Marshall Bass Guitar Amps For Sale (2024 Update)

If you're expecting an amazing Marshall sound, you might want to invest in some of the bigger amps Marshall has to offer. If you think you can get a concert level sound out of this little guy, you will not be the happiest person. However, that level of "high" expectation would not be very reasonable or even realistic for such a little amp. This is a very cute, small amp that will help you plug your guitar so you can practice quietly in any room in your house without annoying your wife. It will distort if you crank the volume all the way out, and if you're used to the full sound of a bigger Marshall (like I do) it might make you feel like you're hearing your guitar over an old telephone (just my opinion). However, if you calibrate your instrument volume & tone you can find a happy medium. With that said, for the price it is a very nice solution to practice and if the sound seems too weak for you, you have the choice of putting headphones. I personally use it just for practice on the fly, it serves it purpose, but then again I was not expecting the best sound output. So I am happy with the purchase.BeeZee

It's basically a toy amp. I can see it being used as a portable amp for non-serious performance. Personally, I like it for a quick jam and for (relatively) quiet practice in my apartment setting. Won't disturb my neighbors but it does get noticeable at the highest volume. That and the overdrive knob are the two main controls. By default it just does a clean sound but overdrive lets you toggle in some gain for that distortion. It has a good look that definitely models after its bigger brothers.Rick

I don't know what some of you guys expect from this thing, but be realistic: it's an inexpensive 5 inch tall, 1 watt amp. It's not designed for anything but sitting in a chair and entertaining yourself or a couple of people. Within that context, I enjoy this thing and sometimes get it off the shelf and play around with it for awhile. Also, when I owed somebody a 1 minute long riff for his podcast and my main amp was getting some regular tech service, I plugged my American Standard Strat into this thing, mic'd the amp, used the OD channel with the volume and tone both on 10, played the part, then added tons of bass, reverb, and chorus to it in post, and it sounded great and nobody ever knew that I recorded the part using a 5 inch tall amp. It is what it is as long as you don't expect the world.Steve

I've owned this amp for a few years. With the clean channel engaged, it sounds great with pedals (mxr super comp into boss od) and gets surprisingly loud for a small apartment. I dont think it would be loud enough for most band practice settings as far as volume. The biggest gripe I have with it is that it defaults to the distortion channel, which is useless for any application. Muddy, buzzy, no low end, no smoothness… just rigid cold distortion that muddied your notes even with the gain at the lowest settings. It's in fact the worst distortion I've ever used. Whenever I turn it on, I immediately switch the channel to clean.Alan

Bought this for practice when lower volume is required. Looks great, Sounds great. From the research that i've done, this is the best sounding solid state amp of is size and class and i feel like the research really holds up!Tony

This amp is perfect for the practice I have. The clean has amazing clarity and the overdrive has enough grit to fool around. I can experiment with any pedal as well. Sounds great. Great purchase.EDGAR

I have a Marshall 412 cabinet with a 100 watt Marshall head. I needed a smaller amp to practice at home and for small jam sessions. I picked the Marshall MG15FX because I know and like the Marshall sound and quality. The Effects features sound good too. I bought the footswitch for it too. This amp sounds good and powerful enough for any small jam or studio work. Marshall makes a MG30 if you need more power.Max

I really like this amp. I don't have to turn up the master volume very much for it to get loud enough. I plan to hook up a Line 6 Pocket Pod for heavier distortion and more effects options. I'm a big fan of delay and am happy with the delay that comes with this amp but I did get a Boss DD-8 digital delay pedal and it works well with this amp. I previously had a cheap 100 watt amp but it only sounded well at low volume. I feel this Marshall amp is better quality and I am glad I got this one.Ferdad

i use this fun little amp at home to practice and jam. sometimes with friends. i've have owned fender and peavy practice amps and this Marshall is just as good or better. i like the clean and various overdrives..the effects do a good enough job and really like the two different reverb effects. i like the headphone option for keeping the neighbors and girlfriend happy when playing late night. i play a Epiphone Les paul traditional pro iv and the combonation sounds super for hard rock and blues but i needed to get a heavy metal pedal for metallica songs. wish it had a longer plug in cable. but over all it sounds really good for what i payed.. ;owned it for two years and keeps on rocking.rob

