Marshall 1962 Bluesbreaker

The 2 seperate channels on this amp offer a plethora of different tones, which when complemented by the dynamic eq, cover every spectrum of the rock/blues genre. Many different sounds can be achieved by either linking the 2 channels via a pactch lead or using the channels seperately and using a channel switching box.

Using the amp raw, gives clear defined notes and barking chords that ring true. The amp works well on its own, but adds character to an overdrive pedal such as the mesa v-twin. Using the channel switching with a mesa in 1 channel with low amp gain and the second channel cranked full gives you in theroy a 4 channel amp full of every gain stage. Amp used to get a little muddy when cranked over 3/4. However a recent full valve change - Electro Harmonix 6L6 power, 12AX7's preamp and a sovtek Mullard equivalent GZ34 gave it a supreme bottom end tightness and high end punch. I use this amp with an 8ohm THD hotplate to have full valve power at any volume. The deep and bright switches on this attenuator give extra clarity to compensate for the lower volume.

When I bough the amp 6 years ago the rectifyer valve was faulty. Marshall posted me one which arrived the next day. Been rockin' ever since. This is the only Marshall I have owned that hasn't broken down.

Any questions I had regarding impedance or valve selection were answered very well by their technical dept. Very helpful. Years ago I wrote to Marshall telling them of my amps breaking down, after trying many amps in the Marshall range. In response, Mr Marshall invited me to his factory, gave me a tour and bought me lunch. Can't really beat that.

Tried every single Marshall amp there is. Can't beat the original design. My only gripe is that Marshall should put better valves in there to start with. I wish it had an effects loop so that chorus, flange, delay etc can be clearly defined.

I have a reissue, made about 1992 or so. Even though it was built fairly recently, it's still a copy of a 1965-era amp. There aren't many features, other than the somewhat cheesy tremelo.

I only use my 1985 3-pickup Les Paul Custom (a Custom Shop axe) with this amp. Turning up the volume and using a humbucker-equipped Les Paul is the only way to go here. I've tried my Strat and Tele through this amp, and they sound like shit.

With my Les Paul, volume cranked, and my .11-.52 strings, I pretty much have the Clapton "Beano" tone nailed.

Never had a problem, but since it's not my only amp, I always have spares (Peavey Deuce, Roland JC-120) ready.

Never had to deal with Marshall customer support.

I've been playing for 21 years. Besides the aforementioned Marshall BB and Les Paul, I own a 1978 Fender Stratocaster, a 1962-reissue Telecaster, a 1970's-era Gibson SG Custom, a Custom Shop Rickenbacker 325 "Lennon" w/a full scale neck, an Ibanez Roadstar II, and an Epiphone Emperor jazz box. I'm currently negotiating the purchase of a Gibson L5-S (my Holy Grail).

IMO, this amp is a one-trick pony. If you crank the volume and use a Les Paul, you'll get a fantastic, fat, blues tone. If you turn down the volume or use a single-coil guitar, it becomes just another amplifier.

If it was lost or stolen, I'd buy another one in a second.

Bought it used second owner,owner said he purchased around 95 or so,simple controls,as prevoius reviews,2-12 greenbacks 5881,s Also has a nice tremolo.

I use ES-335 gibson.56 Custom shop,63SG,Hamer arch Top,G&L bluesBoy and other strats and teles.So humbuckers,single coils,and amp is farly quiet.The tone on this amp is what is all about,just great blues or Rock tones that is great with anyone of my guitars.If you look to get the early Clapton with cream tone humbuckers will get it,Ive heard guys say whats the big deal with early clapton tone,they have their heads up their Butts,then they go on to dig AC/DC guitar tones,so cant trust them,If SRV tones just grab strat and put a nice overdrive in primery and thats good,Clean country can also be had on this monster amp,just play with controls,I also chain the channels.

Had it for about two months very reliable.But its actually retained the original tubes that came with this amp,so I dint see where it had been serviced and its 7yrs old,so soon I will be doing tube replacement,the sound is very good so I dint see any need yet!

no deals with the outfit,checked there web site and some info.

Been playing for 30yrs+,I have 57 tweed bassman,67SR,topHat KingRoyle,Blues JR,I like everything about the JTM,I have been using it pretty steady since I recieved it,As stated above I will be changing Valves in near Future,so I can Only assume that it will even sound better.

