What makes older Marshalls so loud?

[everdrone]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

sigh, the heyday of the 70s and 80s,

where people wanted to pay to see cover bands and real music, AND CAME OUT IN DROVES and the PAs were not that good

Marshall came out with a product to beat them all! and people would not settle for peavey

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

I don't understand what you mean, a 2204 isn't a hugely loud amp, if you run it through inefficient Celestions in a 4x12. A Deluxe Reverb is way
louder, cause you have a bright Jensen, and can only turn it up to 5 otr 6 before the blistering upper mid and treble response of the Fender makes it impossible to play any louder. I turn my 2203 full stack up , and mixed with the master, its not particularly "so loud" whatsoever when the Master volume is working in conjunction with the main volume.

If you think a 50 watt Marshall MV amp is too loud, I'd hate to hear what you have to say about a 100 watt Plexi( now thats pretty damn loud, even with a full stack).

IMO, from what Ive read here, no one really plays very loud or they will get the cops called. I have a place to play loud,. I'm not afraid of it, and I know what volume is, and I know how to mange it. A 50 Watt Marshall through a Marshall Celestion 1/2 stack is just about perfect, except I prefer a 100 watt Marshall 2204 through a Full stack..its actually not as beaming, piercing.."loud" as a 2203 1/2 stack. Don't get me wrong, its loud alright, but I dont think most lily livered, limp wristed people really can get past that, and thats tough, cause thats the way you play a Marshall..sorry. MY advice is get a different amp, and leave the Marshalls to us metalhead rockers.

If you guys are trying to run a 2203 through bright super efficient Eminence speakers in a 2x12 , then hell yeah, it's gonna icepick your eardrums.

 

[karpathion]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

I don't understand what you mean, a 2204 isn't a hugely loud amp, if you run it through inefficient Celestions in a 4x12. A Deluxe Reverb is way
louder, cause you have a bright Jensen, and can only turn it up to 5 otr 6 before the blistering upper mid and treble response of the Fender makes it impossible to play any louder. I turn my 2203 full stack up , and mixed with the master, its not particularly "so loud" whatsoever when the Master volume is working in conjunction with the main volume.

If you think a 50 watt Marshall MV amp is too loud, I'd hate to hear what you have to say about a 100 watt Plexi( now thats pretty damn loud, even with a full stack).

IMO, from what Ive read here, no one really plays very loud or they will get the cops called. I have a place to play loud,. I'm not afraid of it, and I know what volume is, and I know how to mange it. A 50 Watt Marshall through a Marshall Celestion 1/2 stack is just about perfect, except I prefer a 100 watt Marshall 2204 through a Full stack..its actually not as beaming, piercing.."loud" as a 2203 1/2 stack. Don't get me wrong, its loud alright, but I dont think most lily livered, limp wristed people really can get past that, and thats tough, cause thats the way you play a Marshall..sorry. MY advice is get a different amp, and leave the Marshalls to us metalhead rockers.

If you guys are trying to run a 2203 through bright super efficient Eminence speakers in a 2x12 , then hell yeah, it's gonna icepick your eardrums.

Jerry, if we all knew half of what you do, we'd all be rockstars.

You da' man!

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

Jerry, if we all knew half of what you do, we'd all be rockstars.

You da' man!

heh..I'm far from da man..You da man!

 

[everdrone]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

lol I owned a jcm800 marshall 2203 half stack with a jcm800 cab and all bandmates and the soundguy said it was too loud that they could not hear themselves, and turned down but then the overdrive/distortion sounded horrible cause all I heard was pedal preamp...I did not know about expensive hotplates back then...

 

[ken361]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

Transformers

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

Watts.

A 100 watt plexi is rated at 100 watts at the on set of clipping, which is about 2 on the volume knob.

The output of a 100 watt plexi distorted, which is about 5 on the volume knob, is about 180 watts.

A JCM 800 is using the same power amp but with a master volume.

 

[xxxplorer]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

Seminar amp is my Egnater handwired amp I built up in Detroit at the Egnater Amp Seminar. It's a gained out 800 circuit built into a JTM45 Mojotone kit.

My old 800 def has a bigger transformer.

I don't play it much as my Eggie sounds better, but the sheer volume on that beast is crazy lol.

 

[Agileguy_101]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

My 50W 68 Bassman is loud as hell. If I believe that the simpler the circuit the louder, then that might explain it.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

Watts.

A 100 watt plexi is rated at 100 watts at the on set of clipping, which is about 2 on the volume knob.

The output of a 100 watt plexi distorted, which is about 5 on the volume knob, is about 180 watts.

A JCM 800 is using the same power amp but with a master volume.

But how loud is a watt???

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

Seminar amp is my Egnater handwired amp I built up in Detroit at the Egnater Amp Seminar. It's a gained out 800 circuit built into a JTM45 Mojotone kit.

My old 800 def has a bigger transformer.

I don't play it much as my Eggie sounds better, but the sheer volume on that beast is crazy lol.

Not sure what the right answer is right now...

If the speakers are the same then the flat out volume shouldn't be too different from your kit to your Marshall but there again there are LOADS of variables.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

But how loud is a watt???

Whatt? :dunno:

 

[glassman]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

My observations over the years of servicing Marshall amps is that the power supplies of some the older ones had more available current than the newer ones. My theory is that in the late 80s/early 90s when tube offerings became limited, Marshall probably backed off the current in their power supplies for use with less than optimal tube selection. The JMPs and early JCM800s definitely put out a ton of current. I clocked more than a few and the peak current was way up there...far more than new production tubes of the time could handle. Later ones were not quite so hot and a set of Teslas could be rolled in without the threat of imminent failure. By the early 90s, Marshall had switched to the Sovtek 5881...mainly because it was the only reliable power tube that was available at the time. I recall having a terrible time finding new production EL34s that weren't problematic right out of the box at that time.

Short answer...the Marshalls of that era put out a ton of power because the tubes of that era could handle it.

 

[xxxplorer]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

So the old saying 'they don't make em like they used to.' Loud is fun hehe

 

[DTrane]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

yeah, I tried 50w through 2x12 cab. Icepick

 

[LReese]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

I remember the old export Marshalls of the day stock with 6550s in the 70s and 80s. Something about failure rates with EL34s of the day.

 

[LReese]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

yeah, I tried 50w through 2x12 cab. Icepick

Depends on which configuration - The old THD cabs are really nice with Fenders and Marshalls. Certainly fatter than my Germino 2X12 with Greenbacks.

 

[DTrane]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

dim THD 32x24x16 avatar 31"W x 21"H x 15"D

 

[LesStrat]

Re: What makes older Marshalls so loud?

As one ages, hearing loss is common. As such, we cannot always tell how loud we are due to this loss.

Older Marshall amps probably don't realize how loud they are until we inform them.