Marshall vs Fender

[Ripper]

Ive played through many amps in my time, ie. Marshall, Peavey, Traynor, Crate etc.
I am now a dedicated Marshall owner. I have however, never played through a Fender.
Can anyone explain the difference between a Marshall sound and a Fender sound?

[ranchtooth]

From my experience, I've found fenders to have much more high end and treble. Conversely I've always thought marhsalls have a darker, heavier sound. Both can get plenty loud, and at the end of the day, they both rock hard.

[ChrisK]

Can anyone explain the difference between a Marshall sound and a Fender sound?

You can. Go play thru one!

The Fender '59 Bassman, which (Sir) James Marshall copied exactly (except for the transformers, tubes, and speakers) is where the Marshall line started.

Bifurcation is.

[benjy304]

Bifurcation is.

Indeed.

[vonFrenchie]

In my friend's band their lead singer plays a Fender Frontman, the lead guitarist plays through an 80's Peavey tube combo or a newer Marshall combo. I prefer the 80's Peavey over the Frontman or the Marshall but the Marshall comes in a close second.

I personally have a 70's Peavey Musician 400. Its more like a Fender, less low end. But with my Rocktron Metal Planet I can push it more on the low end than the high. Really what It comes down to for me is how good the built in effects are (my Musician has awesome spring reverb and tremolo).

Also I've noticed that more "punks" play on fenders and more "metal heads" play on marshalls. At least thats the case here.

[mrelwood]

Both brands have several very different models, so generalizations don't help too much here. However, new lineup of Marshall has only a few models that have a cleand sound that clean players would go for. Also, only a few Fenders have a driven sound driveheads would go after.

But this is absolutely not a rule, just what I have noticed.

As said, old Marshalls are based on a Bassman, and therefore have a clean sound that I also like very much, but pretty much every model from that company created after 1980 raises no interest in me.

[dd842]

mrelwood said:

As said, old Marshalls are based on a Bassman, and therefore have a clean sound that I also like very much, but pretty much every model from that company created after 1980 raises no interest in me.

Hi mrelwood, and Welcome! to GN2

Interesting comment. It reminds me of some of the banter about this place over whether some of the better known guitars are still "all that" ... (especially compared to what some of the lesser knowns are doing these days).

So, for you, is Marshall riding on their past glory ; or are they still producing good stuff ... that just isn't your thing?

Dan

[stinkmonkey]

It's not as simple as Marshall VS Fender. Each model has different tones. Pick-ups and the tone controls can sound dramatically different through different models too. You really need to take your guitar and effects and try them yourself to find 'your tone'.

[ccso8462]

I heartily agree with stinkmonkey. My experience is with Fenders, and different models really do have different sounds and capabilities. I'm sure its the same with Marshalls. Grab your favorite guitar and spend some time in the music store so you can get a real feel for what is available. Good luck in the hunt!

Carl

[anambrose]

Eric Johnson used two black face Fender Twin Reverbs for his clean tone and switched to Marshall half stack for his overdrive sound. When he wanted to downsize his rig and save his hearing he sub'd black face Deluxe Reverbs where the Twins had been. SRV used a Fender Vibroverb w 15" speaker that had a Cesar Diaz moded channel and a Marshall Club and Country Combo blended. The amp that's been used on more recordings than any other is the Deluxe Reverb. Great clean sound and 22 watts means they could be overdriven in the studio w/o blowing out the engineers eardrums. So the smartest thing to do is to try 'em out and get both, get some, get them all.

[blank]

I've always been a Marshall lover. I had a friend who had a Fender tube combo, old one, at his house and I'll say this: when I'd go over to jam, with only a distortion pedal & a guitar, that Fender made that pedal sound better than i've ever heard it. I guess because none of the amps I have are truly clean and this fender was (don't even know what model).
I'm just not into the pedal->clean amp thing. I like the amp to do the heavy lifting in the distortion area.

[andy]

As so many have said, there are really so many different amps made by both companies that differentiation just on brand is not so simple, but there are accepted 'typical' Fender and Marshall characteristics which I will over simplify based on generalised stereotypes and on my own ears.

A Fender will usually produce a far nicer clean tone than a marshall- a fuller, clearer tone, with a certain 'sweetness' and better graduation into harmonic distortion. If and when you can produce full distortion with one (often via a pedal with many high powered models) the sound is pleasantly ragged and rootsy- think of Neil Young or SRV for starters here.

A modern Marshall (because, of course, early Marshalls are in fact Bassman rip-offs!) is rarely used for a totally clean sound, coming across as a bit too tight and sharp, but will produce an energetic, jangly, chime with just a bit of overdrive. As the gain increases the tone remains a bit more solid, and to my ears the breakup of the tone sound a little 'finer' (as in smaller, more plentiful peaks and troughs) contributing to a thicker, more consistent distortion, which we all know and love from countless rock and heavy-rock records. The degree of gain usually available here is considerably more, too and will hold control under far more distortion than a Fender, but unless you are playing at excrutiating volume, ultra-ultra high gain sounds usually start to sound a touch thin, at which point I would prefer to use a Mesa-Boogie or Soldano (or, oddly enough, some of the modern Fender models- Mesa's and similar high gain amps often being based on the idea of a Fender style power amp with a much higher gain pre-amp!)

Often important for certain heavier musical styles too is the palm muting factor. Through a Fender with distortion (from whatever means) palm muting tends to produce a 'click' mixed with a 'boom'- on a Marshall, the frequecies respond on a more united front, producing that 'chunk' or 'chugging' sound without which metal would be a very different beast altogether.

Of course, thats how my ears and experience percieve it, and no doubt most of those points can be refuted by plenty of players, but sound being jolly hard to put into words anyway, there is no substitute for just jumping at any chance to try out a piece of gear for yourself in as many situations as possible, and ultimately hearing and feeling whether the tone characteristics make your playing sound like you want it to, or stop it doing so.