Solo boost for SV20h

[Shane Stevenson]

Hey guys! It’s been a while since I’ve been here. I see lots of new names. So after all this time of owning this amp I’m just now getting serious about trying to get my perfect solo tone. I have been using the spark boost or a ts808hw. I like the spark boost better but I’m still not completely satisfied.

I play a LP standard (gold top…as if there’s another color) with Burstbucker 1 and 2 pups. I run my amp with all tone knobs on 7, jumped channels with high volume on about 3 and normal volume at noon, straight up. Most of the time I stay on the bridge pickup which is set kind of close to the strings for girth. I always use a mini mass 50 for practice.

I’m looking for a solo boost thats adds sustain, keeps clarity and gives a little sparkle! Since I use my bridge pup most of the time I don’t want the G,B, and E strings to sound ratty.

I’m perfectly happy with my rhythm and “riffs” tone with just a touch of delay from my Keeley Caverns in the loop. Actually, I’m more than perfectly happy …it’s the SV. I don’t wanna screw around with the natural sound of this amp all that much.

The Spark Boost sounds wonderful but won’t sustain all that much. Thanks in advance for any help I get.

 

[marshallmellowed]

Hey guys! It’s been a while since I’ve been here. I see lots of new names. So after all this time of owning this amp I’m just now getting serious about trying to get my perfect solo tone. I have been using the spark boost or a ts808hw. I like the spark boost better but I’m still not completely satisfied.

I play a LP standard (gold top…as if there’s another color) with Burstbucker 1 and 2 pups. I run my amp with all tone knobs on 7, jumped channels with high volume on about 3 and normal volume at noon, straight up. Most of the time I stay on the bridge pickup which is set kind of close to the strings for girth. I always use a mini mass 50 for practice.

I’m looking for a solo boost thats adds sustain, keeps clarity and gives a little sparkle! Since I use my bridge pup most of the time I don’t want the G,B, and E strings to sound ratty.

I’m perfectly happy with my rhythm and “riffs” tone with just a touch of delay from my Keeley Caverns in the loop. Actually, I’m more than perfectly happy …it’s the SV. I don’t wanna screw around with the natural sound of this amp all that much.

The Spark Boost sounds wonderful but won’t sustain all that much. Thanks in advance for any help I get.

Are you running the boost pedal in front of the amp? If you are, you might try stacking pedals, that's what I do when I want more sustain. If you're running the boost pedal in the loop, you should put it in front of the amp for more sustain.

 

[Alter]

When playing non master volume amps, I usually would experiment with lots of drive pedals (I have about 20 I think) and end up preferring an EQ pedal, as I would find it to get in the way of the amp's response as less as possible compared to other types of pedals.

Or better just raising the guitar's volume pot a bit - or even just picking harder... the beauty of non master volume, it can hear everything. I always try to play amp only, never found a pedal that was as expressive as a good amp, as soon as I use a pedal something is gone. That's more obvious the less gain one uses, but even with high gain, amp only is ideal for me.

 

[paul-e-mann]

Hey guys! It’s been a while since I’ve been here. I see lots of new names. So after all this time of owning this amp I’m just now getting serious about trying to get my perfect solo tone. I have been using the spark boost or a ts808hw. I like the spark boost better but I’m still not completely satisfied.

I play a LP standard (gold top…as if there’s another color) with Burstbucker 1 and 2 pups. I run my amp with all tone knobs on 7, jumped channels with high volume on about 3 and normal volume at noon, straight up. Most of the time I stay on the bridge pickup which is set kind of close to the strings for girth. I always use a mini mass 50 for practice.

I’m looking for a solo boost thats adds sustain, keeps clarity and gives a little sparkle! Since I use my bridge pup most of the time I don’t want the G,B, and E strings to sound ratty.

I’m perfectly happy with my rhythm and “riffs” tone with just a touch of delay from my Keeley Caverns in the loop. Actually, I’m more than perfectly happy …it’s the SV. I don’t wanna screw around with the natural sound of this amp all that much.

The Spark Boost sounds wonderful but won’t sustain all that much. Thanks in advance for any help I get.

I use an EQ pedal in the loop of my SV20H for lead volume boost. Another amp I use an LPB-1 boost in the loop. The EQ provides a clean boost, the LPB-1 dirtys up the tone just slightly.

