Marshall JMD102

I have heard two of my favorite guitar player play through this amp, Paul Gilbert and Doug Aldrich. I actually heard Doug from about 5 feet away at NAMM a couple years ago when this amp came out. Of course he can make just about anything sound decent but I also heard one of Marshall's demo guys play through it and it sounded equally as impressive.

Marshall JDM102 Digital/Tube Guitar Combo Amp Features at a Glance:

Power: 100-watts
2x12"
16 digital preamps
Power Amp: 4 x EL34
Four modulation FX
Four delay FX
Reverb
Noise Gate
Series/Parallel FX Loop
Footcontroller included
MIDI In and Thru
Emulated Line Out
Headphone Out
MP3/CD Line In

UTILIZATION

Details
Type Hybrid
Number of Channels 4
Power 100W
Speakers 2 x 12"
Effects
Reverb
EQ Bass, Middle, Treble
Amp Modeling
Number of Models 16
Preamp Tubes 1 x ECC83
Power Tubes 4 x EL34
Inputs 1 x Instrument, 1 x Line (1/4")
Outputs 1 x Headphone (1/4"), 1 x XLR (Emulated Line), 3 x Speaker
Footswitch I/O
Effects Loop
Height 20.87"
Width 27"
Depth 10"
Weight 68.34 lbs.
Notes MIDI I/O

SOUNDS

So basically it is a digital preamp and a tube driven power section. The preamps cover just about ever Marshall amp that they have done and it does a surprisingly good job. I have never been a fan of amp modeling as most of my experience has been with Line 6 and those things sound terrible. So when I first heard this amp, my ears immediately perked up.

The amp covers a lot of Marshall ground and the price is nice as well. If you can't find a decent tone out of 16 amp models then this isn't the amp for you.

OVERALL OPINION

At new these amp come in at around $1199, which isn't a bad price for the features and tone that you get. There are plenty of hot-rodded Marshall tones available in this amp and it doesn't take too long to find them either.

I would recommend this amp to anyone who loves the Marshall tone and can't decide which series they would like to have. The tone come as close as you can get for a modeler and sounds fairly organic.