Torn between 2 marshalls.....

gimmesometruth27

i am in the market for another new amp. i have a jcm 900 stack that is my main amp right now, but i have been looking for something in the marshall family thats a little different.

i have always wanted a silver jubilee since i began playing 13 years ago, and even moreso recently since i saw the chili peppers not too long ago. but i have been unable to find one when i had the disposable cash. now that i have it i can't find one. every once in a great while there are 2 or 3 on ebay but they are the small box heads or either a 1x12 or 2x12 combos. so i have been looking pretty actively for a standard sized silver jubilee. i am prepared to shell out around $1800-2000 for it if i could ever find one.

that said, i was in guitar center tonight and ran across the new Marshall Vintage Modern amp. it seems that marshall has listened to its customers and went back to the single channel, simple circutry of their vintage amps. this amp sounds great. its very clear and nowhere near as gainey as my jcm 900. actually it blows it out of the water. it reminds me of the old jmps and jcm 800s, but you can also get the modern metal tones out of it. the one i saw tonight was 100 watts, but i think if they would have had a 50 watt head i would have brought it home tonight. now i am wondering if i should forget about the silver jubilee and just get this new marshall.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Marshall-Vintage-Modern-2266-Tube-Amp-Head?sku=480776

has anyone tried a silver jubilee or the new vintage modern?? any input/advice would be appreciated.

armanHammer

http://cgi.ebay.com/Marshall-2553-head-silver-jubilee-25-50-watts_W0QQitemZ200084045875QQihZ010QQcategoryZ38075QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(sorry, haven't tried either. but john frusciante's tone is goooood...)

(edit, oops, this is the small box version. ignore this post)

gimmesometruth27

its ok, i was looking at this one all week. small box......looks funny on top of a normal sized cab. not that looks matter much when talkin about a jubilee though.

besides, i have a travel case that fits the standard sized heads and it wouldn't fit the small box that well. if i'm gonna spend the money i had better be able to protect it

armanHammer

If it was me, I'd get the small one, those standard marshall heads are beasts to carry around. I think I would seriously buy that if I didn't want a new strat and I had a few hundred more dollars.

enharmonic

For that kind of money, I would pass on a Marshall and go with a Germino.

Pacomc79

I'd go with the new Modern Vintage over the silver jubilee, just my opinion, you can always get it recovered professionally in silver tolex.

Tone is what it's all about anyway, if you find something that resonates or feels good to you....and it's in your price range....go for it.

This is the best idea Marshall has had in years. I wonder what the insides look like.
.

gimmesometruth27

Pacomc79 wrote:

I'd go with the new Modern Vintage over the silver jubilee,
.

wow, i thought you would tell me the opposite. you always are very knowlegeable and i value your advice. i am still looking at the jubilee but i think i am going to order the modern vintage. i love the tone on that thing, but they can't get it for me until late march or early april :(

Pacomc79

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

wow, i thought you would tell me the opposite. you always are very knowlegeable and i value your advice. i am still looking at the jubilee but i think i am going to order the modern vintage. i love the tone on that thing, but they can't get it for me until late march or early april :(

I think it's apples and oranges really. Both are good amps. The best thing to do would be to compare and choose then if you can find a silver jubilee, both are going for about the same prices now. If you aren't absolutely sure take your time with it and sleep on it a bit. This is a major purchase, it deserves some time and thought.

gimmesometruth27

just an update for anyone that cares, actually i am not torn between 2 marshalls anymore, i stumbled upon a matchless clubman 35 and solved all of my problems. it was the same price as the marshall modern vintage. i am still getting used to the single channel operation, but hands down this is the best tone i have ever had. it gets really dirty and cleans up very well by backing off the guitar volume a bit. i need to figure out the a/b thing to jump the two channels.

i figured i can always get the modern vintage later since they will mass produce them, but they aren't making these matchlesses anymore. i had to act today and i'm glad i did.

lucylespian

Is that set up like a Bad Cat, where you have a different input jack for clean and dirty channels ??

gimmesometruth27

lucylespian wrote:

Is that set up like a Bad Cat, where you have a different input jack for clean and dirty channels ??

basically. from what i gather its like an old marshall with high sensitivity and low sensitivity inputs. input 1 has more bite and is a little dirtier than input 2. both channels clean up remarkably well, but you get a little lighter distortion with input 2. it sounds more plexi-ish to me. my other guitar player has a bad cat and he uses an a/b switch and with both of them on together he gets incredible tone. i believe i can do the same thing with the matchless. there was no manual with it so i am kind of asking around about it and doing some research on the web trying to figure it out before our gig saturday.

lucylespian

I didn't know you can do that with a Bad CAt, I don't know that much about them, but have palyed the Hot Cat 30. TBH, I thought for $6500, to have to provide your own A/B box was a bit rich. PhenomenaL tone but I'm thinking a bit of a one-trick wonder.
Sounds like your Matchless is pretty nice. It is EL34 ?? Both my amps have 6L6, and the bass, esp with my Les Pauls is huge, so next amp will be EL34 for sure. I'm looking seriosly at the Mesa Stiletto Deuce.

enharmonic

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

just an update for anyone that cares, actually i am not torn between 2 marshalls anymore, i stumbled upon a matchless clubman 35 and solved all of my problems. it was the same price as the marshall modern vintage. i am still getting used to the single channel operation, but hands down this is the best tone i have ever had. it gets really dirty and cleans up very well by backing off the guitar volume a bit. i need to figure out the a/b thing to jump the two channels.

i figured i can always get the modern vintage later since they will mass produce them, but they aren't making these matchlesses anymore. i had to act today and i'm glad i did.

