Marshall Mode Four?

DankStar

Her Little Mojo Minion
OK, what's the deal with them? Kinda like the clips I hear - were they like a beefed up valvestate (looks like it on paper)? They look better built than the valvestates. Certainly louder (350 watts, that's um, a lot - even for SS).

Anyone here have/had one? Thoughts?

Skolnick's saying they're the best marshall ever made (about 5 min in):

 
Re: Marshall Mode Four?

They get a lot of flak. I have played one at a gig and I can get some great sounds out of them. I can get an 800 like tone with some tweaking and the clean was pretty good. It really excelled at 'chuga chuga kill the world'. Not as complex and deep as some, but def can kill small animals if needed!
 
Re: Marshall Mode Four?

I have one. The cleans are super clean but what bothers me most is that each pair of channels shares volume, eq, and gain, meaning using clean/od1, you have to compromise with the gain knob so that either the clean stays clean or the dirt is super dirty, but not both. The od2 channel is useless, imho. The lead channel is pretty brootz. There's a footswitchable lead boost so you can bump your level up for a lead break instead of getting lost in the mix. I spend 90% of my time through OD1 with a Boss OD-2r up front for a boost. The channels feel pretty lifeless to me without something hitting the front pretty hard. So far, the best tones I've gotten out of it were with a LP type geet with a CC through that OD pedal into the od1 channel. I keep telling myself I'm going to let it go but I just can't do it. Run into that same channel with those same settings, put both pups on, drop the master on your guitar and you can absolutely tear up some Uncle Ted and dirty, dirty blues. YMMV.

The head/cab combo can push enough low end to rattle things off your shelves.

Oh: and it's LOUD. Tube vs ss watts-whatever-350ss watts is no joke.
 
Re: Marshall Mode Four?

They get a lot of flak. I have played one at a gig and I can get some great sounds out of them. I can get an 800 like tone with some tweaking and the clean was pretty good. It really excelled at 'chuga chuga kill the world'. Not as complex and deep as some, but def can kill small animals if needed!

nice review, haha.

I have one. The cleans are super clean but what bothers me most is that each pair of channels shares volume, eq, and gain, meaning using clean/od1, you have to compromise with the gain knob so that either the clean stays clean or the dirt is super dirty, but not both. The od2 channel is useless, imho. The lead channel is pretty brootz. There's a footswitchable lead boost so you can bump your level up for a lead break instead of getting lost in the mix. I spend 90% of my time through OD1 with a Boss OD-2r up front for a boost. The channels feel pretty lifeless to me without something hitting the front pretty hard. So far, the best tones I've gotten out of it were with a LP type geet with a CC through that OD pedal into the od1 channel. I keep telling myself I'm going to let it go but I just can't do it. Run into that same channel with those same settings, put both pups on, drop the master on your guitar and you can absolutely tear up some Uncle Ted and dirty, dirty blues. YMMV.

The head/cab combo can push enough low end to rattle things off your shelves.

Oh: and it's LOUD. Tube vs ss watts-whatever-350ss watts is no joke.

interesting. I don't worry too much about channel-sharing stuff. I dial in a useful thing, write it down so I can come back to it, and manually change as needed. I'm guessing OD2 is the "mean/modern" side - yeah, I probably wouldn't hang there. build quality OK? looks pretty solid.

looks like peeps are letting them go pretty reasonably given their oddness/lack of popularity (good for the buyer, bad for potential off-loading).

I think when they were out in stores I blew 'em off due to price versus other stuff on the market.
 
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Re: Marshall Mode Four?

It sounds like a high powered Valvestate VS100- which isn't a bad thing, except the VS100 is alot cheaper
 
Re: Marshall Mode Four?

I'm not that familiar with the ValveState stuff but yeah, I read that the ModeFour is basically another member of that family. I've also read that they have a fairly common problem with the output transistors or something-some preexisting problem in the VS stuff-that makes them practically useless once they go. I lugged it back and forth between my house and the practice space countless times, played a couple gigs with it, and even turned it on once or twice without a load and nothing ever messed up. I've heard the fans have problems, too, but again, mine never have.

I was mistaken about the channels; Amp 1 is Clean/Crunch (Crunch is my fav) and Amp 2 is OD1 and OD2. OD1 is the channel I haven't really found a use for, yet. OD2 is good for teh brootalz.

Go for it. The heads seem to be going super cheap. The cabs are harder to find because a lot of guys like the low end they kick.
 
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