Marshall VS100R

I recently picked up this amp on Ebay for a little over 200 dollars. A damn good deal. The serial number denotes it was made in 1998 and I’m cool with that.…very cool. I like older women, guitars, Harleys and amps. I don’t want to start a rush to buy the old England made amps, but if you’re reading this…you already suspect what many of us know. Chinese made stuff is OK but when you’re deciding between a product made by people that don’t share the historical and cultural importance of a Marshall amp. Add that the poor slub has moved maybe 100’s of miles from his friends and family to live in concrete structures with hundreds of other workers, versus a scrubby, hard working Brit, that’s able to have a pint on his lunch break, go to the pub with his mates after work, throw darts, listen to the old great British bands on the juke box, bet on which Marshall the song was played on, then go to the old timers table to find out who was right. Those stellar fellas that took pride in their work, their family, Eric Clapton the Beatles and Marshall. This amp has the warm tones and roundness that reminds you of these great people that assembled these amps. Don’t get me wrong. I have Marshall tube and solid heads and cabs, made in China and they work fine. But I can tell a difference. Kinda like having a mute girlfriend that never gives you grief or a blow up doll. The end result and deed would appear to be the same…but it’s not quite the same. This is a 100 watt amp that can push major sound on it’s on or you can plug it into a large speaker cabinet. This amp is a powerful practice amp or can be used as a head for a cabinet. I got this for it’s “Buy it Now” price of 187.00, a little shipping and a new missing Marshall logo that caused it to be ignored by buyers looking for a pristine Marshall. I like it and if I had the money I’d buy another for my grandson.
They won’t be making them in England anymore and if they did, the labor unions of the Brits and the punitive import American unions would make them cost prohibitive. But do yourself and true aficionados’ a favor. Keep your bidding calm, buy quietly and let’s keep it on the down low. Lest some suits and schworms buy all the old ones and jack up resale prices that keep you and your prodigy out of the English Marshall amp market. So…shhh…Let’s keep this just between us friends.

I got this thing off ebay used for $250. Thats a steal for a 100 watt amp, let alone a marshall with a tube in it. I played one of the newer 100 watt valvestates, that go for around 700 bucks or so, and the only difference between the vs100 and the avt100 is that the avt has some extra amp effects. Seeing as I already had a decent multi effects pedal, and like a good clean sound, I knew it would be perfect for me.

I definately like its features, the power dimension switch actually does do something, i don't know what the guy who wrote the previous review is talking about. He probably doesn't know how to use it properly. Its great for when you need to pay quiet, but still want the same amp effects of being turned up. And by turned up, I mean your guitar's volume knob. It basically allows you to turn down your guitar, but crank up the amp, and not have the police pounding on your door threatening you with a fat ticket, all because you just want to perfect your tone. This thing sounds s pretty good, my roomate has a Crate Blue Voodoo Half Stack (120 All Tube Head, 4x12 Cabinet), and I like the tone I get out of my amp more. I find it to be warmer. And oh man, this thing can get loud. Even though its only got 1 12 inch speaker, it can hold its own against my roomates half stack. Which leads me to the other features of this. It's a real combo amp. The speaker plugs in just like a head plugs into a 4 by cab. You can also use it as a head, and get a speaker cabinet later on, as it has the umph to power one, and two speaker outputs on the back. Its great if you want something powerfull, and gigable, with a good sound, but may want to upgrade later on. The first overdrive channel is a good blend between a sweet warm clean tone and a crunchy tube overdrive. It has problems if you try to use it out of context (not for screaming distortion sounds). The Overdrive 2 Channel can get you that scream, and if you are in the mood for pissing off your neighbors with screaming harmonic distortion that seems like its on the verge of shaking the resonance frequency of your apartment building, it works great.

Everything about it is good, except that its noisy. It hums like a 2 dollar whore with a bad crack addiction. I replaced stock marshall tube, and put in a Mesa Boogie SPAX7, and it improved the sound significantly. It also has a spring reverb, so this thing is suseptable to interference and bad power wiring in your house. I may be a tad bit spoiled, because i've been using my strat (with vintage noiseless pickups) on a fender acoustic amp, which has no noise at all. Its a very "natural" amp, so with the tube and the spring reverb, it seems almost impossible to completely get rid of a hum. Take care of the tube inside it (don't stick the amp in the trunk of your car and go hit speed bumps at 50 MPH), and keep the power to the amp as clean as possible, and you'll be ok. You can't be super picky about noise, or this thing will drive you nuts. I'm currently researching about installing a ground loop in the amp, and that may be what it needs.

Its a Marshall. Its beefy, and marshalls are just about the finest made amps on the market. I'd suggest swapping out the tube and putting a mesa boogie SPAX7 in it.

Great amp for the price, its got plenty of feautres without a bunch of cheezy low quality bells and whistles. Its got that good marshall quality, its loud enough to gig with, and its very versatile.

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

Second hand form local guitar shop around £300.

This amp is very vyer versatile. With three channels, a power cut and a tone shift it can be played in almost any envriment. If this is the top end of your budget it will fill any venue that you will paly in and with the power cut on it can be palyed at home with others in the house. The clean tone is superb, but it does need a good piece of wood on the end of the cable; only play wiht quality guitars. When using high powerd pickups the clean distorts to a wonderful blues sound AND this can be avoided if it is not the sound you are after by sorting out the controls on your guitar. With two dirty (or clean if you turn the gain down) channels dynamics can be added upon by the footswitch as well as your own technique. Both channels can be set up similarly to have subtle changes or for vast volume changes. Personally i like to leave the gain for OD1 around 2 or 3 and not put the gain for OD2 above six. After this point i find the texture too washy (like sand on a snare drum) for myself but if you turn tone on your guitar down this works for new-metal (if that is your cup of tea). The reverb circuit is sublime and all thee channels respond well to fx as long as you remember that you are playing guitar and not fx box.

With the power cut on the guitar lose tone. Alos the tone only really gest going above half volume. i am sure taht with a 100W Marshall that is really very bloody loud to play on your own but is good for parctising with your band or live.

The build quality is very good. i have only had one problem but that was with a kink in a cable on the footswitch and not the amp itself.

It is a very good amp for the price.

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