A controversial amp joins my lineup ...

OilCityPickups

So a couple of months ago - on a whim - I bid and won a Marshal AVT 2000 100w combo. I was and am still super happy with my lightweight Boss Katana ... and I still have my valve amps that I have popped out on loan to a couple of more regularly gigging guitarist friends ... but I fancied seeing what these amps - that somewhat passed me by when new - were capable of ... especially as I managed to pick up an immaculate one with a channel/effect footswitch for £100 ... a quid a watt :-) 



My first impression ... dear god this thing's heavy! I mean stupidly so ... if you took the guts out it would make a great nuclear shelter ... 

Second impression on turning everything on ... er ... what's that noise ... a quier, gentle whirring like a computer cooling fan, Ah it's a computer cooling fan! There's a novelty in a guitar amplifier. Not sure if I like it, but it's not really obtrusive.

Okay so we have clean, drive one and drive two channels, and some digital effects available via a knob at the end of the amp's control panel ... and a dedicated foot switch on the controller.


Clean channel ... well it's bloody loud, quite warm with enough sparkle on the top end and a presence control to sparkle things up more. It may well make a good pedal platform ... let's try the drive channels.

Drive one ... I'd call this crunch personally ... but I'm old fashioned. Not a bad sound at all, wide Marshall snarl comes pretty easily. The 12AX7 valve seems to be doing its thing and giving quite a touch responsive feel to things. 
Hummmm adding a bit of reverb via the effects section ... okay  ... but there are reverb pedals that could do this better ... but then it is a 1990s design. I fiddle with the effects section for a bit of chorus etc ... and as I suspected, okay for messing about with, but if I gig this amp then reverb, chorus etc will be coming from my pedalboard. 
I try the scoop button on drive one okay, but not really for me on a crunch channel ... but it's another sound in the arsenal if I need it. 

Okay let's try the drive 2 channel ..... oh wow ... pretty much perfect 90s metal ... as subtle as a kick in the wahoonies ... but quite glorious if that's yer thang. For this the scoop button works really well. Usable till 2/3 of the gain is up ... after that a bit too tizzy for my palate ... but that having been said, 3/4 gain is still insane metal land. 


So with my pedal board ... a beefy and warm 'clean slate' to work with. Crunch channel works well with boosts or overdrives too. 
And although I prefer to use overdrive and distortion from my board ... the sounds available with amp alone are really quite usable ... er ... except for that reverb perhaps ... though that might work better with more fiddling. 

Add to the list, effects loop, phones socked and emulated out ... and you have quite a capable package.

Well if you are a young muso strapped for cash - for a hundred notes you could gig with this amp happily. Add pedals as you can afford them. This won't suit valve purists ... but it's a lot of amp for very little money.

I've heard reliability can be an issue  with certain Valvestate models ... but I figure if an amp has been about 20+ years it would imploded if it was going to ... it may need a new preamp valve at some point ... but that's just consumables. Anyway if it pops a gasket and melts down ... I will have lost the equivalent of a couple of good nights on the beer ...  

Oh yep ... with a 7 string it sounds HUGE 
 




. 

snowblind

Mate has one of the Vox VT30 valvestate jobs which I guess is in a similar vein. Again, they can be had for chump change and to a point it is not half bad. I wasn't dazzled by a lot of the inbuilt effects but overall far better than say something like one of the cheap Blackstar DSP noise boxes. Quite a weighty beast for its size but I don't consider that a bad thing. A bit of mass can help give some depth to the sound of a good amp. 

Danny1969

I actually don't mind the sound of these amps ... they do sound like a Marshall to a certain extent. 

The amp can produce more bass the than the speaker can handle. I've seen one blow it's speaker silently because low frequency had built up due to a guitar being left lent against the amp without the volume rolled off properly. They need the fan as the TDA output chip is a bit delicate and will blow if it gets too hot. 

Repair wise I've changed the output chips, input jacks and there's a pair of fusable resistors that tend to blow in certain circumstances .... oh and a speaker in the aforementioned amp. 

bertie

mind you dont have your eye out on those pointy things

OilCityPickups

snowblind said:

Mate has one of the Vox VT30 valvestate jobs which I guess is in a similar vein. Again, they can be had for chump change and to a point it is not half bad. I wasn't dazzled by a lot of the inbuilt effects but overall far better than say something like one of the cheap Blackstar DSP noise boxes. Quite a weighty beast for its size but I don't consider that a bad thing. A bit of mass can help give some depth to the sound of a good amp. 

