Satch's (upcoming) Marshall

Satch said this in a recent Chicken Foot interview:

The star of this record was the prototype of a version of the Marshall JVM410 that (engineer) Santiago Alvarez made for me, which is going to be a signature model.

And so we shall wait for it.

Going back to fundamentals

A tried & tested combo: Marshall + Ibanez

Time & again, I'd get frustrated trying to get that workable tone for my needs. I'd turn to my JVM410 & any Ibanez guitars to hear what I've been missing. I am fundamentally a guitar + amp person so trying anything else would only breed rejects.

I have been listening to my playing through this amp while sitting quite a distance away from the drivers (I usually sit very near to conjure that feedback effect readily), I also stood up at times. When one stands farther away from one's amp, one can hear a wider range of frequency in action. The tone would be more balanced, as opposed to sitting very close to the cab. The JVM is a worthy investment. It's one angry amp I didn't regret acquiring.

Solidstate vs tube

It's rather baffling why I even considered another solidstate MG head when I currently own a full tube JVM unit. In amplifier kingdom, tube is king, anything less is simply scum of the earth. Well, that's the mentality when it comes to amplification & the majority embrace of the tube tone.

Is the tube tone really superior to the solidstate technology? The warmth we hear from the former is no contest for the latter, especially in the clean domain. The solidstate technology is, to put it simply, too rigid & lifeless to be appealing to the common ears. This is especially true of amplifiers in the 1980s but technology had come a long way. Manufacturers today (at least the ones who bothered) make sure their more affordable alternatives, always in the form of their non-tube offerings, are on par with their ear candy counterparts. In this light, I believe Peavey & Marshall are moving their soildstate affairs in the right strides.

I've played many amplifiers along the way, the tube superiority is undeniable but I have come to respect the solidstate tone manifestation in terms of clarity especially if one dabbles in guitar solos excessively, quite what I am indulging in since I embraced the amplified guitar tone. This is not an attempt to alleviate the non-tube tones into glory but I must say this tonal manifestation is much different from the tube sound. I've learned to appreciate the tube & solidstate offerings separately & not embrace one to repudiate the other. I make it a point to judge an amplifier based on what I hear per se, devoid of its preferred background or featured brand name. Despite treading the same turf, the tube & solidstate amplifiers serve us differently in essence, this we always forget.

Just because I own the JVM, the MG should not be a de facto repulsion. I am not too keen with Marshall's MG product range, really, but I made it a point to check them out since they were revised recently. To put it simply, the tones are more organic & worth the consideration.