Making sense of the Marshall 3540, UPDATED!

[Shockwave]

Hey guys.

I have just purchased a Marshall 3540 to replace the lower powered 3520 that i had. However there is more controls and jacks on the back to rival a jaguar car interior.

Anyway, I need to utilize all 400 watts of power through two cabs. However there are 4 outputs on the back. Each pair of outputs are controlled by their own 200 watt power amp.

How will i get 400 watts out of the amp with just two cabs?

The Manual which explains more clearly can be seen here.

[url="http://www.drtube.com/schematics/marshall/ibs.pdf"]http://www.drtube.com/schematics/marshall/ibs.pdf[/url]

Please help me out!

My two cabs are both marshall 4x10's 400 watt 8Ohm cabs. Would i need 4 to get the full output? Or would i need 2 4ohm cabs instead?

Edited June 20, 2008 by Shockwave

[Dood]

Ooh interesting! This model isnt bridgeable.. So.. to make the best of it, both of your cabs would need to be 4 ohms each, one connected to amp A (7) and one to amp B (11)

or you could have two 8 ohm cabs connected to amp A and two 8 ohm cabs connected to amp B.

[Dood]

[quote name='dood' post='218002' date='Jun 12 2008, 10:54 PM']Ooh interesting! This model isnt bridgeable.. So.. to make the best of it, both of your cabs would need to be 4 ohms each, one connected to amp A (7) and one to amp B (11)

or you could have two 8 ohm cabs connected to amp A and two 8 ohm cabs connected to amp B.[/quote]


P.S. I used to own a 3520.. What a great amp!!! Sounded wicked through a big heavy 2x15!

[Shockwave]

[quote name='dood' post='218003' date='Jun 12 2008, 10:55 PM']P.S. I used to own a 3520.. What a great amp!!! Sounded wicked through a big heavy 2x15![/quote]

Haha, So essentially, All i can do now is plug both the 8ohms into one side and have 200 watts that my old one would have provided?

DAMN.

Oh well, the 3540 Looks better ;-)

So who wants a 8ohm cab ?

I love the marshalls sound Brought my 3520 everywhere with me this year.

Edited June 12, 2008 by Shockwave

[Shockwave]

So wait, Shall i get 2 200 watt 4 Ohm cabs? Or 2 400 watt 4 ohm cabs?

As its only 200 a side then i could get away with just 200 watt cabs right?

[tauzero]

[quote name='Shockwave' post='217998' date='Jun 12 2008, 10:47 PM']Anyway, I need to utilize all 400 watts of power through two cabs. However there are 4 outputs on the back. Each pair of outputs are controlled by their own 200 watt power amp.[/quote]
Who'd have thought that Marshall would copy Ashdown? And that they'd copy the facet of the Superfly that gets slagged off the most...

[King Tut]

It's a pretty loud 200 watts though - even into an 8 ohm cab!

[obbm]

[quote name='tauzero' post='218281' date='Jun 13 2008, 01:24 PM']Who'd have thought that Marshall would copy Ashdown? And that they'd copy the facet of the Superfly that gets slagged off the most... [/quote]

I think its the other way round. That being the case how come no-one spotted the drawback in the 80s when the 3540 was introduced.

[tauzero]

[quote name='obbm' post='218474' date='Jun 13 2008, 05:47 PM'][quote name='tauzero' post='218281' date='Jun 13 2008, 01:24 PM']
Who'd have thought that Marshall would copy Ashdown? And that they'd copy the facet of the Superfly that gets slagged off the most... [/quote]

I think its the other way round. That being the case how come no-one spotted the drawback in the 80s when the 3540 was introduced.
[/quote]
Exactly. It's especially daft for a company which has invented time travel to take someone else's bad design back into the past to copy.

[Shockwave]

Ok well the amp has arrived and it seems like Interparcel nearly destroyed it.

One of the Rack ears are bent completely out whack and one of the power amps is screwed, its being repaired right now, Appears to be an open circuit, It doesant seem like one of the MOSFETS are dead which is damn good because MOSFETS are no longer sold new! Some of the resistors are giving me funny numbers.

Plus the amp was horrible to get into, The screws are in all the wrong places if you know what i mean.

Anyway, if i get the amp working, i have decided to just use my 8 OHM cabs for now and not rush into getting 4's The cabs will still run at about 160 watts each, Which considering each power amp runs at 200 anyway is not bad. The sound is earsplitting halfway up anyway!

Rob.

[steve-soar]

[quote name='Shockwave' post='223120' date='Jun 20 2008, 05:50 PM']Ok well the amp has arrived and it seems like Interparcel nearly destroyed it.

One of the Rack ears are bent completely out whack and one of the power amps is screwed, its being repaired right now, Appears to be an open circuit, It doesant seem like one of the MOSFETS are dead which is damn good because MOSFETS are no longer sold new! Some of the resistors are giving me funny numbers.

Plus the amp was horrible to get into, The screws are in all the wrong places if you know what i mean.

Anyway, if i get the amp working, i have decided to just use my 8 OHM cabs for now and not rush into getting 4's The cabs will still run at about 160 watts each, Which considering each power amp runs at 200 anyway is not bad. The sound is earsplitting halfway up anyway!

Rob.[/quote]That's sh*tty news, I take it that it was insured?

[Dood]

[quote name='Shockwave' post='223120' date='Jun 20 2008, 05:50 PM']which is damn good because MOSFETS are no longer sold new! Some of the resistors are giving me funny numbers.



Rob.[/quote]

They are, you just need to know where to look! Give these fellas a tinkle... [url="http://www.magnatec-uk.co.uk/"]http://www.magnatec-uk.co.uk/[/url] They have stocklists to hunt down the parts too [url="http://www.magnatec-uk.co.uk/stocklistindex.shtml"]http://www.magnatec-uk.co.uk/stocklistindex.shtml[/url] .