 

[speyfly]

I have the Spark as well but it does color the tone a bit but still a good tone. I acquired a Fender Engager Boost in a pedal trade and since that time it's become a favorite pedal for the Origin 20H running it through the front, makes the amp come alive. Built like a tank, has a 3 band EQ and hi-low cutoff so I can really dial in the tone on the O20.

For the Studio Vintage I use a Source Audio EQ 2 in the front, gets the pre-amp section going nicely without adding any color. It has 4 programmable setting to select on the fly, having 2 in's and 2 out's makes it very versatile with the SV's 2 channels. ABY pedal is sweet so I can do a wet/dry with the SV by it's self or wet/dry using 2 heads. A Keeley Caverns in the loop and that's my SV20 setup.

Hope this helps with your quest for the right tone.

 

[proxy]

My experience with low watt amps is not very good if we are talking about the headroom.
If you have any then Maxon OD-9 will definitely do the trick

 

[svinyard]

Turn your amp up a bit more, and turn your guitar volume down to where you like it for non-solo stuff. Then crank guitar volume for the leads.

 

[Trelwheen]

Turn your amp up a bit more, and turn your guitar volume down to where you like it for non-solo stuff. Then crank guitar volume for the leads.

The best boost I've found for the purpose is a Catalinbread Super Chili' Picoso, a superb MOSFET clean boost. MOSFET circuits produce a very amp-like sound and feel.

I think they're discontinued but there are still a lot of them available online.

I'd be surprised if it doesn't suit your needs perfectly.

 

[svinyard]

Would an SD-1 do it without coloring things too much?

Good lord the tones...this guy is making our amp sound SOOO good. Mic'd and all. I love seeing how other people reconfigure the amp to get different tones but he highlights some of the dynamic changes etc as you jumper and stuff.



@Trelwheen what is the appeal of the MOSFET circuit? (I'm ignorant to them). I've heard that Catalinbread stuff is good but never heard it myself.

 

[Trelwheen]

@Trelwheen what is the appeal of the MOSFET circuit? (I'm ignorant to them). I've heard that Catalinbread stuff is good but never heard it myself.

No loss of low end, no mid hump, retains tightness without being stiff, never cloudy or muddy, greatly increases pleasant harmonics, retains dynamic sensitivity and increases testicular fortitude.

Everything you want in a boost without any ugly artifacts

 

[Shane Stevenson]

Turn your amp up a bit more, and turn your guitar volume down to where you like it for non-solo stuff. Then crank guitar volume for the leads.

This is actually a common old school approach which I kind of do already. The only difference for me is that I turn down a little at my guitar for a cleaner sound (like on lighter song verses) and then crank my guitar up for heavier and bigger rhythm riffs. The only thing I’m missing is my 3rd level.

I always set my rig up for at least three levels of tone / volume …clean, heavier crunch and then biggest for roaring solos. I have the first two levels down easy.

I think that I need to start out with a good eq / boost pedal to get to my 3rd level. Maybe a MXR 10 band. I like the idea of the volume and gain sliders.

 

[Dogs of Doom]

No loss of low end, no mid hump, retains tightness without being stiff, never cloudy or muddy, greatly increases pleasant harmonics, retains dynamic sensitivity and increases testicular fortitude.

Everything you want in a boost without any ugly artifacts

also, transparency - lack of coloration... (if done right)

 

[Dogs of Doom]

also... one of the old Marshall tricks, is to put an attenuator in the loop. Decrease the attenuator by a couple db. Then, turn the amp up to the attenuator volume. Then, for lead boost, turn off the attenuator effect in the loop...

 

[Georgiatec]

Hey guys! It’s been a while since I’ve been here. I see lots of new names. So after all this time of owning this amp I’m just now getting serious about trying to get my perfect solo tone. I have been using the spark boost or a ts808hw. I like the spark boost better but I’m still not completely satisfied.

I play a LP standard (gold top…as if there’s another color) with Burstbucker 1 and 2 pups. I run my amp with all tone knobs on 7, jumped channels with high volume on about 3 and normal volume at noon, straight up. Most of the time I stay on the bridge pickup which is set kind of close to the strings for girth. I always use a mini mass 50 for practice.

