Marshall 2061X Head

Ok, we all inderstand that this is not a three channel master volume (what no ciggarette lighter) kind of amp. The beauty of it lies in simple layout. VOLUME AND TONE! One channel (bass)is a rather darker sound, while the other (lead) has a brighter more aggresive sound. Chaining the two sides together (blending both channels) tends to thick up the lead side while putting sizzle on the bass side. That being said, this is an amp that puts the tweaking in fingers and the guitar. The amp is extemely responsive to subtle nuances of playing dynamics and cleans up well when the volume is backed off. Now I'm not saying it will sound like a Roland Jazz Chorus, but I could get anything from a smokey blues tone to a nice burnished old school jazz sound. We all know it rocks, but by tweaking the controls of your ax, this kitty will purr also. Therefore, I'm giving it a 7. If it had fender style spring reverb, I'd give it a 10!

I use a 60s reissue les paul with WCR Coils Filmore Pickups (kinda like a vintage PAF meets high output 70s humbucker). I also run a Marshall Bluesbreaker converted and handwired back to original specs by Metropoulos amplification (awesome work, highly recommended)which, I run in stereo with the 2061x via tape fulltone tape echo (sick)or with an ab box. The two compliment eachother very well and oddly enough create the worlds largest tweed delux in terms of sound (whoa)!
The 2061x is pretty quite in terms of humming. The sweet spot seems to be at about the three quarter range in volume and it takes pedals very well. Cranking the tone enhances the sparkle and it tracks well in the studio. Make no mistake, this amp rocks!The cabinet thumps and the midrange is that vintage marshall magic. It does a pretty good Van Halen impression. Dare I say, I like the marshall handwired stuff better than Badcat or Matchless! The amp is incredibly responsive. I am able to feed back in actual chords and run chord progressions in feedback (too cool)! The solid state rectifier feels a little stiff in comparison to the sag of my blues breaker, kinda like manual versus power steering. But other than that, it begs to be bashed with all out hard riffing. 10 BABY!

I've only owned it for 3 months that has yet to be determined it has been punished though at various gigs, jams and auditions. People give me looks because they think I'm playing a half stack and I tell them "naw dude this is junior". I read however, that Marshall biased the tubes hot. It looks like its built like a tank!

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I sent in the warranty and yet to hear a response.
From my experience with vintage marshalls, this amp seems to hit everything right; and if thats the case, who needs a warranty!

I 50/50 on this.

I am trying to be as honest as possible. The amp sounds frackdiculously good. I'm biased, I love vintage marshalls! A way to tell a good one is see how it sounds clean and sure enough,.. it has a great sparkly clean tone that juices and fattens up whem dimmed. Now I'm not one of those cats thats been playing for 35 years, but I'm no slouch and I've had my share of pro high profile gigs.

Yes this amp road worthy(won't have to compete with the sound man).

Yes this amp great in the studio (won't blow any mic capsules).

I imagine this is what Ken from train-wreck amps used as a foundation prototype for his early models. If it were lost or stolen I would have to get another one for sure!

I wanna give it a 10, but I gotta keep it real. IT GETS A STRONG 8!

Versatility is not what this amp was built for, however it does deliver several different sounds. Very nice overdriven tones and cleans are obtainable though not at high volume. If you can plug two different guitars into this amp you can get two very different sounds. I have to give it a 6 though because of the lack of cleans at volume (i knew this going in though and that's not what I bought it for)

set up - les paul or strat into boost pedal into amp.
This amp rocks. Think of Warren Haynes live tone less a little gain. For anything more modern than Zeppelin, you probably want a boost pedal. You can get it into VH territory with a booster. This amp is very thick. The mids just sing. The only reason it doesn't get a 10 is because if you go to far above 7 on the volume, it compresses a lot and gets a little mushy. I prefer to set it at 7 and use a pedal to take me above that gain wise. Awesome tone though. Very woody. It is picky about speakers. Getting the g12h 30's has as much to do with the tone as the amp.

not enough time to find out yet.

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This is a rocking little head. Plug in a strat and you can do the blues, or plug in some humbuckers and do anything from late sixties to early eighties. For any classic rock fans. This is a smokin little amp.

2004 2061X 20W Lead & Bass reissue. Two channels (Lead & Bass) w/ volume & tone on each channel. About as basic as it gets:)

Running either a '61 SG w/ 57 Classics or a Les Paul Std. w/ a 498T in the bridge and a 57 Classic in the neck. With either guitar the 2061X delivers pure classic rock tones (think Zep, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, etc.). Dime the lead channel tone & vol knobs and rock out! Bridging the lead to the bass channel allows a tonal variation that probably works well w/ a Strat on pos 1 or 2 but doesn't really work w/ the SG or Paul (too dark).

Simple amp w/ basic features normally equals good reliability. My only concern is the output tubes. The plate voltage in this amp is 406V and there's no screen resistors so the screens run at about 402V! That's very high for a EL84/6BQ5 which is rated @ 300V. Additonally, the tubes are biased at about 40mA (no signal) each giving a plate dissipation of 16W! That's well over the rated 12W for the EL84 The output tubes are JJ EL84 which in my experience are good tubes but I'm definately leery of the factory bias setup!! Hopefully Marshall knows something I don't about the tubes or bias setup! If not, I'm guessing the output tubes will need changed often. Given this, I'm giving the amp a 7 until I've got more run time on it.

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Service my own gear. Local shop also has good support. Warranty is great @ 5 years.

