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Archive for the ‘Guitar Amplifiers’ Category

This month Marshall have launched their first new Guitar amp range for several years. The Vintage Modern essentially updates the JTM 45/ Bluesbreaker type amplifier using KT66 type power tubes rather than the more traditional EL34 power stage. Its their first KT66 based amp for 30 years.

The amp takes the original Marshall concept : IE- of 2 channels running simultaniously, one for the high end and one for the low, to build an overall tone a stage further. Except rather than pissing about with jumper cables and excessive volume, the amp has 2 seperate gain controls labelled Body (low end) and Detail (high end) as well as a midrange boost, Master volume and a digital reverb. The FX loop is serial and I’m not sure why in the 21st century it is not a parallel loop, but maybe if your more of a trad rock, blues player you don’t need such things. But in my world a serial loop is pretty much a waste of time as soon as you start using any serious Modulation/Delay effects.

Having seen a DVD of guitarist Chris George demonstrating these new amps, they seem to give a slightly warmer and more bluesier take on the famous Bletchly tone. I admit nothing really knocked me out, but demo’s rarely do.

Now I’ll be sure to give my own thoughts on this once I’ve had the chance to try one out. But I do wonder about the timing of such a launch.

Back in 2003, The Darkness seized the cultural zeitgeist of our musical landscape and Marshall introduced the ModeFour, this was essentially their attempt to get in on the, by then, already fading Nu Metal Market share populated by amps such as the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, Hughes & Kettner Warp 7, and of Course Randall’s various solid state and hybrid heads.

Now I’ve only ever seen one guy gigging a Modefour and that was in a Indie Rock band rather than a metal act, the mediocre guitarist who’s name escapes me was weilding a PRS Custom 24 but I have to admit, the rather fizzy and non descript tone didn’t knock me out, It didn’t sound like a Rectifier and it didn’t sound like a JCM 800, it sounded like a Boss Distortion pedal through an old Randall tranny head and I was glad I’d bought a TSL 60 some 2 years earlier.

I’ve no idea of official sales figures, but I reckon that if the Modefour was a big seller there would have surely been a ModeFour combo out by now. I do see a few MF350’s on Ebay and they never seem to go for much.

Now with The Darkness reduced from national heroes to something of a laughing stock, Marshall have decided that this is the time to release a “Classic Rock” type head and combo. As many guitarists are dubious of too many knobs on a Marshall. I suspect these will do very well. However the combo version looks rather non descript.

Now If I ran Marshall Amps I’d have built the Vintage Modern 50 watt chassis into a much cooler & sexier looking Bluesbreaker type cabinet. Then they could really cash in on the affluent ‘Weekend Warrior’ market, who need a stylish amp that fits comfortably into the boot of a Chelsea Tractor.

But surely Marshalls priority as a company now is to update the now ageing JCM 2000 range of professional valve heads. Much as I love the DSL & TSL. There are certain issues of switching and better FX loops that need addressing. Burying your head in the Classic Rock soup will not do you any good, time marches on.

While companies like Hughes and Kettner seem to have stolen Marshalls Thunder on the multi functional channel switching amp with the Triamp and Switchblade ranges. Its easy to forget that Marshall had a midi switching 3 channel all valve head on the market some 14 years ago in the shape of the 6100LM . If Marshall mated the JMP-1 midi preamp front end into an EL34 based 100watt power amp. They would have a programmable head to rival the Switchblade.

So come on Marshall pull the collective finger out eh?

For the last 5 years my preferred amp of choice has been the Marshall TSL series, starting out in 2001 with the TSL60 head, I found the three channels and parrallel FX loop perfectly suited my gigging needs. Then a few years later I upgraded to the TSL100, as I felt I needed the extra clean headroom. The seperate EQ on each channel was a godsend, however I found the dual assignable FX loops (one for clean, one for dirty) were actually something of a dissapointment. While the TSL60 has a remarkably transparent loop, the assignable loops of the TSL100 seemed to add a layer of film to the tone.

However my biggest niggle in terms of gigging, was the amount of cables onstage, once the fx loop cables and footswitch are connected. The footswitch cable was never a brilliant design and prone to failing, but Marshall did change the cable to a more rigid shiny design that wouldn’t look out of place in a S & M club.

So I decided on a rethink…

After flogging the TSL on Ebay I decided to buy a simpler 2 channel DSL head, I have to admit I’ve heard my friends DSL50’s and felt the tone was a lot more open and purer. While I would not have quite the versatility of my previous rig, the idea was I would have a lot less cables to fiddle with and therefore less possibilities of things going wrong.

