New Breed of Marshall
Written: Jan 09 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Balls, more modern than Marshall sound
Cons: Won't get you "classic" Marshall tones, but maybe you don't want 'em
The Bottom Line: This is the new breed of Marshall. Less "classic", but more "balls", aiming for the Boogie Rectifier market. This amp isn't perfect, but I think Marshall has something here.
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| mikeyjake's Full Review: Marshall Mf350 Mode Four 350w Head |
This is the new breed of Marshall. Less "classic", but more "balls", aiming for the Boogie Rectifier market. This amp isn't perfect, but I think Marshall has something here.
TONE
Clear crystal-like clean channel. Never said that about a Marshall before, and yes you can find that classic Marshall tone in there in crunch mode but that’s not why you would buy this amp. I chose it over a jcm2000 TSL in a direct comparison; the mode four had nicer clean and was way more versatile in the over drive.
I hate dramatically bad reviews, sure this amp isn’t perfect. It doesn’t pull of blues or jazz well at all no amp yet does everything well, it cleans up in the rock / metal arena. Its also a perfectly voiced amp with its solid state power amp. I am a tube man. I own a Gibson goldtone ga30rvs, beautiful class A amp. But I had to admit this was a perfect culmination of technology that made the TSL sound kinda dead and very boring, blurting out its 1 dimensional sound-sum people like that- a amp with its single sound that that can be minutely tweaked, the mode four isn’t like that and anyone who is looking at a amp with versatility, reliability and ball breaking volume Should look at the mode four
The clean is one of Marshall’s best… and with the gain knob on amp one you can get a great plexi tone and even get that pushed to break tube sound, perfect for blues and without killing your ears! The crunch is great, reminds me so well of the Zakke Wylde big crunch tone.
OD1 is perfect for rock, has a very clear and brilliant JCM2000 style crunch to it. OD2 is massive, Marshall has never had a distortion like this. So brutal yet so clear. Instead of having the watered down sounding distortion it has the great Marshall mid tone that always cuts through. Though I never use the scoop function, it is there is that is what your into, myself, I keep them mids and get the crunch. My clean sound is a big component of my style and I needed an amp that could go from a beautiful clean to a floor rumbling chunky sound for the aggressive parts. With this amp I am able to go from extremely clean and soft to loud, dark and heavy.
I compared this head to a Mesa Rectifier. I liked the lead sounds I got from the Mesa, but I thought the Marshall's clean was better. This is a matter of taste, of course, so compare and see what suits you the best. I also liked the flexibility of the different channel over the Mesa.
I do get some noise from the high gain amp2 and I'm probably going to add a Hush noise gate to my setup to alleviate some of the amp noise. I noticed the my compressor is responsible for some of the noise and the amp provides the rest. My wireless setup tends to reduce the single coil noise from the guitar, so I believe my problem is that what little noise there is gets amplified by this powerful head.
FEATURES
Check out the Marshall site for the full feature list, but here are some of the more important ones…
Solo boost - thank god someone has added this to an amp finally. amazingly useful for.. well solos! no longer need to use a separate esq. pedal for the boost. it can add up to 6db (double the volume) selectable with a rotary knob for the increase and accessible (only) thru the foot switch.
the footswitch - as usual - metal, black, tank like. connects via a PC style serial connection - very technical looking (a.k.a. cool). comes with the amp and has LEDs for easy stage access. controls the four channels + reverb + solo.
lay out - very easy to use and nice to split up the clean and dirty side of the amp. saying that, amp 1 and 2 can do dirty, a la JCM 600/800. they do however use a different power amp so I guess the split is a valid one.
tuner out - another great feature - with a tuner mute - excellent for tuning or for swapping cables etc.
DI out - great for recording silently. because this has a tranny power amp you can use the amp for recording without the speakers connected without worrying about damaging it, unlike an all tube amp which is very home studio UNfriendly. used for recording my band
RELIABILITY
It's reliable as long as you keep it maintained. The fans do need greased or cleaned every once in awhile depending where you keep it and how often your gigging with it. If you keep it in your bedroom and never move it your not going to have to clean them. But if your playing out twice a week in smoke filled clubs then your gonna have to clean them, just like and other fan cooled amp. The solder work inside the pedal is not the greatest either, had one lead come off and had to resolder it, then I just touched them all up. The amp it's self isn't going to break. But because of the pedal I can't give it a perfect score.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mikeyjake
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Member: Mike Jacobs
Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
Guitarist/Vocalist for rock band Evil Jake. Called a "guitar virtuoso" by Lycos Music.
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