Playing 20+ years. Own a Marshall 1959SLP & a 1987X (plexi reissues....love the old Marshall non-MV sound). Use a THD Hot Plate as aload w/ the 50/100W heads and often run the line out to a Peavey Classic 50/50 power amp and then to a 1960A/B stack. Great tone from the Marshalls at very usable (and user friendly!) volumes.

I knew what I was looking for & getting w/ the 2061X so I'd certainly look for another if it was stolen.

For me the best way to use this amp is very simple: plug into the lead channel's high input, crank the volume to 10, and set the tone to taste.

It is pure original Marshall tone! I traded in a JTM45 reissue for this...there's just NO comparison between the two--the 2061x sounds lively with thick lower mids and tight but punchy bottom; the JTM45 sounds very bland, and is especially unsatisfying when it comes to overdrive. The 2061x sounds best with the volume all the way up. Overdrive is very "classic rock," not super-gainy like a modern amp. However, it sounds great with a nice OD pedal to punch it up for solos.

I don't know if it's a problem or not, but mine buzzes pretty badly with the channels jumped...It's not the kind of noise that would be an issue on a gig...you probably couldn't hear it over a well populated bar/night club. As mentioned, I like the lead channel cranked, and to be honest, I find the bottom gets a little farty with the channels strapped anyhow...I'm really happy with the lead channel alone. It is exactly what I wanted...the sound of a REAL Marshall! Now I can't wait for the small box 50 and SuperLead!

Pretty simple...I don't expect too much trouble, but it's brand new, so I don't know.

I've been playing long enough to have had a couple of the original hand-wired Marshalls before they were rare and disgustingly expensive. That is the tone I really wanted, but I just wasn't comfortable spending so much money for such an old amp, so I tried JCM900, JCM2000, and vintage reissues...most of these were simply awful. Therefore, I've been hoping that Marshall would realize that boutique amp makers have been making buck off that sound, and would jump into the game. I'd guess that there may be some components in these handwired amps that aren't available, but have read that Marshall went to fairly great lengths to make sure they were as authentic as possible...they certainly do sound PERFECT, so if the transformer is a re-creation or the tubes aren't as nice or whatever, they've done an excellent job of compensating for it. This is a very loud 20 watts...a little louder than I'd hoped, but that's not a huge problem. Any volume issues are certainly offset by the perfect tone...I love it!

This is a brand-new, 2004 model amp, completely handwired and a reissue of Marshall's old (late 60s/early 70s) "Lead & Bass 20" amp. Pre section is 2xECC83, power section is 2xEL-84, and it has solid state rectification. Weight is about 20lbs I'd say.

This is, to put it very plainly, a one-trick pony kind of amp. But it's trick sounds so sweet it'll make you sterile. So it's not the most versatile amp - hence the low versatility rating - but it sounds amazing. You have to get used to working the volume on your guitar to get the most out of the 2061X.

It has two 'channels' - Lead and Bass - which you can use independently or bridged. You could conceivably use an A/B switch to create two different tones, but that's not how this amp sounds best (see below).

The 20 watts are plenty loud - actually, VERY loud, especially through a 1x12, and through a 4x12 it moves a ton of air. It's plenty of power for practicing, recording, and small clubs.

No useless features like effects loops or reverb to muddy the tone or confuse the user.

I use primarily single coil pickups - traditional singles and P-90s, as well as humbucker-sized P-90 pickups and these pickups just CRUSH through this amp. Whether it's a Strat, Les Paul, PRS, or custom guitar, everything sounds great with a little knob-spinning.

I play straight-ahead rock & roll and it's perfectly suited for that style, kind of very Guns & Roses (when they were good) or Aerosmith suited.

The best way to run this amp is by bridging the inputs across the two 'channels' - and here's how you do it. You plug your guitar into the 'high' (top) input of the Lead channel; then use a quality patch cable to connect the 'low' (bottom) input of the Lead channel to the high input of the bass channel.

Now - blend. That's right - blend. Blend the two channels together to get your tone. Want more edge? Crank up the Lead volume. Want more clean? Crank up the Bass volume. Want skull-crushing rock & roll tone? Run them both to 10.

Now - the tone knobs. There's no pansy Treble, Mid, and Bass controls here. No sir - just one 'Tone' knob per channel. You're looking at a 4-knob amp here people. The tone sweep is broad and can cut quite a bit of high end.

It's simple, but it's pure - this is rock & roll tone at its peak.

Only had it a week - no problems so far!

One thing to take into account is that one of the fuses is hard to find in the US - it's a 300mA fuse, and American suppliers generally have only 250mA or 500mA fuses, so grab a friend in the UK and get yourself a handful of 300mA fuses for the future.

I haven't had to deal with Marshall on this amp - and hopefully won't have to - but my interaction with them in the past has been quick, easy, and positive.

I've been playing for almost 20 years now, and have had several different Marshalls, both heads and combos. This one's the first flat-out keeper (for me). If it was stolen, I'd be hunting down the punk what ripped off my head, because even though I'd want to replace it I don't generally have the kind of money it takes to buy something really expensive twice.

I love the tone. Tone for days. Tone for miles. It's just brilliant. So far there isn't anything I don't like. I **love** that it doesn't have reverb, too. I don't use reverb on my amps, don't need it on my amps, and often even remove the reverb tanks from my amps. Now I don't have to. Reverb is for plug-ins and PA boards, not guitar amps!

I compared the 2061X to a myriad of other boutique heads in the same rough wattage range - between 10 and 30 watts - and this one smoked them all on tone. Not on features, for sure, but it's certainly versatile enough for what I want to do with my music. It's easy to get lost in the knobs on the front of your Mesa or Mode Four Marshall, but this is tone - pure, simple, and classic tone.