What’s going on with Marshall??

[Stone]

I suppose some dumbass is going to say John Sykes' Jose Marshalls sound "just like" a Hanoi DSL.
Welcome to the "pussification of amplification".

Sykes is awesome

 

[6CA7-A]

Sykes is awesome

One of a kind. 100%
Studio Engineers called Sykes "one take John" as everything he ever recorded he had the reputation of doing in 1 take.
That saves a ton of production costs.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

I suppose some dumbass is going to say John Sykes' Jose Marshalls sound "just like" a Hanoi DSL.
Welcome to the "pussification of amplification".

Wasn't John using the Mesa Coliseum by this point?

The headphones thing doesn’t bother me much. I just don't buy them, but I'm not offended by them. I don't see anything wrong with diversifying their product line. I love Yamaha guitars and the company makes a whole lot of other products. Roland/Boss does the same thing, even Fender does that to some degree.A lotbof companies do this, in order to stay afloat. The gear market is incredibly small in the grand scheme of things.

The lack of current US distribution is concerning but I'm happy they terminated the previous distributor as they were flat out ripping people off charging $3.5k for a 2203x etc. But yes it's about time they figure out a proper replacement.

Overall, I think Marshall is doing ok as far as their current amp line goes. The classics (1959, 2203, 1987 etc) are still being made and they sound good. The 20w Studio line is cool as far as small amps go. The DSL line is good too. The Origins, I don't really like them. No question there.

But yes, they need to sort out US distribution. No point in "lowering the price" if you can't find the amps.

I think it makes the brand look cheaper.

I agree that they were ripping off customers, but they look like they don't know what they are doing when they discontinue you a distribution deal, then struggle for a year to get and keep product in stores. I'm glad Europe has stock, but it'd be very concerning if they didn't.

The Studio line doesn't interest me much as I don't care for EL84 and 6V6 based amps usually. There are some exceptions, of course, but not something I seek out. If they can't make the classics sound right, that would be concerning just like not having stock in Europe would be concerning. The DSL seems cool, but would have to try one out to determine if it would appeal to me at all in terms of what I like Marshall wise.

I think I read that someon had their Marshall amp or cab on backorder for like 6 months. Pretty asinine, frankly, for a brand of Marshall's stature and lineage. You can get some headphones and blutooth speakers, though! Those ought to set the world on fire and have everyone talking about them!

 

[paisleywookiee]

The Studio line doesn't interest me much as I don't care for EL84 and 6V6 based amps usually

The Studio line aren’t EL84 or 6V6.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

The Studio line aren’t EL84 or 6V6.

Thanks for the clarification, but still not that interested in a mini me Marshall.

 

[GuitarBilly74]

I think it makes the brand look cheaper.
I agree that they were ripping off customers, but they look like they don't know what they are doing when they discontinue you a distribution deal, then struggle for a year to get and keep product in stores. I'm glad Europe has stock, but it'd be very concerning if they didn't.

The Studio line doesn't interest me much as I don't care for EL84 and 6V6 based amps usually. There are some exceptions, of course, but not something I seek out. If they can't make the classics sound right, that would be concerning just like not having stock in Europe would be concerning. The DSL seems cool, but would have to try one out to determine if it would appeal to me at all in terms of what I like Marshall wise.

I think I read that someon had their Marshall amp or cab on backorder for like 6 months. Pretty asinine, frankly, for a brand of Marshall's stature and lineage. You can get some headphones and blutooth speakers, though! Those ought to set the world on fire and have everyone talking about them!

yeah I hear that but idk, if I'm looking into buying a Marshall, whether or not they're making headphones is not relevant to me.
But to be fair, 90% of the Marshalls I've bought over the years were used to begin with, so there's that.

 

[GuitarBilly74]

I suppose some dumbass is going to say John Sykes' Jose Marshalls sound "just like" a Hanoi DSL.
Welcome to the "pussification of amplification".

Who said anything about Jose Marshalls? The JCM2000 and the DSL100H sound pretty much the same. And neither of them sound anything like a Jose Marshall.

 

[greatmutah]

Actually out of the Studio series amps, the JTM interests me the most. Actual JTM45s measure closer to 30 watts than 45 do a 20 watt amp isn’t gonna sacrifice much. Plus I’ve always wanted a JTM style amp to round out my Marshall style amps. Of course, if I wanted to go high end because I can I’d hit up George Metropoulos for either a Super Plex 50 or one of his GPM-45s that has his new master circuit in it. As far as I’m concerned there’s a lot of quality builders that make great sounding Marshall style amps, but George’s are the ones that sound most like the originals.

 

[GuitarBilly74]

Actually out of the Studio series amps, the JTM interests me the most. Actual JTM45s measure closer to 30 watts than 45 do a 20 watt amp isn’t gonna sacrifice much. Plus I’ve always wanted a JTM style amp to round out my Marshall style amps. Of course, if I wanted to go high end because I can I’d hit up George Metropoulos for either a Super Plex 50 or one of his GPM-45s that has his new master circuit in it. As far as I’m concerned there’s a lot of quality builders that make great sounding Marshall style amps, but George’s are the ones that sound most like the originals.

Yeah the actual JTM45 is 30w so the 20w shouldn't be too far off.

