Trying to decide on a new guitar amp... anyone hate Marshalls or have a better sugges

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pisces7378 said:

Too loud for recording
50 Watts is enough for rehersal
A mic'ed 50 Watt at a show would be fine

Then what is the point of a 100 Watt amp?
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What's the point of a 400 hp Porsche? :p

I.e., one point, as insinuated above, is more power seems cooler. In fact, Marshall is now advertising a new guitar amp that is something like 350W! :eek:

I guess one use would be if for some odd reason you can't mic your amp in a large venue. Not very fathomable because you would need a PA anyways.

Another use is if you are playing loudness wars at practice with the other guitarist in your band. To avoid this, just make sure you point your amp at yourself and don't stand in the line of fire from the other guitarist's amp.

To put this in perspective, keep in mind that volume is not linear: 100W is not double the volume of 50W. It is not even 50% louder.
 
100 watts is 3dB louder than 50 watts at full volume. The way we hear is logarithmic. This might not mean much to you, but I'll tell you what: a decent 15 watt head through a 4x12 cab will easily keep up with drums and another guitarist, even if he's using a 100-watt stack. At practice, I use a 1x12, 30-watt tube combo, and I keep up with a guitarist using a 100-watt tube head, drums, and bass. And I never turn my amp up past 3.

Read this for more info. http://www.guitarnuts.com/amps/myths.html

As far as dream amps go, I really love the Bogner Ecstasy. I think it might be more than $1500 though, but theclean sounds are magnificent, and the distortion is ripping and tasty, without sounding like a Boogie.
 
Charger's correct.

However, you may want to note that I used to use a 25W combo at some practices while in a band with another guitarist. I think the other guy had a 100W Marshall half stack. At practice I had my 25W combo at head level, full blast, and I had to keep my head in front of it to hear myself. In retrospect, his amp must have been pointed right at me from across the room.

Point being, depending on how loud the rest of the band is, too small of a combo may not be enough. Either that, or you'll need to rearrange some players' amps.
 
Yeah, that's right, but a 1x12 combo and a 4x12 stack don't really compare. Stick a 25 watt head on a 4x12, and run it against a 100 watt head on a 4x12, and you're talking about 6db of difference at maximum volume. Unless the guy with the 100 watt head has his volume maxed, you'll keep up just fine. You'll notice a lot more companies are making lower-powered heads now, as focus shifts more to tone and less to wowing people with number... for example, Dr. Z makes heads in the 16-33 watt range I think...
 
I don't hate my Marshall JCM800....

...but even at 50 watts it's just too damn loud for smaller (read:club) gigs. It sounds too constipated with the master volume down. It's also not very versatile tone-wise.

For years my only amp was my Super Reverb, and it did quite well at the metal sound with 4 Celestion vintage 30's. It struggled a bit on some of the bigger gigs though, especially outdoors. That's where 100 watts comes in real handy.;)

My swiss-army amp is my Mesa MKIII Simulclass head. I run it into either 2 2X12 or 1 4X12 slant cabs with vintage 30's (depends on the room & the band) in class A ( two EL34 at about 25 watts) and never had a problem keeping up with a loud 5 piece band. It was a running joke between the singer and I that he would always complain about my volume, to which I would reply:"It's only 25 watts, dude!" :D The only times I used the second set of tubes (2 6L6 in A/B for an additional 50 watts) was for big gigs (theaters) or outdoors.

The best thing to do is play as many amps as possible. When you find the right one you'll know.:)
 
Quote from this website:
http://www.marshallamps.com/images/products/tsl/tsl122.html

>>>An innovative Virtual Power Reduction (VPR) switch which, when engaged, emulates the sound and feel of a 25 Watt valve power amp.<<<

This sounds to me to be a VERY versatile amp. It has the balls of 100 Watts should I ever need that (Which it doesn't sound like I ever will), but it can be choked down to 25 Watts for recording.

It has a 5 button foot switch for the THREE channels each with it's own EQ channel strip.

It has two effects loops that are also controlled from the foot switch. I HATE stomp boxes because they reduce the quality of your signal even when not engaged. This way there is not interuption in the guitar to amp signal flow.