I have owned several amps in the last 40yrs. Always looking for "that tone" and never quite found it. Peavey's a Marshall and a Carvin. The last being a 100W head. And with all of them and a line 6 floor pod, was never happy. I am so happy with this head on my 4×12 marshall cab that all I have used the floor pod for is the tuner. I'm sure at some point I will probably use the pod for some effects, but for what I mostly play its not really needed. Of course there are many things that can effect this so ill just give a short list of the main guitars I use and the pickups. Gibson Les Paul with Slash Seymour Duncan's, wired 50's and a Gibson 137 all stock. I no longer play out so the 100w Carvin was just not good in my basement. Couldn't push it to the point of natural breakup in a confined space. This amp goes from almost crystal clean to a beautiful natural saturation. And the dirty channel picks up where the clean leaves off and goes to the verge of metal. Throw a overdrive pedal in the mix and there isn't much you couldn't play on the fly.Brad B

I have had it for a week and love it. It goes from super clean to full on metal overdrive. Price was good—delivered quick. Seems well built enough. The only thing I would change is to give the clean / classic channel some crunch so i could go from a light crunch to a heavy lead sound when switching channels because the clean channel is clean even when fully cranked. The DSL100 has a crunch option on the clean channel so it would be nice to have it here as well. But you can use the ultra gain channel and use the guitar volume to clean it up etc. I assume the clean channel would take pedals well from other reviews I have seen. Overall it rocks and gets really loud. Gig-able I think. Highly recommended.Tuckerman

I bought 2 of these heads to drive Marshall MX12 cabinets. I was previously using 2 Marshall DSL40CR combo amps. I thought I could save space by having the small heads instead. I was wrong. FYI, the DSL40CR amps sound great (mine are upgraded with Creamback speakers). First off, the amps both had horrific white noise when you turned up the reverb. 2) one amp made some weird static noise when you moved your hand around the face plate, touching the face plate actually changed the tone. I have never in my almost 30 years of using guitar amps had this. 3) The amps sounded thin and tinny. To the point they were unusable. I returned them for a refund and when both amps arrived at Musicians Friend, they stated that they only received one amp (although both amps arrived the same day). A day later the 2ne amp was marked as received. I received one amps refund on Saturday, and now I guess I have to wait till Monday for the second refund. What a joke. BTY, I also ordered a brand new EHX pedal when I bought the amps and they sent me a used one instead! Musicians Friend is such a joke now a days it's sad.MLM

For classic rock lovers looking for those delicious, Super Lead Plexi-type tones (think classic rock from the 60's and 70's–Hendrix, Zeppelin, AC/DC, Aerosmith, etc.), this amp is for you! I am totally blown away with this amp for the price. I'm glad I pulled the trigger when I did because this amp is now $150.00 more than what I spent. I had a hard time deciding between the 50W and the 20W versions. I went with the 50W to have more clean head room, but would have been just as happy with the 20W head. And who plans to play a Marshall clean anyway? 😀 Most who purchase a Marshall are planning to crank for crunch, although you can get some nice clean tones and all that jazz :-D. The only downside with the 50W version is that you will have to bias the amp if you ever replace/swap the tubes. The 50W is not cathode/self-biasing like the 20W head, so plan on $30-$60 to bias your amp with a tube swap unless you have the equipment and know-how to bias yourself. This amp is extremely loud, even with the mid-power setting! Oh my heck is it loud! I'm running this head through an EVH EL34 2×12 with Celestion G12H 30W Anniversary speakers. Holy wow, awesome, and loud! 😀 To save your ears and keep your family and neighbors happy, I'd advise using an attenuator or power soak. With the Marshall Origin, to get those nice, crunchy, classic Marshall tones, you really have to crank the master volume to around 6-8 to saturate the power tubes and then also dial in your preamp gain to around 6-10. We're talking loud, loud, loud without an attenuator! For a very affordable power soak option, go with the Bugera PS1 (under $100.00), which will allow you to crank (even dime) this Marshall to get all those classic Marshall tones without blowing your brains out. Note–this is not a high gain Marshall amp. It's a classic rock Marshall, but it takes pedals extremely well for those wishing for more high-gain territory.AJ

