NEW MARSHALL MODIFIED AMPS? Can This Change Their Fortune? Big NAMM 2025 News....

[@mhb450]

Friedman's sound like modded Marshall that has been through a mixing console with compression. The Friedman's always sound more compressed and less punchy then a Marshall, but that can also be because whoever dials them in always goes for WALLS of gain and bottom.

[@Old-Skull.]

I can be totally wrong but the first piece has like a subtle Andy Timmons vibe to me or at least something I heard from him in TrueFire. Love it . I know you're talking about gig amps and professional musicians, I just want to share my last experience with Marshall , I have a little Marshall DSL 5 for practice at home and the clean channel is lovely , it lacks volume compared to the dirt channel and in general but is a practice amp or at least I have it with that purpose , to have the real sound when you want to ry pedals at home and it takes pedals really well . For the price I think it's a good option for a bedroom amp if you like to be in the clean, is not going to brake your bank account and you can play it without having the police knocking at your door .

[@jamesbennettmusic2154]

The early Police clean tones were Marshall Plexi. They’re underrated cleans. Very different sound and approach to how our friend Ben uses his.

[@adamalexanderray]

Right now on Andertons the JCM 800 reissue is £1457. The new modified JCM is £2699. The mods just make it sound like a tube screamer is in front of it. That’s a £1242 uplift on the price to make it sound like a £100 overdrive is on. Ouch.

[@ΓιάννηςΓουμαράς]

Your comment is spot on. I would add an EQ pedal for the tight/mid shift options and voila you can get the same sounds from a 2203x

[@adamalexanderray]

You could make a very nice pedalboard for a budget of £1200 that would make much more of a tonal impact and difference than the three switches they added on the modified version. If it was a very marginal price difference for the modification these would fly off the shelves. As things stand these are destined to be a flop. The only people buying these will be lawyers, doctors, hedge fund managers and/or people with more money than sense.

[@RiffLair]

I was thrilled when the Marshalls were announced, then I saw the prices.... I'm either going with the Friedman Plex or the new Jose modded Friedman amp. Even considering the Marshall 1987x which is only €1444 in EU! But yes, as an owner of a Friedman SmallBox 50 I agree that Friedman amps are killer. They do lack thwt Marshall aggressiveness and high end sizzle and are a bit more compressed overall.

[@MarkFromHawaii]

Ceriatone has been making "modified" Marshall-type heads for years. They're all below the 2000 USD price point.

[@incubism]

I like that they are hand wired. By the time you land one in NZ will be 7k ish. Expensive furniture as I mostly use my hxstomp lol

[@ΓιάννηςΓουμαράς]

True, this amp is modded jcm is expensive. But Marshall has a great line up of amps that suits most of guitar players and their needs so that's ok. I live in the EU and Marshalls are affordable amps, even their classic reissues such as silver jubilee or 2203x are reasonably priced for 100watt heads that have a lot of history in the music industry

[@fastfinger6]

They mostly go to 60-70% of a launch price after few years

[@kennyb214]

What is that offset?

[@christopheranderson2158]

I just don’t understand why Marshall is not trying to do anything innovative and producing some things that fit the needs for modern players. I love Marshall amps and will always have a few……but they could be killing it in the market if they did something like the Synergy concept and incorporated things like IR loading. A new, updated JMP-1 preamp with said modern features, maybe in a pedal format, would EXPLODE! What are they doing??! 😫

[@JELIFISH19]

What needs do modern players need that they don't already have? UA has the Lion, Victory has the V4 Sheriff, and Origin has the Revival Drive. There are many more options than those but those are just examples of digital, tube, and analog emulations. There isn't anything to innovate. Anyone can easily get a Marshall sound from numerous products. The only thing they won't get is the Marshall name.

[@christopheranderson2158]

@ That’s exactly my point. Marshall needs to offer more than just reissues of 50 yr old amps. I love those amps, but I’m not going to drag a 100 watt 1959 that weights a ton and costs almost $4,000 around to gig with. They are catering to the content creation and collector crowd and not offering products that make sense to the working players. They are being left in the dust and have become a legacy brand……..it’s disappointing.

