Marshall 6100 30th annniversary

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.

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!