Are Mashall Amps the best amps ever created?

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I used to think they were the best until I bought a Carvin Legacy. It's like a Marshall that's been pumping iron.
 
A valve/tube Marshall cranked is near Nirvana.
It's the only BIG brand amp I have owned/used to date so I'm not really qualified to comment. My little Original Pignose, Peavy Audition and Jade Clubman don't amount to much clout though each has its merits.
 
Best? As far as what? Older Marshalls sounded a lot like my 1956 Fender Bassman. Oh yeah....its kind of the same circuit...The Marshall sound was really the product of its cabinet at first. Those old basket-weave cabs with the 25 watt pre-Rolas were incredible sounding boxes. I've heard very few, if any, amps that have sounded as good as my 1982 4104 Marshall JCM800 2-12 combo and it was DEFINATELY a Marshall sound.

But the best? I've owned a couple of other amps that I would put above any Marshall I've heard including the one I mentioned. There was an early 1960 Tweed Tremolux that did it all.....A blonde 1962 Bassman head that was sublime....A 1972 Fender Pro Reverb.... a 1966 Vox Cambridge that was pretty sweet...

The BEST is always relative.
 
If you want to talk about the the "big" amp companies, you could narrow it down to about 3-4. Fender, Marshall, Vox, Mesa Boogie. Probably the most sought after and most recognizable names. Out of all those, having played and owned all but the Mesa Boogie's. Id say Vox generally kicks the most ass. It can play clean like a fender, overdriven like a Marshall (better tone too in my personal opinion) and its not finicky in terms of trying to find the tone you want like a Mesa. It takes pedals well, and they are generally combo amps, which means less work for you in terms of carrying them around. Also the cool thing about Vox amps are they seem to take speaker changes well and dont tend to have a "need" for one kind of speaker. Anybody who recommends a Vox will tell you always get the Alnico Blue speaker versions unless you absolutely must have the greenbacks. But anyone who knows their shit will tell you, buy the Blues and then install Alnico Golds and you will have a seriously monster amp.

My dream rig is a Gibson 1963 ES-335 VOS Block Inlay > Mad Professor Sweet Honey > Mad Professor Forest Green Compressor > T-rex Tone Bug Reverb > Vox AC30 Handwired with Alnico Golds.
 
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I used to think so, Blackstar kicks Marshalls arse tho. :)
 
It depends on the sound you are after. If you want the sound of a Marshall, it's the best. If you want the sound of a Fender Twin, the Marshall sucks at it.

Let it also be said that there is not one 'Marshall sound". I've had several JCM800 100 watters and they all sounded different. Those sound different from the 900's and 2000's and the old 70's-era JMP's. To a certain extent, they all sound like Marshalls, but they don't sound like each other.
 
I love my JCM2000, but when a tube went out right before a show I got to use my buddies Jet City JCA100h...I fell in love and immediately went and bought one.
 
Capt Hair said:
I love my JCM2000, but when a tube went out right before a show I got to use my buddies Jet City JCA100h...I fell in love and immediately went and bought one.
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Yea, once you've had a JCM2000 for a while any amp sounds good. :)
 
I think my Rivera is much more versatile than any Marshall ever made.
 
Depends heavily on the marshall. There are marshalls that sound like shit.
 
Mine is a Superbass MkII from the mid or late 70's I think. It doesn't have master vol or anything fancy: 4 inputs for 2 channels with bass presence & treble. It sounds like I think a Marshall ought to but that's coloured by having owned & used it since about 85. Like so many big amps it needs to push lots of air to sound like it should & that means, in my circumstance, using a "tube cube" to soak up some loudness.
Marshalls are what they are: not versatile, not infinitely tweakable, not easy to carry, not a Fender & not a Transamp. It's a classic sound that most people like in certain circumstances and owner/users tend to use them for those certain cirumstances, ie: not for low volume, arpeggiated backing of a thin voice in at a god squad gig.
 
I had an old marshall 100 watt back in the 70's. Cranked wide open it was awsome....especially with a fuzz or overdrive of some sort. You could take a strat and do Hendrix or a les paul and be in zz top heaven. If you were going to play some country or clean blues guitar it wasn't the best amp by a long shot.
It was too loud for small bars though. I used to hang a blanket over the speaker cab, turn it around backwards facing the wall, and push it up against the wall...and it was STILL loud.

It's funny now to see people struggling to get that zz top sound or that hendrix sound....

plug into a 100 watt marshall and turn every single knob all the way to the right until it is on "10". The correct punch, tone, sustain, bite, crunch, and distortion will be there.
 
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jimistone said:
plug into a 100 watt marshall and turn every single knob all the way to the right until it is on "10". The correct punch, tone, sustain, bite, crunch, and distortion will be there.
Click to expand...

And so will the cops.
 
Hmmm... Nah. Zwinky Smokey is the best amp ever made. .5 watts of amazing!
 
depends on the Marshall. Like everyone else they've made great stuff and shitty stuff.

The old Marshalls tend to have a great sound but it's only one sound.
I need far more versatility than that since one night I might be playing country, the next night rock and the night after that'll be a straight jazz gig.
Gotta have something else for that stuff.
I really like my Mesa Mark V but lately I've been digging my Ampeg Reverbrocket. I also like my Ampeg V-2 quite a bit.
I have a Marshall 6101 but I never use it. It's fragile for one thing and dinky sounding for the other.
 
There are marshalls that are great (blues breaker and jtm for instance, SEX).

Then there are marshalls that suck ass (JCM2000, JCM900 with the exception of the SLX).
 
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