Marshall 6100 30th annniversary

1992 blue tolex production model-el 34's
i play rock , blues, jazz, and use Les Pauls and strats
this is 3+ channel amp;1 clean (ala JTM 45), 2 (jtm mode 1, plexi mode a, jcm 800 mode a+b); 3 over driven hot rod JCM 800
has channel switching, midi coupling connection, effects loop and series parallel blend control, mid shift channle 1 (goes marshall clean or fender clean-kinda), gain boost on channle 3100-50-25 watt pentode triode power options; separate eq for each channel, NO VERB
11 tubes, has switchs for taming LP boom (bass cut) or strat squeal(top cut)

I cant say Im a Marsahll expert - i have played several and know the classic sounds from recordings, so my opinion is limited-but what I do know is the longer i own and use this amp the more i love it-the only description i can use is that it is alive and musical-meaning it has nice harmonic overtones and resonance-sounds organic and not like a processor ( i have several amps including older fenders )
I am running the head with the stock anniv slant cab in blue tolex with celestion G 12 75's -use primarily Les Paul and strats - both shine
simply put this is an amp that is MUSCIAL-meaning nice harmonics-you get to hear what the guitar sounds like as well as your playing-there isnt a channel i dont love-however channel 1 is dry and a bit 'british' obviously-it actuall works great for jazz and country and a processor will really enhance the low volume use of the channel-but the channel sounds great at top volume-think bluesbreaker restrained crunch

channel two has it all-old guy or youg guy levels of Marshall gain-a beautiful channel with as much or as littel gain and attack sensitivity as you like-youll recognize sounds youve heard on classic rock albums-just dead on

at full gain there is a modest amount of hiss-the amp will do classic rock to almost death metal-but still musical (it will not produce mesa triple you -know -what buzz saw metal)

Every channel is a great-if you want fender sparkle in the clean channel 1, it aint happening here-but a good processor/eq can make it very nice.

This amp has mid shifts, great tones controls and contour options which can allow you to find just the right sound-i have kept to 75s because altho not 'classic' rock-they are tight, dont blow, and give great bass -very focused

the amp is up to any size venue -it is loud with half a stack-and is not too bad in 25 watt mode (which is triode-a bit dirtier than pentode-not as nice harmonics -gets more brown and less definition-

4x12 is a royal pain to move but it sounds really great at mid plus volume to get that natural cab resonance-which IMHO removes the need for reverb -next best thing is closed back 2x12 IMHO-and yes you could use it in lowest power mode in a small club-the preamp section sounds pretty good even without power tube distortion-this amp never sounds fizzy or processed

I am pleased with this amp-the el 34's give it an entirely different sound than those with 5881 and the mod IMHO would be worth the trouble

great so far and it is used dimed lots-my pots are scratchy-but that is easily remedied-oddly, compared to all my other amps this is the only one with such pot problems

I have yet to play another large amp that I think is so versatile and musical-the reverb issue is easily addressed with an outboard unit-I would replace it in a heartbeat-if I could

I heard Johhny A while he was in Denver-using the 6100 combo turned into a head-and lots of peddles/delays etc., mind you-the best proof of what I say-absolutley the most versatile amp-from rockabilly to jazz to hendrix to chet-to blues-

Made in late 1993, Black with 5881 power valves. More features than you need and mentioned in previous reviews, No reverb but I don't think that Marshall ever made one that was any good.
May-be I can help clarify facts for some of the comments in previous reviews as to which model 6100 is which:
The model 6100 was made from 1992 to 1998 only.
6100-LE = Limted Edition - made in 1992 only, (blue Tolex only, brass name logo etc (only 800 made).
Marshall swicthed from EL34 tubes to Sovtek 5811's late 1993 when Phillis? EL34's dried up. Although the Svetlana El34 became avilable, Marshall stuck to the 5881.
Became 600-LM late 1994 when lead channel WAS modified (LM =Lead Master)until production ceased.

