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Ive recently joined the site to ask some advice from the members here as well as perhaps gleam some assistance.
After many years, Ive decided to begin playing guitar again ?
My father was a Luthier, and I was born into a musical family, playing guitar from an early age, and later jumping from band to band.

I havent played in many years, but do have an acceptable foundation of knowledge insofar as instruments and other gear goes.
I am awaiting delivery of my Nashville "Princess" this week. She's a 2001 Desert Burst Les Paul Studio, from when the necks still involved Rosewood, and she's had some time to mature in the interim ?

I played a vast array of amps in the past, everything from Roland's, Fender's, Vox, Laney's etc... and am still a huge Marshall fan.
The last one I played years ago, was one of the first Valve State's released, and quite honestly, it was my only let down out of them all. I have no interest in solid state or hybrids, only proper valve's. Ive scoured the net for the past 3-4 week's trying to find a reliable supplier in this country, and every attempt thus far has been a let down.
Either people dont answer their phone's (even to the ad posted in the classifieds here) or they dont answer to email's, or they do, and claim they advise against people using the brand????, or dont sell it at all?

Is this a common occurrence here?
Ive been out of it so long, Im really interested to hear if this is commonplace now?
It kinda feel's like Im trying to hunt down the holy grail or something. Ive even gone so far as to look at importing a head myself, and trying to get a tech to do the 120 - 220 transformer conversion here... but if its so hard to just find a dealer here, its going to be worse trying to find a reliable tech to open up the head ☹

So if anyone knows of someone wanting to perhaps sell, please feel free to let me know, Id really appreciate the hookup.
Ideally Im after an old plexi eg.1959SLP or similar. Not really a JCM800 (Tone is too bright and tinny imho). As well as a nice vintage 4x12 cab.

OR

Ive heard good things about the new MA series? Anyone tried one of these? MA50H or MA100H.
Durban has nowhere to actually go and test any of the gear so deciding tone, based on power means squat to me right now for this model unfortunately.

Any help would be appreciated.
    Have you tried Marshall music? In Hillcrest and now Umhlanga...what music shops have you tried? (Pavillion music doesn't really count as a music shop imo...)
      ThomasN wrote: Ive scoured the net for the past 3-4 week's trying to find a reliable supplier in this country, and every attempt thus far has been a let down.
      Either people dont answer their phone's (even to the ad posted in the classifieds here) or they dont answer to email's, or they do, and claim they advise against people using the brand????, or dont sell it at all?

      ???

      Not sure what the problem is, Coastal Music in Durban will have every Marshall currently available anywhere in the world.

      Coastal Music
      Shop 4A-5B Park Boulevard Centre
      11 Brownsdrift Road
      Durban North
      031 573 1818
        I actually did a search on the net for Coastal, as I bought gear from them years ago, but couldnt find contact details, so I just assumed they had closed ☹
        If theyre open, I will be contacting them in the morning then... thank you!

          Kalcium wrote: Have you tried Marshall music? In Hillcrest and now Umhlanga...what music shops have you tried? (Pavillion music doesn't really count as a music shop imo...)
          The guy whom I spoke to on the phone at MM was the one who told me they advised folks from using Marshall. He tried to sell me a Blackstar instead.
          Ive also tried Soundselect, Mercury and a few other places, to no avail.
            ThomasN wrote:
            Kalcium wrote: Have you tried Marshall music? In Hillcrest and now Umhlanga...what music shops have you tried? (Pavillion music doesn't really count as a music shop imo...)
            The guy whom I spoke to on the phone at MM was the one who told me they advised folks from using Marshall.
            lol, now that is funny stuff...ask him what amps Slash used at Sun City on the weekend? ?
              ThomasN wrote:
              Kalcium wrote: Have you tried Marshall music? In Hillcrest and now Umhlanga...what music shops have you tried? (Pavillion music doesn't really count as a music shop imo...)
              The guy whom I spoke to on the phone at MM was the one who told me they advised folks from using Marshall. He tried to sell me a Blackstar instead.
              Ive also tried Soundselect, Mercury and a few other places, to no avail.
              Stay away from soundselect... terrible incident with them recently.

              Why on earth would the advise people not to use Marshall? Was prob that dudes personal preference or something.
                warrenpridgeon wrote:
                ThomasN wrote:
                Kalcium wrote: Have you tried Marshall music? In Hillcrest and now Umhlanga...what music shops have you tried? (Pavillion music doesn't really count as a music shop imo...)
                The guy whom I spoke to on the phone at MM was the one who told me they advised folks from using Marshall. He tried to sell me a Blackstar instead.
                Ive also tried Soundselect, Mercury and a few other places, to no avail.


                Why on earth would the advise people not to use Marshall?
                How about because MM are the Blackstar distributors in SA. ?
                I'm guessing the salesman at Coastal (Marshall distributors) will advise people not to buy Blackstar. ?

                'Welcome to the Jungle' known as South Africa. ?
                  Tokai SA wrote:
                  warrenpridgeon wrote:
                  ThomasN wrote:
                  Kalcium wrote: Have you tried Marshall music? In Hillcrest and now Umhlanga...what music shops have you tried? (Pavillion music doesn't really count as a music shop imo...)
                  The guy whom I spoke to on the phone at MM was the one who told me they advised folks from using Marshall. He tried to sell me a Blackstar instead.
                  Ive also tried Soundselect, Mercury and a few other places, to no avail.


                  Why on earth would the advise people not to use Marshall?
                  How about because MM are the Blackstar distributors in SA. ?
                  I'm guessing the salesman at Coastal (Marshall distributors) will advise people not to buy Blackstar. ?

                  'Welcome to the Jungle' known as South Africa. ?
                  Could very well be... same reason that TOMS braamfontein said I should get an Ibanez... lol
                    As a sales person, voicing personal preferences is only cool, if you know the person... dissing an entire brand (especially Marshall) is a bit asshat imho. All its going to do is make the customer raise their eyebrows and advise their mates not to use you. Its not proving anything. Its a bit sad actually.

                    Brand wars are stupid and just shows the persons inexperience :-\
                      If I have no luck with proper plexi here, Im leaning toward this:

                      http://www.frenzeltubeamps.com/page10.php

                      Anybody have experience with these?
                      The old man, creating these.... or should I rather say... the GENIUS creating these 8) sounds like he speaks my language.
                        ThomasN wrote: If I have no luck with proper plexi here, Im leaning toward this:

                        http://www.frenzeltubeamps.com/page10.php

                        Anybody have experience with these?
                        The old man, creating these.... or should I rather say... the GENIUS creating these 8) sounds like he speaks my language.
                        Looks pretty rocking... but you're gonna need a 100ft guitar cable with that beast... lol
                          warrenpridgeon wrote:
                          ThomasN wrote: If I have no luck with proper plexi here, Im leaning toward this:

                          http://www.frenzeltubeamps.com/page10.php

                          Anybody have experience with these?
                          The old man, creating these.... or should I rather say... the GENIUS creating these 8) sounds like he speaks my language.
                          Looks pretty rocking... but you're gonna need a 100ft guitar cable with that beast... lol
                          Its all good Im half stupid already & my neighbors hate me anyway ?
                            You could always contact Benjamin Craig from Craigamps. He is local and he can build you an amp exactly to your spec. Check out his FB page. You cannot believe the quality. He is such a passionate and humble guy ?
                              Give Coastal Music a call and speak to Lee. 031 5731818, they're in Browns Drift road, off Riverside road now. If its that Plexi sound you're after, you'd be hard pressed to beat the Marshall YJM100 head they have there. If you don't know anything about these amps, it's a Yngwie Malmsteen signature 100w head based on a standard Plexi circuit, with a couple of cool features added, like a noise gate, a reverb, and and Yngwies choice of overdrive pedal built in that can act as a boost. The head can be switched from 100w to 50w and best of all, it has Marshall's Electronic Power Attentuation built in, which allows you to bring down the power output from 100w all the way down to 0.1w, while still driving the power tubes hard.

                              I have the AFD100 which has some of the same features, notably the EPA. It really is an unbelievable feature that makes a 100w fire breathing beast of an amp practical even for bedroom playing at low volumes, while retaining the character of the amp.

                              Otherwise if its an old Plexi you're after, you're going to have to watch the various classifieds and do a lot of research as to what to look out for and avoid where necessary, as many of these old amps have been modified or poorly maintained, and although in some cases they may be relatively cheap to buy, bringing them back to their former glory can be a costly exercise.

