This review was submitted by Guitar Jar contributor: Neil Robinson
I wanted something to bring give a professional, live sound at lower wattage for home practice – getting that timeless Marshall stack presence was a real bonus, too. The proportionately scaled-down size actually looks prettier than the full size Marshall stack and fits in well in a domestic environment.
…easy to dial in a tone. Don’t expect this amp to sound small. IT IS LOUD AND HUGE!…
A full-fat valve head with two totally differently voiced channels. Combination of 3 12AX7 preamp valves and two 6V6 power valves is pure Fender Tweed rather than Marshall rocker – so works great with Strat-style single coils.
Effects – chorus, vibe and echo, each with memory and separate reverb. These are usable and add to the amp’s appeal. A full-featured footswitch allows channel change and effect on-off.
The effects section is the only non valve part of the signal chain (guitar-pre-amp-effects-reverb-amp-speaker). When you turn the effects and reverb down to zero, you can turn them to “off” – you hear a click, there’s an on/off switch on the knob. This takes the effect completely out of the signal processing chain, just like “full-bypass” on a good effect pedal, leaving you with an amp with no effect in the way of your sound, just pure valve power.
Custom 12″ Celestion in the cabinet.
Excellent – easy to dial in a tone. Very low background noise. Don’t expect this amp to sound small. IT IS LOUD AND HUGE!
Clean channel stays clean up to maybe 3 on the dial then fattens up to start to gently crunch. Over 5 it’s in full crunch mode! Overdrive has so much gain. Overdrive volume and overdrive gain lets you choose how angry this amp sounds.
Bass, mid and treble work well and are common to both channels. The bright switch will lighten up dark humbuckers on the normal channel and cut through any mix on overdrive. This can be too bright for Strats – you need to roll back the guitar tone to get a real vintage chime!
What would I have loved to see? Bright defeat and individual effect switching on the foot switch would have been nice. Lack of send and return sockets and no pre-out may limit studio use.
Out of the box the sound quality is good, but a bit grainy until bedded in; needs a few hours to burn-in initially, then smoothes up and goes creamier.
Changing out the three 12AX7 valves for NOS Mullards will transform this amp into a Vintage Fender sound for about £40 a set. The Celestion speaker is good – but adding a Greenback for less than a mid-price effect pedal is amazing!
No worries, superb quality. It’s Marshall. 3 years guarantee.
Given the choice, would I buy this again? Absolutely. Go for it. It’s everything you could want to look at and sound like.
This review was submitted by Guitar Jar contributor: Neil Robinson
Guitar Jar Contributors are random members of the global playing community who have contributed to Guitar Jar by submitting reviews & articles to share with fellow musicians.
11:19:34 am
I bought this half stack 2 weeks ago. It took all of and hour to know it was going back. Loud. yes. Very loud. I could not go past 4 without the windows and everything not nailed down rattle & shake. I tried to dial in a tone and couldn’t get one. I thought it sounded like utter crap. It was returned and a Blackstar HT-5 half stack was ordered.
9:02:51 pm
you have to know how to play guitar to “find tone.” I can many amp sound amazing. This Marshall Amp is super awesome, MARSHALL RULES!