Marshall 1986

This is a pretty straight forward tube amp. Non-master volume, traditional Marshall 4 input layout, and no wimpish channel switching here. It doesn't have a load of features, but it doesn't need them! I've covered everything from pop to blues to rock to metal with this amp and it sounds awesome on all of it!

This is the best sounding amp I have ever played. Forget your boutique amps - this thing sounds incredible. I've used it with a Strat, a cheapy Encore Strat replica and Gibson USA SG Standard. The Strat sounds awesome, the Encore sounds even better. Unfortunately the Gibbo was a duffer and sounded crap through nearly every amp... except this one!

Stick a Boogie V-Twin in between the guitar and amp and you have the biggest rock and metal sounds possible, use the guitar volume to ease off a bit and get some great blues sounds. Alternatively, whack every control to 10 for a full on Hendrix sound with bass and treble channels linked (I never unlinked 'em - God bless patch leads!)

Owned 10 years. The only time it let me down was when a friend turned on the standby switch before the power switch and blew a fuse. Otherwise, it never let me down, and that one time was the friend's fault, not the amp's (some people just aren't used to valve amps!)

Never needed it. However, folks at Marshall are meant to be pretty easy to deal with.

I bought this amp from a guitarist mate. The head and a matching 4x12 cab set me back ??350, which was an absolute bloody bargain as far as I was concerned. It's "only" a 50 watt, but it sounds loud enough to put many 100 watt amps to shame. If I ever found another, I'd snap it up. It says a lot that you rarely see these things for sale.

1973 four input 50watt bass head. Had JCM800 type mod when I got it, that was removed and the circuit restored to "bass" specs.

some of these had a .005 or 5k brite cap on the brite volume control. I did not re-install this (this makes the volume too jumpy ie full volume on 2 syndrome) I also have several plexis and these did not have the 5k "death cap"

I use this amp instead of hauling my plexi's around and find that it has 99% of the mojo ...

While it is a bass amp the key here is to use it for guitar! These generally sound better for lead and all round playing than the typical 1987 lead amps.

These do not have channel switching or reverb or any "junk" in them they simply sound FAT ballsy and thumpy. Add your favorite overdrive pedal and you can sound like anyone. Play quite & punchy and sound like all the hendrix ballads, play these on 5 and do ACDC all nite long.

When an amp sounds this good you realize features are for salespeople ... tone is for playing !!

Used with various strats & teles a nice les paul and or an es335 I use all my guitars with this amp.

The amp does anything you want although it will always have a huge fat ringing quality that might not make it suitable for crappy music
HA!

Last time I recored the engineer had not experienced one of these, didn't even know what it was, his jaw was on the ground !
"no need to worry about the guitar sound" I was pleased the recordings had that "old marshall" magic every simulator ever made wished it could get.

With a fuzz face this thing does the "Hendrix" my amps gonna explode in your face grind rumble thunder stuff like no other

Many gigs rehersals and hours of service, properly taken care of these amps are 100% trouble free...
everyone I've seen with problems with tube amps was too lazy to regularly change tubes or investigate little noises and replace tubes...

real pots, flying leads, metal chassis
the way we wish they'ed make amps now

I've owned this marshall for 10+ years. Recently got to shake Jim Marhsalls hand !! There's a reason why these folks are number 1

10 4 input Marshall heads, three tweed bassmans, 2 ac30's, one ac50
and lots of other great old amps ............

When I find another like this I will buy it !!

I hate the fact that anything that sounds this good is now big $$$$$
and that the reissue stuff just isn't IT

If stolen I'd hunt down and kill the thief !!
I know you'd all support me in this (justifiable gear thief homicide!)

Plexi-panel '68, completely stock and original (except for tube replacements). This is the bass version of the 1987 50-watt small-box head. Standard inputs and controls for 60s-70s non-master volume Marshall amps. Has mains (voltage) selector as well as impedance selector (4-16 ohms).

I play a variety of guitars ('93 CS Strat, '85 ES-335 w/Shaw PAFs and '02 Les Paul Historic 58 Les Paul w/Burstbuckers). My style is mainly blues-rock, with a rather heavy Allman Brothers influence. Been playing over 25 years. I've replaced the tubes with Telefunken ECC83s and Svetlana EL34s, and I can't get over the tone this amp produces. Paired with a Larry Rodgers Marshall replica 4x12 straight-front cab (w/reissue 25-watt Greenbacks), this amp is a dream come true. Responds extremely well to picking dynamics, and is surprisingly quiet, even at high volume settings. With humbuckers, the tone starts to break up nicely around 5, becomes quite saturated at 7, and goes into serious overdrive above that. The sound is full, smooth, fat and warm. No piercing highs or fatiguing brittleness at all. Probably not wel suited for high-gain shredding, but if you're playing blues and rock, it's perfect. Of course, it's not the most versatile amp around - definitely not a Fender or a Vox, but that's to be expected. Quite possibly the most musical amp Marshall's ever built.

I've had the amp thoroughly checked over, and it appears to be in tip-top shape. I doubt it will fail in the forseeable future, but I bring a back-up amp just the same. One can't be too sure with a 34 year old amplifier.

As I mentioned, I've been playing for over 25 years, and have been through many amps. I currently own a Matchless SC 30, a '64 Deluxe Reverb, and a Boogie MkIIC+. That pretty much covers most tonal palettes. I can't praise this amp highly enough. The build and design quality combine to create an absolute tone monster. If it was stolen, I'd be hard pressed to find another like it, but I'd certainly look.