I’m looking for a solo boost thats adds sustain, keeps clarity and gives a little sparkle! Since I use my bridge pup most of the time I don’t want the G,B, and E strings to sound ratty.

I’m perfectly happy with my rhythm and “riffs” tone with just a touch of delay from my Keeley Caverns in the loop. Actually, I’m more than perfectly happy …it’s the SV. I don’t wanna screw around with the natural sound of this amp all that much.

The Spark Boost sounds wonderful but won’t sustain all that much. Thanks in advance for any help I get.

Caline Orange Burst will do the job and it's not gonna break the bank. I have tried loads of different OD pedals, costing way more than the OB, but I still come back to this. It adds nothing but sustain and level, exactly what we all need for a solo boost. Use it in front of the amp....Level on full drive on minimum.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Caline-CP-18-Orange-Burst-Overdrive/dp/B00GC2F0UK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=32RJDKZ972S2D&keywords=caline%2Borange%2Bburst&qid=1698781574&sprefix=Caline%2BOra%2Caps%2C108&sr=8-1&th=1

 

[svinyard]

This is actually a common old school approach which I kind of do already. The only difference for me is that I turn down a little at my guitar for a cleaner sound (like on lighter song verses) and then crank my guitar up for heavier and bigger rhythm riffs. The only thing I’m missing is my 3rd level.

I always set my rig up for at least three levels of tone / volume …clean, heavier crunch and then biggest for roaring solos. I have the first two levels down easy.

I think that I need to start out with a good eq / boost pedal to get to my 3rd level. Maybe a MXR 10 band. I like the idea of the volume and gain sliders.

Gene on here turned me on to doing more of this. These plexi's are different beasts. CRANK the amp...but turn down the guitar to like 3 (seriously, it still sounds awesome) then bump it to 6 for crunch and 10 for melting faces…oh and then the bright cap kicks in too which balances the tone out nice as well! Done. No spendy pedals, no losing your dynamics or coloring the tone (unless you want too). All at your finger tips. Tone control can do a little work to song to song etc.

 

[79 2203]

Gene on here turned me on to doing more of this. These plexi's are different beasts. CRANK the amp...but turn down the guitar to like 3 (seriously, it still sounds awesome) then bump it to 6 for crunch and 10 for melting faces. Done. No spendy pedals, no losing your dynamics or coloring the tone (unless you want too). All at your finger tips. Tone control can do a little work too song to song etc.

Yep, I just started doing this with my stock 71 1987, though I only have the bright vol on 7. I used to have it on 5(Hotplate at -8db)and lower the guitar vol for cleaner tones and back up for ACDC, but at 5 the bright cap is still having a big impact.
It’s crazy how the bright cap loses its effect by vol 7 and I found I had to raise the treble/pres and back off the bass. The gain really comes on too but even with Modern wiring my LP Special cleans up beautifully. On 3 it’s mostly clean, on 5 it’s Malcolm, on 7 it’s Angus, and after that is a great lead tone that doesn’t get shrill.

 

[V-man]

If you want to cut through the mix, the best thing I have experienced is a physical volume booster like the old Badcat Unleash or the Freyette Powerstation (where you could attenuate to, say… 50% on your rhythm channel and only 25% on your lead channel).

Rolling the vol is an oft overlooked tactic for many and is free to experiment with. For OD, I find my 1959 much more picky than my 2203. Things like the TS aren’t that great (SD-1 fits a little better), but a good treble booster is worth having (especially to stack with fuzz), and a Tim/Timmy is a well-optioned clean boost that was developed specifically around the Marshall by Paul Cochrane. Then there are oddballs that work surprisingly like the classic MXR D+ and even the Metal Zone (set w no gain as an OD), but some of that is also speaker-dependent… another thing the 1959 is more picky about than the 2203.

 

[vivanchenko]

No loss of low end, no mid hump, retains tightness without being stiff, never cloudy or muddy, greatly increases pleasant harmonics, retains dynamic sensitivity and increases testicular fortitude.

Not sure if it's a good thing. Plexies do sound a bit muddy to me, especially in a band context. I prefer more "elevated" sound in terms of frequencies and a bit more punch, which I often hear from master volume Marshalls. Plexis have good clarity in the higher end, but mids and lows do get too soft.

 

[Filipe Soares]

SD1