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Artist News
Artist News & More!
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This amp was original manufactured for use in Europe & came with the male Bulgin AC receptacle for AC power as well as the Bulgin ‘Push-In’ connector for the AC voltage Selector & Speaker Impedance Selector.
The Speaker Impedance selector was very loose & too brittle to re-tension the sockets so we hard wired the amp for use with 8ohm or 16ohms cabinets. We also hard wired the amp for 120v use here in the States. We properly labeled the Speaker Jacks as well as the Fuse Holders, etc as the silk screening was wearing off, which is common on older 70’s Marshalls.
This amp had been through a couple of techs & was an amalgamation of a Super Bass meets a Super Lead. She was in need of some well deserved TLC & after a fair amount of clean up work, new Screen Grid resistors, improving the ground scheme, new power tubes, re-tensioning / cleaning the sockets, restoring it to a 1987 Super Lead circuit & restructuring the internal voltages, she sounds & feels amazing just like what you hear on the classic records!
She’s ready for active duty again & will provide years worth of amazing pro quality tone & will be featured on the up coming Red Dragon Cartel record featuring Jake E Lee!
Related Links
1.) Jake E Lee's Red Dragon Cartel
2.) Antony Esposito’s Facebook
3.) Obsenic Arts Recording Studio
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Rare inside view of Guns N Roses guitarist Richard Fortus’ Voodoo ‘R4-Single’ Prototype. Check out the tone on GnR's current 2016 ‘Not In This Lift Time’ Tour!
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Behind The Scenes & More! - Here's a photo collage posted by "Rigs Of The Pros' (great site) featuring several photos of Richard Fortus' rig. The timing is ironic as we have this amp in the shop being serviced for the (hopeful) up coming Guns N' Roses tour. This amp was custom built for Richard in 2007 & has a great story behind it (coming soon). The white box you see on the pedal board with the Circle-V logo is the 1 of 3 prototype Talkboxes Trace designed. Initially he designed this after hand-wiring a couple Framptone Talkboxes for Bon Jovi & making them full range. He texted a quick video demo to Richard & he asked us to build one for him. Richard has the 1st prototype, Joe Perry of Aerosmith has the 2nd & both currently tour with them. The 3rd one resides in Trace’s office here at our facility & is identical to the one in the photo. We plan to officially release both the ‘R4-Single’ Signature Series Amp & the Talkbox at Summer Namm in Nashville!
From Trace Davis, President / Founder “From the bottom of my heart I want to thank Richard Fortus for his continued support & for his friendship. He is one of the greatest guys I know & his talent is seemingly endless, truly.”
We also want to send out a big thank you to ‘Rigs Of The Pros’ for posting this photo collage & go check out their site as well! As always please feel free to share this post to your wall or if you have a friend that you want to see this please feel free to tag their name in a post or share it to their wall. Many thanks! - Voodoo Amps
Updated Info (03-17-2016) -- We have received a number of requests asking for additional info on the Talkboxes. This is from Trace, “Traditionally Talkboxes were connected or sandwiched between the head & speaker cabinet, which is what was used on all the classic records you hear on Classic Rock Radio (Frampton, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Alice In Chains, etc). In recent years companies designed a wave of ‘pedal’ like versions, which have an onboard solid state preamp & are placed in front of the amps like a pedal would be. Common complaints are that these units do not sound as authentic. The ‘Golden Throat’ is considered by many to be the best sounding Talkbox but has long since been discontinued & sells for good money when you find a working unit as they are collectible.
Full Range – Traditional Talkboxes on the market utilize a crossover network which is essentially designed to select a certain frequency point & 'roll off' all frequencies from that point & below (IE: roll off all the lower mid & bass frequencies). It allows companies to use drivers with lower wattage ratings, which is more cost effective but it also results in a thinner or more strident tone. Going with a higher wattage driver, as well as making a few other allocations in the circuit, allows one to forego the crossover approach in favor of a full-range tone. IE: you get all of the amp’s tone & rich low end coming through, or in other words you get the same tone coming through the Talkbox that comes through the speaker cabinet, which is more inspiring.
