Are Marshall AVT Halfstacks really that bad?

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: Are Marshall AVT Halfstacks really that bad?

The AVT's arn't bad amps, the cabs suck though.

My recomendation?

Get and AVT head and a 1960cab. You can get that setup for relatively cheap and that way hes got a good head with a great cab, then he can easily upgrade his head later (and sell the AVT...the word "marshall" sells very well).

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Are Marshall AVT Halfstacks really that bad?

I played an AVT for the last year. A 2X12 model.
It's not a bad amp but it's not a perfect one. The main problems IMO- considering the size of it's not a loud amp. You get good sounding gain but it takes some time to tweak them to get what you want. Built in Effects are horrible...

But the tone is nice, pretty sweet, and it got me into considering "British" voiced amps...

 

[Forbes]

Re: Are Marshall AVT Halfstacks really that bad?

Interestingly i went to a gig a few weeks back where the touring band had problems with thier van and gear, and so the three touring bands used the local support bands gear, the amp was an AVT, and i can honestly say it didn't detract anything, in fact it wasnt untill the final band thanked the local band for thier gear that i realised. I never noticed 'wow what a great tone' that night, but then again i never thought 'this tone sucks' either, so if its on a budget i wouldn't say its a total no-no.

 

[DankStar]

Re: Are Marshall AVT Halfstacks really that bad?

I'd say if he can try one out in a store and is able to crank it up a bit that will be the test to see if it's for him. I can usually tell in like 30 seconds if the amp will work or not. It probably won't be super loud, but I bet it would work OK.

When I played a newer valvestate at GC, it broke when I was fiddling with it. But then again, so did the Spider Line 6. I think GC gets defective gear and puts it on display. So I'd say go to a real music store.

 

[Wheelbarrow]

Re: Are Marshall AVT Halfstacks really that bad?

Hah, I have an AVT 150 Combo running it's own speaker as well as a marshall 2x12 cab with 75w celestions in it. I sounds great to me. I got a valveking but took it back after a couple of hours. It was a pretty good sounding amp, but it definitely wasn't a marshall. The overdrive just didn't have that vibe. I did replace the preamp tube in the avt, which did significantly improve the tone. Basically to get a good sounding AVT you need to get the 100 or 150 , use the OD1 Channel, and set mids at full, treble at about 3 oclock, and bass at about four oclock. With a decent guitar and hot humbuckers, you're set. It hasn't captured the real tube tone, but I think it's a hell of a lot better than the all digital ers from line 6 and vox. Just my $0.02:smokin: