Yes, yes, we know that at one time (very long ago) the Valvestate line was a pale imitation of the real-deal Marshall amp. We know that it takes little glass bits that glow warmly (tubes) to make great guitar tone. And wouldn't you know it, Marshall does too! That's why they now drop in an ECC83 (12AX7) tube in the preamp of the Valvestate 100 series. It's a marriage made in Milton Keynes. (AKA Heaven-that's where Marshalls are made!) A tube-driven honest-to-Jimi Marshall preamp connected to a powerful 100 watt solid state power amp, driving 2 12 inch Celestions. This isn't your Father's Valvestate!

That tube in the preamp means that the full range of Marshall tones from clean to the famous "brown" all the way to brutal are yours at the touch of a switch. 3 switches to be exact, controlled by your foot. The corresponding channels are: Clean, Overdrive 1 and Overdrive 2. The clean channel has treble, mid and bass controls that it shares with the Overdrive 2 channel. The Overdrive 1 channel has a sweeping contour control. The built-in spring reverb has separate sends for the Clean and Overdrive 1&2 channels. Another nifty tidbit is the Power Dimension switch which gives the effect of the greater saturation of a power stage of lower wattage being driven hard.

An effects loop lets you hook up any other stuff you want "through the back" and thus cleaner and more efficiently. The headphone and line out jacks are self-explanatory. Finally, an extension speaker jack gives you the option… read more to add more speaker cabinets. (It's just our recommendation, but this amp is really sweet sitting on top of a 4-12 slant Marshall cabinet.)

So there you go, puristsÖsneer if you like, but this amp screams! It's been said a million times (on this website alone): MarshallÖthere is no substitute! And the VS102R is a real-deal Marshall in every sense of the wordÖexcept for the price! read less