5100 Inbound - looking for info.

[fitz]

Well, I was looking for a small, low watt amp for my workshop, so I got a 100w 1x12.
Saw this 5100 for the price of the little Valvestates and AVT's I was looking at.
I've had two 3210's, so I'm familiar with the 100w MOSFET tone and functions.

Looking for some dimensions of the chassis & case if anyone has one.

As far as I know, the 3310 head & 5215 combo are the same chassis, so dimensions on that would be cool too.

Seems fairly clean and mostly intact.
Might put the chassis in a headshell, or get/make an extension cab.
Also wondering if it does the no footswitch channel blend thing.

(typical expert GC photography)

 

[Dave_11]

100 SS watts is equal to like 3 tube watts though, right? Amp looks really clean.

 

[fitz]

100 SS watts is equal to like 3 tube watts though, right? Amp looks really clean.

I think it's a little more than 3.
The 3210's I've had were f-ing loud.
Easy to attenuate these amps with speaker impedance.
They're 100w at 4 ohm, 80 at 8 ohm & 50 at 16 ohm.

(from the old generic split channel manual)

 

[TassieViking]

5100 is the Combo version of the 3310 Head.
Advert, Schematics, User Manual:

 

[fitz]

 

[TassieViking]

The 3310 Head was used with the 1931A and 1931B cabs so I imagine the 5100 would be very close to them as well, you could always pull the chassis out and make a new head cab and play it into two 1931 8 ohm cabs.

 

[fitz]

The 3310 Head was used with the 1931A and 1931B cabs so I imagine the 5100 would be very close to them as well, you could always pull the chassis out and make a new head cab and play it into two 1931 8 ohm cabs.

Yep, almost bought a 3310 w/ 1931A&B stack a few years ago, but the shipping was a deal breaker.

Dimensions on a 1931 might be useful, but some actual measurements on a 3310, 5100, 5215? would be nice too.
I think the 1912 (20" / 510mm wide) would be the right size for an extension cab, but not sure.

Head cab is probably going to be the eventual outcome if I like the amp.
I have a few to choose from, and one I could easily mod to fit.
Might also just make a matching extension cab.

 

[TassieViking]

The picture of the advert I posted above says the 5100 is 48cm x 44.5cm x 25cm and weighs 25kg.
If you make a head cab for it it becomes a 3310 so you might as well make a 1931A+B stack for it as well.

 

[fitz]

The picture of the advert I posted above says the 5100 is 48cm x 44.5cm x 25cm and weighs 25kg.
If you make a head cab for it it becomes a 3310 so you might as well make a 1931A+B stack for it as well.

Thanks, my apologies as I didn't look at the ad sheet for the dimensions.
48cm (18-7/8") might actually work to my advantage with some of my existing home builds.
I think it might fit in either of these.



Looking forward to trying it through some closed back 112's and the pair of 210's.

And if I don't like it, I'm about 5 miles from a GC, so I could just return it and be out the $25 in shipping.

 

[FleshOnGear]

My experience with the 5215:

It’s the same width as the 1931A and B. I have the 1931B. The feet on the 5215 don’t mate with the cups on the 1931B.

My 5215 is a very early revision and is unlike any other Marshall amp I’ve seen. The usual 5100, 5215, and 3310 preamp appears closer to the Artist preamp than the 3210 Mosfet Lead preamp based on the schematics I’ve seen. I don’t think that you’ll get the channel blend.

These amps are LOUD!

 

[TassieViking]

These amps are LOUD!

I was thinking that when I read that fitz was after a small low watt amp for the workshop, the only way to make these amps better for low volumes is to change the master volume to a log pot and changing the speaker to 8 ohms or even 16 ohms to reduce the power.
But its a workshop, I'm sure there are a pair of earmuffs there somewhere.

 

[FleshOnGear]

The guy who sold me the 5215 didn’t want it anymore because he was having too hard a time dialing it to the necessary 0.1 on the volume control for his living room volume! I have never had much trouble lightly tapping it to 0.1, personally. The good news is that it sounds good at any volume, though a bit better when you can get the speaker to compress.

BTW, I’ve seen some mentions online that the Marshall mosfet power amp doesn’t really like being cranked into 4 ohms. It may be best to take it easy with these amps to prevent the burning up of any unobtainable Hitachi mosfets. I actually snatched up a couple of Exicon 250 watt lateral mosfets in the hope that they’d be able to take a bit more punishment, but the TO-3 version has been discontinued now. The Exicons have been working great, and my original Hitachis are safely stored.

 

[fitz]

The guy who sold me the 5215 didn’t want it anymore because he was having too hard a time dialing it to the necessary 0.1 on the volume control for his living room volume! I have never had much trouble lightly tapping it to 0.1, personally. The good news is that it sounds good at any volume, though a bit better when you can get the speaker to compress.

I'm either going to run it into a pair of 16's parallel to 8, or a pair of 8's series to 16, so I should get some attenuation just from higher impedance.
Probably never going to crank it at 4 ohms, but also not looking for whisper volume anyway - I like to move a little air.

I also have the Weber Mass 100 on my O50 that I could move to the 5100.
Kinda unnecessary on the Origin with the built-in power scaling, plus I can also tame either amp a bit with EQ volume in the loop.

Got some options on hand.