« Pass!! »

I had heard so much talk about this amp for some time that I felt I need to get it. I was recently playing Mesa Boogies and wanted to go back to the Marshall tone that I was comfortable with. So I sold a Mesa that I had to get this amp. I had already owned a DSL 100 and was looking for something similar with more options. I got this home and was immediately disappointed. The amp was cold right out of the box. In that the bias needed to be warmer and get those tubes cranking hotter. So the sound was kind of thin to me. Next I noticed how noisy this amp was compared to the DSL 100. I always knew the DSL has a bit of noise but not even close to this amp. There was so much gain in here that I needed to go out and buy a noise gate. I don't like using noise gates if I don't have to. It was really too much for me to handle, so I dumped the amp within a month after buying it.

Marshall JVM Series JVM410H Tube Amp Head Features:

* 100-Watt valve head
* Valve complement: 5 x ECC83 (12AX7s) in preamp, 2 x EL34s in power amp
* 4 independent, footswitchable channels-Clean, Crunch, OD1 & OD2
* Each channel boasts 3 footswitchable modes — Green, Orange & Red
* Studio quality, footswitchable digital reverb with level controls for all 4 channels.
* 2 footswitchable master volumes
* Two FX loops — Series/Parallel & Parallel
* Series/Parallel FX loop is footswitchable
* Emulated line out
* 6-way, 7-LED footswitch with memory capabilities (UK patent pending)
* All switching can be done via MIDI
* Made in England


UTILIZATION

There are a load of options in this amp. There are four channels with three different modes to choose from within each channel. So essentially it is a 12 channel amp. Some of these modes are repetitive. For instance you can get the same sound out of channel one on the red mode as you can channel 2 with the green mode. I pretty much stayed away from channel one since it seemed pointless to me. I used channel two quite a bit since it felt the most natural sounding of them all. The 3rd and 4th channel while sounding gainy were just too much and there was so much noise that it just didn't get used.

I read through the manual online at Marshall's website just to see if there was anything that I was missing. It was clear that I wasn't going to get this thing sounding the way I wanted.

SOUNDS

Perhaps I didn't give it a fair shake but I just couldn't get past how much noise this thing had. Plus it felt cheap to me. The sound was similar to a Line 6 simulator. It didn't feel natural at all. Nothing about this amp felt like a real amp except maybe channel one or two.

I used all kinds of guitars with this thing to make it sound good such as Strats, Tele, LP's, Wolfgang and even a Rickenbacker. Nothing could make this thing sound natural. Allow me to preface this by saying I had owned a Splawn QR and comparing the two was not fair. The Splawn was so far superior that it was pointless to even keep this amp. This amp wasn't even in the same league.

OVERALL OPINION

My opinion on this amp is to pass it up. Get a DSL 100 if you want high gain Marshall or get a JCM 800, modify it or slap a SD-1 in front for about have the price as this amp. If you want to buy an amp with high gain Marshall tones then get a Quickrod. If you want a huge low end amp then get a Nitro. Just don't waste your time with this amp.

I would not recommend this amp to anyone. At new prices they are over $2000. At used you may find it as good as I did for $1100. Save half that and get an DSL. Or save part and buy a 800 or a used Splawn.