Marshall AS50R

Made in 2003. Very versatile amp, takes on several varieties of guitar and vocal input. I play folk and rock and a bit 'o jazz and classical. 2 channels, reverb and chorus, effects loop, CD input, etc. This amp has never disappointed me in rehearsal or gig, whether with lots of others or just solo. Power and tone to spare - for big rooms or big bands, pipe it out through the PA system. Wouldn't mind a bit more EQ control.

The only flaw is that it can't hide the weaknesses of my a)playing, or b)instrument. It's very honest.

Never been an issue. Some plastic parts that on older models would have been metal, but they seem tough.

I've been playing for, let's see... 37 years. I've never used a better amp than this one. I'd replace this with the 100-watt model, maybe, if something happened to this one. I've compared it to the Fender and Peavy acoustic amps and much prefer this one, although the others aren't bad. The Marshall's more flexible.

Occasionally I???ve thought about selling this amp and getting a better one and then I have to remind myself how often do I gig with it? It???s a clean sounding classy looking amp and pretty straight forward to use with 2 channels one for either mic and guitar or two acoustic instruments if you prefer. You can also plug an acoustic bass guitar into it too with no issues, I checked this via e-mail with Marshall first just to confirm it would???nt damage the amp.

The amp is actually very clean sounding enough but I do feel it does colour the sound of your instrument somewhat. The feedback filter does actually work if you understand how to use it, simply turn the feedback knob until it finds the frequency of your feedback and it kills it for you. Great idea because this means you can get a good amount of volume from this 50-watt amp. I???ve used it at Big band rehearsals and smaller 4 piece gigs and it more than holds its own.

I generally use an acoustic guitar using an Schertler Dynamic G pickup (yeah I know they are expensive but worth every penny), occasionally a mic in the 2nd channel for vocals. The reverb is a nice touch although to much can add feedback issues.

Issues- the reverb unit died on mine and I had it replaced, its ok now. As mentioned already it does colour the sound a little but they are very reasonably priced. Can I justify spending several hundred on a better acoustic amp?

Overall for what I get out of it, I???m happy enough. If I was gigging more I would think about getting a better one but I have this feeling that no amp can perfectly amplify an acoustic signal without some discolouring.

Clean

Reverb died had to get that replaced, ok now. See above coments.

Marshall good to e-mail see above comments for details.

If lost or stolen i'd replace with same model or damaged i'd get it repaired.

This is an excellent amp with , in my view, an excellent reverb unit. the feedback limiter is very useful.
Have gigged this amp a couple of times, and on the last 2 gigs noticed a problem (see below)

I use this amp with a crafter acoustic, and occasionally a mic. Sound is excellent.

Unfortunately, this amp, now 2 yrs old, has started to let me down. At high volumes, it has started clipping and cutting out, especially when driven with a lot of bass freq. I am in the process of tying to find out what the problem is, but I can't therefore give a great reliability rating.

I am still waiting for an e-mail reply, but it has only been a couple of days.......

I play all sorts of gear, but I have been very impressed with the sound of this unit, I would definitely buy again, assuming that my experience is a 'one-off' and simple to correct.(if anyone knows what is wrong, I would like to know!)

Bought this amp 3 years ago for 200 pounds sterling. You know the spec'. I fell in love with how it looked...really classy. I play in a four piece 'Eagles'y ' kind of band and only use the guitar channel with vocals going through a mackie p.a. so cannot comment on the mike channel.

I use a takemine electro accoustic an46 which, after 4 years has a beautiful round rich accoustic tone. we play small venues at fairly low volumes so I have never had to push this amp, although it is loud enough on low settings and seems to have bags of clean power to spare. I love the genuine reproduction of my beautiful guitar sound and sometimes use a touch of reverb to make it sing!

It has been gigged regularly (weekly) for three years and has never let me down so all I can say it that it is very dependable.

Not needed to contact Marshall

I have been playing for 40 years. I own a fender blues deluxe, a tele , a mandolin, a fender accoustic bass and Randall 100w bass amp and a Remington S10 pedal steel guitar.
In the event of me loosing it I would replace my marshall immediately.
I didn't compare this amp with others, I liked it straight away and bought it, the price was such good value for my hard earned cash!
No improvements needed.. I like the anti-feed back features.
To share..... I gig with it on an angled amp stand to get it off the floor and improve what i can hear in amongst the other instruments.

Features already well covered in previous reviews. It would be nice to have more sophisticated EQ, an extension speaker socket, and phantom power on the XLR mic input, but I've managed to live quite happily without all of these for 3+ years and for the price I'm not complaining.

I use it with a Guild dreadnought with a (frankly ghastly) Dean Markley soundhole pickup and a (much better but very low output) BelCat soundboard transducer, and it works well with both. It has also been used to amplify vocals, electric guitar, keyboards, violin(s), a hammered dulcimer, and as an on-stage monitor. It has never failed to deliver. Not a huge amount of bass, unsurprisingly, but the sound is airy, clean and musical. The reverb is fine, the chorus is OK but best at minimal settings - turn it up and it becomes a bit of a parody of itself. I've never used the effects loop.

