Fractal Amp - Marshall Major Go Fund Me

Brewce said:
I don't think you meant it that way, but it can be read as, "Cliff should figure out the schematic, or I find him pretty unwilling..." ;) (which is why I asked if you had the schematics)
People are quick to project worst case scenario into anything someone says, and sometimes that includes me... ;)


It would, but then you should somehow address him directly. They told me the same thing a few days ago, and in a way they were right, as I got a whole Cancel Culture crowd over me...

Anyway, I've seen this kind of proposal many times since 2007 or so, and the usual reply is more or less what I told you.

Also, in the wiki you can read how so many amps are essentially the same, except for a small tweak. Just using the EQ tools and such, you can have that amp.

We may have a better chance when Richie has left this plane...
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Point taken. 👍🏼
 
State of Epicicity said:
I'm curious how one could modify an existing model to approximate a Major.
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I was going to suggest this one, and be up front with the seller as he is a friend of mine. That way Cliff would own the amp and be the only one with the schematic, and wouldn’t hurt sales of the replica amp that my friend makes (at least I don’t think it would, jmho). I pretty much know what it is but I can’t share it as I promised him I wouldn’t. The point seems to be moot as nobody seems interested in throwing in to buy one. And even then, the seller and Cliff would have to be willing participants. Oh well, I took my shot.

https://reverb.com/item/36137154-ha...are&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=36137154
 
Another old point I just reread is that if it was up to Cliff, he would only make FAS amps. So I guess we're lucky to get anything that kinda nails real-word amps/FX.

State of Epicicity said:
I'm curious how one could modify an existing model to approximate a Major.
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I'm the last one to ask, as I'm more of a preset player.
But I have seen what the golden ears can do, esp. if they also have all the historical knowledge. If you're ok that the amp doesn't feel "exactly the same," a lot can be done with IRs, knowing what to change in the amp's advanced section, being an OD and EQ wizard, tonematching, ...
I'm not up-to-date with current members, but I'd pick Cliff, austinbuddy, Justin York, Dweezil Zappa, ... among these.
Have you ever seen Dweezil kinda nailing Eruption back with the Ultra? Guys back then were putting a lot of time into mixing IRs/mics to get close.

In the early days of the Axe-Fx II (fw 4 to 5) we had a member called Smilefan. He had those insights too, and he released 100+ presets that came as close as possible to an artist's sound. He included 2 or 3 Blackmore presets that can still be opened with an old Axe-Edit. I think Axe-Edit_Setup_1_0_267.exe works, as it doesn't require a connected Axe yet.

In total, I've enjoyed 3 or 4 Blackmore presets that were close enough for me. I'm not that into him though, although I've enjoyed a lot of Rainbow in my teen years.
Included are diagrams from two of Smilefan's presets... Sadly, firmware updates kinda destroyed the sound of most of his presets. I may load that firmware again before I sell the II, to see what I can do or try to rebuild. Or maybe it will not sound as great as I remember it.

Smilefan had at least two threads like these, including good knowledge and fun stories about the players and sounds:
https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/part-ii-smilefans-axe-ii-patch-thread.41772/
This is probably available as a pdf/doc somewhere now. Good times. The guy vanished as some company picked him up to make presets for them only. I've never known what became of that, and what device that is... It was a very sad loss.

I feel these members were not appreciated as much as they could have been by Fractal, so at least 2 or 3 were chosen by other companies, or decided to leave. At least nowadays, we see many presets in the hardware that come from valued members.
 

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So it was to sell a friends amp with the potential side benefit of getting it modelled, less so a desire to see it in the unit. Thats how this reads now.
 
Guys, my intention was to maybe try to take some of the cost off of Cliff when requesting new models, instead of just complaining when the new updates come out and I’m not super interested in the latest amp model addition (btw, if he added every other Marshall model there is, I wouldn’t complain). I truly appreciate all of the free updates, and understand how much time and money Cliff must put into them. It’s absolutely unique and is so far from the typical product development and support model that most other companies must think he’s insane. I think it’s brilliant. So why shouldn’t I be able to float this idea and see if people who are interested and are requesting models put their money where their mouth is? Cliff is free to say he’s not interested, and I’m fine with that. I’m sure he has a billion things on his plate, I was just trying to make something a little easier to accomplish in case it might be a possibility.

