Marshall MB4210

I bought this combo for gigging in the first place. Two channel, foot-switchable, 300W, extensible to full-blown stack if necessary, all at an affordable price. That was exactly what I was looking for. The 4210 is still compact and looks almost cute for what it is - a pretty loud beast. It has a lot of knobs which are unfortunately very difficult to read in stage conditions.

This combo can do a big variety of tones without digital effects. The classic channel has indeed some silky warmth to it and sounds very different from its modern brother. I use it for my fretless bass and I guess it is best suited for a a p-bass. The voice setting 1,2 or 3 in this channel sounds pretty much all the same but it can overdrive really nicely. If the MB 4210 had the modern channel only I would have also bought it. Here all the knobs do have a real meaning. It matches my favourite bass guitar and playing style perfectly. Mostly I use the blend option and add just a little bit of the valves's numbness. If the compressor would not suck the way it does I would rate this category a full 10.

I have this amp in regular use for one year now and it also survived 7 or 8 gigs so far with no problems. Hope things stay this way. I bought a backup and put that one inside - just out of curiosity and to be prepared. As I did so I realized that the screws for electronic chassis were overly tightened.

Marshall do respond to email and gave a little telephone support on how to change the valve in 2 minutes.

This amp has a very nice tone and can do loud enough to stay on par with the band and cut through the mix. If it was lost or stolen I would probably replace it. For the price I paid the MB 4210 is unbeatable and also cool.

I bought the MB4210 new in July 2008. I soon also bought a MBC115 extension cabinet. My plan was to have an amp that I could use for practice as well as in a band if needed. I play mostly hard rock or metal but also a little rockabilly.
The amp has both a modern and classic channel but usually would combine the two. The foot switch has a channel select button and a blend button. These are not useful to me since I always combine the channels anyway.
I would rather have some kind of a bypass/stand-by button (so I could unplug and change guitars) and a boost button (for louder passages) instead. The boost button is on the amp.
The amp has enough power for my needs but if you need to compete with a full stack you better get an amp with a lot more watts.

I thought the amp sounded great with all of my bass guitars but especially good with a Jackson CMG with active EMG pups. It has lots of punch with a nice clear tone with just a touch of growl in the very low end. The bass amp really sounds good with other guitarists using Marshall amps. It's clear and articulate and really fills out the sound without being muddy.
I don't play with a lot of different sounds but for rock and roll it sounds pretty good. If you play in many different styles I think it lacks the flexibility and variety of tones some bassists need.
When my amp worked properly it was so quiet that with the guitar volume down I would have to see the lights on the amp to know it was on. I bought a Boss over drive because even with everything turned up the distortion was very low.

This amp has let me down more than once. It has NOT been reliable at all. Though this amp has never been gigged, kept in like new condition and rarely leaves the living room and yet it has failed several times. It would cut out and the volume would rise and fall and finally quit altogether. It would do this when I took it back to the music store as well, so off to Marshall service it went. Then a few moths later it started doing it again so off it went again. This time it came back from warranty service with a big, bad buzz even with nothing plugged into it.
A back up? I wouldn't even dream of taking this amp to a gig.

This amp has two year warranty that's pretty much worthless. I bought this amp from an independent music store but they claim they have to send all warranty work to the regional Marshall warranty service center which is Onstage Services here in Grand Rapids MI.
The first time it went for service it took a month. The second time it took three weeks and it came back scuffed, dirty and with a bad buzz. I'm probably going to pay for an independent repairmen to fix it because I'm tired of this.

I'm 48 and I used to play "professionally" in as much as I used make living from it, but I just play for fun now.
I have about seven basses in all. Three are Jacksons, a Ibanez Artcore semi hollow, a Squire 51 P bass, an Epiphone T-bird and a Frankenstein P bass used for testing. If it were stolen I would get a Genz Benz or maybe an Eden amp instead. The warranty work is terrible and way too slow and the amp is too unreliable.

Features described in previous reviews, but basically a two channel 300 watt bass combo with a valve pre-amp for the classic channel and a blend facility to create a third channel. Adding an extension cabinet makes a 450 watt stack!

Pros: Very versatile, easy to use with a good range of tones.

Cons: The built in compressor can be a little over enthusiatic.

I use a Fender Jazz with SD Hot pickups and a Squier Classic Vibes 60's P Bass (great bass for practically no money by the way!) directly into the amp.

This amp produces a great range of tones, from 70's grind through 80's Trace style slap to modern clear tones. The Modern channel is a very clean and crisp solid state tone, great for slap and plectrum work, whereas the Classic channel (using the valve pre-amp) adds the growl that is great for fingerstyle rock tones.

