Marshall MA (MA50H) amp clean channel sound test Demo

Marshall MA (MA50H) Demo / Sound Test.This was using a maple necked ESP LTD guitar with stock pickups - a fairly average guitar. Not a great test since the guitar isn't really great at clean stuff anyway. EQ is pretty neutral and dialed back - channel is really bright. MA50H with M412 cab

0:10-0:40 Clean chords on Bridge pickup, guitar vol rolled off a little
0:55-1:05 Hard strumming, guitar vol on 10. Seems easy to get a bit of OD with hard attack and hot pickups. Amps volume is only at 2
I would note that on another test, with the volume at 5 and a single coil p/u, the sound was still absolutely clean on anything but the hardest strums.

1:20-2:00 and later - Neck pickup on the chord articulations, then bridge with a almost clean pedal boost (just a hint of chorus added) for a slightly over driven sound.

Recorded with a Zoom H2 close to the cab

Category:

Music

Tags:

• guitar
• amp
• marshall
• MA50
• MA
• MA100

[Crunchifyable]

@rocknrollmustlive And in terms of recording...thats what I'm doing now.  I have a set of safety earmuffs (Howard Leight Sync) that have speakers inside them that I can hook up to the zoom and hear exactly how the zoom hears things, even within inches of a speaker.

[Crunchifyable]

@rocknrollmustlive In summary, it's a good amp, and bound to be pretty reliable assuming nothing is wrong in the first week or so, but I'm looking to replace mine with a blackstar ht-5 or a bugera 1960 infinium (keeping the MA as a backup). The sound of the MA to me is versatile, but not really authentic at anything it does. The best sound of it is probably the clean channel at high volumes (can do a great hendrix imitation thru a neck single coil), but that isn't practical.

[Crunchifyable]

@rocknrollmustlive As far as tones, the clean channel is great, bright, loud but easy to get a bit of overdrive with a boost. THe OD channel you are just going to have to hear for yourself. When I heard Chris George demo it, I thought it was classic marshall, but to my ears now, it's too dark probably to get that 70s / early 80s plexi sound. I think it easily pulls off a late 80s hair sound, and can be just fine for metal with the right boosting.

[Crunchifyable]

@Crunchifyable And about build quality : the heads are pretty solid and parts and components seem high quality. I had a MA50 combo briefly though and had to return it - horrible rattles. The 4x12 cabs are built ok - I would expect tearing and cracks early on - they just aren't built well considering they are using MDF. Speakers are good, and others say they are as good / better than the celestions they are modeled on.

[Crunchifyable]

@rocknrollmustlive Yea, I originally meant my comment to go on the overdrive channel. here the mic position wasnt so bad.

[rocknrollmustlive]

@Crunchifyable Not too bad though, but what you could always do is record at several points and listen to each recording to try and gauge your favorite one though.

I'm considering this amplifier, so what are your opinions on its tones and build quality?

[Crunchifyable]

In hindsight, I think my mic position on this recording was less than optimal, probably off-axis / off of the speaker coil. The Zoom h2 is more directional / beamy than I thought it would be.