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Marshall combo

project_c

project_c

May 8, 2008
1,592
1,870
London, UK
#1
Played my P with flats through a Marshall 210 combo in a studio today, I was very surprised by how good it sounded. The ‘modern’ channel had a really satisfying grindy tone and it was pretty punchy too, not at all what I was expecting. It weighed a lot by today’s standards but it definitely sounded good. What happened to Marshall bass amps? Have they abandoned bass completely?
 
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#2
Marshall dropped bass amps a decade back unfortunately. The last one was their best, the VBA 400, but it was not distributed well enough in the US, so interested bass players could never find them in stores and where they actually were shipped, sold so fast that the market remained unserviced.

You can't buy what you can't find or try. Europe seemed to get a decent supply and bass players spoke highly of them, but the lucrative US market is what assures success and that underservicing, also coinciding during the last of Jim Marshalls years, fell short.

Jim was a dedicated marketer and supporter of his products and the market it was created for. He looked after me when I had an amp issue once, buying the amp back at full price to help me as he didn't want defective product recircling in the market. He was protective of the Marshall name as you'd expect.

I still use Marshall's as my main amps and have no intention of ever changing.
 
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#4
Aussie Player said:
Marshall dropped bass amps a decade back unfortunately. The last one was their best, the VBA 400, but it was not distributed well enough in the US, so interested bass players could never find them in stores and where they actually were shipped, sold so fast that the market remained unserviced.

You can't buy what you can't find or try. Europe seemed to get a decent supply and bass players spoke highly of them, but the lucrative US market is what assures success and that underservicing, also coinciding during the last of Jim Marshalls years, fell short.

Jim was a dedicated marketer and supporter of his products and the market it was created for. He looked after me when I had an amp issue once, buying the amp back at full price to help me as he didn't want defective product recircling in the market. He was protective of the Marshall name as you'd expect.

I still use Marshall's as my main amps and have no intention of ever changing.
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Yeah, my only previous experience of Marshall was playing through neglected / semi-broken combos in shabby rehearsal studios, so I never gave the brand much thought. I also assumed that tonally they would be mainly aimed at rock / metal players but there was definitely more versatility to it. I don’t know why they dropped bass from their line up but this thing had lots of character and attitude, I think if they ever wanted to do a comeback, an updated, more lightweight line up would be popular.
 
#6
Marshall combo you say...... This was under the Christmas tree in 1984 and I still have it. I don't use it anymore but it sure looks cool.
P1210877.JPG
 
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#7
Sadly they are very unpopular for whatever reason.
Tbf the ones i have played and owned wer even heavy compared to other brands at the time of release so maybe that played a part at the time?
The combo's ofton tended to be very "boomy", again atleast the ones i have played.

Plus (atleast out here) they are impossible to sell on.
I have a MB-B4410 that i cannot get rid off short of giving it away for free or offering someone money to pick it up and take it away.

I personally like the sound they tend to produce but im happy i now have a pre-amp pedal that has a channel thats close if not identical to my marshalls classic channel (two note revolt bass)

TLDR : imho weight and how bass heavy they wer might have played a role, atleast for the combos.
 
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#8
i believe the Dynabass (sp?) was popular, the bassist from Muse in the early years used them and had a cult following. Sadly they were so popular with Guitar they just always neglected bass. They could be THE European backline standard for bass/guitar/keys like Fender/Ampeg are in the States but they chose to stick to guitar and it seems Orange took the bass backline sales.
 
#9
I think the one I played through was an MB4210, it had the classic channel which was definitely on the boomy side, and the modern channel which seemed useable for pretty much anything, and the eq options were all very responsive. It had a some additional selectable voicing options which didn’t make much of a difference, but on the whole it seemed like a perfectly useable amp, and it was insanely loud, it drowned out a hard hitting drummer around the halfway point.
 
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#10
Which one was yours?
On the bright side, there's still Eden, but they don't sound like Marshall. That said, different Marshall bass amp models probably don't sound the same.
The earliest Super Bass and Major Bass are arguably all-time classic amps. They didn't come with the best cabs for bass, though. The JCM800 Bass is different but not bad, judging from an NAM capture I've heard. The Bassstate didn't seem special, but the VBA looks promising.
 