Vast array of sounds, (which is what is was designed for),if anything too much to choose when playing live. I use an effects pedal (Zoom GFX8) just to switch channels and add reverb chorus etc on the clean channel.
My PRS custom, Gibson Les Paul and Fender Strat and vintage Fender Mustang all sound great, Any sound is vertually posssible but you must tweak a lot (and try to remember the settings)
Shitloads of gain,and more... if that's your bag. Clean channel as good as Marshall has produced. Cannel 3 for lead only just too much gain for any chordwork..particuarly with the hum-buckers,but what tone!!!, the channel 2 crunch is dynamic with heaps of headroom, immatates other marshall models supprisingly well.

Should always keep spare valves as a back up, no matter what type of amp, however switching to 50 wattt mode will get you through a gig should a power valve fail. (has not happened yet) The gain pot on the Lead channel (3) is getting quite crackly,like everything else service is the solution.
All the buttons and switches always mean more can go wrong in reality.

No repairs required yet

Been trying to play about 20 years. Love the Marshall tone, it sings. Only amp Iv'e got these days previously had Fender (blackface) twin reverb 100W, and Vox AC40 but sold them many yaers ago(wish I still had them both!).

this amp is sweet! made in 1997 it has enough to keep me satisfied in my pustuite of many musical styles. with 3 channels( clean , crunch and lead) It has an effects loop witch keeps the sound in check, wether you are using a processor, individual pedals, wah pedals, volume controls( all of wicth i use) it sounds complete with "effects dial"! presence& a and b switches on each channel i use to enhace my sound. Only thing missing i s a reverb coil built in on the amp. for 1000 person less crowd this amp is plenty loud enough!

Sound is complete! avoid single coil pick ups with this amp!! it just magnifies the crappyness of your guitar(as does with any amp). i use dimarzio pickups in a ibanez and seymour duncan( humbuckers) in a fender and the sound is complete and fullfilling in a nonbuzzing way!! there is no distorting when the guitar is plugged straight in! when using effects some problems may arise,but output controls may solve problem. Distortion is sweet just like any marshall. no problem finding the sound i wanted with this amp

As reliable as yo mother!! Consider changing tubes soon after purchase(will make adifference)(groove tubes, mesa, good choice) it has never broken down on me in 5 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! damn that is a good streak!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

never had to deal with marshall.... so uhhhhhhhh, dont buy a shitty amp!!!!!!!!! this is not one!!!!!!!!!!!!people will move it when steppin thru!

well if you want the heavy sound of hughes and kettner or mesa boogie or perhapshaps the clean of fender or vox this just might be the happy medium of all four, with out buying all four!!!! not much too hate but no natural reverb but hey if that is the only thing missing, life cant be perfect! it has 3 channels plenty of features to help in any effects driven setup,natural phat sound and i have had no probs in 5 years of owning it!!! size is usaual, the only way it can be beat is with rack mounted amps. hey bro any other ques?? e me, at redguynvan@hotmail.com

Built in 1992, and i just bourght it, second hand, a month ogo.

I play a little bit of country, a lot of Rock and Roll, and no insane Metal trash at all.
Main musicstyles: Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Free, Queen, Santana, Procul Harrum, Booker T, Eagles, and our own music.

The amp are played live thru a powerful PA system.
Together with the other musicians backing amplifiers and the stage monitors they are all used as the stage sound.
Each backing amp has a line out to the Main PA, for amplification addresed only to the audience.
We are rehearsing and recording at our Studio, with the same backing setup and stage monitors, but without the Main PA system.

The Amp has all the features jou will ever need, 3 chanel preamp, midi swiching, effect loop vith effect blend for each of the 3 chanels, Line out, 100W all tubes, 1/2 power switch and pentode/triode power switch.
Thank good for the 1/2 power switch, 100w is simply to loud to create the right rock tones in rehersal and studio enviroments, and the pentode/triode Switch dosn`t make much difrence to my ears, therfore i allways run the amp on 1/2 power and Pentode mode (50w).

