A bathtub full of acid ...
Respect !
That's what I'd call a lot, too.

Lol,
susiwong

Well i would not buy a 2203 to have it modded, i would just buy that Natas build. Amazing for my stuff but i bet it sound shit clean. With Active buckers and Floyds all the way

He could of done a current 800 re-issue instead, i agree if not built the thing himself, Still if a customer asks and asks and asks the guy was bound to give in

I do agree but it does sound pretty good

Peace

Dean aka the lover of a butcher whom dabbles in all things sacred

Granted, original amps are a different story.
Still, I know several builders (guitars, amps, FX) who wouldn't do a hackjob for anyone, including MacGyver, Charlie Marx and Berlusconi.
Check closely about build quality and components, in my eyes work ethos is a full time job.
What about those Labogas, especially the cheaper German Fame variants ?
They looked pretty well-built back then.
Of course tone is subjective, so that's not what I'm talking about.

Ymmv,
susiwong

sacred is relative, but destroying something good/legendary with limited supplies when you could just as well use current components doesn't make sense to me.
When will they realize you can't eat butchered Marshalls ?

yeah i have NOT forgotten about that Laboga Hector Duo Master Mk II at all. Will have to check the cheaper branded builds you mentioned in case as i do not like the price of the Laboga, other than that it is great

When they run out of original SLPs and 800s i guess NO! Surely he could use say the Laney models for the same reason/purpose as they are cheaper but very similar with the single channel/master volume (models are LH-100/50s! IIRC)

When done correctly all that gets used is the trannies, not even the chassis mostly. Maybe the wooden box ...
At least that's how Larry (Grohmann, one of the better hot-rodders ) does it afaik, hey, would you want to reuse 20+ year old caps, resistors or pots ?
http://www.larry-amplification.de/gallery/?level=collection& id=1
And before I'd start modding a steel chassis I'd rather outsource that to the local metal workshop, they'll build a better one for sure.
So bottom line - why not keep the JCM800 stock, maybe sell it, get a set of Mercury or TAD trannies and base the new amp on them ?
That's what I meant in a nutshell.
Ymmv,
susiwong

afair :
Fame Overkill = Laboga Mr Hector


Fame Rockforce VII = little brother of Mr Hector
built for http://www.musicstore.de
not sold anymore, check German ebay
current Fames are built elsewhere, @ Yerasov in Russia for example
no guarantees - do your own research

Cheers,
susiwong

Cheers, noted down incase, not in any rush to spend though. However it is excellent resourse information for if i ever do mate

Nice one

Dean

egnater rebel oredered...chose ground delivery so it may take a bit to get here (and then when it does I might have to wait an hour or two to allow the tubes to warm up to room temp first) review to follow when I get it

Believe it or not, the FENDER CHAMP (vintage) is a great AMP for recording. That aren't cheap (and they aren't loud) but sound GREAT on tape (or DAW) with nothing more than a 57.

Nice choice, i had a play around on the rebel and tweaker earlier in the year and liked FWIW man
Will certainly help when cranking, won't step on the Mesa's toes as they have a much more neutral voice i found (just my ears though). The tight control is good and will work with the baritone well i imagine

Looking forward to hearing how you get on with Bruce's little beast

Dean

no doubt, I've seen the reissues but I haven't tried them yet

I toyed with the idea of getting the Tweaker instead especially after eric in a pm told me how much he liked it but this time around I went with the Rebel because it's one of the two I played (tried an Orange TT too). I like the tube blend and the fx loop, the wattage control will be interesting in conjuction with my weber (my weber is under rated for the boogie, yes I can use it but I still have to hold back a lot).

I'm still interested in the Ibanez tubscreamer head and a few other 'micro tube heads'. However it's winter so a winter project might be to build a tubescreamer from general guitar gadgets (with the mod) so that might turn down my interest in the amp. The Blackheart Handsome Devil or whatever it's called looks interesting and I did like the TT, just not now.

You should give the Blackstar HT-5 (head only, the combo is meh due to the speaker and the head means you can use it with whatever you cab you wish - that is important to me anyway big time. Susspose you could pull out the stock 10" on the combo and put in what you prefer but that is more money then anyways) a whirl if you get chance. For the money it is pretty much faultless as a recording mini amp head! I would not go for the Ibanez mini-head with the tubescreamer built-in even though having a TS or other OD of choice is a good idea. Well i did not like the Ibanez one at all FWIW. Tiny Terrors are rather good but i went for the Blackstar instead/better range of sounds and sound superior to my ears at lower volumes). The Dual Terror also good but not 'me'...Then there is the Marshall Haze 15 (again head only as the combo version meh) - that one is cool/good sounding with an OD infront of it and Doug Aldritch/Whitesnake approved Traynor Dark Horse looks v.nice, have not tried any of the blackheart amps myself so can not comment. Bass amp wise have you seen the Little Bastard by Ashdown? and the Mini SVT classic by Ampeg? I dig them as good candidates for clean sounds plus taking high-gain distortion pedals well. Also the MarkBass amps are also whilst rather more expensive than the Ampeg/Ashdown again great for clean sounds and distortion boxes. I use an all-valve Marshall DSL50 with 4x12 (infront of it is a Boss NS-2 and a Digitech CM-2 & Fulltone Fulldrive II) along with an Ampeg BR-1e Solid-State Bass Amp head, Marshall 1936 2x12" and a Wienbrock Custom compact 1x15" cab which is driven hard by a Line-6 Uber Metal Distortion so it gives me all the valve greatness i need plus an extremely solid low-end, very punchy and good higher-mids that carve through. I mix the relative volume of each to get the balance of all-valve high-gain and FET/Solid-State immediate high-gain clout. That is my big rig though and at home i mainly use the blackstar with the 2x12" and 1x15" or Roland Cube...etc. for practice. I thought i would mention this since with a baritone scale length (my cases the monster gauge strings/maybe you also i am not sure what your gauge of choice is, plus the active buckers) the bass amps i find great. Obviously if you have already tried it out then ignore Also it is handy since i can also record and play what bass guitars i have

as susiwong says always YMMV, all the best

Dean

yeah Dean, on the first page I mentioned the baby blackstar...on my list to check out, guitar parts depot sells them at a good price (in fact the day after black friday was blackstar saturday there)

thread makes we want to play guitar

I can't have an amp. I will not put myself in a position of having the neighbors mad at me. If I was a riffing/soling madman then I'd brave it.....but I'm not so I'll pass