3210 vs 3203; seeking opinions....

[lunchbox]

I need a new amp, since I recently had to sell my only amp to pay some bills. I've now recovered financially and am looking to get another amp to replace the one I sold.

I have a Marshall 1965A cab with Emi Ramrods that I want to pair with a Marshall head. I'm of limited funds (<$300 cleared by the wife) and have been looking at my options. I'd prefer something 'vintage', since it seems that I'd get more bang for the buck. I also like the idea of getting an amp that originally would have come with this cab.

So I've been looking at the 3210 Lead 100 MOSFET and the 3203 Artist. I'd like to hear opinions on these two from people that have owned them. Tone wise, they seem pretty similar from the demos I've listened to.

- I need an amp that's loud enough to play with a hard hitting drummer and second guitar.

- I need the amp to be loud enough to play small clubs/bars w/o being mic'd; stage volume only.

- I play bluesy-hard rock, 'stoner rock', and punk rock (hardcore).

Which of those two amps would you guys recommend to go with this little beast?

 

[kamran]

I've never played a 3203, but my 3210 is as loud as either of my tube heads, easily. And I giggled it in a hard core punk band for over a year, and was very happy with it. It actually became my main gigging amp over my jvm, until I got my plexi modded.

 

[johan.b]

To my ears, the artist sounds better. The 30 watt tube power amp isn't as loud as you'd expect, but it helps reducing the solid state feel of the preamp and i think it'll be loud enough. Especially the boost channel, wich is different design from the Mosfet, is great for saturated stooner type sound...and oh, yeah, ..don't think of the normal channel as clean channel. It's not. ..it's "normal" as in normal plexi style. ..
j

 

[lunchbox]

I've never played a 3203, but my 3210 is as loud as either of my tube heads, easily. And I giggled it in a hard core punk band for over a year, and was very happy with it. It actually became my main gigging amp over my jvm, until I got my plexi modded.

That's good to know, as most SS amps don't seem to be as loud or have the 'push' of a tube amp. I was worried that the 3210 might now be loud enough.

Waht (hardcore) band are you in? link?

 

[BrentD]

Idunno, man, but that cab is friggin' sweeeeeeet.

 

[lunchbox]

To my ears, the artist sounds better. The 30 watt tube power amp isn't as loud as you'd expect, but it helps reducing the solid state feel of the preamp and i think it'll be loud enough. Especially the boost channel, wich is different design from the Mosfet, is great for saturated stooner type sound...and oh, yeah, ..don't think of the normal channel as clean channel. It's not. ..it's "normal" as in normal plexi style. ..
j

Damn, I wish I could go try them both out. The 30 watts has me wondering if it will be loud enough, though my old amp was an Orange OR15 and it was loud enough. It wasn't really a good match for the speakers though.

 

[johan.b]

Damn, I wish I could go try them both out. The 30 watts has me wondering if it will be loud enough, though my old amp was an Orange OR15 and it was loud enough. It wasn't really a good match for the speakers though.

If 15 watts was loud enough, 30 watt will do just fine. ..

 

[Deep_end]

The 3210 gets pretty loud, but there isnt much drive to it...nothing a OD pedal cant fix though.

 

[lunchbox]

The 3210 gets pretty loud, but there isnt much drive to it...nothing a OD pedal cant fix though.

Would you say that the 3203 has more gain on tap?

 

[kamran]

Our link is in my signature, check us out. Kinda on hiatusbright now but not broken up. Regarding the guy who said there isn't much drive, I disagree. It's not that saturated, but in a band mix it has plenty of gain, and tons of clarity. On the boost channel, with the gain know pulled (which scoops it a bit and makes it seem gainer and more compressed) I had no trouble playing Lazarus A.D. type metal on it, with no boost pedal. And that's with a les Paul with PAFs.

 

[Deep_end]

Would you say that the 3203 has more gain on tap?

I've never played a 3203, so sorry, I cant say. With the 3210, I was able to get some tone comparable to old AC/DC. It sounded good, just not real hard. Sorry, I should have been a little more clear.

I liked my 3210. I just didn't like having a half stack at the time.

 

[Speeddemon]

Owned them both, still have the MOSFET (not per sé because it's better).
The Artist has a good bit more low-end (bigger trannies, tube powersection), and more gain on tap, but stock, the drive channel goes from quite dull low-gain to Metallica-RTL quite fast. Wakjob (forumite) has some mods listed to cure this, so that the full range of the Gain knob sounds better and more evened out.
Also, the clean channel of the Artist never gets pristine clean; the MOSFET does, with the added bonus of sounding nicely Plexi-ish when the Normal Volume is maxed out.

They both can get loud enough for bands; I think the MOSFET actually can get a little louder even.

