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Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
Marshall - excellent clean, good first overdrive but slightly 'choked' sounding, oddly hollow/harsh second one. 7/10
Fender - dull clean, horrible muddy/grainy first overdrive, good second one, especially with the PRS. 4/10
Boss - good clean (although the PRS was not clean), excellent first overdrive, slightly splashy second one (better with the PRS). 8/10
Blackstar ID60 - muddy clean, slightly muddy first overdrive… muddy second one. Not positively terrible but dull. 5/10
Blackstar Core - same, except that it has an odd and irritating hollowness to its muddiness. (Probably due to the stereo.) 3/10
Line 6 - dull clean (again PRS not truly clean), broken-up/honky first overdrive, horrible muddy second one.
OK, that's with the sounds they chose so not necessarily a true reflection, but on that basis I would say the Marshall and the Boss sound the best.
The surprises were how poor the Fender sounded clean and how good for high-gain, and how muddy and dull the Line 6 sounded - I really wasn't expecting that. And that the Marshall had the best clean sound by far. Given that I use clean and semi-clean sounds far more than high-gain, I'd probably pick the Marshall.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I'd definitely have the Katana given that it's one of the cheapest and the simplest.
The problem for me with all three of them is that I really dislike top-mounted controls. Only the Line 6 and the Blackstar ID have front-mounted ones, and I didn't like either amp.
I still don't like the sound of any of them as much as the Yamaha THR100, but that's a much simpler concept and a much more expensive amp, to be fair. On the other hand it does make you think about where the money might have been spent for the best results.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I really don't understand why the fashion has gone back to top-mounting, it must be some kind of 'retro' idea based on Fender Tweeds and AC30s or something…
It's bad news for a gigging amp from the point of view of spilled drinks getting into the insides too. (As would be putting the Katana on its front, unfortunately.)
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
And re spilled drinks, don't remind me. I had an original 2x10 Marshall 1954 18w amp that had drink spilled down it. If that had never happened I'd still have it instead of taking it for repair and accepting an offer to sell it by a rogue at Vintage & Rare - before I knew what I had and what it was worth years later !
To be shallow I also think they need to offer a nicer cosmetic model - even if it was more expensive. If they did one that looked like their little Bluetooth speakers I could easily see myself buying one, top-mounted controls or not.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Notes:
- I like that strat, yum.
- watching through the TV so not Hi fi quality sound
- Vox, I like that. There is some darkness/ mush as others said but maybe that's how they've dialled it in. Not sure I'm getting an obvious Vox flavour which would be a selling point for me.
- Marshall Code. Just back to the top mounted controls a second. I like it on these, this Marshall for example at the back of the stage looks like a black box with Marshall on it which is a classic kind of look whereas the control panels say Robbie the Robot.
Anyway, I'm not enjoying this much, no clean clean and very generic rawk distortion.
- Fender. As a Mustang owner there are sounds I love and ones I hate. Unless the video was eight hours long it's not really possible to do enough comparisons. Anyway, Bassman here my favourite overdriven sound so far, although the more driven tone not working so well ( looks up, am saying opposite to ICBM so far, suspect this is me losing any remaining credibility...).
- Boss. Bit more straightforward which I like, aesthetics meh. No clean on the PRS? Heavy drive has horrible noise on it. I'm not getting the excitement.
- Blackstar TVP. Bigger sounding than the last couple. Having used one they've done better than me, I don't think it's an interesting sounding amp but that's not the point of it.
- Blackstar ID. Bit farty in places. Heavy drive sounds horrible.
- Line 6, God I thought we had finished. Sigh. Pretty sure the GU10 doesn't come with it as the demo might suggest. Aesthetic nightmare, who knew you could make a black box look this ugly. I'm enjoying how it sounds with the strat, although I've enjoyed everything by Pete on here and very little by Rabea
They are all that 'use at home but could use at a gig' type of design which always seemed like a good idea but I'm not keen in practice. Nothing pushing me to get the credit card out.
I wasn't looking to buy a new amp - and I have no room. But I was seriously thinking of getting the code and putting my JCM2000 DSL401 in the garage - only problem is that damned top control panel and being unable to stack my Cub 12R on it (currently it sits on my DSL401).
Guys, I shit you not, this is one blindingly good amp, at a great price. I'd love to hear the 100w through a 4x12 - I think that would blow a ton of very expensive gear out the water!
Of course reliability will have to be seen especially as these things are made to a budget - but tonally, it knocked my socks off - and that doesn't happen often. Unfortunately they didn't have a Katana for me to try, but I'm eager to try one of those too - but it will have to go some to come anywhere close to the Code.
I really don't think the Marshall looks great though - not the control panel, which has a really nice "70s hi-fi receiver" vibe to it - the cabinet doesn't by any means look terrible, but it's just *boring*... a plain black box with a Marshall logo. Just imagine how great it would look with basketweave grille cloth and/or a white or gold piping around it, and then wonder how they had the lack of imagination of offer that… given that at the factory it would barely cost any more.
On the exact opposite hand I do actually like the Line 6 - it looks purposely modern and *not* like a classic guitar amp, but Line 6 are not a 'heritage' company so that also makes sense. It just sounded really disappointing.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein