Feature:
This is the ultimate Marshall! REALLY! My take is this you have all the features of the the best plexi, the JCM 800, and you get this really unique clean channel that really lets you explore tones that usually don't come out of a Marshall. These are really clean fender like tones. You've got a channel that the signal is yours for the coloring coming through these responsive and pristine speakers (green backs). The foot switch alone is enough to pull you over. You have two master volume controls each to my ear with a slightly different "punch". You can color each one with presence and reverb which though digital is excellent and better than the Vintage Modern. Each channel remembers the last time you punched in to that volume mode so you get this unique tone you have worked out on the click. Each of the 4 channels has green orange and red overdrive and 2, 3 AND 4 start with normal plexi in 2 with a JCM 800 kind of build with the orange and red. You can tweek this by volume controlling each stage though and I am in 3 clean with perfect Marshall flexibility with each bit of the pick. 4 is delving into the rectified overdrive and my friend goes 3/4 to get all that wank but 1 to get back to a really clean Mesa or Fender tone and 2 for plexi. Midi which I don't use but he does. This give you over a hundred presets. He swapped out the EL 34's with groove tubes. I can not hear this as better. I have travelled and gigged with this amp and it has inspired me like nothing before it! I have not begun to touch the feature list here but I hope you have the sense that Victoria has kicked out the jams with this amp. This is the new benchmark amp!

Quality:
I always buy the extended warranty but I find ironically the cheaper the item the more you need this. Still Marshalls are valved amps so you need to buy a few tubes just in case. I have some groove tubes from the B52 I had before which I would use. Modern Marshals are not wimps. They tour well. If you have the bucks you double stack them but I know of no one who has had to use the second amp from a blow out.

Value:
Here is the best part. To me this head blows away amps way over its price point! Really I think Marshall blew it here. They could easily have asked 500 more for this amp. It really does it all!

Desirability:
I am really just as gratified to have any amp with tone behind me but these are iconic amps to those who know this. I mentioned my marathon sessions with the Vintage Modern. I have spent so many more hours now exploring this amp. I think that I do have a crush on it..really on how much I want to see if I can get that backwards loop (Boss RC20 XL) guitar part on Spanish Castle Magic or even that Albert King sound in my fender mode. I did get some panties sent up in Ft Lauderdale! Probably to much tequila not my tone.

Sound:
i am a classic rock and blues player and I recently bought a vintage modern to satisfy my need for punch and wail with some built in boost and volume control to get overdrive without my neighbors calling the police. This amp is blue and the between the awesome revelation of controlling the drive with the volume and switch controls from my strat and the beautiful tone from the G12C 25-watt Celestion Greenbacks in the speaker cab I was in guitar heaven! (These are voiced to the Hendrix Plexi) I was getting ready for a gig in Ft Lauderdale and I spent about 3 days playing virtually all day exploring all these tones that I had always tried to get to with pedals. It had an effect loop as well so even my pedals required I reconfigure to get better tone then I had ever been able to find. Really! So why am I reviewing this head? My good friend told me I had to come by and try this head that he had just bought from zZ. He had just had the same experience with his JVM as I have described above. His band does a lot more drop D and rectified death metal so I am thinking yeah well I have my girl and you have yours. So he brings it over and we plug them both in and swap back and forth with our own trick bag of guitar riffs. The verdict was....i now own a JVM with the cool blue Vintage Modern speaker cab!

Ease of Use:
It looks daunting with the 4 channels but really it is a dial in the sound and save it with out the confusion of a Mesa. If you want to go Midi as my friend you go from 2 master volome controls per channel with 3 overdrive settings on each volume. Thats 6 per channel and you have 4 channels each with increasing overdrive. Though the seller of this amp to me was this clean channel with the ability to get fender like blues tones. I have now cheated even further and I got a Boss 59 Bassman pedal. With this in the clean loop I am now able to completely wank into a Stevie Ray riff and if you didn't turn around it is coming out of a Vibro or Twin! Amazing! I am still learning but it is really just tone palate. You have a lot to draw from and because it's easy you will be tempted to tweek this amp a lot. I have, like the true geek I am, started a log of different settings. I am also learning I can reprogram the foot switch to stay in channels one and two.

Support:
I have heard they are great but if you work with zZ you virtually have 24/7 backup. I have heard that Marshall is great this way but no personal experience.

Overall:
Well you never say never but I am very gratified to see my talent being stretched and advanced by this amp. I am sad only that I didn't ante up for a Marshall sooner. I am a committed musician and really for such an important tool as your amp this is really not a allot of money. Even in the Marshall line there are 6k amp stacks. The JVM really is the for me the most flexible and tone ready amp for a working guitarist. I have played and recorded on them all and I am finally home with this flexible yet tonally perfect Marshall with the secret weapon of a clean channel to push you into places you don't go with a Marshall.

Feature:
4 channels each with their own gain, treble, bass, middle, volume and reverb channels and 3 unique modes, and two master volumes and prescence and resonance controls. Has an array of impedance output levels, wet - dry control and a programmable footswitch and effects loop. Just about all you would ever need regardless of your level of playing abilities.

Quality:
It looks awesome. Seems like some of the parts are kind of cheap to keep price down, like the knobs are cheap plastic. Seems like they put quality where it needs to be though, and that is inside the amp.

Value:
This thing is just awesome. If you dare, dare. Probably the best value amp I've ever owned, and resell value is pretty good.

Desirability:
Sex Appeal? This thing is orgasmic. It has the looks and the balls to back it up. It won't let you down.

Sound:
What can I say, but WOW. This thing is a beast!! Ever since I started playing guitar I had dreamed of owning a Marshall, and this one being my first and only, it sounds just as bit as good as I ever thought it would. One thing I should mention though, was that the first cab I tried this head with was the 1960 cab, and in my opinion, it sounded awful. I wanted to return it the moment I started playing it. But after hearing what other people were using, the 1960AX, I decided to swap cabs (essentially swapping Vintage 30 speakers for Greenbacks). After that, it was nothing short of amazing. I also run this baby @ 50 watts with just two of the tubes because it is noticeable warmer. Now the Cleans are warm and responsive and have a crisp dynamic range, the Crunch on red mode can get a nice ACDC crisp distortion and the OD channels can take you anywhere from a light crunch to a seering heavy metal distortion. This amp is trully amazing.

Ease of Use:
At first, it can be a little confusing which is understandable considering it has a knob for just about anything, but believe me, it is worth it. Plug it in, and you will be jamming in 20 minutes or less.

Support:
Haven't needed to deal with that yet.

Overall:
Overall, the best amp I have ever owned. If it was ever lost or stolen or broke beyond repair, I would buy another.