School me some on Marshall amps

[Axis29]

I know absolutely nadda about Marshall Amps, other than the fact that the JTM45 is the first one and it's based on the 59 Bassman....

I own a Deluxe Reverb and love the amp. I am looking at something to be a compliment to it. The 22 watts of power is satisfactory for about everything I do. The size of MY DR is fine. I wouldn't mind a head/cab or combo setup. Vintage would probably be okay as long as it wasn't screamingly expensive. And even a non-Marshall brand amp would be fine as well, but I'm thinking I'd like to try something different to add to the arsenal of dull weapons I already own!

I hear talk of 18 watters and clones... sounds intriguing...

But seriously, what should I be looking at?

[marshman]

Well, in general terms, I think an 18watt-esque thing would be vaguely simlar to your DR. 1x12, roughly equal wattage, a good pair. Like most BF Fenders, the original 18s were two channel--1 with Vol/Tone, the other with added trem. The 20 watt (2061) is a lead/bass head with SS rectification, a little punchier/bassier, it's said.

A lot of folks have taken to rebuilding/rewiring them with a plexi-ish tone stack instead, dropping the trem, referred to as a "TMB".

Other folks (including me) have gone the "lite" route, using just the non-trem channel, as it's a pretty simple build with minimal parts. I went that way because it was easiest to build, no preferences.

The 18 watt gang has plenty of folks building great, no bones clones (GDS among the higher-regarded, for example) to high-grade modded amps with efx loops, etc. Go troll around 18watt.com for more info than you can shake a stick at.

One of the members over there has also 'engineered' a 6V6 Plexi, highly regarded, here's it's story http://mhuss.com/Plexi6V6/index.html

I know next to nothing about the bigger Marshalls...but given what kind of noises I can make with a good cab and a good pair of EL84s, I'm not worried.

[RocksOff]

The 1974 circuit (number has nothing to do with date) is a great circuit! You'll love the rich tone and it will hang with a drummer if you go for higher wattage speakers in a 2 x 12 type configurations. Oh, I shouldn't forget to mention that is one heck of a responsive amp.

The Lite IIb mentioned above is just a straight up tone monster. It's hard to beat for hairy to moderate gain tones.

[JohnnyCrash]

18w, nice old school rock tone at lower volumes.

Plexi's 50w or 100w, Hendrix, Page, and other classic rock tones - at extreme volumes.

JCM800 (2203 or 2204), '80s hard rock machine. Metal, glam, but can also do much more when knob tweaked.

The rest (JMPs, '70s era, Super Bass, etc) all classic Marshall - slight differences.