How to convert a Marshall Solid State combo to Fender Princeton Tube amp
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- Опубликовано: 18 сен 2024
- Another great re-purposed amp project. The owner was tired of the unresponsive performance of the stock Marshall. D-lab took on the challenge to make it worth wile again. Now this amp lives as a tube machine. Lots of chime and great spring reverb!
Over the years I’ve come to appreciate solid state amps, to the point where I no longer harvest them for parts or chassis. I keep them alive as is.
Seems some people don't agree with the owners choice of what model and brand of amp to convert to! I don't think they got the purpose of the video. The purpose was to show how to convert. Sure Terry did not spend hours showing every little detail of the conversion. Each hole he drilled, each solder connection, etc.. The choice of what amp to convert to is endless. To share this and other conversions he has done is priceless! To each their own! Having Tony demo the amp in the same video is great! He shows what the amp can do in a single video! Thank Terry for this, as always, a great look at what you can do! I do! Thankz
I love this. It turns common wisdom on it's head.
Also shows you don't need a huge chassis for a tube amp.
Years ago, I had the idea of using the chassis and cabinet from my 90's Fender Princeton 65 to convert to a tube amp, and now I think i'm going to do it.
6 years ago! Damn, i could use those parts right now. That would have been perfect for a project I’m wanting to do.
I scored one of these amps locally 4 months ago in great shape for $50. I converted it to a 2204 circuit using 1% metal resistors, orange drop caps, FT filter caps and Hammond Transformers (I built the circuit to be as true to OEM values as currently possible). It sounds absolutely amazing through a Neo Creamback.
I just need to get a new faceplate made without the headphone jack to make it perfect.
That is absolutely crazy to go from that to a 2204! You turned some kids practice amp that you picked up for $50 into a 2204 big boy amp? That’s a thing? I just recently started messing around with amps. I’ve built alot of pedals and worked on pedal for people and fixed alot of amps. But nothing like what you’re talking about. Nor what this video was about. I have a problem you can probably help me with. My daughter is an outstanding guitar player. But she has a Marshall MG15 MSII mini stack. It sounds horrible! And the result of that causes her to play my amp! See how that works? So when i want to play she looks at me like “ try again later “.
Is there anything i can do to make the mini stack sound better and respond better? It says on the back that it’s a valve amp yet i see no tubes in it. How can that be? You seem like the kind of person that would know what to do here and maybe give me some advice on what to do. Short of throwing it in the trash i hope hahaha.
I really love your videos. I am currently teaching my self electronics and I would to repair and restore old tube amps one day. I would to see more of the technical stuff you do that we don't see in between your cuts. I would love to also see more of the electrical "theory" stuff that goes on in the different circuits. Thanks for all the great videos.
those are things you need to learn by doing
You absolutely cease to amaze me Beautiful job
A real hot rod is putting a Caddy motor in a ford. Nailed it
In the Hotrod world this is referred to as a sleeper. Looks like a mild mannered turd on the outside, but fully "blown" on the inside. Lovely work. Real nice. Cheers.
Greetings Terry, from right down I-94 by Ann Arbor! Looks great.
This was the Best yet video /Amp to date Thank you ! Great job
Terry outstanding job.
"Circus board"???
You must have missed the beginning where he was drinking a lot of wine :D
Looks like a circus board to me. No tooooobs
Hey, I did not know Walter from breaking bad does amp mods.
That was a smart fix in my eyes thank you for showing a great build..I'd love your knowledge of amps Electronics...
Totally Cool idea! and now its usefulness has increased greatly
The Master lead combo suffered because of that silly G12M70 speaker- 4 ohm, meant to run in series in 4x12 cabs. I put a Peavey Blue Marvel 4 ohm in mine- supposed to be a match for the Vintage 30. Put new NTE semiconductors in it and I love it. Dark and moody, perfect for vintage Zep, Kinks etc. Highly under-rated amp because of that ice pick G12M70. Cheap at pawn shops. Master volume. $100 amp with a $35 Blue Marvel sounds fantastic. But a Princeton circuit with a Jensen is... well, Jim and Leo weren't enemies.
This transformation must cost a fortune. 😱
Not really it's not that expensive as you think
Love the Hallicrafters receiver in the background!
Great demonstration of a noble project. Thanks!
Any 101 basic work books or beginning tube repair for dummies. Thanks for keeping my eyes open and giving hope. No classes for tube repair around my area. Your awesome and orginial.
