Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

[sambencuda]

Seems like a good giging head for small clubs. solid state preamp section, EL34 power amp section. 30 watts. It's a small box, has a loop and they're cheap.

Anyone ever try/own/hear one?

[horns666]

Re: Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

are you talkin' 'bout the old original late 80's..dark green ...30 wt small heads with the solid state preamp section..

Those always sounded great to me..but I don't know about gigging...I'd think you'd be in trouble with a loud drummer..even with an extension cab moving more air.

But..

Bill Morris (warrant) ..a local bud uses them live ..it always sounded fine to me..he uses the original 4 10" celestion cab too..

[Jackson-Charvel]

Re: Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

I remember playing one of those back in the day @ Jack's Music in Red Bank NJ. I was surprised with the nice tone of SS pre back then. I think I was also playing an Ibanez 540 PII (Skolnick) through it. Years later I wouldn't realize how rare both the amp and guitar would be...

[horns666]

Re: Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

yes, and we could buy Les Pauls all day for under 400 bucks..NICE ones!!!

[Rupe]

Re: Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

I have one in my guitar room right now...first good amp I ever owned (bought it new in '86). It has a funny history too. I sold it to a friend in '89 when I went to a complete rack system. He had it for a while and sold it to another frend, who later sold it as well. Jump to '99 and a kid comes into my music store with a 3203 head he wants to sell. I tell him that I used to have one but sold it 10 years ago. I go on to tell a story of how I had to jump the effects loop as the amp wouldn't work without doing this. I look at the back of this amp and there is the little green piece of patch cord that I had used to fix the amp over 10 years ago. I bought it back for $200 and have had it ever since (I fixed it correctly this time as well).
I think these amps sound great and they will hang with a very loud drummer. Although rated at 30 watts, they run off a pair of EL34's and hang with most 50 watters that I've played. I've always used it with a late 70's Marshall 4x12 wired at 4 ohms. These amps offer major bang for the buck IMO.
If you get this amp I can show you a super easy mod that will allow you to get a much better clean tone out of it...you just have to cut one wire on the PCB. [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

[Rupe]

Re: Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

[ QUOTE ]
yes, and we could buy Les Pauls all day for under 400 bucks..NICE ones!!!

[/ QUOTE ]
Sold my 1980 silverburst Custom in 1989 for $450!!! I'd maim and kill to have it back.

[charvelguy]

Re: Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

I first seen one backstage at Schenker as he had one for a backup. I used to have two...now I have one and I get tempted to sell it but it ain't going anywhere real soon. The last one was a brown grill and it went for 255 on the 'bay in excellent condition. (I got it for less than that believe it or not)It was the nicer looking of the two but it was not the better sounding I thought. In hindsight, I was probably very hasty in getting rid of it.
It gets a Marshall tone but it has some quirks. It's alot louder than you'd think but in clubs it should be fine.
I took one into the studio and gave it a test trial for hours and it was kickin thru a 4x12. Volume wise, it sounds more like a 40 watt amp when you have the gain up around 7 and the master 7-10. The 'gain' channel has but this lone tone knob...not even a lowly 3 band. To me, this is one of the amps greater issues so I run a graphic.
Between 9-10 on the gain it gets very noisy and a very 'distortion box' fet style of over the top distortion.

Essentially, this is amp is an analog or fet distortion box built into a tube output section with a reverb pan attached.
The clean is not pure because it also serves as the second channel for rhythm distortion. Over 5 and it has some grit and you have to run the clean channel louder than the gain, so you'll get cleans that break up fairly quick.

There's some mods you can make to have the clean be more clean and have more headroom. There's also a mod for the gain that involves modding the negative feedback loop. which was given to me by Tony Krank which smoothens it out.

At the time, you could get the amps for 200-250 fairly regular and at that price they're a great buy.

If this had a loose/tighten switch, it would be alot cooler.
You can get a nice Marshall rhythm sound, but the lead tone to me is stiff and the feel of the reposnse of the amp is one I feel I tend to fight. It's not like a nice JMP 50watter IMO. So between this and my 50watt Marshall, the 50 watt gets preference.

[MBreinin]

Re: Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

I had one of these in 1993 and I loved it. It was a really nice sounding amp with the 4x10 cabinet. I had to sell it because my GF at the time said it was too big to bring back to New Orleans and put in our apartment (I was living in Miami at the time). I pleaded to keep it and she said I could on one condition...that I paint it with a black and white cow motif to match the stuff she had bought for the apartment. Well, I wasn't going to ruin a perfectly good Marshall, so I traded it in. I got a Peavey Classic 30 in tweed. She approved of that. I didn't, it sucked.

Mike

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

and where is she now?

[MBreinin]

Re: Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

[ QUOTE ]
and where is she now?

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh she is now married and living in San Fran. We broke up while I was in law school, it was ugly, and I just started talking to her again a few years ago.

BTW her name is Katrina. That is why I was certain that Katrina was going to strike NOLA. Kitti was from Florida, I met her in New Orleans, and we lived in both Miami and New Orleans together. It was way too much falling into place.

She is quite upset that the storm was named Katrina.

Mike

[jwoods986]

Re: Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

I don't know. If it is anything like a 4203 Artist combo, then it's crap! I bought one in '97 off a friend, that was moving to SF, for $200 w/ a wah thrown in. I could not get a good sound out of it to save my life and finally sold it on the bay last August (for $320!). But according to what people have said here and the glowing HC reviews, it's a great amp. It was too thin sounding for me and when you cranked it, the treble was ear-piercing. Plus, after you would play for about an hour, the sound would just fade away and you had nothing coming out of your amp!

P.S. Jim - if you ever think of selling my old Single Recto, please give me first shot. [img]/images/graemlins/help.gif[/img]

[jgcable]

Re: Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know. If it is anything like a 4203 Artist combo, then it's crap! I bought one in '97 off a friend, that was moving to SF, for $200 w/ a wah thrown in. I could not get a good sound out of it to save my life and finally sold it on the bay last August (for $320!). But according to what people have said here and the glowing HC reviews, it's a great amp. It was too thin sounding for me and when you cranked it, the treble was ear-piercing. Plus, after you would play for about an hour, the sound would just fade away and you had nothing coming out of your amp!

P.S. Jim - if you ever think of selling my old Single Recto, please give me first shot. [img]/images/graemlins/help.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Step up from the Single Rectifier and go with a Mark III. Sorry Jim [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[thebisch]

Re: Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

I have had 2 and have tried many. They all sound different. One that I had sounded KILLER and I should have never gotten rid of it. One I had was horrible sounding. Most I have tried have been pretty decent. This is a SUPER loud 30 watt amp IMO. It should have no problem keeping up wih a drummer IMO.

[jwoods986]

Re: Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

Although I didn't like the sound of mine, I agree volume is not an issue - it's a loud 30 watts!

[charvelguy]

Re: Marshall 3203 Artist 30 head. Thoughts?

If the sound faded away after an hour there definitely was an issue with it, probably a tube or something relative to it getting hot. Mine used to sound better I thought after about an hour of getting warmed up.

Paint an amp black n white cow motif to match the furnishing..."sure honey, you make the cow cover for it and it'll stay in that until I play out."
skin a cow-save an amp.
yaaaaa, I must say mine has been pretty forgiving in that respect save for a pink item here an there...that an hello kitty stuff in her bathroom.