2266 Vintage Modern Review

The 2266 50-watt head is an all-valve single channel amplifier with a choice of 2 "dynamic ranges" selectable by a footswitch.

Features:	10
Sound:	10
Reliability:	5
Impression:	9
Overall rating:	8.5
Users rating:	9
Comments:	23

overall: 8.5

Reviewed by: OzzyCat, on july 02, 2007

Price paid: $ 1043.1

Features: 50 Watt Vintage Modern 2266 Head. Tube design. Single Channel. Balls out rock amp. Classic Marshall. The amp is brand new, and was made in 2007. I had to ask a question about it to Marshall. So I called up and they didn't even have a unit to check my question on! It's that new! I play rock music. Think Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver etc. It's a single channel amp, though it has a footswitchable feature called 'Dynamic Range'. Basically, this throws in an extra gain stage, making it rawk! The front panel has: master volume, reverb (digital, much nicer than spring reverbs of other amps in my opinion), presence, 3 band EQ: bass, mid, treble, mid boost button (I like to use this as it really pushes the mids out and gives the amp a lot of cutting sound). The last two pots on the front are the high and low preamp volumes. What these allows you to do is shape the sound more than normal gain pots of other amps. You can increase the high range more, or the low. This gives way more scope than normal amps. Shaping the sound is much more flexible. I use this at band rehearsal etc. I have to admit, this amp sounds like crap when played at bedroom volumes. My JCM900 sounds way better at low volumes. But let me tell you, at high volumes, I run this around 7 master volume, this badboy screams and sounds incredible. Articulate, clear, beautifully crisp notes, even when high gain is set. Great punchy cleans too. Nothing bad about the sound of this amp. The 50 Watt head into the Vintage Modern 425 Cab sounds excellent and it's easily loud enough for any venue. This thing is loud. // 10

Sound: I play a Gibson Les Paul Standard (1989) with Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro pickups. Loud rock. This amp works utterly perfectly for this. None. With the pickups I have, this amp is very quiet when it comes to hiss etc. Ok, so while everyone thinks it's a one trick pony, it's not. It's got plenty of gain available to play modern sounds, yet you can roll the preamps off to get some really Vintage sounds. Hence the name, Vintage Modern. But also, a lot of the variety comes from the ability to really work and react well with the tone and volume pots on your guitar. Play with this a lot, and work the sound of the amp with these, and you'll not regret it. I play really loud and my pickups aren't very high output. My cleans stay pretty damn clean. Remember, roll the volume back a little on the guitar, and the cleans will stay punchy and clear. Sure, you're not going to get Korn or Slipknot from this, but Who cares. It's not made for this. It's a rock amp. It'll do a variety of rock tones. // 10

Reliability & Durability: I can't rate this yet as it's not been in my possession for more than a few weeks. But let me tell you, Marshall have always been utterly brilliant to me. I'm loyal to them and don't think I'll ever get another amp from anyone else. 5 just for Marshall rocking! // 5

Impression: I've been playing for 13 years. I've owned a few Marshall tube amps and other amps from other companies. I'm not narrow minded. My TSL60 was good but far from great (at the time I couldn't hear tone in the same was I can now), and I don't talk crap about musical instruments etc. If something's bad I'll say. If it's good, I'll say. Take it or leave it. If this amp was lost or stolen, I'd buy it again. Simple. It's the best Marshall I've owned. Best amp I've owned. I actually don't hate anything about this amp. How can I. It's too damn good and, hell, not exactly filled with enough to get annoyed with. Brilliantly simple. Simply brilliant. I played other amps, of course I did. I played Randall amps, other Marshalls etc. This came out on top. I wish it had a better footswitch. The footswitch is fine in terms of solidity etc, but my TSL footswitch had the Switch for the FX loop which I miss on this amp. Basically, buy one. I don't see the need for the 100 Watt head. I had the choice, and the money, and the 50 Watt is loud enough, and sounds insane. I gave this amp a 9 because as close as it is to perfect, nothing in this world is absolutely perfect. // 9

Comments

[Weybl Himself]

From what I've heard (both from people and with my own ears) it's a nice throwback to the old JCM800. And if that's true I might just be saving some coin for one.

