Marshall 1959HW Head

The amplifier was made in 2006 when I bought it . I hasd sent from Sam Ash. They charged me exactly $2,800 sollars plus all shipping costs and taxes. But more bout that later.
Marshalls are not spaceships. THe versatilility factor amongst them is archaic. Now when I say this Im not saying I want a Mesa BOogie which has 14132 knopbs plus self variacing and speed conditioning and a flux capacitor which travekls thru tim. THats the middle range model. THere are four channelks on the 1959HW. CHannel switching is an odd word totuse for a Marshal 1959HW or anmy Superlead Superbass P.a or NON MASTER vERSION of the genre. Mqnual switching like a ychtsman in a regatae boat race is al the call of the day here. Now, Ibought this thing and Man, @Was i EXCITED. In al honsety the 1959HW is a sarn good Marshall but $2800 bucks>? Now we are talking a few years ago and though dealers it necessary to rape the public with its price tag others have been and this is say without hesitation and not because the chose this but they hAD TO come DOWN in porice. Ive $2,000 for opnwe now,. Id say n ow a fair price no more.
IT will blow a holer in your wall. SO either buy an attenuator . THD is nice and i had one and uea i used, My bias drifted some but I found right tubes,. ANd no they werent NOS> I think NOS is a fairy tale. Cept for the PReamp and even those come to suspect and shot failry speaking. I mean face iot. How 80 year old are gonna survive the elelments when their is a vaccumm element involved. SPecially power tubes. Theyre crap. For a 10% better sound and possibly longer $800 for a set of XF2 Mullard shield issue arent IMHO opinion worth the float. I tried JJ's, GT M ullard reissues and so on. Swapping between the first two a few times when gigging out. A couple times I had ti rebias with my meter. YOu gotta listen and not just bias and say"ok thats it, its a prize fighter."Not the gaamer. Plus let a TEch look at it. Ive seen a few with loose bolts and the best of manufacturing quality. Maybe isolated . I dont know. ALLL TUbe 100% Non Maintenance free but its new not a 69' which your tech will visit on occassion and nless hes youll pal from back the day your gonna pay him for all servicing i.e TUbe Biasing mianly. THats $100 bucks modeslty, etc etc...

N ow onto the sound of the amp, It WITH the right outboard Pedal which in the end was my choice and then If I anted some attenuatuon but not a lot becasue it will compress your tone or change it or something is differant. THD is not the culprit though cause ive other companies attenuators BLOW UP my TRASNFORMERS. VAboom! like that. YOu gotta look. Its not noisy at all. Very loud not noisy, Unless your a Jazz cat who likes those drumsticks with 1000 metal hair on each one to "keep the noise down"
THe ampif pluigged due to it being a SUPERLEAD can and DOES IMHO sound best linked from channel opne to channel . May have my channels off but lower left and upper right. Pretty sure. I have Marshalls , older ones too that are Non Master and i use them linked, but not always. A ONE TRICK PONY, NO 4 or 5 yeah! But hey a lot of amps have one ound thats it. I cant say which ones but you know . It is BRITISH ALL THE WAY. Marshall chinced on the parts to a degree. Specially with the caps. They are average at best however doesnt run out and but Sozos. Just leave um in run the amp. OVER ALL I GIVE IT a 9 !!! IT sounds really , witha pedal. RUnning full bore with an attenuator howerver wasnt as impressed . but. How mnay play madison square garden. And if you can. Go buy a wal of EVH 12000 series 1969 Marshall amps and anything from 1967 to 1972 and even the later metal panel which IMHO are some of the bestBEST sounding asmps out there. Yeah, PCB boards I said it. SOme of the best and wsolid and man tone for days. The 1981 JCM8002203 . Well its every now just like the 1959HW but will in the with these particur two pieces end up in its higher spot than the 59. SO in the end. It sounds really sounds. NOT superaggressive. Member patterneed after a 1969. YOu can get it to give up some heavy hitting tones though. YOu run the right DISTOERTIONH thru it,. NOT Overdrive . SOme Fuzz boxes sound amazing to thru it. I like tha mp.