My business partner Tim had one of the Vox Valvetronix amps ... it actually sounded rather nice once I'd replaced a duff preamp tube for him.  

OilCityPickups

bertie said:

mind you dont have your eye out on those pointy things

I likes me a pointy thang ... 

ICBM

It’s a Christmas miracle… an AVT100 that still works .

It has to be said that I have scrapped several of them as being a waste of time and money to repair. That it has a fan is a warning sign - the power IC needs to be cooled fairly aggressively, and if it’s not then it will usually catch fire in short order - sometimes it does even if the fan doesn’t fail. Noisy fans are a major issue with them, and it’s tempting to disconnect it if you don’t think you’re going to push the amp hard, but… don’t. If it’s noisy, and especially if it’s started to vibrate, replace it.

The sound is OK, particularly at low volumes - the ridiculously heavy chipboard closed-back cabinet helps - but at gig volume they tend to disappear, that big scooped sound that makes them sound good at home doesn’t work as well in a mix. But at least it doesn’t have the AVT150’s ‘acoustic’ channel, which the amp bizarrely defaults to on power-up - and therefore also after any brief power off - which can catch you out at a gig.

Getting the footswitch - and especially the cable, since if you look closely Marshall made the utterly bonkers decision to use a *non-standard* one with the same connector polarity at both ends, so you can’t use an off-the-shelf replacement - makes it a much better buy.

Good luck. .

Sporky

I was hoping for something from Metasonix... 

OilCityPickups

ICBM said:

It’s a Christmas miracle… an AVT100 that still works .

It has to be said that I have scrapped several of them as being a waste of time and money to repair. That it has a fan is a warning sign - the power IC needs to be cooled fairly aggressively, and if it’s not then it will usually catch fire in short order - sometimes it does even if the fan doesn’t fail. Noisy fans are a major issue with them, and it’s tempting to disconnect it if you don’t think you’re going to push the amp hard, but… don’t. If it’s noisy, and especially if it’s started to vibrate, replace it.

The sound is OK, particularly at low volumes - the ridiculously heavy chipboard closed-back cabinet helps - but at gig volume they tend to disappear, that big scooped sound that makes them sound good at home doesn’t work as well in a mix. But at least it doesn’t have the AVT150’s ‘acoustic’ channel, which the amp bizarrely defaults to on power-up - and therefore also after any brief power off - which can catch you out at a gig.

Getting the footswitch - and especially the cable, since if you look closely Marshall made the utterly bonkers decision to use a *non-standard* one with the same connector polarity at both ends, so you can’t use an off-the-shelf replacement - makes it a much better buy.

Good luck. .

The guy I got this from has had it serviced a couple of times , and the fan behaving itself and is quiet.  I tend not to use scoop ...as exactly as you say, it disappears in the mix but on standard EQ it is more than acceptable. To my mind a £100 is disposable and the totally non standard footswitch I could probably flog on for half the price of the amp tomorrow. If it pegs out then I have a pretty good speaker to play with, and the knobs and furniture have a value too.

At the moment it is sounding good and recording well, makes a good clean pedal platform with a Metal Zone in front of it ... or better still used on the power amp in as a preamp.  

I'd really fancy one of these as well ... if I can find one at the right price locally. 

sgosden

Mine was perfect, for a 14 year old in garage bands, pre fucked back, for paper round savings... then I gigged it and it set on fire  

OilCityPickups

sgosden said:

Mine was perfect, for a 14 year old in garage bands, pre fucked back, for paper round savings... then I gigged it and it set on fire  

Lol ... told you it was a controversial amp ... 

Petepassion

After a long hiatus the AVT150 was my first up to get back into things. It had the noisy fan, so that was replaced.
   I found the digital effect panel useful for a subtle slapback delay…worked really well for that role.
   Was great for the price.

Stevepage

The AVT50h was my first half decent amp. Used it for a few years until I traded it towards a JCM900 2100. Turns out it had caught fire some time in the past without me realising (the guys at Coda inspected it during the deal). Certainly decent for a 15 year old just starting with his first band.

Even a friends AVT150 had caught fire.

ICBM

If you want to really roll the dice on needing a fire extinguisher, how about this… design an amp with not one but no less than four of these self-combusting AVT power modules, connected in a bridged configuration which means that one failing will usually immediately blow one of the others… ie the probability of failure is at least four times higher, if not squared. It’s also so high-powered that there’s a good chance of it frying the speakers before the fuse goes.

If you think that sounds like the worst amp design possible, you wouldn’t be far from the truth - but Marshall actually built it… it’s called the Mode Four.

