Marshall Code 100W 2X12 Guitar Combo Amp Black For Sale (2024 Update)

As far as the code goes, if you're going straight from individual pedal's to this amp, don't expect to get your knickers blown away. The effect's are average at best, the amp settings were much better quality and gave ton's more range in tone and EQ of sound produced by the amp. If you are a person who enjoy's making your own pre set's then the 'Gateway' app is definitely the way to go for ease of use. Was a very strange concept to me, getting to know my amp using a mobile phone, but once you master using this it's really lot's of fun to master your amp sounds. Tip- what ever you do don't put your wah in the case with the rest 😉 The pedal takes some getting to know, but for quick effects changes it's not as good as using a normal channel changer or a effects pedal (there seem's to be a tiny delay in the channel change?) All in all for value and variety this is good and can be used by all level of guitarist's to get something new, which is much easier to carry around.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

Bought this for my son for Christmas. He's been using a small battery powered table top amp. I have been searching for the right amp for him to upgrade his sound and the Marshall Code 25 was on my shortlist along with the Fender Mustand LT25 and the Vox Valvetronic VTX20. The Marshalls price reduced just right and made it a compelling buy. I watched plenty of reviews on youtube so I knew for him it would be a massive step up. The sound quality is great for bedroom practice. The presets are fun and introduce you to all the effects. The looper effect was particularly fun. The amp gets pretty loud before it becomes too loud, but maintains its clarity. It's easy to use with the buttons on the amp, but the app provides more in depth control and adjustment. Nice, fast and secure delivery from PMT. Highly recommend buying from then as you have the option to return back to store if anything goes wrong. Avoid ebay 2nd hand units as they tend to be well used.Michael B.

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've played professionally and in studios for decades and have had dozens of amps including other Marshalls, boutique class-A amps, Fenders, custom builts, on and on. a couple months ago I started playing live again after a few years and wanted a new more versatile rig and got a JVM 210C. Bottom line: this is the best sounding amp I've ever owned. The clean channel is clear and resonant with smooth presence and sparkle, and that's just the cleanest setting. There are two more presets which I add progressively more grunge to each and then there's the overdrive channel with three more presets topping out with the most incredible screaming crunch. Any one of these settings would make the amp worthwhile, and having all six at your foot (switches) for instant access is exactly what I've wanted… seemingly for ever. I plan to get another one soon and run stereo. It also delivers great sound in recording. I've almost quit using my THD class A (which is a great amp, don't get me wrong) but I get great sounds immediately with the JVM, whether using my Tele clean or a Strat or humbucker custom in overdrive. Programming the foot switch was a bit of a bother and it has occasionally "forgotten" my settings and required a redo. However, the presets can be accessed by MIDI and I just ordered a pedal which should allow instant changes of channel presets and all my effects. Whether you play full-tilt shred or a variety of styles, as I do, this amp will not disappoint.Curtiss

Superb amp. Heavyweight but not too heavy for me to carry. The power is awesome- fabulous rock tones. Lots of headroom. Works great with my pedal board. Reverb is nice touch. Looks classySTEPHEN P.

After many years using a great 2 x12 Roland VGA-7 modeling amp I was ready to get into real tube sound. I had used a Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue for a while, and found the tone OK, but not what I was after. Enter the Marshall JVM 210C. I was amazed at the clean channel/mode. If you think that Marshalls are not meant for clean tones then plug in a Strat and check this amp out. The tone is lush and beautiful. Then start going through the modes and into the OD channel. Whoa baby, talk about great crunch and overdrive. The blend of Celestion Vintage with Heritage 12": speakers works. If you have pedals you like try them in front of the clean channel. Holy crap! I put an Ibanez TS9 in front and can get a really great SRV/Hendrix sound. Using my SG and other humbucker equipped guitars produces the more classic Marshall sounds we've come to expect from these amps — hard driving and full of great overtones. The amp is not cheap. Yes, you are paying for the name too. But this amp is a keeper.Vegas Wilhelm

