Effective Lead Boost for Marshall JMP 2203

HHwarner

I'm really don't want to go drilling holes into my 79 JMP but Iv got an original 2204. Anyone want to swap a 2203x with my 2204. It's a horizontal input btw

HHwarner

professorben said:

BadCat Unleash V2
Its an attenuator, Loadbox, power amp and has 2 foot switchable master volumes for solo boosts. 

Does anyone know of anywhere in the uk I could get one of these?

Phil_aka_Pip

Hmmm ...

are you saying that you run the 2203 so as to give you your rhythm sound, but your solo sound doesn't stick out enough?

My approach would be to use pedals to get the rhythm sound, with the 2203 running a bit cleaner and a bit more headroom, so that when you hit a boost pedal for your solo the 2203 doesn't squish it so much, but is still being driven hard enough to give you the solo sound you want.

HHwarner

Its a very specific sound Im after so I play with the power section over driving and attenuate down. This leaves me with no where to go with a boost up front. The Bad Cat Unleash seems a great way to go with 2 levels of foot switchable attenuation. The trouble is I cant seem to find one in the UK. 

ICBM

HHwarner said:

professorben said:

BadCat Unleash V2
Its an attenuator, Loadbox, power amp and has 2 foot switchable master volumes for solo boosts. 

Does anyone know of anywhere in the uk I could get one of these?

Coda Music, according to the Guitar Magazine.

https://www.theguitarmagazine.com/gear/bad-cat-unleash-v2-review/

If you still have the Powerbrake I would try a switched load resistor first though, it should be about £400 cheaper...

GrahamG

The best solution is to sack the Rhythm Guitarist,his only aim in life is to get your job anyway 

HHwarner

ICBM said:

HHwarner said:

professorben said:

BadCat Unleash V2
Its an attenuator, Loadbox, power amp and has 2 foot switchable master volumes for solo boosts. 

Does anyone know of anywhere in the uk I could get one of these?

Coda Music, according to the Guitar Magazine.

https://www.theguitarmagazine.com/gear/bad-cat-unleash-v2-review/

If you still have the Powerbrake I would try a switched load resistor first though, it should be about £400 cheaper...

Yes Iv still got the Powerbrake. Would a Speaker coil work as a dummy load ICBM? Iv got a 16 ohm speaker with damaged cone

ICBM

HHwarner said:

Yes Iv still got the Powerbrake. Would a Speaker coil work as a dummy load ICBM? Iv got a 16 ohm speaker with damaged cone

No, it won’t have anywhere near enough power handling without the rest of the speaker - they rely on the airflow through the magnet gap to dissipate the heat. I know Weber claim to use them in the Mass series attenuators, but really the bulk of the load is standard power resistors.

What you need is one of these -

https://goo.gl/images/eKjhW8

Bolting it to the casing is how you dissipate the heat.

The only real problem with this method is that you won’t have any control over the amount of volume cut - if it’s too little or too much you would need a different resistor.

HHwarner

looks cheap enough. So if 95% of the time I’ll be playing with the resistor engaged so would best option to be run the amp and Powerbrake at 8ohms and just live with the miss match at solo time ?

GoldenEraGuitars

I’d be using a Schaffer Vega Replica pedal

ICBM

HHwarner said:

looks cheap enough. So if 95% of the time I’ll be playing with the resistor engaged so would best option to be run the amp and Powerbrake at 8ohms and just live with the miss match at solo time ?

There won’t be a mismatch because it will be on the speaker side of the Powerbrake. Remember that the amp always sees the attenuator as the load and not the speaker, unless it’s bypassed. Even at -6dB you’re better just to set it to 16 ohms and not worry about it.

HHwarner

lonestar said:

I’d be using a Schaffer Vega Replica pedal

;-)