Another NOSSAD!

ICBM

New Old Solid State Amp Day

I just got given this for about a hundred quid's worth of work, or maybe slightly less - that was the upper end of the estimate.

http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b582/IntegratedCircuitBigMuff/Mosfet100_zpsyvbqdg6h.jpg

Marshall Mosfet 100 Reverb, second version. (No pull-EQ on the lead channel.)

Fully working apart from some crackly pots, extremely loud, very well-built and really pretty good sounding. It doesn't even weigh that much, unlike the Peavey I got a couple of weeks ago - only 42lbs.

This second version has a much cleaner clean channel than the original one - almost Fendery - and although the overdrive only has a single tone control it's capable of a reasonable variation (the preset EQ is equivalent to the bass up full and the mid at halfway on a standard Marshall tone stack, the control is the treble) and just sounds good anyway, as long as you want something that effectively sounds like a Guv'nor pedal into a clean amp.

So with the Peavey and this, now I have a 220W clean/dirty/stereo rig that's only the same weight as my Trem-o-verb and is much easier to carry! Gig bag on the same shoulder as the hand carrying the Marshall and it's reasonably balanced.

Shame I'm not in a gigging band (as a guitar player) at the moment or I'd be well set up...

Sassafras

Looks tiny.

Hard to believe there's a 12" speaker in there.

Frankieabbot

Sorry......I misread the discussion heading and thought you were discussing another Israeli intelligence service.

ICBM

Sassafras said:

Looks tiny.

Hard to believe there's a 12" speaker in there.

Yes, it is just about as small as it can be. It really is a very neat little thing.

bandmaster188

one my first proper amps i owned was marshall 50 mosfet part of the silver jubilee series, it came as a head and 2x12 angled cab, can't remember if it had reverb or not. i always have a scout around to see if there are any out there, but i can never seem to find any info on them, almost like it never existed. how old is your 100 mosfet?

ICBM

bandmaster188 said:

one my first proper amps i owned was marshall 50 mosfet part of the silver jubilee series, it came as a head and 2x12 angled cab, can't remember if it had reverb or not. i always have a scout around to see if there are any out there, but i can never seem to find any info on them, almost like it never existed. how old is your 100 mosfet?

May 1988. 27 next month .

You're right about there being no sign of a Mosfet 50 or any info anywhere! I don't doubt you though. You would think there must have been a non-reverb model of some sort or (presumably) they wouldn't have needed to call this one a 'Reverb'...

bandmaster188

i'm starting to doubt myself now,  i've got a photo of it up in the loft some where. i'm gonna have to dig it out and see if i can read the name plate on it. May 88, blimey i was just about to leave school then!

bandmaster188

i've just emailed marshall cos its really buggin me now!!!

ICBM

bandmaster188 said:

May 88, blimey i was just about to leave school then!

I was just about to get married! Ha .

bandmaster188

crikey, you're well old !!!

DannyP

ICBM said:

Sassafras said:

Looks tiny.

Hard to believe there's a 12" speaker in there.

Yes, it is just about as small as it can be. It really is a very neat little thing.

Do you think a small cab sounds different from one with a bit more space around the speaker, in an open back combo? 

ICBM

DannyP said:

Do you think a small cab sounds different from one with a bit more space around the speaker, in an open back combo? 

Yes, although less so than it does in a closed cab.

This one is slightly unusual in that the speaker is very off-centre, as far to the left as it will go - that should theoretically reduce any problem with standing-wave resonance inside the cab and make it clearer-sounding. It also has the practical benefit of being at the opposite end from the power transformer, so the amp balances better .

bandmaster188

found that photo tonight. it turns out it was a lead 100 mosfet in silver. god knows why i thought it was a 50, twat!

Jalapeno

Lovely swag ! B-)

ICBM

Today I corrected a little problem it had… when I got it, the original speaker had been replaced - they can blow because the amp easily exceeds 100W into 4 ohms, and the speaker is a 4-ohm 100-watter (G12-100 I think). It had a Classic Lead 80 in it - 16 ohm, so no danger of blowing it, but it restricted the power rather and wasn't a good match for the amp tonally - too scooped and brash at the top end. I tried a 16-ohm Vintage 30, which sounded much better but I still wasn't happy with restricting the amp to only around 40W, it seemed a bit of a waste… but if I was going to use even an 8-ohm speaker I would need something with a higher rating, since the amp gives 85W clean into 8 ohms and something like 150W fully distorted. And the V30 still didn't seem quite right.

So I had an idea… and remembering someone who had one, I made a phone call… and collected this:

http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b582/IntegratedCircuitBigMuff/Sidewinder_zpspz44ovpd.jpg

150W rating, 103dB sensitivity! Heeheehee

Not only is it unbelievably loud, it sounds even better than the V30 - similar ballpark, but with much more low-end chunk and slightly less of the V30 'spike'.

