Marshall Mode Four - A solid value...
Written: Sep 01 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Headroom/power.
Very usable clean channel.
Smooth, articulate, and punchy OD1 channel.
Cons: Price.
all 4 ch should have independent gain.
"woof" overtones OD1 and OD2 when palmmuting.
The Bottom Line: Check out Mesa, and Marshall's less expensive solidstate lines first. Failing that, this amp sounds great - I'm very happy with it after 1 1/2 yrs of constant playing/gigging.
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| solarswine's Full Review: Marshall Mf350 Mode Four 350w Head |
I bought the Marshall Mode Four head because it does many things well. It does not have the singing, harmonic overtones of a Dual Rectifier, but instead has its own distinct, pleasing tone (I'm talking about the OD1 channel here).
I'm playing it through a Marshall 1960a cab (I tried it through the mode four cabs at the store -loudly- and wasn't a big fan of the loose sound).
I'm a former lead guitarist, and now mainly singing lead and playing rhythm. I've gigged with this amp since Mar, 2003, and have had no problems other than the tone matrix knob falling off. You need to keep checking the knobs and tightening them, else they'll start falling off.
Marshall has done a great job with the speaker damping
on this head, and this amp truly retains clarity when cranked up loud, regardless of what channel you've selected. It's incredibly loud.
The clean channel is quite usable, very clear voiced, though not as punchy as a Fender Twin (no surprise there).
The Crunch channel nails 80s metal perfectly (if you dial up the gain, it's the exact sound of Ratt's Invasion of Your Privacy album).
OD2 is a great lead channel, but I find that it gets away from you with even moderate gain... it's a bit mushy and you can forget using your rhythm pickup for any type of chordal work on OD2.
OD1 is my fav... you can dial in plenty of gain, and there is excellent clarity.
The head weighs hardly anything at all, which is amazing considering the extremely loud levels it's capable of producing.
My complaint is that this head is about $300 too much for what it's offering (or not offering). There are only two gain knobs for 4 channels, which means it's next to impossible to setup the channels such that you could switch between all 4 of them via the included footswitch and still have workable sounds while doing so (although the footswitch does have a Reverb and Solo boost toggle). There is also plenty of open real estate on the front of this head to offer a vol knob for all four channels as well.
Additionally, the footswitch computer chord is WAY too short. Could we have another 10 feet, please?
If this amp were $799, it would be the best deal anywhere.
As it is, I'm enjoying it despite its shortcomings...
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
solarswine
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Location: USA
Reviews written: 2
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