Members petejt Posted September 16, 2008 Members Share Posted September 16, 2008 I'm serious here. Yes, more that this serious cat-> I love the tone of this little battler. Sure enough it's just a cheap gimmicky solid-state toy rip-off of a stack of JCM800s, but fark man, it's I'm not saying that deep deep down inside I really crave a roaring boosted JCM800 (well, I've played one and I was in love..) and would desert my beloved MarkIV in a flash, but still I'd like to be able to utilise this tone without forking out for a proper Marshall amp setup. The reason why- I want to utilise this little amp for my Leslie rotating speaker system, for the preamp stage. But, so far no matter WHAT I do, I just cannot get a decent volume out of it when using its headphone jack. I must be doing something wrong, as I've tried:- The only thing I am yet to try is running it in front of my Roland Jazz Chorus 120 combo amp, which has 120 watts of power. Am I doing something wrong? Or is it just the crappy headphone output that is limiting the level of the output? Seriously, I can use the Mini-Stack on its own, and its silly 3" speaker puts out more volume than any of the results of got trying to boost the volume with the Engl Fireball! Is there a modification I can do so I can draw straight from the Mini-Stack's circuit and thus bypass the headphone output? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bro Blue Posted September 16, 2008 Members Share Posted September 16, 2008 The headphone out is not meant to put out the levels you need. Give up, it ain't gonna happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Oops-A-Paisley Posted September 16, 2008 Members Share Posted September 16, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elric Posted September 16, 2008 Members Share Posted September 16, 2008 Just like any other amp that has only one power output, you need to disconnect the existing speaker and reconnect that output to the new speaker. I dunno how it would function as a stompbox it may work with the volume control set appropriately, but I'd personally use it like a "real" head and drive the speaker directly (at dramatically reduced volume) or via the FX loop (like a preamp). If I were doing this, I'd wire an output jack that disconnected the internal speaker when something was plugged into it using a switched jack. I've actually heard of a number of cases where people have done this with, ahem, good results and have considered doing it to mine just for fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Megadeth Man Posted September 16, 2008 Members Share Posted September 16, 2008 but still I'd like to be able to utilise this tone without forking out for a proper Marshall amp setup. The reason why- I want to utilise this little amp for my Leslie rotating speaker system, for the preamp stage. You've got to be bullshitting me here, mate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members petejt Posted September 16, 2008 Author Members Share Posted September 16, 2008 You've got to be bullshitting me here, mate? I didn't disassemble my Marshall cab, remove all of the speakers, replace two of the speakers, order a 3/4" driver, fuss over amplifier options, buy and search for motor parts, order a Leslie treble horn, and cut a hole in the baffle for nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members petejt Posted September 16, 2008 Author Members Share Posted September 16, 2008 If I were doing this, I'd wire an output jack that disconnected the internal speaker when something was plugged into it using a switched jack. I've actually heard of a number of cases where people have done this with, ahem, good results and have considered doing it to mine just for fun. That sounds like a good idea. It'd be good if I could wire the speaker outputs directly to the 'Headphone' jack, and then I can just plug the main amp input into that, so in a way it's behaving like a stompbox. Remember that this is NOT going to be my main tone. I have my MarkIV and Fireball running ALONGSIDE this setup, this thing is just for Leslie sounds- it's just that I love the sound of a cranked Marshall being chorused , which is why I want to use this little beast for this project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members newholland Posted September 16, 2008 Members Share Posted September 16, 2008 headphone amps are usually like 300mW amps pete! a third of a watt! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members petejt Posted September 17, 2008 Author Members Share Posted September 17, 2008 headphone amps are usually like 300mW amps pete! a third of a watt! I knew it'd be low, but not THAT much. wow. The main circuit board has three coloured wires coming from it to the smaller board. A red one, a black one, and a blue one. I guess that the red and black wires are for power? I know that's a dumb question but I just want to make sure. So, would the blue wire be carrying the guitar signal I take it? I'd like to hard-wire it to the output socket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paintkilz Posted September 17, 2008 Members Share Posted September 17, 2008 i use a digitech metal master with my ms2 in my room....gets PLENTY loud honestly... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members OverDriven Posted September 17, 2008 Members Share Posted September 17, 2008 If you run the headphone output into the FX return of any amp (your MKIV for example) it should be loud as {censored}ing hell! Are you using a mono 1/4" patch cable? If you are using a stereo cable, that may be the problem. Run a mono cable from headphone out to the FX return on the Mesa. Turn the FX loop on via the footswitch and go to the clean channel. Turn up the master volume a bit (preamp volume on the MKIV won't work at this point). If it's not insanely loud, something is seriously wrong. The output of the mini stack should be way more than enough to drive the effects loop...it's more output than any normal effect would give you. I've run the headphone out of the Pod into the Mark IV FX return and it worked fine. One thing...if the headphone output is a stereo out, you need to use a Y cable that goes from stereo to 2 monos. Then just run one of those mono cables into the effects return. Leave the other one disconnected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cauberallies Posted September 17, 2008 Members Share Posted September 17, 2008 Dude. I used one of these into a PA head, into a rogue 4x12 which I cut in half to make a 2x12, as my "live rig" when I was 13 years old in my first band ever. Honestly, it sounded much better than the marshall MG100hdfx head I got soon afterwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members petejt Posted September 17, 2008 Author Members Share Posted September 17, 2008 Dude. I used one of these into a PA head, into a rogue 4x12 which I cut in half to make a 2x12, as my "live rig" when I was 13 years old in my first band ever. Honestly, it sounded much better than the marshall MG100hdfx head I got soon afterwards. Cool. That's great that yours was working how it should be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members petejt Posted September 17, 2008 Author Members Share Posted September 17, 2008 If you run the headphone output into the FX return of any amp (your MKIV for example) it should be loud as {censored}ing hell! Are you using a mono 1/4" patch cable? If you are using a stereo cable, that may be the problem. Run a mono cable from headphone out to the FX return on the Mesa. Turn the FX loop on via the footswitch and go to the clean channel. Turn up the master volume a bit (preamp volume on the MKIV won't work at this point). If it's not insanely loud, something is seriously wrong.The output of the mini stack should be way more than enough to drive the effects loop...it's more output than any normal effect would give you. I've run the headphone out of the Pod into the Mark IV FX return and it worked fine. One thing...if the headphone output is a stereo out, you need to use a Y cable that goes from stereo to 2 monos. Then just run one of those mono cables into the effects return. Leave the other one disconnected. There definitely must be something wrong with the Headphone output of my Mini-Stack. The output from it's speaker certainly sounds more than loud enough to drive a poweramp. I'm just using normal guitar instrument cable and I barely get a whisper out of it. Only the Lead channel on my MarkIV (with Lead Master cranked and Output cranked) gets a fairly decent loud volume. I guess maybe the headphone output is stereo? I haven't got a stereo-to-two mono Y cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thermionic geek Posted September 17, 2008 Members Share Posted September 17, 2008 I added a switched jack to mine, so when I plug in another cabinet the internal speaker is disconnected. It works great and sound killer cranked through a 4x12. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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