Well, Blew couple trannies but my gault. no probs. Little loose here and there and had to resauder. $23800 hunj and shouldnt have to so that but hey. ITs still a 1959HW. You pay forthe NAME !

na

OVerall ive said it all.youy weanna play it you gotta pay it.! For $2800 dollars though a buddy of mine just picked up a 1968 superlead PA that was MINT INSIDE and takes 120 volts. Ouytisde the cab was a bit rough but not bad at all and the amp compared to a 1959HW.weell...you get thpicture.

Purchased new in 2005, Features have been explained in previous reviews. Plain and simple, no clutter. As per usual with non-master volume Marshalls, volume 1 needs to be nuetered by clipping that raspy bright cap wire.

Sounds great, but ya gotta turn it up. I use both Les Pauls and Strats through this, and it's a sweet sounding amp for either single coil or 'buckers. Once you're in the zone with this amp, it responds well to pick attack.
I have a few different 4x12's, but the handwired cabs that go with it seem to handle it best. 9 in this category, only because I shouldn't have to snip the wire on the bright cap on an amp I paid 2800 beans for.

Well, I run this head through a 16 ohm HotPlate, through either one cab or both. I don't dime everything, but it never really goes below 7 or 8. It's 2 and a half years old, still has the original power tubes in it, gets dropped and bumped around frequently and takes a general shit kicking. Why is my amp still alive and ripping heads off?
By the sounds of the other reviews, this thing should have blown chunks a long time ago. If someone goes through 2 or 3 of these, one has to wonder why. Bad attenuator, perhaps?
I know of a few of these that are the same age and working fine still.
They weren't all made on a Friday. I'm giving it a ten because it hasn't given up the goods yet.

Haven't had to deal with them, but I hear the distributor here in Canada is pretty abysmal.

Overall I dig this amp a lot. I'd like to run 2 of them together, if they weren't so expensive. If it got ripped off or blew up, I'd probably replace it, but I'd check out the new Vintage Modern series while shopping.

See previous entry

See previous entry

This is a follow up to the problems I had with 2 blown 1959HW heads (one blew an input transformer and the other the output transformer in a couple of hours). Marshall replaced the heads with new ones (took 6 weeks). The replacement heads had major problems, one did not work right out of the box and the other was put on a scope by the warranty person and shown that it could not be operated past 7 on the volume dial without damaging the amp. I walked away from this amp at this point and got my money back for the two heads and A&B cabs.

The warranty person and music stores involved were great! Marshall and their distributor in Canada (Ericsson) however, do not carry parts in Canada and are slow to respond to problems with equipment.

This amp has major electronic/design problems. I recommend that people do not buy this amp until they get the bugs out of it and are preparred to support the product.

This is a follow up on the 2 blown 1959HW heads returned to Marshall. Both went in a couple of hours.

See past comments

The first replacement amp out of the box did not work. I was shown on a scope that the second amp would fail if played over 7.

I waited 6 weeks for a new amp that didn't work and another that can't be turned up.

Yikes! 4 amps in 6 weeks. I walked away from this mess and got a different amp.

This is a review for a 1959HW (Hand Wired) 100 Watt Super Lead PLEXI.
The amp is amazingly versatile in tonal possibilities.
It has two channels, with two inputs each. It is very, very loud, more than enough power. Really straight forward with the control knobs (only 6) presence, bass, mid, high, volume 1, and volume 2, but these work together in seemingly infinite combinations to give many different sounds.

