What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

5

'59

Active member
Hey, I'm new to this forum, but I was wondering about an decent head to go with a Marshall 412 cabinet. I'm looking in the sub-$600 range, hopefully below $400. I've only got one guitar that I really use at the moment, a MIM Strat with an A2 59/C bridge and a Alnico II Pro in the neck. It's a very middy beast, but I like mids. The type of music I play is AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Guns and Roses, and Eric Clapton. On the lighter side of things I also like to play Chuck Berry, The Four Seasons, and Paul Butterfield, you know those early rock and roll tones. I prefer a simple, but versatile control layout. If it were perfect I'd want volume, gain, and a three band eq, that's not to say I'd be against having more.

Any suggestions?
 
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

Which Marshall cabinet do you have? It's tempting to recommend a Marshall DSL of some sort. A used DSL100H might fit into your price range. Or a DSL15H.
 
Last edited:
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

DSL-15s list for sub $400 on guitar center's used pages. In stock form the DSL-15 is not ideal for playing the music listed. The green channel is too clean (unless you have the right pedals) and the red channel is too distorted. However, installing a JJ ECC823 tube in V1 will turn the red channel into a good platform for playing those styles.

The Orange OR15 is probably the better 15 watt head option, but will cost more.
 
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

Oh, well, I just assumed a $200-$300 pedal would be involved.
 
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

+1 for a used DSL; they can be found for less than $600, though $400 would be an absolute steal.

If you haven't already purchased that cabinet, you might want to think about a different one. The MX cabs are MDF instead of ply, and the speakers aren't great either. After springing for a set of decent (WGS) or good (Celestion/Eminence) speakers, you could've already bought a better cabinet used. I routinely see 1960 cabs (plywood w/ G12T-75s) selling in the $300-400 range on Craigslist here. T75s aren't great speakers, but they're lightyears ahead of the stock speakers in an MX cab. The T75s are also worth something on the used market, so you could offset the cost of an eventual upgrade.
 
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

Don't forget about the Peavey Classic 50 for a good option. I had one years ago and enjoyed it. It's a great platform for pedals as well. The Laney GH50L is also a good choice for an "other" option.
 
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

dystrust said:
+1 for a used DSL; they can be found for less than $600, though $400 would be an absolute steal.

If you haven't already purchased that cabinet, you might want to think about a different one. The MX cabs are MDF instead of ply, and the speakers aren't great either. After springing for a set of decent (WGS) or good (Celestion/Eminence) speakers, you could've already bought a better cabinet used. I routinely see 1960 cabs (plywood w/ G12T-75s) selling in the $300-400 range on Craigslist here. T75s aren't great speakers, but they're lightyears ahead of the stock speakers in an MX cab. The T75s are also worth something on the used market, so you could offset the cost of an eventual upgrade.
Click to expand...

You're right about the MDF part, but the speakers in MX's come stock as Celestion. And as far as I can tell, it's doing a pretty decent job as it is. I will look into the DSL though.
 
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

Little Pigbacon said:
Oh, well, I just assumed a $200-$300 pedal would be involved.
Click to expand...

I don't use pedals much but the stock green channel on the DSL15 could be a good platform. I think the green ch in this case was designed to put pedals in front of the amp. It would probably be the most cost effective head to get if the plan also called for a pedal.
 
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

There are plenty of things on the used market in that price range that will do that. If you want bang for buck, you may want look into a peavey Windsor, which is a high wattage el34 head, that runs for $200 on the used market. It's a pretty solid deal, and can be made into a killer amp for relatively cheap if you decide to modify it or upgrade some of the weaker components such as the output transformer. That is if you would even feel it necessary.
 
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

I like the OR15 option, but I was also looking at the Bugera V55hd. I like some of your options, but I don't have the skills to mod an amp (I can hardly manage modding my guitars) or want to pay to have someone else do it.
 
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

Well you don't have to mod it, that's beauty of it, and many think it sounds great as is. it's just that it makes a great modding platform, and tons of people buy them up cheap for that purpose and turn them into killer sounding amps that sound like they paid thousands more for it. That said I would go with whatever you feel strongly about, and what would suit your purpose better.
 
