Good Marshall style amps; bridging the gap between vintage and modern?

knwlnd said:
+1 for Brit Silver.

The new revision of it is spot on from my experience with them (I don’t have any 2555’s to compare it to anymore as they were all sold when I got sounds close enough).

I’ve also started going down the “modded Marshall” rabbit hole with jumped JMP’s by adding input boost and saturation then moving the MV location which brings them into a more modern sound.

Edit - Added “Location” for MV to clarify.
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And use the variac…I have been messing with that rabbit hole…
 
Haven't read through the whole thread, but the part in the OP about more punch and dynamics suggests you might want to go down the rabbit hole of tweaking some of the deep edit parameters. Finding the right starting point with an amp model is very important, but from there you can really adapt an amp model to have very noticeable differences with regards to dynamics and EQ.

Here is a thread that concludes with how I took the Friedman HBE model and tweaked it to match my Wizard MTL. You can fast forward to the last 30% of the thread to get to the punchline.

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/thre...k-less-compression.193563/page-3#post-2519697
 
DropDee said:
The Friedman BE V1 and BE 2010 with a lowered negative feedback do the job for me.
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I too find all the Friedman amps sound and play a little better with the "Negative Feedback" slightly lowered...even just two or three notches down from the defaults. They play a little less stiff and are a bit more creamier....
 
IRL I would approach this by modding the classic amp to have more gain. In the Fractal world, we have the luxury of a preamp boost built right into the amp block and that not only has variable boost but that also allows us to apply EQ curves (‘boost type’) - which is exactly what I’d be doing if I were modding the amp with an extra gain stage (typically reducing bass and possibly boosting upper mids/treble).

So for me the answer is to pick a plexi or 800 model, turn on the preamp boost, and adjust the boost amount and EQ to taste. Add the ‘saturation switch’ in lieu or in addition. I sometimes even have the preamp boost amount on an expression pedal for extra flexibility. And of course the master volume (level and placement), NFB, etc. can all be tweaked to optimize the amp for that level of gain.
 
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Thenewexhibit said:
What Marshall style amps do you guys like that bridge the gap between vintage Marshall and modern Marshall?

I haven’t ruled out the 800’s, but I think they might be right on/under the edge of what I’m looking for. The plexi’s and jmp’s sound fantastic, but I want a little more of the modern element with it. The Friedman’s tend to be a little too dark and wooly for me, even after adjusting the bass and depth, so looking for others. I think even the EVH Blue channel is great, and even the Bogner/Euro Blue is great, but just curious of other options. The JVM is cool too, but might be just a bit too modern/gainy/saturated. Revv could be neat too, but I know they are typically much hotter/saturated, although, they seem to be an amp model that still stays spongey when turning the gain to lower settings as opposed to getting “dry” sounding and stiff feeling as some other amps do.

For reference, I actually use the Shred Distortion pedal for a higher gain tone going into the Morgan AC-20 12ax7 treble, and with a YA 212 Mesa IR. It works great for that modern marshall style tone, and I generally run just that amp, and use different shades of drive pedals. But now with gapless switching, I wanna experiment more with different amps because I feel like I can cop that same sound, but much more dynamic and punchy with an actual amp model, so curious what could fit that bill and what you guys are digging!
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Try the Friedman again with @2112's "LT TV Mix7" IR
 
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