Marshall 1974X

Marshall went to extreme lengths to meticulously recreate their legendary 18-watt combo from the '60s. 2 EL-84, 12" aged Celstion, two channels, including a Tremelo circuit controlled by footswitch. Simple, pure tone from this entirely hand-wired sparkler. The only thing I will change is the tubes, which are great modern tubes, but I just know this thing will be even better with NOS Mullards. The filters, caps and wiring are all first rate. I give this category a 10, not because of the wealth of features, but rather for the extreme lengths Marshall has gone to use excellent components to recreate an amplifier that may very well be better than the original once the Mullards are installed.

Sparkling and chimey, with fantastic bluesy distortion when the amp is dimed--all at somewhat reasonable volumes. This is a great recording amp that can deliver the Marshall grunt without shattering the windows. The clean tones chime and shimmer while maintaining a clear and well defined low end. When dimed, the distortion is 18-watts of pure joy.

I have a Matchless Tornado, and had a Matchless DC-30 stack, but this is the first EL-84 amp I have played that is fantastic with both single coils and robust humbuckers.

The external cabinet is an excellent option, and I highly recommend it.

Having examined the workmanship in some detail, I can't imagine having a problem. Bits do sometimes fail, however, so we will have to see over the years how she holds up. My impression, however, is this amp is built like a military-spec tank.

Marshall's dealers serve as the go between with the manufacturer. My dealer was fantastic in a number of ways. Gig Sounds in South London. Highly recommended. Ask for Brian.

I have been playing on and off for 36 years. I have a Matchless Tornado (soon to be sold) and a 1965 Fender DR. The guitars played through this amp include a Class 5 Les Paul, an EB MM EVH with stock pickups, and another EVH with trem and Tom Anderson pickups (HSH, tapped), and an EB MM Albert Lee.

I generally don't like Marshalls for my purposes, and never thought I would buy one...certainly not a new one. If I bought a stack, it would be a late '60s or early 70's HiWatt DR-103 or DR-504 rather than a Plexi.

I played a friend's vintage 1974 a few years ago and for the first time was really intrigued by a Marshall. The original can go for over $10,000 now, so getting an old one wasn't a possibility for me. When this reissue was announced and Mitch Colby of Marshall posted detailed information and pictures on PlexiPlace, I was intrigued enough to order one of these beautiful little beasts.

Now that I have it, I am pleased to report that it has exceeded all expectations, and may actually be better than the original. We'll see when the Mullards go in.

PS: These amps are MUCH cheaper in the UK for some reason.

Simple in design. Two channels that can be patched together. Volume and a tone control for each channel and then tremelo controls on the other. I thought that having a simple tone control would make this really limited in tone, but I was wrong! (read on...) I'm giving this a 10 on versatility based on TONE versatility - it can do a lot, but it's going to come from your hands and technique and not with your feet pushing a group of footswitches, etc.

With a Strat, there's some really nice warmth and good clean headroom as well. With a humbucker, it starts to breakup rather early, but has the most amazing smooth crunch tone I've heard in a Marshall since playing an early original. The tone is really nicely balanced and warm. The tremelo sounds amazing as well. When cranking this amp up to about 7, it's really a singing sustaining type tone and is a really nice sweet spot for rock and blues. The custom greenback speaker in here is amazing - it actually sounds like an original greenback as well. All the characteristic mids with lows that aren't overdone and the highs are nicely tapered off so they don't tear your ear off. A beautiful sounding amp.

Looking inside, everything is nicely layed out. The manual also gives me all the information about how they went through the process of replicating the transformers and speaker as well as the construction methods. The team that built this amp were no doubt passionate about it and it shows in all areas.

Never had to deal with support so no thoughts or rating here.

This is a great amp and has become one of my favorites. It feels great and really responds to my playing like an amp should. It's quite amazing how much gain this little 18 watter has when it's turned up. I also checked out the 20 watt 2061X head and cabinet which is a little bit louder and a bit less bluesy, but it was also great. Ultimatly the 1974X worked better for the style of music I like which is rock/blues.

two channels one with tremlo just volume and tone control on each channel.Great for blues classic rock not much clean head room. No channel switching no reverb or efects loop. This is the new hand wired series from marshall. It sounds fantastic for crunch classic rock and blues. I don't think it has enogh volume for most gigs. I wish it has more volume and some more clean head room. But Thants not what this amp is about.

I use a strat/PRS custom 24 and Anderson drop top.I'm classic rock and blues and this amp covers that no problem. It has more crunch and gain then my Plexi it dosen't seem to like pedals (overdrive or distortion) You don't get a volume jump at all. I think because the amp is so saturated on its own. My 50 watt plexi loves pedals and gets a major volume jump (but it's 50 watts).The clean channel distorts almost imeaditly.There';s no clean at volume at all. TYou can roll back your guitar volume and clean it up a little. The feel of this amp is fantastic it makes you want to dig in. I loved this little amp but in the end I had to bring it back . at $2500 I felt it was to limited to justify the price. Don't get me wrong I love the sounds it makes and I miss the amp but just not enough volume or clean head room and it realy only has two sounds crunch and more crunch and not enough volume. I hooked it up to my marshall 2x12 cab and still not much more volume. This amp is fantastic for recordibng and playing at home but for $2500 I wanted more. I still miss it and if the price comes down I'm grabing one. Again not enough volume or clean head room but super fantastic feel and crunch sounds. I think the special speaker in the combo is a big part of it because when hooked up to my 2x12 (marshall 1936 cab with two V30's) It lost some of the midrange bite and smooth break up. I knock it down to a 9 becuase there's no clean sound

It looks built like a tank but no way of telling yet

playing 30 years// own plexi/ fender / and have had a lot of stuff Bogner Soldano/ Mesa/ ETC. I love the look the feel and the crunch tones also the tremlo sounds fantastic. More volume reverb and a lower price would be nice. still this is a hand wired marshall that really hase great tone and feel for what it is but $2500 is tough.