Marshall 6101 Line In

[psy]

Hey guys,

I bought a marshall 6101 Anniversary in Ebay some months ago. The cleans are terrible and the rest too at bedroom-level (that's what I solely use it for).

Now I tested some preamps (H&K Tubeman, Tech21 TriAC, Yamaha DG-Stomp) plugged into the line in and they all sound great. Is there anything to be said against it from technical point of view to bypass the built-in preamp this way?

I also think about getting a Tech21 PowerEngine 60 or Atomic Reactor. Do you have any experience with these units?

Cheers, Chris

 

[Pierre]

Re: Marshall 6101 Line In

I'm not sure about the line in, but you could always plug a preamp into either the effects return, or into the low sensitivity output of the amp.
Furthermore, you could put the amp into a lower wattage mode, I believe it has a switch for that?

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Marshall 6101 Line In

6100's don't have the best cleans but they should not be "terrible". Somethings probably wrong. These amps have six preamp tubes, not counting the Phase Inverter. My guess is that one or more of these are bad. Take a known good 12AX7 and try it in various diffrent slots and see if that helps. I know that this is a rather expensive proposition, but the amp is probably over due for a complete re-tube and re-bias.

 

[OlinMusic]

Re: Marshall 6101 Line In

I agree, the clean should sound pretty darn good, not great, but darn good esp for a Marshall.

 

[psy]

Re: Marshall 6101 Line In

Well, as a good clean is much more important than any kind or overdrive I may be more demanding on this topic. And my reference is a Crate VintageClub which has a superior clean channel. So maybe you would call my babe "pretty damn good".
Yeah, maybe I should check the preamp tubes, but as I'm pretty happy with the external preamps I wonder if it's worth the money. I noticed that the internal preamp is switched of when the line in (direct to PA) is used. Thus I assume it is harmless to bypass the interal preamp. This issue is closed ;-)

I'm still interested in your opinions conc. Atomic Reactor and PowerEngine.

Thanks guys (and gals?)