A Full Range Talkbox is a very cool effect & much like a wah it all comes down to how the player chooses to use it. For those who are not familiar I should mention that a mic is needed to amplify the signal to the PA & monitors. There is a video with Richard Fortus in the recording studio with The Dead Daisies using a Talkbox & its best captured on their song “You & I”. We also have replaceable mouth pieces so that dealers can allow customers to demo a Talkbox in the store & not break any health code regulations. Additional mouth pieces will be included in a sealed package when purchasing a Talkbox along with simple instructions on how to sterilize them, which is incredibly easy.” - Voodoo Amps
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A true piece of Rock & Roll History - This amp belongs to the legendary Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd & you've heard this amp on Classic Rock radio stations around the world every day. This amp was used on the first (2) Lynyrd Skynyrd debut albums 'Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd' (2x Platinum) & their 2nd album 'Second Helping' (2x Platinum).
The amp is a 100 watt Marshall, model 1959 Non-Master Volume 'Super Lead' & has seen its share of road miles over the years. This amp was manufactured in 1973 & was in need of some well deserved TCL. She came equipped with (4) EL34 power tubes & (3) 12AX7 preamp tubes.
When we initially bench tested the amp it was running approximately 525vdc on the plates & the amp was biased in crossover distortion. The Power Transformer (PT) was spec'ed to run on 110vac, verses 120vac. We installed a 2nd smaller PT on the primary side which lowered the AC voltage down to 110vac (ala a fixed variac) allowing the amp to run at 480vdc on the plates. This helped to reduce the strident / harsh high end, smooth out the mids & add a nice richness to the tone.
Additional TLC & Maintenance - We performed a long over due Cap Job using F&T Filter Caps, repaired several solder connections, reworked grounding for quieter operation, replaced the (2) Fuse Holders that were held in place by silicone, cleaned & retention’ed all sockets & control pots, metered all Screen Grid resistors, and removed as much residue as we could from gaff tape that had been applied to the front & rear panels throughout the years.
A prior tech had replaced the factory power cable with an extension cord & the Ground / Polarity Switch was still active. We installed a Voodoo Amps 50/50 Series Power Cable & disconnected the Ground / Polarity Switch for safer operation. We retubed the amp with JJ-EL34's & 12AX7's that we Burned-In, Tested / Selected & Matched.
We disconnected the Bulgin 'plug-in-style' Impedance connector as the metal connections on the female receptacle were too brittle to be retention. We hard wired (2) Speaker jacks for use with (2) 16ohm cabs or with (1) 8ohm cab & additionally we hard wired (1) Speaker jack for use with (1) 16ohm cabinet.
Part of the criteria was to retain the vintage overdrive but at lower, more manageable stage volumes. We installed a Master Volume (MV) on the rear panel (as requested), which is the same MV we use on our 'V-Plex' Series Amps & is consequently the same MV we installed on all of Joe Perry's amps that were use do the last Aerosmith tour. This MV is very transparent, retains the amps original 'feel' & tone while allowing the vintage overdrive & richer low end to come through at any volume level.
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Documentation – The end results were amazing & we all played several classic Skynyrd songs through it as we smiled endlessly. This is truly a great example of what an older Super Lead should be. There were some unique values that we had not seen before & these were ‘stock’ or rather were installed at the factory when the amp was first made. As with all amps that are part of Rock & Roll History, we made detailed schematics, took numerous photos & videos to properly document the amp so that the original owner or anyone else can order a duplicate through our Custom Shop.
The amp was then placed on our proprietary Break-In Rig, was thoroughly Bench Tested & Audio Tested before being shipped back for active duty. We very much look forward to hearing this amp back in its rightful place behind Mr. Gary Rossington on stage this tour season with Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Many thanks for reading this & please feel free to copy this link & share it as you like!
Voodoo Amps
www.voodooamps.com
(607) 256-0465
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Dawk worked closely with Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple & Rainbow throughout the 70’s - 80’s servicing, maintaining & Modding amps as well as working on gear for the whole band. He also worked with Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath during the Ronnie James Dio era. He also worked with such acts as Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi & in his final years & perhaps one of his longest stints was with the band Manowar
He had a very special relationship with Jess Oliver of Ampeg. Jess took a liking to Dawk & soon took him under his wing. They remained close up until the day Jess passed on. He had given Dawk all of his original schematics & technical notes that he had drawn up including schematics of the amps Jess designed after he left Ampeg.
Dawk was also one of the first techs to work on Marshalls when they made their way to the states. He provided a great deal of technical support to Marshall & he was the first amp tech to install 6550’s as Marshall was having trouble with the reliability with EL34’s at the time. Marshall adopted Dawk’s suggestion & began shipping their amps with 6550’s, which proved to be more reliable until the quality of EL34’s later improved.
