My Marshall MA100C 100 Watt All Valve 2 X 12 Combo Amp

[wazkelly]

Love that crunchy sound.

Brings back fond memories from my youth.

[DrNomis_44]

Love that crunchy sound.

Brings back fond memories from my youth.

I actually didn't have the Marshall turned up very loud at all when I made that demo recording, both the clean and overdrive channel master volumes were set to the 9 o clock position, but the amp was still loud enough to hear in the room while I had my monitor headphones on, I also had my sleeping bag draped over the front of the amp and I put a pillow on top of the mic too, the mic was placed on a small stand 20cm away, and facing the centre of the front of the amp when I made that recording.

[wazkelly]

Wow, I can only imagine how much better it would sound once opened up a bit more.

[DrNomis_44]

Wow, I can only imagine how much better it would sound once opened up a bit more.

I might have a go at recording it turned up a bit louder tomorrow if I get the chance, it can get pretty loud, I have only tried turning it up to about the 11 o clock position on both channel master volumes, been feeling a bit scared to turn it up past the 12 o clock position, it's a 100 Watt Valve amp after all, and some 100 Watt Valve amps can get ear-piercingly loud, my mate's Peavey Triumph is only a 60 Watt Valve amp but it easily keeps up with my Marshall.

I reckon my Marshall really needs to be plugged into a 4 X 12 Speaker cab to sound it's best, trouble is, my mate reckons I should only get a 2 X 12 Speaker cab for it, since it'll be less awkward to carry up and down one flight of stairs.

[wazkelly]

I had a quad box 35 years ago and yes they do sound better but man what a pain to move around. Going up and downs stairs at gigs really needed 2 people to carry it but being young and stupid did it on my own most of the time. Thank god I never dropped it as I came close on many occasions.

Lucky you have a Master Volume model as you can crank the pre-amp section and drop back the power amp output to bring on the traditional overdriven Marshall signature sound. Funny thing is, if everything is wound right up I reckon with master at about 3 or 4, going any higher may not sound much louder just a hotter sound. Problem is on a 100w anything past 2 is extremely loud or at least that is what I experienced on my old Marshall amp.

[DrNomis_44]

I had a quad box 35 years ago and yes they do sound better but man what a pain to move around. Going up and downs stairs at gigs really needed 2 people to carry it but being young and stupid did it on my own most of the time. Thank god I never dropped it as I came close on many occasions.

Lucky you have a Master Volume model as you can crank the pre-amp section and drop back the power amp output to bring on the traditional overdriven Marshall signature sound. Funny thing is, if everything is wound right up I reckon with master at about 3 or 4, going any higher may not sound much louder just a hotter sound. Problem is on a 100w anything past 2 is extremely loud or at least that is what I experienced on my old Marshall amp.

Yep, those non-master volume Superlead Plexis tended to get very loud early on when you turned them up past about 2 on the master volumes, this made it hard to get that classic crunch-tone at lower volumes, I might do some experimenting with the overdrive and master volume settings on my Marshall tomorrow, I usually keep the master volume around the 9 o clock position and then play with the overdrive setting, i tend to keep the Crunch Balance control set full-on, all tone controls were set to the 12 o clock position in that new demo I posted, that's a good test for an amp, if you get a good tone with all the tone controls set to 12 o clock, you'll know it's a good amp.

I've had a great time re-familiarizing myself with my Marshall amp so far, been feeling really eager to get back into gigging mode again, my mate reckons there's going to be a gig coming up in September in Darwin at a place called The Railway Club, he wants to play the gig with me and some friends of his, so we have some rehearsing to do, he and I have been getting together a list of songs to play at the gig, in the meantime I have been doing some work on his amp rig and once the mods to his Triumph amp have been done he'll be ready for gigging too.