Marshall Vintage Modern

Hi Barry,

I ran the 50 watt VM2266 through some of it's paces at a buddies house last month.  He's kind of particular so I didn't twist too many knobs.  He said it took him a while to dial it in (that may be a clue).  It's a cool amp, I just couldn't justify the price ($1300 @ Sweetwater for the head).  I went with a used (mint) DSL 100 head and 1936 cab for right around $1000 bucks total and couldn't be happier.  I basically use just channel one on crunch but there are some great tones on channel two as well.  Someone correct me if I am wrong, I was hesitant to pull the trigger on a 100 watt, but I don't think the volume is THAT much different.  (maybe 10db I'm guessing - I haven't ever A/B the two at the same time)  If you go for the VM, I would definitely NOT go with the combo.  My buddy has a Mesa Lonestar combo and that thing is a pig.  It's much easier to make the two trips and save your back IMHO.  Let us know what you get!

The only experience I have with it was when a salesman was trying to sell me a Gibson Firebird V.  He asked what flavor you want and I said its a Gibson so lets do a Marshall.  He wanted to hook me up to a DSL 2000 or something like that but I saw the purple thought anybody that was man enough to own a purple cab has to be a great guitar player so I asked  to play through it.  He kept the volume low at first and after he saw that I had played guitar once or twice before just cranked open the volume.  I must say I have never in my life played as loud as that guy had me cranked up.  All I can say is the amp had the bottom end covered.  It was pulling off 60's Clapton Cream stuff no problem.  Roll the guitar volume down and it would clean up enough that it was still ballsy but not quite as distorted.  I had a JCM 800 and that thing rocked but it was far too bright.  I loved this amp, and later I bought the old Peavy Windsor head with KT66 tubes and I thought for the money the Peavy sound very close for a fraction of the cost of the Marshall.  It just didn't have as nice of features.  The Peavy Windsor was great for getting a Duane Allman type sound with a Les Paul.  Not like new marshalls where all they have is power and saturation I'm talking a thick ballsy clear sound that compressed when you hit the notes harder.  The VM did the same thing for me only I couldn't afford it.

I believe that the black-colored VM are the only ones being shipped to the states now.