sets over 13 hours, was it used every set? 4 sets over 4 hours with 10-15 minute breaks in a hot bar, par 64’s etc with a cranked plexi, different animal Im a thinkin. 😎

With my Wizard I get the tone I got from my slaved plexi rig without all the gear and only have to run the amp volume 9:00-10:00. Tone never changes. Pretty happy with that.
 
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