Marshall's next step...

[Stevo]

Re: Marshall's next step...

I rate an amp on what it sounds like in a band mix.. and, with my experience , a LOUD band haha. The DSL 2000s are pretty sweet but I have never cranked one up in a band situation. I spent some time with one in a sound room (a couple of times) and I really liked it for tone and versatility. The clean tone is waycool and the crunchy sound is not bad at all, even at low volumes.
I had a 79 2204 and a 2203 from the early 80s.. not sure of year. I now have a 50w plexi which I totally love. I like it more than any of my other Marshalls, and I know it will be even better with a couple of simple mods. This thing has stellar rock tone. It projects in the mix and sounds better with volume, rather than thinner and wimpier, like so many other amps.
I love Marshall as a company and still believe they can make great amps - and of course, the old non mv are treasures

[shred-dog]

Re: Marshall's next step...

MARSHALL can make great amps again but will they !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[B2D]

Re: Marshall's next step...

Am I stuck in Twlilight Zone or something?

Marshall is about to release a bunch of $2500+ amps, starting with an 18 watt Bluesbreaker, point-to-point amp, the next step will be a 25 watt point-to-point mini-Plexi, all the way up to a true point-to-point 100 watt Plexi.

Hello, guys.

No, you're not in the twilight zone man. Those amps are a step in the right direction but as people have pointed out in this thread P2P wiring alone is not a mark of greatness.

What I was trying to ask of the forum members is what they thought Marshall needs to and should do to start making better "regular" modern tube amps. Plexis and Bluesbreakers are nice but frankly I'm a little less interested in what people were playing through 35 years ago and a little more interested in what they'll be playing through 35 years from now... Are the "main" lines of Marshall amps going to start looking back on their classic designs and modernizing them and changing them to suit modern needs? The Plexi RI's with the FX loops were a good start... now lets take a 2205 and give it a better clean channel and more range on the drive control like Jeff Seal does, only lets make the amp that way right out of the box. I'm just afraid that Marshalls gonna start cutting too many corners in construction (in some ways they already have) and we'll be left with amps that are only mediocre at best or have too many shortcomings to justify buying one.

I love the signature Marshall sound but there is a REASON I went with a Mesa...

[Quencho092]

Re: Marshall's next step...

I just want that marshall crunch with no other features, i dont need fancy switching or any of that other effects and 4 channel preamplification. I'm glad they turned to their roots, maybe it will inspire more people to make real music again.

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Marshall's next step...

I have a video of Jeff Beck using his DSL 50's and noticed something interesting.
The green LED's were on all the time, which says he's either using them with a cranked clean tone, boosted by pedals, OR those heads are slave amps being fed a preamp signal by another preamp section. Jeff Beck is the type of player who finds a great tone, whatever amp it is, cranks it all the way up, then uses his volume control all night.

The day Marshall steps up to the plate and creates a a dual or triple channel amp that gives you 60's era amps on channel 1 and the best 80's - 2000's gain channel you've ever heard is the day they will have redeemed themselves. To do it right, they'll have to reverse engineer the amps by guys who reverse engineered all the good Marshalls. That means figuring out a modern way of truly duplicating the magic of the old amps. Charging $3500 for an amp won't fly with most musicians, so they're gonna have to do it by NOT cutting the corners they do now, while charging no more than they do now. If I looked inside a boutique Marshall clone and figured the difference between their components and the current Marshall components, we're talking about less than $200, if that. Fix that problem, and they'll have a current DSL or TSL that would impress even the Marshall diehards. Go back to Drake trannies, replace all the small low wattage components with orange drops or similar, and use wiring harnesses instead of hand wired flying leads. Still cheap, but superior and easy to manufacture.

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Marshall's next step...

Marshall is slowly getting better. I'm glad they're bringing back the plexis. The best tone I've ever heard in my life (by far) has got to be a Marshall Super Lead.

However, Marshall is too late, they don't quite realize that there are already atleast 10 different boutique companies that make amps that can do that tone at more reasonable volumes. Roccaforte, Aiken and Two Rock are three that come to mind.

What we need is versatility. If all you play is rock and roll, then a plexi is right up your alley, but nowadays, people like clean tones too For the high prices that some companies charge for their amps, I'm surprised they don't have atleast a great clean and overdrive.

If Marshall stepped up to the plate, they'd have a winner for sure, but I have a feeling they will try to cut too many corners so I doubt it would ever work out.

[B2D]

Re: Marshall's next step...

Well regardless of the tone, it seems as if Marshall sure didn't try to cut corners with their new handwired amps or that "White Jaguar" Bluesbreaker they put out a while back.

These amps probably sound great, and its good to see that Marshall can still pull it off but they need to start improving on their regular amps for the common man and not just turn out hyper-expensive s**t for rich tone freaks every now and then.

I don't buy the fact that they can't make a better JCM2000 DSL and TSL, while they're making p2p stuff at the same time.

CBS-era Fender had a similar problem in the 70's when its guitar kept going downhill and the corners kept getting cut more and more until by the late 70s you were left with a mediocre guitar with bad hardware and finish on it thick enough to kill a rhino. Dan Smith and Bill Schultz really did a good job of turning the whole thing around after 1985-6 on up and now the MIA Fender guitars are better thn they have ever been. They revamped their whole line and reworked all the problems and engineered it to get a killer guitar at a price that was not all that much more expensive than the old ones. Marshall needs to have a team like that rework the amps.

[B2D]

Re: Marshall's next step...

NOTE TO ALL!!! I've just sent emails with a link to this thread and a short note of the topic to the Feedback and Players View section of Marshalls web site. Hopefully someone will see it and maybe we'll get a response or something.