It has a DI emulation feature (I doubt I will ever use much, but it is there!)

It even has two different kinds of speakers in it. Together they sound great, and for recording I can choose which speaker, the modern or the vintage, fits best with whichever song I am recording and only mic that speaker, or I can mic both for a "best of both worlds" kind of deal, and even pan the two speakers hard left and right for some pretty interesting recording flavor.

I am just loving this amp and all the possibilities it affords, and I have not even bought it yet.

I think that appartment recording will ALWAYS be hard if you are going for huge guitar sounds of overdriven Marshalls. because the only way to get that "overdriven sound" is to fucking over drive the damn thing. And that means LOUD NOISE for the neighbors. I think I should just stop worrying about the noise of a 100 Watt amp because no matter what there will be noise. Plus with this VPR switch I am sure that Marshall has addressed the idea that the average purchaser of this amp will not be playing Madison Square Gardens any-time soon.

The only issue I guess I still have is that I had a friend one time that had a Marshall stack and every time he clicked on the distortion button of the foot switch there was a huge POP!!!! sound as it switched from the clean channel to the distortion. I am sure that this was an issolated incident and it was either something my friend had set wrong or it was a glitch somehow in the system... but I wanted to know if anyone else has experienced this and if so, what can I do to combat it and/or make sure it never happens to my Marshall?
 
Trust me...that DI feature is all you will ever use. You will nver get that amp loud enough for the "Marshall sound" in an apartment. A 25 watt amp is still loud enough to be heard at the police station.

Its a very nice amp though. I played one and would like to have it.
 
The "POP" was in my JCM 900 when I had it. You won't hear it over a drummer.
 
Nah... I mean this was a loud POP!!!. And it was deffinitly audible over a drummer. it was like a damn gun shot. And it is certainly too loud for recording witha mic right in front of the speaker.
 
my input:

marshalls are definately the best amp to get if you want a marshall. if you just want a good amp, i would look at them long after trying brands like soldano, rivera, mesa boogie, yadda yadda yadda (my point is that many amps offer many things marshall's don't-however, if you find that the marshall sounds best after playing many amps, you have your answer). for a who or ac/dc-type sound, marshalls are it.

10 watts through a really efficient speaker in a small room will make you cry. period. watts are a number-they say very little about the actual volume in a room.

the power of an amp is not typically what fries speakers, it's what it SHOULDN'T be putting out that kills them-a nasty distorted transient (like a flaky amp) will kill a speaker long before a consistent sound will. smaller amps that are not in tip-top shape are MUCH more likely to kill speakers with nasty signals than larger ones, because larger ones don't have to be cranked into the red, so to speak, though either are going to have to be cranked to get that real balls-to-the-wall sound that most guitarists want. that's the nature of the beast-as amps reach their upper output limits, the frequency response changes, and, ESPECIALLY in any tube amp, that far top end sound is what is being sought.
 
I know what I like and I know what I don't. I don't like the sound from Marshall. It's just not my favorite tone. I do like the sound of Soldano. However with a Soldano any screw ups will be heard very well. The distortion out of your Marshalls and Mesas will help cover up a decent amount of mistakes, where as the Soldano lets everyone hear them. I think the DR. Zs are similar. You really need to be up on your chops, but the tone is sweet. Distorted and clean.

And the whole power/wattage/volume thingy. I don't think there is a need for a 100 watt amp at all. What's key, imo, is your tone. If you're recording, you don't need that much power, if you're on stage, you don't need that much power, so why waste the money on it. It seems to me that it was created as a marketing ploy to cash in on all the young guitarists who didn't know any better. I know I thought 100watt was vastly better than 50 or 60. But now, from the information I've seen it's a waste of money.
 
pisces7378 said:
Nah... I mean this was a loud POP!!!. And it was deffinitly audible over a drummer. it was like a damn gun shot. And it is certainly too loud for recording witha mic right in front of the speaker.
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Trust me it won't. Mine was LOUD. Have you used it with a drummer? It sound about a hundred times louder when playing by yourself, than when in use.