I use a Gibson Les Paul 1957 Gold top Delux with original Picups, with a homemade preamp, built in. The Guitar preamp is used only to raise the signal not to distort it, therfore i allways sets the guitar preamp at almost full volume,(flat out creates a lot of noise) and a minimum of input to keep the guitar preamp transistors away from distortion.
The Amp has standart 5881 power tubes. They sound great for clean setting (sparkling clean Fender), Crunch Rythm sounds exelent lot of punch (real Britt Roar) just like my Xox AC30TB.
But they are impossible to cranke to that singing Marshall lead Sound, with a lot of sustain.
The 5881 power tubes dosn`t give enough output distortion even set at 1/2 power and Triode mode (25w)
a part of the problem is due to the speakers i use, wich is Celestion GT75w.

No problems so far.

My only cotact With Marshall UK. is to download a users manual from there Manual page.

I have ben playing Guitar for allmost 30 years, allways on the Vox AC30TB, for the first two years on a Fender telecaster copy, the rest of the time on the Les Paul.
I have tyed amps like Fender 60W Combo, Hiwatt 100W head, Carlsbro 100w head, but in spite of a long lasting wish, i hawe never before, played on a Marshall 100w head, until i bourght tis on.
I like the posibilaty of letting a Multieffektboard, midiswitch
betwene the 3 chanels, set up for clean, crunch, and lead, sound and volume, therby creating the distortion in the amplifier, and simultaniusly coloring the sound with Revebe, ekko, corus, flanger, pitch bend, octave, or wah, in loop before the poweramp.
The lak of powertube saturation and sustain, i exspect to overcom, by at first, changing the powertubes from 5881 to EL 34, second by changing the speakers to celestion Greenback 25 or vitage 30.
By then, "i hope" i wil be able to submit a new rewiev for this (Fender, Vox, Marshall) all in on Amplifier, rated at 10.

Mine is the model covered in Blue Tolex, which I believe was the first run of these amps. Pretty much standard issue. Three midi footswitchable channels, Clean Crunch & Lead. Seperate eq for all three channels. Channel two has three modes which really make this head versatile. Ability to take wattage down to 50 or 25 watts, very cool. Tons of other features that have already been mentioned below.

Using with a Charvel Traditional guitar. I bought one of these amps about six years ago (was one of the other models with the black tolex and the Lead Mod) and was not very happy with the reliabilty. The lead channel blew up twice on me and the bill was over $200.00 each time so I traded it in for a Soldano Decatone. Well I needed that Marshall sound once again so I found a reasonable deal on one of the originals covered in blue tolex and thought I would give it another shot. Wow, I am sure glad I did. I forgot how good the Clean channel was. With my Charvel I can go from Clean to Mean. The Shimmer and warmth from the Clean channel alone is worth the money I spent. Channel 2 Is perfect for any kind of rhythm sound you would ever need. I can get a very close Van Halen I tone from channel 2 with the power tubes breathing hard. Channel 3 is perfect for those Lukather/Neil Schon/Satriani Leads, Absolutely killer tone, hands down the best amplifier I have ever played through, I have owned or played the following, Peavey 5150 Good Solid Rhythm machine thats it though, Marshall TSL100 Lots of Bells $ whistles but couldn't get a good creamy lead from it, Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x10 combo, Excellent clean but thats it Distortion channel sucked. Soldano Decatone Very good amplifier however Clean was not near as good as the Marshall, and has a edge to the tone that I could never dial out. Still a very very respectable amp, for a more modern sound this amp would probably be a better choice than the Marshall but for my style and taste the Marshall wins out. I use the head with a 1960 cab loaded with 25 watt Greenbacks, That is what makes this amp so nice. These speakers are not as loud as the Vintage 30's and the lower power rating makes these speakers distort faster and the compression is perfect for making those leads sustain with fat tone. The sound is so much different than the Vintage 30's which I have had in the past. I love this setup.

