Amps that have the Marshall sound

[OdgeUK]

Has anyone who has a lot of experience with the 70's JMP Marshall's played / owned an amp made by someone other than Marshall that had that sound? Just curious to see if there are any channel switchers out there which nail that tone and offer all the versatility of a modern amp? I hear the Bogner Ecstasy 101 Classic is supposed to have a much acclaimed Plexi sound and Pete Thorn's PT100 sounds pretty Marshally to me, with lots of Marshall tones from old-school blues to Hot-rodded JCM800. If sound, not construction / quality of components / ease of maintenance, is the only factor here, which amps get the 'Marshall Tone inside' stamp of approval?

[toner]

I haven't tried a huge variety of brands but in general, I don't remember any multi-channel amps that really nailed the "Marshall sound" (including Marshall themselves).

Laney's are pretty close but I think their earlier single channel models were best. I had a series 1 that I traded for a Laney channel switcher because I thought I "needed" a clean channel and I regretted it for a long time. Other than having the finances, there's a reason why so many pro's with good tone use multiple amps live.

[briango]

Traynors are similar to a Plexi. They YBA-1A is pretty cool. I recently worked one over and it had some nice vintage tones.

Brian

[fillmore nyc]

I haven't tried a huge variety of brands but in general, I don't remember any multi-channel amps that really nailed the "Marshall sound" (including Marshall themselves).

Laney's are pretty close but I think their earlier single channel models were best. I had a series 1 that I traded for a Laney channel switcher because I thought I "needed" a clean channel and I regretted it for a long time.

+1.
I had an old Laney single channel amp that was pretty close to nailing a Marshall tone, but definitely more of a JMP master volume tone than a JTM non-master tone.

I really hate to mention Mesa ( ) but they just came out with a new channel switcher that they claim nails a hot-rodded Brit tone. They make a LOT of claims, and dont usually deliver as advertised, so audition with caution!!
http://www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/ ... RA100.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Mr Fixit]

Hello OdgeUK,

I have a tried mods on older Marshalls - I even considered an extra valve stage for extra distortion at low volumes. Back then the higher gain Marshalls used diode clipping rather than additional valve stages. In the end I got a Laney Pro Tube AOR series amp - effectively a hot rodded Marshall JCM800.

These Laneys have EL34 output stage as standard so using power attenuators for power amp distortion would also apply.

The first Laney Pro Tube 6 knob amps had 3 12AX7 preamp tubes and were very similar to the Marshall JCM800.

The next Laney Pro Tubes had 4 12AX7 preamp valves - mid gain like a JCM800 with an extra half of a 12AX7 after the tone stack (supposedly based on the Lee Jackson mods). So a post phase inverter master volume is probably not required.

The later Laney AOR series had four 12AX7s for very high gain in the preamp stages - more like a JVM. Extra boosters wouldn't be needed with the AOR boost channel on.

The Marshall JVM amps attempts to include Plexi, medium, and high gain channels in one amp. The are some great mod suggestions on the JVM forum that should apply to other Marshall or similar amps e.g. making the power amp feedback level variable to get power amp break up more easily.

There is a Laney amp called a Supergroup which is supposed to be very similar to a Plexi style of amp. I'm not that familiar with them but there is a lot of info on the Laney Posse forum.

[OdgeUK]

I suppose that the question is bourne from frustration with Marshall's current offerings. I have three JMP amps, 2 x 1987 and a 2104 to be in my clutches very soon. There's a core tone there which isn't present in any other amps I've played. Whilst some more modern production amps can get close to the classic Marshall Crunch sound, the JVM / DSL/ 6100 / Jubilee all lack that depth and attack and punch that a real old Marshall provides. And they all seem to miss the mark by miles with the Clean - Break up sounds. The videos below are great demonstration of the sounds I would EXPECT from an ideal Marshal style amp as a base tone, not the spanky, 2D, compressed, 'recorded-quality' version that you might find on newer Marshall or my Peavey JSX (my main gigging amp).

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.sw ... 7726452323

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9KVRiHr8gc

The problem is that although my JMP's are fantastic sounding amps, I want so much from them. I want to mod one to the "Mod5" spec for a VH Brown Sound, I want to mod another to the "AFD" spec for a Slash sound and I also want to keep them original for their natural 70's Hard Rock / Classic Rock sounds. Add to that the lack of FX loop, lack of channel switching to move between different genres of music quickly, noise and feedback issues at high volume and it's not hard to wish for a modern amp that has the JMP as it's core tone but with all the bells and whistles on top so you can concentrate on playing and not endlessly tweaking with boosts, overdrives and modifications.

The Mesa Boogie Stiletto is supposed to do a very good JMP impression, as well as the Bogner Ecstasy Classic (big bucks). I'm also interested in Blackstar's offerings.

Is it too much too ask, after 40+ years of Guitar Amp development, to have a modern production amplifier which does it all I may have to revist the JVM soon.

[neikeel]

I think that the new Marshal YJM delivers what you want

[johniss0001]

no amp can sound like a marshall fella i have told ya afew key points about them but I am really curious about the laney AOR amps if they are anything like the super group these may be the right thing to check out

[OdgeUK]

But it's such a SIMPLE circuit! Is there really Mojo and Magic in them old Transformers and Capacitors?

[johniss0001]

there is indeed man it's a bad recipe that works! just like the wem copicat hahahaha oh you forgot the carbon crap resistors that had a tollerance of approx 20%

[BillYoung]

UMM read history of ken bran. first marshall was built in back of jim marshalls drum shop, from surplus dealer called Radio Spares. BTW " Narb (Ken Bran's surname spelled backwards) "

When you say nothing can sound like a marshall .......which one blues breaker, jmp 50 the 6100 ?
how many jmp50's with laydown main and gz34 were made ?

According to my memory when they openned marshall, ken was give a little lab. He took fender components and shapped them one by one, finally the speaker cabs. He said biggest tone change was the speakers, all the other parts were not as significant. Even in speakers there was the alnicos (same as vox used with bulldog I think) the greenbacks, black backs , g12H100 (crushing glass distortion sound,I like to call them) . Duane used some jbl signature series mixed with celestions.
Also wild variations in preamp and power amp tubes. At least ken coped a psuedo western electric design. Western electric did designs well. They did lots of equipment for movies etc. Unix was theirs which is backbone of internet.

Are fords fast cars ? GT40 GT500R or the Pint ?

[GilmourD]

UMM read history of ken bran. first marshall was built in back of jim marshalls drum shop, from surplus dealer called Radio Spares. BTW " Narb (Ken Bran's surname spelled backwards) "

When you say nothing can sound like a marshall .......which one blues breaker, jmp 50 the 6100 ?
how many jmp50's with laydown main and gz34 were made ?

According to my memory when they openned marshall, ken was give a little lab. He took fender components and shapped them one by one, finally the speaker cabs. He said biggest tone change was the speakers, all the other parts were not as significant. Even in speakers there was the alnicos (same as vox used with bulldog I think) the greenbacks, black backs , g12H100 (crushing glass distortion sound,I like to call them) . Duane used some jbl signature series mixed with celestions.
Also wild variations in preamp and power amp tubes. At least ken coped a psuedo western electric design. Western electric did designs well. They did lots of equipment for movies etc. Unix was theirs which is backbone of internet.

Are fords fast cars ? GT40 GT500R or the Pint ?

[chrisom]

I recently picked up a 1976-1977, point-to-point wired, 18 or 20-watt Traynor YGM-3 combo at a pawn shop for $200. It has a pair of EL-84 power tubes. Sounds great plugged straight in and cranked, or with pedals. It especially likes my TC Electronics Nova System multi-effect floor board that has the analog drive and digital FX...