Voodoo Amps Sovtek MIG100H Head Mod

Couple of added knobs nothing special. I think the one didn't do anything at all.

I use Kalamazoo Les Pauls with Vintage Dimarzios. I thought this would be a great sounding amp that would compete with my Bogner. I'm embarassed to say I ever thought that. My Shiva made this sound like a 3rd graders science project. Sound is not articulate.

Couldn't stand it long enough to keep it so I don't know.

Their bench rate is $100 an hour. Bogner is $65 and Budda is about that too. Are these guys on Rheinholdt Bogner's and Jeff Bober's level?
Not even close. How do they justify $100/hr?????

Been playing just about 20 years.
Funny they coat their mods in black epoxy, like it's worth stealing the design. They shouldn't flatter themselves.

This is a simple all tube single-channel head with high/low gain inputs and no effects loop or reverb. I believe this is the '98 model, 100+ watts, 4-6L6 (originally 5881's) and 3 12AX7's. I wish it had channel switching...I'll probably get an A/B box to switch between inputs, but I've been saying that for awhile.

Trace at VooDoo Amps added more gain to it, increased the low-end girth and generally tweaked the overall tone of the amp, I asked for an effects loop but there wasn't enough room inside. It's a very simple amp that doesn't have a lot of the features some modern amps have (Mesa Mark IV, Marshall JCM 2000 TSL etc.) I really don't miss any of those features however.

First a rundown of the gear I use this amp with:
Guitars: Les Paul Custom w/EMG 81's tuned down a fourth, Peavey Wolfgang goldtop, Schecter C-7 w/Duncan Invader in the bridge and Schecter CB2000 w/EMG 81

Cabs: Mesa 1x12" Thiele EVM cab, Mesa 2x12" Recto vintage 30 cab and 4x12" Marshall w/75's cab

The tone of this amp is absolutely incredible. I've always liked the clean sounds of this head, very spacious and tons of headroom but the high gain input with thin, nasally and just all-together lacking in raw aggression. After the mod there is far more gain than I'll ever use (but that is a good option to me), the low-end is very strong and tight with great knock during palm-mutes. The mid-range is especially toneful and that is absolutely key to great tone in my opinion, you can scoop the hell out of them but if you want a driving sound to cut through the mix and yet let everyone else be heard working the mid's will be important.

The mod sounds very natural; it doesn't sound like a distortion pedal in front of a tube amp (even a very good distortion pedal). Tube tone is all over the place here. You can hear the depth in thick chords and the clarity of each note even with obnoxious jazz-metal chords.

As for styles of music I play a few different things...stoner metal (High on Fire, Sleep, Melvins), mathcore (Dillinger Escape Plan, Botch, Meshuggah) and Shellac style aggressive indie stuff. I use a Marshall JCM 800 2210 for my stoner stuff thinking that an amp designed for clarity and power for Botch style stuff couldn't do power amp cruch of stoner stuff but I was wrong. The Sovtek gets great stoner crunch. It's like a high-gain, versatile Matamp but back off the gain and crank up the volume and it just grinds. I actually run both of my amps together now for giant stoner grooves (I run the Marshall into a Mesa 4x10" bass cab) via stereo outs of a Cool Cat chorus and it is honestly the heaviest tone I've ever heard in person (no offense to Matt Pike). Backing off of the guitars volume gives a great blues tone as well, especially on the neck pickup which can be problematic but here is stays crisp and never gets muddy. One last thing about the MIG100H, it's a super loud amp. My Marshall is 100-watts and loud as hell but the Sovtek can drown it pretty easily...now if I could only play shows where I could really crank it up I'd be a very happy camper indeed :)

I haven't played every boutique amp in the world but this is definatly a Recto, VHT, SLO killer...just amazing.

I've had the amp for awhile and it did have a minor problem awhile back with some solder coming loose and causing a short but I haven't had the mod long enough to tell how durable it is. However Trace is such an easy guy to work with and always answers his emails within a day or two that I'm not at all worried. The folks at Voodoo take a great deal of pride in there work, especially in terms of getting the tone you want.

See above....just great people to work with! Trace makes sure you get the tone you want and the tone of some over bearing amp tech thinks you should have. Trace asks you what kind of gear you have, what songs you think have the kind of tone you're after and really aims to please.

I'm very much considering buying some more Sovteks or even other amps for that matter and having Trace mod. them but I'm a lowly pauper of a teacher. I just don't want to find out that he's retired one day before I can stock pile as many amps as I can afford.

I just couldn't be more pleased and I think I'm pretty damn picky about my tone. This is that tone in my head, the one we all hear but just seems to alude us. With time my ideal tone my change as I do but there will always be more amps customized to my liking :)

Check them out at www.voodooamps.com