WRGKMC

I built one nearly identical. I used a strat neck, top load and wound up settling with a dual rail humbucker which came out of a Kramer I believe. It has one volume and a DPDT On/On/On switch which allows me to wire the pickup coils for Series/Parallel/Split. The pickup is hot enough to run split without having a huge dropout and I get a decent variety of tones. The only thing I should have done is install a string through body bridge. It would eliminate the issue with the wrapped ends and loose saddles. String through will also make strings easier to bend and have fewer tuning issues with string binding on the saddles. I may still do it sometime but it's not a guitar I play alot.

Silicone bought in a hardware store used for calking or weather stripping is both weak and heavy. It will dull your sound. I suggest you buy the stuff made for speakers. There are basically two glues. The white stuff that's thin like wood glue and the stuff that's a tackey type of rubber cement that dries hard. The rubber stuff is mainly for gluing the surround and spider down to the basket. The white stuff glues the cone and coats the surround. I've also seen epoxy used for gluing the coil to the cone but I havent had to use it since the cones I've replaced had that part completed as a partial cone kit. In a pinch I have repaired cones with wood glue thinned with a little water then brushed onto the cracks. I've had some of those repairs last 30+ years without a problem but I'd never use it on good speakers because glue adds weight and kills treble. Try adding silicone to a junk speaker and hear what it does. Guarantee you'll get nothing but mud tones. Maybe in a pinch for a bass woofer but guitar, beware, you wont like the results. use wood glue if you must and apply it thin or send for the right stuff.

Ive used Tung oil on many guitars. Its surprisingly more durable than Lacquer and can be built up in layers to look like lacquer. On necks its fine too but difficult to work with on maple fretboard necks. It has to be wiped or brushed on and to get it smooth you need to apply it before fretting then apply a last coat after fretting which means you have to sand between frets which is quite difficult to get a good look like you can with sprayed lacquer over the frets. Most people use Tung for a minimal finish but I suggest they try applying it in thicker coats over a couple of weeks to get a thick high gloss sanding in between until it looks like glass. Its truly bullet proof when you're done and its excellent for a natural finish. I have also found you can apply lacquer over it or vice versa if you want. The varnish they add to most tung oils is quite compatible {Varnish is the traditional finish for orchestra violins, cellos, claranets etc and is very musical friendly} Its simply a slow process to apply but the benifits of duribility over lacquer or poly are there.

The OP might do better comparing the sound he wants by the bands he listens too. If he were to say something like Stevie Ray Vaughn for example, there's tons of documentation on his amps and how he used lower gain preamp tubes. Even there, it might not give you the same results given the fact he used super heavy strings tuned down a half step. That was mostly live too. On a recording you have Mics, EQ's and every kind of trick you can imagine, to get whatever tones you want. I Also keep this in mind. Most terms used in audio were taken from other artforms which have no connection to the science. Words like Tight, Loose, Rich, Warm, Cool, Hot, Natural, Smooth, Thick, Mellow etc are in fact Slang terms people used to communicate things. People use them without a solid understanding of their use in science much like the companies that build electronic devices and simply invent words for their own products. I've seen words like Scream, Growl as substitutes for Treble and bass and if you understand what an audio filter does it can still make sense. To understand Tightness, you should first understand its opposite - Sag. The easiest way to identify Sag when it comes to vacuum tubes is to think of a sprinkler hose. When you step on the rubber hose, there is a time delay before the sprinkler goes down. This is because energy in the form of pressure is stored in the elastic hose and that pressure takes a few seconds to go down when the hose is clamped off. Likewise, it takes some time for that hose to expand and the pressure to maximize before the sprinkler goes back up to its maximum level. In tube amps you have the same thing, in fact that's why they are still called Valves by many techs because they have similar roles as your foot on a hose acting as a valve. It's not just the tubes, Transformers and Capacitors actually cause the delay. Caps delay DC voltage changes and coils delay AC changes. Tubes themselves do not create the sag you hear and therefore aren't responsible for tightness directly. Its the surrounding circuitry that supports the tubes that cause the current to sag when you pluck a note. Of course, a tube can compress a signal when pushed but clipping isn't the same thing. You have plenty of drive pedals with no sag at all. A compressor and drive pedal together is what most closely mimics tubes. As far as a tight sound goes, the exact same tubes in different circuits will give you varying degrees of sag vs tightness. You can even have both in the same circuit. Preamp sag with a tight power amp, Tight preamp and saggy power amp, both tight or both saggy. It depends on age, components, design, operating voltage, speakers used and even the wall outlet voltage. Many players take incredibly tight sounding amps and give them a Brown Out reducing wall voltage to dim the valve voltages, much like turning the water pressure down so the hose is softer. When you step on the hose it may even cause a temporary increase in the water height as you add pressure to the hose followed by it going down. Again this depends on the amp circuit.

