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Post by mustachio on Oct 23, 2013 17:16:10 GMT -7
Hey everyone,
I have a need for a smaller, more portable amp. I have a Maz 18 with a Z-cab 1X12" Blue. Love it. Never getting rid of it.
However, I also have a Victoria Ivy League which has a 10" speaker, pumping 14 watts. Great amp. Well built, but a little too dark. It doesn't handle pedals well. Great cleans, though.
So, I have a Marshall 1974X coming on Friday. Just to try out. I like the idea portability, but I hear that it's a one-trick pony. But, a great pony.
After having looked into the Marshall, I just pulled the trigger on a Carmen Ghia 1X10". I didn't want the head, as I want a grab-n-go amp.
Here's my question(s):
Should I've bought the 1X12"?
How's the volume compared to the Maz 18 (I know it's apple to oranges with the different speaker sizes, but in general)?
How are the cleans with the Ghia?
Does anyone have any experience with the 1974X? I mean, a real in depth description as to the the feel. Please avoid the cliches "crunch", "chime", "compresses", etc. How does it react?
For reference, Im only playing humbucker equipped guitars. Your thoughts are appreciated. I mean, I know I'm going to have the Marshall on Friday, but I'm just going to test it out and send it back. I'm a loyal Z'ist.
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Post by digiTED aka 'Ted' on Oct 23, 2013 19:09:40 GMT -7
I've got a Ghia and often use it in the 1x10 cab. I use a Greenback or a Gold in there and both have been broken-in I'd say. My 1974x experience was an afternoon in the amp room at my shop with a few nice gats on hand (PRS Mira Private Stock, EBMM Albert Lee w/ buckers). It had a heritage G12 Greenback in there, most likely nowhere near broken in. They're a good comparison as they exist in a similar space. I'd give the headroom award to the Ghia, though it has more bloom (mine has a 5751 in v2 and a 5Y3 in v5). The breakup is smoother in the Ghia and crunchier in the 1974x IMO. I found the 74 brighter too. It was pretty touch sensitive (pick lightly for clean, dig in for breakup) too, though the Ghia is king like this. Can you tell I prefer the Ghia?  Keep in mind that my impressions are solo, but the Ghia is more middy so I'd imagine it'll cut better. The 74x is a nice amp though; I really like the tremolo alongside old school Marshall crunch and it looks fantastic. I just think the Ghia is a more evolved take on a similar tonal concept. |
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Post by LuckyBlackCat on Oct 23, 2013 19:19:57 GMT -7
I can't comment at all in relation to the Marshall, but I do have a Ghia and a Maz 18 NR, so I can help you with that comparison.
I put my Ghia in a 1x10 with a Greenback 10 and I am blown away by the bigness of the amp. I play strats, and I really like the Ghia cleans. They can be thick and full or brighter with the tone control. It has more headroom than I expected--I can get the volume to noon before I get much breakup with single coils.
As for volume compared to the Maz 18, to my ears, the Maz is significantly louder through the same speaker. However, your Ghia probably has a Red Fang in it, which is more efficient and louder than your blue, so that is a factor.
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Post by mustachio on Oct 23, 2013 19:51:45 GMT -7
Awesome, guys. Thanks for your input. I'm glad to hear that the red fang is efficient. I love the blue with my Maz, but I didn't want the same pairing of a blue with el84s. Plus, the ghia had a different rectifier. And I like the idea of a little more cleans on the Ghia as opposed to the Marshall being so quick to overdrive. I listened to all the YouTube videos i could find, but they are all hard to really ascertain, except for the Buddy Whittington one and the Les Paul dude jamming but he has a head only.
I mean, I know I'm being neurotic and will soon have my own A/B comparison. But, I wanted to start this thread because there was one other thread but no real substance to it mostly, "Yeah. It's great..." type of posts. I will write an in depth review.
Oh, and no sooner than I had put my Ivy League on eBay it sold. About the same price for the Ghia too. I'm in the black and out of the dog house with the wife. I promised no more guitars or pedals, but not amps! Boy, was she pissed.
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Post by greenblues58 on Oct 24, 2013 1:47:23 GMT -7
I have a 1974x and a maz18 nr and yes with humbuckers it does go into overdrive at 2 on the volume and gets fatter the more you up the volume but just rolling the guitar volume down a bit cleans it up wherever you set the amp volume.
To give me a bit more head room and overall volume I put 5751 in pi and trem channel and put in a celestion gold and use an aby to switch or blend channels.
It can't live with the maz for volume but having a greenback in the maz levels it out a bit with the gold in the Marshall.
