NAD - 1968 Marshall Plexi Super Bass

[fatbagg]

Maybe I missed it, but what speakers/cab are you using with it?

Marshall 1960 with Eric Johnson Alnico 1240/1250.

 

[Krausewitz]

So I got about five minutes to test it, that’s it. Because it’s late I turned the attenuator up, set presence 2, Bass 2, mid 8, treble 2, bright ch 8, II at about half.
It sounded like Billy Squires ‘Lonely is the night’. Backing volume 1 to about half and flipping to neck singles was hey Joe. Bridge humbucker? Runnin with the Devil. It’s my childhood in a box. With just five minutes I realized that every amp I’ve ever had that were supposed to cop, emulate, or capture does not get there (some are amazingly similar with updated reliability, looking at you Suhr SL67). It’s the feel, it flows like water and sounds like exactly where a guitar needs to be in a mix. Quite an impressionable few minutes. It was humbling, and I feel I have a LOT to learn in playing this gift of an amp. The volume knob clean to dirty is SO good.
Tomorrow I will get to actually play it loud and through the day. However, I will say this; I am a person who needs a loop. I need a little reverb and probably delay. Amps feel dry without it, almost harsh is the appearance my ear audibly paints. I plugged in to this amp and played and not once did I give a **** that I didn’t have reverb. It felt alive as it is.

Vintage Marshalls really are a thing unto themselves. I don’t find them too ‘useful’ in a practical sense, but they undeniably have THE SOUND. It can be downright revelatory playing through one....

With a simple boost pedal you can go anywhere you might want to go in popular music of the past 60 years.

 

[Bluesful]

@fatbagg - try this setting:

Presence - 7
Treble - 10
Middle - 10
Bass - 1 or 2
Volumes - dimed.

 

[MrTAteMyBalls]

Oh yeah that thing is dope. Congrats!

My main amp for a while was a 1972 1959 100 watt. Probably 2005 to 2007 was when I had it. That thing also had the TONE, but that was before load boxes and attenuators were readily available and reliable. A few times I would get to the rehearsal space early so I could crank it up. It was indeed glorious. Otherwise, I always had to use a pedal to get into drive sounds. It was totally impractical for me so I sold it and moved on. I wish I still had it plus an OX box or something. I bought it for like 500 bucks.....stuff was so cheap back then.

 

[fatbagg]

Vintage Marshalls really are a thing unto themselves. I don’t find them too ‘useful’ in a practical sense, but they undeniably have THE SOUND. It can be downright revelatory playing through one....

With a simple boost pedal you can go anywhere you might want to go in popular music of the past 60 years.

This is so true. There’s something about it that seems to be full of magic and nostalgia. I was really surprised to find THAT sound is completely there. That sound of record after record is right there in that box, and you can hear it and feel it. It’s an experience unto itself. Will I be gigging it? No, I have other things that do more things and are more modern and do the things I prefer on the fly. As you said, though, for a plug in and just play some killer guitar, it’s it’s own entity.

 

[fatbagg]

@fatbagg - try this setting:

Presence - 7
Treble - 10
Middle - 10
Bass - 1 or 2
Volumes - dimed.

I sure will, today! Channels jumped? I realized afterwards that I did that little video without jumping!

 

[fatbagg]

Oh yeah that thing is dope. Congrats!

My main amp for a while was a 1972 1959 100 watt. Probably 2005 to 2007 was when I had it. That thing also had the TONE, but that was before load boxes and attenuators were readily available and reliable. A few times I would get to the rehearsal space early so I could crank it up. It was indeed glorious. Otherwise, I always had to use a pedal to get into drive sounds. It was totally impractical for me so I sold it and moved on. I wish I still had it plus an OX box or something. I bought it for like 500 bucks.....stuff was so cheap back then.

Yea, it’s not the most practical for me either, And probably not for a lot of players in today’s world. Other routes are easier, for sure. And yea, attenuators have come a LONG way this last decade or so, and having a good attenuator was a factor in this purchase! But damn, they get THAT sound! Thanks man.

 

[Krausewitz]

This is so true. There’s something about it that seems to be full of magic and nostalgia. I was really surprised to find THAT sound is completely there. That sound of record after record is right there in that box, and you can hear it and feel it. It’s an experience unto itself. Will I be gigging it? No, I have other things that do more things and are more modern and do the things I prefer on the fly. As you said, though, for a plug in and just play some killer guitar, it’s it’s own entity.

I’m mostly a clean player, so I will never, ever take my old Super Lead out. It’s just not the right tool.

....but it sure is fun!!! There’s this stringy immediacy to the notes that’s intoxicating. Throw a Kingsley Page in front and I can take the amp deep into JCM800 territory (and my particular Super Lead does NOT have a lot of gain to it...,it’s actually pretty tame).

 

[Anje]

Congrats on that old Marshall.
It's as much a feel thing as tone only to me; the dynamics from playing style/touch and guitar control variations, the way they take pedals/effects so well... Now you get why those have been my reference and home base core tone for decades and often are the ones to which lots of amps have been compared over the last 50+ years and still are

 

[Dexter.Sinister]

However, I will say this; I am a person who needs a loop. I need a little reverb and probably delay. Amps feel dry without it, almost harsh is the appearance my ear audibly paints.

May I recommend considering a Komet AmbiKab or a line out + mono or stereo amp and speakers? The AmbiKab is one stop shopping...mine has 2 x 12 for dry direct from the amp, a line out, stereo amp into 2 x 10 speakers in the same cab.

Love mine.

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• Dexter.Sinister
• Jan 7, 2021

Rig of Doom reboot. Remade cables, better cables management, careful placement of the damn...