This is an amazing amp! Not only is it affordable, but it's so versatile! I like to dial in an edge of breakup tone so that by rolling back the volume pot on my Guitar I have pristine cleans, roll it up for that classic "crunchy," biting clean. This amp also LOVES pedals, so when I want more gain I can step on the blue channel of my Friedman BE-OD Deluxe. Even More gain = the second channel on the BE-OD Deluxe with the mids ever so slightly cut back (now we're getting into the hard rock/metal territory). And if that's not quite heavy enough to serve a particular sound, well the internal foot-switchable boost adds a nice extra oomph. The EHX Metal M*ff is great for those extreme levels of gain (contrary to other reviews, this amp is perfectly capable of doing Metal if you utilize your favorite dirt pedals). And the effects loop is wonderful! Reverbs, Delays, Modulations…they sound great through the loop! Even on the lowest power setting, this amp is very LOUD, because that highly sought after power amp distortion that makes a Plexi so desirable demands to be heard!! Is this a Plexi? Of course not, but that magical characteristic of genuine Marshall tone is quite convincing in the Origin! IMHO, for the price, this is as close as you will ever get, and it is fantastic! If you want a good, reliable, LOUD amp with the versatility to cover all your needs, and don't want to spend 5x's as much, well this IS what you have been wishing you could find!Shasal

Overall: This amp is the "cats meow" it rocks. It plays clean or dirty. I modded my SG and the out put of the guitar is so hot the only pedals I use in front of the amp is my korg tuner and my 5 band eq pedal. I run an old DOD analog delay ( I know its a dinosaur lol) through the effects loop. All I can say is be ready to fall in love all over again I plan on buying a second one just because I love what this amp does. 60s or 70s rock players this is the amp you need. I took one of my old amps and sold it today. Thats how much I love this amp. I just cant say enough about it.Ricky

When I saw this amp on EBay I had to have it. I played Southern Rock and Blues for a good 15 years in my band Steelhorse from Reading Pa, also with Shotgun Blue and Chucky (the guys named the band after me). I had to have it because it looked exactly like the 1972 super lead that I sold on eBay a few years back.what caught my attention was the 3 switch set up consisting of on, standby and to me the most important one, Polarity. People may smear at that and say use a grounded plug but! That doesn't always work. Sometimes you get lit up and u have to use s cheater plug. This is also one of the reasons I love the old Fender alps. I was skeptical at first since it was a re issue but then I thought, it was the first line of repro's of the exact amp that shared stage with me for a good 17 years and that Marshall would probably had put a lot into making it sound the the Hand wired original. Turns out they did. To my ears, i could barely tell the difference. My amp was growly and yet creamy on the leads. This sounds the same and unlike the new Marshalls, it doesn't sound sterile or brittle. I took the bright cap off of mine and I'll do the same to this amp (yes, the bright channel) since for me, it's way to bright even with my Les Paul. It also sounds great with my American deluxe Telecaster with the tone rolled back a hair. These take pedals extremely well and have a clean sound to kill for. I only sold mine due to unemployment at the time, I did have other back up amps. These are great main amplifies, if you have a chance to get one, do it!! It's well worth the money and besides that, it just looks way too cool on stage!! Hope this helps any amp buying decisions!!chuckysstuff

I've owned several Marshall combos over the years, and they've never let me down, until I bought this piece of garbage. I couldn't get a decent tone out of it!! Very low and bassy, and barely present at all. Definitely wouldn't be able to punch through a mix, and playing live would've been a nightmare.CoopDBomb

Overall: Bought this at a great deal.I had it for 30 days and sent it back for a refund.I could not for the life of me dial in a sound with my Fender Blacktop Strat with humbuckers.Marshall should be ashamed of themselves for putting their name on this horrible POS.Went and bought a used Peavey Vypyr 30 for $135.00 and had great sounds in less then 24 hours.Blows this marshall away.Very underrated Peavey Vypyr amps . Great tube sounding amps and also feel.Frank

The Marshall name alone speaks for itself. There is no brand that creates a better sound than Marshall. It's not just my opinion, it has been the most used amp by some of the most famous musicians that has ever played an instrument. This amp in particular is absolutely perfect for use in the home use or in front of a small crowd. Perfect sound and perfect size.Michael

Overall: What a nice sounding amp. It's my first all tube amp and I am very well pleased at how much better the sound is over most solid state amps. It's very easy to use, and is plenty load for most rooms I play. The only recommendations I wouldake is to play it through a 2×12" cab, or upgrade it to a 12" Celestine green back speaker. Other than that it still sounds amazing through the included 10" one.Houston