                              Hope this helps.
                              Shaun
                                Blues Brother wrote: You could always contact Benjamin Craig from Craigamps. He is local and he can build you an amp exactly to your spec. Check out his FB page. You cannot believe the quality. He is such a passionate and humble guy ?
                                I'll second that!! The guy is a genius!
                                  Where are you based? TOMs Sandton has a very decent selection of Marshalls.. If you're into Plexi's they would probably have the reissue 1987x if im not mistaken. Yngwie Malmsteen recently released a signature head which is the reissue plexi on one channel and then his built in Rat Distortion and Noise gate on the other or something could be badass.. I read that with newer amps the transformers aren't as good as their older counterparts so getting someone to build you a Plexi to vintage spec would probably be a good move and then you can finish it in purple ostrich skin or something awesome and have a completely unique amp ?
                                    Blues Brother wrote: You could always contact Benjamin Craig from Craigamps. He is local and he can build you an amp exactly to your spec. Check out his FB page. You cannot believe the quality. He is such a passionate and humble guy ?
                                    Someone actually showed me to his site a few days ago.
                                    Beautiful work. Its always so good to see someone take that amount of pride in something they so clearly enjoy doing.
                                    Right down to the finishing is polished. I think I may feel a bit odd trying to ask someone to try knock off the sound of vintage plexi without feeling a bit guilty about it though :-\ Also Im not sure he would consider doing something like that. No doubt, he'd probably do an epic job of it though.
                                    shaunf wrote: Give Coastal Music a call and speak to Lee. 031 5731818, they're in Browns Drift road, off Riverside road now. If its that Plexi sound you're after, you'd be hard pressed to beat the Marshall YJM100 head they have there. If you don't know anything about these amps, it's a Yngwie Malmsteen signature 100w head based on a standard Plexi circuit, with a couple of cool features added, like a noise gate, a reverb, and and Yngwies choice of overdrive pedal built in that can act as a boost. The head can be switched from 100w to 50w and best of all, it has Marshall's Electronic Power Attentuation built in, which allows you to bring down the power output from 100w all the way down to 0.1w, while still driving the power tubes hard.

                                    I have the AFD100 which has some of the same features, notably the EPA. It really is an unbelievable feature that makes a 100w fire breathing beast of an amp practical even for bedroom playing at low volumes, while retaining the character of the amp.

                                    Otherwise if its an old Plexi you're after, you're going to have to watch the various classifieds and do a lot of research as to what to look out for and avoid where necessary, as many of these old amps have been modified or poorly maintained, and although in some cases they may be relatively cheap to buy, bringing them back to their former glory can be a costly exercise.

                                    Hope this helps.
                                    Shaun
                                    Great advice, thanks so much Shaun.
                                    I called them this morning, and I think I may have spoken to Lee. He advised me to come in with my guitar, plug into every amp they have, until I find the tone Im after... When he said that, I nearly dropped my damn phone man... Everywhere else here, apparently wont allow you near the amps. lol. Someone told me recently they had to stand and listen to a salesman shred, whilst they listened, to decide if they wanted the amp or not????
                                    So it would seem, I have a date this Saturday morning ? The YJM100 indeed, seems gold man. I watched a demo of it on youtube.... WOW. Like 1959 came back and slapped me in the face and then some... I really liked the built in attenuator! Thats worth it on its own just about. Beautiful chunky wooden tones. If Coastal have one, I definitely think it may be my top 5 to test.

                                    Id really like to test the AFD as well. Its just the JCM800 tone's that have me a little worried, although the hybrid build would definitely make it worth a run.
                                    I tried to follow the tech on it, to see how closely they would come to matching #39 in 'start to finish.' Tim Caswell's Tremelo hotrod, I think was pretty flippen unique. Id LOVE to see the schematic similarities.
                                    refuogee wrote: I read that with newer amps the transformers aren't as good as their older counterparts so getting someone to build you a Plexi to vintage spec would probably be a good move and then you can finish it in purple ostrich skin or something awesome and have a completely unique amp ?
                                    LMAO!!!
                                    Purple Ostrich skin sounds pretty slick actually... When my playing sucks, I can just bedazzle any audience members (poor buggers) with my amp ?
                                      there are a few videos showcasing Benj's amps ?
                                      check them out!
                                        I may actually still speak to him at a later stage about a custom design. I heard an amzing Fender Tweed vintage amp that had been restored recently. Beautiful clean tone's!

                                        Thanks to help from Shaun in this thread, I paid Coastal a visit earlier on this morning, and got to check out some amazing head and cabs that they have. I didnt find the YJM100 (possibly sold). HOWEVER I did find the Marshall Kerry King signature 2203KK, and a 1960TV cab ?
                                        Lee at Coastal music is the best!

                                        So she has a new home at my place, and my LP will arrive on Tuesday morning hopefully.