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Marshall Integrated Bass System

Ampcheck

Article from International Musician & Recording World, July 1985

Marshall takes the bass end market by storm. Curtis Schwartz takes a fancy to the whole range


Marshall's new system is modular, so can be rack-mounted...


Marshall are definitely one of the world's most famous names in amplification. From their small beginnings in the 1950s to the present day, the popularity of Marshall amps has hardly stopped growing. Last year they were awarded the Queen's award for industry, and now they launch their latest range of bass amplification, an integrated system. I went up to the Marshall factory to take a look at the whole range...

Basically it consists of 12 models of amps, seven models of cabinets, and two models of bass combos. The most obvious change in this new range is its appearance — the amp tops are 19" rackmounting, constructed with a 16 SWG steel chassis finished in a hard matt black stoved powder coating. The facias are all quite different from the previous ranges of Marshall amps too, using black knobs with white pointers, and if it weren't for the Marshall logo they'd be completely unrecognisable.

The range of integrated bass amps start with the 3510R 100W rackmounting unit, and finish with the 3540S 400W, the rack mounted version of which I was able to look at in depth.

The 3540 consists of an integrated bass preamplifier and twin 200 watt RMS power amplifiers, giving 400 watts output power from the one unit. The 3540's modular power stages use MOSFET devices, as do all of these new models. Its front panel features a five band rotary graphic Eq with low and mid contour control. The actual centre frequencies involved are 50, 400, 1k, 5k and 10kHz, (with ±15dB of cut or boost, except for 10kHz which gives ±20dB) and the contour control gives a variable amount of cut at either 40Hz (eliminating a certain amount of 'flop' to the sound at high volume settings), or at 700Hz which cleans up the bass sound at lower volume settings. A flat response is achieved when all the controls are in the central position. Even when the response is flat the sound is quite pokey, and I found it to be somewhat more characterful and colourful than Marshall bass rigs have tended to be in the past.

Options



The 3540's output stage is designed in such a way that it gives the user the option of biamping with a variable high and low pass filter network. In the normal mode, ie when a single speaker output is used, these controls are mixed and therefore compensate for each other's cutoff filter point. However, when the biamp mode is selected (by plugging into the treble biamp socket on the rear panel) the crossover frequency knob determines the frequency at which high pass and low pass filter cutoff point occurs, with the Treble Volume and Bass Volume knobs controlling their respective frequency output levels with each output having its own independent power amp stage.

It is in this configuration that this new bass amp really does come on strong — not only by giving the user a great deal of tonal control, but also in enabling the true sound to be reproduced with yet more versatility from being able to link the high and low frequencies to a wide range of speaker cabinet configurations that Marshall's new system offers.

...placed in an amp top...

The actual range of bass cabinets that the Integrated Bass System range offers consists of a 1x15 and 2x10 300W, a 4x10 200W and a 4x12 600W cab. With this wide selection to choose from, further variation intone can be achieved by choosing different cabs for the different outputs from the amp

Whilst the amp tops are quite revolutionary in their appearance (for Marshall at least), they have played safe with the speaker cabs' design which remain similar in appearance to Marshall's previous cabs. The amp tops themselves can, by being 19" rackmounting, reside in a number of ways; in a rack along with your other rackmounting effects (such as a digital delay for chorus or flanging, a compressor etc), or Marshall have optional sleeves for them which will make the amps and slaves more conventional in appearance.

The third configuration that these amps can be found in is in a bass combo. This last option is quite a practical one as it not only means that Marshall can use the same unit for yet another purpose (therefore saving on production costs), but it also means that vou can upgrade from, say, the 5510's 100W 3510 amp to the 200W 3520 amp in the same combo.

Rear End



Coming back to the features found on Marshall's flagship of this range, the 3540, its rear panel features a thorough smattering of sockets. In addition to the speaker outputs for channel A and B, the 3540 has sockets for effects send and return, link inputs and outputs for each channel (for linking up this range's slave amplifiers), preamp output and balanced DI output which is pre master out.

...or in a combo

In addition to the integrated amplifiers and combos, Marshall also have three slave amps in this range — the 6010, 6020 and 6040 slave amps which give 100, 200 and 2x200 watts of output power into 8 ohms. These again are of the same 19" rackmounting variety, and therefore with the full routing potential of the 3540 being able to link to any number of slaves, does make the possibility for truly outrageous bass rigs a reality. One such truly outrageous set-up is to be found at the Marshall factory itself, where yours truly had the opportunity to try out the complete range of integrated amps and cabs all rigged up together — the 3540 acting as the master amplifier. To be able to describe the experience I'd have to get into Deevoy's surreal territory, as the 3540 integrated amp with a pair of cabs certainly produces one of the most powerful yet versatile bass sounds around today.

Conclusion



Until now, Marshall's popularity has primarily been founded on their range of guitar amplification, while their bass rigs have remained a little overshadowed. This situation is bound to change as soon as these products start hitting the shops. From the combos to the 400W bi-amped rigs, the new MOSFET powered integrated bass system has the power and tonal capabilities to satisfy bass players in most areas of todays music.

Sample prices

3510R — 100w bass amp in rackformat — £221.03
354R — 400w bass amp in rackformat — £360.07
6010R — 100w mono slave amp in rack format — £176.47
5510 — 100w 1x15 bass combo — £370.76
1550 — 1x15 250w bass cabinet — £161.21



Previous Article in this issue

GMT Status Bass Series 2000

Next article in this issue

Cactus Electronic Five Drum Kit


Publisher: International Musician & Recording World - Cover Publications Ltd, Northern & Shell Ltd.

The current copyright owner/s of this content may differ from the originally published copyright notice.
More details on copyright ownership...

 

International Musician - Jul 1985

Gear in this article:

Amplifier > Marshall > 3540S

Review by Curtis Schwartz

Previous article in this issue:

> GMT Status Bass Series 2000

Next article in this issue:

> Cactus Electronic Five Drum ...


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