Marshall 1974X Combo: Orgiastic Vintage Guitar Tone
Written: Aug 09 '08 (Updated Aug 09 '08)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Superb vintage tone
Cons: Expensive. Not a lot of volume for the dough.
The Bottom Line: The Marshall 1974X 1x12 Combo amp is a faithful reproduction of a classic guitar amp that delivers great vintage tone. It's expensive, though.
|
|
|
| buffoonery's Full Review: Marshall 1974x Combo Amp |
There is nothing like the sound of pure, vintage 60s Marshall amp tone. Alternatively crisp, growling and angry, it is the sound of countless albums from the 60s and 70s (and from infinity to beyond) and it’s still hanging around in the 21st century. Among the most highly prized of the vintage amps is the model 1974 (produced between 1966 and 1968, to add to the confusion), a handwired, 1x12 combo famed for its tonal quality. Vintage copies will cost you a bundle.
Due to consumer demand (and, presumably, the opportunity to make a buck, like any good capitalist organization), Marshall reissued this legendary amplifier a few years ago. And the Marshall 1974X 1x12 Combo is a seriously rocking amplifier that any guitarist who digs the kind of 60s tones generated by Hendrix, Bluesbreakers-era Clapton, and a bazillion other guitar greats would want to have in his tonal arsenal. Let’s take a more detailed look at this forty-pound machine.
In comparison to switch-and-control laden modern amplifiers, the gold-plexi covered control board is simplicity itself. You get on/off and standby switches and two channels.
The “Normal” channel has two identical inputs and dedicated volume and tone controls. The tremolo channel as one low and one high input, volume and tone controls, and speed and intensity controls for the tremolo. The two channels can be jumpered with a cable running from either normal channel input to the lower tremolo channel input, although you can reverse it, too.
For starters, you get point-to-point handwired circuitry. Both vintage and expensive. Sound is powered by 3xECC83 (v1, v2 and v3) tubes in the preamp, a 1xEZ81 rectifier, and 2xEL84 cathode-based tubes in the power amp (same as classic Vox amps and instead of the EL34s you’ll find in most Marshalls). The preamp design is interesting and here’s what Marshall’s got to say about it:
V1 is dedicated to Channel 1, the non-tremolo channel. As Channel 1’s pre-amp has a single gain stage, each half of the valve (the ECC83 being a dual-triode) acts as a dedicated gain stage for the channel’s two inputs (which are identical). V2 acts as the amplifier’s phase-splitter. V3 is dedicated to Channel 2, the Tremolo channel. To be precise, one half of the ECC83 acts as the single pre-amp gain stage for the
channel’s two inputs (High and Low) while the other half acts as the oscillator for the amp’s tremolo circuit.
The speaker is a single 12: G12M-20 Special Celestion Greenback preaged to sound like its, set in a Baltic birch cabinet. Apparently the Marshall guys met with the Celestion team, did a bunch of comparisons with vintage speakers that Marshall had stored, messed with the magnetic flux and cones, and voila! they got a speaker that sounds . . . old. And, given the size, pretty loud. (A 1x12 1974CX extension cabinet is available for a grand list.)\
That ain’t much for your $3240 list/$2300 street price.
On the other hand. . .
On the other hand, there is the tone. Super, fabulous, scrumptious, totally a$$-kicking, whatever, you want to call it, this machine has vintage Marshall tone in spades and it won’t kill your ears in volume. Ideal for recording or small clubs, the 1974X delivers rich-full midrange extravaganzas in particular. Harmonic overtones are sweet and complex. The amp starts breaking up around 4 or 5 and at 10 delivers vicious growls. It cleans up nicely when you dial back on the your guitar volume, too. You can really hear your guitar’s pickups through this amp and it’s ideal for playing with classic Fenders, Gibsons (Les Pauls and SGs, unite!), Ricks, whatever you want. Pick attack is clean and crisp—your sound will change drastically with your attack.
The amp isn’t perfect. At $3240 list/$2300 street, this ain’t cheap. For that money, you don’t get a whole lot of volume (you can always mic it through the house PA, though, and nobody will know the difference). It lacks the many features of modern amps.
Of course, the reason you’re buying this amplifier is for the tone, and if you want effects, at this price you can also afford a good pedals board. And I wouldn’t use a lot of effects with this amplifier. The type of music you’re likely to play with this amp is likely to demand a lot of effects, anyways.
