BBC4, 9:30pm: The Story of the Marshall Amp

ZenOvertone

I'd never seen it before, found it interesting but I thought the Rose Morris dist deal was killing them towards the end of the 1970's as orders fell off...but they needed the cash to expand and build the factory initially. 

I had a 1972 JMP50 small box head/cab that was pretty nice, sold that then used a tiny PA20 for a while (bought for £25 with faults, amazed when it fetched over 600 on ebay circa 2003) but always loved BF/SF Fenders and their derivatives. 

Moe_Zambeek

I'd love to try an Astoria - prices have reduced a good bit since launch - but I've not seen a single one in any Marshall dealer I've visited.

usedtobe

Probably a daft question, but if they've still got the recipe for the good sounding amps, why on earth don't they use it (more)???

Reverend

I've played a couple of reissues 800s and they have sounded pretty good. Not quite as loud perhaps. 
The 800 is still leagues ahead of anything else for classic metal and thrash. 

ICBM

usedtobe said:

Probably a daft question, but if they've still got the recipe for the good sounding amps, why on earth don't they use it (more)???

Because (they think that) their modern amps all have at least one channel/mode which sounds like an old one - apparently it's part of the design brief. That was posted by one of their designers on their forum…

If so they have a *very* different idea of what an old Marshall sounds like than most of us do.

Cabicular

The crunch channel on the DSL with the gain dialled back is actually very nice and very old school Marshall 
unfortunatley if you set that up then the other channels sound horrible 
if I had the discipline I would forget about everything else the amp was supposed to do (like higher gain or a clean channel) then as a pure crunch amp it would be amazing
ive never played a multi channel amp with such badly matched channels
and then there is the vague burning smell coming from the pcbs 

Motorhate

Reverend said:

I've played a couple of reissues 800s and they have sounded pretty good. Not quite as loud perhaps. 
The 800 is still leagues ahead of anything else for classic metal and thrash. 

Even the JCM900 ? I thought out of all the ones I tried, it was the best (and I use the term loosely) at high-gain stuff. Still light years behind anything Mesa, Peavey or even Orange.

Reverend

Motorhate said:

Reverend said:

I've played a couple of reissues 800s and they have sounded pretty good. Not quite as loud perhaps. 
The 800 is still leagues ahead of anything else for classic metal and thrash. 

Even the JCM900 ? I thought out of all the ones I tried, it was the best (and I use the term loosely) at high-gain stuff. Still light years behind anything Mesa, Peavey or even Orange.

They need to be pushed with a prdal but I had a 5150 which was dumped as soon as I got the 2203. Tube screamer is literally than enough to get enough gain for even death metal. My friend Scott has used a ts into marsha for Maim and Morbus Chron in the past. 
Tried Mesa and orange and would never ever considered using them. All the orange I've tried have been too quiet. Mesa never quite did it for me. 
The great thrash sounds are pretty much all marshall. A lot of the old bands have stopped using them but they sound poor in comparison.