Speaker Question

[HTH AMPS]

I love them with my Major but that thing has enough power to make 4x300 watt speakers distort

heh, they ARE loud beasts those Majors - how do you run that amp? Is it for bass or as a clean amp? Surely you're not cranking it?  :lol:  :lol:

 :twisted:

Huh? What's the point of having 200 watts if you don't use them all? :twisted:

headroom - if you want a LOUD and clean amp that will stay clean way past the volume you can stand, this is the amp  :lol:

[Eric]

Huh? What's the point of having 200 watts if you don't use them all? :twisted:

headroom - if you want a LOUD and clean amp that will stay clean way past the volume you can stand, this is the amp  :lol:

I know. My sense of humor isn't always funny. I would love to mess around with a Marshall Major. I'm a big fan of amps with kt88/6550 tubes. I love the headroom and bottom end.

[fps_dean]

Oh and fps_dean did I understand you have a Marshall Major?? If so I am beyond jealous. I want one badly.

Yeah a '69 in very good condition... you're gonna hate me if I tell you the story of how I got it and how much I paid... or cry, I'm not sure.

[fps_dean]

I love them with my Major but that thing has enough power to make 4x300 watt speakers distort

heh, they ARE loud beasts those Majors - how do you run that amp? Is it for bass or as a clean amp? Surely you're not cranking it?  :lol:  :lol:

 :twisted:

Usually fairly clean.  I have cranked it before with a treble booster... that thing has some really mean sick sound distortion, but when I did that I melted a tube and a tube socket and it cost me $600 in repairs... but god damn it did sound sick!

[fps_dean]

I know. My sense of humor isn't always funny. I would love to mess around with a Marshall Major. I'm a big fan of amps with kt88/6550 tubes. I love the headroom and bottom end.

This thing is massive clean compression.... you drive the power tubes while the preamp is still perfectly clean.  By the time the preamp begins breaking up, you are already getting near the melting point for KT88/6550 tubes.  Warmest amp I have ever heard and a lot of people tell me it's the best sounding Marshall they have ever heard... Bob at eurotubes.com said the best sounding Marshall he ever heard was an old Major, the 3 control version called the Pig I believe it was which most people say don't even sound as good as the later models.  Part of the reason I melted that tube was because it was a 6550 which are not supposed to be used in a Major but I got it with 4 6550s, a GE, RCA, Phillips and Sylvania, but a KT88 probably would have melted too.

Some people have modded them with 4 12AX7s for more gain.... they chassis does have 4 holes drilled into it... it is rumoured that Dawk did a 4th preamp tube mod for Richie Blackmore's although I'm not so sure that is true (I should ask him!)... he ran 4 treble boosters and changed his tubes every 2-3 days tops with the Gold Lion KT88s that now sell for $650+ usd per tube for NOS (I used SEDs, and RFTs in the preamp... much cheaper).

But the only thing that really works for distortion is treble boosters... I've tried many pedals to boost the gain a little and none of them worked at all.  I'm probably going to test fate with a Soldano Supercharger at some point.... that should do it.

[fps_dean]

I would love to find a Celestion Sidewinder like Phil said. I did hear the Eminence Tonker is very similar though.

I think I'm familiar with those... those are the old early or mid 80s speakers that Jake E. Lee used if I am not mistaken?

Those things are more neutral than the Classic Leads, but I like the Classic Leads a little better because they are heavy on the mids and they still get warm when you crank a 50 or 100 watt amp and the midrange increases and sounds nice.

[Eric]

Melted a tube? That is so rock n roll!!! lol

I might hate you if you got it too cheap. ;)

A Marshall Major, a couple of 4x12s, a treble booster and the baritone seven string I want to build.  :twisted:  The neighbors will love it. :D

[fps_dean]

lol yes they would!

Well what happened is I was at a musicians flea market, and they had a smaller room in which non-dealers could sell stuff.  One guy had a bunch of old Marshalls, a 1971 1959SLP, a JTM45 which I would have bought if I had known I could sell it to the smithsonian for a brand new vette, and the Major... the first one I want to check out was the 1959SLP, but he had no guitars or cables.

So we decided that I would find the guitar and he would find the cables, so I asked some guy if I could borrow his Les Paul to try out one of the marshall half stacks. He said "only if you turn it up, all the way."  Meanwhile the guy selling the amps had already crosslinked the channels, turned them both to 10 and was just waiting for a guitar to plug in before flipping the standby switch.  I told the guy "okay" kind of sarcastically, and plug it in and turn it on.  It was really loud... then I tap the pickup selector switch and it turns out there was a short in the guitar because it just got about ten times louder.

When I give the guy the guitar back, he said "that was the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life!  I didn't think you'd actually do it!"

He also had the Major which I really didn't know what it is, but I figured it's both more unique and that it would be more of a collectable and I figured that I could probably sell it for a 50 or 100 watt head from the era.  When I was walking out, some guy takes a look at that and says "nice Marshall!  I'm here just to see if I can find a Marshall Major."

I paid $800 for the head and $700 for both cabinets.

[HTH AMPS]

I paid $800 for the head and $700 for both cabinets.

I think that deal is what they term 'daylight robbery'  :lol:

You need a green Russian Big Muff into that Major - that is one hell of a tone.  I saw a (art-noise/punk) bad from Leeds recently with this setup and it was awesome.

 :twisted:

[fps_dean]

I almost tried one out today for the hell of it...

but I'm not really looking for pedals at the moment because I just ordered a Soldano Supercharger... that should sound killer with the Major!