Bought the amp new on 1995. An all valve amp. The amp consists 2 channels with individual volume. Channel 1 is Bright and chnnel 2 is mellower with added vibrato. Shared EQ for both channels with the exeption of speed & intensity for channel 2. The amp has a pair of Celestion G12M 'Greenback' speakers rated at 25W each. The amp was modifed recently, so more about the features later.
This amp comes from the 'utility school of thoughts' as it doesn't have effect loop, built in distortion, reverb etc.

The amp was modifed recently. so the review will be splitted in 2. My main guitar is Rickenbacker 330. I mainly use the amp clean. The amp have a great bright tone almoust like a Fender until you push it to overdrive at around '4'. Than the amp looses control. It sometimes sounds a little bit muddy. To avoid it, I replaces the stock Celestion G12M speakers with a pair of Celestion G12H 70th Anniversary speakers, rated at 30W each. The stock Sovtek 5881 valves were changed to JJ/Tesla 6L6GC as well as all the preamp valves and rectifire (JJ/Tesla ECC83S for the former and Sovtek GZ34 for the later). The sound was greatly improved. It sounds much tighter with pronounced mids and smoother treble. It really nails that 60's sound we all love. Think about The Who on "The Kids Are Alright" or The Small Faces on "All Or Nothing".
For the original sound, I give it '9'. After the modifications, I give it '10'.

I own the amp for more than 7 years. I had to service it once when 1 of the valves was blown and I needed to change a transformer. Other than that, I never had to service it again.

I never dealt with Marshall.
I only had 1 year warranty and the amp blown a couple of monthes later (bummer!!).
I had to service the amp at the shop were I bought it. They weren't very helpful & in fact it really sucked big time.

I've been playing 10 years. I own some vintage reissue effects that I use like: EHX Stereo Memory Man, Colorsound Pro. Mk II Tonebender, Marshall Bluesbreaker Overdrive Pedal (UK made 1st version) etc. etc. I like my amp plain and simple and this amp fills the bill.
I compared the amp to Crate Vintage Club, Peavey Classic 50 and Vox AC30. I didn't wanted the Marshall at first but after seeing it, hearing it at the store and compairing it to the Vox, I bought it in no time.
This is not a high gain or metal amp. It doesn't have a built in distortion. Just crank up the volume and leave it there.
You may never want to turn it off (especialy after the modifications).

note that i'm talkink about a 1993 reissue model.
blah blah 2 chans with a separate volume, shared eq, and a tube tremolo for the 2nd chan.
2 Celestion Greenback reissue speaker.
killer look ...

i only give it a 5 because it's a very simple amp compared to a 3 chan Boogie (for example) ...

Wooooo pure tone heaven !! I've played many tube amps but this one is the best !!
Pure rocknroll/blues tone. Very complex tone, you can hear evey note you play. This is very clean and bassy if you dont set the volume higher than 4. At 5 it starts to distort in a beautifull warm overdrive ... very vintage. Lot of headroom ...
I use it with a std. Telecaster and a Fulltone FD2 and everytime i play it's a new dream.

Mine is 9 years old and is still like in good condition.

Best amp i've ever had.
It produces the sound i was looking for.
If it were stolen i think i'll try to find an other one ... or buy a SLP Head.
Can't say enough good things about it ...

Well, i gues the features are known by now.Marshall BluesBreaker RI amp,with volume and tone controls with a tremelo as a bonus.
For my kind of style it fits the bill perfectly, mainly blues/rock .
Its an amp i,m enyoing very much but i wish it had an effects send/return.