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

If I do decide to mod an amp, where would I go? I don't assume a guitar center would do it. And I don't assume any of y'all have a business where I could ship the amp and get work done on it.
 
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

Having tested it at guitar center, I have decided upon the Peavey Windsor, and have decided to keep it stock. But I have a question about the controls. What is the difference between the preamp volume and master volume, what does the texture knob do, and the ever important question, how do you get any gain from it? Preferably without face melting volume. I have a Soul Food which does its job pretty well, but sometimes you need a bit more.
 
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

I also saw a dsl100h that I preferred but those things are just too dang loud and the 15 watt version doesn't have the best control setup. If I don't want to wake the neighbors I gotta play so quiet to tubes don't have a chance to cook. Is there anyway I can get something to reduce the amps power? If not I'll just go with the Windsor.

Edit: Would it also be possible to just use the Soul Food to cut volume? Would the amp still react the same? I imagine I wouldn't hit the preamp nearly as hard, but that's what the gains knobs are for, right?
 
Last edited:
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

'59 said:
Having tested it at guitar center, I have decided upon the Peavey Windsor, and have decided to keep it stock. But I have a question about the controls. What is the difference between the preamp volume and master volume, what does the texture knob do, and the ever important question, how do you get any gain from it? Preferably without face melting volume. I have a Soul Food which does its job pretty well, but sometimes you need a bit more.
Click to expand...

Ha! You get gain by keeping the preamp volume high while keeping the master volume low or reasonable. You can start by turning the master to zero, and putting the preamp volume at 2:00. Then slowly bring up the master volume to a point where the overall volume works.

The preamp volume sets your distortion levels while the master volume brings up the perceived loudness
 
Last edited:
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

'59 said:
Having tested it at guitar center, I have decided upon the Peavey Windsor, and have decided to keep it stock. But I have a question about the controls. What is the difference between the preamp volume and master volume, what does the texture knob do, and the ever important question, how do you get any gain from it? Preferably without face melting volume. I have a Soul Food which does its job pretty well, but sometimes you need a bit more.
Click to expand...

This was what I was going to recommend, but you beat me to it, my second pick would be a Bugera 1960 Infinium
 
Re: What Head With Marshall 412 slant?

'59 said:
I also saw a dsl100h that I preferred but those things are just too dang loud and the 15 watt version doesn't have the best control setup. If I don't want to wake the neighbors I gotta play so quiet to tubes don't have a chance to cook. Is there anyway I can get something to reduce the amps power? If not I'll just go with the Windsor.

Edit: Would it also be possible to just use the Soul Food to cut volume? Would the amp still react the same? I imagine I wouldn't hit the preamp nearly as hard, but that's what the gains knobs are for, right?
Click to expand...

The 15 watt DSL is also loud. On the red channel it can get stupid loud. It is not a bedroom amp. With either DSL, or the Windsor, your talking about creating distortion in the preamp and only using as much output power as needed, unless your playing a large venue. Used this way many prefer a 100 watt amp, because of the extra solid bottom end.

Using an overdrive, such as the Soul Food, in front of an amp is a well proven method at home, the studio, small stage, or big stage.

I don't know the sensitivity of the speakers in your 4x12, but that will be a primary determinant of loudness. If you played the DSL100 through efficient speakers when you test drove it, it was probably noticeably louder than it would be through your mx 4x12.

I'm not trying to make you question the decision to go with the Windsor, as that is good too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Friedman IR With Marshall Artist 3203
Replies
10
Views
591
xxxplorer
xxxplorer
Securb
Sequoia China to acquire Marshall Group
2
Replies
34
Views
1K
Securb
Securb
Rex_Rocker
Marshall Mode Four
2 3
Replies
45
Views
3K
Seashore
S
B
AC15 head vs combo
2
Replies
26
Views
2K
BMKE
B
Mikelamury
Back to where I started with tube amps
Replies
13
Views
708
Ascension
Ascension
Back
Top