'68 Marshall Major | Part 1 : Initial Inspection
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- Опубліковано 19 лис 2023
- The big bad came in for some much-needed help. Let's take a look inside this beast.
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These are things I get asked about a lot :
Amp Tech Gear Used :
Hakko FX-951 soldering station
Weller SPG 80L soldering iron (chassis work)
Rigol DS1054Z digital oscilloscope
Thsinde 18B+ digital multimeters
Kester 60/40 solder
Techspray #4 No-Clean Desoldering Braid
Below are things that make this channel possible that people don’t usually think about. If any of these companies want to send me new and wonderful toys, I’m open to that. I can’t take free stuff when it comes to the amps I review, etc, but for the stuff below, bribe away!
Microphones/Audio Equipment :
Guitar Amps : Shure SM57 (noted in videos)
Bass Amps : Sometimes a Shure Beta 52, other times just an SM57
Voiceover Bench : sE Audio sE8 (small diaphragm condenser)
Voiceover Streaming : Shure SM57 with shockmount and windscreen
Voiceover Mic Arms : Elgato Wave Mic arms
Guitar Mic Stand : Gator Frameworks short weighted base stand with boom
Mic Cables and Guitar Cables : Mogami/Neutrik
Mic pre : MOTU M2
DAW : Logic Pro X on MacBook Pro 16 running Sonoma 14.0
Plugins : No effects other than level matching/normalization unless a recording
specifically has reverb etc added in post (rare, various Waves plugins)
Monitors : Yamaha HS7s
Monitor Stands : Gator Frameworks Desktop Clamp-On Stands
Monitor Isolation Mounts : IsoAcoustics Iso-Puck Minis
Headphones : Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (main)
Headphones : Sony MDR-7506 (alternate)
Video Equipment :
Camera : Sony ZVE-10 with SmallRig Cage (main)
Lens : Sigma f2.8 18-50mm (main)
Lens : Sony ZVE10 kit lens (rarely used)
B Camera : Apple iPhone 13 Pro (rarely used)
Tripod : SmallRig 71” with SmallRig Fluid Video Head
Streaming Mount : Elgato Master Mount S with SmallRig Ballhead
Bench Light : SmallRig RC 120D
Bench Light Diffusor : SmallRig Lantern Softbox
Bench C-Stands (light and overhead camera) : Neewer Pro SS Heavy Duty
Streaming Light : SmallRig RC 120B
Streaming Diffusor : SmallRig Parabolic Softbox
Streaming Light Mount : SmallRig 148CM Wall Mount Boom with Triangle Base
Various Other Lights : Neewer LED Panels with Neewer Softboxes
Video Software :
Davinci Resolve 18.6
Paul Leeming LUTs
Adobe Illustrator 28.0
Adobe Photoshop 25.0
Ecamm Live (streaming software)
That old Marshall has found the right tech to put her back to her glory no doubt…!
LOL
@@stevehunter252 wassup Steve…good to see you hanging around these parts. Do you ever frequent Brad’s Guitar Garage..?
@@stevehunter252 Yep, lol.
Woah a Major in the wild! So keen to hear this restored.
A friend of mine had a major in 73 , 74 . I lived outa town and hed bring it out every month or so n crank it for 2,3 hrs . Man tht was loud . But i loved it .
My favorite Marshall! Please treat him well.
I had one of these as my first amp - bought it from a co-worker around 1978. Came with a 8x10 single enclosure Marshall cab with original Celestions. He wanted a more portable rig and moved to a twin reverb. I ended up using it as a bass amp along with a 2x15 Carvin bass reflex cab (speakers backwards facing) that I also bought from a co-worker and I loaded it with a pair of orange JBL-D's. It was like getting a body massage to stand in front of that thing, with the cheapo $60 dollar off-brand bass I picked up somewhere. We practiced in the basement of a house I rented in Boulder - ever shifting series of roommates. For guitar I bought a 1962 Fender Jaguar off *another* co-worker for $225... original owner. I couldn't afford the extra 50 bucks it would have cost to get a used Strat instead. That head with the 8x10 cab... man, that thing shook the rafters in that house. Oh... and I stupidly broke out and sold 2 of the speakers to yet another co-worker who was an excellent guitar player... turned out he had DATED one of my aunts back in South Dakota, she being a year younger than me... crazy world.
I’m a 54yr old dude from Canada. Been playing Marshalls since I was 10. I’m embarrassed to admit that I have never heard of the Marshall Major. :/ Well, I need one now! :) ❤
Blackmore and Hendrix used them, among others
Great video, looking forward to watching Part 2! That's a nice burnt mark from arching on V5, I'm guessing that's where all the mess started. Quick note, the Welwyn screen resistors @5:59 are not original. Someone made a sloppy job of replacing the 250R "door knobs", adding those terminal strips in the process.
Wow, that's quite a beast! I know when you're finished its going to be immaculate. I can't even imagine how freakin LOUD that 200 watt monster must be. Woof.
Really appreciate the respect you have as a tech for the gear .cheers to youon giving her the due care and love
I for one appreciated The Muppet Movie reference.
Interesting about where the feedback is picked off. Yes, the switch would change the amount of feedback, but it would also help the amp deal with the back EMF from the speaker. I guess it comes down to what is more important - cleaning up the amp with negative feedback or dampening factor.
Facinating amp Lyle! Thanks for sharing.
The Major was Marshall's participation in the nuclear amps race. These monsters, like the SVT, Fender 400PS, et al, could melt your face off. Forget about that cranked-amp tone, unless you were outdoors and the audience was in the next zip code. Else the volume levels were pretty much toxic.
I play it outside. It's a blast(er) but really good.