Don't rule out defective tubes. Buy from a reputable dealer like Tubes and More or Tube Depot and you'll have less chance or getting a dud or someone's used tubes. Places like EBay are full of people unloading their spent tubes. Unless you have a tube tester its often impossible to know if those tubes were already used in an amp. People buy the same brand then stick the used tubes back in the new boxes then sell them as new. Some of the Music Gear places aren't a whole lot better. I was burned with two sets of bad tubes from Musicians Friend. One set popped and crackled badly, (Ruby Tubes) and the other had low gain and noisy output (JJ's) I eventually got a good set on the third try using Electro Harmonix. It could have been people returning the tubes and then they wound up back in new stock. They might have been damaged in shipping from China or Russia to the dealer or the dealer to customer. They may have been improperly manufactured. New tubes are usually tested but that's on a tube tester and a tester isnt the same as actually hearing the results in an amplifier. Because of this, I'm an advocate for better packaging. Tube manufacturers should be putting tubes in sealed boxes instead of simple fold up cardboard boxes where opening is undetectable. Tubes used to be dirt cheap, even the used ones but given the over inflation of all electronic parts now, the temptation, to rip people off is ever present. A solution would be to have boxes with a seal that indicates the boxes have been opened just like an asprin bottle has. A date stamp like some vintage tubes had would help too. Second party and middleman vendors who buy tubes in bulk would benefit too. Some tube vendors but large containers of raw tubes. They then test them to get matched sets then label them with their own name. They then box and sell them to customers or another vender for final sale. Ruby Tube does that. They buy huge lots of Chinese tubes at a discount then do everything from testing, matching, Labeling, and Boxing. They don't manufacture any tubes. You find the same thing with guitar strings. Only 50% of strings are manufactured by the label company. At they might put ball ends on or package them. Sometimes even that is done for them. When you see a company that sells limited sets, beware. Anyway, try a different brand of tubes and you'll likely be OK. I would make sure your tube sockets are clean. Heat rises and as it does it draws in cool air from the bottom just like a fireplace does and any dust or smoke in the environment gets drawn right into the tube socket. You should get some "Non-Lubricating" "Zero Residue" Contact cleaner and spray the sockets once a year. Don't use potentiometer cleaner. It has lubricants that attract dirt like a magnet and will make the problem worse. Silicone/Mineral oil in the lubricating sprays is great for the carbon sliders in a pot to prevent wear but the heat of a tube will cook that stuff off and leave a non-conductive residue on the contacts. If yourer hard up get a can of denatured alcohol at home depot then use a Q-Tip to wet the contact and wipe the tube contacts.

Thanks for that link. Those look like a good option. Yes, I would notify a buyer if I was to sell it but that one is eventually going to be inherited by my son.

