Play it loud - the story of the Marshall amp

[MalcolmInN]

Edit:  My tablit can't spel four tofee!

Shirley that's tofu ?

I think Splod's a bloke,
so Shirley should be Sherbert

[Malc]

The B9a bases. Very modern. I also remember fixing receivers with octal bases when I worked at the World Service in the 70s.

[MalcolmInN]

The B9a bases. Very modern. I also remember fixing receivers with octal bases when I worked at the World Service in the 70s.

Eeek, and I remember gert big valves that we wheeled into their transmitters on trolleys when I worked at the BBC overseas tx at Daventry, in the 60's !
My brain wants to say CAT29 but I cant see that number in google ??

[Luke Piewalker]

AC30s are EL84's, Big Marshalls 6L6/EL34/KT66

Based on the normal key factors of what was readily available and most reliable at the time 

I mean on tone and sound quality...   

[Zogbert Splod]

For reasons that will remain unsaid and in a place that will remain unspecified I remember sitting on a fairly small floating arrangement off the coast pumping HUGE sound pulses into the water. The electronics that drove the transducers was housed in two large metal boxes. They were referred to as the Amp box and the Rectifier box. My boss always claimed the Rectifier box to sit on when the weather was a bit chilly (coz it got comfortably warm) - right up to the day when someone got hold of the stencil kit and changed the legend on the side of the unit to Rectumfryer.

[MalcolmInN]

when someone got hold of the stencil kit and changed the legend on the side of the unit to Rectumfryer.

Was he also an ex-employee of the BBC ( the British Broadcorping Castration ) ?

[PostModN66]

Mine share space with modelling.  That's Deansmoor on the left, and a bit of a new micro-layout on the right.



Funny, I never set out to collect them, my main amp is a Mesa Boogie - they just seem to collect like "dust in the grooves".  I had a 30th Anniversary once in blue Tolex.  Man, that WAS loud - but I didn't like it much, not "Marshally" enough!

Cheers  Jon 

[Malc]

I must admit that in my youth, I was a Charlie Watkins fan. Having said that, I did use AC30s and an Orange PA, before I gave up playing.

[Zogbert Splod]

Watkins ——> Selmer ——> home brew ——> various Fenders (Randall)

Today, I do have a vintage S.G. and an amazingly nice Chinese acoustic with a piezo pickup inside. Currently, no amp at all. However, I am a wee bit interested in a small Vox modelling amp I saw recently...





(I'll add this bit down here incase anyone actually sees it - and a five string banjo!)
(I also have a set of Gretsch pickups which I am contemplating installing in the acoustic (if I do get the Vox amp))

[Bealman]

I've got one too 
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[MalcolmInN]

This, from wikip where else ! , may be why I was having a mental difficulty over the EL34 / 84 bit :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EL34
my bolds

The EL34 was widely used in higher-powered audio amplifiers of the 1960s and 1970s, such as the very popular Dynaco Stereo 70 and the Leak TL25(mono) and Stereo 60, and is also widely used in high-end guitar amplifiers because it is characterized by greater distortion (considered desirable in this application **) at lower power than other octal tubes[citation needed] such as 6L6, KT88 or 6550. The EL34 is found in many British guitar amps and is associated with the "British Tone"  (Marshall, Hiwatt, Orange) as compared to the 6L6 which is generally associated with the "American Tone" (Fender/Mesa Boogie).

and I couldnt rummage in the attic t'other night else it would'av awoke the natives, but turns out my amp up there has a pair of EL84's, (apart from those that still have 807's, including a variable voltage 250v psu of my own design and construction,) that attic is bordering on a Tardis look-like 

** not forgetting the contribution to the 'overtones' a polite description ,  of the guitars by the paper cone / suspension of the (cheap but became desirable) loudspeakers that could be afforded by those of that ilk of that time.
and which are still being marketed to this day with those very specific 'desirable' (for that application)  characteristics !

[Zogbert Splod]

** not forgetting the contribution to the 'overtones' a polite description ,  of the guitars by the paper cone / suspension of the (cheap but became desirable) loudspeakers that could be afforded by those of that ilk of that time.
and which are still being marketed to this day with those very specific 'desirable' (for that application)  characteristics !

Oh yeah!  Cone slap we used to call it.  Dave Davis was the king of cone slap distortion.  He used to use a razor blade to weaken the old style corrugated paper speaker cones to make them slap louder than everyone else's.  The VOX AC30 2x15" model was the one to strive for if you REALLY wanted the slap sound.  Didn't the 2x15" use Celestion 'Blue' speakers?  Could well be sooooo wrong.

Want one? Look here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VOX-AC30-EXPANDED-FREQUENCY-TWIN-FIFTEEN-1963-TOP-BOOST-VERY-RARE-/151720312109

[MalcolmInN]

Want one? Look here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VOX-AC30-EXPANDED-FREQUENCY-TWIN-FIFTEEN-1963-TOP-BOOST-VERY-RARE-/151720312109

OMG !

[Malc]

It may be very rare, but I wouldn't pay those sums for it. You wouldn't dare switch it on as all the caps would have dried out. I wish I'd kept mine, although it was just a bog standard one.