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Topic: Do any of you players use Marshall Amps? |
Dana Blodgett
From:
California, USA
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Posted 24 Apr 2011 2:25 pm |
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I've always been a Fender guy when it comes to amps. I was curious if any of you out there use a Marshall amp for your steel? If so , what model do you use and are you happy with it. I was wondering if they have too much gain for an old SHO-BUD? Thanks
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Dana Blodgett
From Los Osos,Ca.
'74 ShoBud 6140 3+4, Martins HD28,D-12-28, D-15,'65 Gibson LG-1, '77 Gibson Les Paul special dbl cut p-90's, Les Paul Special p-100's,Les paul Special Hybrid(maple top) hbkr's,'68 Fender Strat reissue, Fender Squire Jazz bass,Epi mandolin,Epi Wilshire '66 reissue, Kamaka Concert uke, 70's Kamaka Soprano Uke, Fender Super amp, Ampeg ba112 bass amp,60's harmony banjo,'00 Gibson SG Supreme |
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Clete Ritta
From:
San Antonio, Texas
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Posted 24 Apr 2011 8:30 pm
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Im a Fender amp fan too.
Lets just make that a tube amp fanatic with GAS. 
I use all my tube amps on a rotating basis, though some with newer speakers that still need breaking in get a bit more use.
I do have two old Marshall half stacks.
One is a mid 80's JCM 800 Lead Series thats been heavily modded by John Suhr.
His clean channel doesnt sound like any Marshall Ive ever heard before.
The other is an early 90's JCM 900 50W Hi Gain Dual Reverb.
Both cabs are 1960 Lead 4X12 Celestion, though the 800 cab has Vintage 30's and the 900 cab has G12s and a stereo input switch.
Im used to the sound of my PSGs thru a pure solid state Peavey NV1000, but a few weeks ago I was really enjoying the sound of the steel guitar through these amps!
They are only 50 watt heads, and biased for guitar so they break up early, But I do like the distinctive sound of a Marshall amp occasionally.
Clete |
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Tony Prior
From:
Charlotte NC
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Posted 25 Apr 2011 2:30 am
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yes, I have a JCM900/50 watt/dual Reverb with a 4x12 cab that I use on the gigs where I have room for the rig, I love it !.
For Steel on the clean side it just makes it with clean headroom for gig levels, but it can be very bright so be prepared. Another thing you will notice is the clarity from 4x12's, simply amazing. I do plan to use an EQ on the front end for Steel next time around to drag the HI's down... Currently I am using a slant Fender 4x12 cab with Emmi's but plan to gt a pair of 1960 cabs,yes full stack mode ! The JCM series heads have 8 and 16 ohm taps on the rear panel but the Drake OT has a 4 ohm tap and is easily swapped over with the 16 ohm tap so you can use it with a 4 ohm cab.
The JCM 800's are the most popular but don't be afraid of a 900/ 50 watter...( or 100 watt I suppose )
Ok, now lets talk about the Telecaster or Les Paul on the gain side of things..Holy Moly ! And me, the worlds largest Twin Reverb fan here ! We'll save that conversation for another forum !
t
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Emmons L-II , Fender Telecasters, B-Benders , Eastman Mandolin ,
Pro Tools 12 on WIN 7 !