I'll start with the BAD and move to the GOOD. ***BAD*** It is quite a noisy amp! The first time I played it I picked up a radio station and it was so loud I could barely continue to play it. The "high" when cranked, is very fuzzy, lots of crackling. I was disappointed with the noise level! VERY NOISY AT TIMES. ***GOOD*** Amp can sound like anything. I use it to play Jazz when I cover John Coltrane tunes, it sounds great. I use it to play Hendrix and you can get insane feedback, it resembles sounds heard on The Band of Gypsy???s at the Fillmore album. Just like Led Zeppelin if you want it. It cleans up to give 50's tones. Can sound like late 90's grunge. It's very versatile. It can get a really, really "brutal" distortion, especially if you "jump" the channels together. It really blew me away when I cranked it. I wasn???t expecting such big, dirty distortion, yet with such resonant overtones. You can crank a jazz chord... something with tension ... and it distorts, but you can still hear all the notes. It's pretty cool.

I AM SO SAD ABOUT THIS AMP! I really love the sound, but for me it was COMPLETELY UNRELIABLE! In my opinion, this amp was built to sit on a shelf like a collector???s item trophy, and not be played. If you play it will break! I used to think mine was a "dud", a "glitch in the system", but I have read many reviews, and talked to many people in the industry who say the same, it's not reliable. I blew my output transformer TWICE!!!!!!!!! Two separate output transformers, on two separate occasions went bad and needed replacement. Both blew while running the amp "Hot"/"Cranked", just as the manual said to do. I had an output tube socket go bad. It needed to be re-soldered. A speaker in the 1960AHW speaker cabinet blew, and needed to be replaced. The cabinet fell apart and needed to be re-constructed. NO JOKE. All this really did happen and I have documentation. Marshall paid for all repairs but has been very distant when it comes to hearing my complaints. I am in the process of trying to get my money back for this amp that I have had in the repair shop more than I have had it to play, and I haven???t even owned the amp a year!

The only thing I can say is that they paid for my repairs. Marshall doesn't handle any of the warranty claims. All complaints, at least in the US, are handled by KORG USA. They have been very unaccommodating, cold, and unwilling to hear my complaints about my amp. I'm not sure if Marshall in England knows that the 1959HW is having issues, because they continue to manufacture parts that don???t seem to function properly when asked to perform. That???s all I can really say.

A FIVE. "Right down the middle" It sounds great, but if you want to hear it you have to turn it on, and then it might break. Pardon the dark sarcasm but in my experience it is true.

This offers what a good tube anp should - good clean tube power. Very little amp noise when not playing through the amp.

Excellent when it is turned up and the tubes get working! No distortion buzz common to many other new tube amps. I tried out many before buying these two.

The worst I have ever seen in 40 years. The first amp head I purchased lasted 6 hours before the output transformer blew. The second back up amp head I purchased days later went in 6 hours due to a short in the power supply transformer.

The local warranty technician is great but Marshall's parts for this amp (at least the one's I require) are not stocked in our city or in Montreal (stocking point for all of Canada). I must wait 4-6 weeks for parts - sorry but in my book thats not service. There is also no guarantee that substitue parts will do any better than the original parts. Perhaps a recall is in order. So local support gets a 10, Marshall support for stocking parts gets a 0!

When the amp is at 10 the tone is the best I have heard in years - well done! Too bad the amp can't perform at full volume for more than a couple of hours. For all you players that currently own this amp beware - if you turn it up you may loose it. Great tone but unreliable and may not be able to operate at loud volumes. What do you say when you finally find an amp that gives you the tone you've been searching for but then blows up when you use it?

traditional non-master volume marshall.

Vintage tones. Awesomely Loud in an good way. A little hotter than i expected. Reminded me more of Humble Pie's "Rockin' the Fillore" than say Cream. I thought it was a great sounding amp before it blew up. But after having two of these blow up on me within hours of purchase i have switched to George Metropoulos and one of his plexi replicas. After hearing both i have to say they are not even close. The Marshall is considerably more noisy, not as harmonically rich, and just plain not as good. The thing is i am not a boutique amp sort of guy in any way. I have never played a show without a Marshall in my backline, and have been a life long Marshall advocate, but i will never buy or use anything from them ever again.

