The guitar sound itself can be the source of inspiration. Fender Strat through an old and loud Marshall amp delivers The Sound. It has been an adventure to get a tonal variety out of a non master volume amp, '76 Super Lead.

With 6550 power tubes, instead of usual EL34, a louder clean sound can be achieved before distortion. Different pre amp tubes have been tested but 12AX7 has the punch. The '76 Super Lead amp also has a modified feedback cirquit to give even louder clean tone. The guitar pickups should not be too strong to prevent the signal from getting too hot. With single coil pickups the sound is sparkling.

A little surprisingly, the best clean sound came from the 80's JCM800 2203 Marshall amp, which had EL34 power tubes and pre-amp gain adjustment. Sadly, that particular amp is no longer in use of Bogdo Ula. But you can hear the sound on the recorded tracks. Pro Co RAT distortion pedal worked extremely well with that amp, but it's very good with the 1959 also.

 

guitars: Fender Stratocaster, Gibson Les Paul DeLuxe
amps: Marshall 1959 MK II '76, JMP & JCM800 2203,
Fender Vibrolux '67
cab: Marshall 1982
power tubes: 6550 (1959), EL34 (2203)
overdrive: Xotic RC Booster, Ibanez Tube Screamer, Pro Co RAT,
Boss DS-1, Mad Professor Fire Red Fuzz
delay: Electro-Harmonix Stereo Memory Man, Boss DD-5, plug-ins
wah wah: Morley Classic Wah
volume pedal: Morley Volume Plus
gate: ISP Decimator
mike: Shure SM57
DI: Palmer ADIG-LB

 

'76 Marshall Super Lead MK II:

 

Svetlana 6550 tubes: