why is it that /13 rsa 23 is compared to marshall...?

This amp gets more gain than most Marshall's I've played....and way more harmonic complexity when you get the channel volumes up to 3 o'clock. It's something to behold.

I think the comparison's come due to it's nature to sound and behave like an old plexi...in terms of the quality of the rolled back tones, the ability to daisy chain and blend channels etc....

 

this is from the /13 site, you figure it out:

Combining the best attributes of several of our favorite British amplifier formats, the RSA 23 presents a truly unique and stand-alone sonic signature rarely heard before. From the speed, sensitivity and dynamics of our favorite EL84 amp from England, to the midrange punch and aggressive drive of some of our favorite 50 to 100 Watt 4-input amplifiers from England, topped off with the very unique roaring, powerful, creamy and articulate overdrive offered in our favorite 200 Watt KT88 amplifier from England, the single note chord definition at all ranges from 1 to 10 is simply spectacular.

Back before Master Volume and Channel switching there were just plain old simple Amplifiers that were made to make guitars louder, but discovered to do so much more when turned way up, before Gain and the dreaded TONE were an issue, you've got to listen to the artist of the day Like Clapton in Cream or the Bluesbreakers, Brian May of Queen, Angus Young, AC/DC, Joe Walsh with the James Gang and Ritchie Blackmore with Deep Purple to hear the ideas the Mr/13 was bringing back to the forefront, they really weren't interested in cloning a 900.

 

A youtube search on RSA23 will probably be your best bet...maybe someone pumped up the jam there. Send me a D'Pergo guitar if you own one, and I'll make some high gain clips for you and mail a disk directly to your house.

 

Well, it's possible to have very different "gain" levels with RSA23. The same is possible with Marshalls amps.

There are two channels in RSA23. The first is more traditional channel where distortion levels are roughly same than in NMV Marshalls. The second channel, the click channel can have much more distortion, it's the "modern" channel.

To answer the question in the subject line, RSA23 is very Marshall like tonally.

 

The closest comparison is actually a Hiwatt tone more than a Marshall.
The /13 description is saying that tonally it's a blend of an 18 watt Marshall with EL84's crossing over to the KT88 powered Hiwatts

However, what we can't see on paper is how Fred has voiced the amp.

It would be very interesting to A/B the RSA 23 up against the Reeves Custom 18 or Custom 30.

 

Very interesting! I always though that the EL84 and 200 W KT88 amp references were Vox AC30 and Marshall Major.

I have never played Hiwatt (which is a pity) but i have two rather classic Marshall models Superbass and JTM45 (neither of them are original actually) and i always thought my RSA23 is very much on the same league. Maybe they are but maybe they are even closer to some Hiwatts.

 

From Fred's description, I'm picking up an 18 watt Marshall which is powered by EL84's and not your typical EL34's and 200 watt KT88 powered 4 input is pretty sure a 200 watt Hiwatt.

 

Yes, i know 18 W Marshall is powered by EL84's.

And as you know Vox AC30 is EL84 amp too and Marshall Major is 200 W KT88 amp. But yeah we don't know what amps Fred had in his mind.

 

Here's the quote from Fred's text so we all can guess what he is thinking

 

Well all the magic is going to come from his pre-amp section more than the
power section, so I guess we can call the RSA 23 a respectable English Mutt

 

I haven't studied the RSA23 preamps very closely so i don't know what is going on there, if they have any clear heritage from some earlier preamp designs. At least the click channel switch is similar feature to what has been used in Matamp amps (however i would guess it's not exactly the same design).

The power amp is both fixed and cathode biased, something which is quite rare but has been used before, the original Vox AC50 is also biased similar way. Although Vox AC50 used EL34s and not KT88s.

 

The RSA 23 has a tone of gain on tap. It's incredibly rich and musical soundign with lots of muscle. It's also a tremendous lead amp. Single notes have a depth to them I haven't found in other amps.

 

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere- can't find it now- that Rusty Anderson requested an amp with some of the tonal attributes of his Marshall Major, and out of that came the RSA23.

 

I had always assumed the 200 watt KT88 powered heads were Hiwatt
because when Pete Townshend moved over to Hiwatt/Sound City that's
what they were building for his tours.

I stand corrected.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Major

The Marshall Major was a guitar amplifier made by Marshall. It was introduced in 1967 as the Marshall Pig. It was renamed the Major in early 1968. The Major was a 200 watt amp. It had two channels and four inputs. It used four KT88 output valves, two ECC83 preamp valves, and a single ECC82 preamp valve. Approxiametely 1200 of these amp were produced from 1968 to 1974 when it was discontinued.

 

....I've emailed Rusty a few times, he's only been using the RSA31 with McCartney (which makes sense) on his solo stuff he may be using the 23, but he's never mentioned it.

 

Watching McCartney at Red Square, you'll also note that there isn't one
single coil guitar in the whole bunch. All humbuckers, so that's certainly going to affect tones if you're playing a Strat or a Tele or something with P-90's

I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the ERT33 and why it was discontinued.

 

I remember when Fred was first creating the RSA23. The goal was to capture the magic of a Plexi, an AC30 and a Major in one amp...more or less what the copy on the site says.

peace
-jeff