Marshall 2046 Specialist's Combo

Made in 1971, This is the best sounding amp I have ever owned. Bought for #15 in 1980, I only got round to having it serviced and put in working order in 2003. Value wise now it cannot be replaced as far as I am concerned. One channel with volume, tone, reverb, tremelo depth and rate. It sounds warm and smooth, it distorts at higher levels. I used it to record a track recently on which I played bass, electric and 12string electric. I used it for all three instruments and it sounded great. The tremelo is great in the vox tradition but rarely used the reverb terrific. It is reasonably powerful. It overheats the reason marshall stopped producing them but a little thought in resting it or using a fan on the back of it see me through. Repairs and keeping it in good order will be a task but worth it. In terms of features minimal but ideal for me.

I use a range of guitars, but sounds great with a Fender Tele, Shergold Masquerader, Various basses and a Yamaha 12 string electric. Sounds great for clean and slightly overdriven (rolling stones tele sound. It has a fixed level of background hum which does not increase as the volume is turned up. For recording I remove the background hum digitally however a noise gate would serve to do the same. The Hum is not a problem live. The tone control is old fashioned but goes from bass to treble. Overall it sounds just like you dream an amp should sound balanced, clear and warm

reliability remains to be seen, overheating is a problem it uses 2xECC83 1xECL86 and 2xEL34s. The ECL86 is becoming harder to get. Luckily I know a technician now who has already done a good job getting back in order and the schematics are available from some kind guy on the web who has re-furbished one.

No warranty, but a pleasure for a skilled technician to work on.

I have used Vox, peavey, marshall H/H amps this is the best sounding of the lot even compared to my old Vox AC30. If it was stolen I would struggle to find a replacement but I would try. It covers all of the sound spectrum I need and thats everything other than screaming distortion.

Produced 1972-3 only. Has 25W of tube power, one 15" speaker, tone control knob, volume knob, reverb, tremelo. Comes with a foot switch with two buttons [tremelo & reverb]. A minimal control panel.

Guitars- telecaster & Les Paul. I compared this amp side-by-side with a new Marshall Bluesbreaker reissue that I had ordered in and there was no comparison. I then compared it to several Fender tube amps. I was impressed enough that I bought it over the Bluesbreaker. It has a lot of deep volume that the 12" speakers lack.

No opinion.

No opinion.

This amp was tailored to the jazz guitarist, and for this application it does fine. It also has a very good sound when the volume is all the way on. It is different than any other Marshall, so it can't be compared to them. It has it's own distinct sound. It's a definite piece of Marshall history! I put it up for sale on the net for $2400.00 just to see what kind of response I would get and I was suprised at how much interest I got.
I had never seen one before, so it was hard to place a value on it. I had one person tell me they are not worth $500 & others much more. It comes down to if you like it and the price is good compared to an amp that sounds similar you made a good buy. I don't plan to sell it.