Thought I'd throw this one in too. I bought a Gibson LP 40th Anniversary Model new back in 1991. A few years after buying it I was doing some electronics repair cleaning pots and the nozzel on the can was twisted and overshot the amp chassis. Wouldn't you know it shot onto the Headstock of that beautiful Paul and caused moon craters all over the headstock. The Contact cleaner had denatured Alcohol in it and it instantly melts the Lacquer finish. I didn't even notice it for a few days. I tried buffing it out using polishing compound and all but never got rid of it completely. I was afraid of removing too much and destroying the LP logo which was under the finish. I had always planned on fixing that with an overspray and finally got around to fixing it a few weeks ago. I figured it won't be too long before this will get handed down to one of my son who plays and want to restore its value which has more than doubled in 22 years. I removed the hardware, prepped it, taped everything off and gave it a few coats. My plan was to build it up, sand it smooth then give it a high gloss topcoat, buff out the flaws wax it etc. All was going great till I did the sanding. After a week's drying the new finish just peeled off taking the gold spaghetti logo with it. Man was I pissed. I hate doing finishing to begin with. Its really and artform unto itself, and if you don't do it all the time, the smallest mistake can lead to disastrous results. I determined the problem was the temp and possibly the lacquer I used. I had a half can left over from another job and I did the job in the basement. Its dry don there so Moisture wasnt a big issue, but it was much cooler being air conditioned which extended dry time between coats. The directions said 15 minutes between light coats and I gave it 2 Hrs or more between medium coats. One of the coats was still soft and sanding caused the finish to simply peel. As a fix, I found a place that sells a decent replica of the label. It may be slightly off sized, I really couldn't tell without having the old one there. It looked spot on to me so I proceeded in doing the Decal and overspray. It wouldn't be bad looking without it but I'm glad I used it. I got it all done, let it dry 2 weeks then put the guitar back together figuring job finished. Looked great again, and it played as good as it ever did. Put it on a stand in the studio for a few weeks then decided to restring it. To my horror, I saw the finish had cracked where I had torqued down the tuners. That LP model uses Hybrid Tuners that look like the old Klusion type with Pearloid buttons except they also have 10mm threaded bushings much like most modern tuners do. For some reason these caused the finish to crack at each tuner extending out a millimeter or two in all directions. I thought to myself will this figgin nightmare ever end. So once again I had to pull the tuners off, and start over again. I sanded out the cracks top coated it again, the let it dry 2 weeks again. In the process I discovered the cause of the cracking. In the prepping process I had been using a wad of paper towel in each open tuner pressed down to make a slight depression. This insured the finish came up to the hole but didn't coat the hole inside narrowing the hole requiring it to be removed installing tuners. What happened was the paper ntowel got a little saturated and upon removal I had some paper towel sticking to the inside. When I installed the tuners it pulled on the finish stretching it towards the holes and eventually cracking the finish. What I did was take a file and remove all the overspray into the holes which seemed to do the trick. The tuners still compressed down on the finish but at least it didnt pull it twards the holes so no cracking. (Lacquer is a resin that can remain semi fluid for many months before it dries into a hard crust. Its why you want to avoid putting a freshly lacquered guitar on a guitar stand because dents can appear where it sits). I'm still debating on doing a fret job. It still has some meat on the frets so its not critical right now. Gound gibson necks are the toughest to do too. Luckily, I recently got myself some needed fret tools. I got a fret bender and made myself a new fret press. I bought a set of cowls and the mount and fitted them to a screw type wood clamp. Best you can do without a drill press and I'm likely going to try it out on a spare Tele neck I have. Anyway, Here's the after shot. Looks good enough to me.

