Can't stand modern Marshalls!

[straitouttahell]

I don't care if it's a marshall,boogie or what Power Tube Saturation/overdrive will ALWAYS SOUND BETTER than Preamp distortion.....

As I wrote in my previous post, it all comes down to personal tastes mate.

I personally don't like poweramp saturation, as I find it somehow "farting" and prefer preamp saturation, but even so I find that my amp sounds better at high volumes. I've played Marshalls quite enough and never drove them to the point of saturating the pentodes, yet I found that they sounded *good* at high volume, while they were sorta *tube mosquito attack* at bedroom level. It's not only a matter of poweramp, I think it has to do with speakers drive (I've read somewhere that a 12" speaker needs at least 1W power to be driven sufficiently hard - and a mere 2W for a 2x12 cab means a HUGE volume at home), and that human ears perceive sounds differently at different sound pressure levels.

btw, a good friend of mine gets a genuine and beautifully-sounding SRV-like tone from a SS Marshall with an Advance Orange Booster. You'd never swear it is a SS amp untill you see it

 

[Cleekster]

I don't care if it's a marshall,boogie or what Power Tube Saturation/overdrive will ALWAYS SOUND BETTER than Preamp distortion.....

As I wrote in my previous post, it all comes down to personal tastes mate.

I personally don't like poweramp saturation, as I find it somehow "farting" and prefer preamp saturation, but even so I find that my amp sounds better at high volumes. I've played Marshalls quite enough and never drove them to the point of saturating the pentodes, yet I found that they sounded *good* at high volume, while they were sorta *tube mosquito attack* at bedroom level. It's not only a matter of poweramp, I think it has to do with speakers drive (I've read somewhere that a 12" speaker needs at least 1W power to be driven sufficiently hard - and a mere 2W for a 2x12 cab means a HUGE volume at home), and that human ears perceive sounds differently at different sound pressure levels.

btw, a good friend of mine gets a genuine and beautifully-sounding SRV-like tone from a SS Marshall with an Advance Orange Booster. You'd never swear it is a SS amp untill you see it

i agree about personal taste and i think that the music you play/grew up on has a lot to do with it also i grew up on 80's heavy metal so Power tube Saturation was part of the sound i ingested on a daily basis......however i don't have a problem with preamp dist. i just prefer to have some power tube saturation to go with it and i feel that it gives a beefier fatter tone in a way that a preamp can't recreate on it's own........I'm actually quite fond of the Recto's "vintage" mode

The thing is i don't want to settle for a tone that is "*good*" i want tone that is great and that's why i play Boogie and not Marshall.

But as far as marshalls go i like the od2 on the jcm 2000 valvestates and my singers Tsl 100/Greenback 25(4x12)combination sounds good if you crank it.

 

[allcountyfair]

I hate alot of things, forgive me. Among them are: (c)rap "music", metal, nu-metal, punk, nu-metal-punk and contrived wars over "stockpiles of WMD that posed an imminent threat to the United States", ......

fully support you on hating contrived wars over stockpiles of WMD.... :evil:

 

[ur86d]

All this talk about JCM 800's and i didn't hear anyone mention the 2205. The 2205 in my opinion is the best Marshall has made within the last 20 years or so.

 

[Russ]

I had brought up the 2210 which is your amp's big brother. I find that it has a better bottom than the 2205 though you get to Power Tube distortion sooner with the 2205. Again there is absolutely nothing wrong with the split channel 800's if that is the tone/distortion levels you are looking for. There is however a preference depending upon what you like in an amp clean/gain. If you like your clean better get the earlier ones though you will have bleed over into the clean channel at higher volumes. The gain kind of sucked before the changes in 87. After 87 Marshall changed the circuit design slightly to remove the channel bleed and improve the gain of the boost channel. Honestly the post 87 800 split channels bury anything Marshall has made since for raw in your face Marshallness without getting too buzzy.

I haven't played my 800 in a while because I have been playing around with my Mark IV. Then there is my JMP. But before getting the Mark IV it was my favorite amp. It is still the goto amp for 80's metal but I have been finding interesting twists on playing the older stuff with more gain even if it requires changing signatures a little and playing the songs slightly different. It is fun to give older stuff a more modern twist.

With this in mind, it was seeing Alex Lifeson playing his H&K and the tone he was getting with it that made me start thinking about playing things slightly different with different amps. BTW that H&K is one hell of an amp. I don't blame him one bit for making the switch. If I could afford to get one I would get one.

 

[ur86d]

you get to Power Tube distortion sooner with the 2205.

That's exactly what i mean about the 2205. That's where a lot of the mojo is..the power tube distortion. Otherwise we'd all be playing solid state amps that only use tubes in the pre.

 

[Russ]

I did say sooner....

When I crank up the 2210 it is definitely getting power tube distortion. Like I said, it just tends to have a little better bottom. The amp is not for the faint at heart or for anyone that is even remotely meek though. At 3 (not clock positions either) on the master it buries quite a few amps and is barely starting to get any power tube distortion. I actually had to reseal the windows of my mother's house when I housesat for her and turned up to 4.5 with my fullstack. I also had to deal with the cops because I got complaints from over 3 blocks away too. They told me I wasn't hard to find however it was hard to walk up to the door due to the sonic bombardment. I would have tried turning up louder but just before they got there I had just turned up to 5. It was some real glory for about 2 minutes. I had the amp running at 4.5 for about 2 hours on that Sunday evening in her HOA type neighborhood. I like the sound of the amp at a master setting of at least 3.5 - 4.

I would say that a 2205 would suffice but I just like the added bottom that the 100 watter delivers. It is almost kind of like using a standard/traditional cab then switching to a recto cab. It is not truly night and day but you can tell if you play them both.

 

[ur86d]

I did say sooner....

When I crank up the 2210 it is definitely getting power tube distortion. Like I said, it just tends to have a little better bottom. The amp is not for the faint at heart or for anyone that is even remotely meek though. At 3 (not clock positions either) on the master it buries quite a few amps and is barely starting to get any power tube distortion. I actually had to reseal the windows of my mother's house when I housesat for her and turned up to 4.5 with my fullstack. I also had to deal with the cops because I got complaints from over 3 blocks away too. They told me I wasn't hard to find however it was hard to walk up to the door due to the sonic bombardment. I would have tried turning up louder but just before they got there I had just turned up to 5. It was some real glory for about 2 minutes.

Hah hah hah Love that story Russ. I'm sure all of us guitarist can appreciate and have experienced the joys of amps that go to 11. And opening the sucker up...i'd have to say it's defintely something i enjoy doing when i can.

But, the story points out another reason i prefer the 2205 in MOST settings. 2210 is great while doing gigs in venue's that ya can crank the sucker. But i'll take the 2205 over it 90% of the time . Because i can get that mojo out of it. Without having cops knocking at my door, or having to reseal any windows.