Re: Marshall Studio 15 is here!
Ok... Spent more time with it. This amp flat out delivers the F'n goods. I have only ran the Edwards through it with the EMG's etc. The EMG pups push the amp a bit harder than single coils would. At high volumes, the amp does it's job well. The controls have to be tweaked, but the midrange really comes alive when you crank it. The sweetness it misses at low volumes comes out of hiding and the tube tone shines through. The distortion is rich and has lots of Marshall character. I've yet to run single coils through it, but if this amp sounds half as good with singles as it does with the EMG's I'll still be thrilled. This amp was easily worth every single penny I spent. Great tube tone at lower than ear splitting volumes and a very transportable amp. The enclosure is has a smaller face than my Silvertone 1482, but it's about a third thicker, which I guess kind of makes up for the cab dimensions. Mind you, I'm judging this amp from the perspective of what a 1x12 amp can deliver. I wouldn't call it perfect or the ultimate amp by any stretch. I just think it's a very good little 1x12 practice/studio type amp that has good tone. This thing doesn't have surround sound or stereo, but it does deliver really rich marshall tone right out of the gate in a very small package. If something can sound better than this in this size package, I'd personally love to see it. It's a real screamer at higher volumes too. The guitar starts reacting to the amp when the volume cranks. At lower volumes the bottom end is a little loose compared to what I normally hear from Marshalls, the midrange is nice but not nearly as good as when cranked. Judged on it's own merits, I definitely like it a lot. It's not a carbon copy of another marshall sound exactly, but it's definitely a good marshall tone. Once the Vintage 30 starts feeling the wattage the midrange gets a little gravelly sounding at maximum gain setting and the bass drops out a bit. This thing has useable tones all over the gain scale though, so it's very flexible in that respect and gives a player lots of tonal options. With the gain almost all the way down the amp has a little hair on the sound, which comes out really nice and the more you twist the gain knob, the more hairy it gets. ALL the sounds on the gain knob are useable except with the gain all the way down. The amp will get good cleans if you turn the gain almost all the way down and dial back the volume on the guitar. The cleans aren't stunning, but few marshalls do great cleans anyway and I already own the best clean sounding marshall amp there is. This little monster was primarily made to make nasty rock and roll noise and it does that very very well. Killer for everything from country picking (with a lower output guitar) to classic rock to early hair metal sounds with EMG's. I think it's very far from perfect, but it sure ain't bad for the money.
I'm probably gonna check out how a G12H30 sounds with this amp when I finish rewiring my Edana cab for 8 ohms. If it sounds noticeably better, I'll get a speaker wired up with a jack so I can swap the two in and out at will. That way I can travel/jam with the G12H30 in it and put the Vintage 30 in when I'm home for more variety. I think the G12H30 would be really good with this amp though. The Vintage 30 is a cool speaker and it definitely has it's place, but the G12H30 is what I really love the most due to it's smoothness and bass response. I think that would really wake up the bottom end a little when under gain and smooth out the midrange just a touch. Vintage 30 raunch is awfully cool too though.