For this one It was both cosmetic and tone. I switched from a Tortoise Pickguard to a Whit Pearloid which also has the Hendrix style reverse route angle for the bridge. I though the reverse angle might tame the bodies brightness but that was pretty much a fail. I tried the pickup in another Tele too and wasn't overly impressed with its tone there either. I'll likely go back to the right-handed version at some point, but I'll wait till it gets beat up. Pickguards are incredibly inexpensive and its a mod any player can do when changing strings for a change of pace. Again, I Tried the Vintage Alnico V style pickups which aren't bad. The Pick compression was pretty good as were the clean tones, but It seemed to sound too generic to my ears, especially cranked up. I couldn't tell much difference between any of the selector positions and felt I could do better. I Eventually came up with the idea of using Mustang/Duo Sonic pickups instead of the same old strat pickups. I remembered how great my buddies vintage Mustang sounded through his Tweed Bassman and was looking for some added midrange to the pickups. I'm glad my 40 year old memory of that tone was setup was still valid because that was in fact what I got. I couldn't afford to buy actual vintage Mustang pups, but I did find a vender who makes excellent replicas for $35 a set. They even have the right wire, magnets and gray fiber bobbin material. The Mustang pickups are only a 2 pickup set so I figured I'd try them in the Strat temporarily along with Strat neck pickup. I left the Classic Alnico I had in there and it balanced pretty good volume wise. The big difference between the Mustang and Strat is the poles are Flush on a Mustang pickup and the covers have no holes. The Pickups came with nice solid Cream covers but I decided to switch to all gold hardware and bought a set of 3 Gold metal covers instead. I had Gold tuners and knobs already and rounded it out with a new gold bridge. The bridge holes and bevel were botched. Cheap parts often have flaws you need to watch out for. A flat metal file for the bevel and round needle to widen the holes and I was in good shape. As a note, a stock Strat whammy should float like butter and return to pitch if its installed right. Often times they hang up on the screws or lack lubrication. A file and graphite grease can make they work as well as those expensive monsters ant 1/15th the cost. Anyway, the tone I was getting from the Mustang pickups in the bridge and mid positions were really good. Not only was the mix of both warmer than most strat pickups I've used but they sound great running single. I've always been a fan of a strats #2 & 4 position but this was definitely an improvement for this guitar. I always been able to judge a Strat's tone by how well the single pickups sound. If you can play both lead and rhythm on any pickup it's a winner, especially the middle pickup which can often sound wanky. I played it several months with a strat pup in the neck. It wasn't that bad considering but even though the poles were flat they extended beyond the bobbin by a couple of millimeters so it was thinner sounding compared to the others. I do have at least a half dozen other sets of strat pickups in my parts bins but given the hassle of pulling the pickguard and trying them out its at best a hit or miss way of doing it. I opted for buying a second set of Mustang pups to replace the one oddball. I would have the one problem involving pickup polarity and phasing to deal with. The Mustang comes with a north bridge and south neck pickup with one also reverso wound so they hum buck with both on. Original strats were either N/N/N or S/S/S when they only had 3 way switches, and later switched to N/S/N or S/N/S when they started using 5 way switches so they would hum buck in switch positions 2 & 5. When I got the second set of Mustang pickups I had an issue. Should I use a Bridge pickup in the neck position so I has a N/S/N humbucking config or should I try a Lead in the neck and middle and use the rhythm in the Rhythm giving me a N/N/S configuration. (Or two Rhythm S/S/N) Given the fact Mustang pups had a simular signal strength in the neck and middle, I figured I'd try the Lead, Rhythm, Lead configuration first. It wound up being a good choice. I simply adjusted the neck pickup down a little and they balance out fine. If they were a custom strat set, where they had different magnet strength or string spacing issues, I might have had to try something else but as is the coil difference was only a couple of hundred ohms different so adjusting the height down a millimeter did the job to balance them out nicely. I think I'll leave it as is now and declare it a completed build now. I may do some more body work at some point. The Tung oil finish is a little wavey due to the wood grain. I may sand it smooth and put a few more layers on at some point, but its perfectly good for now. It definitely gets those Jeff Beck tones using the Vibrato. As a note, The neck was a basket case when I got it too. The fretboard was much wider on one side near the nut making it impossible to level and it had thin banjo frets. I had to pull the frets and level the fretboard then refret and refinish it. Came out really good too. Never had a strat with a wide thin neck like that. I've had boat necks but this one is super comfortable playing chords or lead. Anyway, this is what I wound up with. I think the gold worked out really nice on this one and I think the whole thing coat me around $200, less than an Affinity Strat costs now. Plus its light as hell. I can play this thing all night and not feel fatigued.