A wise choice. Those amps are no joke

They actually are making Matchless amps again, though.

Pacomc79

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

just an update for anyone that cares, actually i am not torn between 2 marshalls anymore, i stumbled upon a matchless clubman 35 and solved all of my problems. it was the same price as the marshall modern vintage. i am still getting used to the single channel operation, but hands down this is the best tone i have ever had. it gets really dirty and cleans up very well by backing off the guitar volume a bit. i need to figure out the a/b thing to jump the two channels.

i figured i can always get the modern vintage later since they will mass produce them, but they aren't making these matchlesses anymore. i had to act today and i'm glad i did.

nicely done. That's a great amplifier.

here's the link to what it looks like for the layperson.

http://www.matchlessamplifiers.com/match23_club.html


what tubes are in the preamp? Are they EF86's?

gimmesometruth27

lucylespian wrote:

I didn't know you can do that with a Bad CAt, I don't know that much about them, but have palyed the Hot Cat 30. TBH, I thought for $6500, to have to provide your own A/B box was a bit rich. PhenomenaL tone but I'm thinking a bit of a one-trick wonder.
Sounds like your Matchless is pretty nice. It is EL34 ?? Both my amps have 6L6, and the bass, esp with my Les Pauls is huge, so next amp will be EL34 for sure. I'm looking seriosly at the Mesa Stiletto Deuce.

i totally agree with you about the bad cat and having to buy the a/b box. the other guy in my band got his hot cat and the dealer threw in the a/b box for free. i am not sure if you can a/b the matchlesses. i am taking it to my amp tech tomorrow to try to see what this baby can do that i do not know about. yeah the power tubes are EL34s. my other amps have 6L6s and i can totally tell a difference playing them side by side with the same type of cabs.

i hear those stilettos sound awesome. i have never played one myself though.

gimmesometruth27

enharmonic wrote:

A wise choice. Those amps are no joke

They actually are making Matchless amps again, though.

thanks for pointing that out. i meant to say that i thought Mark Sampson is not making the Matchless amps anymore, even though they are still in production.

gimmesometruth27

Pacomc79 wrote:

what tubes are in the preamp? Are they EF86's?

i am not sure because thet had the metal covering on them and i did not look at them last night, but i believe that they are EF86s based on what the salesman said.

Pacomc79

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

i am not sure because thet had the metal covering on them and i did not look at them last night, but i believe that they are EF86s based on what the salesman said.

I'm thinking it's a pentode based preamp and I believe those are pentodes.

really. really cool. You should get great dynamic harmonic tones out of that amp.

lucylespian

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

i totally agree with you about the bad cat and having to buy the a/b box. the other guy in my band got his hot cat and the dealer threw in the a/b box for free. i am not sure if you can a/b the matchlesses. i am taking it to my amp tech tomorrow to try to see what this baby can do that i do not know about. yeah the power tubes are EL34s. my other amps have 6L6s and i can totally tell a difference playing them side by side with the same type of cabs.

i hear those stilettos sound awesome. i have never played one myself though.

Yeah, my biggest problem is that I have a H&K Triamp, which has six channels, so everything else seems limited. Only 2 channels ??? Are you kidding ?? At least a rectifier has 3. The Stiletto is very nice. I have played both an Ace which I liked a lot, and a Deuce which I liked more. Just something about 100watts. Mind you give me a 30 watt Bad CAt or dividedby 13 and see how happy I would be. Actually, the Deuce looks funkier with the crocodile front. I do like fixed bias too, amp techs are hard to find and usually harder to deal with.
Definitely a big difference between the two types of tubes, although the cahannels on teh triamp that are biased toward a Marshall sound are prett bitey even with the 6L6.

gimmesometruth27

well i found out that it is a 1994 matchless and that it is a Sampson made one, so thats pretty cool. my amp tech says everything looks good and that i got it for $100 less than it is worth. i played it last night at our show and got alot of compliments on my new tone. it went pretty well, my only issue is that my sg did not get the crunch that my les paul got so i had to use a pedal and rock the guitar volume back. it was kind of weird using my hand to control volume and tone when i am so used to doing it with an amp footswitch.

gimmesometruth27

well i finally played a silver jubilee half stack yesterday. my amp tech owns a boutique and vintage music store and one came in on consignment. i liked the way it sounded, one of the better marshall heads of the last 20 years in my opinion. i could totally get that slash tone with the rhythm pickup on a les paul. that said, when i a/bd between the jubilee and my matchless i think the matchless sounded much better and much clearer. i would have maybe picked up the jubilee head just to have it because i have always wanted one, but the guy did not want to split the rig and was selling it for $2500 firm. i don't blame him, that head and cab were MINT. my tech is willing to bet that it has never been gigged. it even had the original manual with zz top, and brian adams on the cover. i love my clubman, but man would i like to eventually get a silver jubilee. if anyone is interested in this jubilee head and cab i can put you in touch with the store.