Re: Valve combo Vox/Marshall overdriven with humbuckers

On 15 Mar 2008 17:33:17 +0000, "Angus Manwaring"
<angus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi all,

This is a bit tricky, but I'm after advice on the relative sound qualities
of the Vox AC30 valve and a classic Marshall valve combo (Bluesbreaker or
2266C maybe?) being overdriven with a Les Paul type guitar.

In brief, I'm assuming that when you say "push hard" you're on about
simply cranking the beasts up?

If so, an AC30 cranked up to the point of saturation is going to
disappoint you if you're after an LP overdriven sound. I'm sure I
don't have to tell you, but these are massively loud and capable of
lots of clean and from what I can remember of mine, almost totally
unsuitable to get any sort of useable crunch or overdriven sound
without some sort of intermediate box between the guitar and the amp.

I used to stick the guitar through a preamp made from the guts of an
old reel to reel tapedeck that a mate of mine made to tame it and give
me some distortion. Even so, it was way better clean, but clean wasn't
what I was after when I had mine.

The Marshall 2266C you mention will give you higher gain sounds rather
more easily as it has a master volume, so you can juggle that to dial
in whatever level you want - although I'm not too struck by recent
Marshall combos I have to say.

The Bluesbreaker takes you back to the situation with the AC30, but
with less problem getting the thing to overdrive.

If I wanted to get a sound that had lots of that late 60s creaminess
and sustain without fizz and plus portability, I'd probably end up
getting an old JCM800 combo and then running something like a good
Tubescreamer clone through it, although the MV on that model was
pretty good at getting some very respectable medium gain settings. It
was also to my mind the last of the classic original Marshalls and
didn't have the unnecessary amounts of top end that a lot of later
Marshalls seemed to have.

Originals are still about - here's one on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Marshall-JCM800-4104-212-combo_W0QQitemZ120232396047QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120232396047

Dunno about the price - I'm not looking for an amp - but that's a
serious nice combo and an LP through that would make a nice sound to
say the least.

Steve.
.

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