Marshall MA50C

[Cinch]

Newbie here... Been playing a Marshall Valvestate 8100 half stack for 18 years now and I just picked up an all tube MA50C. I'll be putting some time on it this week including a band practise and I'll post a review if anyone is interested. These amps are brand new - I was told I'm the "first one in town" to own one. Anyways, I could not find any reviews (other than from Marshall) for these amps - so I just thought I'd let ya know I'll be posting one if there's any interest.

Cheers!

 

[tarznamps]

I've been waiting to check one of these out. Where do you live - what state/country?

 

[Cinch]

I'm in Ontario, Canada. I believe these amps just arrived at the dealers around here not too long ago...

 

[Cinch]

Until I get a chance to thoroughly try it out and post an opinion, I did find an online review:

Marshall MA50C | Guitar reviews | Musicradar.com

 

[jolliffe14]

I've been dying to hear about one if these first hand experience, I shall look forward to it!

 

[racko7566]

C..mon man let's here it.

 

[racko7566]

Is it an EL34 amp?

 

[Cinch]

The amp has a clean channel and overdrive channel. The overdrive channel has normal overdrive and boosted overdrive. There's a separate EQ for each channel. With the pedal you can go from:

Clean -> Overdrive
Clean -> Boosted Overdrive
Overdrive -> Boosted Overdrive

The left switch goes from clean to overdrive, the right switch toggles the boost on the overdrive channel.

The amp has a spring reverb, 3 12AX7 pre-amp tubes and 2 EL34 power amp tubes.

I really like the amp. Things are a lot like what I have read about tube amps already - I guess I've just now experienced it for myself. One of those is using the volume to get the power tube overdrive which is the sound I've been after. The manual tells you to set it up kind of in reverse - You set up the boosted overdrive how you want, then when you take the boost off - then the volume and gain is adjusted in the normal overdrive channel with a "Crunch Balance" control. I found it very easy to setup to get a decent mix.

I found the best setup for a good "clean crunch" was to run the gain at 9:00, volume at 3:00-4:00. The EQs all set to 12-2:00. Resonance at 9:00, Presence at 3:00. Mind you this amp is pretty loud at this point! But it's what I found to be the optimal setup for the sound I was after - like an AC/DC crunch. The boosted overdrive works very well for soloing - nice smooth transition to a little more volume and gain.

The clean channel is Marshall clean. I found that with the setup above, the volume on the clean had to be loud enough that it started to get a little dirty - sounded good, but had to roll the guitar volume down a bit to really clean it up.

I've been playing a Marshall 100W Valvestate half-stack for the last 18 yrs - which has one 12AX7 tube in the pre-amp, the rest is SS. I've tried with that amp to get the "volume" type distortion - and you just can't get it with SS. Having said that, I tried the MA with lots of gain and scooping the mids - it still sounded good - not sure there's enough there for anyone into playing just metal though. I haven't run them side by side, but I'm pretty sure that the 50W MA is louder than the 100W valvestate.

The amp seems to be very well made - I took the rear panel off as you can see in the pics. The cab is MDF, which I'm not sure really makes a big difference to tone at all. The amp weighs 50 lbs., has a handle on the top as well as side cabinet-type handles, which is a nice touch! The amp has an effects loop with bypass switch - I ran my Boss Chorus pedal here - worked great. It also has ext. outs for 1 8ohm or 2 16ohms.

I paid $750 CDN + tax for this amp - so for that reason also, I think it is a great deal. No more lugging a 412 cab around!

If there were to be a "wish-list" item for this amp it would be a power switch to have the ability to run the amp at 25W. Other than that it's perfect - for me at least!

 

[qjg1965]

Hi,
I'm new to the forum and recently ordered one from my local Sam Ash store.
Did you notice any heating up problems like the DSL 401 has had?

 

[Cinch]

Haven't had any heat issues - I've jammed with it a couple of different times for a couple hours each, and also used it at band practise for about 5 hours - was only on standby maybe once an hour.

 

[willscott182]

I have the stack version of this amp ( MA50H and M412a cab) and its great heres some pictures if anyone wants to see what they look like.

Quality isn't great

 

[78marshall]

anyone know where I can try this amp out? I live in Buffalo and nobody knows anything about them. Not even Guitar Center.

 

[00jett]

anyone know where I can try this amp out? I live in Buffalo and nobody knows anything about them. Not even Guitar Center.

Really, they dont have them their yet? Im just north of you in Canada and all the L&M music stores have them here..

 

[thrawn86]

I was just in the big GC in Sacramento, CA, and was disappointed not to find one. They had a few Haze 40's and several varieties of JVM's, along with a few MG series, but no MA's to be seen. Very disappointing!

 

[78marshall]

just talked to House of Guitars in Rochester and they have them. I'm going up there later tonight to check them out! God I hope I'm not disappointed cause their cheap and I really don't want to buy another used Marshall.

 

[Cinch]

Let us know your opinion - I do like my 50w combo, always interested in what other people think... cheers

 

[78marshall]

UUUUhhhhggggg......really didn't like the MA series. Just sounded cheap and sterile to my ears. I'm really torn with Marshall cause I honestly don't think they have made a good amp since the 800 series. (that's just a subjective opinion mind you). I don't want to buy another used amp so I'm considering a move to Blackstar or soldano......I'm frustrated

 

[StratMatt]

I'm the dissatisfied owner of a MA100C. It's being returned to the dealer this w/end. A piece of shit!

 

[Zaphod]

I received my new MA50c a couple of weeks ago. It's my first all valve amp having previously used various solid state stuff. For that reason I can't really compare this to any other valve amp but, compared to my old ss amp IT'S FANTASTIC!!! Far more responsive and cuts through the mix better live. I play in a band doing small/ medium sized gigs and it's turned up to around 2 o'clock so no problems with volume. I bought the amp because I wanted that famous Marshall crunch. I play indie rock, not metal, and for this the crunch is excellent. I haven't really tried too hard for a heavier metal type sound but I suspect it's there....I only have the gain turned up to 10 o'clock.

As long a it is reliable (time will tell) I'm well happy with my choice.

 

[equilibrium78]

MA series maybe means Misleading Amp Head. The MA50H came into our store and i was not impressed what so ever. I though the orange lights were the only cool idea of the amp.