The "Marshall sound" ???

siraxeman

Can you put into words what is the "Marshall sound" ?? "it sounds great into a Marshall..." etc etc. I've played and owned JCM900s,JCM DSLs, TSLs and tried a few others....they all sound different! To me when I hear people talk about the Marshall sound I tend to think old plexi style vintage drive...so what is "the Marshall sound" this Marshall owner/player is confused.

...next Q...American sounds vs British sounds.......

sweepy

I always equate the British sound with EL34's and the American sound as 6L6's , the latter have more focussed bottom end and are a lot smoother to my ears where the EL34's shout a lot more and have more mids .

Cjlassic Marshall " brown sound" is Van Halen 1, the sounds of plexi's being driven for all they are worth imho.

Bidley

All Right Now is the riff that pops into my head when I think of the classic Marshall sound.

The hi-gain stuff would be Kill 'em All era Metallica.

richardhomer

Slightly 'scratchy' sounding upper-mids/tight-not particularly extended bass are the main characteristics I think of when someone says 'Marshall'.

American (6L6 based) amps tend to have sweeter highs, a smoother mid-range and a 'looser', more extended bass-response.

stickyfiddle

I basically think of 3 sounds - 60's Clapton, Free and ACDC in the 70's and anything by Slash. 

Danny1969

The first 2 Van Halen records for me. I recently put a cranked 1978 Marshall in the live room and spent a happy hour playing the riffs 

My JMP-1 does what I call the classic Marshall sound, the secret is not to use too much gain. Whenever I see someone try to get the classic older Marshall sound they always use too much gain and that ruins it. 

ESchap

Depends so much on which speakers you use, and cab type ie open or closed back, particularly for Plexi era amps.

ICBM

Cranked plexi or better, a JMP 2203 with the gain up full - that's still not a lot of gain by modern standards. No fizz, no buzz, just that massive ringing crunch sound.

The modern amps don't have that sound, from the later JCM800s onwards they became the thin, buzzy things we know today…

The speakers are part of it too, you need G12M-25s, G12H-30s, G12-65s or G12-80s, not the G12T-75s they've put in just about everything from the mid-80s onwards. V30s sound good with the modern models but it still isn't the old Marshall sound.

randomhandclaps

The Marshall sound?  I tend to think of whiney white rapping, although he tends to go by the name of Eminem rather than Marshall these days.

impmann

"Fizz, Fizz, Fart..... BANG"

digitalscream

As a general rule, I've found that if I don't like a guitar tone it's usually a Marshall at fault. The only exception to that seems to be Nuno, given that he uses a Marshall instead of his Randall sig amps these days...

57Deluxe

...the 'Marshall' sound depends upon the era you grew up in...

ICBM

57Deluxe said:

...the 'Marshall' sound depends upon the era you grew up in…

I grew up in the JCM800 era and the older ones still sound much better. The first JCM800s are good, even the very first Split-Channels ('82-'84) aren't bad, but after that they really started to go wrong - more gain and buzz at the expense of that big open roar the old ones had.

impmann

Yes but you only got the "big open roar" if you had them set at volumes that made your eyeballs shake. 

There's a reason old rockers are deaf.

siraxeman

..err is that old age then??

seriously though, I do love the ACDC type Marshall crunch or the Kossoff/Free sound - that is truly classic rawk tone in a box albeit a big heavy box...but at typical pub volumes I'm guessing that those amps would be still sqeaky clean ? I gig an AC30 all the time but tend to run it clean and get my dirt from my pedals. Still get a lovely sound I really like though.

ICBM

impmann said:

Yes but you only got the "big open roar" if you had them set at volumes that made your eyeballs shake.

Not at all. You can get it from a 2203 at quite low volume.

I've never understood this "has to be cranked" thing, except with non-MV ones. The MV works fairly well on the 2203 and 2204 (very early versions of the 2204 aside). I've always been able to get that big sound from them at just above the volume where the MV starts to open up, typically around 2 (9 o'clock) on the control.

Sure, they sound *better* when you get them up to about 6 and the power section starts to overdrive as well, but that's why they made the Powerbrake, which works very well with them.

mike_l

Bidley said:

The hi-gain stuff would be Kill 'em All era Metallica.

But wasn't that a heavily modded Marshall with (I think) an SD-1 in front?

siraxeman

One of my fave sounds I've had so far was my DSL50s clean channel with crunch mode button engaged for a ACDC ish crunch then kick a Bad Monkey on top....really tasty sound and not even requiring massive volumes either. But then that's the crux of it...its preamp based gain boosted with a pedal. Up mad loud I'm sure it'd sound even more bettererer.

Bidley

mike_l said:

Bidley said:

The hi-gain stuff would be Kill 'em All era Metallica.

But wasn't that a heavily modded Marshall with (I think) an SD-1 in front?

I don't think they were modded on KEA and Ride the Lightning. I think it was just a JCM800 with a TS in front. That's the sound I go for.

I could be wrong though. That's the hi-gain Marshall sound that pops into my head anyway.

mike_l

I thought the Marshall on KEA was modded JCM, with a SD-1 (poss DS-1) put in front. This was stolen before RTL was written/recorded.

Bidley

Just looked it up. Hetfield had a modded JCM800 with a Rat in front of it. Kirk was using a stock JCM800 with a TS in front of it. On Ride the Lightning they both used stock JCM800s with TSs, according to the interwebz.