Thanks man, Helps me to keep going down this path. TD
D-Lab keepin it real. Love the vids man!
I do have several old solid state amps combos to make in consideration for parts and composition repurposing.
solid state marshalls sound decent. give me one any day over a woolly bottom end fender !!
Stupid thing this was a monster of a solid state amp - it could have been repaired/modded and sound every bit as good as a tube amp!
Holy damn! that's insane! if only that was done to my amp I'd be so freakin' happy
Nicely done, Terry. I've done this to several old Peaveys. It's so much nicer watching someone else do it rather than doing it myself.....it really takes a serious load of time to do one of these. And the parts cost is a lot, several hundred bucks. Gotta replace the reverb can with one of proper input impedance...or you at least should. (Did not see you address that) The Marshall was an excellent candidate with that flat "blank" chassis.
Since I "discovered " Peavey ValveKing 50-watt/1x 12" speaker amps used for $200-$225, though, I can't do these any more. (Have to replace the speaker, the stock speaker is atrocious)
+pneumatic00 I agree, The fellow I did this job for was a bit shocked with the price. Hard to compete with these new cookie cutter tube circuit board based amps. Parts alone was $550.00
Hybrid amps are the answer, tube preamps for the tube effects and some good heatsinked T0-3 power transistor outputs is the best compromise. But the power supply transformers and fliter caps are needed for different voltages, so not too many manufacturers do that.
Just too expensive.
Wine goes good with tubes! Tubes andtubes of wine.
0:18 - Ok, ya got me. Subbed.
Hello
Long life to tubes! !
Looks like a great donor chassis to build a Fender Deluxe Reverb. I'd like to redraw the circuit and eliminate the Normal channel. The Vibrato uses 6 pots too!!
My first amp..:)... then a SS vox.. then a 72 Deluxe Reverb.. never looked back...:)
theres one for sale on my local craigslist for 150.00... maybe an 18w Marshall kit would fit..
Interesting note. The original Marshall design was based on the Fender Bassman.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Can you offer advice on drilling the holes for someone without a drill press, or a CNC machine? Thank you!!
I have been wanting to do this to my old Marshall combo. It has tons of room inside. I would probably go with some kind of Marshall clone though, Maybe like a JCM800 circuit.
Nice, you make it look so simple!
Thanks for subscribing man
especially I like that glass of wine tube prehiting ;)
I converted my circuit board THD Picovalve into a point to point Champ clone (though I chose my own component values in some places...but very similar to the Champ in the end). It sounds better to my ears, at least in speaker cabs/speakers that low cut some of the noise. ...built a super simple 6V6 push pull project of my own design, but the plate transformer only puts 161v on the plates. I recently tried 6Y6's and I believe they are warmer at those voltages but need to put it on the scope. I have a Tek, but it's old.
I should point out I had the THD for years (around 10 or more) before I let young Frankenstein out on it.
D Lab! Does it again!
subscribed yeah i got one of them useless marshall amps and now i want to convert it ....good vid..inspiring even
I would never modify a Master Lead. Will keep as with its old glory! regardless, great video.
HEY FELLA, YOU ARE AMAZING.!!! IT'S A PITTY I DON'T LIVE IN THE STATES....
Beautiful work!!!
Outstanding build !! Very clean !!
With tubes getting hard to find now, I wonder how easily could a tube amp be converted into a solid state amp?
I recently turned my vox pathfinder 10 bass amp into a fender Bassman with my grandpa
We used vintage RCA 12AU7A tubes it sounds much better we took the whole amp apart and used the same chassis and added some tube sockets and the rest was easy it didn't cost us much we even used a vintage fender output transformer
you do make it look so simple, I have recently been wanting to build a tube amp but im kind of afraid to screw it up and waste a lot of money
you dont succeed at anything caving into fear and being a coward.without having balls you will never fall in love,never get a job,never defend your woman's honor,never make a speech,never play a song live on stage.
you will live a safe,sheltered,accomplishment free life never learning or doing anything risky.
@@trillrifaxegrindor4411 amen.
I have always said the best part of those Marshall SS turds were the cabinets.
whish australia had guys like terry.problem here is shipping doubles the price.do u sell pre made boards terry??