Hey guys. It's been a while since I checked in here. Been busy after the move from TX to VA which was a nightmare moving all the gear I had collected. Between the home furniture and the gear, it filled the largest moving truck the moving company had, and the cost was close to 10K just for the move. Everything made it OK without damage. That was mainly due to the way I packed everything. Some of it got pretty creative. I had 25 guitars and basses to ship so I took the necks off most of them and crated them up in bubble wrap. In fact everything was pretty much bubble then shrink wrapped. Since they charged by the number of square feet, I packed a lot of gear inside the speaker cabs too. I knew I had a lot of stuff, but you don't appreciate it till you pack and unpack it all. Anyway. I have Two builds I spent quite a bit of time experimenting to find a good setup. Both have bodies made of sycamore which is exceptionally light wood. They weigh maybe 4 pounds each unloaded, and the tone is also quite different from a normal Strat and Tele which made finding a good pickup choice difficult. I started with Vintage spec alnico 5 pickups which weren't bad but given the brightness and lack of wood density I still wasn't satisfied. Since I already have a half dozen other strats and several other tele builds, I wasn't afraid of trying something less traditional seeing I had that covered already. First major change to the Tele was to try out the Keith Richards Micawber mod putting a full sized PAF in the neck position. I first tried several hotter pups, but it caused an imbalance with the single coil bridge. Richards used a hot would pedal steel pickup in his tele and I don't have any bridge pups worth rewinding to compensate. I instead switched to an Epiphone PAF which came out of my EPI Dot. I had put some 57 style PAF's with Alnico 7 magnets which have more gain than the stock DOT PAF's which have Alnico 5's. That wound up being an excellent choice for the neck, except for the added bass which made the blend of the two pickups a bit rough. I gave each pickup its own volume pot which helped blending but I still wasn't thrilled. Maybe it's me getting older but I prefer a set and forget setup that requires minimal tweaking. 2 or 3 great tones using the switch and a single volume is my thing. After doing several recordings I realized this thing was still a basta*d for tone and playability. At the same time trying to get the right pickup tone I was also trying out all the different possible bridge types. I started off with a Classic Stamped steel 3 saddle bridge, went through all the adjustable types and was into my third version of 6 saddle bridges and it was still coming up short. I needed more mass to get the kind of sustain and pinch harmonics a tele in noted for. I eventually tried the last option which was to install a PAF tele bridge with a 6 brass saddle bridge. The bridge was only $12 from China and I swapped the cheap potted metal saddles for some chrome covered brass saddles from another bridge in my cab. I put another EPI PAF in the bridge. I had a second set of those EPI pickups that supposedly came out of an EPI Les Paul. The bridge has a good bite to it so I suspect it might have an Alnico 7 instead of a 5. The ohm meter test is nearly identical to the stock Dot but its slightly hotter so I can only surmise by the way it plays now. In any case, it wound up being an excellent balance and I now have something that sounds close to a Tele Custom. I may eventually try some wide range Fender style pickups to get a broader response but I'm in no rush. I'll do a separate post for the Strat. Thanks for reading.

If you only roughened the finish you won’t need to do anything else. If you’ve cut all the way through, you can develop problems with moisture getting in the wood and softening the wood. This can cause acceleration in warping/twisting the neck, and constant action/tuning problems. It doesn’t occur overnight of course. It typically take a few months for the wood to turn a nasty gray color which gradually gets deeper into the grain. After a year or more you may have to sand off a lot of wood to get down to healthy white wood for refinishing. I deal with this problem a lot when regretting guitars. What can make it even worse is when you get any kind of oil on the bare wood. Many polishes have lemon or mineral oil in them which makes maple look nasty as hell. Once it leaches into the wood, it’s stains the wood permanently. The only fix then is a tinted or solid coat to mask the problem. I’ll also say refinishing a neck and getting a good factory look isn’t easy. It can be downright frustrating in fact. My advice is just leave it alone and play the instrument. If you’re focused on the feel you’ve lost focus on the music. If your hand sticks to the neck get some corn starch (baby powder without the fragrance) and put it in a small cloth bag. Tamp the back of your neck down to keep your hand dry and your hand won’t stick.

