Marshall 2144

I won't repeat what has been said: it's a great amp. Great cleans & great dirty sounds. On its own, the amp doesn't get a level of hyper distortion, but can get close to it. A simple clean boost pedal can drive the amp to any level of a gain. Someone said the amp has a personality all its own; tons of bass for a combo (on par with a stack). The Marshall 2144 is a rare amp also as production was limited. If you can get one, do it.

The amp was made in 1980, a production line of only 17 months I think. I have the rather more common valve 50w head version as well, so when I saw the same head in combo format I knew what to expect. I originally went trying out Les Pauls and ended up buying this instead as after 2 hours I was very impressed by the balls this 'little brother' has. It has a low and high channel and a 6db boost that you can turn on and off with a footswitch. 2 Celestion Greenbacks (standard?), presence b/m/t, master volume, pre-amp volume, and reverb which I had never seen on a pre-JCM Master Volume amp. The amp is used with the Boost always on, as it lacks something when it is backed off. I dont use the reverb very much which is just a personal choice.

USE IT WITH HUMBUCKERS!! It sounds extremely rich. Single coils always tend to sound very harsh and slicing with my MV head. A high gain humbucker pickup will do this amp the world of good, giving you a superb rock sound and loads of drive at lower volumes. I had an Epi Les Paul with Gibbo LPStandard pickups in it but it wasnt enough really. Now I have a Tokai Love Rock with Gotoh pickups and it sounds very special indeed. I would seriously recommend using this amp with a power attenuator as the tones you can get from a 50w MV make it extremely verstile. You can then back off the preamp to about 4, turn up the MVolume to about 7 and get a unveil the true sound of your guitar. It feels and sounds totally different, making the amp very responsive to your pick.

It weighs a ton, looks very deceptive as a combo! Never goes wrong, but its a simple curcuit to fix.

It is really something else. I have had a non master volume head and I didnt get on with it. It was too loud, the only way I could get any use from it was to squeeze the tone out of it with a HotPlate and even then it sounded questionable. I swapped it because I was sick of looking at an unusable Mullard filled 'museum piece'. This is just the ticket.

I bought this amp in 1980, the year it was made, for the equivalent of about 1000 US dollars. It seemed like a common amp back then since I knew 3 other people having the same model. I immediately fell in love with its sound and features. Being an electrical engineer and a musician I was very impressed by the simplicity of the tube circuit and the quality of the used components. This amp has a boost/high gain channel that is excellent for playing at home, or small clubs, while the low gain channel provides a myriad of high volume tones for larger settings. One of the features of this amp is the equalizer setup. the high/middle/bass controls do not just add or take away some frequencies, they actually control the amount of amplification for their respective bands, so with high/middle/low at zero, the amp is silent! The built-in hammond string reverb adds typical hammond reverb to the tone, and can be switched via a foot pedal. The combo cabinet sports two 12" Celestion speakers to deliver 50 Watts RMS. Most 150 Watt rated amps sound bleak when I open up the 2144 in practice or small stage settings. The high gain channel creates a virtual wall of sound at low volumes when used with a microphone for PA or recording purposes.

My primary guitars are an original Gibson ES, a Gibson Explorer with a Seymour Duncan bridge pick-up (the original humbucker died) and a Jackson/Charvel III equipped with a Sonic Ranger. These instruments support all playing styles from warm clean jazz/blues to death metal grunge to screaming whammy stuff. The distortion of the 2144 is rather mild, even on high volumes with the low gain channel. I use a Peavy Rockmaster all-tube-pre-amp to provide extra crunch and switchable clean sounds.

This amp never broke down on stage. The original power tubes once lost an anode because it was transported while the tubes were still hot, forcing me to replace the EL34 type tubes with KT77 tubes -- this was a mistake. shortly thereafter I found a house that actually pairs their tubes (as they should) and have replaced the end-stage tubes twice now with paired EL34's. The Pre-amp and reverb tubes have never been replaced. I do carry an other similar Marshall tube combo for backup, but have never had to use it. My other Peavy, Roland and Fender amps have broken down several times in critical situations costing me a lot of time and money.

Being an unbeliever in warranties I have never called on Marshall or the music shop I bought it from to service the 2144. However, back in '84 I requested the circuit diagram for the 2144 because I was considering some modifications (which were never made) much to my surprise the Marshall tech division sent me the complete circuit diagrams for their entire tube-amp line, free of charge!

I have played on and off since '79 on a wide variety of gear. I got infatuated with digital effects processors and still frequently use relics like a Korg HD2000 and a Yamaha SPX90. The 2144 is my most valued amp and I would hate to lose it. Realistically speaking, there's a lot of great stuff available since the digital age kicked in. I might consider a Burmann or Mesa Boogie amp for a replacement -- but it would not be as good as the 2144. Anyone out there want to sell me their 2144 (in any condition)? drop me a note.

I bought it 4 months ago, and it is twenty years old, made in 1980, with the original tubes. It has two channels (inputs), clean (as possible on Marshall), and a boost. This is the first with a switch for boosting +4 db. And... it has reverb. It's in fact an updating of the 2104 50 watt amp. It's the latest amp they made before the JCM 800, it sounds almost as an JCM 800. Very stupid to see is that it is only 20 cm. deep and have bass like a stack.

The sound is complete, I play an 52 re. Tele and strat st. with semour Duncan hot rail. The Tele sound with this 2144 at his best. It's a real motherf*cker, very mean but with a deep tone. For an Marshall the sound is very clear, almost an Twin reverb. Like I said it's an updated 2104, an pre JCM 800 but it has it own personality. The distortion is better to define than any other I heard, and heard and play alot.

I use this one with gigs, but I have have also an 1987 and 1960BX belly as backup. It have new valves (Groove Tubes), and new knobs, so the comming twenty years it can do it's job.

I'm playing now for 13 years, have also another amps, but this is the one! Try to get a seccond one. I was looking for this one for 10 years, it was worth waiting!!!