I use a two amp set up with the maz set on the edge for cleans and crunch then both or just Marshall for drive.
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Post by John on Oct 24, 2013 3:23:26 GMT -7
I don't know if you've ever read this in the forum:
Maz Jr: 1 part Marshall, 2 parts Vox
Ghia: 2 parts Marshall, 1 part Vox
If your Ghia is coming with the 10" Red Fang...that's an incredibly efficient speaker (102db) I found it WAY too loud and quickly replaced it. There are many here on the forum that like the fang.
Don't worry about not getting a 1x12. The 1x10 Ghia is great.
The 10" greenback if NOT efficient. That could get you some nice tones...at considerably less volume than the maz/blue. You would choose which amp to use based on the gig.
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Post by mustachio on Oct 24, 2013 9:04:35 GMT -7
John, thanks for that! I thought for a second, "Should I have went with the Monza?" But, having one part vox, two parts marshall makes total sense. And I was worried about the red fang being a 10" speaker. But, I just realized, I could also hook it up to my blue. Very helpful. I love this forum. Thanks everyone.
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Post by harry on Oct 25, 2013 14:02:58 GMT -7
I understand the wife getting pissed thing so tell her it's not like you brought home another woman... Awesome, guys. Thanks for your input. I'm glad to hear that the red fang is efficient. I love the blue with my Maz, but I didn't want the same pairing of a blue with el84s. Plus, the ghia had a different rectifier. And I like the idea of a little more cleans on the Ghia as opposed to the Marshall being so quick to overdrive. I listened to all the YouTube videos i could find, but they are all hard to really ascertain, except for the Buddy Whittington one and the Les Paul dude jamming but he has a head only. I mean, I know I'm being neurotic and will soon have my own A/B comparison. But, I wanted to start this thread because there was one other thread but no real substance to it mostly, "Yeah. It's great..." type of posts. I will write an in depth review. Oh, and no sooner than I had put my Ivy League on eBay it sold. About the same price for the Ghia too. I'm in the black and out of the dog house with the wife. I promised no more guitars or pedals, but not amps! Boy, was she pissed. |
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Post by Pete aka shouldb on Oct 25, 2013 15:45:26 GMT -7
If ur looking for more headroom on the Ghia, then the Red Fang is the perfect speaker. Sounds much bigger than a 10" in the Doc's cab and is so efficient you can run the Ghia pretty clean and still be heard.
Of all the Z amps I've had, the Ghia seemed to cut through the best for some reason, and I had the 1x10 RF combo as ur getting
I have to say though, I didn't find the Ghia any quieter than the Maz18...........
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Post by mustachio on Oct 25, 2013 21:27:39 GMT -7
So, 1974X came today and is packaged up and is leaving tomorrow. I played it all afternoon, comparing it to the Maz 18 NR with the blue. The 1974X has the classic Marshall tones. I thought channel 2 (non tremolo) was like the JTM45 in character; it wasn't too bright and had a little more clean headroom than channel 1. The tremolo channel has more gain and can get into the 1959 SPL territory. The tremolo is cool, but doesn't sound that good with OD pedals. Clean, or with a simple boost, it sounds great.
I wanted and expected early breakup and the Greenback delivers it in spades. However the Greenback must have been defective or it just is a bad match with the amp. When I played a F barre chord or low E fifth power chord in the first position, there was a residual low "fffffff" residual harmonic that was most unpleasant. Also, there was a 60 cycle hum present, even if no pedals were pushing it.
Speaking of pedals, I tried my (in order of the best to worst sounding with the amp) ClinchFX EP-Pre, Xotic EP-Booster, Jetter Helium, and Jetter Gold 45/100 to see how well the amp took pedals with various gain structures. The Greenback, in my opinion, limits the Jetter pedals. It just doesn't have enough room for extra saturation. I suspect if it was paired with the Blue it would be a different story, but the Greenback is soldered, so I couldn't quick connect my Z cab with it and I wasn't about to unsolder anything.
That being said, the Xotic was nice for an extra layer of grind and then the ClinchFX for solos. The ClinchFX is one of the best, non-colored boosts and adds a little bit of low end. I've never played an EchoPlex but it's supposed to be the most accurate recreations of the circuit found in an EchoPlex. It only had about 4 db of boost (the dial only works until the 12 o'clock position) but it's very noticeable and doesn't augment the highs to ice-pick territory like the Xotic can. If you haven't tried one, you should. Google it. Great turn around, good people from Australia make them.
