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How will an old Marshall amp work for bass?


Cliff Fiscal

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I used to own a 100 watt Marshall "bass" head.The only difference in the "bass" head vs. the lead head was that the lead head had a gain knob.All I had was the normal Master volume. Back then we played loud as hell,and I never got that head over the 9:00 o'clock position! I would think with a fiftey watt version you could open it up a little more and get that world class Marshall sound!

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The tone... when I was able to open it up,and let it eat it sounded just like the "Running With the Devil" beginning.Turned down a little and it was a thick , full,killer tone.Of corse I was running 2-15s,and 1-18 back then!!! Lol Sometimes I wish I still had that head as they are just stupid expensive anymore.

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If your goal is to keep up with a 100 watt guitar amp, you need to be a guitar player with a 100 watt guitar amp. If your goal is to keep up with a drummer (this should be your goal - along with retraining guitar players into recognizing the idiocy of diming 100 watt guitar amps), a 50 watt Marshall (which is really only 30 or so watts) into one or more efficient cabinets will do the trick.

Good.
:D
They don't know any better.

 

Like I said....."I was told"....:cop:

 

That said, my drummer is fairly meat fisted......:mad:

 

Wasn't there a Mojo Marshall amp build thread here? Was that you? I can't remember?

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I used to own a 100 watt Marshall "bass" head.The only difference in the "bass" head vs. the lead head was that the lead head had a gain knob.All I had was the normal Master volume. Back then we played loud as hell,and I never got that head over the 9:00 o'clock position! I would think with a fiftey watt version you could open it up a little more and get that world class Marshall sound!

 

 

 

Not quite.

 

The bass versions only had a preamp volume (gain) and no "Master Volume." May seem trivial, but there is a HUGE difference.

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Not quite.


The bass versions only had a preamp volume (gain) and no "Master Volume." May seem trivial, but there is a HUGE difference.

 

That may be true. All I know for sure is there was only one volume knob.To me ,that makes it a master volume. And,you could not crank the "gain" and keep the master down to get that sound at a lower volume level,again making it a volume only control. Yea , I guess thats a HUGE difference!:rolleyes:

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Wow....that sounds pretty damn good.


Has a nice crunch to it in the second clip....
:love:

 

yeah it was turned up a good bit more for that , live I run it somewhere between the 2 , about 12:00 on the volume , the JMP 's are a little cleaner and you really got to crank them to get the breakup .

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That must be hard....to play with the dudes that crank high watt amps.

I've seen posts in the maps thread of people cranking 200w guitar amps. :freak: They post videos and all you can hear is guitar......no drums or bass....just "Panama" over and over.

 

30w is plenty for most things in the guitar arena, minus good loud cleans.

 

Me either.......I'm all about sounding good tonally, hitting the right volume for the venue, and sounding good as a complete band.

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Haha. Yeah, there was a guy who walked into the guitar center near me, and asked me if I thought 300 watts (all tube) would be enough to get over a drummer
:freak:

And yet I have massive GAS for a Mesa 400+ bass head.

 

What's the Mesa's output? About 225 watts or so? The difference in output between a 100 watt head and one like the Mesa isn't all that much. At that point it's all about features and tone.

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