This makes me happy
That was awesome
Just brilliant
The decsision to convert this particular amp to a Princeton circuit is both cool and silly at the same time. Cool as in, yeah Princetons are cool. Silly as fuck as in, a Marshall 5030 or 5010 or whatever that combo is, is probably one of the best solid state amps ever made. I had the 5030 and it sounded amazing, they nailed the JCM800 vibe because it's from that family.Personally I would have done a scratch build or chosen a different amp to mod because that amp is no joke.
ehhh whatever,the owner wanted it done,it got done EXACTLY AS HE PAID TO HAVE IT DONE.
honestly buddy,there is no point in whining about someone elses gear,and what they do with it....
remembering something fondly with sentimentality that wasn't the way it actually was,if it was that good you would still have it,YOU DO NOT.at the end of the day this newly converted amp would knock the marshall solid state flat on its ass.ive had both,if you want a jcm800 sound,nothing compares other than a jcm800.how do i know,i owned one for 20 years.
hey dufus, I've owned several JCM800's since 1983, that's 34 years. I still have my mint 1983 JCM800 2203. I've also owned a 5030, 5010, and still own two Lead 12's from this series, I also have a collection of silverface Fenders and have owned Tan and blackface fenders as well. i know what I'm talking about as well, i have an opinion, if you dont like it, fuck off.
Great video Terry, I really appreciate your insights. I wonder if you have a video showing what types of resistors/capacitors/tubes/chassis/pots and other hardware to buy and where to get it most economically. If not, is there any prospect of such a video? Or perhaps a chart on your web page? I assume you normally don't buy kits. Also, since most of us don't have a full complement of tools, how about another video on making do with what's handy, or perhaps where to get simple apparatus for measuring, cutting, drilling, etc. I wonder if the miniature oscilloscopes you can buy on Ebay are of any use in amp signal analysis. Thanks.
Very cool to see how it’s done but wouldn’t it be cheaper to just buy a Princeton? But then we wouldn’t have seen your awesome instruction... thanks
thats so awesome...i could never do it...but id LOVE to own one...lol
+dragonclaw88 Be glad to build one for you. I just finished another repurposed amp. Take a look at www.d-labamps.com Just find a good donor cabinet and we can get the project rolling.
Always lube your bell end, guys....
I'm thinking about converting my old Attax 80. Huge sentimental attachment for me but a) it was nice for what it was but still not great and b) it's dickered anyway
Now this is a good video!!👍🏻👍🏻🎸🎸🎶🎶
What the ballpark cost of this conversion?
D-Lab RULES!
But why not a Marshall tube circuit?
how much did you charge? total conversion price plus partS?
What kind of filter cap is that ? Never seen it. Do you often put a filter cap plus a choke ? Why do some companies don't put a choke, just filter caps? For cost cutting ? Thank you.
PS. You didn't mention a standby to replace the old Marshall on/off switch. I like to use a toggle for the heaters and a switched pot for volume and DC power. Is that advisable?
Your doing a great job...three thumbs up
Whoa... nice! Now if only it had a master volume and an extension speaker jack.....
Oh, c’mon. It’s not even a high wattage amp. Why do you need a master volume? Wuss.....
Why can't you take the Marshall sound with distortion output and run it through the pre--amp inverter, rectifier and matched amp tubes with the upgraded power and output xfers?
Wonderful. How long and how much for parts?
by the way... You are so inspiring and cool
Awesome. I have a Marshall VS-65R which has a tube preamp.. Wonder if i could convert the front end to tube..
Beautiful work. very neat. A+++
Excellent work! I want to do this. Can you recommend a kit with all parts less chassis, less speaker and less cabinet that I can buy. I’m in Australia. Apparently the power transformers have 240Volt and 110volt taps.
Regards.
I was given a marshall 5203 reverb 30 replaced all of the pots. turned it on and it had scratchy volume noise and decided since it was sitting for a long time I would change out the pots. and now now sound came from it. ????????
Thing sounds great!
I have an old Marshall Lead 12 I've had since the 80s...any suggestions for that?
You got a cool amp👍
ruclips.net/video/L-5IaYOvmjQ/видео.html
I have a Fender Mustang one I want to convert it to a head cut a couple of inches on each side and make a shorter from the chassis amp has a yellow wire I believe is ground is connected for the chassis board to the middle of the speakers terminal. If I disconnect the yellow wire do I connect it back to the chassis to make the amp work with an external cab please let me know.
Terry, where'd the output transformer go? Didn't see it at all during the video, just the power transformer and choke. Or is there some magic voodoo that makes the low impedance signal for the speakers?
