Marshall Artist 3203: Not Jiving With It :(

[Charvel1975]

Well last night, I jammed on the Marshall Artist 3203 head & matching 4x10 cab with the Bugera PS-1 Power Soak hooked up and my friend let me borrow some of his pedals to try running through it; TC Electronics JIMS800, Marshall Jackhammer OD/Distortion, TC Electronics Spark and ModTone Clean Boost pedals.

Tried the JIMS800 through the front end of the amp in the Normal channel and tried it on the Boost channel and honestly, it sounded pretty terrible. The Jackhammer pedal when I had it hooked up by itself, I switched back and forth between the OD & Distortion modes, to no avail. Then I tried the JIMS800 through the effects return of the Marshall Artist and it sounded a little better but not much.

 

[Techdeth]

What are you looking for tone wise ? Ever made you buy this one ?

 

[Charvel1975]

What are you looking for tone wise ? Ever made you buy this one ?

I bought the amp & the matching cab a long time ago and from the best of my recollection, I only played through it briefly and at the time I thought it sounded good and I didn't have the money to get a Marshall 6100 30th Anniversary 3-Channel 100-Watt Tube Head so I got the Artist.

I play classic rock/hard rock/80's to 2000's and beyond and have other high gain amps but tone wise on the Marshall end - I dig the classic and hot rodded Marshall tones like molded Plexi's and JCM800's but I do however need to have to have 2 channels.

 

[rsm]

Marshall DSL40CR, two volume/gain sections, gets modded Marshall tones. Also the Origin50H can get JTM to Plexi, but will need a boost/od to get to JCM 800.

Marshall JCM 900 SL-X. Has two master volumes, everything else is shared; I use an EQ pedal in front for boost and shaping a lead tone.

 

[JohnnyGtar]

Marshall DSL40CR, two volume/gain sections, gets modded Marshall tones. Also the Origin50H can get JTM to Plexi, but will need a boost/od to get to JCM 800.

Marshall JCM 900 SL-X. Has two master volumes, everything else is shared; I use an EQ pedal in front for boost and shaping a lead tone.

This. Yep.

 

[Wetordry]

Crank the clean channel up and use the boost as designed. That's about all there is.
I have one because I paid a premium to get that cabinet but it's pretty one dimensional. Maybe I'm just biased.

 

[Racerxrated]

Those amps have an EL34 power amp and a SS preamp. They're ok. But I moved the one I had 15 yrs ago pretty quick. As others said, a DSL will get you 2 ch and sound better. If you can swing a Jubilee reissue, they also have a usable clean.

 

[Speeddemon]

Same here. Owned the Artist and the MOSFET at the same time. Sold the Artist.
My biggest gripe with it, was that it didn't have the Pull EQ function on the gain knob that the Mosfet does have. That makes the amp a lot more useable, since you have the 3-band EQ added to the controls and the original lead channel's tone control now acts some sort of treble/presence control.

As you can see on the picture, I did replace the input jacks with the steel jack version from Cliff.