It's fantastic - it's *exactly* the right speaker for this amp - and is contemporary with it, so it's quite surprising Marshall didn't fit them as stock, as they did with the previous Lead 75 combo. I can only assume cost got the better of them…

Now all I have to do is wait until the family is out and see whether a 120W Peavey Special with a Black Widow or a Marshall Mosfet 100 with a Sidewinder is louder .

Dave_Mc

^ Nice

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM;616572" said:

Today I corrected a little problem it had… when I got it, the original speaker had been replaced - they can blow because the amp easily exceeds 100W into 4 ohms, and the speaker is a 4-ohm 100-watter (G12-100 I think). It had a Classic Lead 80 in it - 16 ohm, so no danger of blowing it, but it restricted the power rather and wasn't a good match for the amp tonally - too scooped and brash at the top end. I tried a 16-ohm Vintage 30, which sounded much better but I still wasn't happy with restricting the amp to only around 40W, it seemed a bit of a waste… but if I was going to use even an 8-ohm speaker I would need something with a higher rating, since the amp gives 85W clean into 8 ohms and something like 150W fully distorted. And the V30 still didn't seem quite right.

So I had an idea… and remembering someone who had one, I made a phone call… and collected this:



http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b582/IntegratedCircuitBigMuff/Sidewinder_zpspz44ovpd.jpg

150W rating, 103dB sensitivity! Heeheehee

Not only is it unbelievably loud, it sounds even better than the V30 - similar ballpark, but with much more low-end chunk and slightly less of the V30 'spike'.

It's fantastic - it's *exactly* the right speaker for this amp - and is contemporary with it, so it's quite surprising Marshall didn't fit them as stock, as they did with the previous Lead 75 combo. I can only assume cost got the better of them…

Now all I have to do is wait until the family is out and see whether a 120W Peavey Special with a Black Widow or a Marshall Mosfet 100 with a Sidewinder is louder .

There is a job lot of them on ebay at the moment. They look a bit tired, mind...

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

There is a job lot of them on ebay at the moment. They look a bit tired, mind…

They look a bit worse than tired! On the other hand if you buy them for £20 and even one of them works, it's a huge bargain.

T3949s are the bass/PA ones though - they're a bit dull-sounding for guitar - T3771s are the lead model.

Alnico

ICBM said:

Today I corrected a little problem it had… when I got it, the original speaker had been replaced - they can blow because the amp easily exceeds 100W into 4 ohms, and the speaker is a 4-ohm 100-watter (G12-100 I think). It had a Classic Lead 80 in it - 16 ohm, so no danger of blowing it, but it restricted the power rather and wasn't a good match for the amp tonally - too scooped and brash at the top end. I tried a 16-ohm Vintage 30, which sounded much better but I still wasn't happy with restricting the amp to only around 40W, it seemed a bit of a waste… but if I was going to use even an 8-ohm speaker I would need something with a higher rating, since the amp gives 85W clean into 8 ohms and something like 150W fully distorted. And the V30 still didn't seem quite right.

So I had an idea… and remembering someone who had one, I made a phone call… and collected this:

http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b582/IntegratedCircuitBigMuff/Sidewinder_zpspz44ovpd.jpg

150W rating, 103dB sensitivity! Heeheehee

Not only is it unbelievably loud, it sounds even better than the V30 - similar ballpark, but with much more low-end chunk and slightly less of the V30 'spike'.

It's fantastic - it's *exactly* the right speaker for this amp - and is contemporary with it, so it's quite surprising Marshall didn't fit them as stock, as they did with the previous Lead 75 combo. I can only assume cost got the better of them…

Now all I have to do is wait until the family is out and see whether a 120W Peavey Special with a Black Widow or a Marshall Mosfet 100 with a Sidewinder is louder .

DRAG RACE !

Looks great. I bet they will sound great in Stereo !

ICBM

ICBM said:

Now all I have to do is wait until the family is out and see whether a 120W Peavey Special with a Black Widow or a Marshall Mosfet 100 with a Sidewinder is louder .

And in the interests of science...




The Peavey is louder, by 1dB. Or at least as best as I can tell with the dB meter on the other side of two closed doors to stop it overloading, anyway!

But in fact that's with the Marshall limited to only just over half its true maximum power by driving an 8-ohm speaker, whereas the Peavey has a 4. So the Marshall would win into a 4-ohm cab of the same sensitivity, probably.

The Peavey also has a much harder, painfully penetrating tone when it's really turned up full, whereas the Marshall is warmer, fuzzier and (slightly) 'sweeter' sounding. The Peavey has a chunkier clean tone though.

Both are far, far louder than I will ever need - just in case anyone is wondering, I don't actually want to use them like that! The purpose is simply to have a portable amp that won't ever be limited by volume on a clean sound with pedals in front, which is often a problem with apparently powerful solid-state amps in a live situation.

Trust me, you don't ever want to stand next to either of them cranked into power-stage overdrive if you value your hearing...

ThePrettyDamned

So which is the better platform for pedals?