This amp is fantastic! Legendary Marshall tube tone in a combo amp with a great look. The power switch is perfect for practicing your chops in the bedroom while still retaining that legendary tone. The tone controls provide a lot of EQ flexibility, and the tilt knob lets you easily blend classic Plexi-style channels to your desire. Adjusting the Gain and Master knobs lets you balance your volume needs with your gritty needs, though this amp doesn't really get dirty. It's a GREAT pedal amp. I'm currently using a Boss Super Overdrive and a Walrus Audio Ironhorse Distortion pedal and getting all the tones I want. There's no reverb built-in, so a reverb pedal is on my shopping list next. I'm not regularly gigging, but I don't see why you couldn't gig with this amp. It gets plenty loud, it doesn't weigh a ton, and it's tone is incredible. For where I'm at and what I'm doing, I couldn't ask for a better amp.Jay W.

I've owned several Marshall combos over the years, and they've never let me down, until I bought this piece of garbage. I couldn't get a decent tone out of it!! Very low and bassy, and barely present at all. Definitely wouldn't be able to punch through a mix, and playing live would've been a nightmare.CoopDBomb

Overall: Bought this at a great deal.I had it for 30 days and sent it back for a refund.I could not for the life of me dial in a sound with my Fender Blacktop Strat with humbuckers.Marshall should be ashamed of themselves for putting their name on this horrible POS.Went and bought a used Peavey Vypyr 30 for $135.00 and had great sounds in less then 24 hours.Blows this marshall away.Very underrated Peavey Vypyr amps . Great tube sounding amps and also feel.Frank

The Marshall name alone speaks for itself. There is no brand that creates a better sound than Marshall. It's not just my opinion, it has been the most used amp by some of the most famous musicians that has ever played an instrument. This amp in particular is absolutely perfect for use in the home use or in front of a small crowd. Perfect sound and perfect size.Michael

This is a fantastic practice amp! The sound is clear, and the knobs give me the ability to change the sound to emulate any guitarist's sound I wish. There is no reverb on this amp, but it is still one of the best amps available for practicing like the pros.Jason

I wish I would have spent a little more and got a higher model. The distortion leaves a lot to be desired. Clean channel sound great. Also, the power cord is really short.Scott

Perfect for what I was looking for just to have a small amp in my kitchen when I want to strum in there. Clean sound is nice. Overdrive sounds tinny which is to be expected. But overall not bad for a small practice amp to make some noise. I much prefer my Marshall DSL40Mike

Great amplifier, especially for the money. First of all it is an amazing pedal platform amp with nice bass and mid response. Everything I've run into it sounds really good, and it's near breakup gain is gain on 10 and boost off. It is most like a JTM45, it has a lot more bass and more active tone controls than later Marshall amplifiers like the JCM900 I previously owned. It doesn't overdrive too much on its own, but if you push it with a booster, it does pretty well. It is loud, even in the low power setting, and to really get it to drive, you need to push the power amp. It also doesn't seem to have as much drive as I remember from trying a 50 watt version, but that may have been the guitar more than the amp. Great value, I would recommend it to anyone looking for what I just described. If you want something that sounds like a Super Lead, Super Bass, or JCM800, this is not the right thing to buy. If you want a great pedal platform or early Marshall sound, you can't beat it.Craig

I've had My Marshall Origin for about 6 months and I've been pleasantly surprised. I've been a Les Paul/Marshall guy for 40 years and I have the hearing loss to prove it but this Marshall has it all. This versatile 20 watt head is the perfect combination of versatility and guts.This Amp is perfect for pedals as it great grand daddies were, I use an J Rockett Archer Ikon Klon clone, An OCD a Tone City King of Blues and an original Electro harmonics LPB-1 booster. I can go from crystal clear bell like tones to Ace's plexi grind to the verge of jCM 800 tones or straight in crank the Gain and get that sweet traditional Marshall tone and attack. Unlike the Marshalls of old the EQ section greatly influences the color of this Head and along with the tilt control which replaces the need to jump channels from the Hi and Lo inputs its all there. The addition of the switchable effects loop is a huge plus as is the gain/Boost control which gives you that little extra edge for leads. Running the amp on full and using your guitars volume and tone controls gives you a lot of versatility as well. The adjustable power out put feature is nice for quiet practice but I prefer to use my Bugera PS-1 attenuator and keep my amp volume on 10, just a personal preference. A suggestion, I've used this head with 1×12 and 2×12 cabinets an it sounds good but when i finally plugged it into a 4×12 this amp took on a whole new personality. The 4×12 let this amp breathe and with the EH LPB-1 driving the front end and a little reverb I had ACE's Kiss alive tone dead on by using the gain boost and a little color from various pedals the tone possibilities a vast. All in all this amp would be a great deal at twice the price, marshall once again did it right.Miggs

