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loudwizard wrote:He also hasn't used Black/Electric amps in years - the last 2 records have been made with Marshalls.

AFAIK, that's an accurate statement. You can really hear the difference when you throw on, say, Quantum Mystic before/after one of the newer cuts.

A lot of bands have been moving away from Orange/Matamp stuff and onto/back to Marshalls, Soldanos, etc. The Billy Anderson-style production sound is also falling more and more out of fashion, which may correlate.

To my ears and guesstimation, I'd wager that the midrange cut of a guitar through a jacked Marshall (etc.) sits in the mix with the rest of the instruments better than a cranked Orange (which has the tendency to utterly define the mix, as it were).

For my money, the best illustration of that would be comparing Dopesmoker to Snakes for the Divine. Different band, obviously, but the same idea.

D.o.S. wrote:To my ears and guesstimation, I'd wager that the midrange cut of a guitar through a jacked Marshall (etc.) sits in the mix with the rest of the instruments better than a cranked Orange (which has the tendency to utterly define the mix, as it were).

I'd say that's pretty accurate. Oranges are great, but all most too much at times. At least that's been my experience with the OR120 that we have at the studio. Too full-range sounding, so it forces everything else in the mix into a competition for space.

D.o.S. wrote:For my money, the best illustration of that would be comparing Dopesmoker to Snakes for the Divine. Different band, obviously, but the same idea.

See i love both of those albums and the guitar tones on each but for different reasons. I def agree with what your saying about matamps overpowering everything, and marshalls sitting in the mix better. Thats the same reason i like my reissue Model T compared to an Original Model T. I've played both and played drum's in front of both and the original's tone and volume is just over powering no matter what you do the Reissue to me allows more felxibility and better blending with the band as a whole.

I'm interested to find out what kind of marshall's Mike is using. I would think they would be either clone's of vintage heads or they are vintage Marshall's. From what i am told though vintage marshall's love to blow transformers. A friend of mine (who happens to be on d.o.s's doperigs site....) has put atleast 2 transformers in his old JMP since he's owned it if i remember correctly. That would make me stray away from them as reliability is a really big issue to me, but having one around the studio would be pretty cool. Especially an old 800.

Ancient Astronaught wrote:From what i am told though vintage marshall's love to blow transformers. A friend of mine (who happens to be on d.o.s's doperigs site....) has put atleast 2 transformers in his old JMP since he's owned it if i remember correctly. That would make me stray away from them as reliability is a really big issue to me, but having one around the studio would be pretty cool. Especially an old 800.

That's strange. I don't think that's a common thing. I know a few people, along with myself, who gig regularly with JMPs and have never heard of them blowing transformers. Sounds like your friend has an issue unrelated to the actual circuit design. A faulty something-or-other that's causing them to go....

I will ask him this weekend I might be hanging with them on saturday. I'm not sure on the detail's but he said that it was a fairly common problem for the year range of his head. I think the first replacement was a NOS trans that was bad from the get go and thats why he had a second one put in. But since then he hasnt had any problems that i am aware. But like i said im not positive on all of the details so i will have to confirm. I can tell you though his tone is KILLER live and the head takes pedals like it was made too.

Well I double checked and it blew the output transformer first so he got it fixed with a dagnall trans, it then lasted a 4 hour practice, and then blew the power transformer. He said the power transformer blowing is a common problem.

Ancient Astronaught wrote:Well I double checked and it blew the output transformer first so he got it fixed with a dagnall trans, it then lasted a 4 hour practice, and then blew the power transformer. He said the power transformer blowing is a common problem.

Wonder what year it is?

That 2nd time sounds like his tech botched it. 4 hours!? I bet he was PISSED.

man.

Glad it's working for him now. Such great amps.

Sorry to get off-topic.

I believe it's in the year range of 78 to 82..... i will double check that also. They are great amps, they're the only marshall's i've ever liked playing through. I don't think it's so off topic since were discussing the possible amp's used on ATMA...... still wish we could confirm the exact amp's mike uses now, i guess i could send him a facebook message later and ask him.

MaggotBrainNY wrote:

D.o.S. wrote:To my ears and guesstimation, I'd wager that the midrange cut of a guitar through a jacked Marshall (etc.) sits in the mix with the rest of the instruments better than a cranked Orange (which has the tendency to utterly define the mix, as it were).

I'd say that's pretty accurate. Oranges are great, but all most too much at times. At least that's been my experience with the OR120 that we have at the studio. Too full-range sounding, so it forces everything else in the mix into a competition for space.

I definitely know what you're saying--in the rehearsal space, I hand my JCM800 clone over to the guitarist (who doesn't put a whole lot of low end in his tone) and my OR120 sits in the bottom of the spectrum (FAC all the way to the left FTW!).

So the end result of that is a big old hazy wall of sound without too much sonic overlap, but we're also not downtuned and dooming out (which was, and still is, my favorite style of playing). Now it's more like nodding off.
Also, in my experience, JCM/JMP-style heads take to pedals like fish to water... which could also be part of the switch we're seeing.

Nothing to see here... totally didn't post a picture of Dark Castle by accident...

D.o.S. wrote:Nothing to see here... totally didn't post a picture of Dark Castle by accident...

HAHAHA Stevie is awesome! I first met her in 08 while i was on tour, they blew my mind away it's great to see how far they've come in such a short amount of time.

Yeah, they're awesome.

She's totally Mike's thumbnail doppelganger, though.

D.o.S. wrote:She's totally Mike's thumbnail doppelganger, though.

No comment..... that's none of my business.

I'm the guy that owns the Marshall AA was talking about (been a while since I've posted here...)

It's a '79 and it blew the OT and I got it back and it lasted one practice and blew the PT so two completely different transformers and problems and just terrible luck on my part. 30 year old transformer will do that, the tech said the wiring just degraded over the years. JMPs and old SLs really really don't like impedance mismatches which translates into people thinking they don't have very robust transformers compared to say a Mesa.

Also ATMA owns...

My friend just showed me Cessation the other day. Seriously awesome band!