jobless- but not homeless- now retired 9 years
CURRENT MUSIC TRACKS AT > https://tprior2241.wixsite.com/website |
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Bobby Snell
From:
Austin, Texas
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Posted 25 Apr 2011 4:23 am
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| 100 watt, JCM2000 DSL (Dual Super Lead). Used DSL's are one of the best values around, and also have a reputation for some of the best Marshall "clean" tones. Run mine into a 2x12" closed back cabinet. The two channels share an EQ. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 25 Apr 2011 6:39 am
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| I have a Marshall acoustic amp that I use quite a bit when I play lap steel. It has a lot of nice features. |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 25 Apr 2011 8:58 am
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| I used a 100 watt, full stack when I played with Hot Potato and The Abdomen, back in the Late Seventies. It sounded bright, but good. Helped me cut through a loud R&B Review band. And yes,,,, pedal steel in an R&B band. |
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Tim Marcus
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 25 Apr 2011 9:53 am
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As far as the tube stuff goes:
you can kill some of that brightness by changing out the cathode caps on the preamp and tone recovery tubes. Marshall design uses very small values compared to Fender (Fended uses 25uF). The Marshall circuit basically strips out low end and pushes more brightness through - a good idea when you are cascading multiple gain stages and aiming for distortion, but not so great when you are using pedal steel which begs for more low end.
Also, the input to the preamp on a marshall is usually a bit different than Fender. Its worth checking into. They might not use the same grid leak approach, again because marshall amps are wired more for distortion.
But the marshall power supply can be better for steel than fender. Some of their amps have a separate bias winding on the power transformer. This means that when you are pulling current through, the bias is not affected by the B+ dropping current. Fender amps pull bias off of the B+ winding.
Also, you can bump up the feedback resistor on the output to get some more clean headroom back. Fender uses a really low value which cleans up the amp and cuts power - Marshall has a higher value which increases the power output, but makes the amp crunch.
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Milkmansound.com |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 25 Apr 2011 2:31 pm
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I've plugged into my no-master '71 50 watt head and it's clean up to about "5", which is loud as the dickens. At the barn where some people store things (and are encouraged to try wacky things) I've plugged into a '69 100 watt Super Lead and it was blissful, to me.
There are three tone issues to address:
A) A powerful pickup into a preamp that's designed to overload, though much more so in the later JCM and post-70's models;
B) The tonal curve and frequency range of the Marshall is going to be different than what you're used to, not bad, just different (a few guitarists have like it  );
C) Many Marshalls, even most, are optimized to play through blatty, splatty "rock 'n' roll" speakers, Celestion Greenbacks and 30's and such. These speakers and a whopping six-note C6th steel guitar chord do NOT play well together.
Marshalls of the "golden era" are notoriously inconsistent, Jim Marshall just bought boxes of whatever parts were cheapest on a given day. It's been said that "every Marshall amp sounds different" - the later ones are more consistent, but they're now designed to imitate the sound of a dimed-out early Marshall, i.e. more distortion. And if you can find a working 40-year-old Marshall, it's been fixed and tinkered with.
I still hold Duane Allman's work (dimed 50 watt no-master into Altec/Lansings) as a tonal mountain to scale, and the no-master volume heads into Black Widows is a mighty sound - but now you're talking about a (now) $3,000+ head that still needs to be re-tubed every six months, though the rest of the (old, failing) parts will have you at the amp doctor more than that. So, YES! Give it a whirl, nobody's gonna DIE or anything.
(If Rusty Young and Buddy Cage had happened to stumble over a nice Marshall at a fortuitous time, the PSG manufacturers and pickup makers would be building different products) |
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Dana Blodgett
From:
California, USA
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Posted 25 Apr 2011 3:05 pm do any of you use marshall amps
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Thanks for the info guys. The reason I'm asking is my '95 Fender Super amp sometimes sounds like "Rice Krispies" breakfast cereal when I first turn it on. Yeah snap, crackle, and pop! I'm just now trying to troubleshoot it. I have changed out the power valves a couple of years ago. Probably need to change out all tubes and clean the pots for starts.I was just curious if any steel players use the Marshalls.
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Dana Blodgett
From Los Osos,Ca.