I have owned several amps in the last 40yrs. Always looking for "that tone" and never quite found it. Peavey's a Marshall and a Carvin. The last being a 100W head. And with all of them and a line 6 floor pod, was never happy. I am so happy with this head on my 4×12 marshall cab that all I have used the floor pod for is the tuner. I'm sure at some point I will probably use the pod for some effects, but for what I mostly play its not really needed. Of course there are many things that can effect this so ill just give a short list of the main guitars I use and the pickups. Gibson Les Paul with Slash Seymour Duncan's, wired 50's and a Gibson 137 all stock. I no longer play out so the 100w Carvin was just not good in my basement. Couldn't push it to the point of natural breakup in a confined space. This amp goes from almost crystal clean to a beautiful natural saturation. And the dirty channel picks up where the clean leaves off and goes to the verge of metal. Throw a overdrive pedal in the mix and there isn't much you couldn't play on the fly.Brad B

I have had it for a week and love it. It goes from super clean to full on metal overdrive. Price was good—delivered quick. Seems well built enough. The only thing I would change is to give the clean / classic channel some crunch so i could go from a light crunch to a heavy lead sound when switching channels because the clean channel is clean even when fully cranked. The DSL100 has a crunch option on the clean channel so it would be nice to have it here as well. But you can use the ultra gain channel and use the guitar volume to clean it up etc. I assume the clean channel would take pedals well from other reviews I have seen. Overall it rocks and gets really loud. Gig-able I think. Highly recommended.Tuckerman

I bought 2 of these heads to drive Marshall MX12 cabinets. I was previously using 2 Marshall DSL40CR combo amps. I thought I could save space by having the small heads instead. I was wrong. FYI, the DSL40CR amps sound great (mine are upgraded with Creamback speakers). First off, the amps both had horrific white noise when you turned up the reverb. 2) one amp made some weird static noise when you moved your hand around the face plate, touching the face plate actually changed the tone. I have never in my almost 30 years of using guitar amps had this. 3) The amps sounded thin and tinny. To the point they were unusable. I returned them for a refund and when both amps arrived at Musicians Friend, they stated that they only received one amp (although both amps arrived the same day). A day later the 2ne amp was marked as received. I received one amps refund on Saturday, and now I guess I have to wait till Monday for the second refund. What a joke. BTY, I also ordered a brand new EHX pedal when I bought the amps and they sent me a used one instead! Musicians Friend is such a joke now a days it's sad.MLM

I'm a big Marshall amp user. Played through half stacks forever. I've sampled and bought a few Marshall Amp modelers and modeling amps for practice over the years, but never thought that they captured the Marshall sound very well. When I heard that Marshall themselves were finally going to put out a modeling amp, I was intrigued. It was love at first sound when I tried one out. I bought one at GC and took it home. Dialed in the perfect sound for me and my practicing sessions suddenly leveled up in pleasure and accuracy to my stage setup. Also there's a cool USB interface that sends the sound digitally to your laptop and sends whatever sound your recording software outputs back to the amp, also digitally. Very addictive. I have and have had lots of different models of Marshall amps for practicing, but this one is by far the best. Does a good job of capturing the Marshall tube sound. You probably wouldn't take the 25 watt version to the stage and the speaker is only 10 inches so it bottoms out when you crank this little thing. The sound coming back from the laptop isn't the greatest through the single 10 inch with no tweeter, but it's fine for practicing IMHO. The mobile app for fine tuning the sound is cool. I played with it for awhile, but there's not much that you can't do by just twiddling with the knobs on the amp itself. The effects are really good and it's fun to dial in different amps, both preamp and power tube sections. Highly recommended.Marshall amp lover