I'm borrowing this amp from my uncle. It has allmost never been used, and looks brand new, but I think it was made in the late 70's.
This is really a bass-amp, but it sounds really good with my guitar. The amp has input for 4 guitars, and has 2 volume pots (2 guitars on each volume pot). It has no channel switching, effect loops, headphone jack etc. I wish this amp had a master volume control, cuz it's just so fucking loud! If I'm gonna use this amp much longer I'll have to buy a powerbrake to get the volume down. I use this amp in my bedroom. When the volume is turned to 0 it is about loud enough for practise playing, but it doesn't sound good until about 2. When the volume is at 2 it's allready too loud. My uncle told me he had once taken the amp to the countryside and played outside. A guy living 5km away came over (angry as hell) and complained about the loud music!!!

My guitar is a cheap piece of shit Levin-strat. For distortion sounds i use only the bridge pickup. For clean sounds i eighter use the bridge or combine the middle and the bridge, or sometimes I use the neck pickup(not often)
I play mostly Metallica, Iron Maiden and Rage Against The Machine. my hookup is: guitar -> boss ds-1 distortion -> Pearl CH-02 Chorus -> amp -> Orange 4x12 100W 16ohm speaker cabinet. With my Boss ds-1 distortion, it suits my playing style wery well. I use the chorus effect only for clean sounds. The ds-1 may make a little noise, but the amp is *noise-free*. Exept if i put my guitar next to a tv or computer screen :)
I have never had the chanse to crank the amp, but my uncle says that it gives a groovey ass-kicking brutal distortion.

The amp has never broken down, but it hasn't been used wery much, so it's hard to tell

Never dealt with them

I've been playing for 4 years. I own an levin-strat, Pearl Chorus CH-02, Boss DS-1 Distortion, Boss DD-2 Digital Delay, Ibanez AD-08 Analog Delay, Boss OC-2 Octaver, Crybaby GCB-95, DOD 201 Phasor, an Orange 4x12, an unknown 2x12 cab and an 10W Park practise amp.
If it was stolen, my uncle would kick my ass. I think I would buy a Marshall with a overdrive channel, so that I can get good distortion without lousing my ears.
What I love about this amp is how it imresses my friends. I just turn it to 4, turn on my distortion box and play a few riffs, and I'm the hero of the day :) It's to loud for practise use though.
I have compared this amp to a Marshall lead 100 Mosfet, and an really old 40's 50's or 60's Radionette K2 all-tube poweramp (not a guitar-amp, but it has a mic-input, and that's good enough for me). The Lead 100 Mosfet sounds like shit compared to the 1986. The radionette sounds actually a little bit better than the 1986, and it has A LOT more bass! It's also much better for practise, as it doesn't have to play loud to give good sound quality.

Features Tone and Tone. And Tone to the bone, hence the rating of "3". This amp is actually a BASS head from 1974. Classic "4-pronger"; bright and normal inputs, prescence, bass, mid and treble, 2 volume controls (both are masters and affect each input). Solid state rectifier. Modifications to this particular head are: tube-buffered serial effects loop (wish it were parallel but maybe it can be used for overdrive...), bright/normal inputs daisy-chained internally so both are always active (this is the way to play an old Marshall) and revoicing to guitar frequencies (no big deal, couple of capacitors changed). Oh yeah, did I mention Tone? It also features ball-busting volume, no big surprise. WAY too loud for home practice, wish I had a piece of land to build an underground sound-proof practice facility... Possible uses: unmiked <500-seat gigs (believe me), miked gigs at ANY venue, the bigger the better, recording (can't wait), practice if you wish to annoy the bass player who in my case is my day-job boss... For sane practice use a small tube amp, 15W are enuff.

This is the King of Amps. Amazingly big and bold sound, anything from sparkling clean to slight overdrive; for the rest you bring a Tube Screamer and a Metal Zone and you're set. Due to its history, it has a slightly deeper bass response (and higher output! Fatter than Yo Momma.) than a "guitar" 50-watter of the same model, but I don't mind. Good for blues w/ Strat and TubeScreamer, great Rock amp! It is SO dynamic and pick-responsive, really opens up when you crank it, loves external dist/overdrive pedals (these feelings are mutual since external dist/overdrive relies on a bass-mid-heavy amp sound). Certainly chomps up any post-JCM800 Marshall or Master Vol.series amp. You can only crank it so far, usually 'round 10 o'clock, then it's too loud even for unmiked small gigs. And the louder you play a good tube amp, the better it sounds. Bummer. Maybe a Power Soak would do the trick. I will ceartainly bring it to the recording studio tho...

Power switch faulty once (had to use a practice amp for the gig!!!), solder job. Impedance selector is long gone (ever heard that one before?) but an internal solder job fixed mine to 8 ohms (use it with a 2x12 cab). Always bring extra tubes (I don't. Shame on me!) and you're OK.

Warranty expired 22 years ago, I'm afraid, but I have a good technician who surgeoned this particular amp long before it came into my bedroom...possession, that is. My tech gets a "10".

2800 Swedish crowns...something like $400 that is, you must be kiddin'. This is Marshall at its best, classic "plexi" tone in affordable package. My motto: Thou shalt not play an Amp that is not a Tube Amp. I also have a Fender Blues Junior, for practice. Believe me, you will want to play a cranked non-master volume Marshall at least ONCE in your life. If you're lucky like me, you may even get to buy it and stick a cheezy pedal or two in front of it and it still blows your socks off.