'74 ShoBud 6140 3+4, Martins HD28,D-12-28, D-15,'65 Gibson LG-1, '77 Gibson Les Paul special dbl cut p-90's, Les Paul Special p-100's,Les paul Special Hybrid(maple top) hbkr's,'68 Fender Strat reissue, Fender Squire Jazz bass,Epi mandolin,Epi Wilshire '66 reissue, Kamaka Concert uke, 70's Kamaka Soprano Uke, Fender Super amp, Ampeg ba112 bass amp,60's harmony banjo,'00 Gibson SG Supreme |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 25 Apr 2011 3:07 pm
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"sounds like "Rice Krispies" breakfast cereal"
Might be a cap. |
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Tim Marcus
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 25 Apr 2011 5:02 pm
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Also try re-tensioning and cleaning the little tube sockets. There might be something in there that has a hard time with the initial 400VDC blast.
Also, sometimes old cc resistors crackle. That can be a bear to troubleshoot, and you don't want to replace them with new ones unless you absolutely have to
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Milkmansound.com |
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James Quackenbush
From:
Pomona, New York, USA
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Posted 26 Apr 2011 5:11 am
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| I've got a copy of a JTM45 running KT66 tubes that is around 30+ watts or so ....It sounds really nice but breaks up sooner than I want it too ...I'll try different preamp tubes ....It's a clean sounding amp for a Marshall ...It's based on the same layout as an old Tweed Bassman . The tone "blooms" on this amp... GREAT sounding amp!! .....Jim |
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Leslie Ehrlich
From:
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
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Posted 27 Apr 2011 12:14 am
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I like the way mine sounds, clean or overdriven.
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Sho-Bud Pro III + Marshall JMP 2204 half stack = good grind! |
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Lefty
From:
Grayson, Ga.
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Posted 27 Apr 2011 8:45 am
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I had a friend who used one of those brown Club and Country Marshall combo amps with 2-12 speakers for PSG and guitar. He switched from a Shobud amp as the Marshall was better for guitar. It had a good sound like a loud twin reverb maybe.
Lefty |
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Leslie Ehrlich
From:
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
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Posted 27 Apr 2011 9:50 pm
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The thing I like about Marshall amps (half stacks in particular) is that they tend to emphasize the lower middle tonal frequency. Fender amps are stronger in the upper middle frequencies.
The emphasis on the lower middle frequency is particularly good for Sho-Bud steels because they have a 'woody' tone and the pickups have an upper-mid 'bark' like a Gibson P-90 single coil pickup.
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Sho-Bud Pro III + Marshall JMP 2204 half stack = good grind! |
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Dana Blodgett
From:
California, USA
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Posted 9 May 2011 5:50 am do any of you use Marshall amps?
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I love the sound of Gibson P-90;s , one of my favorite pups, My Fender Super is sounding better these days ,as I cleaned up the effects loop jacks and jumped them with a short cable. These days I don't use any effects other than spring reverb.When I get some time I'll clean all the potentiometers.
I sometimes like the sound that Al Perkins had in the day!
Thanks for all the input guys! Dana
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Dana Blodgett
From Los Osos,Ca.
'74 ShoBud 6140 3+4, Martins HD28,D-12-28, D-15,'65 Gibson LG-1, '77 Gibson Les Paul special dbl cut p-90's, Les Paul Special p-100's,Les paul Special Hybrid(maple top) hbkr's,'68 Fender Strat reissue, Fender Squire Jazz bass,Epi mandolin,Epi Wilshire '66 reissue, Kamaka Concert uke, 70's Kamaka Soprano Uke, Fender Super amp, Ampeg ba112 bass amp,60's harmony banjo,'00 Gibson SG Supreme |
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Gary Richardi
From:
SoCal, USA
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Posted 10 May 2011 6:27 am
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| I've been using a Silver Jubilee 2558 combo but it's not what I'd call a good steel amp. I only play a few tunes on steel and don't want to carry 2 amps. I have been working with bypassing the front end and using a RP500 modeler into the fx loop return and that works fairly well. |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 11 May 2011 2:20 am
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| If you're planning to audition for a country band, you'd be better off if you peel off the "Marshall" emblem and replace it with a "Peavey." Kinda like backwards of what we used to do.... |
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