Dean Markley K-150

I have a 1992, all stock. I have a stable of amps and components so I'm always experimenting with setups. Recently I added this amp to my live rig by securing it directly into my rigs roadcase along with my wireless, tuner, and ART guitar effects/preamp. I can either just wheel in the roadcase, pop the covers and throw a mic in front of the speaker, or I can also add my Peavey 4x12 for more of a kick using the external speaker out jack. The effects in/outs make it easy to hook up all the toys and I can run to the board or another guitar amp setup through the built-in line out. The DSP switches give me many choices for drive character whether I'm using my David Gilmour pickup systemed Strat, or my Hamer Standard.

When I first plugged into the amp, it immediately reminded me of a Mesa Boogie combo I owned a few years back. Folks are complaining about the distortion on these amps but I guess I just don't understand what they are listening for. I play everything from 60s to now, mostly hard rock and metal, and I have no problem getting varied degrees of great sounding distortion out of this amp. And if need be I'll just kick a bit of pre-gain in from my processor if it needs some more thump. Overall, the tone is excellent whether clean or dirty.

Hasn't blowed up yet! I use it without backup. If it did I could always pull a line to the PA from my processor.

I bought this amp used for $50 from a guy off Craig's List. If it blows up I'll see if I can get it fixed reasonably. If not, maybe I'll find another one.

I've been playing 30 years and have amassed a huge collection of things - amps, guitars, basses, effects, recording gear, and a complete sound and lighting rig that can handle good size halls. I even used the stuff at a baseball stadium gig last year. So when a nice little amp like this comes along and impresses me enough to end up in my performance guitar rig, for $50 no less, it's worth talking about. http://www.premonitionrock.com

Purchased new in 1992. Played a lot and well cared for during that time. Trouble free so far. I bought the amp because of it's fantastic clean sound and the distortion is much better than on most solid state amps I've owned. I play classic rock, southern rock, blues, soul and country and the only effects I really use are distortion and reverb so this amp works great for me. It has all the jacks you need and it's easy to understand how to work the knobs. This is the amp I use when I play with the band and gig. It's plenty loud and is nice and light to carry around. Great looking too.

I use two Les Paul copies through this amp and a Ventura copy of a Country Gentleman. They all have humbuckers and sound great through this amp. The amp is quiet when you aren't playing.

No problems since I bought it in 1992

Never had to deal with them

If it were lost or stolen I'd look for another because it's a really nice sounding and nice looking solid state amp. It's very light for a loud, powerful amp and it looks great. I wish it came with a foot pedal but I didn't know enough to ask about a foot pedal when I bought it fifteen years ago.

I think this amplifier was made in 1992.
Its effectively a 50 watt amp, although it is advertised as a 100 watt amp. Having said this, its way louder than my friend's 100 watt marshall valvestate, and my other friend's crate 100 watt amp.
No real distortion, but i like that, as it means that the amp does not interfere with the distortion of my boss heavy metal pedal (80s rock distortion at its best). Its got good reverb, and by the way, for all those who give this amp bad press for the distortion, you can add more distortion, theres little switches on the back you can flick to get different types of distortion. The factory setting is blues distortion, but I think its 256 possible types of distortion, and i have been able to get good rock/metal distortion by doing that.

I am using a fender strat with a dimarzio tone zone humbucker in the bridge position as my main guitar. With the boss heavy metal, the overall effect is great for punk, metal and alternative. With my hamer strat copy with tex-mex pickups, i can get good blues sounds out of this amp, clean is very clean and bright. My only problem with this amp is that it took me so long to get good distortion out of it by itself. The distortion switches should be bigger and more of a feature of the amp.

Its a very dependable amp. Its solid and quite heavy and although the leather/synthetic outer can be cut a bit too easily, with a bit of care theres no problems. Sound wise its never let me down. No need for servicing in its 12 year life. Prior owner was an elderly man who took good care of this amp.

never dealt with them, one year warranty on my amp ended 11 years ago :)

I have been playing for 2 years, but i've had alot of gear in that time. 4 Strats: Squier Affinity, Hamer, Starforce, Fender and 1 Epiphone G400. I've had a boss hyper metal, heavy metal and metal zone pedals, and i dunlop crybaby. I got this amp for a bargain, it was $1200 brand new, got it for less than a third of that. My old rocktek amp was nothing compared to this, this also beats alot of my friend's amps of similar power: Fender, Ibanez, Crate, Marshall. And not just in my opinion. They like my amp more than i do :) All i can say is that the people who have reviewed this amp poorly must have got one of these amps in poor condition, or mustn't have fiddled around with the amps features long enough.

