Marshall 6100 30th annniversary

Mine is a blue Tolex full stack.
The real thing!
EL-34 Power Amp
besides the sound ... MIDI ...
features have been described nicely here:
http://www.marshallamps.com/images/handbooks/pdf/30thanniv.pdf

Full range of Gibsons, Fenders
My Sytle is Heavy Rock and for this it's perfect
Even though I like hi gain, I never had to use more than 55% of gain on the hot channel.
THIS THING DOES ALMOST EVERY SOUND YOU CAN THINK OF.
Hendrix, Powell, Shenker, Alvin Lee, Winter, Santana, Moore and the list is endless - oh of course ... Satriani - he plays it himself ;-)

never had a prob.
have both EL34 and a 5881 Amp. Never let me down.

Marshall Support is great in Germany through distributor and Marshall UK is extremely helpful and effektive

OK, i paid a price for a 5 year old amp, but it was in mint NOS condition, the blue ones are rare partic. in perfect cond.
for me it was a great deal, as it is contributes as importantly as my favorite guitar (81 Gibson Korina V)

wont be telling here anymore the features.mine is a 5881 power.it has tons of great features

im not a very experienced guitarrist but i can tell that i had a few marshall like the jcm900 and the jmp-1 pre and nothing compares to the warmth and definition this head has.no matter what power amp you use with the jmp-1 you won't get a sound that's near to this head.it's just the most beautiful head i ever played.

i got it used.so far no problems

never needed it

i never seen or played a better head. i like much the name mesa boogie but i think mesa only suits one style.heavy.and that simply isnt my style.i play from blues to classic rock and this head delivers it better tha anything i heard.

I played my 30th Anniversary for about 8 years. The main style was
straight rock. And for this, the Marshall works fine. The first years
I powered a 4x12" Marshall Cab - and that is (in my opinion) what
this Marshall needs. The last two years I played it with a 1x12"
Box with EVM-12L.

I used Strat-style guitars und mainly a Les Paul Custom.
With the LP you get this typical, natural rock-sound.
The clean channel never really satisfied me, it only works
well (with more punch) at higher volumes - I would give it a 5.
But higher volumes is not what I like. The crunch-Sounds are
good - I would give it a 7 - and the overdrive in the 3. channel
is damned good - I would give it a 10.
As described above I did't like to carry that wheights of a 4x12-
Box. With the 1x12 it is a compromise. Now I'm going to change
to a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe - because of the superb clean sound
and the crunch that is also good. I know, that I won't get this
heavy-distortion of the Marshall, but now I tend to play more
blues and blues-rock.

When I bought this amp I had some trouble, it went three times
back to the customer. In the beginning the amp went very hot.
It took some time 'til they found the bug.
But after that - no more problems.

As described above - the start was not that good.

It's a very good amp for rock, it's not that good for blues
or jazz or country. If you know what you want the Marshall can
be the best amp to get (especially for that price).

One of the first to come out in 1992 - Limited Edition version in Blue and shiny gold hardware. I saw it in a mag and ordered it by Mail Order while I could still get one. I know, I know - try before you buy etc. but I had a sixth sense that this would be a classic. Sure enough there is something for nearly everyone in this amp. What marks this amp out from other amps is the genuinely separate preamp circuits (hence the 7 valves). On more recent Marshalls they've gone the Boogie route with fancy internal switching and fewer valves. I should declare I have a Mark IV and couldn't live without it either.

I play an arsenal of guitars and variety of styles so this kind of "toy" really appeals. Fortunately it delivers big time. Before talking about the channels I should point out that this is one of the biggest sounding 1x12s I have ever heard. The speaker has more definition than a vintage type speaker but more open and less ear splitting than an EV12L. Just right. However I've had Marshall and Boogie next to each other and swapped speakers and they both sounded worse so beware.
The clean channel is exactly that and stays clean throughout most of it's range. It's a great channel for putting a processed guitar through. I used to play around with the brightness and mid shift switches but I now leave it on bright and ignore the other one. This channel doesn't have the bell like ring of a Boogie, particularly with the "inbetween tones" of a strat but it does have exactly the right voice for the neck pickup, nice and woody.
The Crunch channel is just awesome. It really does make a guitar sing like it's going through a cranked power stage. I've had everything through this, PRS's, Les Pauls, Ibanez, Jacksons, 335s, Strats, Flying Vs, SGs and they all sound great. My favourite settings are Mode 2 gain around 2 o clock for a mild overdrive and Mode 3 gain between 10 and 11 o clock for the classic cranked Marshall tone. Put a classic Hendrix vintage effects chain in front and you get a taste of heaven. Excuse me, put those Tube Screamers and other transistorised Overdrive devices in the trash - they are a million miles away from this level of purity. I've had them all and I really, really wonder why people waste so much time on them.
The lead channel is great as long as you don't need Boogie type gain. Fortunatley I have mine on gain 11 to 12 O'clock with Boost engaged and that's enough for most applications. If you go beyond this setting I've noticed that it seriously loses definition. As Marshalls don't put eq before the distortion stages you can't get the definition back with eq. Plus I've noticed that the Crunch and Lead gains interfere if they are both set very high. That said my fave settings on the 3 channels work really well.