As far as the code goes, if you're going straight from individual pedal's to this amp, don't expect to get your knickers blown away. The effect's are average at best, the amp settings were much better quality and gave ton's more range in tone and EQ of sound produced by the amp. If you are a person who enjoy's making your own pre set's then the 'Gateway' app is definitely the way to go for ease of use. Was a very strange concept to me, getting to know my amp using a mobile phone, but once you master using this it's really lot's of fun to master your amp sounds. Tip- what ever you do don't put your wah in the case with the rest 😉 The pedal takes some getting to know, but for quick effects changes it's not as good as using a normal channel changer or a effects pedal (there seem's to be a tiny delay in the channel change?) All in all for value and variety this is good and can be used by all level of guitarist's to get something new, which is much easier to carry around.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

Bought this for my son for Christmas. He's been using a small battery powered table top amp. I have been searching for the right amp for him to upgrade his sound and the Marshall Code 25 was on my shortlist along with the Fender Mustand LT25 and the Vox Valvetronic VTX20. The Marshalls price reduced just right and made it a compelling buy. I watched plenty of reviews on youtube so I knew for him it would be a massive step up. The sound quality is great for bedroom practice. The presets are fun and introduce you to all the effects. The looper effect was particularly fun. The amp gets pretty loud before it becomes too loud, but maintains its clarity. It's easy to use with the buttons on the amp, but the app provides more in depth control and adjustment. Nice, fast and secure delivery from PMT. Highly recommend buying from then as you have the option to return back to store if anything goes wrong. Avoid ebay 2nd hand units as they tend to be well used.Michael B.

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

'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

Extremely versatile amp. I play a lot of electric blues but I grew up on hard rock/metal. Today I also play a little bluegrass, country, classical, pop and whatever suits my mood at the time. But at the end of the day, I usually revert to a heavier sound. Now the Marshall has a nice clean sound, although not as clean as my old Fender Pro Reverb. You can't have everything. Where this amp really shines is in its ability to generate anything from mild overdrive to extreme high gain. With this amp I can get high gain harmonics that I could not get from other amps, even with heavy gain effects. The only negative really is that the amp is quite physically heavy.Fuzzy

Firstly, I am in a bar/party cover band of older (>30 years to nearly 60) musicians with day jobs. We are not all Recent Hits, but do mostly songs people have heard of in all years from mid 60s to this year. The flexibility of this head is its big feature for someone like me. This is not a prescriptive review — this is just how I use it. Some of the skeptics have wondered why you would need 4 channels with 3 tones each. They have a good point, but not one that applies to a cover band. If I had to have one amplifier, it would have to produce the tones that this amp can do on channel 2 (crunch) green and orange, and channel 3 (OD1) green and orange. Crunch orange and OD1 green are quite similar and are the tones of the classic plexis and old Marshalls. Crunch green is what you would want for "clean" tone with a Marshall level of compression and just a little breakup for an electric guitar. OD1 at orange is what you would do for distorted classic rock — adding an overdrive in front of a plexi or a very saturated pickup, for example. For every song I really like, and everything I would do if I wasn't doing covers, those two channels at those two colors would cover it. For gigs, I can set channel 1 (clean) and Channel 4 (OD2) to be more extreme. The clean channel is actually what i use to be my acoustic guitar and occasionally as my hollow body electric emulating an acoustic. It is not perfect, nor is as good as having a specialized acoustic amp or clean tone jazz amp. However, it is good enough, and it simplifies the signal path to not have separate amps, and there is enough separate EQ to make it work. Channel 4 can be used for dirtier, more distorted stuff, and the weird thing is that now I use it entirely for country. My band doesn't do any metal, and the heaviest guitar sounds we do are the likes of Carrie Underwood. Getting the hiss to go away is not that big of a deal — put an MXR Smart Gate or any other gate I've tried into the _serial_loop_ and twist the knobs — it will take care of the problem. The JS head might be better and I haven't tried it. I do appreciate that you can't use the OD channels on this without a noise gate, but it isn't a big dial to fix. The reverb is good but nothing special. Reading this review before submitting, I realize that the oddest thing is that I personally have no use for any of the red versions of the four channels. That is probably a classic rock attitude — this thing has a lot more metal tone than I will ever use, so you should use other reviews if you want that.Iceandsnow