Now I’ve owned a DSL 100 for about 2 months now…..and……it’s just not me. Sorry I can’t get on with it. It does sound great, but I do miss my bells and whistles. As my current gig requires me to play a variety of styles with both clean and heavy sections, also I miss the fx loop, despite its flaws it was simple enough to dial in.

So now I’m back on the buying board. The DSL is on ebay and I’m trying to decide which TSL head to buy. Sometimes its the devil you know I suppose.

While we are on the subject of Marshall, it’s worth noting that next month they are launching a new amp line called the Modern Vintage series. My suspicion is that theres a whole host of guitarists who’d like something a little more retro looking, while still having their modern features. Kinda like a Badcat Hotcat series. As the JCM2000 series is pushing on in age now. It may also be the first in a range of new amps to replace the JCM. If rumours on various guitar orientated webforums are to be believed, Trivium and Moterhead have been using pre production prototypes (if you watch the DVD of Metallica’s ‘Some Kind Of Monster’, you can see an unmarked Modefour prototype head nestling within James Hetfields studio rig).

Watch this space…

This was the tag line I saw on an advert in a recent Guitar Player magazine for Hughes & Kettners new Switchblade Guitar Head. The amp is the worlds first totally programmable all valve head. On first impression the specifications are impressive…… 4 Channels, Clean, Crunch, Lead, and Ultra. 128 presets with included midi footcontroller, plus onboard digital modulation and delay effects. The list price of around a grand makes this sound like an impressive peice of kit. Both Guitar Player and Guitarist magazine have given the amp rave reviews. But what made me chuckle was the immortal line “Modelling is dead”. It’s almost Monty Pythonesque.

Now this is funny for a number of reasons. First is that I’ve always felt the guitar industry (press/manafacturers) has been forcefeeding the technology to us musicians and that this was the future, whether we liked it or not.

A future that would be very benificial to them as besides the R & D costs. There are far less bits inside a modelling amp, no valves, rectifiers and the like. So therefore if they used common microprocessors as many companies do (your washing machine has a couple of the same chips that your camcorder has etc.) the kit would be cheaper to produce and the profit margins therefore higher.

Now I feel that certain sections of the guitar press got onboard the modelling bandwagon a little too far. Admittedly the Line 6 POD was an amazing product, but generally modern digital recordings tend to compress sounds and so the POD gave great useable sounds in those situations. Bung it through any amp and its less convincing. Especially when the effects are turned off.

Secondly the whole Modelling amp phenomenon has seemed nothing more than a load of hype. Essentially all modelling amps are nothing more than a sophisticated Multi FX unit bolted onto a transistor power stage. This is fair enough, but for the last 5 years I’ve been reading the same reviews year after year on the latest wonder amp and the life cycle of these amps normally goes like this….

“Famous manafacturer releases wonder amp for say £1000 rrp. The reviews in Guitarist/Guitar Player/Guitar are amazing. The usual stores do it for a hundered or so pounds cheaper. Then no one buys it…..so a cheaper less feature packed version of the amp is made, as the original one is discounted down beyond all belief. Then a new one appears about 15 months later…..the usual suspects in the guitar mags believe the PR hype about more accurate tones and the cycle begins again.

Now modelling has got a foorhold in the market, but it’s strictly at the cheaper practice amp/ small combo market. If you go and see a gigging band on the toilet circuit, it seems valves are still king.

But then Line 6 came up with this…

Guitarist Magazine ran an article on the Line 6 Variax and its Acoustic sibling last year. The article appeared to be telling the reader thats lots of people are using Variax’s. What was funny that these users of modelling guitars were not so enthusiastic to be seen with one Pete Townsend was playing a J-200, Jez Williams from Doves a 335, Jerry Donahue as expected a Tele….. Even on Line 6’s own website they can only manage a stock picture of U2, despite their boast of Edge as a Variax user.

Now don’t get me wrong. I use a Line 6 DL-4 Delay modeller and its a brilliant peice of kit. But I don’t think it sounds like an accurate reproduction of the delays its set out to emulate. Rather its just a very useable peice of kit with some excellent sounds.

But back to Hughes and Kettner. The company also make a very expensive modelling amp in the form of it’s Zentera range. These have been on the market for a few years now and at around £2 grand are probably the most sophisticated modelling amps on the market. Unfortunately every review I’ve read says that they are incredibly difficult to program.

The only famous guitarist using these amps onstage is Alex Lifeson of Rush and even then he only uses them as a secondary texture, the bulk of his tone being generated by two Triamp Mk 2 Halfstacks.

So therefore I’d love to know who is using the Zentera and what do they make of H & K’s proclamation that modelling is indeed dead.