What I liked about the 1974X is the feel and it's natural overdrive. One trick pony. Not a gigging amp by any means. I mean, you could gig with it mic'ed, but since we're all loyal fans of Dr. Z, we are spoiled by Z's dynamics, especially the Maz 18.
Back and forth, back and forth. Maz then 1974X. 1974X then Maz.
The Maz has great cleans, therefore the platform for pedals is obvious. Here's the the thing that ultimately made me send it back: the Maz EQ Bypass is almost I identical to 1974X. But, louder and better lows. One drawback to the Maz compared to the Marshall. Sustain and harmonics, at least at the Maz's lower volume settings. But, I think that's what makes Marshalls Marshall. Maybe it's not that the Maz doesn't have them, the 1974X doesn't struggle to get them.
Recap: Looks awesome and is very light. 1974X has great overdrive, great feel and sustain/harmonics. Doesn't take dirt pedals well and not loud compared to Z-watts. Speaker sucks. Tremolo is pretty good.
Musician's Friend was great, by the way. They're even paying for the return shipping due to the speaker and 60 cycle hum. So, if you ever return something to MF, they'll ask you why you are requesting a RMA. If you just say, "I didn't like it," they will make you eat the return shipping. But, if you say complain about it being defective, they will email you a UPS label. Just a tip for future reference.
Well, that's all for now, until I get my Carmen Ghia on Tuesday. To be continued...
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Post by greenblues58 on Oct 26, 2013 3:28:18 GMT -7
You really need to give the speaker time to break in as I had the same experience with my 1974x despite it being about 8 years old when I got it I don,t think it had ever been played in anger but it changed markedly after a couple of weeks at close on full volume.
It does add a lot to the overall break up and played in isolation I did not really notice the lightweight bottom end it has but definitely does compared to my Maz running them side by side.
I put the gold in which has increased the bottom end somewhat but more so the speaker does not contribute to the breakup until a lot later on the dial and the overall volume of the amp is a lot louder.
I too found that overdrive and other pedals don,t really suit the amp(not required anyway just use the guitar volume to vary from clean to bliss) so I run straight in but have just added a wampler spring reverb barely on for some ambience.
As I said before a 5751 has tamed the difference in the two channels so I tend to run one at about 8 and the other at 4/5 to get cleans easier via a ABY pedal and this way you get the benefit when on the Y as if volumes are matched the volume drops(phase cancellation).
On the noise side mine is very quite and on a par with the maz.
Sorry you didn,t bond with it.
I find running mine along side the Maz set on the edge of breakup is a good combination.
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Post by John on Oct 26, 2013 6:23:44 GMT -7
I'm really curious to see what you think of the Maz Jr vs the Ghia.
....and by the way, your avatar creeps me out!
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Post by greenblues58 on Oct 26, 2013 6:29:10 GMT -7
^^^^^^^
and I thought it was only me
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Post by mustachio on Oct 26, 2013 19:45:25 GMT -7
Ha, John! Mullets have that effect. I'm curious to compare the Carmen with the Maz. I can't wait. Greenblues58, I did bond with it, but I would've had to put a different speaker and twiddle with tubes, etc. it was just noisy. But, I should've used my ABY pedal! Totally forgot to. I can't wait for the Ghia.
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Post by John on Oct 27, 2013 5:58:47 GMT -7
People used to freak out when I would post a pic of the real life 'Beavis'.  |
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Post by Mark (Basement Enthusiast) on Oct 27, 2013 7:34:57 GMT -7
^ Scary!
I'm now on my 2nd Ghia (a 25th Anniv. MV model, this time), and just did another A/B comparison between the new one and my venerable MAZ Jr NR; I used a G12 Gold and a Radial HeadBone for instantaneous switching. I'm tellin' y'all, if you crank the Cut control on the MAZ and keep the Mids up high, you'll get really close to the Ghia. Really close. Volumes (pre & post on the MAZ, and on the Ghia) were all around 11:00, just where the hairy-ness starts.
The big difference I noticed is that when you crank the MAZ full up, it gets a bassier, meatier (smoother?) drive (compresses more?). Crank the Ghia and it retains its brash character. So, at full volume, maybe MAZ=drive whereas Ghia=distortion.
But again, with that Cut knob dimed... they're really close.
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elpops
Junior Member
Posts: 73
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Post by elpops on Nov 7, 2013 15:19:13 GMT -7
I would say that the Marshall sounds more relaxed (less direct) and crunchier vs. the Ghia. Would anyone agree with that?
I say this having owned both at different times and not having either one now to compare. I just think of the Ghia as being moonshine to the Marshall's whisky.
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