[danielrobbyshor]

now i've heard bad things about these from a friend who works in the local music superstore, but this is a really positive review. argh.

[TVH11]

really considering buying this amp, from that marshall dvd i've seen, its sounds amazing

[ajaxexplorer]

I have a DSL401, But I'm tempted to get this one instead of upgrading to a DSL100 Half stack

[stephen_rettie]

i dunno i like a lot of crap to play with on my amps and im also a big fan of 2 channels but i dunno this is a good review and the whole 'gain customisation' thing he talks about is interesting

[blair30]

the purple makes me sick

why couldnt marshall keep the standard black

[geetarguy92]

I'm gettin the 50 watt combo..sounds fekin brilliant on the marshall dvd thingy lol

[ArcherTheVMan]

blair30 wrote:

the purple makes me sick

why couldnt marshall keep the standard black

because standard gets boring!

[OzzyCat]

I wrote the review as true as I could to my genuine feeling on the matter. I did NOT have a lack of funds so I could take this back and buy any amp I pretty much wanted ... and I tried others. The fact that this amp is now being used by Slash and Paul Gilbert amongst others (not endorsed by, just being used by) is a good indication of what it can do. It cleans up REAL well too ... Do NOT listen to Guitar Shop people, because it's a real rarity that you can crank an amp properly in any store. Not like in a rehearsal... seriously, this thing sounds amazing when played like a Marshall should be played. And it's far from limited. Go to the Marshall site and they have a load of magazine reviews there ... scanned. They all say great things about it. I did my research before buying.

[OzzyCat]

Oh, and btw... the purple isn't evident unless you shine light onto the amp. In a darkened room, the color is just slight. It looks beautiful tho!

[Mattrox_Supreme]

Thanks OzzyCat. There are a lot of good positive points in there. I have heard that the DSP reverd is only adequate at best. What your personal opinion on that or do you even use it? Cheers Matt

[Nightfyre]

Mattrox_Supreme wrote:

Thanks OzzyCat. There are a lot of good positive points in there. I have heard that the DSP reverd is only adequate at best. What your personal opinion on that or do you even use it? Cheers Matt

I'll take this one. The reverb is actually voiced really dark. I could hear it on cleans, but it wasn't really pronounced. Put some gain in and it's gone. I don't use reverb, so it works for me, but if you want reverb you'll need a pedal, it's the only patently bad thing about this amp. I honestly can't wait until I have enough money to buy this. I'm not a Marshall fanboy, but this one might convert me.
Oh, and it sounds ok at lower volumes if you up the preamp volume and turn down the master volume. It's not as good as when it's cranked (which is BEAUTIFUL), but it works nicely. That shouldn't stop you from getting this one. Personally, I like the purple finish, it makes it stand out a bit but doesn't make you seem fruity.
This amp is really reponsive to picking dynamics and guitar volume, so use your guitar's volume controls! Trust me, it makes the amp that much better to have that kind of control over the amp.
I think he meant to give reliability a 10 (5 out of 5), so his final score should be a 9.8, not an 8.5. Is that right OzzyCat?

[Nightfyre]

wait, what am i saying? there's no preamp volume control... oops.

[CilenZio^_^]

this is the amp im saving for... but im sad cause its gona take long to get the money for head and cab.. im poor lol

[Plep]

I have the combo of this (after a summer of working) and i have to say the tone on this is a killer... the preamp tubes really push out a great Marshall sound on the 70's. This is one of the most versatile amps I have ever played you have complete control over your tone.
(You can also get a wicked sound with a distortion pedal if you want something harder)

[Run.to.the.hill]

well, i just unwrapped one of these for christmas, and its not the best imo. personally i like 2 or more channel amps and going from a fender 15 watt ss (gag) i was hoping for a few more features, such as a footswitch that turns the gain off! its probably the wrong amp for my music (iron maiden, metallica, megadeth, bullet for my valentine etc) but i find its not high gain enough, and even when i try to get a fat rockin ac-dc, led zeppelin, or even whitesnake (gave it a go after seeing the endorsement on the website) i cant seem to get the chunky body rock sound. (i play a gibson les paul classic) my sites are on the jvm 410 now, input guys?

