Too much Marshall

[Faded Abyss]

The thing is... When you crank up the gain on those "manly" amps, it's not a practical way of comparing because I'm willing to bet that any professional recording you like is using wayyyy less gain then you would think

You're probably right. I'm not a professional musician, so I've never had to think about it like that. I'm a bedroom hobbyist at this point, so I want my stuff to slay at home without anything else contributing.

I'd imagine a studio setting is much different, as I have trouble getting good recorded sounds from my high gain monsters. Probably because I try to record them exactly how I have them setup for live playing. Now I'm gonna go turn the gain down and see how that sounds when recording!

If you think you turn down your gain and still think it doesn't sound big enough, you could always try quad tracking (for rhythms) My biggest challenge was getting a high gain lead sound that wasn't brittle and harsh. I'm still not happy with it, but reamping and getting the amp in the sweet spot has helped the most

 

[Racerxrated]

I've only ever played on one Marshall that I thought kicked ass. That was... Until I got it home and cranked it up next to my Uberschall & Krankenstein, then the Marshall sounded like a little girls amp. This was a JVM410H. The JVM sounds absolutely amazing at low volumes, but once turned up it can't hang with true fire breathing metal amps. Next I want to check out a Randall Satan!

I've thought "too much Marshall" pretty much forever.

Well except for this one of course!

It's really hard to beat this tone and demo, all of that bad ass 00000000000010000000000000001000

If you think a Marshall is a girls amp then you haven't tried a REAL Marshall. Like a JCM or JMP with a pedal or two at volume. I've played one Uberschall and my old rhythym player had a Krank. Nice amps. But my 800 and numerous other Marshalls I've had eat those for breakfast. Plenty of punch and devastating midrange. A good Marshall, and I mean a vintage Marshall will bulldoze you with power, punch and great articulation. Try something other than a JVM. No offense to JVM guys. You'll need a pedal for high gain but its worth it.

 

[PBGas]

Play them all...love them all!

 

[ZL1Hawk]

I'm a whore by nature. Total slut. I love amps, well most amps.

 

[Rick Lee]

I bought four Marshalls in May. Can't get enough of them. I have a Soldano, EVH, just grabbed an Egnater Seminar today, and a few more. Sometimes I go a month or more just using my 5150 Stealth or SLO and then I decide to fire up the 1959SLP. It takes a few min. to come to life and it's as much a one trick pony as there ever was. But man, there's nothing like it. When someone comes up with something that grabs me more than a Marshall, I will beat a path to their door.

 

[Racerxrated]

Marshall is the sound of Rock. 'Nuff said.

 

[Jack Luminous]

I've only ever played on one Marshall that I thought kicked ass. That was... Until I got it home and cranked it up next to my Uberschall & Krankenstein, then the Marshall sounded like a little girls amp. This was a JVM410H.

JVM410H ? LOL there lies the problem. Try a 2203 with an overdrive in front and it will bury in the mix the Ubershall or anything else for that matter. Try it, you won't be disappointed !

 

[JTyson]

There can never be too much Marshall...
But I'm a bit biased

 

[Mailman1971]

My amp can beat up your amp.

 

[Chester Nimitz]

There can never be too much Marshall...
But I'm a bit biased

Winnar .....

 

[Ventura]

Play them all...love them all!

This.

However, I will say I find it amusing and borderline idiotic when I browse through the multitude of amp sub-forums and manufacturers sites with people going off about "can it get that Marhsall'esque" tone?? Or, "I bought this incredibly expensive boutique amp and just had it in to Joe's to have it modded to sound like a Marshall". Just buy a fucking Marshall and be done with it

I've never owned one for more than a week. I've played them, ya, they're alright. Some were actually really good. But not my style of tone, hence the reason I have and play other amps.

Variety is good

 

[Racerxrated]

Play them all...love them all!

This.

However, I will say I find it amusing and borderline idiotic when I browse through the multitude of amp sub-forums and manufacturers sites with people going off about "can it get that Marhsall'esque" tone?? Or, "I bought this incredibly expensive boutique amp and just had it in to Joe's to have it modded to sound like a Marshall". Just buy a fucking Marshall and be done with it

I've never owned one for more than a week. I've played them, ya, they're alright. Some were actually really good. But not my style of tone, hence the reason I have and play other amps.

