Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I was pricing a marshal half stack this weekend and a pal suggested I look at a Fender Mustang 150w to drive it. Its solid state so I was a bit skeptical.

Ran the Marshal cabinet with the Fender and I have to admit - it sounded like a million bucks. It does both clean and distorted without raising a sweat.

We cranked it way up and it held on. Also weighs about one third what the Marshal head does which is no small thing. Oh - and it costs half as much. And while you don't have to use all the features it has all the stuff that the G-Dec modler provides.

Have any of you tried this? I confess I blew out the midrange in my left ear standing too close to an amp years ago so I'm never quite sure if I'm hearing it right. And it does seem a bit too good to be true.

Opinions?

thanks
Talbot

Different strokes for different folks. I play music with a lot of California vibe and not a ton of gain. Most of the places I play now are to crowds of 150 or less. I only need to fill a small medium/hall, not the Astrodome. That means great tone in an amp just loud enough to run with a drum kit at full tilt (about 20 watts). Small Fender tube combos, Mesa combos work great for me. If I play outdoors or in front of a larger crowd I just put a mic in front of it. If you play stadiums or your rig is part of your image, you probably still need a stack. If it's all about great guitar tone a small combo is your friend.

I saw Clapton last week at the Gibson amphitheater. He filled a room of 6800 with a 60w Fender Twin. Great show.

Different strokes for different folks. I play music with a lot of California vibe and not a ton of gain. Most of the places I play now are to crowds of 150 or less. I only need to fill a small medium/hall, not the Astrodome. That means great tone in an amp just loud enough to run with a drum kit at full tilt (about 20 watts). Small Fender tube combos, Mesa combos work great for me. If I play outdoors or in front of a larger crowd I just put a mic in front of it. If you play stadiums or your rig is part of your image, you probably still need a stack. If it's all about great guitar tone a small combo is your friend.

I saw Clapton last week at the Gibson amphitheater. He filled a room of 6800 with a 60w Fender Twin. Great show.

BINGO! Tone is king! It's NOT the volume, it's NOT the power, it's all about the tone. You can play great music with the right tone. You can make great noise with the wrong tone.

I believe it was tone he was asking about.

At least that was the way I read it. ( be cautious about subliminal messages)

If it sounds good to you ... play it !


( Carvin )

Ultimately it was entirely about tone. I love the Marshal sound but I can't seem to get it at low volume.

So I went ahead and bought the Fender head and a nice Marshal cabinet and I am totally satisfied. I didn't buy the head to play some stadium - I bought it because it does an amazing variety of sounds and will give my stadium level distortion as needed, at very low volume.

I've stopped using my practice amp (Fender G-dec) which is pretty nice but paradoxically has to be louder than the big guy to sound right.

Now I can throw away my headphones and practice at "full volume" in the middle of the night without bothering the neighbors. And if I have to play a Stadium - well, I can.

cheers
Talbot

Well, For me, I can say that it has a lot to do with the power section. There are lots of great sounding preamps but its the power amp that has the most effect on its "live" or "gig" sound. If you are gonna go SS make sure it has enough power. 100SS watts is NOT the same as 100 Tube watts. Id say go for 200+ SS watts.

SS starts to clip in a VERY unappealing way when it gets loud...even Mosfet power. Tubes generally get smoother or warmer.

If you're not in a loud band, or always play mic'd up then try a 15w Tube amp. If you need clean head room go 6v6 if you need early break up go EL84.

There are some REALLLY nice pedals out there too. So if you go with say a 15w tube Fender check out the Wampler Plextortion...I have the Triple Wreck and its awesome.

Best of both worlds there man.
Just my experience. YMMV.

i run all mesa boogie,triple rectifier,simulcas,triaxis,all stereo.it has to be cranked up to get tone and it sounds big and i do mean big.yes it`s loud but everyone loves the fat wide smooth sound.we don`t care if it`s a small club or the house of blues we crank it.it`s not deafening like a marshall,it`s just bad ass!fender twins can`t even come close.if you mike a twin it still sounds thin,just louder.mike the mesa and your in a whole new world.

