Reviewed by:
SlashWannabe1, on april 17, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 975
Purchased from: Private Owner
Features: Amplifier was Made in late 2008. The versaility of this amplifier covers nearly any spectrum of music you could think of (especially Metal to Blue Grass to Blues to Rock and pop). Since it is a 1.5 channel you wont be be able to get all the versatility this amplifier gives in one song unless you are lightning quick with volume roll down. it's not a problem for me as I have a Fender Bandmaster Tube Amplifier on a Switch specifically for cleans while my Vintage Modern is for the Dirty sounds. Besides that, Who buys a Marshall for the cleans?
It has the common amplifier settings like, Presence, Bass, Treble, Middle, Master Volume and Reverb among it's own brand of unique Distortion controls such as Detail and Body. The Reverb on this amp is hardly noticable even on 10 it's very dark sounding but still has a use in the right application. It maybe would have been better if they deleted that option than give people something to complain about. I do wish it had a truly clean channel instead of depending totally on rolling the guitar volume down on Dynamic Low Range.
The Body control shapes the girth and bottum end of your guitar sound so you can give your Strat the balls it always lacked or take a bit of meat out of your Les Paul to cut through the mix. To give you an idea of it's sound character, a JCM 800s body setting would be at 2 and much more girth is to be found for metal playing. At 10 on the body and 9 on the Master Volume your house may explode, even with a 2x12 cab! And 4x12 volume and power is enough to put you in jail even if heard from a mile away.
The Detail option is basically where all your gain and high end is found, at 6 on the detail it has the max gain of a JCM 800 with a Les Paul. At 10 you can easily do metal so long as your body control is set appropriate. A good sound can be found just by adjusting these 2 controls side by side then adjusting the EQ on your amplifier. Also with the Mid boost button pressed in your Strat can gain back the mid range it badly needs to cut through the mix and on a Les Paul it puts you firmly in a Metal territory. // 8
Sound: I'm using a Les Paul Copy equiped with Seymore Duncan Alnico 2 Pro Pick ups which just sounds absolutly beautiful through this amp. This amplifier can suit most styles of music because of it's dynamic ranges and Detail and Body knobs that can basically shape any sound you want from any genre.
I must say I play a lot of Guns N Roses and Velvet Revolver and almost everything Slash does along with a wide spectrum of Rock N Roll and this amplifier nails it down. From Creadence Clear Water Revival to Black Sabbath to 50s to 70s rock this amp can do it all! Even country. The problem is though since it is a 1.5 channel amp you obviously need to set it up different if you are going to play Country or other clean sounding stuff because you wont be able to get all the versatility in the same song you are playing unless you are very fast at rolling your volume knobs down or have a boost pedal on the Low Dynamic Range.
The Distortion is very brutal depending on how you set the amp up and what pickups you are using. This is an amplifier you will have to play with if you don't have any expirence with a 1.5 channel Marshall.
I play at home at Bars at local festivals and this amps 100 watts can fill almost any space up with sound. I haven't found it to be noisy at all, I use quality cords and have the amplifier on it's own circut so it never gets interference or noisy. // 10
Reliability & Durability: Not much to go wrong with it except for Tubes and if you have ever owned a tube amp you know this sort of thing is like downgrading a car because it has bad tires and it really doesn't say much about the cars build quality and tube wear deffinitly doesn't say anything about this Amplifier!. With that said Tube wear under consistant Live gigging volume might be around 8 months to a year or less if you are concerned about tube wear. Under bedroom levels 1-2 the tubes should last at least a year and a half at which point most tube amplifiers generally have tubes replaced. I've had it for 4 months and it is about 7 months old itself.
I'd take it to a gig without a backup I have that much confidence in it. It has never broken down yet but I assume every amp will sooner or later and I've heard many artists Who use this amp without a backup for year long tours without any replacement tubes even. // 10
Impression: A Few Complaints have been made about the amp lacking Gain but in reality it is just the fact that this amplifier has very clean player dynamics, so what you play will be heard and Guitar quality becomes of importance mostly in the area of pick ups. it's got Metal gain with the detail dimed and the body set generous with the mid boost pushed in but the only difference is you can hear every distorted note and it makes you a better player!.
