NAD: Marshall content

samzadgan

Picked up this baby from @Squirejapan tonight…great sounding amp, very warm and full. Cleans with a little bit of dirt are perfect and plays well with pedals.

Its a shame they made these for only 2 years, but i guess the pressures of the market back in the early 90's was nu-metal and twin channel distortion amps like mesa's so there was no room for a single channel MV amp…

ICBM

I actually thought these were a really good concept - a single-channel amp with switchable master volume, so you get the best of both worlds... clean to dirt with the guitar volume, but with the ability to boost the level independently, which otherwise you can't get.

They did make them for longer in a way - they were replaced by the SL-X version, which is the same thing but with a bit more gain and all-valve distortion. (This one uses diode clipping.)

ThePrettyDamned

I really liked the sl-x but not sure I tried this one! I thought all the others were two channel...

Enjoy the new amp!

ElectroDan

I love the switchable master on my Hughes & Kettner Duotone. I'm surprised they are not more widely used.

samzadgan

@ICBM, yeah the SL-X was a continuation, but the gain as you mention was really over the top...but even SL-X wasnt made for that long before they switched over to the dual channel. But something weird happened when they started doing the dual channel, the overall sound of the amps changed...in my opinion for the worse.

@ThePrettyDamned, i havent tried the SL-X, so cant say, but this sounds very similar to a friends JCM800 2203. I played that a while ago, so could be wrong, but i do remember how i felt about the 800 when i played it, and i got the same feeling last night!

In the 30mins that i could play it last night, it took me about 5mins before i had tweaked the knobs to where it sounded perfect...i love the simplicity of it.

ThePrettyDamned

The SL-X did have a LOT of gain on tap, and if I'm honest, I preferred the sound of the Laney GH50/100 series (actually, I do to all Marshall amps).  BUT they don't have the switchable volume, which is an amazing boon.  

I'll have to keep my eyes open for the one you have, I suspect we have pretty similar taste in sounds

ICBM

samzadgan said:

@ICBM, yeah the SL-X was a continuation, but the gain as you mention was really over the top...but even SL-X wasnt made for that long before they switched over to the dual channel. But something weird happened when they started doing the dual channel, the overall sound of the amps changed...in my opinion for the worse.

The Dual Reverb models were made concurrently with the High-Gain MV, from the very start. The only switch was from the HGMV to the SL-X.

The Dual Reverb models are essentially hybrids - not just diode clipping, but full solid-state gain and distortion stages, much like having a couple of pedals built into the front of a valve amp… which is neither good or bad in itself, but does sound different.

samzadgan

ah ok...that makes sense why the overall sound did change.

thank you for the education

ThePrettyDamned said:

I'll have to keep my eyes open for the one you have, I suspect we have pretty similar taste in sounds

yes...i get the same feeling!

nickb_boy

ThePrettyDamned;200904" said:

I'll have to keep my eyes open for the one you have, I suspect we have pretty similar taste in sounds

There's a jcm900 in the classifieds that was listed a couple of days ago

samzadgan

ThePrettyDamned said:

The SL-X did have a LOT of gain on tap, and if I'm honest, I preferred the sound of the Laney GH50/100 series (actually, I do to all Marshall amps).  BUT they don't have the switchable volume, which is an amazing boon.  

I'll have to keep my eyes open for the one you have, I suspect we have pretty similar taste in sounds

@ThePrettyDamned

i did a quick demo of the Marshall with my distortion pedal...this might give you an idea of what it can do...

fretmeister

I love the SLX. I will have one, one day.