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Review by
a visitor on 15.4.2004
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Got it from sound control from bristol for £500 in march 2004.
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Features |
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This amp is the next step up from the 100w, and if you like playing very very loud and play gigs, this amp is the best. I would describe this amp as being the best non full-valve amp in the market. It has a valve driven pre-amp. The amp boasts 4 channels, with the inclusion of an acoustic sim which you cannullt get on the AVT100. The acoustic sim gives a really bright, clean sound. Play it with an acoustic and it sounds great, but can crackle if too much treble. Played with an electric you can get that nullanother brick in the wallnull sound! Clean is goood, very clean and little feedback. Overdrive 1 is the best channel of the lot, crank up the valve gain and you instantly sound like led zeppelin or the darkness even ac/dc! The crunch is amazing and has a scoop button which is amazing. I played it with a 1959 les paul standard and you should use something similar as this amp doesnt fit with strats well enough. Overdrive 2 is great but not that different from od1, increase in gain and loads of distortion, but lots of feedback as well. There are 16 built in effects, each one fully adjustable, the best being chorus, delay and grated reverb. Unfortunately 10 of the effects are all based on reverb, and there arent enough of my favourite fx such as wah wah or tremolo. The flanger and modulation are weak and no good for anything really. There are 2 effects channels, one for the clean/acoustic channel and one for the overdrive channels. The amp comes with a six way footswitch, it is built like a tank and you can turn fx on and off and switch all channels. One 12 inch speaker, though this isnt big enough to really make it that loud. In fact the weak point of this amp is that it doesnnullt sound 150 watts, due to the small speaker, the volume isnnullt as massive as i had thought. |
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Playability |
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Plug into this amp with a les paul, and youve got it. It sounds incredible (like led zep and ac/dc) on its overdrive 1 channel with the gain up. Overdrive 2 is great for nu-metal playing but feedback kicks in quickly. Clean is good because that also has a like a gain knob that if you turn up becomes bright, maybe a little too bright. Each channel has a 3 way graphic equaliser for bass, middle and treble except for the acoustic sim. The acoustic channel has a "warmth" like dial, if you turn up the sound becomes brighter and brighter. However this channel is soo quiet compared to the others. When i used it in a recent gig (using an electric), i had master volume on 9 just to make myself heard! The ac channel is designed for acoustics, but sounds a bit crackly. Use an electric and you get the cleanest of clean sounds, and like a nullfunknull kind of sound like the guitars in nullanother brick in the wall pt 2null by pink floyd. Each channel has a little switch on it, one switch on the ac sim to make your acoustic sound like a full bodied one. The clean channel has a nullbrightnull switch that brightens the sound further. Both overdrives have nullscoopnull switches, turned on you instantly turn into angus young or jimmy page, turn it off and the sound isnt as full and more nu-metally. |
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Quality |
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Like I said above, the sounds quality is second to none on the overdrive channels. Clean and ac sim need a bit of improvement. But listen to this amp and you WILL fall in love with it. It is pure marshall. The volume isnt that loud, not a great range of fx, but for £500 is sounds like a top range £1000 or a priceless vintage resurrected from the seventies! It is the best amp in this price range. If your in a band, play gigs, play acoustic guitars then this is the holy grail. If you play at home it is good, the older JMP marshalls had to be turned right up to get that classic tone, but this can be played at bedroom volumes and still sound right. |
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Durability |
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This thing is BUILT for live gigs. The vinyl nullhidenull (whatever it is) that cases the amp is 1 inch thick. The corners have firmly fixed on plates to protect from bashing. There is absolutely no way you could damage this amp on the outside, but remember there is a valve in the inside, so be careful with it anyway. The footswitch would stand nuclear fallout, it is made from cast iron or something like that. The amp itself is large but will easily fit into your car and weighs 30kg. Be careful while lifting because it could damage your back. Best 2 people carried it. The amp has never gone wrong for me. It is fan cooled on the inside so no matter how loud you push it, it wont overheat. The speaker can stand long periods of high volume. During band practise it was on about volume 7 for 3 hours and that was easy for it. |
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Overall |
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Nothings perfect but this is as close as you will get. I recommend that you go down to your nearest dealer and try it, you will love it. If you donnullt have 500 quid, go down to your dealer anyway and tell him you want to buy it and he might let you have a go on it! The AVT100 is almost as good as this amp, but is 50 watts behind and has less fx and 3 channels. The AVT100 would cost £400 roughly. The 150 is worth spending the £100 extra because there is so much more to it. |
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