my new not-a-marshall

gary · Post by **gary** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 10:54 am

I heard a lot of people moan about Powerbrakes, but using one on a plexi RI Marshall didn't really hurt the tone as badly as I thought - until heavy levels of attenuation obviously. I had a THD 16 ohm for my old JMPs and that worked more or less as well as the powerbrake, with the advantages of a couple of buttons for tone modifying. In my experience, either is worth buying if you're running a 50w or greater valve half stack.

Post by **Mike** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 11:29 am

gary wrote:In my experience, either is worth buying if you're running a 50w or greater valve half stack.

A good master volume renders them unnecessary.

gary · Post by **gary** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 11:55 am

Mike wrote:
gary wrote:In my experience, either is worth buying if you're running a 50w or greater valve half stack.
A good master volume renders them unnecessary.

Not to me mate, and I have pretty extensive experience with using a hotplate on my old marshalls. Preamp and poweramp distortion are different kinds of beasts so having the THD allowed me to get lots of poweramp saturation with my MV JMP, without giving my neighbours or band members a heart attack. I'd rather have a 'clean' amp running with loads of poweramp saturation than a channel switcher. To me multichannels are always gonna be a compromise... I think this is why Plexis are hands down my favourite Marshalls and GH100Ls are my favourite Laneys, even though the Laney has an extra switchable gain stage.

Post by **Mike** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 11:59 am

Most amps that have a Master Volume will not go into power amp saturation very easily even with an Attenuator - they are often designed for Maximum Clean Headroom from the Power Stage. Marshalls have been that way since the JCM800 onwards.

You realise the holy grail of "power amp saturation" is mainly a mojo thing right?