Ever since I joined this forum I noticed a weird vibe, like I’m butting in line or something. Then there’s the guy above who thinks I started this topic to sell a friends amp?!? Seriously man! Guys, I’ll be up front, you may not like me, but I’m only here to enjoy this wonderful unit and push to help make it better, in my opinion, and I don’t think telling it like I see it is is breaching forum etiquette. If you don’t like what I’m doing, have your say but I’m not going to lay down and die or go away just because I’m new here.
 
jrayjr said:
there were a few threads about it if im not mistaken, one can only get so far into the ball park with a Plexi100w with KT88, EQ to mid position and no cathode follower compression as the amp hasnt got one pls correct me if i am wrong guys =)
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You got it, If we are talking the Blackmore it was either KT88 or 6550 it was custom made for Richie by a guy at Marshall named Doyle Bramley who said it was so ridiculously loud and unusable

It was like 200 watts or something stupid , it may have ever had 6 power tubes , Doyle said anyone in the building would have ringing ears
And he would never do it again
 
Smilefan thought it was 278W :oops: =>

He [Blackmore] maintained a very close relationship with Jim Marshall. Live, he used (and made legendary) Marshall “Major” amps. These were beefed up versions of Plexi 100W heads using four huge KT-88 power tubes. Ritchie’s Majors were custom altered by Marshall with an additional output stage and generated 278 watts each! Nowadays he uses Engl amps. For effects he is most famous for employing a reel-to-reel tape deck (Aiwa TP-1011) as a preamp stage into his amps. This produced the very warm sounds you hear from his Strats on Deep Purple records.
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km 202257 said:
generally speaking I’m reluctant to create a situation where money affects FAS’s decision on R&D.
I believe it’s Cliff’s motivation that accounts for excellence of FAS products, and I fear that situation affect his motivation. Money can’t buy Cliff.
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^^THIS^^

It sets a bad precedent, and would create situations where people would assume they can influence the system design by paying for it to be done.
 
I can’t speak for Cliff’s personal finances or his company’s, but given the success of the brand, his (or his company’s) collection of vintage amps, some of his collection of fine automobiles etc, I don’t he, nor FAS need a Go Fund Me to cover development cost.

There are some one man shop builders who maybe can’t bring a product to market due to minimum orders for parts being cost prohibitive, or maybe they can’t make enough money to even break even, have health issues etc. Seen plenty of builders go through tough times and maybe the community helping out makes sense.

In this case though, I don’t think Cliff/FAS need a handout.

Furthermore, I feel like what would essentially be a pay for upgrade approach is totally against everything FAS is about as they have never charged for updates. Never once.
 
lqdsnddist said:
I can’t speak for Cliff’s personal finances or his company’s, but given the success of the brand, his (or his company’s) collection of vintage amps, some of his collection of fine automobiles etc, I don’t he, nor FAS need a Go Fund Me to cover development cost.
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But maybe there have been days that this was less the case. I've seen these proposals in a distant past and they sounded more appropriate back then. Seems it was a time where Cliff was more eager to add anything, or at least the major amps.
I also think the $ could make (or have made) the difference for an amp he's not 100% interested it, and that would be fair for everyone — at least if he could sell it on, which he can't as long as he keeps improving his measurement techniques and algorithms... LOL
I hope they all increase in price as "the amp in the Fractals!!" so he can eventually have enough cars in his life! ;)
 
Darrin66 said:
Has anyone ever suggested the idea for a Go Fund Me for an amp some of us are wishing for? I’d throw in a fair bit for a Marshall Major. I know where to get one, perfectly suited/modded to Blackmore but still able to get stock tones. It could go through Fractal/Cliff in case anyone is worried about scamming. Just throwing it out there for the people who want a Marshall Major.
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I looked at the link of that amp your friend has for sale. Not looking to rain on the party but...
I owned a ‘73 Marshall Major years ago.
The amp for sale is not a Major, but a 100w mod. I know.. ‘thanks Captain Obvious’.
But, for those that don’t quite know...

At the very basics... The M.M was 200w, had 4 KT88’s, 4 speaker outputs, had a deeper chassis and box, and was quite heavier. Sorry, I don’t remember much about the rest. It was crazy loud and had it own ‘thing’ going on.
 
interesting reading about this amp - I guess back in the day before PA's were widely available / used, this amp provided more horsepower to pump out more volume to the audience - no wonder so many old rockers are deaf (I'm thinking of Townshend in The Who, so well known for massive volume back then with the Hiwatts). Modelling would actually make it useful since one could crank it without earbleed!
 
sprint said:
interesting reading about this amp - I guess back in the day before PA's were widely available / used, this amp provided more horsepower to pump out more volume to the audience - no wonder so many old rockers are deaf (I'm thinking of Townshend in The Who, so well known for massive volume back then with the Hiwatts). Modelling would actually make it useful since one could crank it without earbleed!
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Exactly.

That much power was to supplement the FOH because it didn't have enough volume to fill the room and they didn't have enough channels to mike everything. We have no need for four output tubes and the transformer to be modeled if one of the existing models generates the same waveform, because, the only difference at that point would be turning the Output knob up another notch.

It makes sense to model it only if the circuitry results in a significantly different signal that can't be achieved by turning a knob or selecting a different option. Sure, there are probably some examples of models not having that distinction, but many models were legacies from previous generations of the modelers, and others resulted from demand because people were using their eyes, not their ears. I think others are in the list because Cliff enjoys the thrill of the hunt… he's learning new things which result in improvements in other areas.

Play on that side of Cliff… entice him… capture his imagination… woo him! :)
 
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