Marshall valvestate AVT50 opinions

jonnyburgo

Theres one near me for sale, looks nice, the tribute version.How do they sound? Will it just sound solid statey and sterile or does the valve really make a difference?.

grungebob

I had one years ago and my memory of it isn't so good. It's loud though! The cleans never seemed right to me and there was a bit of a fizz to the gain,my mate loved it though and bought it off me. I settled on a peavey super chorus and a rat pedal.

Richardj

I really liked the one I had.  The clean channel had some warmth and could be made to lightly break up for bluesy stuff.  I wasn't a fan of the drive channel, but to be honest I don't really like the Marshall drive tone anyway.  I know, heresy, but I like my drive a bit warmer.

I have thoughts of getting another one as a backup amp.

EricTheWeary

my experience with Valvestates/ AVT's suggest that the clean channel is basically inert and the distortion is 80's poodle rock and nothing else. For me using the distortion with the gain down enough for it to stay clean, turning up the master and then feeding it pedals works best. That might sound a bit contradictory but that's how, IMHO,you get the best out of the valve without sounding like a Poison b side. 

ThePrettyDamned

The older vs 8080 is very nice - solid state sounding, so maybe you'll like it, maybe you won't. But it has nice cleans, and the drive is Marshall in character.

I've heard bad things about reliability in the AVT series, though.

ICBM

Sterile clean sound and thin gutless distortion sound, and then they break.

The older Valvestates (80xx series and VS series) are much better both for tone and reliability.

A simple rule with Marshalls - avoid anything with a cooling fan. It means they have an IC power module instead of a discrete-transistor power stage - this is what causes the poor reliability, and possibly the thin tone.

monquixote

ICBM said:

Sterile clean sound and thin gutless distortion sound, and then they break.

The older Valvestates (80xx series and VS series) are much better both for tone and reliability.

A simple rule with Marshalls - avoid anything with a cooling fan. It means they have an IC power module instead of a discrete-transistor power stage - this is what causes the poor reliability, and possibly the thin tone.

@ICBM he speaks the truth. 

If you want solid state you want an early valvestate, a bandit, or a TM60 (ICBM will dispute this last one)

ICBM

monquixote said:

or a TM60 (ICBM will dispute this last one)

I don't like the sound of them, but they do at least seem to be reliable. Tone is a matter of taste, reliability is a matter of experience.

I do actually know someone who loves the tone of the AVT50 - he asked me to get him one, on purpose after he played one at a jam night. He has valve Marshalls too, is a great player and is not an idiot. He knows about the reliability but is willing to take the risk! Each to their own .

dafuzz

I have an AVT150 as a backup amp and it's fine.

I must say though - I don't think I have a full tonal range of hearing or something because 95% of amps sound bloody identical to me! I can definitely say however it has never let me down in terms of reliability.

EricTheWeary

You do get a lot of AVT's in rehearsal rooms and jam nights,etc. I presume that may be as a result of avaialbility and price rather than reliability and that rehearsal room owners like to be able to say ' look at the big shiney shiney Marshall like big rock stars use' even if it sounds like a wet fart.

Maxi

jonnyburgo said:

Theres one near me for sale, looks nice, the tribute version.How do they sound? Will it just sound solid statey and sterile or does the valve really make a difference?.

Yes the valve is an interactive component and you can hear it doing its work . FWIW I have the much older VS 8080 which you can pick up fairly cheaply these days normally for less than £100 , Ive seen them go for as little as £50 . Over all I'd say these kind of amps sound smooth and saturated with the gain up not every ones cup of tea but I like them , still sounds much better than OD pedals . If you do decide to get one bare in mind that theres no shortage of them S/H ones are all over the place .

ThePrettyDamned

A friend of mine has a vs 8080 as his first amp. He still gigs is regularly and sent back a dsl, Engl, laney and mesa because he *genuinely* prefers the sound from the valvestate.

He's recently had to replace the speaker. I think he went for a higher powered celestion and is impressed, he said it sounds marginally different but even louder than before, which means even less strain on an already reliable amp. He considered eminence speakers, too, but was worried it would change the voice a bit too much.

p90fool

A friend of mine has an AVT, it sounds ok for high gain stuff, but between us we got a passable bluesy tone using pedals. The crunch channel doesn't seem to clean up very smoothly at all.

He got it mega cheap because it had already blown the power module once and the PO no longer trusted it.

Maxi

Im not going pretend that I prefer the VS to a Mesa but I do think the 8080 has a character all of its own thats why ive kept mine . I have recordings that I made with it using a AKG 3000 b that sound more gnarly than the jcm 800 I used to own . Some people might say they sound wrong or not as articulate dynamic etc . They just sound a different thats all but not always in the same way .

thermionic

I had a first series 8020 Valvestate - the 8010 and 8020 actually didn't have a valve in them! It did decent Marshall dirt though, think of them as having a built-in Guv'nor (or Jackhammer or something). Open it up and you'll see the clipping LEDs glowing more than the valves.

bobblehat

I used a VS100R for a long time .Sounds far superior to the later AVT models.

Was also very reliable.Clean channel wasn't so great but both the drive channels were good. 

jonnyburgo

Think I'll give it a swerve, cheers chaps.

littlethoughts

Our guitarist has one of the old valvestates, it has survived falling out of the back of a landrover driving down a country a road and has been going strong for over a decade. He manages to coerce ridiculously honking zappa-esque tones out of it and some lovely drippy clean sounds as well.

PolarityMan

dafuzz said:

I have an AVT150 as a backup amp and it's fine.

I must say though - I don't think I have a full tonal range of hearing or something because 95% of amps sound bloody identical to me! I can definitely say however it has never let me down in terms of reliability.

The singer in my band uses my old AVT150h and it sounds fine. He has also poured various drinks (monster and milkshake) in it and after a couple of visits to the amp doctor it is still trucking. I must have got the thing originally in 2002 or so.

mike_l

I had one, and really liked it.

The valve did make a bit of difference, but it still didn't sound exactly like an all valve amp, nor an all transistor amp. It did have some of the "sparkle" of a valve amp, but not completely.

I wouldn't have worried about gigging it, but I never cranked it right up. I had it right after a cheap Fender 15w practice amp, so it was bound to sound better.

 

A mate of mine has it now, still going strong.

boogieman

I've had an AVT combo for years and it's always been reliable. The clean channel is the best and yes, it takes pedals very well, I use a Line 6 M13 in front of it and am quite happy with most of the tones. Both the OD channels are fizzy though and I rarely use them: OD 2 is particularly horrible. The "acoustic" channel is utter crap and a waste of space.

What I've discovered recently is it works really well combined with my Yamaha THR for classic rock stuff...I use the stereo outs from the M13 to feed both amps and the AVT gives the bottom end some real clout at neighbour-friendly levels.