SOLDANO HOT MOD, vous connaissez...???

Ha ouais, si, bientot.

Hey Amp Man!
First off, I love this column. Secondly, I have read about this SOLDANO HOT MOD. I have a '77 Marshall JMP Super lead 100. Before I bought it was modified with a master volume control. My question is, would the Hot Mod be of any benefit to this amp, since it has a master volume, or should I go with some sort of permanent modification to get a gainier sound?? Also, if you could maybe direct me to a good source or professional company that does amp mods, that would be great as well. Any help would be appreciated!!
Thank you,
Jacob Seal, via E-mail

Man, you MUST love this column - this is your second question in one month! Thank you, though - it flatters me to no end (ha,ha,ha!)

Here's the story on the HotMod, starting with a little history. It was originally designed by my head technician, Bill Sundt, before Soldano Custom Amplification even existed. In the early to mid eighties we were both working at (now defunct) Stars Guitars in San Francisco. In addition to the guitar work, I was doing amp mods and repairs there, mostly on Marshalls. Bill worked in the machine shop, but was, and of course still is, an avid amp tinkerer. In the course of our numerous gab sessions, we'd talked about how cool it would be to have a high-gain amp mod that you could just toss in a Marshall with little or no effort. "Amp Mods While-U-Wait!" - we figured it could be a real moneymaker. Before we had time to give this idea much more thought, I'd decided to move back to Seattle to concentrate on an amp design that was kicking around in my head (the now legendary SOLDANO 100w Super Lead Overdrive). A while later Stars Guitars went out of business, and shortly after that, Bill mailed me a device that he'd been working on - a plug in mod for a Marshall! I stuck it in my '77 Marshall model 2203 100w master volume and it sounded great.

A year or so later I moved to LA and started Soldano Custom Amplification. When business got going, Bill came out to Hollywood to join the fun, and brought the HotMod with him. Actually, it wasn't yet called the HotMod, that name was provided by our friend Ed Simione (now of TC Electronics fame) who helped us get the HotMod in production.

The HotMod is no longer made. In it's final form, it was a plug module with a tube that replaced a specific 12AX7 preamp tube in certain Marshall and Fender amps, and a few others as well. The fact that you could hot rod your amp without having to physically modify the amp itself proved to be especially handy if you had a "collectable" vintage amp and didn't want to ruin its value. It worked by inserting an additional gain stage into the preamp circuit of the amp it was plugged into. Conceptually, it was a really great product and, when properly applied, worked quite well. Ultimately, however, there were a few problems that led to my decision to quit making it. The first one was that it only worked in specific amps. That, in itself, didn't really bother us since we only had Marshalls in mind when designing it. The problem was, some users either ignored or lost the instructions that came with the HotMod, and put it in amps it wasn't designed for. It never hurt their amps - but it didn't work either! Another problem was with non-master volume amps (like your '77 Super Lead, if it were stock). Since the HotMod boosted the gain after the volume controls, by the time it started working, the amp's volume was essentially wide open. Of course, adding a master volume to the amp would solve this problem, but that sort of defeated the whole "no tools required" aspect of the HotMod. The final problem was cost and parts availability. There were several different tubes that we used in the HotMod, but all of them had been out of production for quite a while, so we had to rely on surplus stocks for our supply. That always bothered me. Also, as simple as the HotMod was, it was tedious and costly to assemble, and when all was said and done, we couldn't make any money on it and still have it be affordable. Now you all know more about the HotMod than you probably ever wanted to!

Getting back to your question, Jacob - even if you could find one, I would not recommend the HotMod, simply because there are better options available to you. My first recommendation is the SOLDANO Supercharger G.T.O. (shameless plug number one). If you're not familiar with it, it is an all tube line driver/overdrive pedal that really works. Plugging one of these into your Marshall will give you all the gain you could ever want, plus huge tone and switchability to boot! If you'd rather not use a pedal and want to have your amp hot rodded instead, I still offer a high-gain mod for your Marshall that sounds amazing (shameless plug number two - ha,ha,ha!). It's as close as you can get to the lead channel sound of my 100w Super Lead Overdrive without owning one. If this interests you, give me or Bill a call at (206) 781-4636 and we'll take care of you.