Variety is good

If I had the funds I'd have a VH4, Ecstasy, SLO, Wizard...maybe one of those Mezzobarba amps people talk about..but I can't have that much coin tied up into amps. I got lucky with my 2C+, and recently a Cameron came up for 750. Sold a couple things to grab it..and my 2204 was way under a grand. Love to have all those cool varieties of tone but had to choose a few. 2C+ is different enough to give me a modern type tone offsetting the Marshalls.

 

[Faded Abyss]

It's too bad there are so many bad videos of amps (in general) on youtube but if this is accurate, then I need one. or maybe two

 

[Ventura]

If I had the funds I'd have a VH4, Ecstasy, SLO, Wizard...maybe one of those Mezzobarba amps people talk about..but I can't have that much coin tied up into amps. I got lucky with my 2C+, and recently a Cameron came up for 750. Sold a couple things to grab it..and my 2204 was way under a grand. Love to have all those cool varieties of tone but had to choose a few. 2C+ is different enough to give me a modern type tone offsetting the Marshalls.

The IIC+ is an incredible amp.

Just owning "it" is suffice for many a purist.

Nicely done...

 

[SQUAREHEAD]

Ventura is bang on… variety is good! I don't ever remember a time with so many choices at our fingertips,
The best tone I've ever experienced is the Wizard 100 W MTL… For me, that is 'the' tone!
The Fortin Bones is an incredible amplifier for tone…
His Cali mod is amazing too!

 

[dfrattaroli]

Funny. I grew up dreaming about owning a Marshall one day. As a kid I ended up with a JCM 800 combo (I think). Even though it was used on so many albums that I loved, I hated it. I hated it because I didn't know how to use it. I expected it to sound like a produced guitar sound and of course it didn't. Now, I have a DSL that I'm modding myself and all I want to do is read about Marshalls. It's probably because I've always been interested in working on my own amps and perhaps building one but I've never been this into Marshalls before.

 

[prsplayer86]

I think it comes down to what you learned on and tones you went for early on. If you had been a die hard mesa / peavey guy and loved 6l6's(like myself).. the marshalls sounded thin in comparison. Although, it could be said that the Marshall sits better in the mix and makes for a better overall amplifier for recording in many situations.

I'll never forget a friend of mine growing up had a 1x12 jcm 800 combo... I had a warp 7 half stack.. I learned a lot from jamming with TC. He would swamp my 150 watt half stack and sound amazing doing it.. Thats also when I learned that knowing every song on ride the lightning and master of puppets didn't mean you knew wtf you were doing on a blues jam.. train wreck on my part , lol.

 

[Racerxrated]

I think it comes down to what you learned on and tones you went for early on. If you had been a die hard mesa / peavey guy and loved 6l6's(like myself).. the marshalls sounded thin in comparison. Although, it could be said that the Marshall sits better in the mix and makes for a better overall amplifier for recording in many situations.

I'll never forget a friend of mine growing up had a 1x12 jcm 800 combo... I had a warp 7 half stack.. I learned a lot from jamming with TC. He would swamp my 150 watt half stack and sound amazing doing it.. Thats also when I learned that knowing every song on ride the lightning and master of puppets didn't mean you knew wtf you were doing on a blues jam.. train wreck on my part , lol.

So true. My 2C+, I add more upper mids to get more cut. My 2204 gets more thick low end from my boost pedal. If only the Mesa/Marshall combination existed lol..

 

[311boogieman]

I mean the man is a legend but listening to solo guitar takes from early records is nothing that great

Check out the man's rhythm tone. That's what most of us dig.


But yeah - when he hit the scene 40 years ago, his style, tone and technique were so different a lot of people gravitated toward it and have been chasing it ever since. That whole vibe is pretty popular here on Rig-Talk so just ignore those threads if you are not interested.

We understand where you are coming from though.

 

[SpiderWars]

I can see how some could get burned out. For better or worse, they are what actually defined many of the tones guitar players love. That and it is a well known point-of-reference that we all can use to describe something like guitar tone. Something that can be difficult to describe without any point-of-reference.

Have to wonder what the name Marshall will mean to guitar 50 years from now.