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. I went through three units. Two blew up after playing for under 10 hours. Totally unreliable. Granted i pushed the amp hard and the volume was consistently set to 8 or above, but this was ridiculous. After spending nearly $3000, you would hope to play the amp for a week.

Marshall has zero integrity..

I read some of the bad reviews of this amp on harmony-central and for some reason thought they were crazy or didn't know what a real marshall sounds like. Believe the hype. This amp is garbage. If you are serious about getting a handwired Marshall, go straight to Metro Amps and get the real deal with great support and for less money. Like i said, i will never but Marshall again after this experience.

2005 model. Fantastic. Anyone who thinks this should have reverb or switching doesnt get it.

Alive. With an OD pedal and the guitars volume knob theres no great rock sound you cannot make with this amp. Full and super responsive. The greatest thing about the sound is due to all the things it is not - no crap lile channel switching and push pull pots, reverb ... just a simple and great circuit. Thats why these sounded good then and now.

Some people are complaining about the bright cap. This is hilarious. Marshalls never sounded good turned out. They are tinny weak farters until you crank them. Then its heaven. Dont buy a Marshall to play on 5. Thats a waste of time and money. Get a hotplate, pull two tubes, do what you gotta do to reduce volume but for the love of god do not comment on a Marshall until you run it like its meant to be run.

So far so good. No problems yet. I agree with other that the workmanship is sloppy.

Never dealt with them

I've been at it 23 years. I've owned many expensive amps and guitars. The current JCM800 phase makes me laugh. I used to have 6 of them from playing in the 80's. People somplained about the lowered aulity of them at the time now they are "classic" and sought after.

Plexis are better sounding by far. More dynamics with just the use of the guitar vokume knob. Forget vintage as well. This is made as good as any old Plexi. I've actualy used the old ones. Some of them sound quite mushy. The good ones do not hit the market. THis 1959HW fills the void.

I am re-reviewing my 2005 1959 HW Marshall head.I just recieved it back from the great George Metropoulos at Metro amps.
Each Handwired should come from the factory with A discount coupon for mods at Metro Amps.Or you could buy the case,chassis alone and have George put his board and wiring in!
I believe that I have previously reviwed the hell out of my amp,which I ended up nicknaming 'Damien",cause it acted like it was possesed!
Since it has been made to sound right,as it should have in the begining,it is exactly like a killer '69 Plexi Super Lead,should sound,jist plug and play!
Marshall boasts of Dagnall recreating the C1998 model output transformer,from an early '67 design.
I decided to replace it with Metro's Dagnall clone C1998 "1 1/2 inch model.What a difference this makes!!
Also the offending bright cap on Channel 1 was removed,how mellow,yet throaty the channel sounds now.
This is a list of the mods I had done to the amp:
Reoalce output transformer,filter caps,signal caps,various resistors.
Installed Mullard reissue output tubes,a matched quad,Tung Sol reissue preamp tubes.Rewire and shorten poorly routed and soldered wires.
Bias,burn in and test.
Parts were:
Metro Amp Dagnall clone output transformer
(1) F&T 16 x 16uf can
(2) F&T 32 x 32uf cans
(2) Sozo Vintage .68uf
(2) Sozo Vintage .1uf
(7) Sozo Vintage .022uf
(7) Allen Bradley NOS 1/2 watt CC resistors
(3) Tung Sol Reissue 12AX7 preamp tubes
(4) Mullard Reissue EL34 Matched Quad output tubes
Unbelievably low labor charges,superior quality work,priceless!!!

