Your favorite non-Marshall Marshall

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fiesta Red
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THD Series One Plexi.

It's a clone of a 69' JMP small box 1987.

It just sound better to my subjective bias taste.
 
I’ve got a H&K Access and an ADA MP1 for different flavors of Hot Rod’d and a copy of the JCM800 pre section for raw tones. Had a Synergy BE-BB, would have kept if I wasn’t hurtin for money.
 
Metro-Plex and the Amp 1 Iridium. Two totally different units but must say they both do the Marshall thing good.
 
This is a hard question when you really think about it. Some of my all time favorite "Marshall-like" or "Modded Marshall" sounds are high gainers, that I use for high gain sounds. And quite frankly, I think the best of those sacrifice that raw, bright, mid-gain sound and voicing that Marshalls are so well known for, and it hurts the low and mid gain sounds.

But I think my 2006 Splawn Quickrod is one of the best sounding amps I've ever heard. Recently I've been A/Bing it with my Diezel Herbert and it's amazing how similar they sound through the same cab actually. Using Ch3 on the Herbert vs the Splawn in 3rd gear. However it's important to note that I don't feel as strongly about my 2008 or 2009 Quickrods, which have a different circuit and an extra preamp tube - I'm talking about just the 3-pre early circuit. I also had a 2018 Streetrod which had the brightness of my 06 but was lacking... something... in the mids, and had more bass. It was a great amp, but I liked the 06 version the most. From what I hear, the newer run of Splawns with the "new/old" switch can hit this tone that I love but I haven't had the chance to try one of the newer ones that has this feature.

However, that's for high gain sounds. I don't particularly like the voicing of that amp for mid gain crunch stuff. I really think it's impossible to beat the "real thing" when it comes to that, and I have a 2203 and a 1987x which I would pick for those things. So if I have to pick a non-Marshall, the easy out is to pick a Ceriatone or other clone amp. Since those have been mentioned a few times already though, I'll go out and say that the ENGL Savage Mk 1 I have, on Main Channel 1, Mode 2 ("Crunch"), with Contour switch in, is one of the best crunch tones I've heard for low to mid gain rock. I just really love it. The amp is not very different from a Marshall type circuit so I think it technically counts for this? It's also important, in case you run into one of these amps, when you are in the Crunch or even Lead modes on this amp, BOTH gain controls interact. This is different from the new Savage Mk II. Tweaking the two gain controls can have a pretty cool effect on the tone on the Mk 1.

And last honorable mention that does both the high gain and mid gain stuff nearly as well as all of the amps I mentioned above, but I'd ever so slightly put it in 2nd place for both, the Kasha Rockmod 50 just fricken rips. Can't believe there is one sitting on the classifieds right now that hasn't been sold at the price it's at. I like the amp so much I'm trying to justify why I need two of them, it's that good.
 
3 Monkeys Virgil


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Friedman Runt 50
Friedman Smallbox
Friedman PT-20 V2
Splawn Competition
Laney GH50L
Engl Artist Edition
Bogner Helios
Ceriatone Yeti

Yes, I've owned every one of these.
 
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I just finished jamming on the Egnater Vengeance. It’s pretty Marshall
 
MadAsAHatter said:
3 way tie between Headfirst Alta, Ground Zero Hellion and Monomyth Skeleton Key. Followed in close second by my Peters Vega.
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I'd go with one of these options first. Support our own; plus they are absolutely killer sounding. My next choice would be between Germino, Morris, or Landry. Landry seems to be the best bang for the buck option out of those 3.
 
Friedman Little Sister
Egnater Tweaker 15 (Vintage/Brit/Bright)

Any Traynor YBA-1 users here?
 
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