I didnt want to choose so i got both

I didnt get into Marshall sounds until I joined a classic rock band recently and needed both changes to my guitar and live rig. My old setup with a strat and tube Fender combo was not cutting it. I didnt want to buy yet another amp, or haul around a Marshall stack but when I started playing with Guitar Rig 4 , POD and some other modeling tools I really got hooked on getting a Marshall. The problem is that once I played a Marshall, I lost the nice clean tones a Fender produces, I felt that I would rather keep the clean and drive it with a pedal, than jus be "big sounding" all the time. I am using a BOSS Powerstack, and Guitar Rig 4 to get very convincing Marshall sounds (as well as others), while the 6L6 power section in the Fender is meaty enough for most of my gigs. I use a USA Fender HR Deluxe for small stuff and a 80's Fender 75 with a 800 watt 15 inch EV for bigger stuff. I hand made the combo/cabinet to be 4 inches deeper for more bass response and punch. If I started out with a Marshall, I probably would be all Marshall and sticking a fender emulator on the front of it...lol But I dont think it works the same way.

As I mentioned in another thread I use a 1973 Fender Super Reverb with a Marshall Bluesbreaker overdrive pedal and a Ibanez SD-9 distortion pedal.

The Fender does a great job, but is not clean enough at full volume, so I'm considering going back to my old dual amp rig and adding the Peavey MX and Kustom 2x12. So far the Fender is doing fine, but when I have to run it full volume I can't get it clean enough.

The power amp section does make a difference, once I get it maxed out it sounds great, and that's when it really develops the "feel" of a tube amp, but not clean enough...even though Fender has a reputation for clean. But the clean is all before you get to half volume. Above halfway mine breaks up and sounds great, but I still want the under half volume clean sound.

The MX is a different story, clean at any volume...130 watts so it can handle any size hall, and sounds just as good turned down for small clubs. Then it's just a matter of the right pedals. But after playing the Fender for 10 years I can't go back to the MX alone, I like the Fender too much.

Marshall...never wanted one. Yeah they sound great but I can't see paying twice as much for Marshall's name on the front.

As I mentioned in another thread I use a 1973 Fender Super Reverb with a Marshall Bluesbreaker overdrive pedal and a Ibanez SD-9 distortion pedal.

The Fender does a great job, but is not clean enough at full volume, so I'm considering going back to my old dual amp rig and adding the Peavey MX and Kustom 2x12. So far the Fender is doing fine, but when I have to run it full volume I can't get it clean enough.

Whaaaat??? Not enough loud & clean? Maybe dying tubes. A healthy Fender SR or Twin will produce more loud & clean than anything else I know. My 64 Super Reverb is a clean tone monster. Too much amp for most of the shows I do now. When playing wide open during solos I just roll off the volume pot on my guitar and the amp cleans up real nice.

Have her checked out. Too nice an amp to not be delivering tons of sparkling clean tones.

If i had a gun to my head I would choose Marshall.
But if it was an option i would choose Mesa Boogie over both of them
ANY DAY !!!!

Well, For me, I can say that it has a lot to do with the power section. There are lots of great sounding preamps but its the power amp that has the most effect on its "live" or "gig" sound. If you are gonna go SS make sure it has enough power. 100SS watts is NOT the same as 100 Tube watts. Id say go for 200+ SS watts.

SS starts to clip in a VERY unappealing way when it gets loud...even Mosfet power. Tubes generally get smoother or warmer.

If you're not in a loud band, or always play mic'd up then try a 15w Tube amp. If you need clean head room go 6v6 if you need early break up go EL84.

There are some REALLLY nice pedals out there too. So if you go with say a 15w tube Fender check out the Wampler Plextortion...I have the Triple Wreck and its awesome.

Best of both worlds there man.
Just my experience. YMMV.

Well said.

The biggest difference between tubes and solid state amps are simply tubes sound their best when they're pushed hard and solid state amps sound their best when they're not.

I played an Orange tube amp last week that was a whooping 7 watts and turned it up and it sounded spectacular. Best tone I've ever heard in my life. Seriously.

Fender cleans and Marshall dirty, just the way it's supposed to be.

If you want loud and dirty, go with tubes. If you want sound options and don't need LOUD, solid state gives lots of options.