I get that quite often. It’s typically the wound strings. if the frets and setup are good and it’s strings are relatively new, I suggest you check and see if the strings are twisted. twisted strings can cause you a whole lot of head scratching with the oddball buzzing and intonation issues they cause. there are three parts to this that you should watch out for. First is avoidance when you install the strings avoid adding twist when you wind them on pegs Second is diagnostics You can identify strings twisted end to end Third, correction. The sooner you fix the twisted string the less permanent damage is done. when installing new strings - before you connect the string to the tuner - grab the string at the bridge and use your thumb and finger and draw the string towards the nut allowing the wire to untwist and stand upright When you do put it through the tuner avoid twisting it after you tune to pitch seat the string by stretching it till it quits going flat in pitch pulling up on the string at the 12th fret Next this is the tough part, take the low E string at the 12th fret and twist it cylindrically between your thumb and first finger. You should be able to twist it in both directions the same amount with the same resistance with strings that are twisted you may be able to twist it one way and not the other If there is no twist it will turn quite easily on the low E string. The A and D are a bit tougher but can still be detected using sensitive fingers You can even tell if they are twisted clockwise or counter clockwise undoing the twist consists of listening the string and untwisting the string at the ball end 1/2 or 1/4 turn if typically all you need to correct the worst erratic vibrations I’ve done it on unwound strings too but given the thickness twisting doesn’t cause as much of a problem with buzz I will also note besides buzz there can be a dramatic improvement in string tone when there is no string twist the string vibration is more side to side vs elliptical or erratic Chords are more ch more solid with fewer oddball oscillations occurring. Better intonation can be achieved as well. Check it out. Thick strings like on a bass can have this problem too. It’s not the type of thing you think can make that big a difference because you simply aren’t aware the problem exists.

Leveling the fretboard steins on vs strings off can be answer. Strings add at least 100 lbs pull and getting a light weight maple fret board level before you level the frets can be a real challenge. it doesn’t take much to botch a instruments fretwork either. I was reminded of this recently with one of those cheap Chinese necks. The original frets were so bad I decided to regret it before mounting it. Did a really good job too. As it was I had a lot going on and I didn’t finish the build for several months. Necks without string tension to tame them can do strange things. I leveled that sucker 4 or 5 times and no matter what I did it kept moving and wouldnt settle down. After a years worth of fighting that thing I figured I’d redo the frets one last time. I also decided to fix the issues with the fret board. It’s thickness in the nut area was too thick and made the whole leveling by process problematic. Like a house, you have problems with the foundation anything built on it will never be right. Anyway I used a radiuses beam to level the fret board and used the right fret saw and depth gauge and the fret jab was dam near perfect I had one fret above the 12th that didn’t seat properly so I pulled it and redid that one before getting to far along leveling I use super jumbo frets for a fluted neck feel. The less leveling needed the better also leveling is typically the easy part crowning and polishing is the part that takes a lot of elbow grease As a tip, use a black magic marker and color the frets before you level and then again crowning with a fret file As you file through the painted surface it highlights how far you go removing metal If one fret is too high it’s easy to bring those down to match the others. If one is low all the others must come down to match sometime it’s easier and faster to bring one up by replacing it then to bring all the others down It’s simply one of those calls you make based on an experienced eye supported by careful measurements

It looks a lot like the Univox guitars made in the 70s.