+kcrmson Hello, Take a look around 2:44 minutes in, Its there
+Terry Dayton Doh! Missed it when I blinked he first time I watched the video. :)
So cool
have you done anything to a Crate? have a vintage 50 310 that wobbles out and in between the channels. great clean, monster crunch and so loud... but so annoying...
Sounds like a bad circuit board.
need tips on cleaning a scratchy volume pot on a valvestate vs65R please I bought a can of deoxIT D5
Fun project !!! Well done!
What are the RCA cables near the pre-amp tubes? You've got those red and white right angle plugs connected, but it's not clear where they are going?
Is that part of the reverb setup?
Also, there seems to be a hole in the front, just to the right of the control knobs. Is there a purpose for it, or is that just left over from the old setup?
+SciPunk215 Hello, Yes, this amp has a reverb and those are the cables. When I shot the video, the new lazer engraved panel was not installed. There is a follow up video of Bob Weis playing the completed amp. It really turned out nice. Coast was high since it was a complete new build, however I believe Bob is very happy with the results. Thanks for the kind e-mail. TD
very cool but was it cost effective vs just purchasing a fender tube amp?? and it went from bare chassis to finished without any of the details, - mounting tubes, pots, drilling holes, and soldering what to what? all I know about electronics is where the on and standby switch is Id love to see a build for newbies to learn how
Ben Perry A friend of mine, who I play in a band with, always wanted a Vox AC 30. He settled on AC 15. Played about 10 gigs and it failed. I looked into to it and found the cheapest parts I have ever seen! When you convert you have the opportunity to upgrade to rock solid parts that would cost you 10 times more if you bought a "boutique" amp. A guy like Terry, puts his reputation on the line every time he repairs or builds. Big manufacturers don't care about that. The people you buy from won't send them to China, they replace and throw them in the dumpsters! This amp will be very serviceable and last many years, and sound great! Thankz
thats not what this channel is however
Quality job!
Awesome video 😊👍🙌
I would never convert a Marshall solid state to Tube..especially the Marshall MG 100FX ..i have said this before the Solid State technology the past 20 years is amazing..the Solid State does everything a Tube Amp does and sounds..i have rarely used a Tube Amp since 2009 because the Solid State does what a Tube Amp does and with much more reliability..the days you need a Tube Amp to get great Tone is long gone..the solid state Amps are the way to go..
what would you charge to do this mod?
awesome
I inherited a SWR 350 bass amp with all tube preamp, can I convert to guitar tube amp? Or should I just leave it? No fuses blown. Haven’t done any testing on it yet. What do you think?
I realize that this is an older video, but I really want to do this. I have this exact Marshall, and it SUCKS. It has SO much room inside, plus good switches and pots. I really want the instructions to do the conversion. Great job, how do I make it as beautifully as you have?? I'll check the website listed so I can attempt it!
Tubes all the way in my opinion. Sure Solid State amplification can sound good, but not at full volume. Every S.S. I have hurts my ears at full volume. It has to do with the distortion that occurs at full volume. Tubes sound better. Every tube amplifier I have sounds better at full volume than at any other volume. I like to play loud and I like lot of sustain and that's why I love my Marshall Tube amplifiers.
I think a Marshall JCM 800 model 4010 conversion would be the ticket . Same cab etc as the 4010
Nice
GUY I
Learned a lot
Subed at 3 seconds. Thank you
Have you ever done this with a Crate solid state amp, like a GX-65? I've got a lead on one for cheap, but I'm concerned the spacing for the pots on the front panel is too close for traditional pots.
nice work...
Very good job! I have a Marshall mosfet 100 twin reverb 5213, it had a problem with volume ( the volume used to turn down) I gave it for repair and the technician rip of the poweramp and replaced it with a tiny transitor amp it sounds awful and when it gets warm, it doesn't work (I paid 110euros for nothing) I said to him to make the amp as it was! What do you suggest me? Thanks a lot!
put it in the garbage and buy a working amp
Is there no chance to rebuild a solid state amp so that actually sounds good ?
I ve got got a bottle of wine for you if you can :)
Cheers !
Don't you think they'd have done it by now?
@Mark Umbenhower
Two words:
Roland JC120
NICE! Made it respectable :)
Hi, can you show or send the circuit that you are using? Would be great try to make this amp
heY pefect but where can i find the scematic???