The amp now sounds like a NOS Marshall Super Lead perfectly preserved from 1969,as if in a time warp,with brand new components and capacitors!As I mentioned straight in,channel 1 is superb and has great harmonics and tones,gone is the dreadful 'ghosting'that haunted 'Damien'.as if in a Stephen King story.
Linking the two channels,is pure musical heaven,it's the best.
Then I turned all the tones,including presence to 10,OH MY GOD!!
Fantastic creamy sustain,rich,deep feedback,that is totally at the control of the player,unlike before,when it squealed like a stuck pig at the slightest provocation.
I am saying this again,see my post on the Metro Amp forum,the best Marshall I have plugged into,in memory.
I can only imagine it with a Hot British,or cool Tube Screamer,or Fuzz Face,for that matter.
You just want to play and play,trying every guitar,so possesion is a good thing,in this case.
It is quiet as a churchmouse now,none of the annoying'floornoise',deemed acceptable by Marshall,when I wrote to them,and for those of you who don't know,this is the second HW I bought,returning the first one.This who episode dragged on and on for months,my big break was finding Metro Amps site,in my internet serch,for why these amps,stock,sound so crappy.
It is the amp I intended to buy in the first place,now,and I absolutely love it.I have listed my guitars,on the previous reviews.
I am using my HW cabinets,with Celestion Heritage 30 watters,which I love.

I would like to say here for any prospective buyer,BEWARE!!!!
It seems like every HW was built on a Friday,right before quitting time,or the Marshall lads were down the pub for lunch,prior to'handcrafting'these amps.
George had to shorten many wires and correct soldering joints,to totally eliminate the hum and noise that plagued the amp'stock'
I have heard other horror stories about these amps,with much more horrendous problems,than I have had.
Can I depend on it now,absolutely 100%,stock it was a nightmare,let's leave it at that.
I cannot believe any type of decent quality control goes on,based on what I have seen.Simply placing little inspected by stickers on the amps,is not enough.This amp is simply too expensive to be built this poorly,or to have so many problems,right out of the box.
I

Yes,I have dealt with Joseph Gilmartin/Technical support,USA,several times,and on the second amp,he sent me replacement preamp tubes,Sovtek 12AX7WA's,but of course,Marshal will not admit there is any fault with their product,or how it is constructed.
Never in my life,did I dream that I would be publicly condenming Marshall,but the whole HW concept has gone the way of mass production corner cutting,imho.
My warranty is now totally voided,who cares,stock,it was useless to me,I have all my original parts,courtesy of George,so theoretically I can return it to stock,anytime,perish the thought.

See my previous two posts,if it were stolen,I would buy George's '68 Plexi clone in a heartbeat.
People need to be aware,there are serious problems with the quality of the workmanship,wiring wise,and do these people listen to them after they build them?
Any self respecting smaller boutique builder would lose his/her business overnight,if the let amps go for this price,or any price for that matter,with the issues presented by the 1959 HW series.
My advice,if you want it to say Marshall on the amp cabinet,buy one on the bay,and don't even plug it in,send it to Metroamp,so you won't be dissapointed,and you may break even with the price of a'new'one!
This has been a very public learning experience for me,I always swore,I would never buy anything new by Marshall,and I was right.
But now it is great sounding and that is all that matters!

August 2005 date of Manufacture. Have heard these amps vary in tone and build quality from a great sounding and cleanly build to a complete dog with plagueing issues? Be wary and check out / tone test your unit before purchase. SOmething I didnt understand before I got ine however mine was "one of the clean builds with great tone!" Amp is the basic Marshall similiarly found on the pre July 1969 Marshall circuit . Used for recording - band reharsal and live giggging. 100-1500 people typical loval show depending on venue. 2 Channel - 4 Inputs - 5 band EQ. Pt To Pt wiriong throughout. Oversized transformers. Two differant type Filter Caps. Dagnell Transformers. 100 watts of LOUDNESS! Has what I need and no Loops, added extras that were populerized ion the 80s-90s i.e FX LOOPS, Master Volume- Preamp mods. Just a great stock Marshall if you find "the one"

In my initial review of the 1959HW I hastily wrote my preview of the amp without extensively playing on the rig for a period of many months which I should have before laying dow na review.
Goping through the units cosmetics, finding out the low down on every little nuance about the amp from the Roederstein MKT1813 Caps it uses to the Oversized Dagnell OT and its particular choice of Iron and so on to its tone shapiong abilities, build quality, etc. FOr this I apologize and feel this is a much more complete and fair shake if you must of the 1959HW.

