SeriesMarshall Mosfet

The Marshall Lead 100 Mosfet has a solid-state power amplifier with a tube pre-amp through a 12AX7. It delivers 100 watts of solid-state power at 4 ohms. The Clean section is only solid-state, whereas the "Tube Drive" section delivers exactly what it says - tube like tone out of a hybrid head amplifier. There are two channels within the Tube Drive section, and one clean channel. UTILIZATION There are standard tone knobs (Bass, Mid, Treble) for the Clean and Tube sections, but although there are two different gains for the Tube sections, there is only one set of tone controls. There is a mid-shift tone option for the Clean channel. All connections are through standard 1/4" jacks and cables. A footswitch can toggle between multiple channels. The amp has a spring reverb, and there is also an effects loop with adjustable levels. There are multiple speaker outs that provide 4 or 8 ohm connections. There is a line out from the rear of the amp. SOUNDS It's pretty easy to dial up a good sound - just fool with the gain, drive select, and tone controls. I read through the manual once, it has some suggest amp settings that can be useful starts, but for the most part the amp is pretty intuitive and won't require reading it. Some great sounding tones can be delivered out of this amp, but it comes with one caveat: The amplifier can't go very loud before it starts to feedback. This is probably due to the fact that a lot of cabinets are at 8 ohms, which means that the full 100 watts can't be delivered to the speakers as the amp is meant to produce 100 watts at 4 ohms. OVERALL OPINION I can't get past the fact that the amp doesn't deliver enough gain without feeding back. This problem is exacerbated when combined with overdrive or distortion pedals. As a result of this, the amplifier couldn't produce enough gain to meet my heavy metal needs, although it would be an excellent budget amp for someone who plays blues or classic rock material.