I don't always feel up to setting up my pedalboard and Vox AC15C1 for bedroom practice, so it's really nice to have something like this around that I can just plug into and play whenever I feel like it. It has plenty of cool sounding tones, and can be controlled from your phone, tablet, or computer through Bluetooth. It also allows playback through Bluetooth or through an AUX cable if you want to play along to songs or backing tracks or just listen to music. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for a live setting or recording (which it wasn't really made for to begin with), but for a beginner or the average bedroom guitarist, or for practice, it's all you should really need. Definitley comes in handy. A lot of reviewers are honestly pretty harsh on it, and hold it to some of the standards of the average tube amp, such as a Vox AC, a Fender Deluxe Reverb, or a Peavey Classic 30. Standards it was never meant to live up to. If you're looking for a practice amp, or if you're the average bedroom guitarist who only plays occasionally, or a beginner, I would recommend checking it out. You might just like itBrandon Johnson

I got this amp to practice. I liked at the features it had (amp models, effects, headphone, blutooth, etc). It can seem a bit overwhelming at first but once you delve in to the amp, it makes sense. It is easy to change the presets. You can change all sorts of parameters per effect. Which is why I say it can be a bit overwhelming but that helps you create the sound you want. I liked the sounds of the amp models with the exception of the '50s British. Good clean and Overdrve tones overall. I used the blutooth for audio and had no problem connecting or reconnecting (Samsung Galaxy 10E). I downloading the Gateway APP just so I could review it and not really thinking of using it. It connected and reconnected with out issues for me. Once I used it, though, I saw how useful it is. It tells you exaxctly what amp model you are using and what the setting are. Same for effects. You can check those things on the amp control panel but you have to check one at a time. You can change preset, amp, effects, cabinet/speaker, tube model with the app. I am really happy with my purchase and knowing that I will not have to buy pedals for this amp.SValdez

Upon purchasing and fiddling around with the settings I was not completely sold on this amp. I had trouble finding a sound that I liked. However I now am finding cool sounds and fully enjoying the amp. In my experience, it starts to sound way worse when turned up on high volumes. Overall great practice amp and it keeps up when I jam with friends.Guitarist

This amp is so good. The clean channel has a lovely full tone and the overdrive settings are fantastic. In addition the tone controls actually give a good range sounds which is not something common to all amps on this price range. The 5 effects cover all the most common sounds . I have paid 4 times as much for less versatile amps. Just great valueGavin E.

'm a novice guitar player with less than 2 years experience, but I reached the point that I wanted to experiment with different tones and effects. The problem is that it would be very expensive to do this with different pedals, amps, guitars etc. I ordered the CODE 50 sight unseen after researching reviews & videos online, and it fits the bill perfectly. CODE 50 is an affordable way to play around with a crazy number of tones and effects & find your sound. I'm sure there are plenty of experts & purists out there that will find flaws with this amp, as it models (imitates) a number of historically great amps from Marshall, & what I presume are a version of Fender amps ("American Clean" etc). Does the BluesBreaker preset sound identical to the BluesBreaker amp that Clapton was playing in the 60s? Close enough for me cause it sounds pretty radical! There are a number of presets that are just epic for playing blues, rock, metal, on & on. Pick a genre of music and you can generate a tone that will fit right in. All of the presets can be tweaked to the players specifications. You want more reverb on that reverb? Dial it up. Some of the things I notice after just playing it a few times: As billed, CODE 50 is LOUD, so be careful. Not a complaint; I wanted something versatile enough to practice at home, but be loud enough to jam with others. There are some pretty big discrepancies in the volumes between a few of the presets, another thing you have to be careful with when toggling back and forth between presets. While plenty of the presets sound unique, there are a few that sound a bit redundant, or maybe just so close in tone to another that it feels that way. There are one or two that I can't imagine anyone using ("Virus?" Virus sounds like someone is strangling an organ-at least that's what she said!). Overall, if you want an affordable way to experiment with tone, get loud, and have fun, the CODE 50 is a rad choice. Thanks Marshall!Jeremy

I've been playing on and off for 20 years. Mostly an attenuated tube amp guy and a gear tinkerer. Found one of these on the showroom and gave it a quick whirl. This quickly led to buying one. Cons: The more time I spent the more I realized how limited the stock speaker is. It's super directional and the bass is a bit boomy and hard to dial out without removed too many lower mids. It still sounds good, but it can be much better. The stock preset settings, like a lot of reviews, leave me scratching my head. The resonance, presence and gate settings in particular tend to screw with the quality of sound as set from the factory. There's no speaker out, so I installed one. If you want this amp to shine, you'll need to do a speaker swap or plug into a 4×12. Marshall should have done this. Pros: The goods are definitely there, but you need to scratch the surface. Once you get that direction figured out, it's very easy to dial in your own settings which will differ quite a bit from the factory presets. I have a 4×12 w/ Vintage 30's and this amp sounds amazing plugged in. The JTM, Plexi, JCM, JVM, American amps all sound outstanding. But the JTM45 in particular sounds outstanding. Effects are great and I'm starting to use certain effects that I normally wouldn't buy a pedal for simply because they're in the amp. Another must do is to figure out your speaker choices for each amp. I'm a Vintage 30 fan, so after changing the speaker to V30's on all the amps, to me it sounds much better. It's a good tool to be able to hear what different speakers will do at the turn of a button, just to see what characteristics in speakers you may like. My secret sauce with this amp is my Les Paul through a 10 band EQ (to boost the highs you loose using the speaker emulations through a 4×12 with those emulated speakers), through a Marshall BB-2 for boost, into Marshall Code on JTM45 through the 4×12 w/ Vintage 30's. Absolute heaven going on with this, even at low volumeWisconsinski

The marshall code 50 and all other modeling amps are not plug and play,you have to dig in and change the parameters in the amp and create user presets that sound good to you! If it sounds good then it is good! If you want your amp model to sound just like the tube amp it is modeled from,then buy the tube amp. I have other modeling amps and my peavey vypyr 75 recto model that i like very much does not sound just like a mesa but i tweaked it to sound good for what i like,i think the marshall code amps sound very close to there own tube amplifiers that there modeled after and that is how good amp modeling is getting.I just want to mention some things you can do to improve the sound of your marshall code,first break in your amps speaker for about 100 hours by playing your amp fairly loud a few hours a day,about two months or you can play MP3 music through the AUX input. This will smooth out the harsh higher frequencies and break in the speaker for better low end without the speaker farting out.Here is a great tip for the bluesbreaker and other amp models that have too much low end,when i first heard the bluesbreaker model the low end was muddy and had too much bass even with the bass and resonance turned down to 0! I tried my behringer PB100 pre amp booster pedal with the bass control turned down to a 7 o clock position and that did the trick,the low end mud was gone and the mid frequencies stood out like i never heard before! It just sounded great now! I then tried my behringer TO100 tube overdrive pedal and i could not believe that the bluesbreaker model even sounds better then the pre amp booster! The TO100 overdrive also cut out the low end mud and the mid frequencies were smoother and the higher E and B strings on my guitar had a nice round tube tone without thin sounding harshness! I also tried the marshall codes internal OD and GVR pedal effects but my behringer TO100 sounded much better!MarshallMan50

I jumped on the lightweight rig wagon a few years ago with MarkBass but it always left me wanting more. I could never get the tones I wanted with passive basses (Ric 4003 and Fender P) forcing me to use a pedal for growl and distortion, even with a Ric. Having owned Ampeg, GK RB, Peavey, and most recently MarkBass bass heads (not to mention countless combos), I have to say that GK really nailed it with the Legacy series. Lightweight, portable, lots of power and an overdrive circuit which is foot switchable. I have a Ric 4003, Warwick Active Corvette, Ibanez SR750 and a homemade P/MM, this head brings out the best in every bass I plug into it, including an acoustic/electric Dean. My band plays everything from Elvis to Metallica and this head is the shiznit! Even my guitar players complimented my tone and overall sound, if you can believe that LOL. Thank you GK!!!Joe

Trying to recreate my old bass rig that I used to love (GK RB 1001 and Ampeg 410HLF) with a smaller portable version and this is the closest I have got so far to the RB sound.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

Do your homework if you are considering this. There are three models, this is the one with the least power. With 8 Ohm 180 watts, 4 Ohm 300 watts, 2 Ohm 450 watts. Yes I did write 2 Ohm, and this will also handle 2.7 Ohm. Clean is as clean as you need it to be. Flip the switch (or foot pedal) and you get adjustable dirt sounds. Direct into FOH with pre/post, speakon connectors, headphone out and aux in. About 4 lbs and about 13" x 12" x 3". The Legacy 800 gives up to 800 watts, and the 1200 model goes to around 1200 watts. When using this for practice, the tone (bass/treble) must be set from the source, not on the amp. When sending DI to the FOH, set both Trim and Master off (lowest setting) and you still get a strong signal to the house. I use this as a preamp during gigs, setting the controls to get 'my' sound and then just leaving them set. Great amp, very light, easy to figure out, and GK is always ready to answer your questions.Florida Bass Dude

