..it's so loud on 5 watts I think something must be wrong. Seriously, the amp sounds so damn amazing, but the 5 watt setting is deafeningly loud. The 20 watt mode is barely louder, which I know is how it works, but the 5w is loud enough to hear it outside the house with all the windows and doors closed, and that's even loud. I have it running through a 4x12. I used to have a Vintage Modern 50w head, a YJM100 head, several 50-100watt Oranges, a 130 watt Musicman, and all other manner of amps in my life, and I'm telling you, this is impossible to be in the same small room with at 5w. I also had a Z Amps Brake-lite set on full attenuation and it was still way to loud to practice. I just ordered a Bugera Power Soak to try that, since it has a setting where the attenuation can be 100%, and I'll back it off from there. Is this normal for this amp? I bought it specifically because my YJM was so frighteningly loud. I figured on 5w with the Break-Lite would be whisper quiet.
HNAD It is Crazy loud, I have a Palmer PDI-06 attuenator that I run in 18% mode in 5w. Still very loud when family are at home. On the small places i gig at the moment the 5 w mode is perfect. Fantastic Amp, one of the best sounding amp i ever played Cheers
These are my fears, mine hasn't been delivered yet, I did buy a JHS Little Black Box master volume box in anticipation to try to control the volume. What if you push in the effects loop button on the back, does it attenuate the volume at all? I had a 1987x briefly it had a ppimv and I could crank the amp and get all kinds of glorious crunch at friendly home volumes, this will be my backup plan if this mini plexi volume is unmanageable.
Congrats on the new amp! Why dont you get a 1X12 cab? That will drop the sound a lot and that coupled with the attenuator should make a major difference!!
Yes it is loud (for home). Yes - 20w not so much different then 5W. But it's awesome ! I'm afraid the problem is the Z Amps Brake-lite - as far as I can tell, maximum attenuation is 11db, and that may not be enough for a 4x12. I think that a 25db-33db max att. is more suitable range for your scenario. Oh, or a 1x12.. But fear not, i find it very manageable, either with an (proper) attenuator or with the help of a volume box in the loop. I prefer the attenuator myself. If it's not too late i recommend the mini-mass as a better option (little more expansive) or have a go at building your own (full instructions in this forum. I've completed mine today).
All those years they've been selling us 50/100 watt amps and it turns out 10 watts was plenty for most of us....
Thanks for the replies guys. Good to hear that mine is "normal". Like I say, I've had plenty of 100watt and 50 watt tube amps, including Marshall plexis, but this is really unreal for 5w. I have the new power soak from Bugera on the way...we'll see if it does the trick. I just wanted to also say how damn good this amp sounds (for anyone thinking about picking one up). It has to be the best sounding Marshall there is. I previously thought that about the YJM, but this is better....even more bass and fuller sounding. So articulate as well. I'm extremely pleased with my choice.
I think that jhs box will work fine, it acts as a master volume soooooo,.... I’ll tell you what @pedecamp,....if the box doesn’t work for you,....I highly recommend a Weber miniMass 50 watt attenuator. https://www.tedweber.com/minimass I’ve had mine a couple of weeks now using it with with my Jcm800 Studio. It works superb, and only $136.00!! Now I am able to crank my Jcm800 Studio and enjoy the enhanced strong harmonics, and full, thick, Marshall roar coming from those cooking EL34s. Here’s some settings I’m using now on my amp, (20 watt setting), and my Weber MiniMass 50,....and it’s LOUD!! You’re able to choose from 4, 8, and 16 ohms,...also a treble boost of 3db or 6db. It works perfectly for me, it’s simple to use and it sounds great! vault tec boy
Congratulations on the new amp! I've had mine for a little more than a month now. It's damn loud! I have the luxury of keeping my speaker cabs in a separate room on a different floor. So it doesn't kill me. I also believe you'll find there's not a lot of difference between the volume on 3 and on 7! It just compresses and overdrives more. That's actually good news too because that's how the big brothers act! Hope you dig it man! You can put a compresser in the effects loop to lower the level but it's not the same. The Plexi experience is LOUD!
That is so true,...I’m probably older than most of the guys here. I was gigging in the early to late 70s,...and if you didn’t have a 100 watt amp you might as well go home. There were very few places that had PA systems do we were on our own. I played a 100 watt Fender Super Six Reverb 6-10 combo and the other guitarist had a early 70s 50 watt head with a 8-10 cabinet. .... .....and we both dimed our amps! Now 10 watts is probably perfect for me.
Hi guys, I just bought an SV20 today to be shipped tomorrow. I have a lot of upcoming gigs and really want this sucker to work, the loudness comments are hard to judge. I had the Mini Jube 2x, Friedman Runt 20 2x, Friedman Dirty Shirley... they all could get pretty damn loud. The loudest amp I had recently was a Dr. Z Maz 18, stupid loud with master volume on 2. My ideas are: JHS Blackbox in the loop at home (and possibly gigs) to experiment and dial in all sorts of tones. Amp set CLEAN with Fractal AX8 in front for all drive and FX (I REALLY need to hear the Plexi cleans/cleanish and see how loud those are to determine if this could work). Fractal AX8 into the FX loop return utilizing the SV20 as a EL34 based tube power amp. I did that with the Runt and it was amazing... Mini Jube was OK, but the FX loop config on the Mini Jube is weird where all the controls still work on the power section. So hopefully great tones at home, clean pedal platform live and/or tube power amp option live. We added a second guitarist and I need to stake my tone "footprint" so loud live won't be too bad actually Obviously it's very important the loop is decent... Also, going to try the DI out live and apply cab simulation somehow through the board or possibly a cab pedal. If not, might have to grab the Friedman mic no more which is the same emulation used in the Runt which is excellent. I look forward to testing this all out and providing my review soon!
Uhm yeah that's NOT how speaker wattage works It's just another 100 dB speaker, so it'll have similar loudness to much of the higher-end and more modern Celestion range, and actually somewhat lower loudness vs. some Eminence products
My Mesa TC100 amp with a 2-12" cab on 3w can be loud enough to play a small club with no problem. So 5w is a lot more than people think. (I have a 7w mode I play a lot with and it just seems like any other amp.) It's to bad Marshall doesn't come up with a good attenuator to make their amp's more usable, it would be nice to drop the power and push the amp for tone. I just looked up attenuators on Sweetwater and they start about $500 and go up to about $1500! They do have some cheap ones but you get what you pay for. If I were a Marshall guy though, I'd have the best one I could get, one that let's the amp sound like itself.
