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BoomMF

Burnt Ends
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Everything posted by BoomMF

  1. Perhaps. I wonder how the line would have done with this livery instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_sV-c5eeXU I'd be curious to see the numbers Marshall sold of the CME Limited Edition in black and the Custom Limited Edition head in black they did for a quick minute. At NAMM 2015 Marshall chose Nick Bowcott to debut the amp and do the interview circuit. I like his Marshall history books, really, they're great, but he's not a guy I would have chosen if I wanted to make a splash with a splashy amp. I think that he had at least something to do with the mediocre reception. (Oh, and also an unwashed lefty.)
  2. Side note: I THINK the only other amp I have that is cathode biased is the Class5. Obviously that the Class5 likes to go bonkers and melt the paint in the room has nothing to do with the biasing, which should mellow it out some, no?
  3. NAD Marshall Astoria Custom head The Marshall Astoria line might go down as a crown jewel of the Marshall line. I don't know exactly why it has been a failure, but I have my guesses (Pricepoint and fuckin Nick Bowcott, for example). If you can get past the sticker shock for a 30w amp made by a company not called Friedman, and get to the amp itself, I think people will find it contains the culmination of all of Marshall's best ideas, some great new ones, all in a package that both pays tribute to Marshall's rich heritage and forges its own path. Apart from the media blitz when it was announced back in 2015 there has been almost nothing, not a drip, from Marshall regarding these amps. Curious, I searched around for people who might know the history of where it came from because I'm fascinated by the entire line and there just isn't much information available online. It seems that before Jim passed he gave the green light to Steve Dawson to create an amp of amps for gigging musicians. Dawson, himself a gigging guitarist, was given carte blanche and he went all out. Steve was the lead designer for some of the greatest amps to come out of Marshall, including the JTM45/100, Class5 (!), Super100JH, JMP1 (!), 50th Anniversary Bluesbreaker (Holy damn, what a killer amp!), 2245THW, JMD1, and the Vintage Modern. I mean, come the fuck on. And the Astoria makes a solid case for being his greatest achievement. Steve designed all three Astoria amps (Custom, Dual, and Classic), but Chris George came up with the looks. He wanted something that looked nothing like any other Marshall, but retained some stylistic cues from the past as well. Chris was also an F1 fan, so thus the Astoria has a racing stripe. Whatever, I think they look fantastic - even the green one. Now, I'm not a big fan of Chris's demo style, and hell, I don't even like watching his left-handed ass playing a backwards guitar because it is an affront to nature, but dude crushed the aesthetics here imo. I picked up the Dual combo awhile ago and it's been the amp that has been the most inspirational when I want to jam or when I want to sound better than I am. Its tone runs the gamut from smooth Marshall clean to biting distortion but with all that wonderful articulation you get when you plug into an up-level boutique (looking at you Friedman Dirty Shirley, BE-50 Deluxe, et al.). Wonderful tone for days. Since then I've been looking for a deal on a Custom version because, while I really dig the Dual, I wanted a grown-up version of an amp that does that overdriven snarl that Marshall is known for. Finding an Astoria in the wild is hella hard, but while at the Sam Ash in L.A. I finally got to jam on a Custom and have been lusting ever since. As luck and patience would have it, this one is a B-stock that came up for a price that's tantamount to highway robbery. I was forced to buy it. Forced! I might never buy another amp that's not cathode biased again. If I want to try something other than the KT66's it ships with, like EL34s (which it was originally designed for), you just plug and play. No biasing. That's just the shit. Another little bit that I enjoy is that the effects loop is tube driven, and when it's empty and engaged it acts as another volume, so you have a volume boost at the press of a footswitch. (Of course, disengaged it's completely out of the tonal path) My only critique of the line is that the Classic, designed to be a pedal platform, has NO effect loop. That's a head scratcher to me. I'm still keeping my eye out for a deal on that one, too, regardless. The Astoria Classic might be considered as Marshall's first and only "blues amp." The Astoria line was officially cancelled this month and will probably be remembered as a failure. Hopefully time will allow the line a better perspective. Crown jewel, I tell you!
  4. Billy Idol is a bad artist? "Bad?"
  5. Wasn't Russell like 58 years old before Wilt finally beat him?
  6. Is that David Lee Roth with The Heathen Girls?
  7. Finals were in the previous series.
  8. Stick a fork in this one. It's not even worth the bandwidth anymore.
  9. That came out awesome, Chad!
  10. Almost a year ago to the day. Can't imagine this year helped anything for the counter argument.
  11. Haha, I like the Brown channel! Congrats on the amp. In a few years it'll be at least tier 3 on that greatest amps of all time list we had.
  12. KD made the league as predictable as the 80s when the same 2 teams dominated Finals appearances. Everyone knows how shitty basketball was in the 80s. Boring af. They still tell stories of how sucky the 80s were.
  13. Switch off, get Curry on defense, back this little 6'3" defender down, pass out to Rodney Hood.
  14. Phil didn't win until Jordan. Fify Jordan took some pretty starkly talented teams to the finals and won. Convinced the world that BJ Armstrong was a legit spot holder. Had a guy on his team named Bill Wennington that looked like a guy named Bill Wennington. What did Pippen average, like 17 points a game? Is that markedly better than Love's 15? Yet even those Bulls, filled with way too many Bills to be considered dangerous, were feared like no other in their time.
  15. Negative, Ghostrider. But I'm on Tapa atm and there's no telling if it's Tapa fucking it up.
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