NAD - Marshall SV20

gusman2x

Thanks to P90fool for a great deal, and a super easy transaction!

Had it for over a week now, but not spent tons of time. Two main observations so far are that the jumper options are varied, and that when you get the crunch sound, it does it very well. 

I’m using the cheap Burega attenuator, which seems fine (but maybe it’s not?) but to get it below 80db (on my phone), the attenuator is down at 10%. Running it up at 30% definitely gives more body, but it’s still pretty damned loud. Run it without, and it’s ear splittingly loud!

Been predominantly using my strat, and been able to dial in for neck and bridge well enough. Had a blast with my lp, which was pure rock but didn’t spend much time dialling it in. 

I come from either big fender amps, or a laney VC15 at low volumes. I’ve always got my sounds from pedals, and so far I’ve not really to them playing nice with this. I’m probably running it with too much amp saturation, then overwhelming it with the drive pedals. SD-2 sounds ok, silicone fuzz face not so much. Goes very mushy. Any tips on how to get the fuzz to not go crazy compressed would be much appreciated. Pics of settings below. 

More time needed for sure, but having a very specific sound being dictated by the amp is new to me. It was what I wanted to try, but definitely a culture shock. 

https://i.imgur.com/vuG9HRt.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/UcEbhBC.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/lNFOt8i.jpeg

soma1975

Welcome to the SV20 club. 

Can confirm they sound utterly epic with a silicon fuzz face. Most of the fuzzy gold is at 9 on the guitar volume. 10 should be reserved for bridge pickup or phat mushy neck. 

My normal vol is on 2 and high treble one is on 4. All through an attenuator. Dial out some bass on the amp if using a fuzz face. Prescence past halfway

gusman2x

soma1975 said:

Welcome to the SV20 club. 

Can confirm they sound utterly epic with a silicon fuzz face. Most of the fuzzy gold is at 9 on the guitar volume. 10 should be reserved for bridge pickup or phat mushy neck. 

My normal vol is on 2 and high treble one is on 4. All through an attenuator. Dial out some bass on the amp if using a fuzz face. Prescence past halfway

Thanks man

Can confirm those settings are great for the natural OD. Volume on the guitar needed to be about 7/8 for me before the fuzz stopped being massively over compressed/ synth like. 

Finding the treble hard to dial in right also. Ill be honest and say im definitely struggling to get a comfortable all rounder setting for the amp so far. 

noisepolluter

gusman2x said:

Finding the treble hard to dial in right also. Ill be honest and say im definitely struggling to get a comfortable all rounder setting for the amp so far. 

Could be to do with the bright cap on the treble input?

My SC20H had a very high value bright cap on the gain control which made it tricky to balance low gain settings - I ended up having a 3 way micro switch fitted to the front channel with stock, reduced and no bright cap, which makes it much easier to dial in low gain sounds without overbearing treble.

You could try something similar with the volume on the treble channel but maybe with a push-pull switch between two cap values on the volume pot so it’s reversible?

soma1975

SV20 and a fuzz face and a strat does not need any fannying about modding to be honest. The glorious tones are in there pretty quickly. 

Maybe you just need to break your speaker in a bit? Also how close are you to the amp? I am to side the of mine about 3m away and it is warm and rounded. Directly in front it's a lot harsher

gusman2x

noisepolluter said:

gusman2x said:

Finding the treble hard to dial in right also. Ill be honest and say im definitely struggling to get a comfortable all rounder setting for the amp so far. 

Could be to do with the bright cap on the treble input?

My SC20H had a very high value bright cap on the gain control which made it tricky to balance low gain settings - I ended up having a 3 way micro switch fitted to the front channel with stock, reduced and no bright cap, which makes it much easier to dial in low gain sounds without overbearing treble.

You could try something similar with the volume on the treble channel but maybe with a push-pull switch between two cap values on the volume pot so it’s reversible?

Yeah over on the Marshall forum I’ve seen lots of people have done the mod. Where did you get yours done? I’m not great with a soldering iron. 

gusman2x

soma1975 said:

SV20 and a fuzz face and a strat does not need any fannying about modding to be honest. The glorious tones are in there pretty quickly. 

