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