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by benadrian
Because I have to post on every amp topic here... them's the rules.
I used to be seriously anti-Marshall when I started playing guitar. Marshal was the pride and joy of the enemy. The wall of Marshall attitude, the branding, the trend, and the sound. It just grossed me out. It gave me a "fuck all that shit" attitude. This was like 1989 until 1993.
Then, right around '93, I was lucky enough to run sound at an all ages punk space. A ton of the Dischord bands used it as a tour stop, along with other cool east coast bands. So did a lot of the San Diego hardcore bands. Fugazi came to play the big theaters around me. So many of these bands used Marshalls, and they sounded amazing. Wouldn't you know it, my local used guitar shop (where I was basically free labor on Saturdays) got a used JCM800 2204 and a no name 4x12, so I got it for a killer deal. There were some things I didn't like about it, but that early 90s post hardcore sound was RIGHT THERE. Also, the big ass Marshall logo had fallen off, so that made me feel better.
There's a reason why so many guitar amps, especially high dollar, boutique, high gain amps are built on the 2203/2204 platform. You look at the schematic and you can see the changes, but they are like 80-90% that circuit. I can also justify using the "amp of the enemy" by viewing the 2204 is just a mod on the plexi with cascaded gain stages, and the plexi as a slight tweak to the JTM 45, which is a pretty much direct copy of the Fender 5F6 Bassman. So really, I'm just using a VERY modified Fender.
I still hate that Marshall gold anodizing.