Marshall G50RCD

I bought this amp last november for £180.

I love this amp! It's only 50 watts but it kicks out a hell of a lot of sound! There aren't any in built effects but i never need them anyway. It looks cool, and sound great!

The only thing I don't like about it is that it tends to hiss a lot, but that doesn't matter. It's probably be better if I were using a better guitar!

It's study, tough, well made. It's great quality!

It's excellent - i use it for practicising and live performances and it does everything I need it to.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this through Musicians Friend for $319.


It's a little bigger than bedroom practice size, but I find that the 50w output give better sound at all levels with my Zoom 707 than other, less powerful amps. I can turn this one down and still get a good clean (ch1) and distorted (ch2) sound. Also, this unit comes with the foot pedal for switching between channels - its not an extra cost item.



At this point, there is nothing I don't like.


Construction is heavy duty, with strong corner reinforcements. I haven't beat it much, but it looks and feels like it could take a real beating.



The amp has enough power to sound good (most under-25 watter's are questionable), yet can achieve good sound at less than full volume - it'a a Marshall - what more can I say.



This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

50-watt solid-state amp, 12" speaker
2 Channels: clean (3-band EQ, volume) and boost (2-band EQ, contour, gain, volume).
One reverb, one footswitch to switch channels

UTILIZATION

The amp is very easy to use, you simply have to plug in and toggle easily between two very different sounds using the footswitch.
The manual deserves a special mention for providing different settings to get typical sounds.

SOUNDS

The clean channel is very interesting, you can get good sounds out of it.
Distortion sounds are not as useful, they are shrill and you can, unfortunately, tell that your are playing a solid-state amp. I play a Strat and I've had a hard time getting a decent distortion sound, maybe humbucker pickups allow you to make better use of this channel.
Anyway, the boost channel allows you to go from bluesy sounds to nu-metal without problems by cranking up the gain to the max.

OVERALL OPINION

In short, it's a nice, powerful amp, although It might not be enough to play with a band (I have never used it with a drummer), but the 12" speaker knows how to kick some ass!
I changed it for a tube amp due to the distortion channel, which didn't really suit me. Nevertheless, it's an affordable amp and, at this price point, you can use it to explore different and pretty varied styles.

This is Marshall's attempt at the introductory amps for the beginner or low budget guitar players. For the quiet player it has a headphone input so if you desire to play at home quietly or in your office this is a great feature.

This is the same amp as the other wattage in this series. This you get a little bit more air through with the extra wattage. This is 50 watts and will shake walls down with solid state tone.

This amp is similar to the FX version of this series with a few more options. First you have the foot switch and input right next to one another on the front panel. Next, you have a instrument input on the front for the headphone jack, line out and CD input. You can hook your favorite CD player into the amp and use the CD player's volume to get the desired volume out of the amp.

UTILIZATION

Features
Twin switchable channels
Clean Channel with its own Treble and Bass controls
Overdrive Channel with Gain, Bass, Contour, Treble, and Volume controls
Built-in Reverb
Line out
Headphone input
CD input


SOUNDS


This is going to be a bit less headroom than the 80 watt version and a little more headroom than the 30 watt version. The tone from this amp isn't that bad for being a solid state amp. It has 2 channels with two modes for each channel and all are very usable in the basic functions. This is an all in one amp for a beginner guitar player. Any one who has spent any time with a tube amp will not go for this other than to have as a practice unit for silence or office use. The crunch channel will get you a great classic rock tone. Trying using a Gibson Les Paul or SG and dial down the gain for some good Led Zeppelin tone or Ac/Dc crunch.

The over drive channel is excellent for modern rock and will sound good with any guitar used with humbucker pickup. I suggest dialing in your contour control knob to find the best synch with what ever guitar that you are planning to use with the amp. ONe great thing about this amp is the contour knob.

The contour control basically shifts the mid-range frequencies in your guitar tone. By turning the Contour fully clockwise you will scoop out of your sound most of the middle frequencies. If you combine this setting with heavy distortion and high Treble and Bass settings you can get a killer thrash tone, perfect for brutal rhythms and nasty leads. By turning this control fully anti-clockwise you can get some great fusion type

OVERALL OPINION

These amps have been long discontinued so the used market is the only way to go at this point. They newer models so this one is obsolete. If you are looking for a good amp that you don't have to worry about and just need for practicing or silent playing and you need that Marshall tone then this is a good amp for those purposes. This isn't going to go on stage anywhere or be good for recording, but if you need simplicity in a practice amp then this is a great amp for that. It has a good enough tone for getting your chops down or feeling out the neck of the guitar. I would recommend this to any Marshall fan looking for a solid practice amp.