Marshall Vintage Modern

rico

Are these any good? Any pearls of wisdom @ICBM et al

shaunm

There's been a thread on this in the last couple of weeks. 

General concecus - worst amp Marshall have made

ICBM

I wouldn't go anywhere near that far, but they aren't exactly one of the best either.

professorben

shaunm said:

There's been a thread on this in the last couple of weeks. 

General concecus - worst amp Marshall have made

Barring the:

Mode4
MA
TSL
AVT
JCM900 Dual Reverb

Strat_a_tat_tat

I've got a 50 watt head... and I can get good tones from it - plugged into a Mesa Boogie 1x12 (either an EV or a Celestion). A pro player mate that has a collection of vintage 60s Marshalls rates it quite high. The digital reverb is pretty poor though.

Never had any reliability issues... but it's not had a hard life.

shaunm

ICBM said:

I wouldn't go anywhere near that far, but they aren't exactly one of the best either.

Just working off the data from the last thread where just about every comment was negative.

for what it's worth my vote for the worst is the Mode 4 (excluding the cab). 

rico

Roger that, i'm out!

ICBM

shaunm said:

ICBM said:

I wouldn't go anywhere near that far, but they aren't exactly one of the best either.

Just working off the data from the last thread where just about every comment was negative.

for what it's worth my vote for the worst is the Mode 4 (excluding the cab). 

Same here.

The JCM900 shouldn't be on the list above, nor the TSL probably (although it's close!). The Haze should be on it, as should the MG100DFX. And the Class 5.

There are a few vintage models that are terrible too, especially the Mercury. But collectors pay good money for those... certainly relative to what they should actually be worth.

Maybe someone will give me a broken Vintage Modern at some point and I'll have a go at improving it .

Travisthedog

I hated mine 

professorben

ICBM said:

shaunm said:

ICBM said:

I wouldn't go anywhere near that far, but they aren't exactly one of the best either.

Just working off the data from the last thread where just about every comment was negative.

for what it's worth my vote for the worst is the Mode 4 (excluding the cab). 

Same here.

The JCM900 shouldn't be on the list above, nor the TSL probably (although it's close!). The Haze should be on it, as should the MG100DFX. And the Class 5.

There are a few vintage models that are terrible too, especially the Mercury. But collectors pay good money for those... certainly relative to what they should actually be worth.

Maybe someone will give me a broken Vintage Modern at some point and I'll have a go at improving it .

I really disliked the 900 DR I used, but the Class5 I tried was ok for a practice amp. 

webrthomson

Buy it and send it to Dan Gower - it comes back an absolute monster

ICBM

professorben said:

the Class5 I tried was ok for a practice amp. 

The ones I've come across have been horrible muddy-sounding things that rattle at certain frequencies. They're also both too loud for quiet practice and too quiet for anything else - not just because they're only 5W, but because the circuit design is all backwards with the gain and EQ in the wrong place for a Marshall. They do look nice though! (Apart from the cheap handle.)

CHRISB50

I loved both the JCM900 dual reverb and the Class 5 that I owned. 

For a 100w head the 900 sounded pretty decent at living room levels. 

The Class 5 was pretty good. The rattle was solved on the mk2, and they introduced a 0.1 w switch to make it useable at home. 

The weird thing with the Class 5 was the price increase. They sold for 300-400 when they were first released. They then suddenly shot up to around 600. I made money on a PX with a shop. Lovely!

Both get loads of shit but I really liked them.