10,000 Series vs Marshall 1959HW Reissue Personal Experience

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Analogman88
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10,000 Series vs Marshall 1959HW Reissue Personal Experience

Post by Analogman88 » Tue Sep 15, 2015 6:20 pm

Hello MetroAmpers,

I have a 2013 Marshall 1959HW Reissue and now realize that the Metropoulos 10,000 series is a much closer replica to the Holy Grail Marshall Plexi tone that I'm after. I've thought about replacing my capacitors with Sozos but I figure that's just a waste of time since the 10,000 is just a more exact replica all-around. Here's my question for any personal owners/users of both: How greatly does the sound of each differ? If the difference is huge I'll except my loss in resale now, but if it's not that significant, I might wait a little while down the road.

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neikeel
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Re: 10,000 Series vs Marshall 1959HW Reissue Personal Experi

Post by neikeel » Wed Sep 16, 2015 9:44 am

The 1959 is intended to be a replica of a 1969 amp around the plexi/metal panel changeover. As such it has a very loud gainy lead channel and a soft woolly channel 2. These characteristics are the same in any NMV Marshall but components wil make a difference as the schems and layouts are the same as the vintage ones (1969 MY ones I mean) but even these are gainier than the early amps.

My main question is what characteristics are you after, what music do you play, do you use multiple guitars and pedals? What speaker cab do you use (hugely important) and do you use an attenuator? Are you new to Marshalls and do you intend on gigging with the amp?

The HWs I have played just feel a bit stiff and new. IMO a decnet set of NOS (or good tested pulls) Mullard ECC83s are a significant improvement (and if you decide to let the amp go you can keep them for a replacement). Power tubes will make a diference to, particularly if you run the amp in the power distortion levels where these amps sound best.

You may be better blueprinting the HW rather than buying a new amp because unless you push the 10 series it may not produce the goods you are after.

Come back with answers to the above and I am sure we can guide you (with all our peccadilloes and personal biases notwhithstanding!) :thumbsup:
Neil

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Carbia
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Re: 10,000 Series vs Marshall 1959HW Reissue Personal Experi

Post by Carbia » Wed Sep 16, 2015 1:17 pm

I think it deserves to be fine tuned.

Some Mullards in the preamp as Neil said (at least V1).
Change the signal caps for Sozo Nexgen, or, with more money, mustards.
Change the bright cap for a 100pf.

It takes less than an hour and that changes are cheap and the amp should improve its tone.

Analogman88
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Re: 10,000 Series vs Marshall 1959HW Reissue Personal Experi

Post by Analogman88 » Wed Sep 16, 2015 4:26 pm

neikeel wrote:The 1959 is intended to be a replica of a 1969 amp around the plexi/metal panel changeover. As such it has a very loud gainy lead channel and a soft woolly channel 2. These characteristics are the same in any NMV Marshall but components wil make a difference as the schems and layouts are the same as the vintage ones (1969 MY ones I mean) but even these are gainier than the early amps.

My main question is what characteristics are you after, what music do you play, do you use multiple guitars and pedals? What speaker cab do you use (hugely important) and do you use an attenuator? Are you new to Marshalls and do you intend on gigging with the amp?

The HWs I have played just feel a bit stiff and new. IMO a decnet set of NOS (or good tested pulls) Mullard ECC83s are a significant improvement (and if you decide to let the amp go you can keep them for a replacement). Power tubes will make a diference to, particularly if you run the amp in the power distortion levels where these amps sound best.

You may be better blueprinting the HW rather than buying a new amp because unless you push the 10 series it may not produce the goods you are after.

Come back with answers to the above and I am sure we can guide you (with all our peccadilloes and personal biases notwhithstanding!) :thumbsup:
Thank you for the response. I always run my Plexi at the proper Plexi volume: volume 10. Yes I have gigged with it a lot. In venues where I can not get away with having it at 10, I use a Rock Crusher for attenuation. I hate the very idea of attenuation but the Rivera Rock Crusher yields the best results as far as attenuation goes IMO. Now to answer your question about the music I play: I play rock, blues and that's about it. I write my own songs for my band, but the tone I'm after with my songs is Paul Kossoff, Clapton (Cream era), Angus/Malcom Young, Jimmy Page, and JD Simo type of tone with PAFs combined with a vintage Plexi overdriving EL34s. I have Fralin Pure PAFs in my Les Paul traditional and I'm the closest to my dream sound as of yet. I don't like using many pedals, but I do have a wah, Tube Screamer, and English Muff'n for some of my solos. Anything that is not tube or analog is against my religion. lol My cabinet is a 1960AHW which I do not like because of the H30's in it delivering lows, highs, and very little mids. I'm sure I will sell that and get a Metropoulos cab with 20 watt Green Backs which have more mids and saturate and compress better. The head however, I'm not sure if I will flip it yet. For my Tele sound I mostly use an AC30 made by Blind Lemon Chitlin to the 1963 post LOC schematic, but that's a whole different sound.
Thanks

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neikeel
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Re: 10,000 Series vs Marshall 1959HW Reissue Personal Experi

Post by neikeel » Wed Sep 16, 2015 5:08 pm

Have you thought of trying a quad of cream backs 65 M type in your cab?

You can tweak your HW (shared cathode, early tone stack, lower filtering quite easily, or of course flip it for a Metro 10 series sic from your description should suit you pretty well.
Neil

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Re: 10,000 Series vs Marshall 1959HW Reissue Personal Experi

Post by Analogman88 » Wed Sep 16, 2015 6:21 pm

Those are some nice speakers, I think I'll go with the 20 watt Green Backs first though. Yeah I think you guys have answered my questions pretty well. I'll just save up for a Metro 10 series. I don't trust myself much beyond soldering in pickups and speaker wires and turning a bias pot makes me nervous.

Thanks Neikeel and Carbia! :thumbsup:

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Re: 10,000 Series vs Marshall 1959HW Reissue Personal Experi

Post by mananaja » Sat Sep 19, 2015 1:53 am

Now to answer your question about the music I play: I play rock, blues and that's about it.
sbobet444

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axeman
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Re: 10,000 Series vs Marshall 1959HW Reissue Personal Experi

Post by axeman » Sun Sep 20, 2015 2:40 pm

I don't understand why you can't obtain those tones your after with a 1959HW, you should be able to. A lot of youtube videos prove it.

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Re: 10,000 Series vs Marshall 1959HW Reissue Personal Experi

Post by Carbia » Sun Sep 20, 2015 6:50 pm

I'm with Axeman.

AC/DC has beem using JTM 45's, Super Leads, Super Bass, 2203... and they always sound like AC/DC

It's more about knowing how to use your gear, because Marshalls circuits sounds pretty close.

I mean, 10 series, 12 series, metal pannels... there's differences, but not radical differences.

EVH used a 12 series and Rockstah sounded pretty close with a slightly modded 2203. So it's more about knowing how to get a sound that having the exact amp.

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