Aahh....the sound,
Well i sold my Marshall TSL100 with 4x12 to get me an amp like this and although i had some regrets in the beginning ,finally i,m beginning to discover the sounds that are hidden in this thing.
I changed all the tubes with ENGL tubes (these were the ones y could get),y dont know excactly what kind they are , y believe sovteks, but they sound so very good.First the overdrive sound you get when the amp is pushed (after setting 5)was a bit muddy, no open sound . After changing the cheap small 6l6 power tubes with the ENGL big 6l6 tubes the sound was completly different,fat open drive sounds.Then i changed all the preamp tubes and the rectifier tube with ENGL 12ax7 and a Ruby GZ34 , man this made antother change in sound for the better.
Y play mostley with my fender strat with ssl5 SD pickups and use a TS9 or a Marshall BB2 pedal in front of the amp to get my tone.It sounds so sweet with both pedals although the BB2 has a bit more bottom .When the amp is cranked to the max you get a sound so fat, round and warm it will make you weep.
When y use my EPI Sheraton with Dimarzio PAF Classics i,m ready to go talk with my shrink ;-), i read before that some say that the Bluesbreaker combo gives the best sounds with humbuckers, well i must say that it sure sounds better with humbuckers. Incredible fat sounds you wouldn,t believe.
It gives me that warm old drive sounds from the 60,s and 70,s .
Y sold my TSL100 stack for this one and i,m glad i did that, although the TSL is a great amp i found it to sterile sounding for my style.
Y was looking for that older sound and wanted an old amp in 2x12"format, now i got it.You wont get heavy metal sounds out of this one although you could use a distortion pedal in front of it.My experience is that the amp sounds best with overdrive or a boost pedal.Y tried my Boss GT6 with the amp aand also different distortion pedals,it was like raping the amp iow NO GO!! Keep it simple, just a overdrive or boost pedal , let the amp do the ovedrive and then help it along a bit with a pedal. The Marshall Bluesbreaker2 pedal has an option to switch it in boost mode, this way it wont colour youre sound but just boost the signal, when you cranck the amp to 10 and hit the boostpedal,.....be aware!!Njamm Njamm.

No complaints, y bought the amp second hand and changed the tubes just because y wanted to beter the sound.

Not needed .

Overall: Great amp , wont leave my house , will not sell it ,love it, great tone,lovely vintage tone!!! (tried to avoid to use the word vintage).Wont sell it because of certain reasons the amp is no longer availble here in Europe, has something to do with saffety rules y dont know.
Y have this amp for an year now and still discovering the sounds that are hidden in it and although i like to play search and destroy music sometimes and although taht is not possible with this amp , i dont want another modern amp with gain controlls etc.
What y do want is to get some other basic amps like VOX AC30 , Fender Twin reverb . Just youre basic amp that clips the guitar signal when the volume is turned up and a overdrive pedal to boost things a little.
Just beautifull blues/rock sounds not chainsaw sounds( thats what i call the modern Mesa sounds with gain on 20 ).

For me : perfect amp, i,m a happy puppy now.

2 volumes and shared treb, mid, bass, presence. This is all you need because the tone is so amazing and complex. These simple controls provide infinite possibilities. There is tremolo which I will never use.

I've never played an amp I've liked more than this. The clean sound is amazingly deep and complex. It's almost like there is a chorus on, really. Turning up the volume gives you a chunky, thick, punchy and equally complex overdrive. An endless tonal palette controlled with picking dynamics and/or guitar volume. It is amazing.

Bring extra tubes and fuses. Internaly the amp is solid. The exterior is kind of crappy, just like the original. Who cares. That said, the amp has as much visual presence as it does tonal. It's a huge 2-12" combo.

Excellent. Out of the box one of the tubes was kind of noisy. I called the factory and they sent me a whole new set plus a schematic.

Best sounding amp I've ever had and a great value. Boutique sound at a Kmart price.

This is a 1990 reissue. It has four inputs, a normal and a bright channel, with low and high input jacks. It has a tremolo that only works on the normal channel. There is no master volume, reverb or effects loops. This is basically a vintage amp with lots of tone. It has a great blues and classic rock tone. Yet, with the right distortion pedal it can crank out some pretty good modern rock sounds. Even though it is only rated at 45 watts, this amp is loud and can be heard loud and proud in a small club with a loud drummer and bassist. Its tremolo is not the greatest, but still decent enough to be used. I have it set up with a pair of NOS phillips 6L6WGB, 4 sovtek 12AX7WA and a NOS phillips GZ34.

I am currently using a stock Fender Telecaster with single coils. I play modern rock music and also some jazz, blues, pop, etc. To get the modern rock sound I have to use a distortion pedal. For the other styles that I have mentioned, I use it straight with a Fender reissue reverb unit, and it sounds great. The amp sounds pretty clean up to about 8 on the volume, this I think can be attributed to the Philips 6L6WGB, which give a sound similar to the old TungSols 5881's. There is a Fenderish sound to this amp, but fully cranked up it sounds like Peter Green, early Clapton and Led Zeppelin. This amp has a strong bass response, therefore I set it the following way: Bass on 2, middle on 5, treble on 10 and presence on 5. With the distortion box it sounds like the latest modern rock bands, Rage Against the Machine comes to mind.

