Here is my 80s tribute mini rig. A San Dimas Pro Mod, painstakingly hot rodded (...) with a brass knob and switch tip, my new 50th Anniversary Marshall JCM1 combo and a reissue of the MXR Distortion+ script logo!
The little Marshall is impossibly cute and it sounds great. It's not really a tonal clone of a real JCM800, but it gets in the ballpark, and it records superbly with just a SM57 slightly off center. It is really a well designed, studio friendly amp, even on the highest gain setting with boost switch on it is basically silent and doesn't need a noise gate at all.
The Distortion+ is really something else. It's not even on the MXR catalog yet, I think a few months ago MXR did an online contest where you could win a prototype unit, and as far as I know they only made about 20-30 of them for a London dealer.
All in all I really like this rig, it is a bit of a 1 trick pony but you do get very authentic 80s metal tones, which means that as a "bedroom" rig it is somewhat too bright and loud, but in a recording situation it cuts through perfectly.
The little Marshall is impossibly cute and it sounds great. It's not really a tonal clone of a real JCM800, but it gets in the ballpark, and it records superbly with just a SM57 slightly off center. It is really a well designed, studio friendly amp, even on the highest gain setting with boost switch on it is basically silent and doesn't need a noise gate at all.
The Distortion+ is really something else. It's not even on the MXR catalog yet, I think a few months ago MXR did an online contest where you could win a prototype unit, and as far as I know they only made about 20-30 of them for a London dealer.
All in all I really like this rig, it is a bit of a 1 trick pony but you do get very authentic 80s metal tones, which means that as a "bedroom" rig it is somewhat too bright and loud, but in a recording situation it cuts through perfectly.
Comment