The best Marshall tone ever

[DrewJD82]

Was trying to recreate this tone last night and after an hour I stopped to work on my challenge submission. Crazy, when I did the Balance preset and the Vai preset, I spent maybe 10 minutes dialing each one in and was stoked with the results. I’m maybe 80% there with this No More Tears tone and I just don’t know how it’s possible to get that last 20%. There’s so much hair on that tone and there’s so much less distortion than I always thought was going on.

Remarkably clean playing and so much fire in it.

 

[Elric]

There are some players who are 'tone standouts' in my mind. ZW's one of them. He tends to pull superb tones. IMHO. Some players I adore their playing and riffage but their tones do not necessarily blow my mind.

 

[DrewJD82]

There are some players who are 'tone standouts' in my mind. ZW's one of them. He tends to pull superb tones. IMHO. Some players I adore their playing and riffage but their tones do not necessarily blow my mind.

I just wish he’d go back to those early-mid 90’s tones. Seems after Ozzmosis he was just cranking the distortion on whatever pedal he was using into the 800’s and left it there ever since.

 

[Rocco Crocco]

My favorite Mashall sound on an album.

 

[la szum]

Was trying to recreate this tone last night and after an hour I stopped to work on my challenge submission. Crazy, when I did the Balance preset and the Vai preset, I spent maybe 10 minutes dialing each one in and was stoked with the results. I’m maybe 80% there with this No More Tears tone and I just don’t know how it’s possible to get that last 20%. There’s so much hair on that tone and there’s so much less distortion than I always thought was going on.

Remarkably clean playing and so much fire in it.

Oh, we gonna fight now. Thread title is misleading.

 

[TSJMajesty]

SO many great Marshall tones out there. Heck, I remember watching a movie in which Sunshine of Your Love came on, and it was like hearing it for the first time. Hardly any distortion, but the punch and just all-out BALLZ..., it was like I had never really appreciated how good it was until that moment.

And it's weird..., so many of the tones I like, especially Marshalls, are not for me and my playing any more. Used to be that I loved them on someone else's record, and for my own sounds, but that's just no longer the case for me.

 

[andergtr]

to me it's still "fair warning."

 

[DrewJD82]

SO many great Marshall tones out there. Heck, I remember watching a movie in which Sunshine of Your Love came on, and it was like hearing it for the first time. Hardly any distortion, but the punch and just all-out BALLZ..., it was like I had never really appreciated how good it was until that moment.

And it's weird..., so many of the tones I like, especially Marshalls, are not for me and my playing any more. Used to be that I loved them on someone else's record, and for my own sounds, but that's just no longer the case for me.

I was certainly making the title a bit in jest, while I dig EVH's Balance era tones more than the older ones, there absolutely is some magic in his tone on those first few albums. And don't even get me started on EJ.

I've never owned a Marshall and have rarely played through one, it's only been recently I'm digging into them, starting with the JTM45 and Superlead. I've always wanted an 800 but needed more than one tone/channel out of an amp and they just weren't practical for me to get when you could still find them for f*cking $500. Ugh that hurts.

 

[jay mitchell]

While I don't go along with the idea of "best anything ever," I do have a few favorite electric guitar sounds, some of which came from Marshalls. Here are a couple:

 

[duzie]

Here’s some Marshall tone…
So many great and different tones were created with those amps.

 

[Los-D]

Was trying to recreate this tone last night and after an hour I stopped to work on my challenge submission. Crazy, when I did the Balance preset and the Vai preset, I spent maybe 10 minutes dialing each one in and was stoked with the results. I’m maybe 80% there with this No More Tears tone and I just don’t know how it’s possible to get that last 20%. There’s so much hair on that tone and there’s so much less distortion than I always thought was going on.

Remarkably clean playing and so much fire in it.

Not to derail but paging @BigHairyGuitars !

 

[Mongillo19]

Not to derail but paging @BigHairyGuitars !

That was just plain fun to watch

 

[Stone]

to me it's still "fair warning."

Same here, it was unheard of so powerful ... so EVH, for me nothing ever sounded so heavy but its not ultra high gain either
Fair Warning was the EVH album, Balance came close but that was 5150 except for 3 songs which he still used his Marshall

 

[DrewJD82]

Not to derail but paging @BigHairyGuitars !

I forgot about this!! Thank you!

 

[DrewJD82]

Not to derail but paging @BigHairyGuitars !

He did a killer job with that, I just wish he played the guitars isolated!

 

[mk5]

I thought No More Tears was like 4 layered tracks

 

[mk5]

I just wish he’d go back to those early-mid 90’s tones. Seems after Ozzmosis he was just cranking the distortion on whatever pedal he was using into the 800’s and left it there ever since.

Come back, no beard Zakk….

 

[Steinmetzify]

This is a JCM800 boosted with a Tube Screamer.

I get where you’re coming from but I’m a sludge maniac and this wins for me.

 

[DrewJD82]

This is a JCM800 boosted with a Tube Screamer.

I get where you’re coming from but I’m a sludge maniac and this wins for me.

There’s certainly no denying the awesomeness of that! F*cking love those first two Down albums so much!

 

[Baba]

And it's weird..., so many of the tones I like, especially Marshalls, are not for me and my playing any more. Used to be that I loved them on someone else's record, and for my own sounds, but that's just no longer the case for me.

You ain't kidding! I loved the modded Marshall tone so much, that I chased it with all of my gear, for probably 30 years before I realized that while I loved listening to it, it's not "my" tone for when I play.