I'm wondering the same thing. Frankly, I'm wondering what exactly is the 36 watt. Is it fixed bias? What other amp is it like? I recently heard a clip of David Grissom playing a Bad Cat Panther, a two channel amp, a 12AX7 side and an EF86 side, fixed bias, running 6v6's. The clip of course sounded fantastic. I also heard clips of the Swart Super Space Tone 30, which is a cathode biased amp running 4 6v6's. Again, fat and furry and killer sounding. I was wonderiing if the 36 watt EF86 with 6v6's instead of el84's could go there.
The 36-watt is essentially a 18-watt Marshall with twice the power. Before you say, "duh," let me add...
There is an online community (18watt.com) that has and does dedicate itself to late '60's 18-watt Marshall design. It's both the result and the catalyst to the huge renaissance in 18-watt Marshall designs; with maybe a couple exceptions I can think off, all the 18-watt Marshall-based designs available today, there most be three dozen or more, came as a result of the trend started from 18watt.com.
Well, after everyone had mastered the 18-watt, they started playing with the design. One of these variations was one with twice the power amp for more gig-friendly headroom. Other variations was the TMB preamp, which was more plexi-based; the traditional 18-watt preamp is on the clean side, though it can be driven to great affect, it does not sound like the larger Marshalls (which was part of it's charm). Another preamp design includes the EF86 channel from the original late '50's Vox AC-15 (the "EF86" channel) to give a little Vox flavor to the amp.
So, the 36-watt isn't a real historical amp, but a modded 18-watt schematic.
to keep the forums alive.
Author