Fellow 80’s Marshall heavy user
Thanks for sharing the cool story. The reason for messing around with some many of these tiny details (like guitar cables, meh, I know) is that I’m trying to recreate a certain sound made with exactly this amp (’77 2203 but it’s supposed to be same circuit) and a certain late 80’s cab. You can just lower the treble and play your guitar, but it just doesn’t sound the same to me with many of the high quality guitar cables I use. Kind of the same thing where Hendrix diehards say that the coily cable is a must.
I’ve kind of thought about using a modern hi-fi cable with these amps and it does make sense that these amps most probably were not designed with those in mind. YMMV but I think the high end is just too bright with too high of a guitar signal resonance peak, and it limits your use of the treble knob. The late 80’s cabs are also heavy on the treble. Back in the 80’s no-one except maybe audio scientists cared about instrument cable impedance and just used whatever gear they had. On stage and in studio cable runs could’ve been long, and of course there could be buffers in the signal path but… Again this really depends on what you’re looking from this amp. Hope I don’t sound like a madman, but it can happen when you’re chasing a certain sound for too long
I might be weird, but I got my first Marshalls in '87/'88, and by then would ONLY use cables with Neutrik jacks and Klotz cable. If I was using long cable runs I always made sure I had an effects pedal or multi-fx unit (I was an early adopter of the Boss ME-5) to buffer the run and avoid losing too much top end. We cared... I was very lucky in the mid-90s, and landed a Hi-Watt lookalike cab with Pulsonic coned Celestion G12H30 75Hz speakers in it. It was always my favourite, and did a really good job of warming up the mids and controlling the treble.
[True story: I had asked a mate to check out a Marshall 2203 for me, and buy it if it seemed correct and road-worthy. He called me and said it seemed good, and the seller was offering a 4x12 with it for £50. I said I didn't have room for another 4x12. Seller said OK, £30. I said, no, still don't have room for that. The next day, my mate turns up with the 2203 that I still own, and the 4x12, which the seller had thrown in as a gift! Many years later, when comparing a few of my 4x12s with someone that knows 60's and 70's gear inside out, we wanted to know why that one sounded best. Sure enough, early 70's Celestion greenbacks, with heavy duty magnets and Pulsonic cones. Stupidly, sold that one for really good money at the time, but the speakers and cab handles would make many $1000s nowadays...]
I think the master volume sweet spot with 2203 is around 3.9 or at least that’s where it’s starting to sound the best. I feel like the 2203 model isn’t as bad with higher values as the real amp is. No wonder I’ve been liking the master volume higher with the 2204 as I’ve not tried the real counterpart. Also with enough volume the 2203 starts to compress in a really nice way and your effects kind of blend in nicely into the sound instead of sounding separate. Not sure you can hear it with bedroom volume that well, but in a room with the real amp you sure can.
Agreed, it's a unique experience, but it only really comes together at really quite high sound pressure levels. And it is so very loud at that point, even at an outdoor gig. I spent years only being able to use master volume between 2 and 4, but generally only 2.5, and it needs at least 3 for the amp to meld with the effects. Ended up using a 2203 through a Marshall Powerbrake attenuator a lot of the time. More recently, an audience member described one of my "effects" guitar tones as like "being landed on by a helicopter". That was with a little attenuation from the Powerbrake too!
Honest to god, I spent years trying to find a channel switching amp that would allow me some usable clean headroom, but still allow me the edge of breakup, crunch, "effected", and boosted lead tones of a 2203. Fractal was the only thing even remotely "good enough" until a few weeks ago. It now nails the whole thing completely. I am still slightly embarrassed at how easily
@2112 got to where I needed to be. Turned out to be only a matter of weeks before Cliff made it easy for all of us!
Liam