This is just and amazing head… I can't complement it enough. I wanted so many of the iconic Marshall tones but couldn't afford to go out and buy a JCM 800, 900, Plexi…etc. This head truly does a great job of getting all the tones your looking for. It does take a little dialing in with all the different modes in each channel to find what they all do… but once you have it kind of figured out its a tone machine. the included foot switch is a pleasant surprise also. It's programmable and works like a charm with just a normal guitar cable. I have also used the midi switching capabilities and they are also wonderful, though not as easy to use as the foot switch. If you are a gigging musician or just want a lot of options…..get one of these!Tony

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

'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'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

I've played professionally and in studios for decades and have had dozens of amps including other Marshalls, boutique class-A amps, Fenders, custom builts, on and on. a couple months ago I started playing live again after a few years and wanted a new more versatile rig and got a JVM 210C. Bottom line: this is the best sounding amp I've ever owned. The clean channel is clear and resonant with smooth presence and sparkle, and that's just the cleanest setting. There are two more presets which I add progressively more grunge to each and then there's the overdrive channel with three more presets topping out with the most incredible screaming crunch. Any one of these settings would make the amp worthwhile, and having all six at your foot (switches) for instant access is exactly what I've wanted… seemingly for ever. I plan to get another one soon and run stereo. It also delivers great sound in recording. I've almost quit using my THD class A (which is a great amp, don't get me wrong) but I get great sounds immediately with the JVM, whether using my Tele clean or a Strat or humbucker custom in overdrive. Programming the foot switch was a bit of a bother and it has occasionally "forgotten" my settings and required a redo. However, the presets can be accessed by MIDI and I just ordered a pedal which should allow instant changes of channel presets and all my effects. Whether you play full-tilt shred or a variety of styles, as I do, this amp will not disappoint.Curtiss

Superb amp. Heavyweight but not too heavy for me to carry. The power is awesome- fabulous rock tones. Lots of headroom. Works great with my pedal board. Reverb is nice touch. Looks classySTEPHEN P.

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

Having been messing around with an acoustic for far too many years I decided to treat myself to an electric, and started the search for an amp. I had a few options but went with the Crush 20RT and haven't regretted it. For its size the sound quality is great, and the eq controls allow you to get a nice range of distinct tones. Having the dirty volume away from the gain dial takes some getting used to, but isn't a deal-breaker, and if you find the rather small switch to swap between clean and dirty channels a bit fiddly, you can pick up a foot switch which connects nicely on the back of the amp. Built in reverb is nice, but if you are big on using reverb I'd imagine you'd want to get a dedicated pedal. Tuner seems hit and miss, and again more accurate results will be obtained via a stand alone product. Both good features to have, especially as a starter amp. Overall, highly recommended!Kevin E.

This is definitely the best sounding practice amp I've ever used. The gain channel has several different levels of gain, all sound great. Anywhere from a slightly crunchy overdrive sound to sizzling distortion. I've never had an amp this size handle metal tones so well. The clean channel handles distortion pedals well and maintains the tone of the amp, and if you wanna add a little something extra, putting an overdrive in front of the dirty channel really pushes the mids through. All very impressive for an 8 inch speaker.
The big downside to this amp… is that its deceptively loud. At bedroom volume, it sounds kinda like a shoebox. but bump the volume knob even just a little bit and the full, rich tone punches you in the face, far too loud for playing in an apartment at 10pm. Kinda defeats the point of buying a small practice amp. The clean channel is even louder than the dirty channel.
I'm not knocking off any stars from my review for this however, because it has a headphone jack that actually imitates the speaker response quite well. So if you wanna play this amp late at night, plug in some headphones or you'll wake up the neighbors.
The only practice amp I've ever liked more was the old marshall valvestate, and those are hard to find these days, so this little amp fills that void well.Noah Nicotine

