Marshall AS100d for Electric

[WelshBoyo]

Hi All,

Had a quick look on the search but didn't push up much in the way of results...

Been tasked with helping our Singer get a decent electric sound out of the above amp - he is primarily an Acoustic player, but has purchased a decent electric and a small multi-effects (not sure what this is at the mo). He will mostly be playing rhythm so not looking for an all out and out Rock Lead Sound!!!!

Is it an uphill battle to get a decent sound out of what is a primarily acoustic designed amp or will I get there with tips from those on here who know about these things!!

Any help greatly appreciated.

[Not_the_DJ]

I guess it might work best with some sort of amp sim/speaker emulation...you'll need to find out if his multi FX has that.

A regular overdirve pedal (or mutli FX version) would end up sounding pretty nasty.

I actually used to use an electric through the AS50R, but that was a clean electric with loads of chorus, delay and using an Ebow, so quite a different sound to what your singer is after.

[ESBlonde]

An electric guitar has a relatively narrow frequency band but the idea of an acoustic guitar amp is to have a wide range almost hi-fi response.
So to mimic an electric guitar amp you need to dull the highs (a lot), boost the mids and cut the bass. The on board equalisation controls will do a half decent job but a stand alone graphic or parametric eq will get you closer. Of course if you get a decent graphic you are on the way to a decent amp anyway. Knocking the tone back on the guitar might help too. You're looking for that mid honk as a basis.

hth

[WelshBoyo]

cheers guys, I'll see what this fx thing he has bought is, I have a feeling its one of the smaller Digitech ones, I was going to suggest he get a small board of mooers together but listening to DJ's advice, probably not the best thing to do...

[erictheweary]

I guess it might work best with some sort of amp sim/speaker emulation...you'll need to find out if his multi FX has that.

On the basis that an acoustic guitar amp ( if that's not an oxymoron)is basically a mini PA system I think you could probably treat it like that. So I would think this advice is right.

[Not_the_DJ]

Steady now guys, that's two of you suggesting I might have written something valid.

I'm sure ICBM or ECC83 (or other such forum amp boffin) will be along shortly to confirm that I'm actually talking b0llocks.

[p90fool]

I had one for years, and it is a kind of mini-PA, although its voicing for acoustic guitars and small speakers actually makes it better for electric guitar than a real PA.
As stated above, he WILL need some kind of speaker/ amp simulator. I tried mine with Zoom, Tech21, Oberheim and Digitech modelers and they were all great.

I always started dialling in from the same spot, ie Channel 2, bass and treble pointing straight up, contour button out, then adjust everything from the modeler. This gives you great potential for instant onstage EQ adjustments, though if he's purely rhythm he may prefer the contour button in.
Mine was truly excellent, both in sound and feel, and had a wider sweet spot than a hell of a lot of solid state "real" electric guitar amps.

FWIW I once did a studio session where they wanted an SRV-type solo, and this, combined with the speaker sim output of a Tri-OD was the tightest and most authentic-sounding result we got. We never told the client though, he was obsessed with vintage-correct amps

Edit;
Channel 1, with its sweepable midrange control, is very flexible, but actually did sound like an electric through a PA to me. You may get better results with your gear though, there's no harm in trying it.

[ICBM]

All the above is correct. It's a full-range, almost PA-voiced amp and so you *must* use speaker emulation for any kind of overdrive/distorted sound - if you don't, it will not only sound dreadful but there's a serious risk of blowing the tweeters if you're playing at any volume... distortion contains very excessive high frequency levels compared to clean (and a little too much low as well, although that's unlikely to bother the speakers as much).

If you're playing clean you could go straight in, but it will be a bit bright and zingy unless you really turn the treble down or roll the tone off on the guitar. It may be a good sound for jazzy stuff though, you generally want a cleaner, tighter sound than most 'proper' electric guitar amps give for that. (Which is why jazz players mostly use solid-state amps.)