it's a great amplifier and if you have made the choice to buy this amp hopefully it's because you played it and know what it can do. // 10
Reviewed by:
^Slash^, on august 27, 2007 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 1185
Purchased from: Local Store
Features: This all tube Marshall amp is the 100 watt version of it's 50 watt brother. The amp is one of the few new models Marshall has released. The amp covers my ground pretty great. I play a wide variety of Hard blues rock, and some metal. The amp only has 1 channel. You cannot treat this amp as a 2 channel amp. The low range is more for people with single coil pickups (Strats/Tele's). If you treat this amp as a 2 channel amp you will not like this amp at all as there is a huge volume jump from the low dynamic range to high dynamic range. If you have a humbucker in your guitar than stay in high dynamic range and use the volume knob, as the amp cleans up great for the given amount of gain. Also don't be fooled by the name. This amp is not a modern sounding amp at all. It just has modern controls (Detail/Body pre amp controls) plus the digital reverb. The knobs on the amp are simple. From left to right it goes: digital reverb, master volume, 3-band EQ: bass/middle/treble. Then you have the dynamic range Switch and the mid boost switch. The best part of this amp is the two last controls. Detail and Body controls. They are pre amp gain controls. The detail control gives you more or less high frequencies and the body controls the bottom end frequencies. I haven't used this amp Live but I'm sure it will hold it's own. The only thing the amp doesn't have is footswitchable mid boost as it fattens your tone and is pretty good for the lead parts and it is not that great to walk over to the amp and press the button over, and over. Also LED's on the footswicth would have been nice. I'm giving this amp a 7 on teh features because well there aren't that many features except for reverb. And really isn't a two channel amp. // 7
Sound: I use a Epiphone Elitist LP Custom. The amp is great for my style of music. I play B.B. King to Stevie Ray Vaughan to Zeppelin to Guns N' Roses to Sabbath etc you get the idea. Now the high dynamic range gives you enough gain for classic rock and some modern rock. But if you want more for a better metal tone than I recommend an OD/Boost pedal. The well it doesn't really have a clean channel but the low range is basically one, but you can't treat it at one. It just gives you that dimed JTM sound without blowing out your windows. Also my recommendations to get a good sound out of the amp is to set teh EQ flat, and put the Detail/Body where you want it and fix the EQ after. As the pre amp doesn't control just how much gain you have but controls your tone more than the EQ knobs. Overall sound is great if you play and kind of classic rock. // 10
Reliability & Durability: I'm pretty sure you can easily depend on this amp. I've only had it for a few weeks now and nothing wrong has appeared. But I'm sure this amp wil last me many, many years and will probably be my main amp through that time. I have to write more in this section but there is really nothing to talk about as I haven't had any problems yet with the amp, and I wouldn't expect any soon. // 10
Impression: I mentioned what styles of music I play and already said that this amp is absolutly wonderful for those styles. I've been playing 2 and a bit years. I sold all my other "crap" gear and put the money towards this. I asked all the questions I needed prior to buying the amp as I was spending more than I was comfortable with but I defenitly don't feel like I did a wrong thing there! If the amp were stolen I would find the guy/gal who took it and give them some electro-shock for a good day or so. But if I can't I will save up and buy another. I love the simplicity of the amp, I love any simple amp. I hate the non foot-switchable mid boost, I really want that on the footswitch. Favourite feature would have to be the Detail/Body controls. I actually did compare a lot of amps as I spent a good 2 months finding the one I wanted. I compared it to a bunch of Laney's (already owned the GH50L but had to sadly sell it as I have no room), and Orange, Vox, Fender and a bunch of other amps. // 9
b-rock34
: Mitzu...DO NOT BUY THIS AMP WITHOUT PLAYING THROUGH IT FIRST!!!! You'd better have a lot of pedals, cuz this thing sounds terrible without... very fizzy! There are dozens of better amps out there. Go used...you'll get a much better amp for a much better price.
On another note...dude...stop calling yourself "Slash" and "Slash Wannabe"...it makes you look like a 13 year old douche bag. Come up with your own name! There is already a Slash! POSTED: 04/17/2009 - 01:41 pm / quote|
Don't blame the amp for your shitty beginner guitar with crappy pick ups. I think you re the 13 year old. The Amplifier is not fizzy in the least.
Just because you are a novice player with beginner equipment who doesn't know how to set an amplifier up is no reason to down grade the amp.
I respectfully ask you to STFU!.
Besides my name is a joke, I like Slash a lot and obviously I'm using the amp he's been using lately along with his guitar pickups. If I was able to post a link to my youtube links of what this amplifier sounds like through good equipment your dick would shrivle up and bow down to me!. The only complaint you should genuinly have about this amp is that it lacks a clean channel and the reverb sucks unless its dimed, otherwise you have no reason to open your ignorant trap!
Its a Great Amp and don't you dare continue using it with your crappy Yamaha Guitar.
Fizzy my ass! Thats your crappy Pedals doing it to the amp! POSTED: 04/21/2009 - 01:26 pm / quote|
b-rock34
: Slash, you are a little bit off on this one, my friend. I have a feeling you'd drool if you saw my gear...and you might even like my playing alright. And...I have only played that amp straight in with a '59 Goldtop LP. It WAS very fizzy, and not at all like the vintage Marshall heads I own and have played through (those are simply amazing). But, you know what, I don't like many of the new amps out these days. They truly don't compare to the vintage stuff. I'm pretty sure you'd agree if you played through 'em.
Look, I'm sorry I said the 13-year old douche bag thing. So, just calm down and don't let yourself get so worked up over someone else's comments. Does it really affect you...of course it doesn't. Everyone isn't always gonna agree with you. Just don't let it get the best of you next time! Good luck! POSTED: 04/23/2009 - 12:04 am / quote|
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