Alright, I got the amp back finally, and it sounds great! I have an early JVM, and one heater fuse blew. Long story - I got the heater fuses fixed as per Marshall's factory fix, but the amp had no preamp section working. After several back and forth issues with the tech, he replaced a tube socket and solder a bunch of joints, and it was back to normal. There were a lot of problems with the board. Seems it got hot when the fuse blew, and the tech said he soldered a lot of connectors on the board in order to get it working properly.

At that point, I asked for these mods to be made too, just because why not.

I asked him to do the Choke Pod, The Plexi Cap Mod and the C83 mod. Cost me a couple of hundred but it was worth it. It's sound way different and better now. Hard to describe it, but I think of an old vintage amp now - especially the bass response. There is less treble/top end fizz, and the bass "feels" different than before. I dig it!

I have yet to try it with pedals, but all the 4 channels sound great.

I was surprised at how good OD1 and OD2 sounds for my blues style of playing. Before, it was way too scooped and aggressive and edgy - now all channels are usable for my style of playing.

I just hope it doesn't blow up again! haha!