Marshall 1959 SLP Reissue Weber Modification

Most of you know what a SLP is. Two imputs. No master-volume. Great tone and balls. Loud.

Few won't agree that this amp has great tone and also that this amp is damn loud, especially when you push it for overdrive sounds.
Since the sound from this amp is awesome but you have to turn it up, what would happen if you add a preamp tube more, make this footswitchable, add a master-volume function, but don't touch the amp's circuit-board and basic sound. A friend of mine, amp-technician Gustav Weber who lives in Horgen, Switzerland, did this modification for me. Since the SLP's circuit- board is pretty small and the amp chassis has plenty of free space, it was easy to install a 4th preamp tube and a small additional hand-wired circuit-board for the few needed resistors and capacitors, a small toggle-switch and a pot for the master-volume function to make the mod. Since everything else stays untouched, as a result you have basically two heads in one. The original SLP non Master-Volume, and a second with master-volume and an added preamp tube for more gain. If you look at the front panel of the amp, the only things you will notice are the small toggle-switch, placed in the middle of the four imputs, and the additional pot (most people don't notice this since it uses the same knob like the other volume and tone controls).
How is the sound? In Mode 1 you have the absolute same sound and function as before the mod. In Mode 2 you get sounds from mild to medium crunch and, if you turn the gain way up, to fat overdrive that sounds so good it's hard to describe. Plus, you can control everything with your guitar's volume-knob since it's so dynamic.
This mod costed me about 200 $. The result is that this amp eats all high-gain amps out there for breakfast. It sounds better than every high-gain Marshall I've had before (Dual Reverb, SLX) and it sounds better than my Dual Rectifier.

This mod has been made almost two years ago. Since then I've been using this head all the time without the slightest problem.

Never needed.

I play since many years and had a lot of tube amps. With most of them I was happy for some time but then started to get tired of. With many amps today you have 3 channels, FX-loop, half-power switch, pentode/triode, compensated direct-out and many other fancy functions. When you're in the music-store you think whow, that's it. After some time you realize that it isn't. Since all the modern amps today are full of PC-boards, board mounted pots, even board-mounted tubes etc. you can't modify nothing here. Like it or leave it. So you will sell it or trade it for something else and repeat this many times more and everytime loose money.
If you buy a Marhall SuperLead Plexi you have a Head who's construction is pretty basic and simple and the sound is 1th class. With one little modification I've been getting an amp that sounds better than everything else that I've had before. Since I've been buying the SLP cheap used from a guy who had it in his living-room just for looks, the amp was almost like new and it's been a bargain compared to all the other stuff I've had.