So far so good have had about a month. My previous purchase was not reliable at all and was very expensive to fix. This model seems to run alot cooler than the other model so maybe I will be alright. I hope so because the tone is to die for. Keep the amp cool and I think that will keep the reliablity Ok.

Never dealt with them

Been playing on and off for eight years. Kind of a bedroom noodler, I do appreciate good tone however and this amp fills all my expectations of what a amp should be. For this amp covers every spectrum I can imagine. With the Greenback speakers it is more voiced towards a warm tone with a vintage vibe. With the Vintage 30's you could probably have a tone with a little more bottom end better suited for modern music. This would be replaced in a heartbeat if I could find one! If anybody is wanting to buy one of these heads and wants to hear it I will make some sound clips and email them to you if you would like. My email is DMARBURGER@Cox.NET

It was produced in 1992, for anything else mind the other reviews

I rated it a seven, because no sound produced by this baby is outstanding enough to be mentioned. you can get plenty of those average sound settings - but is that what you are looking for?
The clean channel is a typical marshall one - ok, but nothing beyond that point.
The crunch channel is definetly lacking some gain (maybe some tuning or a booster would fix it)
the lead thing - well, quite well compressed but nothing to be impressed.

every time i put it on, all three LEDs (each for one channel ;))sparkled like the sun but to get some sound out of that box i had to restart it several times. My mechanic told me that he couldn`t fix it - the electronics where simply to complicated.

never dealt with them.

I've been playing for 10 years now and that amp reminds me of the 15W
no name amp I started with (also the 6100 is LOUDER). yeah, just kidding, but if you spend a 1000 bucks on a head you can definetly expect more. There is no way to get the famous "marshall crunch", you all know what i mean. now i`m the proud owner of of an old MK II -far better.
I`m just wondering where all this 10-rated-reviews come from - was my amp produced on monday morning by a boozer or do the others just want to get a good price at ebay?

Bought amp as a demo in about 1997 (?). head only. (paid 400+ for separate 2x12 cab.). 3 channel of course. i don't use the effects loops...tried once and didn't sound good at all...maybe i did something wrong. like it straight away, as pure as possible. effects boxes in front of amp only. have never recorded with it's direct xlr output. don't gig, just at friends home's or in my basement. play it on full power/pentode as i feel has best tone that way for current tubes. triode not bad. i think that's how i ususally played it first year i had it. don't believe triode is as bright.

Mostly play blues based stuff but open to many different styles. use les paul for main ax, plus occasional strat.
originally came with 5881 power tubes which were not bad, brightish but not in a bad or harsh way. Have replaced those with groove tubes EL34LS's. darker and overdriven more easily. i don't crank it(neighborhood) so this is desirable. changed preamp tubes. using russian 12ax7lps's from The Tubestore store for channels 1 and 2 and have an electroharmonix 12ax7 in the 3rd/lead channel plus the 12ax7lps and maybe the chinese one too...i'm at work now and don't remember exactly. the chinese 12ax7 provides a rawer rock'n roll sound and use those from time to time...all are better than the ones it came with i feel. anyway, it sounds pretty good on the clean channel, i know it's not a matchless or some other acclaimed clean but is not bad at all really, can't complain. changing speakers may have helped too. now use weber silver and blue bells in 2x12 cabinet (was celesion gt75's i think.) but originally, stock amp was not bad. These are improvements to me. channel two is played probably the most used in the various mode stages. with the humbuckers it can give great sustain...i mean lots...it sings now...didn't quite when was entirely stock. channel three is too high gain for most of my stuff and a little noisier with all those preamp tubes going. for me, switching out tubes can really affect this amp. so if one has a little spare cash to experiment...of course power tubes can be pricey. better research well before buying those.

no problems yet. bad original output tube once. (original, but afetr close to a year and was a demo) doesn't really travel so can't give it a ten.

n/a. they do have the manual on line if you loose it.

when i purchased it i compared to a cpouple mesa boogies and other marshall, jcm 900 and jtn combo and a plexi, but at a different location so not a/b'd exactly...and thi had three channels so thought that was neat. playing for 20+ years and this is the only amp i currently own...my buddy took my fender to puerto rico and probably never see it till i visit him...mark!... i'd like to compare to a plexi side by side. hoipe to own a good fender or the like someday and an el84 type one too. but i'd always have to have a marshall sound availiable.

