"Marshall Sound"

victor meldrew · May 12, 2012, 08:34:28 AM

My son plays a Crate Vintage Club 30 which he loves but he wants a pedal that will drive it more to make a "Marshall" sound for Rock. Have built a Tube Screamer using Tonepad's design but it doesn't drive enough for him. Any suggestions welcome to buy but preferably build if possible?

CynicalMan · May 12, 2012, 09:30:09 AM

BSIAB II, Thor.

Electron Tornado · May 12, 2012, 09:31:41 AM

There's a couple of circuits here that might work:

http://runoffgroove.com/articles.html

Look at the Eighteen and the Thor.

lonewolf · May 12, 2012, 10:45:15 AM

I prefer a fuzzface/supafuzz gemanium...thor is too weak..bsiab is too noisy

StereoKills · May 12, 2012, 11:21:15 AM

Thor.

Gus · May 12, 2012, 12:14:49 PM

First you need to define what you mean by Marshall sound? If it is the EQ.

What type of tone control does the Club 30 have? Once you find that out you can use the Duncan calculator to check the EQ then compare it to a Marshall EQ.

You might get a more Marshall sound with a EQ before the amp to add to the amps EQ.

markeebee · May 12, 2012, 01:03:45 PM

Thor.

Boost it with the Tube Screamer for more chunk if required.

J0K3RX · May 12, 2012, 01:10:02 PM

BSIAB II or Crunch Box... or both

karolisd · May 12, 2012, 02:21:19 PM

You could try to lower the value of 4k7 resisor on the tubescreamer to get more gain out of it (and change the diodes to red LEDs - that's supposed to give you marshall kind of tone).

Johan · May 12, 2012, 04:17:10 PM

the OD channel of those vintage club's are basicly the preamp from a JCM800...hard to make it much more Marshall than that...can you instead name any of his hero's and we might be ably to figure out what his idea of "Marshall" is.
J

iccaros · May 12, 2012, 07:34:37 PM

Speakers will make most of the "Sound" That amp looks a lot like a Marshall to me.. IF that is a EL84 well there is only so much you can make it sound like a Marshall.

Goven'r pedal is good
but any more any you have to answer Johan's question.

What type of guitar, speaker cab all make as much of the sound as the rest.

zambo · May 13, 2012, 12:01:08 AM

+1 on speakers. plug that amp into a 4x12 close back marshall cab and see if it sounds more like a marshall. Guitar center has a 30 day money back no questions policy. might be worth it to bring one home and try it out for a week and see if its a speaker thing, not a distortion thing. past that, a simple boost pedal will fatten up anything a little and that seems to satisfy the marshall sound craving for a lot of people. for what thats worth.

victor meldrew · May 13, 2012, 06:27:16 AM

Thanks everyone for the advice. 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

DougH · May 13, 2012, 09:31:37 AM

Quote from: zambo on May 13, 2012, 12:01:08 AM
+1 on speakers. plug that amp into a 4x12 close back marshall cab and see if it sounds more like a marshall. Guitar center has a 30 day money back no questions policy. might be worth it to bring one home and try it out for a week and see if its a speaker thing, not a distortion thing. past that, a simple boost pedal will fatten up anything a little and that seems to satisfy the marshall sound craving for a lot of people. for what thats worth.

I would try this first. 4x12 closed back can cure a lot of ills.

victor meldrew · May 13, 2012, 09:41:45 AM

Doug, I don't think they'd let me bring it back to UK and then return it !

Strange · May 13, 2012, 10:48:45 AM

Quote from: victor meldrew on May 13, 2012, 09:41:45 AM
Doug, I don't think they'd let me bring it back to UK and then return it !

Can you not find a 4x12 to try out?

DougH · May 13, 2012, 10:58:42 AM

If it has a jcm800 preamp you're already there as far as the electronics goes, unless you need more gain. A simple boost can help that. People want their 1x12 open back combos to sound like a Marshall stack but it doesn't work that way. Start with the speaker configuration. My Marshall Artist sounds radically different through a 4x12 vs. a 1x12. Guess which one sounds more like a "Marshall".

zambo · May 13, 2012, 11:56:24 AM

I was just reading about this amp and it has no external speaker out and no preamp out ( which means no power amp in? ) . is this true? also it has a 4x el84 power section. It may never sound like a real marshall ( jcm 800 anyway. the 18 watt uses 2xel84 power section) but i bet any of the previously mentioned pedals will make him very happy. i would still try a booster pedal on the front of the stock overdrive channel first though. 10 bucks at the parts store is an easy experiment. It may be easier to convince him he likes Brian May and AC 30's which this amp seems to be modeled after.

sgmezei · May 13, 2012, 02:00:39 PM

My personal favorite "Marshall in a box" pedal is the catalinbread dirty little secret. Madbean has a Project called the grapevine that does this pedal and I think catalinbread were/are selling some sort of kit. I love mine and built one for a bandmate.

DougH · May 13, 2012, 05:37:24 PM

Quote from: zambo on May 13, 2012, 11:56:24 AM
I was just reading about this amp and it has no external speaker out and no preamp out ( which means no power amp in? ) . is this true? also it has a 4x el84 power section. It may never sound like a real marshall ( jcm 800 anyway. the 18 watt uses 2xel84 power section) but i bet any of the previously mentioned pedals will make him very happy. i would still try a booster pedal on the front of the stock overdrive channel first though. 10 bucks at the parts store is an easy experiment. It may be easier to convince him he likes Brian May and AC 30's which this amp seems to be modeled after.

I like sticking my Tone Source in front of a Marshall to get "more Marshall". Stinks if there's no speaker out but that would be easy to add. I don't know if the el84s are a dealbreaker or not. The ax84 November was low wattage "Plexi" using el84s. People seemed to like it. I'm not always sure what people mean when they say they want something that sounds like a Marshall, though.

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"Marshall Sound"

Strange