Marshall Studio Vintage SV20C Combo

În sfârșit, avem sunetul inegalabilului Plexi pus într-un combo ușor de transportat!
- Sunetul Marshall este incredibil de autentic, iar combinațiile dintre cele 4 input-uri (2 x Low, 2 x Hi) cu cablu patch de interconectare între ele fac din acest combo un izvor infinit de sunete foarte bune, de la cel moale înfundat (Low input) la cel foarte agresiv și ascuțit (Hi input) sau combinat de Overdrive + joase (Lo+Hi legate cu cablu patch).
- Puterea este suficientă pentru orice scenă, oricât de mare, mai ales dacă pui amplificatorul pe podea, lângă tine, oblic, pe stativ, chiar fără monitorizare suplimentară.
- Proiectantul ar fi putut adăuga și un Reverb, ca totul să fie mai mult ca perfect, dacă tot s-a pus în plus FX Loop față de schema originalului 1959, dar asta nu scade din calitate, la nota finală. E doar o părere personală, dar obiectivă.
- Are reducția de putere care ajută oarecum, dar nu scade foarte mult volumul general, în niciun caz la jumătate.
- E puțin cam dificil accesul la panoul din spate de FX Loop, dar nimic nu e perfect fără măcar puțin efort.
- La capitolul „minusuri căutate cu lupa”, aș spune că intrarea de Hi ar fi putut avea un gain mai lent, mai larg progresiv, adică să nu intre în Overdrive puternic chiar de la nivelul volumului 1. Este o problemă aici pentru cine vrea sunet curat de Marshall la volum mai mare (clean, blues, folk, acompaniament etc), pentru că, dacă ai doze Humbucking sau puternice, există distorsiune mare chiar și la volum foarte mic. Problema se poate rezolva prin conectarea chitarei la Inputul Low, apoi legat cu cablu patch la Inputul High si dat volum foarte mic la Canalul Hi.
- În concluzie: un amplificator viu, tăios, penetrant, clar în ce face, robust, adică fantastic pentru concert live, unde îți trebuie fermitate și nu sunet de domnișoare de pension!

Granted, this is the first tube amp I've owned, but man it sounds beautiful. I can hear every note I play crystal clear, and the dynamics are amazing!

This amp is also very versatile since it has 4 inputs grouped by two. One group is for the "normal" sound and the other is for the high treble sound. Each group has two inputs where one is low sensitivity and the other is high sensitivity. Not only that, but you can 'jump' two (or three?) inputs at the same time. Meaning, you can plug your guitar in one input, and have a jumper cable (the short cable for pedals) inputted into two other inputs, and then you can blend the two channels using the two volume knobs for each channel!

I still have a lot of sounds to discover in this amp, but I'm very impressed so far even though I only played it for an hour.

One tiny con I noticed is that this amp is pretty heavy, but not too heavy. It's light enough to carry around from and to your car, but too heavy for carrying long distances.

All in all, I highly recommend this amp!

Marshall 1959 is the amp with my favourite sound. That amplifier is very loud so, even if used clean as pedal platform, the volume is usually set so low that amp cannot “open up”. Soon after increasing the volume, it becomes so loud that it is not clear if valves are overdriving or eardrums.
Reading about 20W/5W Marshall SV20 that creates that sound from portable package at manageable volumes seamed too good to be true, even after reading about its preamp circuit and el34 valves in output. I am pleasantly surprised how similar it sounds to Marshall 1959. I compared them side by side and even connected SV20C to old 70’ 4x12 box. It is not the same thing, it cannot be. If you plug in to two 1959s side by side, you would probably hear differences too, but the similarity in sound, dynamics and reaction to pedals between 1959 monster head and small SV20 combo was beyond my expectations. Unreal! I had doubts about 10-inch speaker, but that was gone after few riffs. Engineers made fantastic job!

Unfortunately, stunning sound, plexy look and “made in England” does not mean the same level of quality as old Marshalls. This amp is made of standard parts like most other cheaper amplifiers made outside UK or USA. Noisy presence pot doesn’t concern me because it doesn’t affect sound or playability, but low-quality potentiometers make fine adjusting volumes of jumpered channels impossible. High treble potentiometer acts more like a switch than potentiometer. That makes nearly impossible to set the same sound twice. Until I solve this, amp is useless for concerts or recording sessions.

Thomann’s offered solutions for above mentioned problems were fair: return or send it back for repair. It is not that I don’t have the confidence in Thomann’s workshop, it is that I look after my gear and I don’t like sending it by currier services. One look at beaten up box in which amp arrived persuaded me that I would rather cover the cost of fixing the amp myself and partly loose the warranty than send it back and then get back beaten-up amp with different issue. It is not the smartest move from my side, but I just want a good reliable amplifier and I don’t want to bother with it anymore.
All and all, it is fantastic sounding amp and probably the last one I bought online.