I’ve been using the same solid state mg30cfx since I started playing. I purchased this along with the Marshall 1×12 speaker cabinet. This amp makes playing so much more enjoyable and I’ve finally found the tones I’ve been missing over the years. It’s great for in the house at the .1 watt setting. At full 1 watt it definitely makes my neighbors hate me. The foot switch and effects loop is definitely a plus for me. I’d recommend it to anybodyTim

I bought this amp as a practice amp to keep in a house that I'm remodeling. I'm running through an old early 2000's marshall MG 4 x 12 cab that I had laying around. I love the high gain channel…its got that great marshall dirt from the 80's type sound. The normal channels can get you that ZZ Top type of blues overdrive if that's what your after. I'm not crazy about the clean sounds, but nobody really buys a marshall for cleans anyways. The digital reverb is pretty decent as well. It's really nice to have the effects loop as well. Overall, a great little amp!Kevin

Overall: Why is the JCM 800 regarded as one of, if not to some the greatest Marshall ever made? Plug in and see. While there are few knobs you still can find a large range of classic tones. From really nice cleans to that classic Marshall gain that the 800 is known for. I will not compare originals to this 20 watt rerelease. Although the only thing I will say is that you don't need a power soak to get that classic tone, you will not go deaf getting it, yet you can overpower your drummer in the 20 watt mode. I put a Boss Super Overdrive in front of the amp and crank the drive, and out comes the tones of Ride the Lightning and Piece of Mind. Get an overdrive to go with it if you want the heavier side of classic metal. Just get oneJohn

If your looking around you may see this same review on another sight because I love the amp that much. I have always wanted a JCM 800 but didn't want to have to use an attenuator to play a 50 or 100 watt amp at the house. This amp is awesome and you'll love cranking the gain and ringing out cords. I find myself constantly ringing out G cords and just listening to its growling beauty. I want to address some comments made from others on the internet… Some argue it doesn't sound like the original 100 watt JCM 800. If you're splitting hairs there is a slight difference when playing in 5 watt mode vs 20 watt mode. 5 watt is excellent, 20 watt is the bomb! 20 watt seams to provide a little more clarity in the sound. Best sound I've ever heard! That said I still use 5 watt mode most of the time so it's still great to my ears. I'm only mentioning this slight difference because that's possibly the reason some say it's not like the 100 watt older brother. Side by side they may be right. But I would want the 100 watts of noise anyway. I bought the 2/12 cabinet that pairs with it. I play at my house and have yet to turn the master volume up to even half way because it's that loud. So playing with a band or in a club would be no sweat for this amp. This amp gives you the sounds of all the hard rock played in the 70's and 80's and 90's. Want to play zeppelin, Bad Company, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Motley, or Greenday or Zakk Wylde? This amp does them all to a T. I love it and very happy to have it in the collection. I would buy it again and again. Thank you Marshall for this amp.Dan

Overall: I’ve tried a multitude of Marshall amps through the years and never found one that worked for me. Based on others I heard I knew I would like the JCM 800 but didn’t feel like going deaf to get that great tone. But now Marshall has created a JCM 800 that makes sense for a gigging musician. Here’s why: (1) It sounds the way I’ve always felt a Marshall should sound like. (2) It sounds great at 5 watts and is loud enough at 20 watts to be heard over our hard hitting drummer. I mean for 20 watts it is stinking LOUD. And I mean that in the best possible way. And (3) It is relatively light and portable to move to gigs which matters at my age lolDon’t listen to people that tell you this amp is a one trick pony. Lots of great tones here and it cleans up well using the volume knob on your guitar. It’s a simple amp that gets incredible tone when cranked. If it’s a one trick pony that’s one hell of a trick and worth the price of admission alone!Overall I couldn’t be happier with this purchase and with zZounds as usual stellar customer service.The Marshall Studio Classic gets two devil horns upMartin

The only complaint would be how much it weighs, but the sound is amazing! It's definitely worth its weight in tone… loljonnydirt74