Wish Marshall Major

He used the Vox during the Perfect Strangers tour (I saw it myself at the stage in Barcelona, 1985) but not at the Made in Japan or Made in Europe tours.

I am wondering how he gets the clean tone at the intro of Mistreated - Made in Europe. My two strats (American Deluxe with Fat'50/SSL-5 and Schecter NJ with Seymour Duncan Antiquity Texas Hot) sound very thin when I roll down the volume pot too much.

Rolling down the vol pot?
Runing the Major quite clean, and pushing it with a Booster to get the overdrive tone?
A mixture of both?

It seems like at the Made in Europe tour he replaced the Treble Booster with the Akai tape.

"Ritchie in April 1974 at Ontario speedway / California jam From December 1973, at the beginning of the “Burn”-Tour in Northern Europe, Ritchie used a partly new live setup: the preamp of his Marshall Major amps were now modified, the treble boosters were retired and replaced with his famous AIWA TP-1011 reel-to-reel recorder"
https://www.treblebooster.net/bsm-tonezone/ritchie-blackmore

Did he had a switch to bypass the Akai for the clean tones?

At the Axe-FX we have several options to switch from overdrive to nice clean tones without the need to rolldown the guitar volume too much, but I am curious to know how he did it with the Marshall Major.
 
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He also experimented a lot with different pickups and tone controls:
https://www.treblebooster.net/content/7-blackmore-sheets/guitar_electrics.pdf
mtc.jpg
 
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This is the one on the treblebooster site:
15-marshallmajor_1978_mod6_schem.gif

It's somewhere in one of the articles that it says:
Sporting an ultra-linear power stage, KT88 beam-power tetrodes and a Class-A push/pull driver stage, the Major is close to the typical hi-fi concepts, this is the reason for the tight and focused bass response of this amp. Because of the ultra-linear power stage (aka "screen-grid negative feedback"), the internal resistance of the power stage is lowered notably, or as the hi-fi guys like to call it: the damping factor is raised notably. Because of this, the speaker is driven more precise, especially in the bass frequencies, works more stable and with less tolerances from its nominal parameters, eg. a lower THD factor and a better frequency response. That´s exactly the reason, why the ultra-linear concept is so widely used for high-priced hi-fi units.
 
He also experimented a lot with different pickups and tone controls:
https://www.treblebooster.net/content/7-blackmore-sheets/guitar_electrics.pdf

There it is!

As for the really powerful pickups, a modern overhauled version is available from Leosounds (www.leosounds.com) under the name "Munich77" - the neck pickup is a faithful replica of the powerful overwound Fender pickup Ritchie had installed in his guitar and the bridge pickup is an almost 1:1 copy of the Velvet Hammer.

Full output with the volume control fully opened was Ritchie's exclusive tone for his solo parts, beating hell out of the pickups. For the rest of his playing, he used the volume control for reduced output - even in this mode Ritchie's Strat was as loud as a standard Fender stock Strat of this time. The BSM "Spice Box" is a faithful replica of the old MTC filter box, using modern selected parts because only the best is good enough. One feature of the BSM "Spice Box" is that when the volume control is rolled back, the tone gets clean with a tighter bass response, similar to an early 70 ́s stock Strat. Ritchie used this volume setting for soloing as well, especially when a soulful feeling was required.

In order to get a sweet sound with this setting, the second feature of the BSM "Spice Box" was incorporated: the famous mid-filter, using a toroidal-coil with selected core. Compared to a standard tone control using a capacitor, the mid-filter creates more chime and high-end, resulting in a warm and sweet tone, but with a good portion of transparency to prevent it from getting muddy - one of the real secrets of the BSM "Spice Box" ! With the volume rolled down, Ritchie often used the MTC ́s mid-filter function to sweeten up his tone when needed. To prevent that this effect gets to prominent, Ritchie never fully closed the tone controls, especially for the bridge pickup. When increasing the volume, he usually also opened the tone control as well, because he wanted the loud, fat and powerful tone in this mode, so attenuating the mids was obsolete.

This was the main reason why Blackmore was fiddling with the controls of his Strat all the time while playing, it was the only possibility to create a lot of impressive tonal colors with this setup.
 
