Brett Blackmore

Hi all,

I have a 1987 and as it is so loud I use a jackhammer pedal to get distortion. In other words I am not a purist and do not crank it up for the original sound -I turn it up to 3/4 (which is a nice AC/DC break up sound and loud) and use a pedal to get the rest. This is a great rock sound and boy does it sing! Important --> I play real 'hard' rock - not blues.

Then one day I got curious and bought a Tom Scholtz2 attenuator to check it out. I turned it up to 6/7/8 and soaked away the -db - anything from -3 to -9 - I tried a few things out but the sound did not grab me and make me happy... Sure it gets dirty, but muddy, not definable really - out of control and the bass was too loose - no way as good as good as I thought they would be. I expected E.v.Halen 'Running with the devil' and got overloaded swampy-muddy blues sounds instead.

I was told "the Tom Scholtz attenuators are no good - Hot Plates and 'Silencers' are far superior" so I dropped the idea as I thought the poor sound lay on the Tom Scholtz2 attenuator. I was wrong.

A pal came by and took it for a try out in his room - he has a 380 Euro 'Silencer' and he promptly returned the amp the next day - saying it was the same with his attenuator - crap. In fact he was so dissapointed that he has decided to buy a DSL100 as it has side-swiped all of his plans.

My tubes are good and it is re-biased properly - I have connected to a 1960 4x12 which sounds good with any other amp.

So the question is do all attenuators suck the tone away at that sort of high volume (and it is very loud) or do any amps (especially) the 1987s just not sound right at 7/8 ?

How do you use your 1987 baby boys? Anyone else here crank up to oblivion and then claim they are happy - or is there another trick?

Cheers Brett

Marshall Amps

__________________
This advertising will not be shown in this way to registered members.
Register your free account today and become a member on Marshall Amp Forum

janarn

I use my '68 1987 like this:
Volume: 6 - 8
Bass: 0 - 3
Middle: 6 - 8
Treble: 5 - 6
Presence: 0 - 3
(start with bass and presence at 0)

4 x 12 Basketweave 25w Greenbacks

No attenuator, so it's loud, but it is how the amp was made to sound.

The amp gives a good crunch with these settings.
Lower guitar volum for clean sound.
Clean boost for lead sound.

Eag

Your ears are probably like mine - I don't like attenuators either. I have a 1987x reissue and it ONLY sounds good loud, it sounds best at about 7.5 or 8. It's also ice-pick bright and hard as nails, so I had to tone it way down with proper tube and speaker choices and crank it to near melting to find it's beauty. I really only use it for one thing, which is to play moving parts and solos on certain heavier tracks using only the huffing power tubes for distortion, man I love it's flute-like harmonics (sweeter than a pipe organ) and the musical feedback. No other amp I have found can do this quite the same, not even a 1959.

This may help with part of your volume issue.....I changed my tubes to ALL JJ, which are darker than the stock tubes. I also bought a 1960 AX cab, greenbacks of course, and my god how much more quiet and smooth and saturated than a 1960 cab!!! I can't stress how much difference speakers make.

I could never gig with the thing though, unless it was like at the AstroDome or on the moon or something.

Brett Blackmore

Thanks for the feedback

I too think the attenuators rob some edge and make them muddy - your bass settings are like mine - I too need to drop back the bass and up the presence/treble so maybe the mids are shifted too.

I have never had the amp at 6/7/8 without the Power Soak as it is sooo loud. Therefore I use an o/d pedal and am pleased with that. It is a shame it does not break up earlier as this means I will never hear it loud at its full potential.

E.v.Halen used to put blankets over his cabs to lower the volume (of course the stage mic was against the speakercloth)... maybe I should buy my 1987 a dogs kennel - ha!

Cheers brett

Rockbert

I use a Weber Mass Lite 100 attenuator with my '73 1987 (running KT66's). Amp volume anywhere from 6-10 depending on the sound I want. For practice at home, the attenuator is cranked all the way down on the bass-mid dial, and at maybe 1-2 on the mid-treble dial. This attenuator has separate attenuation for bass-mid and mid-treble, which I think is a great feature, helps avoid the muddy problem at high attenuation levels.

It sounds great to my ear, better than either of my MV amps (JMP, JCM 800) with the master cranked down. But it also helps the MV amps sound better at low volume, because I can put the master up on 4-5, which is more of a sweet spot. I've only had it for about a month, so I can't say about the durability, but it looks well built, and sounds good. Haven't tried it at a gig yet, but I suspect it would sound as good or better at higher volume/less attenuation.

-Rob

Texas Native

You have to remember that your amp and guitar have a relationship. And the louder the sound is, the more your amp and guitar will play together and feed off of each other. Attenuators and low volume play affect the relationship... they don't communicate the same.

My $.02

jcmjmp

Your amp is getting muddy, probably because of aging filter caps (round, cylindrical devices on the chassis). Aging filter caps will cause the amp to sag more that usual.
Another thing to note is that when you really crank the amp, watch the bass control. You might want to lower it a little.