Now let me first state that Guitar Center is the only place I'd buy this from, to try it out and return it to the store. Guitar Center is the BEST. This little amplifier is the WORST. I bought this specifically for it's cabinet output and the fact that it can run on a 9 volt battery. I own four other mini amplifiers, two of them are pedals and the other two are Blackstar Fly 3 (with the extension cabinet.) Here's the crux of my review: The Blackstar Fly 3 is louder and sounds far better than the Orange Crush Mini, even if that Crush Mini is powering a larger speaker cabinet (a 2×10, in this case.) So yes, two 3" speakers in the Blackstar are louder, and the sound quality is far superior to the Orange Crush Mini driving a 2×10" cabinet. The Crush Mini's 3" speaker is unusable, sounds very tinny and is very low volume. Now, I also have two pedal amps that run on 9 volts, an Electro Harmonix 5mm and a VHT Redline 6. The 5mm is amazing, and the VHT is very good also. So if you want to drive a cabinet with a pedal size amp you can put in your pocket, try the Electro Harmonix 5mm. The VHT Redline is also very good and has the added features of an aux in jack and headphone out jack. An adapter cable to use a battery can be had (I have a few of them.) Avoid the Orange Crush Mini, the Blackstar Fly 3 is far superior.John

The Ac-10not only looks the business but it has since real depth and warmth to its tone. Clean – it’s bright and has the chime you’d expect. Turn up the gain and your tone breaks up but still retains clarity. Having the gain wide open and master volume down means you can still have the saturated crunch but not disturb others . Perfect for home use but would not be out of place in a small pub gig. Takes pedals will and with a multi-fix like a GT 100, if you disable the amp sim and use like a conventional pedal board, you don’t lose any quality of the AC10’s natural tone. A masterful amp and it even smells nice with those tubes cooking.Mark R.

Ive been playing 35 years and this is probably the best all around practice amp ive ever heard. Pros- looks great, sounds very good, cleans thump and chime, distortion can wail. Its loud for its size. Seems built well. Have had no bad issues. Cons- clean isnt near as loud as w the gain cranked up. No reverb. In short if this amp was 50-100W and had reverb and an external speaker jack id never play another amp. Good job VOX.jjsrvfan

I bought this amp based on the good print reviews and the way it sounded in you Tube reviews. I did a lot of homework and finally placed my order. I was excited when it showed up at my house and plugged my Jay Turser Les Paul copy right in. Boy, is this thing dark! I turned all the tone controls to 10. I changed the strings. I removed the covers from my pickups- that just made it dark and tinny. After three days I decided that I had to either send it back or make some changes. I took the speaker from a Squier 15 amp and installed it in the Bugera. Right away there was more life and clarity to the sound, though it still sounded tinny (because it's a speaker from a Squier 15), but it was some progress. Next I pulled tubes from a circa 1959 Curtis-Mathes console stereo and swapped them into the Bugera. Now we were getting somewhere- the overtones, the reason we use tubes, were now present and accounted for. The same console is full of Oxford speakers, which are a Jensen knockoff and well respected. I took an 8" from that and installed it in the V5. OH YEAH! Now this is a great little amp. The clean tones are super sweet, clear, full and bell-like with tons of sustain. The overdrive has a huge range of grit, and the reverb is better than any other amp I've had. So after installing a set of +/- 60 year old tubes and speaker, it sounds great. But out-of-the-box stock, I would have sent it back, no question. If you have a too-bright guitar or are willing to make upgrades, this amp is a super value. My one complaint about build quality is that the wattage selector switch is extremely touchy- it goes from .1 to 5 watts and has to be fiddled with to get it to stay on the 1 watt setting.Farmhand

