18 Watters school me!
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depends what marshall sound your after. I own a clark 18 marshall clone, but its not aimed @ the marshall 18, but @ a plexi clone @ more reasonable volume, surprisingly , it brings its own magic and definately in the plexi camp if you tweak it so.
but one thing I have experienced is, no matter what, an 18 is NOT a marshall jtm45 or plexi or alum panel. you simply have to go there to get THAT sound.
in addition to the clark I have a 100w jmp (72) , and its got THAT sound. The 18 won't do it, but the 18 in of itsself is such an amazing option in tone.
always imho.
to sum, I love the tone from my 18, if its "smaller" volume that get's that tube saturation that you are trying to achieve, these are great.!
the clark's are not cheap, but I put it against anything.
but one thing I have experienced is, no matter what, an 18 is NOT a marshall jtm45 or plexi or alum panel. you simply have to go there to get THAT sound.
in addition to the clark I have a 100w jmp (72) , and its got THAT sound. The 18 won't do it, but the 18 in of itsself is such an amazing option in tone.
always imho.
to sum, I love the tone from my 18, if its "smaller" volume that get's that tube saturation that you are trying to achieve, these are great.!
the clark's are not cheap, but I put it against anything.
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3,118 Posts
They are Marshall, no doubt about it.
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259 Posts
I find that an 18 watt circuit wih 6v6's can easily get that vox tone a lot like an AC15.The 6V6's run cleaner than EL84's and are much chimier.
At reasonable volume levels the 18 watt with EL84's does sound sort of voxy but as the volume goes up it starts to grind.El*4's are the only power tubes that have a factor of gain like preamp tubes.They are unique.
At reasonable volume levels the 18 watt with EL84's does sound sort of voxy but as the volume goes up it starts to grind.El*4's are the only power tubes that have a factor of gain like preamp tubes.They are unique.
Nope! The circuit doesn't work that way.
The whole 18 watter trip grew out of a hobby group of tubeheads called the
http://www.ax84.com project. These guys were trying to develop a lower powered amp with the classic Plexi sound. Overall, most folks think they succeeded quite well.
They stuck to the classic preamp and substituted EL84's or less often 6V6's. For the most part they used cathode bias, although some went for fixed or a dual-mode switch to give players something to diddle with.
From a technical standpoint, once the circuit was developed anyone could see that it was pretty straight forward and you can't mess with it beyond a few simple tweaks or you'll lose that Plexi tone.
Things have moved along and now there are a raft of guys offering 18 watt amps that are essentially knockoffs of the AX84 design. Not to mean that they may not be good quality. Most of them are well built, although the odd crappy one has come in to my service bench. They're just not really unique or original.
As for the AC15 and/or the Vox "chime", I've played a bit with those circuits. The output stages never seemed that different to me from anybody else's. What WAS very different was the use of a pentode tube for the 1st preamp stage, instead of the usual triodes of a 12AX7! It has quite a different flavour than most other amps. Some boutique guys are now offering a pentode channel. I just fixed a Divided By Thirteen amp and one of the two channels was that way.
So many amps, so many tones, so little time...:rockon:
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3,118 Posts
Just to add:
Marshall's 18 Watt's actual model number is 1974x made back in the day. Marshall now has a hand wired reissue of it for sale.
There have been many slight varations to the circuit to get more of this or that sound. Light versions, 36 watt version, Voxy sounding versions, etc etc.
Check out www.18watt.com it's a great resource as well.
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259 Posts
The 18 watt marshall is NOT a copy of the AX84 or anything like it really.It is a few guys who reverse engineered an original 1974x marshall amp and offered the schematic and layouts on the 18watt forum.The forum is shut down now.
The AX84 is a single ended amp that uses a plexi-like preamp and tone control section and an EL84 power tube.
The marshall reissue was really popular for a while but the vibe has died down a bit.There are several cloners who make them as good or better than the reissue.
www.claramps.com
The AX84 is a single ended amp that uses a plexi-like preamp and tone control section and an EL84 power tube.
The marshall reissue was really popular for a while but the vibe has died down a bit.There are several cloners who make them as good or better than the reissue.
www.claramps.com
"It's the exact same thing, only different..."
I hadn't checked in for at least a year and a half. They're offering some kits, if anyone is interested.
:food-smiley-004:
Thanks for the correction on the 1974x. You might also register and login to the AX84 group. Check out their legacy projects. They've had a number of variations. Only a few are SE. Most are EL84 or 6V6 PP.
I hadn't checked in for at least a year and a half. They're offering some kits, if anyone is interested.
:food-smiley-004:
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