small 'Marshall-sounding' amp please

[rogerbrain]

the Zvex nano does a great job ..

[FFTT]

Reeves Custom 12
or Reeves Custom 10 HG.

[fastlanestoner]

I think you're more likely to find this in a pedal than an amp at what you're looking for: mi audio crunchbox or menatone king of the britains will get you there!

[electricity17]

You could look at the Marshall Class 5. It looks amazing and sounds ok, it doesn't sound as close to a classic Marshall as I was hoping. But I don't think you're going to find a single-ended amp design (and the low wattage amps tend to be single end) that gets closer.

I would encourage you to research the various 18 watt Marshal amp kits/clones that are available. Whether or not you want to build an amp, the sounds that you can get out of that model are very close to a classic Plexi tone to my ears. Worst case scenario you'll have a reference for the sound that you're asking about from a "small" amp.

If that all sounds way too involved, look at the Orange Tiny Terror. Not Marshall but a great British tone from a small amp that you can pick up around $400 used (for the head).

Also worth mentioning that getting a Celestion G12H or Greenback will make your current amp sound more Marshall-y/British. The speakers play a big part in that sound.

[noah330]

I picked this up used for $450. A little more then your budget, but IMHO worth saving a couple extra weeks for.

Does exactly what you want:

[jasyr]

thanks for the leads....

i guess the 18-watt is the answer so far.

please keep the opinions coming!

[FFTT]

If you're looking at 18 watts then a Reeves Custom 18 is dead on perfect
and true Mil spec hand wired and also available with power scaling.

If your budget is too tight for a Reeves, then
you might want to consider a used Reinhardt 18, Germino, Aiken or Ceriatone Marshall build.

All hand wired, the way a good Marshall should be.

[Bristol_Jonesey]

Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister 5

[wxyz]

+1 Orange Tiny Terror

[Yeah, right...]

Originally Posted by Bristol_Jonesey

Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister 5

+1

[noah330]

Originally Posted by jasyr

thanks for the leads....

i guess the 18-watt is the answer so far.

please keep the opinions coming!

The one I posted is 1 Watt. Great for recording.

[FFTT]

Since you're in London, I'd go for a hand wired Ceriatone 18 watt TMB
or look at Niks very cool Muchless & Wreck builds.

[litepipe]

Originally Posted by noah330

The one I posted is 1 Watt. Great for recording.

I use the nano a lot. Great amp!! You can get it to break up at apartment levels. Still a bit loud, but doable. You're not getting an 18 watt Amo to break up in an apartment studio.

[DerekJ]

Brownface Deluxe - first 3 ZZ Top, Nugent's Cat Scratch Fever, many others. Crunchiest Fender ever, records superb.

[jasyr]

Noah330 is that a kit? anymore info?

everyone else thank you, i will check these out...

[electricity17]

Originally Posted by litepipe

You're not getting an 18 watt Amo to break up in an apartment studio.

+1 on this, you could gig an 18 watt tube amp in a small club with no problem, way too loud for an apartment. One solution is an attenuator which will give you all the drive from the amp without all the volume, however you won't get the same performance from the cabinet and speakers (less compression and speaker distortion).

IF you're planning to use this amp only/primarily for apartment recording, you could get a small low wattage speaker (8" perhaps) so that you can get closer to its max output than you would with a 12" speaker that's rated for higher output.

[thezebralad]

Blackstar HT-1 or HT-5, can do both Marshall and Fender tones at a nice price.

[FFTT]

Take a look at the Ceriatone Muchless lightening.
and the wreck builds. These are class A and highly touch sensitive.

[Bill@WelcomeHome]

Originally Posted by jasyr

i have a 5-watt Blackheart which i really like. What would be its counterpart in a low-watt Marshall type amp for crunchy rythmn?

It can be any brand as long as it can get a ballpark vintage 60'-70's tone... and has to be made with tubes!! Price range not going into those of incredibly expensive boutique studio amps please. (Thats what i like about the BH... great bang for the buck.) Prefer a head max-ing around5-10 watts. Price around $300?

BTW is it more difficult to produce a low-cost Marshall sound? Seems like i see tons of Fender inspired knock-offs in the small tube amp market.

thanks!

You might look at the AX84 website where people build their own amps. Lots of cool choices and mods.

[popmann]

Honestly, those 84 based Marshall clones sound nothing like "the" Marshall tone. They're cool enough as their own thing...I have a custom 84 amp that marries a Marshall inspired preamp with a class A voxy power section.

