Gringotim wrote:
El Ciego wrote:
Gringotim wrote:
Marshall amps are the most overrated gear in the world IMHO. There are at least six brands which provide more power, reliability, sound cleaner and are more roadworthy...but YMMV. As for rockers playing Gibson, I have always associated Gibson guitars more with jazz. Just a bias, I guess.
Marshalls overrated??? Are you serious? Just curious, how old are you?
Certainly, Fender, Mesa Boogie, et al. make great amps, but if you're playing rock, nothing beats a Marshall

I'm 49 as of the 4th of July last.
Marshall built its largely undeserved reputation in the late 1960's, competing with the then more popular HiWatt. Players like Hendrix used them, endorsed them, abused them...all with great results. I'm not saying that a Marsh stack doesn't rock, but there are better amplifier/speaker combinations out there. I have personally never liked Marshall for anything other than hard rock; they're dirty, have poor S/N ratio and very high distortion, even on the clean channel. They're also in my experience less reliable than other makes. Again, this is a very subjective preference, and I know numerous guitarists who swear by their Marshalls.
The last rig I used for keyboard amplification was a 600 watt/channel Carvin head pushing a pair of custom-built 2 X 10 + 1-15 cabinet using JBL drivers. Clean, clean, clean...and never overheated, even at full stereo output. Apples and oranges, I know. I'm a keyboard player and don't use guitar gear at all.
To me, Marshall, like Fender is part of the rock n' roll mythos. Just as Fender guitars became shitty after CBS bought Fender, then returned to higher quality in the 1980's, Marshall has had its inconsistencies. So maybe I'm basing my "overrated" statement on stacks I heard when the product wasn't as good?
Anyway, back to the topic. Any electric guitarist who is going to play in the bar at SL will need little more than a Pignose or Peavy (yuck) Backstage, IMHO. The 1.5 kW Marsh stack would be overkill.
