"Marshall Sound"

[Ronan]

I think what he's trying to do is drive the "clean" channel on the crate so he can switch between clean and pedal. His heroes are Slash,Gary Moore, Randy Rhoads

The Behringer TM300 (for $25 shipped) is my favorite at the moment. Cheap, quiet and versatile.

[pinkjimiphoton]

try replacing the reverb pan with a 500k pot...if he doesn't use reverb. then he can get that "warm brown" output stage distortion using the reverb control circuit.

the main thing is the the el84's...then little bottles aren't much for a marshall sound.

that said, i have proven many times over the years with blindfold tests that the two most "marshall" sounding pedals are the klon centaur and the boss superoverdrive.

friends couldn't tell them from my jcm800 50 watt combo...yes, i made 'em do the blindfold test.

a tube screamer to my ears doesn't cut it with anything but fender amps.

not natural sounding enough.

if your son is looking for cream, try a super overdrive with the tube screamer before it. super overdrive by itself sounds like a classic marshall...hit it with the tube screamer (or better, a fuzz face) and he'll probably find close to what he is looking for.

jmo, ymmv

[joegagan]

pinkjimi, you read my mind. boss SD1 gets it, as long as we are talking about a pedal making a marshall sound.
cabinets, tubes etc etc aside of course

[pinkjimiphoton]

that is THE magic boss pedal for that tone, for sure, joe. and it loves a fuzz before it, too.

i finally bought a tube screamer, only because it was 30 bux at a pawn shop and i'm a sucker for cheap pedals.

but i don't care for it, the tone is nowhere near as good as the boss or klon...it sounds like the sd 1 and centaur with a real bad cold....and not nasal in a GOOD way,
at least to my ears.

[zambo]

you could also.. build or buy a JCM800. its a great excuse to get one. 

[kodiakklub]

dont suppose anyone has a link for the SD-1 schematic? thanks in advance...

[CynicalMan]

First google hit:
http://www.freeinfosociety.com/electronics/schemview.php?id=169

[kodiakklub]

dang it. i looked for boss super overdrive schematic and didnt get that one. i didnt use the model number. derrr   thanks cyn

[kodiakklub]

and looking at ebay, it will be cheaper just to buy a real one. 25-30 bucks. done and dun.

[DougH]

I didn't think the SD1 and TS were that different. I tried an SD1 in a store and it sounded pretty similiar, with some extra high freq response.

[victor meldrew]

Thanks everyone for some great advice and links. Will start by putting together a Marshall 18 and see where it goes 

[zambo]

YES!