...but, you need an el34. it depends on what you mean by small. My Reinhardt Storm33 with power scaling allows you to dime out the 34s and bring it back to where it doesn't shake the walls. At the same time, the guy who built my custom84 has a single ended 34 like 10wt amp that is like a mini Plexi--you have to open it up...but, when you do, the neighbors don't call the police like they would a full Plexi.

But, IME, you need 34s for "that" sound. Plenty of other nice grinds in the world...but, if you desire that classic rock thing, you need 34s.

[jasyr]

ya... EL34's wanted.

the stuff i'm hearing on-line is not cutting it. there's no dynamics on the 1-watts i'm hearing. Even on the Blackheart i use NOS tubes... there actually is dynamics, as in clean to hair, just with playing style.

unfortunately, seems i'll have to spend some real $ to get the same quality of the BH in Marshall-land. bummer.

[jasyr]

just went to the Reinhardt page... he's not building anything new. I probably couldnt have afforded them anyway... but that is the sort of sound i'm looking for. Champaigne on a beer budget.... oh well.

[electricity17]

Maybe I've been playing a Vox for too long, but EL84's sound like Marshall to me. I always assumed that the push-pull circuit had more to do with the classic Plexi tone than the exact tubes, that's one reason that these small single-end amps never sound very Marshall-y to my ears. But I'm not an amp tech so who knows, it would be cool to check out a single ended EL34 circuit and hear how close it gets.

[Bill@WelcomeHome]

To me, a Marshall is a lot about that funky 4x12 cabinet. I mean, I hate all the ratsass 80s hybrid Marshalls, but I totally loved the three 50 watt pre-master-volume amps I had in the 70s. I bought one of the 30 watt all tube (10 inch) combos in the 90s, it was alright... Now I have a THD 2x12 cabinet that has a slotted back and kind of gives a little of that Marshall thunk and a little of the open backed sound... sort of the best of both worlds for me. My THD amp is set up to sound like a cross between the Vox and Marshall.. a British-ish sound but not blown out distortion. I understand that a purist might want the Plexi and only the Plexi, but I'm more interested in sounding like me than anyone else and if there are hints of someone else, that is cool but not my personal goal. But anyone that is playing with minimal crap in line and using good guitars through tube amps is alright by me!

[popmann]

I think that's what several makers do...one guy actually calls it a mini-Plexi.

But, this guy's take really kills, I think. played it through a 4x12 and it brought the goods pretty well. And yes, BobR has stopped building. The guy in town doesn't commercially build that model--I encouraged him to...but, he sees it as a $1k one trick pony...which it is, I guess. Cool truck, though!

End of the day, there are plenty of "Marshally" pedals...Dirty Little Secret...I have a vintage black box Marshall Bluesbreaker that's fab if you don't want tons of gain...Barber makes nice classic rock sounding pedals--love the little Small Fry...all of the above is the cheaper way to get close than any of these 5wt tiny speaker things, IMO.

[thenoodle]

"Marshall sound" can mean different things.

For example, I love the sound of the Marshalls on the Disraeli Gears Cream album. I can only get that sound by using a real 50 watt or 100watt old head and 412 cabinet set up out in the studio, set at "10" and then play it with a long guitar cord from in the control room.

Haven't found one small amp or sim that can do that sound at all. I owned a Studio 15 for a few years and that one was nothing like its brothers. More like a Fender sound.

I've listened to dozens of 1 watt and 5watt amps and none can do the Les Paul/Marshall "Disraeli Gears" cream sound.

But... I'll watch the thread here to see if others have had more luck. In my case, I still have the old Marshalls, so I can just crank them up.

Small would be good though.

[FFTT]

The Fargen Amps, Mini Plex is also popular.

For quality built to last I'd still go for a Reeves 12 with or without Power Scaling.

[popmann]

The was the one I couldn't remember the name...Fargen.

The Reinhardt is more flexible...but, he also made a Plexi clone at 30wts...but, that's still a very loud amp. I think you have to play a real 100wt Plexi to appreciate what Bob did in scaling it down. At full wattage, Metropoulis does a better straight clone...but, his V30 and Storm33 did get the spirit of that sound into a package that won't peel paint. The Storm adding a popular 80s mod of an extra gain stage--think Dokken and Appetite levels of gain--so, you can do classic rock or hit a foot switch and take Marshall based rock into the 80s. Shame he gave it up.

[Piedpiper]

just heard about this: FluxTone Speakers reduce speaker volume without tone destruction

supposedly a better way to reduce the volume and not loose the tone...