Back when I first started playing electric (late 60s) with experience and gear choice limitations You would dial in whatever sounded good. Typically pushing the limits to match the loudness of a live drummer. You’d be lucky to have a decent amp no less pedals that weren’t readily available. Today the gear limitations simply don’t exist like that. Not only do you have accessibility to decent quality low cost instruments but nearly endless pedals and amps. Anyone who can’t find a multiple variety of decent tones simply isn’t trying very hard or lacks the experience. playing live doing cover tunes in a band should force a player to seek out the best tones for the role you’re playing I know I spent countless hours helping others to dial up the right sound Dow whatever songs we played. You quickly learn everyone cannot dial up lead tones and expect to be heard when playing with other guitarists. Even in a trio with a single guitar you still have vocals to be considered. If a bridge pup selection doesn’t mask the vocals go for it. Typically I would tame the rhythm back when I’d sing so both could be heard equally. Leads had a higher energy level so you wouldn’t be sucked into a sonic hole in the soundscape during a solo. The experience I gained recording teaches you much about these finer details. Playing live you can get away with a lot especially if you use a good sound man doing all the tweaks. You only need a sound that allows you to play well. Recording you have to target the right tones from the start because you learn there are definite limitations to how much you can tweak tracks and still sound as good as good as possible.

There are several different versions of Marshall amps. If you're looking for a Plexi Tone, 80's Marshall, or New metal you need a different box for each of those tones. You typically need to compensate for whatever tone your amp produces too. Some pedals "might" be able to make a Fender amp sound like a Marshall if it has enough high end midrange to change the amps voicing. An amp (and speaker) with a wider Fidelity tone may need more compensation then another. Besides having several actual Marshall amps I have at least a dozen different single, multi effects and rack effects units with marshal tones. I can say some do a better job then others. When you play through an actual Marshal amp its not just the tone that's important, its the string sensitivity and attack that makes a huge difference. You may be able to get close to the tone using only a pedal, but it doesn't compare to the real thing. I typically use two amps, recording and performing and I'll use a marshal pedal to get the non Marshall amp to match closer the real thing. I can typically get a Governor to match the drive and tone of the actual Marshal drive channel quite well. Tone wise I may not bother as much. I often want the second amp to widen and expand the range of the Marshall instead of cloning it identically. Besides getting all the notes on the guitar to match may not be possible. There are too many differences not only in the frequency curve of the amp but the speaker too. You may get an open chord to sound identical, but as soon as you move up the neck some tones will drop or boost in loudness due to these frequency response curves. I will say I doubt any audience will know or care about the differences, but they typically aren't musicians with a set of advanced ears and finger tips either. The rule of thumb is, if it sounds good its good enough. It may be hard getting a pedal to match the real deal if you have no A/B comparison to work with. Some pedals have too much range and never really nail the tones to begin with. If I were to recommend pedals, I'd give thumbs up to the actual Marshall pedals. They manufacture the amps and who would know better. The Governor is great for the 80's tone. The Blues Breaker is excellent for getting a Plexi or OR/20C tone. I haven't owned a Jack Hammer but they supposedly nail the New Metal and grunge tones. The vintage Black box version of the Governor is supposed to be very good too. There are many other pedals which nail the tones, and you simply have to buy them to try them and hope its a good choice. Another option I've used is a bit different. Joyo and a few others make units designed to act as a voiced preamp. You put these boxes at the very end of your effects chain and tweak them as though you're tweaking a Marshall head. You leave the amp after this box set for maximum clean fidelity and use the box for dialing in drive tones instead of the head itself. Then you'd use your other pedals as if you were driving a Marshall head. I have several of these Pedals and I'm able to nail a Vox, Fender or Boogie amp as needed. I simply dial up the clean tone first then dial is a small amount of drive, always 50% or less drive. I'm able to get a really nice clean tone which sounds like the speaker is being driven hard. I'll use my other pedals to gain full saturation in steps as they are turned on. Here's an example of that box. $39 new is well worth the cost. Amazon.com: JOYO JF-16 British Sound Guitar Effect Pedal Amp Simulator - Bypass, DC 9V and Battery Supported : Musical Instruments I can say this pedal can be used before others like reverb and echo or even placed as a normal drive pedal but I recommend you use it at the end of the chain. Then switch it on and off so there is no bump in volume, only tone and whatever gain you want as a backdrop to your other pedals. Get one of these then use a Governor before and you'll have two of the most favored Marshall tones nailed. Amazon.com: JOYO JF-16 British Sound Guitar Effect Pedal Amp Simulator - Bypass, DC 9V and Battery Supported : Musical Instruments