"Amazing Solid State Amp; Who needs tubes anyway?"
Sound:
I've played guitar for over six years; and have had this amp since I started taking guitar lessons (2005 - 2007). Recently I've been going to local guitar shops and have been trying to find an amp that sounds "better". And as far as my tone goes, I can't even get a tube amp to play or sound how this amp does for me. It's a great starter amp, and a great pro amp too.
Feature:
The features are fantastic, you can get a classic AC/DC rock tone, or dial in OD2 for a "distortion-overdrive" best suited for some punk and metal. Clean tone is one of the better sections of this amp, Marshall hasn't disappointed me in this area. And as far as effects on this amp go; they at least deserve to be checked out. Although my only complaint is that the FLG effect, which I assume stands for Flanger, is actually a Phaser effect.
Ease of Use:
This amp is wonderful as I've said, you can get many tones out of it. If you know what you're doing, you could easily make people believe this is a Tube sound.
Quality:
Of course I have to give it credit where credit is due. I play punk music, and my gear gets the S#@! beat out of it. But three years of intense punk rock influenced music, with gigs to boot, this amp hasn't come close to breaking or dying.
Value:
This amp to me gets a "ten" in value because; of course to me it sounds better than a tube amp. People have complimented on how this has a great sound recorded.
Manufacturer Support:
I haven't had any need to call Marshall about this head, I do know I'm gonna buy more though. ;)
The Wow Factor:
I wouldn't replace this amp for the world, I fell in love with the tone. If I ever lost it, I'd cry, then buy a new one.
Overall:
As I've stated; I can't find anything out there that sounds better than this.
Style of Music: Punk, Horror Punk, anything A - Z
2 of 2 people
(100%) found this review helpful. Did you?
Thank you. Your vote has been counted. Could you briefly tell us why the review was or was not helpful?
"Great Amp. PLEASE Do Not overlook this!!!!!"
Sound:
I am a hardcore tone tweaker. I have a ton of gear and I am always experimenting with different preamp, power, and cab options. I currently own a Triple Rectofier, A Marshall DSL50, and a rack of tube preamps, modelers and tube power amps. All this searching for really just about 3 or 4 "perfect" sounds. I play Les Pauls ( a standard and a studio) and a Highway One strat. I received the MG15DFX as a christmas present and at first, I would not even open the box thinking it was not a serious piece of gear. But since it was a present, I started using it a little, to my extreme surprise, I was blown away at how good it sounded. Now the little MG goes everywhere I need to practice and even with all my tube rigs sitting in the same room, I often just sit down and plug into that to practice. For a long time, I thought, sure, it sounds good at 15 watts, but this series would never be good for a live situation. Then I was in a music store one day and plugged into a MG100HDFX and matching cab. Once again, I was completely blown away and how great this sounded. I was amazed. Suddenly, I felt like a fool having bought into the whole "if it isn't a tube amp, it is junk" philosiphy. Even worse, I have an custom tube amp on order to the tune of about 2 grand. The MG100HDFX sounds absolutely wonderful for the price. The CD input is perfect for plugging your electric/acoustic into if you have acoustic parts during your set which my band does. These things are great. Now, they might not have the projection and tube drive required for stadiums or arenas, but how many reviewers out there, or those reading reviews are playing arenas? The important thing is if the amp sounds good for your needs, at your volume level, for your audience. This amp is an A+ for all of these requirements for me. The only possible improvement would be the cabinet and speakers, but you would have to study very close and find a speaker that match the same frequency response - in other words, don't play this head through Vintage 30s and think it will sound better. It likely will not. I think the MG speakers are relatively flat in thier response and most of the EQ is in the head itself, so higher quality speakers with the same response would be the ticket. Like Eminence man o wars or maybe tonkers? Anyway, this amp is righteous, and if you a texas blues man looking for some stellar SRV style tone, to me, this rig sounds better than a Fender with a tube screamer in front of it. The onboard reverb also sounds way better than my Boss RV-5. Love it. I was a fool to overlook the MG series as merely a "beginner" series of amps for so long. I will own one soon. THis is the best soundig solid state amp for tone, projection, and delievery I have ever played through. The only current production solid state head in the same ball park that I am aware of to to a comparison on would be the new Randall G3 series and in the first 10 seconds the Marshall wins because the Randall emits so much noise it is not usable. The Marshall is very quiet except for when you go to very, very high gain levels, and even then, it emits less than half of the noise the Randall does.
Feature:
Features galore. CD in Jack is killer, as mentioned, especially for plugging in your electric acoustic, or for running a second guitar in through an offboard preamp. Also great for plugging in a metronome for practice. The emulated out is cool, but actually sounds a little muddy to my ears, but not bad. The amp sounds so good at reasonable volume levels out of the matching cab, I would probably just mic the cab instead of using the direct outs, but direct outs are always handy. Great to have a headphone jack on an amp. A desireble feature for the married man who tends to irritate the wife with squealing pinch harmonics constantly.
Ease of Use:
Very easy to use, the only thing that would make it more "perfect" would be to make the "modes" footswitchable as well, like from Clean to Crunch on channel 1. The DSL also suffers from this shortcoming. If this is the magic amp for you though, it might be worth having it professionally modified to have these footswitchable.
Quality:
QUality appears to be solid, but I have not abused these things for years to create on objective opinion. The fact that it uses power ICs instead of tubes lends itself to much higher durability by design alone. Plus, maintenence is ZERO except for maybe a few scratchy pots every 5 years or so?
Value:
Sounds good at a fraction of the cost of any tube amps and alot of solid state amps.
Manufacturer Support:
No real opinion, though I have contacted Marshall for technical questions in the past and was happy.
The Wow Factor:
Black and Gold, standard Marshall looks. Good to Go.
Overall:
Love it. Ample Power, decent delivery (great delivery with medium and low gain) Awesome.
Style of Music: Blues, Rock, Metal
25 of 28 people
(89.29%) found this review helpful. Did you?
Mention Reference
Number
L2T4VJ7 When You Call.
Toll Free En Español: 800-460-7976 m-f 1AM to
1AM EST
Follow zZounds on:
Customize Search Results for Your Location
A temporary customer reference number is assigned to each customer only while they are shopping on zZounds.com. If you call our customer service department for assistance, this number makes it easier for us to answer any questions you have about products, services or purchases.
You don't have to trade service for savings when you shop at zZounds!
We'll beat any price
Really. It's not a problem for us. In fact, we'll thank you
for the chance to live up to our lowest price guarantee!
It's fast and easy
Just tell us where you saw the lower price - another
website, an email offer, your local store - and we'll send
you our lowest price offer in a matter of hours.
Simply click the Seen it for less? link
Next to the item you want, or give us a
call at 800-zZounds (800-996-8637).
With zZounds you'll never have to worry that you paid too much.
We'll beat any price
Really. It's not a problem for us. In fact, we'll thank you
for the chance to live up to our lowest price guarantee!
It's fast and easy
Just tell us where you saw the lower price - another
website, an email offer, your local store - and we'll send
you our lowest price offer in a matter of hours.
Simply click the Seen it for less? link
Next to the item you want, or give us a
call at 800-zZounds (800-996-8637).
A temporary customer reference number is assigned to each customer only while they are shopping on zZounds.com. If you call our customer service department for assistance, this number makes it easier for us to answer any questions you have about products, services or purchases.