Perfect at home tube amp. I generally use 1 watt mode. Great tone whether clean or breakup. Loves my telecaster and Boss BD-2 into it, and takes pedals great in general. Couldn’t get over how nice it looked when I unboxed mine, either. Beautiful looking amp on top of sounding great. Really an incredible value. Can’t recommend this one enough if you’re looking for a home use valve amp.Grandaddy Jeff

This is a remarkable little amplifier. The positive reviews are all justified. Very diminutive, even senior management, who tends to frown when black boxes arrive, approves. And it produces a variety of great tones in remarkable amounts bearing in mind its small size. Perhaps not for the O2, but great in our lounge and enough muscle for a small venue before it gets a bit chesty. Very happy.biga268

I use it for practice. Although it has a bass setting you can program via the phone kit, the speaker is not as good as a basic bass amp like a fender rumble. The default presets sound the best, and if you need a different sound, it's probably best to use pedals on the clean setting. The effects aren't as good as I hoped for. The chorus effect is nice; but delay, reverb, and spring could be loads better. It gets the job done and I wasn't needing the other effects to be there at all so a good purchase for me, but if you need all the features to be awesome, look elsewhere.Waukegan

Purchased this along with the Squire Bullet Tele. Worked beautifully. All effects. Everything. Then nothing. No power. Nada. Probably why it's discounted $40 when you buy the Tele. Avoid.Joe

I live in an apartment building, and it's just not realistic to crank up my large tube amps while I'm at home. So, I searched for a small combo to use at home. I just needed something small with a great sound, for practice and songwriting. I looked at all of the usual contenders, but the form factor and name brand of Orange really caught my eye. I've played Orange tube amps before, but never one of their small practice amps. I set up this amp on my bookshelf, roughly at eye level. And wow, this amp sounds unbelievably amazing at home volume levels. I can play at a volume which I enjoy, without disturbing my neighbors. I can get an amazing tone without having to crank up my volume. This amp takes pedals so extremely well. I do not use the onboard distortion, but rather I just use my favorite distortion pedals. I simply cannot say enough about how awesome this amp sounds. I strongly suggest, however, that this amp needs to be at a higher elevation, ideally at the same elevation as your head. My amp is roughly 6 feet off the ground, on the top shelf of my bookcase, and it sounds incredible up there compared to having it on the ground. Time will tell regarding its durability. But, I don't plan on taking it out of my house or playing at live settings with it. I envision that it will just stay on my bookshelf permanently. I don't even adjust any of the knobs, now that I have it dialed in. I just turn it off and on.OrangeNYC

First one I ordered arrived D.O.A. That should have been my warning sign to get something else instead. Guitar Center was nice enough to quickly send a replacement, though. The replacement arrived and all was well for about 3-4 months. Amp didn't sound bad but it wasn't spectacular or anything. Decent distortion, nice clean tone. Basic. But now the replacement amp is dead too, for no reason that I can discern besides faulty workmanship or bad parts or something. It sat plugged in and never got moved the entire time, wasn't cranked to 11 or anything like that…it just, like, gave up. I probably had less than 10 hours total on the thing. My advice would be to avoid this one and buy something else.Just a Guitar Guy

So many good tones outta this thing. I bought it cheap but it does heavy metal just as well as clean styles and everything in between. Good amp. My friends love it as well.

Edit: she takes pedals like a total champ and I only say this because I am using very very cheap Chinese mini pedals and a boss metal zone. Lot of my other small amps dont like all the cheap pedals plugged in but the orange can handle all.

