Great Heartbreaker Mod Experience

[mdortona]

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to share with everyone my great experience with Andy (aka Monsta-Tone) and the mods he did to my Heartbreaker head. Aside from some basic tune-up work (caps, troubleshooting etc), Andy did the JCM800 mod to the Lust channel and it just smokes with the classic Marshall sound (in a Boogie box). This mod also managed to take away the "dark, blanket over the amp tone" on the Lust channel , which was the main reason why I sold two previous HBs (a head and a combo). He also did his reverb mod, which now sounds like it's on steroids. The HB reverb can now hang with my Lonestar Classic (although the Lonestar still has a small edge b/c of warm/bright switch)! He stayed in touch with me via email and by phone throughout the process and was ever so patient with my 10,000 dumb questions. He work was top-shelf, with lots of attention to detail (according to my local amp guy, who also is a Boogie affectionado), and his charges were very reasonable for the work done. 8)

So, if anyone is considering getting a mod done to your Boogie, especially your Heartbreaker, I would recommend Andy without any hesitation. He's a good guy and an amp wizard. 8) 8)


Matt

 

[czarivan]

thanks for the report! i'm so tempted to just box mine up and ship it out. I know what you mean about the dark blanket over the tone. It sounds great, but i know that it has so much more potential. I've emailed back and forth with a guy semi-locally that has his HB modded by andy. pretty much the same setup as you i think. I want to see if i can get down there and A/B his and mine. I wanna know what i'm getting myself into.

You wouldn't happen to have any sound clips would you?

I've also been looking at the voodoo mod... any experieince or knowledge of that one?

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Awww Shucks!!!!! :lol:


Thanks Matt, I greatly appreciate the work. I'm hoping to not be an electrical contractor within the next few years and just work on amps! Got to have a pipe dream!!!!!!

It's really too bad you like the distortion on the Love channel. I'm working on an SLO mod for mine, but it takes the high gain tube stage away from the Love channel. So far anyway. I'm trying to work it out so that both options are available with a JCM/SLO switch on the Lust channel! :lol: Maybe I'll call it the Jeckyl & Hyde switch! :lol:

I'm glad you like the tones! Let me know if you have any questions.



Czarivan,
You must be talking about babow2's HB. I did pretty much the same thing to his, with the exception of a little less Reverb. Matt wanted the full blown, Twin Reverb sound out of his. Brent wanted it a little more subdued.

This is going to sound funny, but be sure you read up on reviews and what some guys have to offer. I know for a fact that there is a major mod company that is offering a 'Series FX Loop Mod' for the HB. It is already Series, so it would seem that there is a bit of funny business if it's not a typo.

 

[mdortona]

Czarivan,

Sorry, no clips at the moment. Definitely check out the other guy's HB if you can; hearing is believing! As far as Voodoo Amps' mod is concerned, one of my offices is in Ithaca, so I've been out to talk with Trace many times about multiple amp mods (including the HB). He talked me out of doing their HB mod several times because he felt that it would not give me the sounds I was after (at least based on the players and tones I described to him - anything from bluesy Warren Haynes to Bad Co. to Garry Moore to Priest, Maiden and 80's metal). Instead, he encouraged me to get a Plexi modded or consider a Voodoo Amps Plexi. He is a very knowledgeable and honest guy, who is passionate about his work and his amp tone preferences. Loves to talk about amps. There are a few HarmonyCentral reviews on his HB mods too. FWIW, he did a few routine repairs on my MKIV (when I owned one) and did a good job. While I honestly don't know what the Voodoo mod entails (other than their website description) vs. Andy's mod, I'm definitely hearing (what's left of it :lol: ) the sound that I was after. First real opportunities to road test it this evening and tomorrow evening at band practices. I'll post something this week-end. However, at this point in time, I'm NOT missing not having a Plexi, but YMMV :wink:

Matt

 

[nosajwp]

I have one of Andy's former HB's with the modded Lust channel and it totally rocks. Needs new tubes, but other than that it's great.

His SLO mod sounds cool, but I'm going to try and find a Soldano Hot Mod for the Lust channel...I laid the schematic out for how it would fit into the circuit, and it very closely resembled a 2 channel Dual Recto...we'll see how that turns out.

 

[czarivan]

andy, you and i have to talk. I tried calling yesterday but got voicemail. I would have left you a message, but my cell phone was dead and i was at the office. I'll try calling you later... who knows my HB might be headed to New Mexico very soon. I had an uncle that lived in Silver City back in the day. we went camping up in Gila

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Sorry about the bad connection. I couldn't tell if it was your phone or mine.
Mine has been acting up lately, I can't see calls I've received.
If you want to PM me your #, I'll give you a call tomorrow. I've got an inspection 1st thing in the morning, so it would probably be after 10 AM Mountain Time.


I've always loved the area, but not the people (most anyway) here if that makes sense.
I could never understand how we could live in such a nice place and yet every one is fucking misserable!