2 channels, high, mid, and low run both these channels, the reverb is absolute shit, and it hums horribly loud. I never use the reverb because of this. I used this amp to practice at home and in a few bands. One of the worst solid states I've ever played.

I use an Ibanez Destroyer, with it's stock pick-ups. For stock these are pretty hot pick ups. The amp is a total opposite for my musical style, I play Dream Theater, and all the 80's rock, and then the modern day rock. This amp has almost no real distortion.

It doesn't break when I wish it would, and it's gig-able if you're into that kind of this shitty of an amp.

I would never of chosen this amp if I were the one buying.

Picked up this amp At least 5 yrs ago, used. Lots of Power, great distortion. When I bought it it had a Peavy 12" Scorpion speaker. For my money this is the better sound.{not as brite}. Only problem is I blew the speaker on an outdoor gig. Replaced it with an origional dean speaker. Too bright. Thinking of getting another Scorpion. But I think the problem may be the ohms. the amp is 4 ohms While I think, the Scorpion is 8 ohms. All in all I thimk its an amazin amp, although it does distort up at higher volumes a bit

Late 80's/early 90's 100 watt transistor combo w/a 12" speaker. Most were made in Taiwan, this one says "Dean Markley USA" on it so could be an older USA manufactured amp. It has that weird little dsp switch on the back that makes a subtle difference in bass content of the dirty channel. Not a versatile amp by any means. All the action is on the dirty channel with the gain setting between 1/2 and 2. The clean channel is much too bright for use with all but the darkest neck pickups. It may work well for amplifying acoustic guitars though I haven't tried. Although advertised as 100 watts it actually runs at around 50, unless you plug in an extension cabinet (50 watts@ 8 ohms, 100 maybe!watts @ 4 ohms.

I play a Fender Telecaster with a custom wound DiMarzio Pro Track bridge pickup, a Peavey Predator loaded with DiMarzio Fast Track 1's and a Gibson SG-1 with a Dimarzio Multibucker. This amplifier does a passable imitation of an overdriven Fender combo amp at a much more reasonable volume. That's about all it's good for. Turning the gain up past three results in fuzzy undefined "transistory" distortion. The reverb on this amp is very usable and sounds very good. There is however a small amount of hum present in the reverb due to the poor placement of the unshielded power transformer very close to the reverb control and reverb tank. (I'm of the opinion that transistor amps should be dead silent, or why use them?)No excuse for this engineering error. One sound/ one trick pony..good only for blues or roots rock..no metal, no jazz, no country.

This amp has been reliable, as was the little K-20 Dean Markley practice amp I once owned. I also owned a K-50 that blew up while I was playing at very low volume for no apparent reason. I would probably take my chances and do an occasional gig without a back-up.
However I would NOT expect one of these amps to last as a three night a week gig amp. This PARTICULAR amp has been reliable so far.

I bought this amp used and cheap, so no warranty expected.

I was shopping for a small (10 watt/8inch speaker)practice amp when I ran across this K-150 for $99. Couldn't resist. These amps excell at low gain "bluesy" distorion sounds but are pretty useless otherwise. I wouldn't buy one new at anything approaching retail price. I play "post apocalyptic" blues/rock (Fat Possum/Link Wray type stuff)through a variety of dubious amplification I bought for between $O(found in garbage)-$140. I don't use any effects boxes. I've been at it for twenty odd years. Many of my friends have had major and minor label record contracts, but I'm an underground basement warrior.

Pretty versatile - Its got a very clean clean channel and really dirty overdrive channel. Its got silent channel switchin, an effects loop, and footswitch controlled overdrive & reverb. The reverb is great. The overdrive produces great bassy tubey sounding distortion. Did I mention this is a LOUD 100 Watt Amp. 12 inch speaker sounds great.

I play dirty blues and distored rock/alternative. The overdrive channel is well made for that. I also use an Ibanez distortion pedal which really makes it growl. When the reverb is turned up it hums but I don't use it much. Again very clean sound and very dirty are available. The overdrive/distortion tone is adjustable through 6 toggle switches on the back of the amp.

Very dependable so far. Would gig with it because its loud and sounds great cranked up. It has 2 speaker channels so I could see plugging in an external speaker cabinet to really blast for larger gigs. I've banged it around and it hasnt busted yet.

My dealer services Dean Markley so I'll take it there if it busts. I think its a 1 year warranty

I would buy it again unless I needed the sound of a full-stack. Its very versatile and it screams. Its got a cool tan vintage look with a tweed grill. I play a Telecaster Special (humbucker in the neck). I had a Crate 30W that sucked. I also had a TubeWorks 40W that was unbelivably noisy. I'm happy with this guy. I wish it had tubes in it...