MGR/It\'s a lemon « Marshall AVT 100 »
Published on 08/08/04 at 15:00I bought this amp at Sam Ash Music for $659 because I needed an amp that I could do small gigs with.
The sound is good, when it works. I play a Strat, and I can get pretty good Marshall/Strat sounds out of it (Jimi, etc) considering it's a valve amp. You can get a nice dirty blues sound out of channel 1 and the onboard reverb sounds are very usable.
You can get a really nice bluesy sound out of it with dist. channel 1, but I couldn't get that nice screaming lead sound that you need to really rock out. I found channel 2 is useless unless you're playing metal power chords or something muddy.
Also, you can only select one on-board effect at a time, so you can't for example choose a reverb setting + delay or chorus, which is annoying. The Boss petals I have are much more adjustable and sound better than this unit's effects. I only used the reverb settings regularly.
I don't know whether or not I just ran into some bad luck with this one or if they all suck, but after two months it crapped out--I couldn't play it at more than 1/8 max volume without it popping and crackling. I sent it in for repair, and when it came back (6 freakin months later!) it broke again after 2 weeks. I didn't even play through it that much or anywhere near gig volume during that time. I met a guy who had the same problem with his AVT10, so I'm pretty sure its not just me.
For sound quality, I'd give it a 4. For diversity of a sound, I'd give it a 3. 'Cause it keeps breaking, nothing else really matters. Don't buy one.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
The sound is good, when it works. I play a Strat, and I can get pretty good Marshall/Strat sounds out of it (Jimi, etc) considering it's a valve amp. You can get a nice dirty blues sound out of channel 1 and the onboard reverb sounds are very usable.
You can get a really nice bluesy sound out of it with dist. channel 1, but I couldn't get that nice screaming lead sound that you need to really rock out. I found channel 2 is useless unless you're playing metal power chords or something muddy.
Also, you can only select one on-board effect at a time, so you can't for example choose a reverb setting + delay or chorus, which is annoying. The Boss petals I have are much more adjustable and sound better than this unit's effects. I only used the reverb settings regularly.
I don't know whether or not I just ran into some bad luck with this one or if they all suck, but after two months it crapped out--I couldn't play it at more than 1/8 max volume without it popping and crackling. I sent it in for repair, and when it came back (6 freakin months later!) it broke again after 2 weeks. I didn't even play through it that much or anywhere near gig volume during that time. I met a guy who had the same problem with his AVT10, so I'm pretty sure its not just me.
For sound quality, I'd give it a 4. For diversity of a sound, I'd give it a 3. 'Cause it keeps breaking, nothing else really matters. Don't buy one.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com