Maybe you just need to break your speaker in a bit? Also how close are you to the amp? I am to side the of mine about 3m away and it is warm and rounded. Directly in front it's a lot harsher

Yeah the cabs brand new, but as I’m playing through an attenuator, not sure how much breaking in it will get. 

I’m generally off to the side of the amp, but I think I need to switch sides as I have a dodgy/painful left ear, which currently gets the brunt. 

I love the amp in its naturally overdriven state, but still haven’t dialled in any type of distortion without it getting massively overcompressed. Rolling back the volume works, but it’s a bit of a faff when you want to immediately kick in the dirt. 

soma1975

I play with an attenuator as well but the speaker definitely changed over a few weeks of playing it

noisepolluter

gusman2x said:

noisepolluter said:

gusman2x said:

Finding the treble hard to dial in right also. Ill be honest and say im definitely struggling to get a comfortable all rounder setting for the amp so far. 

Could be to do with the bright cap on the treble input?

My SC20H had a very high value bright cap on the gain control which made it tricky to balance low gain settings - I ended up having a 3 way micro switch fitted to the front channel with stock, reduced and no bright cap, which makes it much easier to dial in low gain sounds without overbearing treble.

You could try something similar with the volume on the treble channel but maybe with a push-pull switch between two cap values on the volume pot so it’s reversible?

Yeah over on the Marshall forum I’ve seen lots of people have done the mod. Where did you get yours done? I’m not great with a soldering iron. 

Dickinson Amps in Crystal Palace 

Petepassion

I tried one of those cheap attenuators and was nowhere near as good as my Marshall powerbrake, but none are going to sound great at bedroom levels unless you go for a re-amper like a Fryette or Boss TAE, but they're not cheap. With my SV20 I used an 'Ultimate' attenuator, made in the US, needs a few simple mods as was shown on this forum, but it sounded great, very little in it between it and my Boss TAE. 
   I ended up selling it for £250.

ChrisCox1994

Petepassion said:

I tried one of those cheap attenuators and was nowhere near as good as my Marshall powerbrake, but none are going to sound great at bedroom levels unless you go for a re-amper like a Fryette or Boss TAE, but they're not cheap. With my SV20 I used an 'Ultimate' attenuator, made in the US, needs a few simple mods as was shown on this forum, but it sounded great, very little in it between it and my Boss TAE. 
   I ended up selling it for £250.

I've heard this very marshall, in his house, and that powerbrake really works!

shaunm

I’m going to agree with @soma1975 and say that I don’t think you need to mod the amp to make it sound good with a fuzzface. Keeping on 8/9 on the guitar volume is great advice.

this clip is me having a little jam with a Fuzzface into the SV20 with a 1x12 cab with a creamback

https://youtu.be/KQokTIZlmPA?si=7EJEalKQsoqd0ywY

NelsonP

shaunm said:

I’m going to agree with @soma1975 and say that I don’t think you need to mod the amp to make it sound good with a fuzzface. Keeping on 8/9 on the guitar volume is great advice.

this clip is me having a little jam with a Fuzzface into the SV20 with a 1x12 cab with a creamback

https://youtu.be/KQokTIZlmPA?si=7EJEalKQsoqd0ywY

Nice playing! Great tones

p90fool

ChrisCox1994 said:

Petepassion said:

I tried one of those cheap attenuators and was nowhere near as good as my Marshall powerbrake, but none are going to sound great at bedroom levels unless you go for a re-amper like a Fryette or Boss TAE, but they're not cheap. With my SV20 I used an 'Ultimate' attenuator, made in the US, needs a few simple mods as was shown on this forum, but it sounded great, very little in it between it and my Boss TAE. 
   I ended up selling it for £250.

I've heard this very marshall, in his house, and that powerbrake really works!

That's what I found too. I have a Jet City Jettenuator which Harley Benton and I assume Bugera have copied and although it's ok it does kill the top end a bit, forcing you to turn it up on the amp. 

As the previous owner of Gusman's amp I used it with my Marshall PowerBrake and the difference is night and day, even down to very low levels. 

https://imgur.com/a/MDCmARn