The first time I was given one to repair, I wasted two new power modules on it before it blew up again and I told the owner to just send it back to Marshall, and why. After that I refused to even look at them. Don’t ever buy one, or even accept one for free and use it if you value your speakers.

OilCityPickups

Stevepage said:

The AVT50h was my first half decent amp. Used it for a few years until I traded it towards a JCM900 2100. Turns out it had caught fire some time in the past without me realising (the guys at Coda inspected it during the deal). Certainly decent for a 15 year old just starting with his first band.

Even a friends AVT150 had caught fire.

Part of the reason for picking up this amp was that everyone is moaning about the cost of things these days, so my intention is to show that for very little money you can have an amp capable of rehearsals and gigs if you are cash strapped. My first two amps as a teen were a JTM45 Plexi head (block badge) and a 100w lead head  - all bought for next to bugger all in the late 70s. I've had AC30s and Bassman heads ... all for very little, but times have changed. Unless you want a lunchbox amp there is very little affordable second hand for the youngsters wanting to play - especially if they want to play loud and heavy.. 

A 100w Boss Katana is £250-280 second hand - Katana's are great metal amps, I have one ... however aside from being more expensive ... they don't exactly look the part.

This is an experiment ... pared with for example with the Ibanez 7 ... there's a base cost of £150 for the guitar and £100 for the amp that's cheaper than some people on here are buying distortion pedals alone ... and about the cost of a pair of PAFs if that's your thing. So far I've spent around £80 on a compensated nut and locking tuners for the 7  - the very minimum I'd want for gigging ... so that £330 for a setup that's loud enough to cope with a rock drummer, a guitar that plays in tune with a low action. 
I may well eventually get the Marshall serviced again - and give it away to some local kid trying to get on and get out there and make music.. 

bertie

I had a VS100r for a while,  really was better than I gave it credit for

ICBM

OilCityPickups said:

I may well eventually get the Marshall serviced again - and give it away to some local kid trying to get on and get out there and make music.. 

It's a noble intention, but these things are so questionable from a gigging reliability point of view that you could be setting someone up for an embarrassing and/or expensive experience down the line...

That's what I have against them, not the sound really - I do find they tend to disappear in the mix a bit even when not set scooped, but they're no worse than a lot of other solid-state amps in that regard.

bertie said:

I had a VS100r for a while,  really was better than I gave it credit for

Those are genuinely good amps, and still sell for pennies.

OilCityPickups

ICBM said:

OilCityPickups said:

I may well eventually get the Marshall serviced again - and give it away to some local kid trying to get on and get out there and make music.. 

It's a noble intention, but these things are so questionable from a gigging reliability point of view that you could be setting someone up for an embarrassing and/or expensive experience down the line...

That's what I have against them, not the sound really - I do find they tend to disappear in the mix a bit even when not set scooped, but they're no worse than a lot of other solid-state amps in that regard.

bertie said:

I had a VS100r for a while,  really was better than I gave it credit for

Those are genuinely good amps, and still sell for pennies.

Lets see ... I paid £100 for an amp ... that I have considered giving to a deserving guitarist who can't afford one ... and because it might break down a week a month a year or never - after I gifted it ... for free ... meaning said guitarist had at least a while playing something he couldn't afford ... I'm setting someone up for an embarrassing and/or expensive experience down the line ...

I really don't know why I bother with this place ... there are some around here who like the sound of their own opinions so much it blinds them to the real world we live in, and some folks who have sniffed so many corks they've fried their brains. 


and 

https://youtu.be/-y9j0Rhki6w 

ICBM

OilCityPickups said:

I really don't know why I bother with this place ... there are some around here who like the sound of their own opinions so much it blinds them to the real world we live in, and some folks who have sniffed so many corks they've fried their brains. 

I understand your intent, and I'm not criticising that. I'm no cork-sniffer as you should know - the only reason I don't like these amps is because they often break due to poor design, there are plenty of equally cheap solid-state amps I like and would be happy to use myself - in fact I do (Peavey). I would just be very wary about giving one of these to someone who might rely on it. I'm sorry if that's come across the wrong way.

ryanverbena

My first guitar amp as a teenager. Owned it for about 8 years and really enjoyed it for what I was playing at the time.

Nice to see one resurface! 

Scoop those mids and enjoy ☺️ 

OilCityPickups

ryanverbena said:

My first guitar amp as a teenager. Owned it for about 8 years and really enjoyed it for what I was playing at the time.

Nice to see one resurface! 

Scoop those mids and enjoy ☺️ 

 

https://youtu.be/o_1SJxbMCQA