Wow! What a monster of an amp. I'm oddly lucky to have encountered four of these beasts in the wild at various guitar shops over the years and had a chance to play through them. Anything over 2 on the volume would nuke your ear drums. I got to look under the hood of two of the four I've played and both had that terminal strip on top of the chassis. Both had been worked on (recaps mainly, one a much better job than the other). I can't wait to see how this turns out. I've always heard they've had a lot of stability issues due to the high internal voltages and were prone to arcing on the power tube sockets.
This is going to be awesome when completed.
Great hearing aid sales tool!
Surprisingly, Marshall majors aren’t as loud as one might think. They are big, round sounding amplifiers.
Wow that transformer is huge.
Will be interested to see what Lyle will say about the post P I drive tube.
Would be great if a Holden Wasp from New Zealand / Australia would appear on the bench here. The big Wasps used a post PI tube in cathode follower mode .
Another soon-to-be great amp on the bench!
I remembering thinking that the Marshall Major must be the ultimate amp before I learned about volume, headroom, and hearing loss.
Oooh a Major, 200+ watts of pure pain. :D
The little turret board next to the power tubes is factory, yes 👍
Figured but I didn’t see it in any online photos.
Mine had that same strip. I believe mine was a ‘68 or ‘69.
My 71 also has it
Wow, what a beast. Hope you have hearing protection. Reminds me of that Park you restored. Should be awesome.
Have you seen the Major model nicknamed the Pig ? unusual preamp circuit. Mick Ronson played one with David Bowie Spiders from Mars band
Wait, so you haven't heard of the infamous '88 BRAVO mods? They were done flawlessly...now you jist gon' mess 'em all up!
don't be dissing my Peavey Bravos! They are fantastic sounding amps, a real pain to service though
I'm happy with my Princeton turned up to 3.5 when my wife goes to the store and my neighbors are at work.This monster will be awesome, but will it ever be allowed. to be turned up past 2?
Interesting design def not your regular Marshall it has a plate fed tone stack into a Cathodyne phase inverter and then into some weird kind of buffer stage before the KT88s.
I'd love to hear you interview Mitch Colby!
It’s planned.
I would definitely love to hear someone play some "Smoke On The Water" riffage with this amp when it gets repaired. 😎
Most of Machine head was apparently AC30.... so there you go.
Once you dig into the amp / schematic you should find the 'Major' anomaly being tone stack inside feedback loop..... what were they thinking? Needless to say the tone controls can actually work if this is addressed in any number of ways. But it's also an immortal vintage amp and should be left alone. I'll be interested to see what you think.
Richie BLACKMOOOOOORE vibes!
Ritchie Blackmore has entered the chat.
I have one of the Majors he played in Montreux. I had a huge restauration work made on it recently and he is now sounding in full glory.
Lotta bad/shaky/cold solder joints on that one! Kind of thing where, if it was yours and time was not a factor, you'd think about desoldering and then resoldering EVERYTHING to reduce the chances for failure(s) later.
The Brushed Aluminum plate instead of Plexiglass seems to say the early 70s but the PTP circuits look 60s
68 Majors had metal panels.
No follow up videos for this restoration?
That’s definitely factory on the output transformer connections
Hi there I just bought a Marshall Major 200W and has the polarity switch so what I do with the polarity switch when I turn the amp on. Thanks
Jesus, this is the grail right here.
This amp isn’t going to cause your lavaliere mic to clip. It’ll vaporize it.
Jeezus…. That power transformer is a huge beast. Stupid question Imagine it’s machine wound and not hand wound ?
Yep. That's not so big for a PT - they get a lot bigger but for gtr amp yes.
If that were really a late 67, it would be a "Pig" and have a Plexi Panel. This looks just like my 72. I presume you have the Marshall book by Doyle. See page 44!
68s had metal panels. Inspection sticker says 11/67.
@@PsionicAudio so the Marshall book is incorrect?
@@stevehunter252 This guy doesn't know old Marshalls. The oldest that amp could be is late 69, I don't care what date is written on the inspection tag. Many amps had no date written from the factory and random idiots write stuff on them all the time.
i didn't know they did metal panel 68's.... weird..
Yup. At least on the Majors.
The OT wire splice block may have been done as a convenient place to monitor the bias if they are the primaries?
Didnt SRV play through Marshall Majors?
Yeah, and about two dozen other amps. ;)
@@PsionicAudio, all of them turned on and playing at once in the recording studio, from what I read! But on stage, I thought it was mostly "just" a pair of Marshalls...
on stage it was a random bunch of fenders all dimed and a dumble but it changed over time @@goodun2974
@@goodun2974 If I recall correctly, Bruce Egnater briefly discussed this when he appeared on Dave Friedman's podcast Tone-Talk (while explaining his early years in amp repair):
ua-cam.com/video/YqD0HQcbo2Y/v-deo.html
You can tune a Major but you can't tuna fish >
I'm always amazed that people have no problem drilling extra holes into a National Treasure.......as if the Mona Lisa needs extra paint.....worse still they always get Stevie Wonder to do the machining for them....
I am the very model of a modern Major-Gineral
Information animal vegetable and mineral…
@@PsionicAudio I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
Glad this was well received, guys! (big smile)
Wires are not very neat and tidy considering this is factory spec.
I’m not sure if the OT was a factory replacement or if they used a different vendor’s OT that week. The primaries are the bare wires from the core with the sleeve coverings. Which doesn’t allow neatness. Other Majors seem to have “normal” primaries.
@@PsionicAudiomaybe it’s a rewind on the original laminations after Marshall Major things happening.
@@PsionicAudio Lyle, IME Majors seem to be all over the place. The last one I worked on was very similar to this one.
Non master volume lol