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#12
project_c said:
I think the one I played through was an MB4210, it had the classic channel which was definitely on the boomy side, and the modern channel which seemed useable for pretty much anything, and the eq options were all very responsive. It had a some additional selectable voicing options which didn’t make much of a difference, but on the whole it seemed like a perfectly useable amp, and it was insanely loud, it drowned out a hard hitting drummer around the halfway point.
Click to expand...
Yeh the voicings are a bit weird, the biggest difference would be going from 1 to 3 immediately and even then it's not massive and the boomyness can be fixed lowering the bass knob thankfully.
And the volume for this series really is a thing, the 4x10 450W build in speakers start giving out at 50%.
I have played the head and it's "matching" 4x10 cab wich was rated at 600W and it held up a bit better than the 4x10 combo's did.
Wish the 4x10 combo came with a horn switch 😢 seeing the tweeter is the first thing to give in.

But yeh fun series, although replacing the tube is a major pain 😂
 
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#14
project_c said:
Played my P with flats through a Marshall 210 combo in a studio today, I was very surprised by how good it sounded. The ‘modern’ channel had a really satisfying grindy tone and it was pretty punchy too, not at all what I was expecting. It weighed a lot by today’s standards but it definitely sounded good. What happened to Marshall bass amps? Have they abandoned bass completely?
Click to expand...
Marshall seemed to have a hard time consistently making good bass amps. But not all Marshall bass amps are bad. I remember hearing a big Marshall bass stack in Roanoke, VA and the guitar and amp tech from a local music store was playing bass through it. Man, that was a sweet sounding set-up and I've never heard another Marshall bass amp that sounded that good.

That's purportedly the reason that they bought Eden on the last day of 2011. At the time I thought it was a great move because some places had a hard time getting Eden gear in countries outside the US or Europe and Marshall has distribution virtually everywhere. Next thing you know they put out new owner's manuals, which are bare-bones "quick start" manuals without the necessary instructions to tell you how to get the best sound out of an Eden amp. They put them out as 1/2-size booklets with I think it is 7or 8 languages in one booklet. Armin and I both got copies of them and they were pretty useless. That's when I started downloading all the "old" manuals off the Eden site. I knew they would be disappearing. Armin and I both told our Eden contact that these needed more info, especially they needed a "setting your level" section, which is key to getting the best sound out of an Eden amp. Evidently they sent us the pre-print previews strictly as a courtesy because they sure didn't listen to us.

When they came out with their new WTP-600 and WTP-900 amps, they had some great features. They took some very successful designs and added better cooling and a second tube in the preamp in the gain section so you could get slight overdrive to really dirty distortion out of it if you like. If it's one thing Marshall does well, it's getting good overdrive and distortion. But, these were class AB Solid State amps and class D amps were just starting to take over the bass amp market and these amps weren't light. I'm guessing that's a big reason that Marshall sold them to Gear4Music.com for a song while retaining manufacturing rights.
 
#17
project_c said:
Perhaps someone could make a Marshall preamp in pedal form with some of that grind. It had that tone that people are often chasing, hair/grit/saturation without distortion.
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Sushi Box makes the JC Emerald, based on the JCM800
I've had one for a short time so far and have been really enjoying it; planning to start using it as my main preamp replacing a VT Bass DI

Edit: Figured it's also relevant to mention the Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret is another potential option. I've built an AionFX Triton MK III (DIY clone) and enjoyed using it on bass quite a bit in its "Super Bass" mode
 
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#18
Zwitsal1989 said:
Sadly they are very unpopular for whatever reason.
Tbf the ones i have played and owned wer even heavy compared to other brands at the time of release so maybe that played a part at the time?
The combo's ofton tended to be very "boomy", again atleast the ones i have played.

Plus (atleast out here) they are impossible to sell on.
I have a MB-B4410 that i cannot get rid off short of giving it away for free or offering someone money to pick it up and take it away.

I personally like the sound they tend to produce but im happy i now have a pre-amp pedal that has a channel thats close if not identical to my marshalls classic channel (two note revolt bass)

TLDR : imho weight and how bass heavy they wer might have played a role, atleast for the combos.
Click to expand...
Ross from Two notes here - just wanted to say I'm pleased to hear ReVolt Bass is working out well for you!
 
#20
I’ve had half an eye on an MBB stack in my state for a few weeks now. It’s far enough away that I can’t easily try it out but close enough to tempt me with its Motörhead-esque good looks, and I can’t find much information on them. Does anyone here know anything about them? I only know the MG models for guitar are nothing extraordinary.
 

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