Marshall B25 MK.II

Well, this amp is not the greatest as far as features are concerned. It features a 3 band eq, two inputs, headphone jack, and two-level volume control. I do wish, nay, really wish it had a distortion circuit, but turning everything up all the way gives it a kick-ass tone anyway. That being said, it has worked pretty flawlessly for whatever I happen to need it for, being from bass amplification to vocals. It has a good amount of power, and i will be keeping it for as long as it keeps making noise.

Only once was this amp used for bass amplification, and it sounded quite good when it was. Primarily, I use this amp for vocals in my band, while we are saving up for a PA system, or run my guitar through it. With vocals, it does the job well, which is surprising, considering the volume at which we play and the vocals of our lead singer. When running my guitar through this amp, I get a nice, bright tone that has plenty of mid and treble, with enough bass to support it. When overdriven, it sounds heavenly, you get an in-your-face ac/dc tone with enough of everything to keep you happy.

Out of all the amps i've used, this one is hovering with many near the top. When i got it, it was about two years old, heavily used, with the bass control broken, both inputs loose, and the headphone jack coming out. I have since grown used to the lack of bass control and fixed the input jack, and it hasnt broken once since. Even after being through the heaviest use of any amp i or my band has touched, it is still working great.

Bought without warranty, never thought about support.

Very versatile, very reliable, loud, great tone, great overall amp. If it were stolen or lost, i would be shocked, given the state it is in and the security of our storage. I would replace it if i could find a good deal. Or a PA system that is cheaper.

This amp is just a simple amp for home practice use, and as such, contains the all basic features you need to get a good sound, without adding too many unneccessary complications. If features active and passive inputs, separate gain and master vol. controls, 3-band EQ and a silencing headphone output. It uses a simple solid state power section.

To be honest, the separate gain and master volume do not make a massive difference to the overall sound, but it's nice to have the option. If you listen closely to the tone, you can hear some grit come in with higher gain settings, but it's no over-the-top overdrive.

It's simple and easy to use, the only other features I'd like to see would be a post-eq line/D.I. out, and possibly a phono input.

I use a Yamaha BB404 passive jazz-type bass, and I used to play a Squier Precision through one a few years back. My style of playing is mainly simple rock/grunge/blues based, so therefore doesn't neccessarily ask too much of amps. I do however like to play a little bit of slap from time to time, and when playing with my band through my bigger amp, I use a Big Muff distortion, although I rarely use this with the Marshall at home. It copes admirably with straight, finger-style rock playing and does quite nicely with slapping too with the EQ set up right. It's not quite so sweet when distorted, pushing a bit too much in the high-mid range and losing a lot of the punch.

As is to be expected, with a small 8" speaker, the sound tends to err more on the bright and clear side rather than going for deep and booming. What I will however say is that for its size and price, this is by far and away the best sounding practice amp I've ever used. Unlike most, the sound is very well-rounded and full, and sounds very alive, putting out far nicer bass than most amps of this size. It certainly walks all over the Peavey Microbass (one of its main market contenders).

I've had this current amp for just over three years now, played nearly every day without a single hiccup. I had another one a few years ago during my first stint as a bassist and it'll be still going strong for nearly 5 or 6 years now, I sold it on to a friend when I needed cash for bike parts. Naturally, it doesn't get any gigging use, but I will say that it does the job, and keeps doing the job, so it's therefore perfectly reliable, exactly what you want in any product! I know a lot of guys who use these for home practice, and they just keep going as a bit of an unsung workhorse.

As nothing has gone wrong, I've never had to deal with anyone from Marshall. I will say that the manual is very useful for helping beginners find their feet with bass amps, and provides a couple of useful sample settings.

This is my home practice amp, and generally sees the most use of my two amps. I also own a Behringer BX3000/Ashdown MAG-410 big 300w rig for playing at gigs, but because I live in a flat, it has to stay silent! I've also found with a little creative EQing, the natural brightness and soul of the speaker allows me to use it for home practice with my guitar, which I'm currently just learning to play.

If it went missing, I'd more than likely buy another one, although I'd be tempted to try an Ashdown After Eight. I just know this amp will keep going, and provide me with a nice sound, even being good enough to feature on a few of my recordings! Certainly there are cheaper practice amps out there, but this one represents for me the ideal trade-off in features and price.

