Which amp if Marshall made it would you be racing to the guitar shop to buy ?

ICBM

FarleyUK said:

I would be VERY surprised if they don't release 20w versions of other iconic amps; I imagine the delay in doing so might be around circuit complications or something?

Given that it's more of a new design than I assumed - not just a question of sticking the old Jubilee board in a smaller chassis - there may be a bit of a lead time on development. My guess would be that given that they've burned their fingers quite a few times in the not too distant past with whole new series that had a very short production life, due to either not selling very well or having serious reliability issues, they've waited to see whether the Jubilee was successful before committing to any other models.

I know I've often been pretty harsh on Marshall - I don't really like the sounds of a lot of their modern amps, and some of the design mistakes are quite shocking for a company with the experience they should have - but I really *want* them to do well… my first proper amp was a Marshall, and I've always loved the old ones. I do see hope, too - the very most recent series seem to be a lot better thought-out, and have proved noticeably less unreliable already. It started with the current MG series, I think - abandoning the fan-cooled cheap power IC approach of the previous (and AVT) series and going back to properly heatsinked discrete transistors. Since then the JVMs have been pretty good, the new (sadly not UK-made) DSLs are much better than the old ones, and the Codes appear to be good.

From another thread, it appears their financial situation is pretty good, too - they're profitable despite all the apparently short-lived production runs. Maybe the headphones and radios sell well .

Musicman20

Mini JTM-45, proper cool aesthetics are a must.

HHwarner

Im with the mini JCM800 (2203). Would deffo buy one

photek

A Marshall YJM that didn't break (and was in a normal size head shell) would be very nice!

TTBZ

Neil said:

The thing is Marshall are not really going to take on board a load of specs required by a guitar forum who say they will buy these things but probably wouldn't even if they were available.

Valvestates (no longer made) and Codes were derided in the opening post but they are things that Marshall will sell/have sold in their tens of thousands as opposed to  a few on some esoteric wish list. 

I think this is it, at least makes sense to me anyway. Whilst a lot of the ideas for amps people on forums have are probably cool, there's likely not enough widespread demand for them be a viable option to mass produce. 

crunchman

I've not played one so I don't know what the sounds are like, but the DSL 15H isn't far off.  The problem is that it's a '2 channel' amp with shared EQ which never works well.  Either make it a proper 2 channel amp with separate EQ for each channel, or (my preference) make it single channel, and strip out all the switching gubbins and bring the price down a bit.

57Deluxe

Marshall JMP Super Bass 50 - 1969/70 spec

ennspek

Blackstar HT-40.

Jalapeno

I can tell you what *DID* get me to the shops - a Marshall 2061x !

ICBM

ennspek said:

Blackstar HT-40.

lol

To be fair, if Marshall made one of those - or any of the HT range - with the same feature set but a more Marshally sound, I'd probably buy one too…

It's even more puzzling that they don't now make a modern Valvestate, when Blackstar have taken a lot of this market with the HTs - I know they're not exactly comparable since the HT has a valve power amp too, and is marketed as a valve amp. It wouldn't actually be difficult for Marshall to go down the same route though.

sgosden

Small JCM800 would get my vote too. wouldn't complain if they did 2 channels properly.

underdog

A lower watt (20 or 50) AFD amp with a clean channel in place of the #34 channel.

Also every valve amp they make regardless of power should have the power scaling from AFD in it.

Sporky

A superlightweight version of the Mini Stack, but around 400W FRFR and stereo. With 35mm pole mounts for the cabs.

Hoof

Something genuinely new + interesting + reliable + properly gigworthy + lightweight.

DJH83004

Well a modern Valvestate would keep us work lC, especially if they used the same output chips 

ICBM

DJH83004 said:

Well a modern Valvestate would keep us work lC, especially if they used the same output chips 

Only if it was an AVT . The older ones are discrete-transistor - I don't think I've ever seen one with blown transistors except in the rackmount power amps. I've seen a few *reverb* driver IC failures in the 80 and VS series though...

They've thankfully ditched all that power-IC crap now, except for the smallest models of the MG series.

Boromedic

IC have you ever played through, owned, or repaired a Marshall Studio 15? If so what did you think? Only just heard of them and I'm intrigued!

ICBM

Boromedic said:

IC have you ever played through, owned, or repaired a Marshall Studio 15? If so what did you think? Only just heard of them and I'm intrigued!

Owned one .

A great little amp - not quite the classic Marshall sound, since as Marshall always seem to have to, they couldn't just put a classic Marshall preamp circuit in a box with a 15W power section and save themselves a lot of hassle, they had to bugger around with it… the tone stack is different, there's no cathode-follower section and no presence control either.

It's actually not too far away from the clean channel of a Jubilee in some ways. Not that much gain, but very dynamic and astonishingly loud for a 15W amp, even allowing for the (first ever amp to use it, and slightly different from later versions) Vintage 30 speaker.

They have a weakness - the power transformer is a bit under-spec and is known to fail. I *didn't* know this when I fitted mine with EL34s to see what it would sound like! If I'd realised I would also have known that it's a seriously bad idea, since they draw more than double the filament current of 6V6s… but mine survived. It did sound more 'Marshally' with them, so if I was doing it again I might pre-emptively replace the PT with an upgraded version (I think TAD sell them) and run it like that.

The 'studio' aspect of it - the XLR DI output on the back - was actually pretty much pointless at the time since it isn't speaker-emulated… but actually nowadays it would be very useful, since with software IRs it could be used as a very 'clean' source - it's driven by a separate winding on the OT.

Does that help?

Boromedic

Yeah mate, more than I was hoping for actually! Thank you so much

I started googling about low wattage Marshalls after this thread started and read about them. Seems they are as rare as hens teeth though which is an issue, will keep looking. Cheers again!

DJH83004

I rather like the idea of a small box JMP Lead & Bass 20 head with added effects loop, always really liked them.