Welcome to the first of a series of Classic Amps features on Gibson.com, in which we’ll examine a number of great tube guitar amplifiers from the past. This first installment not only gives me the opportunity to talk about this great little rock monster, but also to get up on my soapbox and preach the “less is more” philosophy. What are the chances that any aspiring rock kid in the U.S.A. or the U.K. 35 years ago would trade in their 50- or 100-watt Marshall plexi or metal-panel amp for a small, 18-watt “student” model? You’ve got it: slim to none. The intervening years, however, have brought the revelation that fat tone in a small package is often worth more — in both the monetary and the creative sense — than fat tone in a fat package … which is also a heavy package, and one that most sound men and studio engineers aren’t going to let you turn up to the sweet spot more than once every couple dozen gigs.
Enter the Marshall Model 1974, affectionately known as the “18 watter”, an amplifier that has come to be appreciated as a classic among classics, big or small, in the past ten years in particular. Of course the pros have always known this little tone secret, and frequently recorded with small amps even though they toured with full stacks up on the arena stages. But as one player after another discovered that these 18 watters offered juicy, succulent tone on par with their big brothers, but at more usable volumes, a rather odd thing happened: the small amp started selling for about as much as the big amp on the vintage market, a situation that can result in this 18 watter commanding something like five-times as much cash per-watt as a Marshall JTM100.
The classic Marshall 18-watt amps were manufactured between 1965 and ’67, and are therefore pretty scarce, another reason they are highly prized. The model numbers 1958, 1973 and 1974 denote speaker configurations rather than years of manufacture (Marshall model numbers are often confusing that way). The 1958 was a 2x10 combo, the 1973 a 2x12 combo, and the 1974 a 1x12 combo. All carried the same chassis (amplifier section), which used three ECC83 (aka 12AX7) preamp tubes and two EL84 output tubes, along with an EZ81 rectifier tube. While the classic big Marshalls also have preamps with three ECC83s, the 18 watters use their tubes a little differently. Each of two channels has an independent but much simpler Tone control (just a treble-bleed control, really) that requires no tube to power it. Half of one preamp tube is used to power a tremolo circuit, with Rate and Depth controls on that channel. The Tremolo and Normal channels are voiced a little differently, the latter being somewhat chunkier and gainier, and both feed into a long-tailed pair phase inverter.
The cathode-biased EL84 output tubes and EZ81 rectifier tube combine to make this a very playable and touchy-feely amp, with lots of usable compression when cranked up. It also has good cut and definition, too, and sits well in the mix, with a slight midrange hump, sweet highs, and firm if not overly thumping lows. Although these are billed as “mini Marshalls”, they really don’t sound “exactly like a plexi, only smaller”. They have their own sound, which is certainly Marshally, but a thing unto itself. Players seeking to use a “small” amp like this on relatively big stages covet the 2x12 combo for its pair of luscious Greenbacks, while the 1x12 Model 1974 — with one Greenback — is archetypal of the 18 watter. The 1958 with two ceramic-magnet Celestion 10s is the least Marshally sounding of the bunch (according to our preconceived notions of the term, at least), but also a great sounding little amp and highly desirable.
Collector’s prices have pushed these amps into no-man’s land, and only a deep-pocketed pro with a sturdy flight case and a white-gloved road crew is likely to even dare to use an original Marshall 18 watter on stage anyway. Fortunately, Marshall makes a good reissue in the 1974X Handwired model, and the original template has also inspired countless “boutique” amp makers to issue their own renditions of these amps. Do your ears, and your neighbors, and your band a favor and check out what little firebreathers of this ilk — and other amps of this size — can dish out for searing rock tone. Make no mistake, they are still loud little amps, but they are at least more likely to leave your granite foundations intact.