1976 Marshall Super Lead MkII & Back in Black – Update

16 Oct 1976 Marshall Super Lead MkII & Back in Black – Update

Update of Saturday the 16th.

Brought the treble side of the Rhythm part down a tad. Replayed both solos, re-positioning the microphone, still only one microphone (I lack the second damn XLR jack, would you believe it? and I was too hectic trying the solos again).

Changed the equalizer settings for the solos slightly, see both new equalization settings.

Also, “bounced” Angus’ parts without the master track (i.e., you now can listen to me alone, rhythm and solos, no song).

Back in Black with the new settings, solos:

In order to get the amount of drive I needed (and that is heard on the record) I kept the loudness way down by using an attenuator, settings here were… all at 10! LOL. Except for presence that was still 0. All the rest, for the solos here, 10.

Parts ONLY (no original song):

New equalization settings:

[singlepic id=402 w=1024 h=768 float=]

[singlepic id=401 w=1024 h=768 float=]

End of Update

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So, the 100 watts head SL came in this morning.

I hooked it up immediately (photos later on).

Since this morning I’ve been working on BiB (again!) to try and get closer, and here it is for you.

I played the SL only (the NMV) today, to try it out. I don’t think there is such a difference from the MV Lead, there is, but not hugely so. I don’t know which one I’d favor, probably, both.

(by the way, I read on the Marshall forum that the differences between the two – technically – are as follows:

A few more additional differences are: the 2203 has an additional stage of treble boost, and an additional input gain stage. The voltage gain half of V2 has its cathode resistor set for lower gain than in a 1959 as well.
The pre phase inverter master volume in the 2203 is important as it will set the mix of overdrive between the preamp and phase inverter. In the 1959, the preamp is always wide open and the first stage to distort is the phase inverter, where you have to have the master cranked fairly high in a 2203 for the PI to distort)

from: Marshall Forum

Here’s the settings I used for the rhythm Angus part: presence 0, bass 8, middle 4, treble 6, volume I 8 volume II 0.

Now, on the guitar, volume was at 7 (pretty important).

For the lead, I “found out” that probably they set the head a little different:

presence 0, bass 2, middle 10 (!) treble 2, volume I 10, volume II 0

Surprisingly, I had to roll the guitar volume off to 8-9 for the solo, so no, it wasn’t full 10. I think Angus, on Back in Black at least (the whole album), has done this many times. You can hear that the guitar has a sort of texture to it which is typically not the full throttle guitar volume on 10, i.e. the typical harshness this makes. It’s creamy here and that type of cream, in my experience, only comes from rolling the volume down a bit.

Here’s both the equalization curves that I used. I think the lead curve (and/or microphone position) needs improvement, while I think I almost nailed the rhythm “tone” (whew).

Lead:

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Rhythm

[singlepic id=399 w=1024 h=768 float=]

What REALLY makes a big difference, is the correct microphone positioning. I am going to have to change the microphone support as it’s circular and a pain to put close (as it probably should be) to the cone. I put it right on the cone for the rhythm, not off axis (as I thought) but right ON axis. Same for the lead, though that needs further experimenting.

Here’s the track (I played directly on the original Back in Black song, to try and listen to the actual equalization path and reproduce it):

Note: I also posted this stuff on the Marshall forum to have multiple ears listening to it and see can come out of this:

http://www.marshallforum.com/cellar/19389-struggling-ac-dcs-back-black.html#post221810