So who should buy this amp? The Marshall 1974X Combo is a boutique-quality amplifier designed for highly discriminating players who want a particular vintage sound and a willing to pay for it. Vintage 60s and 70s rockers will love it. I can see blues players gaining some affection for it as well, but you’re really paying for distortion that you don’t need so I recommend you go buy a Fender. It doesn’t have enough gain for modern metal players and its sounds shouldn’t be contaminated by a multitude of effects, anyway. Country and jazz guys, you’re in the wrong place.
I like this amp a lot and I’m actually toying with the idea of picking one up (either this, a Mesa Road King or a Mesa Lone Star, depending on how much damage I want to do to my wallet). At any rate, if you’re in the market for vintage rock sounds, this one is dead center in the middle of the target.
Regarding collectibility, given the price tag and relative rarity, I would expect this amp to do a reasonably good job holding onto its value, you keep it long enough.
Epiphone Slash Les Paul Standard Plus Top
Epiphone Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom
Epiphone Les Paul Standard
Epiphone G-400 SG
Fender Classic 50s Esquire
Fender Cyclone
Fender VG Stratocaster
Fender American HSS Stratocaster
Fender Standard HSS Stratocaster
Fender John Mayer Stratocaster
Fender Eric Johnson Stratocaster
Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster
Fender 57 Stratocaster Reissue
Fender 50s Telecaster
G&L Legacy Strat
Gibson ES-5
Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster
Gibson ES-165 Herb Ellis
Gibson ES-175
Gibson ES-333 Memphis Style Hollow Body
Gibson ES-335
Gibson ES-335 1959 Reissue
Gibson ES-350T
Gibson ES-350T
Gibson Les Paul Classic Custom
Gibson Les Paul GT
Gibson Les Paul 1957 Goldtop
Gibson Les Paul Studio
Gibson Les Paul Robot Guitar
Gibson Les Paul Classic Ebony
Gibson SG 61 Reissue
Gibson Super 400
Gretsch Electromatic G5120 Hollow Body
Gretsch White Falcon II
Ibanez Artcore AS73 Semi-Hollow Body
Joe Satriani JS 1000 Solid Body Guitar
Ibanez Steve Vai Jem7
Martin D-28 Acoustic
Ovation VXT Acoustic Electric
PRS McCarty
PRS Single Cut
PRS Santana SE
Schechter Diamond C 1
Variax 700 Acoustic
Other amp reviews from buffoonery:
Crate Acoustic CA30
Crate Power BlockFender Blues Deluxe Reissue
Fender Cyber Twin
Fender DSP 65
Fender 64 Vibroverb Custom Blackface
Fender Super Sonic 1x12 Combo
Fender MH 500 Metalhead
Hughes and Kettner Switchblade 50 Combo
Line 6 Spider II Head
Line 6 Flextone III Plus
Line 6 Vetta II Combo
Line 6 Spider III 75
Line 6 Spider Valve 2x12 Combo
Marshall 1974X 1x12 Combo
Marshall Super 100 JH
Mesa 5:25 Express
Mesa Stiletto Ace
Mesa 5:50 Express
Mesa Dual Rectifier Roadster
Mesa Stiletto Deuce
Mesa Triple Rectifier Head
Mesa Lone Star Combo
Peavey JSX Joe Satriani Signature Head
Peavey Classic 30 Combo
Peavey Triple XXX Head
Peavey Penta Head
Roland Micro Cube
Vox Valvetronix AD60VT
Vox AD50VT-XL 50 2x12 combo
My effects and stomp box reviews:
Boss AC-3 Acoustic Guitar Simulator
Boss BD-2 Distortion Pedal
Boss ME-20 Guitar Multiple Effects Processor
Boss GT-8 Multi-Effects Processor
Boss GT-10 Multi-Effects Processor
Boss ME-50 Multi-Effects Processor
Digitech RP50 Guitar Effects Processor
Digitech RP80 Guitar Effects Processor
Digitech Brian May Red Special Overdrive Pedal
Line 6 POD X3 Guitar Multi-Effects Board
And you may also be interested in a few books such as:
Hugo Pinksterboer – Tipbook Amplifiers and Effects
Ritchie Fliegler – Amps: The Other Half of Rock and Roll
Michael Ross – Getting Great Guitar Sounds: A Non-Technical Approach to Shaping Your Personal Sound
Nick Freeth – Classic Guitars: Identification and Price Guide
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.