[@BOSSenjoyer]

Marshalls are great, excellent clean and crunch. More expensive in US for sure and they don't allow import at all from Thomann etc (+VAT free).

[@Double_0_7_Strings]

I hate to say it, cause I wanna love Marshall, but that price point, I might as well get a Friedman, which is my dream amp anyway. At least they didn’t drop a helix clone or something else derivative.

[@ThePlanarchist]

Might slightly slow their decline but that's crazy money......

[@leedemkiw6085]

A bit off topic John, but you are welcome to do a video demo of my Marshall JVM410H. The cleans are really nice and it's pretty versatile. Great hard rock amp too.

[@adminag1]

Dave Friedman has answered my emails in the past. That alone has made Friedman Amplification my "Go-To" amp manufacturer. I wish Marshall the best and hope that its new amps become legendary like the ones that established the company's reputation. Some of the pricing I'm hearing about though may put these amps out of reach for some people.

[@adamalexanderray]

@@adminag1 he didn’t answer my email. I asked him why do Friedman Amps have such sexual and objectively sexist names? Brown Eye? You can’t seriously name an amp after a bum hole can you? That’s so childish. A “Dirty Shirley”?!? Have you seen what that’s described as on Urban Dictionary? It involves sticking a finger up somewhere particularly unsavoury then putting it in their mouth. What a disgustingly overt sexual reference. A “Twin Sister” is when you tuck your penis in between your legs to make it look like you have a vagina. You can’t call it that can you? That’s got to be transphobic right? “Pink Taco”… Seriously? How can this mean anything other than a vagina? “Buxom” Betty? Obviously referring to breasts. A lot of this is overtly sexual and just normalises the objectification of women. … He didn’t reply. Must have been busy playing the next amplification device, a “Rusty Trombone”.

[@Tony15068]

John, Just curious why a Friedman Twin Sister Combo wouldn’t interest you with its foot switchable clean / crunch channels and master volume?

[@veers0r]

The pricing on the modded Marshalls is just stupid and the selection of mods is peculiar as well. No Variac/Low Voltage Mode. No extra tube gain stage. Instead it's a bit of solid state clipping and a pre phase inverter master volume on the 1959 which no one ever asked for. At least some good news for Dave Friedman with the fires and all. Hoping we'll get to buy the Friedman Jose in Europe as well.

[@kristofdevlamynck4786]

To be honest, there's always something that doesn't sit right with the Friedmans, too compressed and muddy. If I want the Marshall sound, I would just by a Marshall really. Only one I really like over a Marshall is the new Slash Signature from Magnatone. But that one is out of my range...for now anyway🤣

[@BMackQ]

My next one on the list is a 1987X! (and I have another 3 Marshalls, all combos, JVM, JCM TSL and JCM DSL) I would not pay 3k on an amp, Friedman or Marshall. I do think that the 3k is a "custom shop" Marshall with all the mods, so that is kind of expected. Just like you said a few times with guitars, as soon as you get to 2k for a guitar ... the game is changing (and most times not worth it). Same thing applies to amps, if you reach 2k for an amp ... I don't know, not for me!

[@BOSSenjoyer]

1987X and Silver Jubilee are the best Marshalls

[@kaitsu9608]

1987x is the marshall id pick today.

[@Stephen_Lafferty]

For £3k I would be looking at Fractal for modelling/effects.

[@pauljohnston1560]

Bloody hell that is insane money 😳

[@danbuck2110]

Much more interested in the new pedal range than an overpriced amp

[@gregsLyrics]

I would take a modeler any day over some crap one off amp. There is just no reason anymore for amps. Feed the modeler into a cheap monitor!

[@BOSSenjoyer]

Except when you try to play with someone that's using a real amp lol

[@iancclark1]

​@@BOSSenjoyer guitar amps can't match PAs if it comes to volume wars.

[@BOSSenjoyer]

@@iancclark1 Tube poweramp section and guitar loudspeakers cut through a PA to the point of making people flinch on 3.

[@TheDizzack]

Hilarious