I love the fact that it's a home practice amp that actually sounds pretty good, my only wish would be for a bit more bottom end, but there aren't many amps this size that do bottom end much better than this, so I'll just have to live with it. My only down point is that it doesn't cope too nicely with distortion. That said, again, I've certainly heard a lot worse.

I compared this amp to a few different practice amps, as I recall, the Peavey Microbass, and a small Crate amp, I can't remember the exact model. I certainly remember it sounding streets ahead in the shop, and every other small amp I've tried since has paled in comparison.

My only wish would be that it had a line out to let me record straight from it, but then this is not intended as a recording amp, and adding one would possibly just act as another extraneous feature to many users.

I'd certainly give it my wholehearted recommendation to anyone looking for a starter amp, and I reckon it would tonally satisfy the more experienced player looking for something small for home use. That said, don't take it that this is the best amp in the whole wide world, go out and try a few and see what suits you first!

2004 Marshall B25 MkII. Use it for bedroom and backstage practice and it suits my style fine. I mainly play straight up rock or indie and the amp work s well for that. It is only a practice amp, so don't expect too much. It has two inputs, one for active basses, pre gain/post gain knobs, and a three band EQ as well as a headphone socket. Its pretty basic, but I like that, although some people might want more features.

Its 25W, and thats good enough for practice.

I use it with a Jazz Bass, mainly playing finger style. As I said before, its good for my style. Using the EQ you can get a good low sound out of it, a reasonable slap sound when you turn up the highs. The varity of sounds isn't the best when compared to other amps I have played, but I can live with that. If you turn up the volume to full, you can get a distorted sound, but I mainly play it clean. Overall, you get what you pay for.

Its a Marshall, so its really well built. Its quite heavy, but I think that is why its well built.

Never dealt with Marshall.

I have been playing for 3 years and this is my only practice bass amp. If it were lost or stolen I would probably try something else, just for a change. Saying that, I don't regreat my purchase of the Marshall. It just does what it's supposed to do, provide a decent bass sound for a practice or jam, and nothing else. Overall, i would say that anyone looking for a good practice amp should check this one out before looking elsewhere.

25w bass combo, bought in 2001. The amp has a range of basic features including 2 inputs, 3-way EQ, volume, master volume and headphone socket. Other than that, not a lot!

The 10" speaker is nice and hefty, and comfortably able to fill a normal-sized room and annoy the neighbours into the bargain. Plenty loud enough to play along with an unamplified drum kit, so it's fine for practice.

The real missing feature is a compressor, which would give this amp so much more versatility. Basically it is ok at producing most sounds but you need to have a nice effects pedal going into it to do the work.

The EQs work fine, no complaints there, and they can give a very good variety of sounds.

I either use two humbucker pickups or a J and a P. To be honest, you can't really tell much difference through this amp between the two.

Slapping about will get you some twang but again the lack of compression lets the amp down. The tonality of the amp is fairly weak for an amp of its size, however it does cope with a pretty wide range and you can crank it right up to get some real pounding sounds out of it.

It produces fuzz, vintage and flanger effects pretty well, but again this depends largely on the pedals you put into it.

It's a Marshall. You know it's built to last.

I travel a lot with this thing and it keeps on going. You could probably drop this thing out of your window and still play it.

After one long journey though it did die on me. Read the next section to find out more.

After the amp died I called Marshall, since it comes with a 3-year manufacturer's warranty. They gave me an address to send the amp to, and a week later sent it back repaired free of charge with a refund for the postage. Fantastic company to deal with. Incidentallly I think it was a capicator that had blown.

I've been playing bass for 3 years now and I do feel that I wish I had gone for a different amp. I cannot fault the amp for its build quality and general toughness but there isn't enough about the sound of it to make me want to buy another one.

I want to make it clear that I think Marshall guitar amps are awesome though, but I'm not so sure about the sound they get out of the bass amps. If you're looking for that first bass amp I would go for the Laney HCM30B or if you want something smaller then go with Laney's HCM15B. They've got so many more features for amps in the same range.