What's a really good low wattage version of the Marshall 2204 master volume?

[EADGBE]

I love the sound of the Marshall 2203 and 2204 master volumes. But they're too loud for practice at home. What's the best low wattage version of these amps in your opinion? It could be tube or solid state.

[bosstone]

Marshall Studio 15
Fargen Mini Plex 2

[silencer eleven]

fargen mini plex MKII

[RockDC]

At high gain or cleaner?

[mcgriff420]

Jesse at Rockytop has a single ended 10watter in the JCM800 vein.

[Warren Mendonsa]

Suhr Badger. Can do that and a whole lot more. Since I got one, my poor 2204 is getting neglected : (

[rcgpny1]

Try a Divided by 13 LDW 17/39. Although in its 39watt setting, its still pretty loud,in the class A 17 watt setting you have a very usable level, and some of the best Marshall style overdrive. The LDW has great overdrive( has a master volume that is quite musical). Has 2xEL34"s...tube rectified. Its tone is almost an "idealized" Marshall. Any Marshall or other brit style amp user will be able to dail in a killer sound in under 10 seconds!!!!

[BIGGERSTAFF]

I love the sound of the Marshall 2203 and 2204 master volumes. But they're too loud for practice at home. What's the best low wattage version of these amps in your opinion? It could be tube or solid state.

You might could look into what it'd take to use EL84/6V6s in it. That'd tame the volume considerably, and save the expense of buying another amp.

[LaXu]

How about just having it modded with a good master volume? To me no lower wattage amp gets quite the punch and fullness of the higher wattage things.

[bosstone]

David Bray does a very good master volume circuit for JCM Marshalls that will get great sounds at low volume.

[mmorse]

Well, practice volume at home is subjective. Depending on your situation, 5 watts can be too loud. I have struggled with this for some time now. I own a 2204 and used it at home for a few years now. Problem is, it doesn't sound very good padded way down. Quite thin and strident. I modded mine, including putting in JJ 6v6s to cut the wattage in half. Sounds pretty good now at home practice levels.

I was always in the "I prefer the amp's OD to a pedal" camp. But, through much experimentation, I found at very low levels a good pedal through a clean amp can sound better than a MV amp turned way down. I used a plexitube and now a Blackstar HT Dual through the 2204 set to low volume clean. The overall tone is better than the 2204 alone with the pre amp gain up and the master way down. In fact, I can come pretty close to the amp's tone when both the preamp and master volumes are around 6-7. Only now I can get it at very reasonable volumes. Something, I thought would be impossible.

I've even gone one step further, since an ongoing feud with my neighbor has forced even lower practice levels. I recently picked up a little VOX DA5. It's a 5 watt SS practice amp with some built in effects. I run it clean through the Blackstar HT and use an Avatar 112 cube with a Scumback H755. That cab can be really boomy but its dark character really complements the little DA5 by making it sound much bigger and fuller than through its own speaker. I now have a little practice rig that I can run at .5 watt, 1.5 watts or 5 watts. The Blackstar's tube driven OD is much nicer than the DA5's SS overdriven tones and the cab fleshes out the tone surprisingly well. At the very low levels I now practice at, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between this rig and running my 2204 at the same levels.

Pinch harmonics are easy to get and the rig sounds full and thick and screams at a volume that doesn't wake my wife in the next room. It sounds so good that I felt no need to go back to my 2204 when noodling at home.

What I've found is that, at such low volumes, there's only so much tone you can expect to get (or should I say feel and hear) no matter what hardware you use. It's like, a Corvette is no more exciting to drive than a Yugo if you don't go past 10 miles an hour.

[EADGBE]

At high gain or cleaner?
The wide open saturated sound.

[EADGBE]

You might could look into what it'd take to use EL84/6V6s in it. That'd tame the volume considerably, and save the expense of buying another amp.Wouldn't they blow up in a larger amp?

[walterw]

try these (http://www.groovetubes.com/SUBSTI-TUBE_928-PR_Duet_Power_Reducer_Class_A_converter_P1778.cfm)
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj50/walterw2/PR928-solo.jpg

[sickboy79]

2204 with a THD Hotplate, IMO.

[bamablues]

I have the Soultone 2204 superplexi. The power scaling works perfectly. Great marshall tones at lower volumes. Footswitchable effects loop also.

[908SSP]

I find it amazing that in one breath you talk about JJs sound better than Winged Cs and in the next breath tell someone a single el84 is going to sound like a pair of el43s. :crazy

[mxr2000]

I have the Soultone 2204 superplexi. The power scaling works perfectly. Great marshall tones at lower volumes. Footswitchable effects loop also. Cool could you do a review of this amp?