What amp would you pick?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MadAsAHatter
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The good news is it will probably take 8 months to find a clean one at a reasonable price anyway. Depends how you plan to run them, if you plan to exclusively use a power station or IR’s, a NMV could be very cool. Although you do feel like a bit of a scumbag running the shit out of a vintage amp. (At least I do) Similarly if you would like to be able to use the amp unattenuated at any given time the 2203/4 is a way better choice. Personally I like the option to run the amp straight into a cab from time to time as nothings better than a boosted 800 with the master on 3-4. And MV’s tend to be a bit cheaper and easier to find.
 
The Wizard’s are great amps that could add something cool to your collection and perhaps even send some things packing, but like the others said, if you really want the Marshall sound, no Wizard will give you that IME, but will give you their own thing that is also great
 
I would get 2203 also. Would be cheaper of the 3 choices on top of that.

But it's a matter of what your looking for..... for me i prefer the 80's sounding marshall
 
The Wizard MCII is (from what I understand) based on the Jubilee circuit, so it’ll have a different character to a 2203/04. Then factor in what makes a Wizard a Wizard - they’re their own thing.

My 25w Headfirst is based on the Wizard MCII circuitboard - but then it’s a Headfirst, so it’ll be different to a Wizard anyway and no doubt a different experience to a full fat 100w Wizard. That said, I guess it’s in the ballpark so I’ll chip in with my thoughts.

I’d say the Headfirst definitely occupies a different role to my 2204.

For me, the 2204 with Hot Mod v2 is classic rock through to hard rock. Nice cleans too. Not much in the way of tone shaping and there’s a single channel. I found where it sounds best to my ears and I haven’t touched the controls since.

The Headfirst can do the classic rock stuff too, but there’s way more gain on tap plus channel switching, channel boosting and a lot of tone shaping options. No doubt the same would apply to a Wizard.

There’s certainly some shared DNA in the tones - the Headfirst (and Wizard) tone is certainly Marshally at heart, but they are very much their own flavour / spin on it. If you like Marshally tones, tone shaping flexibility and added gain options, the Wizard (or amps like the Alta 100 from Headfirst) are the way to go. But if you want a classic Marshall tone, then I’d suggest getting a classic Marshall.
 
I personally like the Alta more than a wizard for the money. The Alta sounds phenomenal and has all of the modern features I’d expect. I may eventually order one myself.
 
I'm anxious to get my Alta. Shea should be finishing up the US run soon if he hasn't already. I'm really just waiting to get notification that everything's ready to ship; hopefully within the next week or so.
 
MadAsAHatter said:
This is mostly me thinking out loud, but any feedback would be appreciated.

Let's say you have the Marshall tones covered pretty well in some form, but have never owned a Marshall before (though you have played through them many a time). You're able to get one more amp without having to offload something. Do you finally break down and by a Marshall for yourself because nothing beats the original? Or having the Marshall vibe covered do you go for something completely different?
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you go to something completely different! You have Marshall tones covered, you said it yourself. Unless you only want that tone.
 
MadAsAHatter said:
I'm anxious to get my Alta. Shea should be finishing up the US run soon if he hasn't already. I'm really just waiting to get notification that everything's ready to ship; hopefully within the next week or so.
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We are very close. Down to mounting headshells and final testing, thanks for your patience!
 
burger said:
We are very close. Down to mounting headshells and final testing, thanks for your patience!
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This is one of the few amps that I've made it past the initial announcement hype and kept full interest in the whole time. If it sounds as good in person as it does in the clips I have a strong feeling it'll knock a couple of wish list amps down a peg; like the Wizard I mentioned in this thread.

Truthfully, your Alta, Shea's Skeleton Key, Jeremy's Hellion are the top one's that have held my attention since discovering them. Everything else I've either been wishy-washy about or lost interest in.

Edit: Don't want to forget to mention my Copperhead build from Key at Iron Horse and TM-50 from Rob at Jaded Faith/EVO. Those have also held my attention for the long haul.

My personal opinion... This group of amps may all be kind of in the same vein, but seem different enough from each other to be unique in their own right. And I feel like they all offer a little something extra that's special to distinguish themselves from the Bogner's, Friedman's, Boogies, Marshalls, 5150's et. all other production amps you can pick up from GC/MF. Plus I like to support the smaller operations and keep my money in the community.
 
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