Broke my Marshall cherry... lol

[mudf00t]

I had ordered a PRS McCarty that was a blue 10 top and I got a good price on it but when the guitar arrived it had a bunch of dents, scratches, etc in it. The guitar sounded great and played great but I also just bought a McCarty 594 last night. Not really the same animal but I decided to either return it or exchange it. I exchanged it for a Marshall 1987XL Vintage Series 50W Plexi. I am in about $1180 on the amp.

Holy crap does this 594 sound insane through this amp.

 

[Racerxrated]

Nice! Congrats. Grab a couple boost pedals and have fun!

 

[mudf00t]

Nice! Congrats. Grab a couple boost pedals and have fun!

I think I need an attenuator. Holy crap this thing is loud.

Now I know why I could never get this tone right...

 

[skoora]

That is a great Marshall to pop your cherry on. Those re-issue 50's are fire breathers. If you bond with the Non Master sound you'll have a hard time liking Master Volume circuits quite the same.

 

[napalmdeath]

Nice! Congrats. Grab a couple boost pedals and have fun!

I think I need an attenuator. Holy crap this thing is loud.

Now I know why I could never get this tone right...

You have an extensive list of the wrong amps...
Try a Splawn Quick Rod. That'll get you there! The newer versions have a loop volume that'll double as an attenuator, to some extent.

 

[Chester Nimitz]

Nice! Congrats. Grab a couple boost pedals and have fun!

I think I need an attenuator. Holy crap this thing is loud.

Now I know why I could never get this tone right...

George did that song with an SLO ...

 

[SLOgriff]

Charvel Dan is only partially right....

"I bought two 50-watt Marshall plexi's in Japan six months earlier. When they got delivered, they sounded great. That's what on the record. I didn't use anything but the plexi Marshalls and a Soldano, which are the obvious things to use." - (George Lynch)

Using the Marshall and Soldano setups in conjunction with each other in an A/B situation, "...the Marshall gave it that warm fluid tone and the Soldano had a little bit more of the bite and crunch. Together they sound real nice," George described. In the front end, he brought in his Ibanez Tube Scremaer TS-808 to goose the amp's input a little.

Other pedals present came out of what was known as "George's Toy Box." An assortment of pedals made their way onto the floor like the Sustainiac, a Boss GE-7 e.q. and a Vox chrometop wah pedal.

In summary, George's tone is consistent throughout the entire record. He would change his style of playing per each individual song, but refused to alter the gear in any form. "How many times have people gone into the studio, had something nice, changed it and gone for something different and never got it back? George recounts. Barriers were put up forming a little room in the corner of the studio where George positioned himself to record. "I had 17 guitars back there and all these pedals and this huge amount of stuff. Nobody wanted to go back there. I had cups and junk. I said, 'Do not clean this up.' (Producer) Keith Olsen was going nuts, saying, 'Just let them come in and clean it, George.' I said, 'No, that'll spoil it.'"

Along with the ESPs, and PRS guitars in the studio, a sitar and a G&L Comanche (which would also be included on "Sacred Groove") found their way into the mix of junk behind that barricade of George's. Also in the studio came a peculiar amp known as the Trainwreck, built by Ken Fisher of Colonia, NJ. This will also figure into George's "Sacred Groove" solo album.

 

[fusedbrain]

Nice score on the 1987 and welcome to the world of Marshall
I've got one of those 1987XL's, and yes it's loud as hell!!
I ended up putting a LAR/MAR master vol in one of the speaker jack holes, and it's much more usable.
I've had a Rivera Rockcrusher recording here for a while, and I like the sound of the master vol better vs the Rockcrusher at band volume. Neither the Rockcrusher or the Lar/Mar sound any good at bedroom vol though.
Haven't tried any other attenuators other than the Rivera unit.

Keep in mind that the XL re-issues are closer to a 70's metal panel spec than a late 60's Plexi spec. so all 3 filter caps on the reissue are 50x50uf. If you want to get a little "browner", change the preamp filter to 32x32uf and the screen filter to 16x16uf. Leave the mains @ 50x50uf.
There's also no bypass cap on V2a on the reissue, so you can add a .680uf there if you want a little more gain.
Finally, as the Lar/Mar master is inserted into the negative feedback loop, sometimes it's beneficial to lower the NFB resistor from 100k to 47k to keep the same feel. Alternatively, just moving the purple NFB wire from the 8ohm tap to the 16ohm tap would be like lowering the NFB resistor from 100k to approx 68k. That may be all you need.

 

[SpiderWars]

Boosted/cranked old Marshalls (from plexi to 800s, RIs too) are my benchmark tones. Lots of good tips from fusedbrain too.

 

[Chester Nimitz]

George used Ashton Pittman's purple plexi too didn't he ?

 

[mudf00t]

Nice score on the 1987 and welcome to the world of Marshall
I've got one of those 1987XL's, and yes it's loud as hell!!
I ended up putting a LAR/MAR master vol in one of the speaker jack holes, and it's much more usable.
I've had a Rivera Rockcrusher recording here for a while, and I like the sound of the master vol better vs the Rockcrusher at band volume. Neither the Rockcrusher or the Lar/Mar sound any good at bedroom vol though.
Haven't tried any other attenuators other than the Rivera unit.

Keep in mind that the XL re-issues are closer to a 70's metal panel spec than a late 60's Plexi spec. so all 3 filter caps on the reissue are 50x50uf. If you want to get a little "browner", change the preamp filter to 32x32uf and the screen filter to 16x16uf. Leave the mains @ 50x50uf.
There's also no bypass cap on V2a on the reissue, so you can add a .680uf there if you want a little more gain.
Finally, as the Lar/Mar master is inserted into the negative feedback loop, sometimes it's beneficial to lower the NFB resistor from 100k to 47k to keep the same feel. Alternatively, just moving the purple NFB wire from the 8ohm tap to the 16ohm tap would be like lowering the NFB resistor from 100k to approx 68k. That may be all you need.

I just ordered a couple of boost pedals and a Mesa Boogie cab simulator that has line out This might sound crazy (likely does) but I am thinking I could just use the cab sim line out through my Magnum 44 to power a 2x12 cab? Is that crazy?

 

[mudf00t]

Ok, apparently, the CabClone sucks according to to a friend who has one. So much for that idea. Guess I will be saving up for a Two Notes Live.

 

[SpiderWars]

It's all about the load on the amp. I tried attenuators years ago and they always neutered the tone to some degree, I preferred PPIMVs and just dealt with 'some' volume. But things have apparently gotten much better regarding attenuation and I haven't tried the newer products.