NAD - MJW Roadstar

juansolo

Finally getting around to posting the NAD that actually occurred about a month ago... Anyhow, here it is around at Cleggy's while we were doing some experimentage with cabs and speakers. The new amp is the MJW Amplification Roadstar 18 atop what shall henceforth be known as: the Cab of Legend (as it just sounds awesome no matter what we plug into it. 2x10 loaded with Eminence 1028K Legends). It has power scaling, a loop and all the usual bells and whistles. It's bloody awesome quite frankly.

Also as a result of the experimentage today, Cleggy's 1x12 now has the Gold out of the Laney 2x12 and that's back to having a pair of G12H Heritages in it.

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t31.0-8/10985538_685148384925218_391235516820021477_o.jpg

Jalapeno

Awesomesauce !  Good swag Sir.

shaunm

Awesome what are the tones like?

randomhandclaps

juansolo said:

the Cab of Legend (as it just sounds awesome no matter what we plug into it. 2x10 loaded with Eminence 1028K Legends).

Not wishing to distract from the brilliance of Martin's cab but the I think Legend is one of the most underrated speakers on the market.  I had a 4x10 cab that I sadly let go when I sold the matching head and they were just awesome.

juansolo

shaunm said:

Awesome what are the tones like?

Rather magnificent. Broken down, it's a WEM Dominator with knobs on (massively over simplifying it I suspect. I'm sure @MartinW will correct me if I'm wrong). So it's got that 18W Marshally flavour. What the Roadstar adds is a sort of gain shaping thing by tweaking the power scaling/boost/fat/vol and gain. You can move around the circuit where the gain is occurring and by how much and it gives a lot of different distortion tones from this alone. From cleans to surprisingly high gain Marshall sounds. It's massively more versatile than the single tone knob might suggest.

Indeed the reason I ended up with one was because Phil King brought one over once, I heard it, and it just nailed that sound I had in my head. Likewise when I first heard a Princeton (I've got an MJW Princeton clone also, which is what the 2x10 belongs to). It's just one of those amps that had me saying, yep, that's the one. Can't see me ever parting with either of them.

juansolo

randomhandclaps said:

juansolo said:

the Cab of Legend (as it just sounds awesome no matter what we plug into it. 2x10 loaded with Eminence 1028K Legends).

Not wishing to distract from the brilliance of Martin's cab but the I think Legend is one of the most underrated speakers on the market.  I had a 4x10 cab that I sadly let go when I sold the matching head and they were just awesome.

They are spectacularly good, and very reasonably priced too. I think they work best in pairs or quads though. I've read that they can run out of breath as a single 1x10.

musteatbrain

juansolo;555910" said:

shaunm said:Awesome what are the tones like?



Rather magnificent. Broken down, it's a WEM Dominator with knobs on (massively over simplifying it I suspect. I'm sure @MartinW will correct me if I'm wrong). So it's got that 18W Marshally flavour. What the Roadstar adds is a sort of gain shaping thing by tweaking the power scaling/boost/fat/vol and gain. You can move around the circuit where the gain is occurring and by how much and it gives a lot of different distortion tones from this alone. From cleans to surprisingly high gain Marshall sounds. It's massively more versatile than the single tone knob might suggest.

Indeed the reason I ended up with one was because Phil King brought one over once, I heard it, and it just nailed that sound I had in my head. Likewise when I first heard a Princeton (I've got an MJW Princeton clone also, which is what the 2x10 belongs to). It's just one of those amps that had me saying, yep, that's the one. Can't see me ever parting with either of them.

This makes me want one really badly!

Dave_Mc

juansolo said:

randomhandclaps said:

juansolo said:

the Cab of Legend (as it just sounds awesome no matter what we plug into it. 2x10 loaded with Eminence 1028K Legends).

Not wishing to distract from the brilliance of Martin's cab but the I think Legend is one of the most underrated speakers on the market.  I had a 4x10 cab that I sadly let go when I sold the matching head and they were just awesome.

They are spectacularly good, and very reasonably priced too. I think they work best in pairs or quads though. I've read that they can run out of breath as a single 1x10.

 I've never tried them but when I was looking for a 10" speaker for my little vht special 6 I was advised against putting one in there- eminence said they worked a lot better in 4s (maybe 2s as well, I forget ) ).

Excellent score on the MJW, by the way.

juansolo

musteatbrain said:

juansolo;555910" said:

shaunm said:Awesome what are the tones like?



Rather magnificent. Broken down, it's a WEM Dominator with knobs on (massively over simplifying it I suspect. I'm sure @MartinW will correct me if I'm wrong). So it's got that 18W Marshally flavour. What the Roadstar adds is a sort of gain shaping thing by tweaking the power scaling/boost/fat/vol and gain. You can move around the circuit where the gain is occurring and by how much and it gives a lot of different distortion tones from this alone. From cleans to surprisingly high gain Marshall sounds. It's massively more versatile than the single tone knob might suggest.

Indeed the reason I ended up with one was because Phil King brought one over once, I heard it, and it just nailed that sound I had in my head. Likewise when I first heard a Princeton (I've got an MJW Princeton clone also, which is what the 2x10 belongs to). It's just one of those amps that had me saying, yep, that's the one. Can't see me ever parting with either of them.

This makes me want one really badly!

I had it in my head that you had a Roadstar. Anyhow, you're very welcome to come over and have a go. Indeed we really need to make arrangements for some sort of meet anyhow. Don't know how you want to do the pedals... You want to borrow a load or just go at them all in a day like we did last time?

musteatbrain

I have 2! but your post made me want more. Today was booked off work and meant to be me off to an empty farm house to record your pedals. Kids meant I had to abandon the plan. Sooooo pissed off. I'll book a day off again when I'm back on Monday

Lew

Brill!

CHrisP86

Got a Roadstar 36 today and it's a cracking amp!  Can't agree more about how versatile it is.

SimpleSimon

CHrisP86 said:

Got a Roadstar 36 today and it's a cracking amp!  Can't agree more about how versatile it is.

was it the one off the board or did you buy direct from Martin?

CHrisP86

It was the one off the board.  I have to admit being nervous about ordering a custom build without having heard/seen an MJW in the flesh so this seemed a good opportunity to sample Martin's work.  Seriously high quality!  I can see my next amp purchase being another MJW.