Using the blend facility to combine the two channels creates a third very useable tone and all three tones are quickly and easily accessed through the supplied footswitch.

I have used this now for 6 months at home, rehearsal and gigs and never had any problems.

I have dealt with Marshall before using their service department for a different amp, and always found them helpful. The repair was carried out quickly and covered by the warranty, so no charge. It helps to live 20 mins away from the factory so no courier charge!

Having tried many other makes (Ashdown, Peavey, Laney etc.) in the same price range, the Marshall won hands down in all respects. The versatility of the available tones is impressive and the volume is immense! I personally see no need for the extension cab as I have never needed to take the volume above 5 even at gigs, but the sight of the stack would look impressive! And all at a very reasonable price.

If it was lost/stolen, I would definitely buy the same again.

Got 2 channel on classic and 0ne modern plus a blend. Got an efect loop but without any volume. The compressor is too much noisy when cliping. It got a good variety of setting.

The modern chan. got a nice tone but the tube preamp ot the classic channel is noisy. You can ear the tube doing some wissle kinda sound. Even when the amp is warmed up. But other than that the sound quality is rich.

It broke on me 2 time, first week I got it the input jack broke off. A bad soldering.One of the 2 output 1/4 jack wasn't working. Another bad soldering.

The 2 time the amps broke, I ship it to the copmpany and they repaired it in a matter of 2-3 weeks. But I had to pay shipping.

I have a Fender jazzbass '74 all tweek up and a costum build fretless 5 string. Been playing for 15 years now. I love the low price of it. I hate tjemway it's build speaking of shape. It's hard to move it around, need to be two person.

Nice amps for the price but I would recomend buying the head alone with a marshall cab instead of the combo.

A relatively new bass amp from Marshall. It's pretty good value for what it is, got mine from Sounds Live for ??279 (for the MB4210 combo) with a MBC115 extension cab (??149). It's quite an impressive looking stack thumping out a decent 450w. You can switch from solid state to valve or blend the two together (which I tend to do). The valve sound is noticably different to the solid state (sounding good), for those that have not strayed beyond solid state.

I use an American P Bass, generally playing alternative and punky stuff and the Marshall does what I need very well. It sound fine slapped too. It's pretty quiet, you can hear the fan when standing next to it and not playing and thats about it. There's quite a decent amout of tonal shaping available for both standard and valve channels and then there's the possibility of blending the two together. The built-in compressor works well on the standard channel. There's also a boost button to give a bit of overdrive too which is useful (although I tend to use a Boss overdrive pedal, for some tunes). Overall the sound is good with plenty tonal variations available. (I haven't given it a 10 because I haven't tried every other bass combo out there... but 9 is good =??))

Only had it for about 5 months and no problems so far (except for very minor issue of some plastic feet stands on the cab which cracked, but were replaced no problem).

No problem, the very tivial issue mentioned avbove was dealt with pretty sharp.

Overall it's a good versatile bass amp at a very reasonable price. I was certainly impressed.

Marshall MB4210. 300watts (450 with extention cab) 2 channels - 1 has solid state preamp with compressor, parametric EQ, and 2nd channel has valve preamp with EQ and Boost Switch. These channels can be used seperately or blended together.

Comes with footswitch to switch between channels and also blend them together.

Brilliant features...only thing missing is the ability to swtich the boost on from teh footswitch. This would be ideal as the boost brings on a lovely distortion if the gain is set quite high.

Cost ??279 from Sounds Live and the 15" extention cab is ??149

I am playing a MIJ Fender Jazz with hand-wound vintavge style pups and it sounds brilliant. The moder, preamp channel sounds like like you would expect it to..very clean and punchy and the compressor works well. However for me it is the classic, valve preamp channel that rocks. I sounds really warm and is very responsive to changes in pressure as you strike the strings.

Using the blend control to put a touch of compressed, clean signal into the mix gives me just about the tone I have been looking for. very warm, hint of growl but still punchy. Excellent!

No noise at all, even in my basement which has tons of electrical equipment, and when I turned it up to about half way it actually made the pipes in the celining vibrate! Haven't used it with my band yet, but have no doubt it will cut through fine and keep up withe the drummer and guitarists. Have ordered the extention cab..will update this review when it gets here.

Only had it a while, but its a Marshall. Should be fine.

Never used them

If you have been thinking about getting this buut been put off by the lack of reviews as it is so new, don't be. It sounds great and the blend control and valve premap are a winning combo. At the price, you can also get the extention cab and have what is essentially a Marshall stack with valve tone for less than ??450. Easily the best deal out there at the moment. If I lost it, would replace it with another one in a heartbeat.