I've only had valves go in the 9 years I've had it. The protection circuit worked well. The cabinet is much more flimsy than a boogie as is the chassis. if you were to drop both I think they would both die as there is so much weight in the Boogie it would have to work harder to stay in one piece.

Every time I've dealt with Marshall they've been fantastic.

This amp is the antithesis of my Boogie. The clean channel is probably better in the Mark IV but the Mark IV Crunch channel is completely useless. If this amp only had it's Crunch channel I would still get 98% of the satisfaction from it. The Lead Channel is dry and articulated - great for power chords and lead on good quality guitars while the Boogie is definitely more fluid, sustains for days and more tolerant of crap guitars.
This is a design classic, and at far less than boutique prices. With so many new amps on the market it's not what you would call fashionable but that means you can pick one up for far less than a Boogie. I should point out that all of my comments relate to the original specification with EL34's and without Lead Mod. I haven't tried one with a lead mod but I did try a version with the 5881 (or is that 8551) valves and it sounded far too "brown" for my liking. If it were stolen I would probably buy another, although I'd like to see if the new Mesa Road King can really give me everything I want in one amp.

The 6100 I own was built in 1993. It is one of the original models that came stock with EL-34's and a high gain channel that does not include the LM mod. I used to own a 6100LM and thought the high gain channel sucked on it, way too mushy and loose sounding. The high gain on this 6100 is very tight and focused. This amp is pretty damned versatile. I can set up the 3 channels to play any type of music thrown at me. The features are far too numerous to mention here. One of the features that I find very useful is the parallel effects loop with front panel blend knob, which includes trimmer pots on the back panel to vary the amount of effects to the 3 channels. The half power switch is nice too, although you could achieve the same results by pulling two of the power tubes.

The first channel is the clean channel and it is the best clean channel I've ever heard from a channel switching Marshall. It is not very Fendery sounding, but that's not what I'm after anyway. It sounds more like a Marshall 1987 or 1959 turned down, which is the type of clean sound I prefer. The second channel has 3 different gain structures. The 1st sounds like a JMP model 1959 plexi, the second like a JCM-800 2203, and the 3rd like a hotrodded JCM 2203. If you look at the schematic, you will see that these are the models that the circuits are based on. The 3rd channel is the high gain channel. It is an extremsly hotrodded Marshall circuit made up of 7 12ax7 triode sections (4 gain and 3 cathode follower stages). The sound from this channel is awesome to say the least. Blows away any VHT or Mesa I've ever played. It sounds more natural. Needless to say, with it's 7 triode stages, it has tons of gain to spare, I rarely turn the preamp above half way.

I've owned for 5 years and it's never failed on me. I gig without a backup regularly.

Marshall always answers my calls and sends me the schematics or parts I need with no problem.

I've been playing for over 20 years and have owned just about every model of Marshall ever made. I still have a lot of old Marshalls but the 6100 is my main gigging amp due to it's versatility. If you're a Fender man, you probably won't like this amp at all, it is 100 percent Marshall. If I lost this amp I'd have to go back to using my other Marshalls for a while. But I would eventually replace it with another 6100. As far as high gain amps go, I owned a VHT for a while that sounded great but not as good as the 6100. I also owned a Mesa MK4 for a couple years which I could never get a decent sound out of. I've tried out the Dual Rectos and didn't like them at all. I also owned a Marshall Dual Reverb for a year which didn't get played much due to it's thin sound. The 6100 is simply the best sounding high gain amp available.

I'm not going to write about all the technical stuff. There are others who allready have done that...

I play in coverbands and also in a Big band. This amp is very flexible in its construction and it's quite simple to get it sound good.

This amp is like a rock!

I've owned this amp for almost 4 years and I have played in rain and in sunshine with it and it's still going strong!