Cant stand my marshall

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Jahn
  • Start date Start date
Chris Jahn said:
I assume you mean the head that fits three modules, not the rack mount with seperate power amp???
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Yeah, the head. I know Wagener uses both the rm20 and the rackmount module unit with great success. If you go to gearslutz.com and do a search for Kings X you'll see posts and pictures of him using the amp. He swears by it. In fact I'm working with it as I'm typing this, just don't tell the guitar player.
 
A bit of Marshall History

Everyone knows the old marshall set to 10 sound of the 60s. A lot like the Fenders of the time, 2 gain stages, sounded wicked. Then came the jcm 800s used by tonnes of bands still today. 3 gain stages, lot's of gain if it's up loud but it's not "metal" unless you drive it with something.

Enter the channel switching 800s (my personal amp) in the early 80s with the dreaded diode circuit to clip the signal in solid state, a lot like a D pedal. They made a couple models of this which unltimately lead to your amp, the 900.

This is pretty much Marshalls answer to 80s rock and guitarists asking for more gain. The 900 is a more refined version o fthe late 800s (AFAIK) and works well for some things but not others. It's in it's glory cranked to 10 playing heavy metal. I think Iron Maiden use 900s, not sure.

There's a lot of vintage Marshall tone in these amps but you'll NEVER get AC/DC tones out of them, or half cooked dirty blues. You can get close though, at least my 800 does, try riding the master volume hard instead of driving the pre amp.

What they do do well is provide uber gain when they are cranked that isn't too complex or wooly.

Sounds like you're after (at least in part) some variation of the classic 3 gain stage tube amp, old jcm800s, probably the Orange amps and many others. Make sure to give the master at least some healthy volume to get those power tubes compressing the signal.
 
i've played a few jcm900s and i don't like them either. stop taking tone advice from guitar center. :D

ime, most of the good tube amps worth having are kind of one trick ponies.
 
+ whatever for Randall MTS. There are sound clips on the Randall site and elsewhere if you look around.
 
Two things:

Buy a Boogie, live happily ever after. Based on your post, I would recommend a Mk IV. It will do everything you want it to (except make your breakfast!)

Marshalls are really good at ONE THING ONLY
Boogies are really good at everything

. . . and the Marshall guys will be flaming me in about ten minutes.

:rolleyes:
 
foo said:
Two things:

Buy a Boogie, live happily ever after. Based on your post, I would recommend a Mk IV. It will do everything you want it to (except make your breakfast!)

Marshalls are really good at ONE THING ONLY
Boogies are really good at everything

. . . and the Marshall guys will be flaming me in about ten minutes.

:rolleyes:
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Boogies are good and may do "everything" but IMO not everything they do is that great. I own a Mesa and it rarely gets used over my Vox and Randall. It isn't a bad amp though, it does blues stuff very well.
 
Here's an idea.

Maybe you already do this but if you don't try this.

Plug your Line 6 into the efx return on your Marshall...it might be what you are looking for. Good Luck.
 
238839 said:
Maybe you already do this but if you don't try this.

Plug your Line 6 into the efx return on your Marshall...it might be what you are looking for. Good Luck.
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Hopefully he has had the issue sorted out in the last 2 years.


Necro-post of the day!
 
jonnyc said:
Boogies are good and may do "everything" but IMO not everything they do is that great. I own a Mesa and it rarely gets used over my Vox and Randall. It isn't a bad amp though, it does blues stuff very well.
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Agree. I love my DC-5 but I wouldn't say it does everything. I'm skeptical of any amp that claims to do everything.

Somebody said this earlier but I am also partial to fender clean tones in some applications. I can't get that from the Mesa.
 
Sorry to continue pumping more life into a zombie, but I'm surprised to see pretty much everyone reccomending the Randall MTS here. Was that just a phase on the board, or do all of you guys really loe that amp?

I'm a Mesa player myself, and while I won't claim my Roadster "does everything," it does everything I want it to perfectly and then quite a few other things pretty well as well. It's not a matter of finding a Swiss Army Knife of an amp, I think, but rather just spending some time figurign out what sounds you're really looking for from an amp, and then finding something that absolutely nails them.

I mean, my Roadster will do a passably marshall-y crunch or fender-y clean, but the former isn't something I'm really after and the later is nice but I happen to really like the Mesa clean. It WILL, however, give me a great thick rhythm tone, and a to-die-for lead sound. I'm perfectly happy. :)
 
Drew, the Randall MTS series is a modular series. Randall offers a number of modules that are voiced distinctly differently. The integrated MTS head holds 3 modules at a time; their rack preamp holds 4.

The Randall MTS gear was designed by Bruce Egnater. Egnater Amplification offers an even better solution, as the Egnater modules are dual channel (the Randall MTS modules are all single-channel). 4 Egnater modules = 8 discrete channels.

I'll be ordering an Egnater M4 preamp in a couple of weeks The M4 accommodates 4 Egnater modules. I'm pairing it with a Randall RT2/50 power amp. The RT2/50 can be run as a switchable stereo amp or bridged mono, and each side of the amp can run on different output tubes - so you can switch the preamp modules to run into, say, either 6L6s or EL34s.

AFAIC it's about the most versatile rig in existence.
 
I forgot to add - the Egnater Tourmaster is a four-channel head that will give you everything from clean clean clean to modern high-gain, and it runs about $1000. (Head only.) Available exclusively from Guitar Center / Musician's Friend.
 
Of course you can't stand your Marshall.....it's a Marshall! lol

Here's some suggestions:

Crate Blue Voodoo 120.....
Excellent tube distortion (sounds like a modded JCM) and a SUPERB clean channel (6L6's). I sold mine to get a Mesa Dual Rec, and am still looking for a cheap one to pick up for the clean channel.

Carvin X100B.....
Decent gain channel (only 3 ax7's) but hit with a BBE maximizer it wakes up bigtime. Lots of midrange (cuz of EL34's) if you are into that. Clean channel is decent. These can be had for cheap.

Peavey 5150.....
Noisiest tube amp I've ever heard. Distortion for days, but lousy clean channel and well....just noisey on all channels.

Orange Rockerverb......
Pretty much kills all as far as dist and clean channel. But you are going to pay for it. It's my next amp when I decide to sell a car lol.

Mesa Dual Rec.....
Obviously the best gain channels. The clean channel isn't good at all....until you match it with a Mesa Cab.....then it's useable. I had a JCM1960 cab under mine for awhile, and it's complete garbage compared to the Mesa Cabs. +1 on the Roadster......the fact you can cut the power in half on diff channels really opens up alot of options.

Bogner.....
The Alchemist is ok....too exp. for how it sounds though.
The Ecstasy sounds absolutely excellent on both channels.....but again (like Orange) $$$$$$$
 
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Zap, I'm familiar with the amp and its history... I was just a little surprised to see it was so universally popular here back in '07.
 
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