Marshall gurus give me some guidance

[chadd]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

...and that sir is perfect. My bread and butter are 80's hard rock and metal tones.



I have practice amps for bedroom volumes. This would be for gigs and rehearsals.

A friend of mine has been using one for a long time and has some of the best tones for that kind of stuff that I have ever heard live. He runs his 4500 completely dimed with a heavy blanket over it (mic is under the blanket) to control stage volume.

[beaubrummels]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

I have the SL-X version and the difference between fizzy and sweet tube distortion in mine was the choice of tubes. When it had Tesla EL-34Ms and a Mullard 10M 12AX7 in V1, it was the perfect early 70's AC/DC, Deep Purple, Free, James Gang, you name it Plexi tone. When it had Svetlana EL-34s and Sovtek 12AX7s it was nasty pure fizz-city. It can run at 50 or 100 watt.



$650 is a good/fair price.

[AlexR]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

To an earlier question, the 900 had some of the models being very fizzy and not nice at all....I think I owned this one back in the day as that tone sound familiar.
There was another model that was much better, but I can't remember what model I had or which one was described as being the pick of the 900's.

[LLL]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

Sovtek 12AX7s (aside from the LPS version) are crap. Those are the tubes you have as spares in case your backup spares fail ya.

I did a new-manufacture preamp tube tone test 10 years ago and the Sovtek 12AX7WAs (IIRC) had the worst top end of the whole bunch.

Very fizzy and little clarity.

However the Sovtek 12AX7 LPS were very detailed in the top end.. almost too detailed.

[El Supremo]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

The 900 series has diode clipping like some later versions of the 800 and the JMP-1 preamp. A little fizzier top end ,but they do have more gain than earlier 800 series and its forerunner, the JMP MV series.
If you want to refrain from using boost pedals, the 900 series will probably be the best bet out of the two.

[Aceman]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

Bruce:


JCM 900 SL-X or nothing. That amp is YOU.

[Aceman]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

When it had Svetlana EL-34s and Sovtek 12AX7s it was nasty pure fizz-city.



$650 is a good/fair price.

Or pure 80's awesome….

[Securb]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

Bruce:


JCM 900 SL-X or nothing. That amp is YOU.

Does look like a sweet amp. There are two Marshall JCM900 4100 heads on CL in my area that have been floating around for over a month. I am thinking of sending both of them a low ball offer of $500 on Friday when everyone is in Christmas mode. $650 is a good price but I would like to start the negotiation a bit lower.

[chadd]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

Make sure you mention that you are sending the same offer to both of them and will buy the first one that accepts it.

[vinta9e]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

I hate dual reverbs.

[Toe-Knee]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

Pick your JCM900 model carefully.....its not the best of the models.

THe only one I can stand is the SLX unfortunately they are few and far between.

[ErikH]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

The MKIII is the pick of the bunch when it comes to the 900 series, IMO. I own a 2100. Yeah, it has diodes in the preamp, but so do overdrive and distortion pedals. DR 900's can sound good with the right preamp/poweramp tubes to remove the fizz as much as possible.

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

DR 900's can sound good with the right preamp/poweramp tubes to remove the fizz as much as possible.

Not really... in the DR's none of the gain stages are tubes... tube rolling the preamp on one is pretty much a waste of time... if memory serves (sorry im too lazy to look at the moment) V1 is the tone stack V2 is the phase inverter and V3 is the reverb driver.

[LLL]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

V1 is the tone stack V2 is the phase inverter and V3 is the reverb driver.

That's a different config.

In the older Marshalls, V1 is the driver (sometimes split cathode for "two" channels), V2 is the tone stack and V3 is the PI.

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

That's a different config.

In the older Marshalls, V1 is the driver (sometimes split cathode for "two" channels), V2 is the tone stack and V3 is the PI.

As i posted i didnt remember off the top of my head but the point was... NONE are gain stages. And iam specifically talking about 4100 dual reverbs NOT 1959 or 1987 based circuits,