[roryp15]

well i would say its a good choice for your relf run to the hill, have you cranked it yet id say it needs to be above 5 for it to really shine and because of the two pre amp volumes it takes time in getting used to, go onto the vintage modern forum, it has hundreds of useful information and the create SteveD is on that and could give you some hints vintagemodern.informe.com/

[LittleMrJimmyJr]

Jimmy page used this in the 02(2007), and he said it sucks. i wouldnt get it.

[^Slash^]

Jimmy didn't use the VM in London.
He used an amp that had the same specs as the hendrix sig. with his name and such on it.

[up_the_irons]

i love jimmy page's guitar playing to death but alot of his songs dont even have a "classic rock" tone that these amps produce. his playing sounds more like a fart muffled by a fuzzy assh0le

[WDI]

I got one today so I'll add my two cents. I bought the 2466 (100 watt head) and the 425B (bottom speaker cabinet). I would have bought the 50 watt head but the music store was going out of business and that's all they had. I got a really good price. My thinking was that 50 watt tube amps are plenty loud and easier to run a little hotter. However, to my surprise I was able to run the 100 watt really hot without it being obnoxiously loud. I really thought it would be louder. Though, I'm glad it's not so I can run it hot. I don't get really caught up in gear like many people do. The only reason I mention that is because my standards might not be up to some peoples. I know there are many JMP and 800 purists out there. That being said, I have been playing for quite a while and have the opportunity to use a lot of gear. I've owned a Marshall JCM 900 (5881 100 watt head with the matching cab) for the past 10 years. I was never really that impressed with it. It always seemed to be missing something but it was good enough to get by with sooooo. After playing the Vintage Modern for about 5 hours I'm really glad I bought the amp. It seems to have all the sound that was missing from my 900. It is very responsive to different pickups and different pickup positions. The two guitars I played through it were a Gibson SG with three mini-hum buckers and a standard American Fender strat. Both sounded completely different from the other. I mean really different! I found the amp very versatile by using different pickup positions and adjusting amp settings and rolling back the volume on the guitar (which I do often). It was possible to get many different great sounds out of the amp. I like to play all sorts of different styles of music from clean to crunch and I found this amp was capable of doing all very well. I saw one guy mention he doesn’t get enough gain out of it to do metal. I don’t see why not, it screams if you want it to. If you need a little more gain, just use a small amount of gain from a distortion pedal in front of it. I got good response using a tube screamer. I know the JVM gets more gain, but I found the distortion in the JVM series a little over the top. But that might be what some people are looking for. Now for the bad…the effects loop colors the sound when the amp has a lot of gain (in high mode). For those people needing an effects loop this might be a serious problem. The only thing I run in an effect loop is usually delay which I took out of the effects loop, moved in front of the guitar input and I was happy. The reverb is dark sounding and some people may not like it. I often roll the high end off of guitar reverb anyways if I can so it didn’t bother me. Also, the reverb amount changes based on how much gain you are using meaning more reverb on clean sounds. Again, this didn’t bother me because I’ll just turn up the reverb if I need more. The biggest problem I found with the amp is the dramatic increase in volume going from low mode to high mode. Basically low mode is where most of you clean sounds are found and high mode is where the distorted sounds are. The footswitch is able to switch modes which makes me think this meant to be used like channel switching on a multi-channel amp. Really, this makes the amp act like a two channel amp which is great. But there is no way to control the huge volume increase thus making this really ineffective as channel switching from clean to distorted. You will need to walk over to the amp and adjust the volume between switching from low to high mode (clean to distorted). I’m not sure if it would have changed the sound of the amp for Marshall to make this more transparent in which case I’m glad they didn’t. However, it seems like a design flaw. But since I really like the sound of this amp, it will be something that I will have to work around. I know I may have restated some of what other people were saying but I hope this helps someone out that is interested in this amp.

[shredder_666]

Ive played on it a couple of times. Its perfect for modern classic rock.

[hans the lefty]

what WDI said you can use a volume pedal and just set it half way on clean you crank the pedal to 13