1992 head with 1960A blue toolex. i suppose the rest is known

Tremedously versatile. I equipped it with ruby high grade preamp tubes form JJ and CZel34 also from ruby. Had a specialist do the works and the result is amazing. Very warm crunchy sound on the second channel. Crisp clean on the first, Super distorted and canyon wide sound on three. I play with an Ibanez JC-RG5, Strat deluxe and a yamaha acoustic with b-band pick up. Al three come out totally different with their own unique warm sound. Top of the bill.

It is a tube amp. So always be carefull when moving and make sure it is cooled down. Built like a tank.

n.a.

I've been playing for 2o years and have been using a JCM800 2x12 combo for 15 years with a digitech rp21. Sure, i hate the weight

It has it all!!! Pretty much any power and sound you want. I have the Full stack in Blue and it is just incredible. 1992 was a very good year. SO versatile

Okay you know I like it. But I did do a little experimenting and I have this AMP set PREFECTLY!!! I have Mullards 12AX7s for the PreAmp with the exception of the phase spliter which I put an EI in.

The Power side is Electro Harmonix EL-34EH Platimums all four!

I've had 7-8 guitar players offer to buy the head off of me. IT IS AS CLOSE AS YOU WILL EVER GET TO SONIC PREFECTION!!!! Clear, Lead & Crunch, all beautiful!!!! MIDI built-in, 1992!...

No one probem, except getting the right tube combination in it.

I've called them a few time, no wait, and have very pleasant and informative conversations with Tech Support!!!

So Versatile!!! So Good!!! I own Fenders, my friends own Mesa's, Hiwatts, Fenders, and Marshalls, we all like my Full Stack the best. I have the perfectly designed amp with the prefect match tube combination and biasing. Very Sweet and Rich sounds. Get the Tubes, play with the setup of the Tubes and Bias, remember the final "Tweaking" is by ear in all the different modes. For Rock, Pop, hell, sounds great with just about any type of music with the right guitar.

This amp is loaded with features! Ive never seen a Marshall amp with so many features! The fact that you can change the power from 100W to 25W without takeing out power tubes is amazing. The MIDI switch is such an advanced feature, It blows my mind. This amp is capible of DEVISTATING any venue out there

I play a 1999 Fender American Standard Stratocaster with the orginal Delta-Tone pickup system. And that is all I'll ever need with this amp. This amp has tons of different sound features on it. I love the clean channel! I've never heard a Marshall that could get that clean! And channel two sounds like the holy grail of Marshall amps. I love the JCM 900 circuit in channel two and the JTM 45 circuit in channel two as well. Channel three is your; over the top, sustain for days, kick ass and take names, type of distortion. A Mesa Boogie's distortion does not have ANYTHING on this amp's channel three. With all these tone shaping circuits, and that classic Marshall valve tone, there isn't an amp out there that sounds better

I can count on this amp porforming at Maxamum prefishency when I flip the switch, like you can count on the sun rising in the east tomorrow morning. This amp was wrecked in the back of a car in an acident, and still came out singing "Oh to Glory" and "The Star Spangled Banner"

I've been playing for six years, And I've never seen an amp yet, That I would compell me to trade. If this amp was stolen, I'd cry alligater tears. These amps are rare and extremley hard to get a hold of now. Nevertheless, I'd crawl on my hands and knees through monkey turds to get it back if anything were to ever happen to it.