The amp is well built, but heavy. The workmanship is solid. I have used it for club gigs and it worked just fine. The only problem that I had with it, has been with its cheap alpha potentiometers.

I bought this amp in 1994 and took it once to repair a potentiometer. The daler put the wrong value potentiometer, which made the amp sound bad. The warranty was only for three months. By the time I found out what was making the amp sound bad the warranty had expired. Ever since then I have learned to repair it myself. Aspen Pittman's book is a good source for those who want to understand tube amps.

I have been playing for 13 years. I also own a Silverface Fender Princeton Reverb amp. It sounds great, but it lacks the power and fatness that the Marshall has. The Fender is sweet and sounds great for blues, rock, and surf music. The Marshall is nastier and fatter when played loud and it is not as sweet as the Fender when played low. With a reverb unit the Marshall captures a bit of the Fender's low volume sweetness. I treasure this amp, because it has the tone that have always wanted, good old British Rock sound. If it were to be stolen I would buy another one. I love this amp, what else can I say, it was always my dream amp. The tone is awesome, the only thing bad about it is that one is limited to a blues and classic rock sound. If one wants to get a more modern sound, a distortion box, such as the Metal Zone pedal is recomended. For those who love pure sounds a reverb unit in front of it would do just fine.

this amp has four sounds: clean and bright, dirty and bright, clean and full, and dirty and full. that's about it, and you shouldn't need more than that if you can play. i had the tremelo disconnected because i believe the more knobs an amp has.......either the worse it sounds or the worse the user can make it sound. use this amp as a basic platform and just buy some pedals.

DISCLAIMER!!!! all work inside of tube amps should be performed by a qualified tech who is familier with the bad things that can happen to your heart when you touch 450volts!!! it's a nine now.....but it started as a seven, i massaged the circuit values to sound closer to a real 65 bluesbreaker, just very small things, less than $300.00 worth of parts, in order of importance (imo) 1: i installed valve art kt66's as powertubes, 2:i also changed the filter sections to 32x32uf in the power amp and 16x16uf in the preamp, 3: i removed the the treble channel volume control bypass cap, 4: you should change the impedance selecter from 8 to 16 on this amp, please do not due this to every amp and you could permenantly harm other amp,s but due to design specs you aren't familiar with, you MAY do that to THIS AMP ONLY, it will cause the sound to open up. i own a used guitar shop so i have played every guitar thru this amp and it is just a fantastic amp, it has a buttery distortion and is very touch sensitive. if you need a million sounds buy a pod6 or dod pedals to stick in front of it the when you change bands or whatever style you play goes out of style then throw them away and you still have a great amp. a great sounding amp for the money you'd pay used. if you can't or won't buy matchless/tophat/drZ/nedsel/or sampson then i think this is a great basic rock amp to own, it's cleaner than it should be out of the box, but that's good for alot of sounds. if you like bluesrock then stick kt66s in it and have it biased and you've got the basic component of every rock song ever recorded.

compared to the new crate and new fender junk that i must fix on a daily basis this amp is a tank, it is not as solid as a pre84 marshall, it is not as tough as a drZ or TOPHAT, but is alot tougher than anything else that you'd buy at the music store. i only worry about the cheap alpha pots they use, but then again everyone BUT boutique builders like tophat/drz use them.

i emailed them and asked them if the transformer mismatch thing is still an issue or if it has been resolved. no answer to date(2 weeks)
i once bought a brand new jcm 900 2channel 2x12 combo that i played three times in my bedroom during the speaker warranty period (90days) before i left for tour, 180days. the amp stopped working soon after i got back so i was forced to take it in. the local dealer would not servoce it since i had bought the amp in california, he explained that since he hadn't sold it he wouldn't look at it. i explained that he was the local warranty station and he was supposed to help me, to which he replied that he wouldn't because i'd bought it somewhere else. i proceeded to point out that he did not have any marshall amps in stock when i was looking for this amp (they never had any marshalls in stock) so i had purchased it from the first dealer that had one in stock that i could play before purchasing. basically he told me to get screwed! the factory was of no help at all. finally an engineer freind found a defective solder joint between the preamp board and power amp board(factory defect) and it was up and running for a week, then it lost half volume. this time a speaker had gone bad, the same local warranty station here in louisiana 70815 told me a little more bluntly to go get f***ed, so at my wits end i had them watch as i cut the speaker open,, WOW! the speaker voice coil was only glued 1/3rd of the diameter ( it was loose and scrubbing around till it fried itself)of the cone, i said, "is this, in your opinion, a gross defect in workmanship?" they said "yes". now i asked if they would just simply verify this on the phone to marshall which they agreed to do. so marshall asked to see it and if that was true then they'd take care of it, except they lost the speaker at the factory. but they took care of it and sent me a replacement speaker! except that the defective speaker ate my crappy jcm900 output trans which I had to pay 80.00 wholesale forand replace myself..... but they were nice and most companies wouldn't have listened past the 90 day point.

