AXIS Hopkins 5 stage Marshall Mod

NewReligion

NewReligion

Well-Known Member
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My first production AXIS Mod for an individual.

Been a tough year medically. On top of hand surgery I thought the global virus to be bogus. I was wrong. It was a 6 week battle fought from home. I am 4 weeks into recovery (10 weeks) but really weak as evidenced in my playing. Natural Immunity.

God bless you all & thank you for your continued following support.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to all.

David

 
syscokid said:
Hey, hey, New Religion! First of all, very glad to know that your recovering well from a very nasty virus. Here's to a complete and full recovery... :cheers:

And now if I may asketh... What is this Hopkins AXIS mod that you speaketh of?
Click to expand...
Thank you so much syscokid

The AXIS is a 4 & 5 stage all tube modification I developed for those who asked for more compression and gain. Like with a OD pedal but not fizzy or losing low end or gaining hiss.

Adding DC heaters adds to even mor sizzle. There are other assemblies that may be added but there is a lot of time involved just doing the 4/5 stage mod. Figure adding the coring circuit noise reduction, populating and applying my own buffered effects loop and DC heaters which in addition requires a added 4th 12VAC transformer it becomes involved. Then figure intellectual property, parts costs and application. This can easily become a 20 hour mod as each is tuned individually.

Did that help?

David
 
NewReligion said:
Thank you so much syscokid

The AXIS is a 4 & 5 stage all tube modification I developed for those who asked for more compression and gain. Like with a OD pedal but not fizzy or losing low end or gaining hiss.

Adding DC heaters adds to even mor sizzle. There are other assemblies that may be added but there is a lot of time involved just doing the 4/5 stage mod. Figure adding the coring circuit noise reduction, populating and applying my own buffered effects loop and DC heaters which in addition requires a added 4th 12VAC transformer it becomes involved. Then figure intellectual property, parts costs and application. This can easily become a 20 hour mod as each is tuned individually.

Did that help?

David
Click to expand...
That's funny adding more compression and gain but not gaining hiss.
I think my conclusion was that 70% of the hiss came from 1 resistor.
Or any resistor that is in series with a grid (including the volume control) adds hiss.

As far as filament buzzing:
There is a way to cancel AC filament buzz by introducing out-of-phase buzz into the audio path.
It was Mitch who pointed out that this was a "humbucking" filament circuit.
This has the potential to work just as effectively as DC filaments....

But that's what I've said all the long:
it's one thing to modify an amp or add gain stages...
But it's another thing to keep the noise under control. The noise design is the tricky part.

There are people who mod amps, but the noise could be so loud the amp is unusable.
The squealing / oscillations can be so great that the amp is unusable.
So this is where the skill level of the modification really shows up.
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
That's funny adding more compression and gain but not gaining hiss.
I think my conclusion was that 70% of the hiss came from 1 resistor.
Or any resistor that is in series with a grid (including the volume control) adds hiss.

As far as filament buzzing:
There is a way to cancel AC filament buzz by introducing out-of-phase buzz into the audio path.
It was Mitch who pointed out that this was a "humbucking" filament circuit.
This has the potential to work just as effectively as DC filaments....

But that's what I've said all the long:
it's one thing to modify an amp or add gain stages...
But it's another thing to keep the noise under control. The noise design is the tricky part.

There are people who mod amps, but the noise could be so loud the amp is unusable.
The squealing / oscillations can be so great that the amp is unusable.
So this is where the skill level of the modification really shows up.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. I heard no buzz or loud hiss. How did this topic come up. Noise is for Novice.

The signal to noise level is certainly more quiet than the Cameron’s I have owned.

Price point did not include DC Heaters (I had boards made for effect loops & DC Heaters. So these assemblies cost me extra in addition to adding an extra 12VAC transformer for the DC Htrs. Some people have no interest though I always recommend) which really brings down the noise but you hit on a great solution but kind of missed the mark.

Assembling a 4 component coring circuit (noise gate) does a lot as well which has been installed.

Thanks for the feed back. My personal AXIS I decked out.

Here is my AXIS.
 
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NewReligion said:
Absolutely. The signal to noise level is no more than my Friedman modded 1976 Kitchen Sink/Marsha. One of the first ten. Certainly more quiet than the Cameron’s I have owned.

Price point did not include DC Heaters (I had boards made for effect loops & DC Heaters. So these assemblies cost me extra in addition to adding an extra 12VAC transformer for the DC Htrs. Some people have no interest though I always recommend) which really brings down the noise but you hit on a great solution but kind of missed the mark.

Assembling a 4 component coring circuit (noise gate) does a lot as well which has been installed.

Thanks for the feed back. My personal AXIS I decked out.

Here is my AXIS.
Click to expand...

Sitting with the guitar so close to the amp is going to increase the noise.
But I do the same thing when I'm tweaking. I have the guitar in my lap and I'm working on the amp at the same time.

Having an un-shielded guitar is going to increase the noise also.

When the amp is working without a metal cover over the open chassis, that will also cause more noise.

So there is a lot of factors involved, more than most people would realize.
A lot of it has to do with magnetic fields both from the power transformer and from the surrounding wires inside the house walls / light fixtures.

But I wouldn't make low noise optional.
Because I can't stand the noise, and I have this compulsive mental disorder to make guitar amps as quiet as hi fi amps.
I know it sounds ridiculous but I am convinced it can be achieved.

I want to turn the amp to 10, as loud as it can be, and have no noise. :pound-hand: that "is" mental.
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
Sitting with the guitar so close to the amp is going to increase the noise.
But I do the same thing when I'm tweaking. I have the guitar in my lap and I'm working on the amp at the same time.

Having an un-shielded guitar is going to increase the noise also.

When the amp is working without a metal cover over the open chassis, that will also cause more noise.

So there is a lot of factors involved, more than most people would realize.
A lot of it has to do with magnetic fields both from the power transformer and from the surrounding wires inside the house walls / light fixtures.

But I wouldn't make low noise optional.
Because I can't stand the noise, and I have this compulsive mental disorder to make guitar amps as quiet as hi fi amps.
I know it sounds ridiculous but I am convinced it can be achieved.

I want to turn the amp to 10, as loud as it can be, and have no noise. :pound-hand: that "is" mental.
Click to expand...

I do understand all of your statements. However someone not wanting to pay for DC heaters is is their option, not mine. In addition it can add some sizzle with a bit more voltage but a slight loss of low end.

I will not debate the Sonics my ears pick up. Since I brought this up over a year ago most opposed my theory. Now many agree after testing their own findings.

And there are a lot more than your list that can cause unwanted noise.

So many caveats I’ll not list them as to why it may not matter my friend.

Respectfully, David
 
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