He also visited & worked at the Marshall factory in England for a few weeks. Founder & CEO Jim Marshall took Dawk out to dinner. Jim graciously gave Dawk a factory tour & it was during this tour where Dawk met & befriended Ken Bran. Dawk worked at the Marshall factory for 2 weeks before being called back out on the road with Richie Blackmore. Dawk is probably best known for his work on the Marshall Major amps, which is what Richie Blackmore used for many years.
Dawk lived about 30 minutes down the road from our Voodoo Amps facility (Lansing NY) & on average he by stopped by the shop once every week or two to hang out as well as to visit his brother Danny Stillwell who also worked with us as an amp tech. Dawk enjoyed coming to see what we were working on at the time, to trade or swap parts but most of the time it was to hang out & talk amps as well as the history of the business & tubes. It was very much like family coming to visit & I can safely say that they ‘broke the mold’ when they made Dawk, which he would laugh at that himself (lol).
He recounted numerous stories of his years on the road, what he did to Richie Blackmore’s amps, how he wired the electronics in Richie’s guitars & all the fun times as well as the mischief he & Richie would get into. He worked with a lot of iconic artists but he always seemed partial to Richie. About 9 months ago someone contacted Dawk & said he was writing a book on Deep Purple. He asked for Dawk’s input but after a few conversations Dawk got the sense that he was more interested in the ‘dirt’ on the band. In his own words Dawk said “No way in hell I would tell him anything that happened, those were my friends & I wouldn’t do that under any circumstances.” He was a man of principle & he was always honorable, I always admired that.
When Dawk arrived at the shop it was very similar to the TV Show ‘Cheers’ (for those who remember it) as we would always shout “Dawk!” when he walked through the door & he would smile ear to ear. He loved our little Dachshund Sasha & always called her ‘Squeaker’ as she would make squeaky like noises whenever he arrived as she was so excited to see him.
He was one of the kindest & most giving souls that I’ve ever met. He was a bright light & always brought a positive presence with him. He never stayed for less than 2-3 hours at a time & he always brightened the day. I will forever remember Dawk working on & restoring a Marshall Major in our shop. Dawk worked at his own pace & took his time, which he would happily agree with. He was incredibly methodical & his attention to detail was impressive. When it was completed, the amp looked just as it did the day it left the Marshall factory. He performed a quick bench test, took a few voltage readings & immediately turned it full up & said ‘Play some Richie (Blackmore) riffs.”
I was happy to accommodate. I played ‘Man On A Silver Mountain’, ‘Smoke On The Water’, ‘Knocking At My Back Door’, ‘Burn’ & many more. My jaw hit the ground & it was at that very time that I instantly fell in love with the sound of a well tuned Marshall Major. He gave me his tech notes on the Marshall Majors, which he had added to throughout his career as he was working on them. He also gave me what he called his ‘MTC’ (ie: Master Tone Circuit), which he designed for Richie’s guitars so that I could install it into one of my Strats. It was also an integral part of Richie’s tone but that was Dawk, he was forever inventing & fine tuning circuits.
“Dawk, I always had a good time hang out with you & loved talking shop with you. It’s incredibly hard to imagine that we will never have another conversation again, never share another meal or BBQ at the shop… even as I write this I am tearing up. You’re back home with all your friends now & we’ll all carry on as best as we can. Thank you for your friendship, your sage advice & for always being you. Say hello to Jess & Sasha for me, we’ll meet again soon, God speed my brother, God speed.” – Trace Davis, President / Founder Voodoo Amplification Inc.
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Richard Fortus of Guns N' Roses & The Dead Daisies pedal board - Note the white box with our Circle-V is a prototype of our new Talkbox set for official release at Summer Namm in Nashville TN June of 2016.
Product Info - This talkbox is full range where as traditionally talkboxes roll off the lower mids & bass frequencies resulting in a thinner tone where as this talkbox is full range giving you the same thick, meaty tone you normally have. It goes in between your amp's speaker jack & your speaker cabinet much the same as the highly sought & costly vintage talkboxes such as the Golden Throat, etc.
Richard Fortus used this on the new The Dead Daisies record & on tour. Joe Perry is using this on the 'Blue Army Tour' with Aerosmith
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Check out the new Rolling Stone review of Voodoo Endorsee Richard Fortus' band 'The Dead Daisies'. This album has been in rotation here at Voodoo Amps since it was released, we highly recommend this record!
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