Marshall MG100HDFX Guitar Amplifier Head (100 Watts)

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2 channels. 2 modes per channel. Footswitch included.

Marshall MG100HDFX Guitar Amplifier Head (100 Watts)

Features
Twin footswitchable channels - Clean and Overdrive

2 modes on each channel - Clean/Crunch on Clean and OD1/OD2 on Overdrive

Independent tone controls for Bass, Middle, and Treble on each channel

Contour Control for dramatic mid sweep and "scooping"

Emulated Line Out jack and Headphone jack

CD input which allows you to play along to your favorite discs

Built-in Digital Effects - Chorus/Delay, Chorus, Flange and Delay

Separate Digital Reverb with level control

Parallel Effects Loop with mix control

Master Volume

FDD (Frequency Dependent Damping)

Supplied 2-way footswitch (Clean/Overdrive, DFX on/off)

Output (RMS): 100W

Channels: 2

Separate EQ per Channel: yes

Clean/Crunch Switch: yes

OD1/OD2 Switch: yes

Contour Control: yes

Footswitcable Channels: yes

CD Input: yes

Emulated Line Out: yes

Emulated Headphone: yes

Digital Effects: yes

Digital Reverb: yes

FX Loop: yes

FX Loop Level and Mix Control: yes

FDD: yes

Speaker: none

Dimensions: 590 x 253 x 270 mm

Weight: 13.6 kg

Footswitch (supplied): PEDL-00009 included

For support or warranty questions, please contact the manufacturer:
Phone: 800-877-6863

Reviewers gave this product an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. (157 ratings)
Submitted August 9, 2007 by a customer from comcast.net

"Great Amp. PLEASE Do Not overlook this!!!!!"

Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Love it. Ample Power, decent delivery (great delivery with medium and low gain) Awesome.

Sound
I am a hardcore tone tweaker. I have a ton of gear and I am always experimenting with different preamp, power, and cab options. I currently own a Triple Rectofier, A Marshall DSL50, and a rack of tube preamps, modelers and tube power amps. All this searching for really just about 3 or 4 "perfect" sounds. I play Les Pauls ( a standard and a studio) and a Highway One strat. I received the MG15DFX as a christmas present and at first, I would not even open the box thinking it was not a serious piece of gear. But since it was a present, I started using it a little, to my extreme surprise, I was blown away at how good it sounded. Now the little MG goes everywhere I need to practice and even with all my tube rigs sitting in the same room, I often just sit down and plug into that to practice. For a long time, I thought, sure, it sounds good at 15 watts, but this series would never be good for a live situation. Then I was in a music store one day and plugged into a MG100HDFX and matching cab. Once again, I was completely blown away and how great this sounded. I was amazed. Suddenly, I felt like a fool having bought into the whole "if it isn't a tube amp, it is junk" philosiphy. Even worse, I have an custom tube amp on order to the tune of about 2 grand. The MG100HDFX sounds absolutely wonderful for the price. The CD input is perfect for plugging read more your electric/acoustic into if you have acoustic parts during your set which my band does. These things are great. Now, they might not have the projection and tube drive required for stadiums or arenas, but how many reviewers out there, or those reading reviews are playing arenas? The important thing is if the amp sounds good for your needs, at your volume level, for your audience. This amp is an A+ for all of these requirements for me. The only possible improvement would be the cabinet and speakers, but you would have to study very close and find a speaker that match the same frequency response - in other words, don't play this head through Vintage 30s and think it will sound better. It likely will not. I think the MG speakers are relatively flat in thier response and most of the EQ is in the head itself, so higher quality speakers with the same response would be the ticket. Like Eminence man o wars or maybe tonkers? Anyway, this amp is righteous, and if you a texas blues man looking for some stellar SRV style tone, to me, this rig sounds better than a Fender with a tube screamer in front of it. The onboard reverb also sounds way better than my Boss RV-5. Love it. I was a fool to overlook the MG series as merely a "beginner" series of amps for so long. I will own one soon. THis is the best soundig solid state amp for tone, projection, and delievery I have ever played through. The only current production solid state head in the same ball park that I am aware of to to a comparison on would be the new Randall G3 series and in the first 10 seconds the Marshall wins because the Randall emits so much noise it is not usable. The Marshall is very quiet except for when you go to very, very high gain levels, and even then, it emits less than half of the noise the Randall does.

Features
Features galore. CD in Jack is killer, as mentioned, especially for plugging in your electric acoustic, or for running a second guitar in through an offboard preamp. Also great for plugging in a metronome for practice. The emulated out is cool, but actually sounds a little muddy to my ears, but not bad. The amp sounds so good at reasonable volume levels out of the matching cab, I would probably just mic the cab instead of using the direct outs, but direct outs are always handy. Great to have a headphone jack on an amp. A desireble feature for the married man who tends to irritate the wife with squealing pinch harmonics constantly.

Ease of Use
Very easy to use, the only thing that would make it more "perfect" would be to make the "modes" footswitchable as well, like from Clean to Crunch on channel 1. The DSL also suffers from this shortcoming. If this is the magic amp for you though, it might be worth having it professionally modified to have these footswitchable.

Quality
QUality appears to be solid, but I have not abused these things for years to create on objective opinion. The fact that it uses power ICs instead of tubes lends itself to much higher durability by design alone. Plus, maintenence is ZERO except for maybe a few scratchy pots every 5 years or so?

Value
Sounds good at a fraction of the cost of any tube amps and alot of solid state amps.

Manufacturer Support
No real opinion, though I have contacted Marshall for technical questions in the past and was happy.

The Wow Factor
Black and Gold, standard Marshall looks. Good to Go.

Musical Background:
Active Musician

Musical Style:
Blues, Rock, Metal
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