Basically if Marshall were to re-create the Artist, but full-tube this time, and a full-EQ to the drive channel, it'd be great! Right now, it's missing the versatility to tweak the tone on the drive/boost channel, whereas the MOSFET has the "Pull Gain" option, that includes the 3 band EQ to the drive channel (with the tone knob still active, therefore creating a pseudo-4 band EQ).
The MOSFET takes boost pedals rather well, oh and watch out, the FX-Loop is post power-amp (or without a limiter), which means that if you have a self-oscillating (analog) delay pedal in the loop, things can get really dangerously loud really fast!

The Artist is more rare and a nice platform to mod; the MOSFET is a bit more versatile and has less maintenance. The FX-Loop oxidizing problem happens to both. Some contact spray cures it initially.
I re-capped them both myself and especially the Artist came alive after replacing the power filter cap. More punch, less noise, more tone.

 

[wakjob]

Don't know if you've come across any of my posts about these two amps, but I've gushed a fair bit about them in the past, and still hold them both in very high regard.

The 3210 is the easiest and more gratifying amp straight out of the box. They sound sound great and work if you can deal with the mosfet power section "thunk" as opposed to a tube power section "thump".

I'd love to get my hands on another 3203 Artist. I've learned a lot since I've owned one and would like to experiment with the Normal Channel some more. They wake right up and become quite the ass kicker with a very few cap & resistor changes.

That and like Speeddemon said... new filter caps (don't forget the ones on the solid state preamp board too) Plus some nice tubes helps out a bunch also.

 

[Guitar-Sam]

I had the 1x12 combo artist and I'm sorry but I Hated that amp easily the worst amp I've owned.The OD channel was woofy bassy mud Evan with the tone dimed and the clean was ice pick city.I traded it to a music shop with some cash for an AVT 20 much better so are the old Lead 12s

 

[wakjob]

I had the 1x12 combo artist and I'm sorry but I Hated that amp easily the worst amp I've owned.The OD channel was woofy bassy mud Evan with the tone dimed and the clean was ice pick city.I traded it to a music shop with some cash for an AVT 20 much better so are the old Lead 12s

Easily remedied.

 

[jcm800gridlock]

The Artist, but it is probably above your budgeted amount. The Mosfets are easier to find, do sound decent, and may even be under budget. Some long running threads can be found here if you search.

 

[lunchbox]

Yeah, I checked out a lot of threads on here about them, but didn't see a vs thread.

So far it sounds like a toss up between the two. They each have different qualities. Locally for sale there's a 3203 for $350, and a 3210 for $150 with a broken reverb tank. I don't really need reverb anyway, but it could be as simple as a broken solder connection.

In the end I'll need whichever has more balls to play in non-mic'd situations. While the OR15 I had was loud enough, it didn't have a lot of push behind it.

Right now I'm really missing my Laney GH50 and 4x12 with Greenbacks I had a few years back. I sold it all to downsize, and now I'm trying to upsize again because my rig doesn't have enough balls. Doh!

 

[Guitar-Sam]

Easily remedied.

I did the bright cap mod on the clean and it was still ice pick.there is a mod for the boost ch?? Mine literally sounded like treble and mids were off and bass cranked (if it had tone stack)even with the tone knob dimed

 

[wakjob]

I did the bright cap mod on the clean and it was still ice pick.there is a mod for the boost ch?? Mine literally sounded like treble and mids were off and bass cranked (if it had tone stack)even with the tone knob dimed

The c13 mod really isn't the best way to deal with the NORMAL Channel if you want it to be truly clean with high headroom.

The NORMAL Channel was designed to be the main crunch channel for all rhythm duties, and backing off of the guitars volume for any amount of "clean" work.

Yep, good ol' RAT pedal style two LED to ground 'hard clipping' distortion with a pre tone stack... Mesa style... that's the Normal Channel.

The BOOST Channel should be viewed as a lead/solo work only channel.

The BOOST Channel DOES have a full tone stack...
it's just a fixed one consisting of c10, c33, c46, r13, r56, r57.

Your amp may have other 'problems' if it lacks treble/mid and is all bass.

I'd start with checking all the above & removing vr1 + vr3 and metering them for accuracy.
If they check out, give them a good spray cleaning.

Still not doing it for ya? Take a couple of clips and clamp a .22uF, .47uF, .68uF, or a 1uF cap over c7.

 

[Speeddemon]

Yeah, I checked out a lot of threads on here about them, but didn't see a vs thread.

So far it sounds like a toss up between the two. They each have different qualities. Locally for sale there's a 3203 for $350,

I'd say either haggle with the seller or haggle with the wife! If it's in good condition, I think it's quite a decent price actually!