NAD: SL-X!!

[Antag]

It's easy to get nostalgic about long discontinued gear that we used to own or once nearly owned - I'm as guilty as anyone on this board.  But I have always regretted not buying what IMHO was (and remains) the best ever sounding high gain Marshall when they were being made.  For the last year or so I have been actively looking for one & today I finally realised my dream, getting a:

Marshall JCM900 SL-X 2100 head :) :twisted: :twisted: :D

It was described as "VGC".  It's actually immaculate - absolutely pristine.  I've seen new Marshalls in worse condition than this!  Only had the opportunity to play briefly to verify it works.  Holy cr@p this thing sounds HUGE.  Going to open her up tomorrow - both sonically & literally to see what valves are in there.  I also need to track down a footswitch at some point (presumably a mono FS will do as AFAIK only the 2 Master Vols are switchable?).  Pics:

The beast


The beast with my 3 year old son ("make a picture of me in your yusic room Daddy!")


The rigs of doom

(No, I havent' yet tried it with a BBE in the loop or into the "brutal" 4x12 - that can be tomorrow's fun :))

I am very happy :)

[Denim n Leather]

Nice!

[Afghan Dave]

I've hear very good things about these!

Congrats.

[BigB]

Congrats  8)

I played one last summer and it was indeed way better than the dual reverb 4102 combo I just sold by that time.

[38thBeatle]

Cool, Great pic of your little lad too.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Cool, Great pic of your little lad too.

+1
Hasn't he shot up over the last 3 years - time seems to have flown - seems like only yesterday since he was born

Well done on the amp too George

[dave_mc]

br00talz

[Stevepage]

I had a 2100 as well, think it may have been a older version because it didn't have the SL-X logo on it.

With a boost and noise gate it was pretty cool. Think I sold mine because I thought I was going 'rack' which last all of a few months  :lol:

[Stevepage]

Here you go George

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Marshall-Amp-Footswitch-Single-Channel-Footswitch_W0QQitemZ350327930356QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL?hash=item51912bfdf4#ht_1679wt_939

The same footswitch I used with mine.

[Antag]

Well, well, well.

Opened the back up & received something of a suprise.  It's actually got 5881 power valves, not EL34s, so just as well I didn't buy that Watford Valves kit :lol:  I knew that SLXs were shipped with 5881s for a while but it never occurred to me that this would be one of them.  It's got Sovteks in there at the moment:





& with _tom_'s recent new preamp valves thread in mind, I also was surprised to find that the preamp valves are EIs:


Interestingly, V1 & 2 are laballed "12AX7", but v3 & 4 are labelled "ECC83"



Just for interest's sake, here is one of the EIs next to a spare TAD & JJ that I had left over after revalving my Engl:


FWIW, it's not at all microphonic with those EIs in.  It's very loud.  That's loud as in LOUD. The Engl is very powerful, capable of immense volume & has incredible low end, but the Marshall has so much midrange balls & sounds big in a way that the Engl simply doesn't.

I was curiously underwhelmed by the sound of it through my "brutal" 4x12, it sounds far better into the Mesa 2x12", but on reflection it makes sense - the choice of speakers for the 4x12 was made with the Engl in mind because I found the top end really "hard" through V30s, so I guess it's no surprise that an amp which suits the V30s isn't as good with the CL80/K100 combination.

It's really cool to have an amp that offers a contrast to my beloved Engl.  I like my Savage better - it's "my" sound, but I'm also very happy to own the SLX having covetted one for so long.

I will probably change the valves, at the very least I'll experiment with different preamp valves, but will need to find someone to do the biasing malarky for the power valves first...

PS: Thanks Steve for the link to a FS...

[d1dsj]

Ah cool, happy new amp! That looks real clean to say the least, seems you are enjoying it which is great as you waitied a while to get it.  :D

[HTH AMPS]

Thats a cool amp - Marshall basically did what all those LA hotrodders were doing with JCM800s (adding more gain stages).

The quality of the transformers let these amps down - a better output transformer is worthwhile in these amps.

Also, these came out during the time when Marshall officially stopped using EL34s and switched to 5881s for everything (yes, the current production EL34s were THAT bad in the early 90s - I remember it well).

These amps can run on 5881s or EL34s, but you need to tweak the bias circuit accordingly to get the bias pot in range.

[Trev420]

How does it compare to the Savage for the brootalz?  :lol:

[Antag]

How does it compare to the Savage for the brootalz?  :lol:

It's brutal alright :twisted: but it doesn't really compare.  TOTALLY different voice.

The Savage is tight & clear, immensely powerful, with incredible low end, really vicious intense gain (& more of it than anyone could realistically need!)

The SL-X is looser, middier, kinda "ballsy" & "raunchy" in a way that the more "modern" voiced Savage isn't.  I have both Gain controls right up which I would never do on the Savage.

FWIW, the first 3 riffs I played on the SL-X once I'd dialled in a sound I liked were Obituary, Iron Monkey & Crowbar (OK, no smart arsed jokes about those being the only riffs I can play :)).  The first riffs I played after I changed the valves on my Savage were Exodus, Megadeth & Arch Enemy.  Draw your own conclusions from that... :)

Also, I just changed the preamp valves for a Harma Retro Cryo preamp kit from Watford Valves (basically 3 Harma Retro ECC83 DR250 cryo & an ECC83 balanced cryo).  it was worth doing.  More gain :twisted: a bit more clarity & density to the sound.  I like it.  Now for the output valves (sent out a few mails today to places I could take it for a rebias, service etc).

[Trev420]

Interesting, do you have any tips on what you can do to "open" up the savage's pre amp. I absolutely love what the lead boost does to mine eq wise but find that when engaged it creates too much saturation and compression to be truly usable currently. I was thinking of perphaps dropping a 5751 in the V1 position?