What´s with the Wizard W800 - is it just a super Marshall? Can we get close with Axefx3?

A wizard would be cool and awesome that you would lend the amps but they would still need accurate schematic unless the poster in this thread that built the clone has one
Yep, I've got it. It's kind of a sticky wicket though. I don't know if the person who made it actually traced an actual amp or it was his best guess. He makes PCB's of a lot of high end-end amps though, so I think he would have access to them. If Cliff wanted one, I could get it to him. Sounds like he doesn't have good vibes with Wizards though :)
 
I like the fullness and body of the bass strings, but absolutely hate the dropping-a-truckload-of-sheet-metal jangle of the treble strings. Not sure whether that could just be EQ'ed away, sounds like a characteristic feature
funny... I absolutely love that sizzling treble :) . sounds well balanced to me and probably exactly what they wanted it to sound like....
 
My only experience with Wizard amps was at the amp shows. They were by far the most obnoxious vendor there. No one wanted to be located near their room and we were two doors away. We finally got management to move us to a different room farther away.

Their idea of "marketing" was to open the door, point the amp out the door and put all the knobs on 10. Their demo guy must've been deaf as a compost pile because he seemed oblivious to how painfully loud it was.
You should pay them back by creating a great digital model of their crazy overpriced amps. ;)
 
Can't speak of the W800, but the Modern Classic is essentially just a Silver Jubilee with an added gain stage in front of it - the tone stack is a little different too but that's about it. Finished my MCII clone back in April this year, or to be exact gutted a DSL50 completely and rebuilt it as a MCII, and it's my favourite amp at the moment. Bought and sold a genuine Wizard last year and the clone is every bit as good imo - at 1/5th of the price. Actually the clone is a little more Marshall-esque in the mids, but the real Wizard was an older MCI from just before he came out with the MCII and revised the circuit a bit. So who knows if it's the slightly different circuit, or my transformers which are obviously not 1:1 identical (not even the same brand).

The only Fractal product I own at the moment is the FX8 MKII, so I can only speak from a real amp perspective - but nothing else is like a Wizard. It was the first real high end amp I ever tried and I genuinly think it ruined me for other amps in many ways. I have other killer amps too that I have even modded and fine tuned to my ears and preferences, but the MCII clone is on another level. You kind of have to play it to get it, which is why I'm not sure how well an amp like that will translate to a modeller. A big part of that amp's uniqueness is the massive thump and responsiveness when you play it in the room, I can't even get that fully through when recording it. And the gain knob WORKS, no bright cap so the core tone is the same whether you have gain on 2.5 or 10!
 
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Can't speak of the W800, but the Modern Classic is essentially just a Silver Jubilee with an added gain stage in front of it - the tone stack is a little different too but that's about it. Finished my MCII clone back in April this year, or to be exact gutted a DSL50 completely and rebuilt it as a MCII, and it's my favourite amp at the moment. Bought and sold a genuine Wizard last year and the clone is every bit as good imo - at 1/5th of the price. Actually the clone is a little more Marshall-esque in the mids, but the real Wizard was an older MCI from just before he came out with the MCII and revised the circuit a bit. So who knows if it's the slightly different circuit, or my transformers which are obviously not 1:1 identical (not even the same brand).

The only Fractal product I own at the moment is the FX8 MKII, so I can only speak from a real amp perspective - but nothing else is like a Wizard. It was the first real high end amp I ever tried and I genuinly think it ruined me for other amps in many ways. I have other killer amps too that I have even modded and fine tuned to my ears and preferences, but the MCII clone is on another level. You kind of have to play it to get it, which is why I'm not sure how well an amp like that will translate to a modeller. A big part of that amp's uniqueness is the massive thump and responsiveness when you play it in the room, I can't even get that fully through when recording it. And the gain knob WORKS, no bright cap so the core tone is the same whether you have gain on 2.5 or 10!
I agree that the Wizard is unique and amazing. One of the only real amps I've played that left me really wanting one.

Since you built a clone, what can you tell us about the MCII that would help us replicate in Axe?
I know you mentioned MC is Jubilee with a different tone stack, is that he same for the MCII? And which tone stack might you suggest?
Thanks.
 
I agree that the Wizard is unique and amazing. One of the only real amps I've played that left me really wanting one.

Since you built a clone, what can you tell us about the MCII that would help us replicate in Axe?
I know you mentioned MC is Jubilee with a different tone stack, is that he same for the MCII? And which tone stack might you suggest?
Thanks.
The MCII tone stack is pretty much identical to the original MC, the only substantial difference between the original MC and MCII is the placement of the master volume, a bright control (100k pot in series with 22nF cap to ground) and the value of one resistor to ground. The original MC's master is the same as the lead master in the Jubilee, the resistor to ground is also the same value but significantly higher in the MCII. So you can probably get fairly close to the original MC using the Jubilee model, though there is no fx loop within the preamp circuit like in the Jubilee. Try boosting it with something fairly high mid-treble focused and not too heavy in the bass, and you'll pretty much have the added gain stage of the Wizard.

I'm not 100% sure how it works in the Axe, haven't had one with amp modelling since the AX8 which was just brief and many years ago, but the tone stack is plate (anode) driven with a 220k plate, 1.5k cathode, 250pF treble , 56k slope (original MC 62k) and 22nF mid and bass. All potentiometer values are standard Marshall, although I changed the bass pot in mine to 500kA to get a more useful range but the tone and amount of bass is the same. Hope that made sense and was helpful, let me know if there's anything else cheers
 
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