Marshall 1987 re issue, anyone owns or tried one?

[SH73]

I own a solid state guitar amp which suits my needs.

I am thinking getting a Marshall head 1987 re issue 50 w. For home use recording and practice.

I get loads if options on Amplitube but to satisfy my Gas I'm after a valve amp.At the end of the day it's a real deal right?

Anyone owned or tried one?

[leftybassman392]

Not familiar with this particular model (although I've had a few Marshalls - including an original late '60's Plexi - over the years).

Just a couple of thoughts and queries (not criticism you understand, just some observations from personal experience):

1. It will be VERY LOUD if you use it at anything like it's working level. You sure you need that much power without a master volume? At typical home use volumes the output stage is never going to be doing more than ticking over (unless you have a PowerBrake or some such of course...).

2. Does it need to be this particular unit? Yes it's a fabulous sound (or at least my Plexi was), but it's an awful lot of wodge for a 50w head, especially a reissue. Your money your choice and all that, but even so...

[SH73]

6 minutes ago, leftybassman392 said:

Not familiar with this particular model (although I've had a few Marshalls - including an original late '60's Plexi - over the years).

Just a couple of thoughts and queries (not criticism you understand, just some observations from personal experience):

1. It will be VERY LOUD if you use it at anything like it's working level. You sure you need that much power without a master volume? At typical home use volumes the output stage is never going to be doing more than ticking over (unless you have a PowerBrake or some such of course...).

2. Does it need to be this particular unit? Yes it's a fabulous sound (or at least my Plexi was), but it's an awful lot of wodge for a 50w head, especially a reissue. Your money your choice and all that, but even so...

Very loud=my best friend. 

So without master volume I won't be able to turn it down whilst maintaining the desired sound?

Not got spare cash for it at the moment

Any thing else you'd recommend. Cheers

[leftybassman392]

1 minute ago, SH73 said:

Very loud=my best friend. 

So without master volume I won't be able to turn it down whilst maintaining the desired sound?

Not got spare cash for it at the moment

Any thing else you'd recommend. Cheers

As I say I don't know this particular model (there may be some extra gubbins on the back for example), but the real key to getting a great sound from the Plexi (IMHO of course) is to get the output valves cooking a bit. Another possibility is to put a power soak between the amp & the cab. You can then run it a bit harder without making your ears bleed.

As to alternatives, I guess it depends how important it is to get 'that' sound. For a purist nothing else will do, but if you're prepared to be flexible there are plenty of alternatives out there. As always though, try before you buy.

[skidder652003]

a 50W marshall valve head will be insanely loud as Lefty has said, our guitarist is currently using a 40w marshall valve combo for gigging and easily keeps up with my 300W all valve Ampeg Stack, so very very loud and you will need to crank it to get the sweet spot. For home use and recording you really only need to go to a 20W valve head such as a Blackstar, or TBH this would be perfect for low volume sweet tone

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Blackstar-HT5-Head-Valve-Guitar-Amp/323016871549?hash=item4b354e4e7d:g:K~QAAOSwAWlaY3Bj

 

Edited January 25, 2018 by skidder652003

[leftybassman392]

There's a few nice amps in the marketplace here. As it happens one of them is my Cornford Hurricane, but if you're after that Marshall sound it may be a shade dark. Nothing like trying stuff out for yourself though; get on down to your local emporium and get playing.

[SH73]

Cheers guys!

[skankdelvar]

I owned an original 1987 until a couple of years ago. Dunno what the RI is like but my 1987 was almost completely unusable in a home environment. Tried a power soak - quieter but lost all the tone. Even for recording it was so loud there was too much bleed onto the drum mikes.

The other thing about 1987s is that anywhere below full beans they're actually fairly clean amps by modern standards. To get the rhythm crunch I wanted I was running either a TS or a Colorsound Overdriver clone into the front end and bridging the two channels.

Getting 'the Marshall sound' is problematic for a couple of reasons:

* There's more than one Marshall sound; Plexis, Mk2s, 70's Superleads , JCM800's each have their own flavour. 

* I've tried the modern little 5 watt Marshalls and they don't do it for me. Far too boxy and constipated

There's a modestly radical alternative which I've now adopted; a small, clean valve amp (15w) and a good Marshall-in-a-box pedal, e.g. Catalinbread DLS, Wampler Plexidrive / Plextortion / Pinnacle, JHS Angry Charlie. Check them out.

The advantage to this approach is that

i) One can swap in other flavours of pedal in order to approximate Fenders, Voxes

ii) One can run the pedal (not the amp) directly into one's recording device (start with all knobs on zero then adjust), slap a cab sim across it and away you go.

 

Edited February 4, 2018 by skankdelvar

[Beer of the Bass]

A post-phase-inverter master volume (PPIMV) can work really well with this circuit to dial it down to lower volumes, though you lose the effect of the presence control at lower settings, and it's still not exactly the same sound as cranking it with no master.  I built an amp for a guitarist friend a while back, based on the 1987 circuit but in a 1x12" combo cabinet.  While the PPIMV is effective right down to practice volume, I'd suggest that it might be too much amp unless you're regularly playing very loud gigs.  He's never had his above 50% on the master even in larger rooms, and it'll be even louder with a 2x12" or 4x12". 

Edited February 9, 2018 by Beer of the Bass
added information

[SH73]

Thank you for your replies chaps. I look into it 

[grenadillabama]

Marshall DSL 40 watt is good and cheaper than the UK Marshalls.

Edited August 11, 2019 by grenadillabama
too wordy