i've been playing 17 years, i have had or played every amp on the planet,no really, i've played tweed/black/silver fenders, hiwatt,sound city, plexi/metal/jtm/jmp/jcm800/900/2000 marshalls, magnatone,supro,vox,watkins,selmer,matchless,dr z,tophat,jamison,musicman,standel,soldano,sampson, and even dumble. i have a used guitar store and we see everything! the worst amp we've ever had was a fender hotrod deluxe which could not be fixed due to design flaws, the second worse that i had was a marshall jcm900 two channel two 12combo which had two cold solder joints from the factory, ate a defective speaker, then ate the output trans...and it was never even taken to a gig!!! it was a terrible amp! but i can recommend this marshall bluesbreaker reissue, marshall makes alot of amps, some good , and some bad, this one's good.

45 watts, 2channels,bassically this is a JTM 45 in a 2X12 combo cabinet, supplied with 2 12 inch Celestion Greenback Reissuespeakers. Usual array of standard tone/volume controls, bass,mid,treble,presence.

I play blues,jazz,rock,roots music via a '68 Gibson SG Standard, '67 ES 335,'69 ES 355, '95 Les Paul Standard, '68 Telecaster, '66 Strat.
All guitars are stock, unmodified.I love the way the Gibsons "mate" to this amp. The humbuckers seem to be made for this amp.Great, thick, warm clean sounds.Almost Fenderish, say a Blackfaced Pro or Twin, but thicker and heavier sound. Very powerful, I can't beleive its only 45 watts. Much quieter than I expected from a Marshall.I run a Dan-echo(excellent) and an old Fender reverb unit(excellent plus), and playing Stormy Monday , Hot 'Lanta or Elizabeth Reed, people just go nuts. I cascade the 2 channels and blend the volumes to obtain the right levels depending upon whether I'm in studio or playing live. By raising the volume, especially on the SG & Les Paul, or using the Tele or Strat I can get to a Billy F. Gibbons situation, which I also love. The tone is solid,warm, rich, creamy. I'd love to try some real Greenbacks or Vintage 30's or even the Celestion made for Vox Blue Bulldogs in this amp. Depending on the venue I could see driving a half stack speaker cabinet with this amp.For slide playing I switch to a different open tuned '71 3bolt Strat or minihumbuckered '72 Les Paul Deluxe.Great clean slide tones that are thick,but I have not attained a more distorted slide sound that I'm happy about...yet

The amp is heavy, and cumbersome to move,once out of a road case.I'm a bit concerned about the grille being torn by the speaker's 4 baffle mounts.As with any amp,when playing out,spare tubes are always on hand.I'd certainly recommend a road case for any studio or touring player.

Mitch Colby @MArshall USA is the best.The rest of the company in the US,especially on the phone should learn about his excellent attitude and PR with people.

I have been playing for over 30 years.I own an array of acoustic, electric, dobro guitars and tweed Deluxe, Blackfaced Princeton Reverb, Deluxe Reverb, Mesa-Boogie Studio 22,VOX AC-15TBX,SF Princeton Reverb,Brownface Princetion Amp, and a great Super Reverb.
I love this amps warmth, power , clean and sustain tones.It really fits with my bluesier side and works well live, in studio or at home.This and the SUper Reverb could be the ultimate club amps.I bought this amp for its sonic quality although I did also consider a half stack Marshall 1987x reisssue, which also sounded awesome,but not as smooth or warm as this combo.I think the tubes should move to KT 66's, NOS even though they are expensive..for tone its worth it.