Has never let me down - for rehearsals, classes, barndances, and rock gigs. Given the price, it obviously isn't a professional "road-hardened" unit - as the plastic jack sockets, corner reinforcements and feet testify. The sockets and the corners have been fine so far. The feet did break, and I've replaced them with rubber ones from Maplins for some ludicrously cheap sum, which is fine. On gigs, it IS the backup...

Never used.

I've been playing for over 40 years, I suddenly realise. Tonic wine, anyone? This is the most versatile amp I own, very dependable, loud enough for small gigs, portable, and generally a good thing. Yes, it could have more features and better-quality hardware, but then it would cost twice the price. Very good for acoustic soloists and duos, but also very usable as part of the backline for a larger band.

New 2004, M.I.C., 2 channel, solid state 50W. Chorus and reverb. I like that both channels are identical in terms of controls and chorus. Not sure I like the reverb "pan" between the two channels as much, but it seems to work fine. As mentioned elsewhere, it's a very attractive amp, but small and low-to-the-ground, so I've bought an amp stand to get the sound up away from my ankles. Big improvement! Nice brown tolex, 2 8" speakers and a tweeter of some sort. No "DSP" effects, the lack of which I consider a plus.

I demo'd this with an Ovation, but have found that my Martin, with no onboard pre-amp or tone controls actually sounds better. It's just a Martin transducer running straight into the amp. While I have a Boggs Para DI that I use, I evealuated the sound of the amp without it. Because the amp has no midrange control per se, you may find, as I did, that a Para DI or similar outboard EQ will give you more tonal options. That said, the amp sounds great for acoustic guitar. Clear and very loud. I compared this to the Fender 30 watt Acoustasonic, a Crate 30 watt, the Roland, and the Behringer that has all the DSP effects--god, what a cumbersome load THAT is! This amp, to me, was superior in virtually every respect. Warmer, brighter, louder, cleaner. I think the Roland (at $500) probably sounds "better," but it's too damn small, and I couldn't justify the $150 price jump for the meager improvement it may have offered. Not to slam Fender, but the Acoustasonic 30 struggled to even keep up, both in volume and tone. It seemed to be breathing hard even at moderate levels. The Crate was fine, but again, very small with a single speaker, and just seemed too bright. I kept coming back to the Marshall after playing each different amp, and it consistently made me happy. I was floored when I got it home and played the "naked" Martin through it, and even moreso when I applied the Para DI.
I also ran vocals through the amp while playing, and while it took some tweaking to get the sound right, it EASILY handled both, and sounded perfectly adequate for a small-room mini PA, which is how I envision using it. Again, some outboard EQ (maybe just a 7-band) would give your vocals more flexibility, but with a little chorus and reverb, it sounds very much like a "real" PA. Seems to have power to spare, as I never really got the thing past halfway, and it remained clean, even with enthusiastic strumming and loud singing.

5 year warranty. Seems solid. The salesman reported experiencing no problems with these, which he wouldn't (or couldn't) say about the others he carried (especially the Behringer, which he described as problematic), for whatever that's worth.

Ditto

I play acoustic in a singer/songwriter duo and sponsor a songwriter club at the school where I work. I plan to use the amp for small gigs and for the kids to play and sing through, and maybe I'll use it to record, since it has a nice direct line out. I've been playing for 30 years (not that you can tell), and plan to use this amp exclusively with my Martin 000. I'll be selling my Ovation, thank you very much, since it now offers no advantage over the Martin (I thought it would sound better than the Martin plugged in, but it doesn't, so I'll now do away with the annoying round back that wants to roll while I play--but I digress).

I'm sure that Genz Benz and Trace Elliot make fine products, and perhaps the higher end versions of the amps I compared this one to are also worthy. I would certainly advocate playing everything in your price range before making a decision, rather than relying on anyone's opinion. But since I needed to stay under $400, this was a remarkably easy decision for me, and one that I'm glad I made. It's light enough to carry around, and looks very professional with the unique brown covering. Hardcore acoustic performers who play large rooms may need more power, and recording artists may need more effects. But for general unencumbered, straight-ahead, plug-in-and-play usage, I consider this amp to be a great value.

two seperate channels, very useful when your singer cant be arsed buying a pa, xlr input is also useful if u want to do vocals and an acoustic without anything else. the chorus and reverb are both nice and really fill out your sound. for a 50 watt solid state its also VERY loud, and the brown tolex makes it loom cool too.
di is also really usefull, if u want to go through a pa go through this first and u can hear urself, allways useful that.

