Marshall Studio 15

With one channel, no FX way, a volume, gain, tremble, middle, bass control the features of this amp are rather basic.

For an amp of this size it sounds phenomenal. For my taste it goes better together with a Gibson than with a Strat. Warm Tone. Nice Crunch when played louder. Mostly I play it at home, more recently together with a Seymour Duncan Twin Tube. It allows me to have three channels. I leave the Marshall clean. Works very well for me. I also sometimes put on a Danelectro Spring King.

Have it for 15 years. Never any problems.

It is among the last items I would ever sell.

same as all the rest - made late 80's, Features: see other reviews

Well, this was my first amp bought second hand for next to nothing (compared to what its worth now). I knew nothing of tone back then so it did the job of amplifying my squeely compressed digital effects pedal and knackered rip off guitar - sounded ok

Then when I started a band all I did was play it with everything on full still using digital effects and it sounded rubbish so I bought a TSL100 Half stack and off I went infecting everyone including myself with irrepprebal tinitus.

NOW!
I have developed an ear for tone and what sound I want out of an amp so I spent ??100 on new valves and a green back speaker and a few mods that I read off the web and this amp sounds fantastic! Perfect for home/ studio recording - the Tech said he's not heard a Marshall sound like that before especially any of the new combos made these days - much warmer and full of life, no effects needed, just a decent quality guitar.

Well I'm not going to gig with this amp now I know that its going to hold its value but I wouldn't gig with such a small amp anyway. Its withstood 6 years of my abuse + whoever owned it before me.

I am just very glad I didn''t sell it before getting it revalved and modded because now I'm never going to need a home practise amp again

Bought used. It's made in 1986, vintage 30 speaker, 2 x 6V6 power tubes 2 x 12AX7 preamp tubes, builtin attenuator. Front plate: input, gain, treble, middle, bass, output level, standby and power switch. Back plate: fuse, balanced Direct Out (floating ground), speaker out 8 ohm, headphone out,line out (unbalanced).
Many features for small combo.

I use this amp with Stratocaster and Telecaster. This amp sound fantastic with all my gear. Clean sound is very harmonically rich and drive get you to JCM800 territory with no nois. Tone controls are very sensitive at any volume.
This amp can be pretty loud when cranked. Loud enough for small gigs.
Great portable tone monster for every occasion. I love it.

No problem so far.

Great small combo amp. It is portable and tone monster.
Very hard to find one nowadays.

All valve, single channel, lo/mid/hi eq controls, gain, master volume, line out and headphone/attenuated output. Enough features to be utterly tweakable without too much crap in the signal path destroying the sound. More than versatile enough to cover anything I wanna play through it. Will it do crystal-clear cleans at club levels? No. It's a fifteen watt amp, that's not what they do. I bought this to use in my home studio and it has served me well. Great as a practice amp, too. Being able to connect the speaker to the attenuated headphone out is truly a beautiful thing.

I'm using it with all the usual suspects, solidbody Fenders and Gibsons, with a few old Schecters thrown in for good measure. All sound good but particularly the humbucker-equipped guitars, no surprises there, it is a marshall. Sound wise, with everthing set flat (12 o'clock), it basically the polar opposite of my Fender Pro Junior. Whereas that is primarily clean and incredibly bass-heavy, this thing is compressed, gritty, screaming with treble and just begging to be turned up further. While it is hard to resist maxing out the gain every time you plug this thing in, there are more than enough useable sounds before that point on the dial. It does a very nice just-breaking up sound with the gain set low and the master cranked up and, after all, isn't that why we buy low-wattage amps? Yes it is. I've toyed with the idea of putting a 12AU7 in the preamp for slightly more clean headroom but I figure I've got bigger amps to do that. They have their job and this has its job. And given the fact they're still selling relatively cheaply on eBay, I think it deserves a raise.

I don't gig with it but I've used it heavily for the past three years in my home studio. You can be sure in that time it's been in all kinds of ridiculous and precarious positions and has had its share of falls, knocks and kicks. No problems so far, I haven't even changed the tubes.

N/A

I can't fault it, really. I suppose - for practice purposes - it'd be nice to have reverb but from a recording perspective, it's best to add it later, anyway. Again, the ability to plug the speaker into the headphone output without having to worry about dummy loads, etc. is just brilliant.