I use a Tonebone Hot British with the 1959HW and run the channels on the amp bridged from lowe input of the High Treble to High Input of Channel 2 running the Bone into the amp after the linking of the channels. Of course I still think the High Treble .005uF brite cap has to be snipped opr the one leg as to not take it completely out of the amp leaving it held on with one wire.

This amp DOES have the basic bark anf bite that a plexi Marshall is known for. Mine does anyway while some others again in their isolated incidence may not of had the luck I did in this regard. Onward to the comparison of the 1959HW to a friends 1977 Superlead 100. His SUperlead 100 from 1977 has a certain "thunk" or "oomph" that the 1959HW plexi does not have however I feel now that I understand what this amp is trying to do it is not going to be going for this type sound favoring a more bluesy or smooth malleable type gain structure. The 77 is an aggressive and wonderful pcb board Marshall and I waould like to have one ! I take nothing from this particular Marshall 1959HW of mine in this regard as far as the basic ingredients it possesses top achieve its signature tone. It sounds good rather. It can be "tweaked" and "revamped" or morphed shall we say into a Brown Plexi sound of course which Metroamp is doing currently for asome of its forumites who own the 1959HW and wish to have more ofthat musical "oomph" or "thunk" :>) Me being one of them.

I do find myself playing the amp more and more in its stock form but would like to go ahead and have some revamping if you will to shape the amp into something that pleases my ears and soul to achieving a higher level of tone if you will.

SOme will say the 1959HW sounds great stock and I wont argue with you if your one of them. You got a winner . Unfortunately I am finding some of the 1959HW dont live up to the Marshall logo on the their respecitve boxes. Again, THese may be isolated incidence so i am still unsure in the end how many rolled off the line with "unacceptable" workmanship or poor quality control. It happens you say but to a nearly $3000 dolalr amp?? hmmm. Just watch what 1959HW your buying before you do.

In the end I would say if your looking for one the resale market on these amps has taken a bit of a beating and you may be one of the lucky ones who siezes this scoring a 1959HW for $1700 or so!! Just make sure it is clean saudering, the choke, trann. pins, etc are well put together if possible and of course try the amp if at all possible. THere is the stock crnked on 10 way to get a tone from the amp which I have also heard and I thought this type of tone lacked a bit but after some vamping with replacing the caps with "sozo" and the OT as well as some other revampoing of the amp the stock attenuated tone was then much more pliable. Yopu be the judge in the end as I did end up saying in my initial post. I just feel this time round you have been better informed. Maybe not. Take this and add everyone elses opinion because we all know that opinions are only as good as the person writing them. THis is why I have put more effort and thought hop[efully into this review. GOod luck. The Marshall can be a good amp, just watch your step and wallet

I havent had any problems and wont rate this

Again, no rating

Overall, I give the amp an 8, a bit less than the initial review yet still admirable to say the least. I think if you agree here with me you understand ALL THE VARIABLES surrounding this amplifier and you are savy youll make a wise choice.

Marshall set out to give the world an amp that played like the pre july 69 amps of yesteryear.To a degree they gave it to the masses. Of course, Marshall would be very hard pressed to go out and find all the exact same parts the originals had. As well, as current electric and safety standards permit, Marshall actually increased the Trannie size to make the amp a safer unit to play on with less risk of electric shock. There are a n8umber of things you can do with this amp if you are looking for something other than what this amp delivers in its stock presentation. I think this can be said with most any amp however and of course once again it comes down to you the listener and what is getting "good tone" to you.