marshall cleans are underrated

[Faber]

jammed with some old buddies of mine last night. I borrowed the host's Blues Breaker RI, but couldn't turn it up loud enough for it to break up. I haven't played one of these for a while, and I'd completely forgotten what a lovely clean they have. A Ibanez semi straight into the amp got me some big-boned but very balanced sounds. Not blackface chime, but extremely pleasing for the jump blues and funk stuff we played.

 

Why is it that we tend to overlook how good the old Marshall amps sound clean?

[59humbucker]

Marshall cleans are never quite as "clean" as a fender, but I for one really like the character they have

 

Saying that, the DSL I have is very surprising, its cleans are VERY clean, playing it along side my teachers fender blues delux, they had quite similar character

[Bunjamin]

 

Not blackface chime, but extremely pleasing for the jump blues and funk stuff we played.

 

 

I think you answered your own question, Marshall cleans do sound good though

[dcooper830]

I get some nice clean tone with my Marshall DSL 100.

 

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[Tweedledee]

In general (though it obviously varies depending on the amp model, tubes, etc.), I find that Marshall cleans sound too compressed to me.

[leakyfaucet]

I get some nice clean tone with my Marshall DSL 100.

Yeah, good job there. Good playing and definitely good tone.

[Kramerguy]

I had a Marshall MG50 and the clean channel was so far the best I've ever heard, but the overdrive channel was among the worst. I ended up returning it for a Line6, which has a far better range and quality in the OD channel, but the clean channels are just 'meh'.

 

Can't win.

[sheepeH]

In general (though it obviously varies depending on the amp model, tubes, etc.), I find that Marshall cleans sound too compressed to me.

 

I know what you mean, I hear it too.

[Lucio]

I even like the clean channel on my JCM800, I don't get why it gets such a bad rap. It's not a Fender, get over it.

[GuitarNoobie]

The clean channel on my TSL122 is pretty nice, no complaints here, however the crunch and lead channels are

[csm]

Early Marshalls weren't designed for 't3h Br3tAlLzZ' because, at that time, the concept simply didn't exist. Pete Townshend lugged a Fender Bassman into Jim Marshall's shop and asked for 'something like this, but ten times as loud.'

 

Eric Clapton achieved the major conceptual breakthrough on the John Mayall 'Beano' album by plugging something originally designed as a solid-body jazz guitar (the Les Paul) into an amp designed as a louder version of a Fender Bassman (the combo, of which your pal's is a reissue, now known as the Bluesbreaker). What he achieved was something not imagined or foreseen by Jim Marshall,Leo Fender or Les Paul. Early amp/guitar designers were actually trying to AVOID distortion, not cultivate it, but the players kept frustrating them by taking each and every bit of gear to its absolute limit.

 

The Marshall amps got bigger and bigger because the bands needed more and more volume (yep, even more than a fully-cranked AC30) and PA systems were too primitive to mic up the amps they already had (generally spoeaking, AC30s).

 

The original Marshall mission statement was simply to make a decent clean(ish) sound louder, and what came after -- the whole arms race which started with that combo and has now evolved mutated into the whole Recto/Krank syndrome -- was simply serendipity.

 

(Doo-dah.)

[AlexMC]

 

 

 

Nice singing!!!

[Roy]

In general (though it obviously varies depending on the amp model, tubes, etc.), I find that Marshall cleans sound too compressed to me.

 

I have a JCM 900 1/2 stack, generally not well regarded. I think it has some good noises inside of it, it's just not very versatile and doesn't sound good with every guitar. Distorted is generally kinda buzzy on SCs but on my LP classic with it's ceramic hums, tone of the gods. I actually like the cleans better. I only travel at around 30-50 mph so hiss isn't that much of a problem whilst recording. Sounds good with my alnico singles, great with my alnico minis, Sounds like crap with my vintage Ric toasters. There's this annoying thump that prevents me from getting a really sweat tone out of the 12 string. I attribute this more to the 4x12 closed back cab tho.

[cratz2]

Yeah, I had use of an 83 JCM800 combo for quite a while and I grew to LOVE the clean and very slightly edgy sound it offered. I grew up a pretty hardcore Fender guy and had a 73 twin the entire time I was borrowing the 800, but I grew to identify with that full sound and full bottom end so much, that that is now more of the sound I gravitate towards.

 

Matter of fact, my time with that amp was also what made me move towards lower output single coils vs hotter single coils because with the hotter pickups, it always got the amp into OD a bit too soon for my sound so in a way, that amp literally changed my perception of amps AND the pickups I use.

[32-20-Blues]

I like the cleans on my Marshall AVT 50. Sounds better than my TSL 601 (which is also good, but just not quite as precise).

[Wyatt]

 

Eric Clapton achieved the major conceptual breakthrough on the John Mayall 'Beano' album by plugging something originally designed as a solid-body jazz guitar (the Les Paul) into an amp designed as a louder version of a Fender Bassman (the combo, of which your pal's is a reissue, now known as the Bluesbreaker). What he achieved was something not imagined or foreseen by Jim Marshall,Leo Fender or Les Paul. Early amp/guitar designers were actually trying to AVOID distortion, not cultivate it, but the players kept frustrating them by taking each and every bit of gear to its absolute limit.

 

 

Really? Conceptual breakthrough? The fact is EC was just trying to mimic the dirty, lo-fi tones of the '50's Sun and Chess blues albums. Bluesmen had been cranking up their Tweed Fenders and Supros to near explosive levels in juke joints when EC was starting grammar school.

 

Yes, Leo tried hard to get his amps cleaner and cleaner. Moving from Tweed, to Brownface to Blackface. Leo was a country and jazz fan and his amps were designed for those genres.

 

The real pioneer was Dick Denny, who created the AC-15, the first amp specifically designed for distortion, which went into production in '58.

 

Jim's original intention wasn't to make a louder Bassman, but one cheaper than importing Fender from the States. In short, he counterfeited. The original off-set JTM-45 is pretty much identical in tone but lower in output to a Tweed Bassman. His customers kept asking for a dirtier amp, so he saw a market, and modded and changed the design. He was well on his way to designing amps for distortion before Beano came out. By that point, he was working on the louder part, the JTM 45/100.

 

The real problem is the more aggressive the amps became, often the harsher their clean tone. So with the JPM series, a lot of the complexity and texture of JTM and Plexi cleans were disappearing.