i bought the amp to use a yamaha apx-5 through, for an acoustic amp its perfect and id never change it, however the real reason its greatis that you can put anything through it, my strat sounds great as a clean setting, better tone than an mg, and if u put a pedal infront it will even do dirty (great as a backup if my jtm ever goes down)

THIS AMP IS INDESTRUCTIBLE, ive dropped it, spilt coffee down it, kicked it, u name it. u cannot break it. when the singers pa broke at a small gig we put 3 vocals a guitar and a bass through it and did it complain? no, honestly if u want an amp to reherse or put vocals thorugh look no futher, this will do, its even had my mates rediculous kirk hammet distortion through it when his amp went down.

no idea, you cant break it, aparrently marshall are very nice, they fixed my mates head when he put the speaker output into an amp (fool, luckily it was only an mg100, doesnt matter) if it did go wrong i wudnt complain, but its fine

ive been playing for 9 years, ive just got a jtm 60 for my electrics which is brilliant. but for an acoustic/vocal amp get one of these dont bother ashdown are overpiced, laney arnt as good or as cool looking. if it was stolen id hunt them down and beat them to death with my pacifica, if ilost it id kick myself, its not that small really! then id go on ebay and buy another one

the only thing i wish it had was the footswitch, which i forgot to buy *doh* and maybe larger speakers, or a powered output for an extenion speaker.

it is also exactly, and i mean exactly the same size as the boot of a mini, destiny, also u try getting a 3x10 in the back of a mini!

VERY NICE, just what you want realy, very clean and warm!

I am doing this review for reliability only!
I got the amp today and and it had been droped by the delivery firm.
3 feet smashed and a the tolex around the feet was ripped. It came with the box open and the amp upside down!!!! imagine what i thought!
Anyway its being sorted by this great ebayer! a real good chap! But I was amazed this amp still worked after such an inpact to brack those very hard feet! It must have been droped from a hight i imagine to damage the box like it did!

The Reverb did NOT work. But that was all that was wrong! I could have other intenal damage that could come later, and i hope not to find out! But what a tough light guy this Marshall is. I would say to anyone who is worried about reliability to NOT WORRY AT ALL. This think is like Built very well. If it was my LANEY VALVE AMP, i would be crying if someone droped that!!!
So Great going for 10 for this, after all the springs in most amps go anyway with out dropping them.

Really Like it, cant wait to get my problem sorted out, Its a really loud amp too. and lots of inputs and stuff too. Chorus is so sweet

2003 Marshall AC50R Acoustic Instrument amplifier ? all solid state. Two independent channels, one with xlr in. Amp has direct (xlr) out & balanced line out. Two 8" speakers with tweeter. Beautiful thick brown tolex with gold piping and panel, nice leather handle with gold pins. This is one fantastic looking little amplifier. Initially purchased to use with my Tacoma acoustic/electric dreadnaught.

This amp sounds beautiful with my Tacoma A/E DR16-CE4. Well balanced, deep thunderous lows ? somewhat scooped mids and beautiful crisp highs. Excellent reverb and chorus. Sound is very full and very balanced. Amazing that this amp has only two 8? speakers and it projects this kind of sound. With a mike plugged into channel 2 ? this amp is a singer songwriters dream machine. But it gets better. I Plugged my goldtop LP into this amp just for grins and I was totally blown away. This thing sounds absolutely KILLER with an electric guitar. I play my ES335 through this and the results are the same ?Huge sound that remains articulate and balanced. The cleanest of cleans. With an RP200 the thing also sounds fabulous on many settings. This amp and it?s tones remind me of Jimmy Page ? the thing is AWESOME. This is the most incredible amp I have ever owned.

So far a 10 and I expect it to last a long time. No tubes to screw around with either.

Marshall has always been great for me.

This is the nicest amp I?ve ever owned and through the years there have been many. Since I bought this thing I?ve sold my Princeton Reverb and my Gibson Skylark tube amps and haven?t even thought about them. This amp does it all. For recording and XLR?ed through a PA it really, really shines. Well done Marshall.

9
2003 Marshall AS50R. I am just going to hit on some big points that may help some people. I play guitar and sing in country band, although we do some classic rock covers. We gig almost every weekend. All right, this is important if you are thinking about buying this amp.... If your band creates a lot of stage noise, watch out! This amp is not too loud. It has limiters built into it, so if you crank it up and and play too hard it will cut out. Frustrating. So we fixed that by running louder out of moniters and mains and not so hard out of amp. Now....BEAUTIFUL!!!! I am so glad I bought this amp. I run digitech RP100 through the effects loop. So now going from tranquil acoustic sounds (when effects box is on standby) to dirty lead tone is so easy. I play the peavey gen exp guitar at gigs. I used just the Marshall AS50R, my Ovation Celeb Deluxe, and a SM58 at a wedding reception, and it was perfect. Watch out if you buy it and get is straight out of the box. Have a phillips head screwdriver ready. You will probably need to tighten all of the screws on the outside...no biggy
Rock on musician's!!!!!!!