Anyone have experience with Marshall’s MG amplifier line? The Marshall MG30CFX is currently $40 off it's normal price on Amazon until midnight today PST. I’m a beginner turned immediate player and have been looking for a new amplifier to upgrade to. I’m using some cheap, starter Ibanez amplifer at the moment. I have a pre-08 Gibson Les Paul Standard and I heard Marshalls and Gibsons were a match made in heaven so this is looking awfully tempting...

The MG line sucks hard. I've listened to them many times on the tube, maybe even played once down some store myself. They are transistor amps of the crap kind for sure. Zakk Wylde uses a low watt, small MG in some backstage warm-ups.. and it does sound like ass when he really goes at it with all the distortion it has...

If you have a LP Standard, just do not bother with ANY MG at all. Just up the budget a bit more, and do shoot for a more actual, tube amp. You won't get the "Gibson-Marshall kool aid match made in heaven" you get to hear from a bunch of kiddos with no idea about the actual very solid gear (high end Bogner cabs, Suhr guitars etc etc..) because most think Gibson makes the best guitars and Marshall STILL makes the best amps, when that is not even close to being accurate at all. Gibson and Marshall sell A LOT of their name.. they are a marketer of their names, for the most part on the lower end gear...

So, having said those, you should look into a tube amp. I'd say it should have at least 15W to it to be a rocker with heavy distortion when you need or want so... you should at least look for something like this: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/laney-ironheart-all-tube-15w-guitar-head

Coupled with something of THIS caliber:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/laney-cub-cab-2x12-open-back-guitar-speaker-cabinet

Now you might say that it might go OUT of your budget, but do expect to pay a rather fair amount for that kind of gear... or be ultimately let down with the MG...

One thing about amp : their's no good or bad amp at all. Whoever claim there is is trying to sell you his own personal taste about the sound he want out of his amp/guitar.

 

That being said, i own a little MG10 and it's doing the job i bought it for. The sound of it didn't blow me away but so far i haven't found any amp where i fall in love with the sound of it, transistor or tube. 

 

One thing i wouldn't suggest is going for a head+cab if you don't want to spend hundreds on amplification yet. There's many amazing combo amp available for reasonable price and output power over 100W (15/20W for tube) is already quite insane (meaning that the master volume won't ever go over 3) so 50W (5 for tube) is already sufficient in most kind of situation.

I disagree, coming as far as sound quality, I would most certainly name SOME amps REAL BAD and others REALLY good. I'm not gonna put some $50 no name amp in the same category with the original MESA Triple Rectifier 120W with even more actual output power to it Metallica use on their concerts... and I'd call anybody who does so a moron.

Yes, you buy into different kind of amps to get different kinds of tones. For example, using a Mesa Dual Rectifier of the new kind with EL84s to it with get you a British sound... while you might get more of a Metal sound using heavy distortion on the older Dual Rectifier.

As for my suggestion, you haven't rebunked it properly because you would not be able to. The Laney Ironheart 15W IRT is a granted excellent amp of its caliber. It not only is more than suffice for home room playing, but is also suffice for a mid sized concert. It is a keeper, you can take it to live concerts with its gig bag... as for the Cubcab, it is also a known solid mid end cab... for any kind of music, so you get the best of both worlds with that combo I linked to.

Combo amps can be fine, but you might not get the dual 12' loudspeakers as good as those with a combo amp, unless you're indeed willing to shoot into the MESA territory or something... so I disagree as a whole with your comment.

The problem is that you aren't aiming for any kind of quality taht you can measure, you are aiming for a sound that YOU like, it's completely subjective and can vary quite a lot from one user to another. Some amp that find bad might be the exact sound that someone was looking for...

 

And i wasn't trying to say that your proposition was bad. i just said that the Head+Cab wasn't the good choice if you don't have hundred to spent into your amplification system which i think is the case for @@Younha therefore your proposition no matter how good it is ins't in proper relation with what was asked in the first place :)

 

You proposition is probably a really good setup if you have almost 600€ to spend in an amp.

 

If you have no idea what you want trial and error is your best and only friend so cheap combo is a good way to start experiencing with amp.

Well actually, yes, you are right. You buy what you need... that is the truth. Considering that, one might do their selections related to the kind of tone they are after... for sure.

However, I'd still disagree on the "quality" part. There just are some gear that have more obvious quality to them than the, generally cheaper gear... and i think that is pretty obvious...

Back OT, I still would not go with an MG, or any 5W amp... I've played on a 5W Blackstar mini head before. I ran a Suhr Classic (Strat) down it and it began to suck with heavy distortion... so I'm still a fan of at least 15W of tube overheaded power...

Thanks for the input, guys. @@Puddle Of Mudd , @@firekorn. I ended up missing the sale the day of anyways. I'm still a total newb when it comes to finding tone, let alone messing around with amps. Just when I started getting guitars, gotta throw amps into the mix zzz. I'll poke around some shops more and try out a variety. I wouldn't mind dishing out around that much for a head/cab, but it's hard for me at the moment to tell the difference in quality for anything I try out. Unfortunately, all my guitar friends are all across country as much as they would love to help me in a store. I was mostly looking at the Marshall MG combo amps for something simple to plug and play while dragging it around some places without much hassle.

If it helps to point me towards any direction, I started learning guitar almost solely because of this band/song. I'd say my budget is $500ish for the whole setup. If I really notice a massive increase, I could be convinced for $1k.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXOLRiXdcoM

 

hi, I cant help you with finding your sound, but my experience with a marshal mg15 dfx that i had for a while was that i found the amp alone wasnt very good for varying my sound, I just found the gain uncontrolable, a sort of all or nothing sound when i used that channel and the other knobs did little in adjusting the tone.

 

my opinion was that the amp alone was pretty poor sound wise, but with a multi fx pedal (i used a digitech rp 250) to give me various tones, the amp was fine and much more apealing. I have upgraded to a blackstar ht-5 now, but probably used the marshall for my 1st year and half of playing

You're welcome, and I second the reply above this one. I don't dig the MGs at all... and something in the caliber of Blackstar's HT-1, which was EXACTLY what I played with that Suhr Strat, will be a light years ahead of any MG... the HT-1 is actually a cute little tube rocker. It just won't do well with extreme levels of distortion due to the 5W...

I drive my Suhr custom shop Standard through a Fender SuperSonic 60W head... now don't get the Fender fool you, it has four 6L6's on it for any form of music, even Heavy Metal... my only downtake with it is that it does not have reverb in it, so you would need some form of reverb pedal, effects box etc etc... if you want reverb on that amp. If you want the very same amp as mine, you might be able to snag one on the second hand for the rather cheap, then couple it together with some cheaper cab... and it will be John Miles ahead of that shitty MG... :D Lemme see...

actually, ditch that head + cab idea... just shoot for something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fender-Super-Sonic-112-Combo-Blonde-60-Watts-1x12-Repack-/291564674530

It is a Fender refurb so I'm sure it is like-new... now it is bit of an amp on the older side (not too old tho like 2011-old) but it still is one of the VERY best Fender amps, actually I really think the SuperSonic is the best effort of Fender at an amp in their entire history...