I had the mini 800 and the mini plexi. I thought they were cool. The 20w 800 records REALLY well, I really liked using it in the studio. 800s are preamp based amps for the most part so I think they got it really close on the 20w, in a studio environment. I recorded some tracks with it and my 2203 and they were very close.

In the room/on stage, it's a compleyely different story and the 100w leaves the 20w in the dust quickly. But for studio work the 20w 800 is awesome. I guess that's why they called them "Studio series"

The mini plexi was cool too but my 1987x sounded better and fuller overall, even when recorded so I kept the 50w.


Metro amps are amazing.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Speaking of Origins, @RaceU4her has a Monomyth modded one that sounds pretty awesome, and he has quite the collection of other high gainers to stack it up against

 

[GuitarBilly74]

Speaking of Origins, @RaceU4her has a Monomyth modded one that sounds pretty awesome, and he has quite the collection of other high gainers to stack it up against

Yeah that's true. Shea does great work with his mods.

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

Club & Country?

Town & Country. It's the new wagon queen family truckster line from Marshall Amplification.

 

[6CA7-A]

 

[6CA7-A]

Wasn't John using the Mesa Coliseum by this point?



For much of the Whitesnake '87 album and first Blue Murder album John used 2 Mesa Boogie Coliseum heads. These amps have a Mark III pre-amp section but use six 6L6 power tubes--giving the amps180 watts each! John also owns several Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+'s, Mark III's and some rack mounted Mesa Dual Recto heads. Other Mesa Boogie equipment includes a Tri-Axis preamp and a Strategy 500 Power Amp. [interweb]

 

[6CA7-A]

Still holding out hope for the Marshall Ed-meth 100 reissue.

 

[laxu]

I don't like the Origin amps either, but this kind of stuff is not new to Marshall. Before the Origins, it was the MA line, before that, the JCM600s and so on , all the way back to the "town and country" combos from the 70s. Usually their "flagship" amps are good but they always had a few duds in their production lines. I don't think that's a "new owner's" thing.

I love Marshall amps, they're my favorite but they were never really a "high end" manufacturer, even in their most classic years, there were always QC issues and inconsistencies.

Yeah over here in Europe, Marshall has IME never been considered a high end manufacturer. They were considered more like a staple, solid option.

Here in Finland the easiest to get amp brands, at the most reasonable prices tend to be Marshall, Orange, Laney and ENGL. A lot of their stuff is on that "both sides of 1000 €" range that appeals to most buyers. On the used market, after the revived appeal of Plexis and JCM800s, those have become very expensive but it used to be that you could pick a 2203 for something like 500-600€, now they are going for double that, while a JVM410 for 700-800 € is pretty standard.

Fair enough, but was Jim doing odd stuff like headphones, blutooth speakers

Making those headphones and BT speakers was probably the best branding decision they ever made, and I expect it made them a good chunk of money too. It brought the Marshall brand straight to the average person who might've seen them at gigs, but doesn't know anything more about them. But now they're thinking "oh yeah, that BT speaker looks kinda like that thing my favorite band was playing last night, I'm gonna get one!"

I still think my first-gen Marshall Acton BT speaker is a really solid product. It looks cute, it's as easy to use as a Marshall amp, and it sounds more than decent for what it is. Even works well for a Yamaha THR type desktop amp thing by plugging a modeler into it.

 

[6CA7-A]

 

[MirrorProfiles]

I don’t think the Origin is a good amp, but that’s not to say that it can’t sound pretty solid for what it costs:

It’s a dumb and impractical amp though, and is confused by what it wants to be.

Club & Country is a KILLER amp. I’ve not used the 2x12 which I believe has something other than Celestions in it. The 4x12 has amazing Greenbacks in it and sounds as good as any Marshall I have ever owned. It is not a clean amp by any stretch, nothing like a twin and everything like a Marshall. Celestions make many amps sound like a Marshall, especially when the circuits have a similar kind of lineage. If you think it’s a clean sounding Fender style amp, then I can’t believe you’ve actually played one for yourself.

I think it’s reputation suffered because Jim Marshall said it was his least favourite amp - that’s only because it cost more to make and had worse margins, so when it didn’t sell a lot it cost Jim more money. He didn’t play guitar or know about circuits, all he was talking about was the financials.

It’s definitely not built any worse - if anything, it’s the opposite, and that’s why Jim hated it. Spring reverb, toggle switches, it’s big and heavy. Same transformers, knobs, chassis, resistors, caps etc as anything else Marshall was making at that point.

 

[laxu]

It’s a dumb and impractical amp though, and is confused by what it wants to be.

I was once in a guitar store and heard a really loud racket from the back of the store. It was someone playing the smallest Origin combo. It sounded pretty decent, but it was clear that it needed that volume to do so because it kinda lost its lunch when turned down.

I had similar issues with the JCM2000 DSL50 back in the day, and running it through an attenuator helped a lot but I was still running it pretty loud.

Which has been my beef with a lot of Marshall's own amps that I've tried. Great at band volume, anything less and it becomes "eh, that's just alright I guess".

By comparison Friedman, Bogner, BluGuitar and many more have figured out how to make all those classic tones in an amp that you can run at any volume within reason and they still sound good.

 

[6CA7-A]

Tis what it tis.