There are a lot of things that disapear when you toss a drummer in the room.



And you shouldn't be channel switching when you record! The whole purpose of multi track is to get each sound into its own, the best you can.
 
Is your JCM 900 a SuperLead or a Reverb model?

If your JCM 900 pops when you switch channels, you've got a problem that needs to be fixed.

I've had my JCM 900 2500 50w SuperLead since '91, and it's as quiet as any amp I've ever used when switching.
 
It was the 4100 100watt reverb. I sold it. I want it back now, but I'm still happy.
 
LocusLarsen said:
Trust me...that DI feature is all you will ever use. You will nver get that amp loud enough for the "Marshall sound" in an apartment. A 25 watt amp is still loud enough to be heard at the police station.
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Yes, and a 100WRMS tube amp is more than anyone anywhere ever needs since the advent of onstage sound reinforcement.

Getting a 100WRMS tube amp was one the dumber things I've done recently.
 
Marshalls

I've been a Marshall Artist for over 20 years. Yes, they are a one trick pony, but I get plenty of versatility out of my 2204 JCM 800 by using the guitar volume. And we play everything from Otis Redding to AIC. I do use a Boss OD-1 for solos, but it's plenty versatile for me.
The one thing I would like to comment on is why anyone would need a 100 W Marshall. For me, it's headroom. I've noticed that when using an OD pedal for leads, a 50W will compress much easier and you won't get much of a volume boost. a100W will jump out at you when you kick in an OD pedal. Of course, this wouldn't work if you were running your master past about 4.
 
i have heard a lot that a Marshall is a "one trick pony" BUT I am dieing to hear what that one trick is? What are Marshalls best at? Can anyone put it into words without using the phrase "that Marshall sound"????

I mean, Slash from Guns N Roses plays them, but so does Placibo, and Nine Inch Nails. Jeff beck does, but so does Ricki Martin's guitar player. Richi Sambora from bon Jovie does, but so does Ding-way Mal-wen-steen,or however you say that pricks name.

These are all night and day musicians. They all have totally different styles and music needs. Yet they all are passionate Marshall followers. Why???
 
LocusLarsen said:


There are a lot of things that disapear when you toss a drummer in the room.
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Like the six-pack you bought, and the pizza, and the chips . . .

;)
 
These are all night and day musicians. They all have totally different styles and music needs. Yet they all are passionate Marshall followers. Why???
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Not exactly:
1) Marshall is "the" rock amp. That goes a long way.
2) A lot of the pros you see are playing Marshalls in name only... on the outside they are Marshall, but on the inside they are heavily modded. Looking through the Marshall JCM series reviews on Harmony-Central.com for example, about half the users have some sort of mod performed on their Marshall.
It's the same reason 90% of guitarists play a Les Paul or a Strat, even if the guitar has had the pickups, electronics, and neck replaced or modded.
3) All of the users you listed (except maybe Slash) don't use Marshalls exclusively. I'm sure they use them for some things, but they use lots of other amps too.

What is the Marshall sound? I would say it's high gain, but without the over-the-top saturation of the modern high gain Boogie sound. It has a sort of thin quality that lets it sit really well in a two-guitar mix. It has a great midrangy pushed sound. It's somewhat "woody," (of course, depending on the cabinets, this can change). I also think stock Marshalls have great clean sounds, but most people don't play them that way.
 
pisces7378 said:
I mean, Slash from Guns N Roses plays them, but so does Placibo, and Nine Inch Nails. Jeff beck does, but so does Ricki Martin's guitar player. Richi Sambora from bon Jovie does, but so does Ding-way Mal-wen-steen,or however you say that pricks name.

These are all night and day musicians. They all have totally different styles and music needs. Yet they all are passionate Marshall followers. Why???
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It seems implied that they also sound fairly different. This is a result of how they are placed in the mix of their songs. More importantly, it is a great example of how a lot of a player's tone comes just as much from their fingers as from their amp.

I find it interesting that you want a Marshall, but are unsure what the Marshall tone is. Thus, make sure to actually go play one before putting down cash for it. You also may want to audition a few other amps.
 
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