After reading some discussions about the mega overpriced BSM "magic" spice box MTC, which is nothing but a simple RLC circuit, I have arrived to the conclusion that it must be perfectly reproducible with the Axe-FX Parametric EQ at the beginning of the chain, matching the pickup resonant frequency. I'll start experimenting with that.
 
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MisterE
The article you referenced says the DRIVER STAGE is (operating) class A.
It is.
Typically all twin triode tubes in guitar amps (12ax7, 12ay7, etc) are wired to run Class A. No one discusses this because they are all the same (class of operation).
Class of operation is normally used to discuss how the power amp as a whole is working.
The power amp in the Major is Class A/B -with ultra linear taps on the transformer.
That amp is far from Class A operation. Probably operating close to Class B in reality.
If you want to have a technical discussion on how an amp works you need to have an understanding of how amplification works.
 
OK, thanks.
I see how this confused me.
What would the difference between the Major and a Plexi be then?
 
After reading some discussions about the mega overpriced BSM "magic" spice box MTC, which is nothing but a simple RLC circuit, I have arrived to the conclusion that it must be perfectly reproducible with the Axe-FX Parametric EQ at the beginning of the chain, matching the pickup resonant frequency. I'll start experimenting with that.
The analog box I think would interact a lot with the guitar volume and time controls, which an Axe parametric wouldn't do.
 
The analog box I think would interact a lot with the guitar volume and time controls, which an Axe parametric wouldn't do.

The guitar volume just adds another R to the RLC circuit at the Analog Box, or a RC if it has a bleeding capacitor. The final result is still nothing but RLC equalization. There is nothing coming out of a RLC circuit that cannot be done with a Parametric Equalizer
 
The guitar volume just adds another R to the RLC circuit at the Analog Box, or a RC if it has a bleeding capacitor. The final result is still nothing but equalization. There is nothing coming out of a RLC circuit that cannot be done with a Parametric Equalizer
But turning down guitar volume of time doesn't interact with any eq in the Axe, where it does with that analog box. Yes you could readjust the eq to emulate that, but I'd rather just adjust on the guitar.
 
But turning down guitar volume of time doesn't interact with any eq in the Axe, where it does with that analog box. Yes you could readjust the eq to emulate that, but I'd rather just adjust on the guitar.

OK, I get it. The PEQ won't give you the same experience as playing with the vol and tone knobs at the guitar.

We can still use modifiers at the PEQ, though. They can be assigned to the Frequency, Q and Gain, expanding the possibilities of that passive box. Adjusting one single expression pedal instead of two knobs.
 
But turning down guitar volume of time doesn't interact with any eq in the Axe, where it does with that analog box. Yes you could readjust the eq to emulate that, but I'd rather just adjust on the guitar.
Bigger picture, I'm sure he didn't use the gear here used because of any RLC calculations. He tried some stuff, and how it sounded gave him ideas about which other stuff he'd heard about he'd like to try next. Same as us.
 
Yep...and The Man In Black's Marshall Major had some major differences from the Marshal major circuit

Yes indeed...I recall reading that RB's Majors had an additional hole punched in the chassis and another preamp tube added for more cascaded gain vs a stock Major.
 
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Blackmore has said more than once that he preferred a Vox in the studio... So unless you're after a his live tone, you're chasing the wrong rabbit ;)

Also, as @Jan Geerts mentioned above, he was (at least at one point) using a Vox amp disguised as a Marshall. There's a pic I've seen a few times showing that (and pretty sure Ritchie has also mentioned it).

Definitely....RB loved the Vox AC30 sound and modified his Marshalls to sound more like one. I have an interview where he says he hated the Marshall sound (too shrill, toppy, thin) but having look of 'the Marshall stack' was mandatory back in the day and went as far as to place an AC30 in a 4x12 cabinet at one time.

I've also seen pictures (and an old video I think) of live early 70's Purple shows where there is unmistakably an AC30 right behind his stacks and it looks very much like there is a coiled cord running up and connected to the Marshall heads, presumably running the Vox preamp output into the front end of the Marshall.
 
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