Edit 2: I've accidentally dropped the amp from about 4 feet twice now and she hasn't broken. Was 100 percent sure it was gonna be busted but it's fine. Tough little guy.Duncan Whopper

Great sounding clean tones for playing at home, which is why i bought it – my beloved Mustang 1.1 started having issues and I MUST have a great clean tone to relax. Wanted a tube amp and did my research. Decided on the Blackstar. I must say I'm extremely happy with it. The reverb is KILLER to my ear and does a great job at adding shimmer without destroying the tone. No external effects are needed to get a gorgeous clean tone – I use my Zoom G3Xn into the front end to get univibe and compression. The effects loop is very functional. The amp can be very bass heavy, depending on your instrument, but if you run a 10 band EQ (go with MXR) in the loop you amp can achieve any tonal result you want. My best sound comes with everything at 12, with some of the bass rolled off with the MXR EQ – but its just a matter of taste i guess. This amp moves a lot of air when you use the drive channel, and if your not pleased with the amps distortion it does respond really well to distortion pedals. I'm mostly in the clean blues zone but must brag on the amps darker side: it can get very loud and stay rich. I haven't tried any of the direct recording features. The 2 selectable characters of clean that the amp offers thrill me and ,again, the reverb is classy and a bit different from other amps ( I read that is a room reverb). Highly recommended.Tim H.

This amp out of the box sounds fantastic. Crystal clear clean tones and a snarly gain channel that lets you choose between a more American gain tone and a British gain tone. I would say ‘cater for everyone’. But, I received my first amp and within an hour of playing I’d noticed a loud ‘POP’ when changing channels. This pop occurred if a note was being played at the same time as the channel change. (Footswitch and Amp buttons) So, of course I returned the Amp to PMT. they arranged DPD next working day collection for me, completely hassle free. I awaited my next amp, as a direct replacement. A few days later the next Blackstar HT-5R mkii arrived, box fresh like the last. I plugged the amp in, let the tubes warm and away I went. Within minutes of found a great tone again, but the loud ‘POP’ I heard from the first unit was there again on this amp. I tried 4 sockets in the house in case there was any kind of interference/static, but to no avail. Absolutely gutted, I called PMT again. The amp was returned for the second time. Apparently this hasn’t happened to anyone else, I may just be unlucky or the amp may not get along with the electrics in my home. Just check this out as soon as you buy one. I’ve tried two other valve amps on my house since, including a Blackstar Artist 10 AE and an Orange terror with cab, and there’s absolutely zero noise with these. Very important to note here, this is not a slam of PMT, they’ve been absolutely brilliant throughout this whole thing. Customer service is second to none and they are very easy to contact. Used these for a very long time and I will be returning once stores open to try out a new amp.Jack H.

Unbelievable. This is NOT my Vox AC30, and nor is it my 100W Katana. However, for a package that is powered by batteries and can, quite literally, fit into the palm of your hand, the Katana Mini is simply fantastic. The amp models are brilliant and the delay (reverb) function is an excellent feature. On "clean" settings the volume of the amp is perfectly adequate and will fill a room with no issues, and on the "crunch" and "brown" settings, the amp was more than loud enough to fill a large room at 2/3 volume. Whilst I personally think that this is not quite enough for an advanced/intermediate players sole amplifier, I would completely agree that for a beginner, they would need no more than this. Having tried options from Yamaha and other brands, this is firmly my favourite battery powered micro amplifier for any level of guitarist and equipment, the tone is simply that good! The best way I can describe it is this – when I first plugged my PRS McCarty 594 into it, I was vaguely aware that I wasn't playing through my Vox. However, after five minutes or so, I had completely forgotten this wasn't a "real" amp, and had to keep looking down at the tiny box on the floor to believe it! Well done, Boss!Mr I. F.

I use it primarily as a practice amp at lower levels, but I'd feel confident doing coffee house gigs with it, and maybe smaller clubs too. It sounds warm and rich at low volumes, and the EQ is effective. All three voices are useful and I'm not left wanting. I have to make special mention of the delay. I adore reverb (including and especially spring reverb and gritty, trashy reverb of all kinds) but a simple delay circuit is way more useful in this amp. Doubling, slapback, echoes. The treble roll-off and fixed feedback are well-tuned. If you're using this for busking or other guerilla performance, you will suddenly realize that a single delay is worth more than a thousand reflections, because those reflections sound godawful* against naturally-occurring surfaces. *maybe awesome in a sound design way thoughChesterfleet