My amp was build in the 80'. I play Blues and Hardrock. He's a allrounder. On the backside you can find a Outputjack, a headphonejack, line out and a direct out. On the front is just Gain, Trebble, Mids, Bass, Master and input. That's all you need for fall in love whith the real Marshallsound. The Celestion Vintage speaker is the perfect partner. That's all...

I play a Gibson ES-335 Dot whith the Classic-Humbuckers. I got a Hughes & Kettner Tube Factor, a Boss RV-5 Reverb and for gigs i play a 4x12" Riverabox, that's all i need. Hmmm... this sound... fantastic. I had a lot of amps for the last years, but now i got my one and only for my lifetime. The Studio 15 is one of the rarest Marshallamps ever and the only Marshall whith 6V6. The cleansound is so fine..., wonderfull , and the crunch is just "Marshall", hahaha... In my livingroom i don't need a 4X12"-the Vintage-Celestion inside is a crack. But when i play gigs i use the Rivera 4x12 and that's the complead Marshall kick i need, yes. 15 Watts are very powerfull and i don't need more. He's so fine. All my friends are wondering and ask me, if i want to sell him. But no chance, that's my little fatty. Ok, a 50 Watt Marshall is louder, but i don't know where i should play this monsters. My Hughes & Kettner Tube Factor pump's enough for my gigs. For me, this little Combo is the best Marshall ever.I love him!!!

Has some terrific features I only learned about after reading the reviews. The attenuator or "breaK" is a great feature for us apartment dwelling late night home studio recordists. I can turn all the knobs up to 10 to tget that killer "crunch tone" and just run the XLR out straight into my board for great sound without the volume. Only thing it's missing is reverb and I never think of marshalls as having that anyway. The headphone out and line out is a cool feature too though the tone via the headphone an line outs is not the same as via the XLR (unbalanced)-- that's da bomb!

I use this for 70's style heavy guitar - I record original material in a Cure/Bayhaus vein and I was never happy with the sound of my 1983 USA Telecaster via my old Roland JC-120 or straight into the board but my guitar has a very nice "fat" tone via this amp - even on the lead pick-up. The "Midrange" tone sound really good when you boost it all the way - I don't know what these sounded like new but the tone of this amp is great now (2005); a previous owner replaced one othe tubes with a "groove tube" so I don't know if that had an effect or not. Whatever it is... I like it.

Only owned it for a few months but it is heavy as hell - built like a little tank.

WNo idea - never dealt with marshall myself.

I give this a 9 out of 10 only because nothing is perect but I won't even tell you guys what kind of a deal I got on this amp. I found a guy selling it at a yard sale (yep, just like we always fantsize will happen) and I literally walked off with it for a dream price. Of course I had no idea if it even worked - he didn't know anything about it - said he was "selling it for a friend" and said "take it as is - no returns." Well I saw the 12 inch Celestion iside and figure - Hell, how bad could it be, so I grabbed it. Probably the best deal I ever got. (Almost makes up for the stupidity of selling my 1967 Vintage Fender Mustang back in 1993 for $250!! What was I thinking??)

15 Watt Amp with a Celestion 12" Speaker and a Power Break !!!
(the price of a Marshall Power Break is today 400,-- Euro!)

It reduce it to 1 Watt and when you can play it with all knobs to 11.
Full stack sound for your home !

AND:
the only Marshall Tube Amp in the world with a headphone out !

For my opinion is this the best Marshall that had Jim build ! It's so versatily = Sounds from a JCM 45 to a JCM 800
There are many sounds possible.

This is a studio/home/live (for clubs) amp.
It have a special XLR output for your mix with a speaker simulation.

ok

The amp is very very rare, because only 300 were build from 1985-86 and 200 from 1987-1992. All people wanted at this time the silver jubilee series. The tube amp programm started this a 20W amp and all people wanted the cool looking and cheaper silver amps. The 4001 Studio 15 was very expensive. Example : a JCM 800 100W TOP = 750,-- Euro and the Studio 15 = 650,-- Euro
Too much for a non rich guitar player, so that Jim Marshall only sold in seven years 500 items of this "Little Fatty"

The amp have all what i need.
Gain, treble, middle, bass and volume knobs and the best clean sound for my opinion and music.

I only need a good clean sound, because i use a distortion pedal.

I had thought that i can't get a great sound with a Marshall amp, but this little thing make the impossible possible!!!
I play death and thrash metal and loves this real "lets break all walls" sound with clearity in all distortions!
No woupp,woupp,woupp when you play a deep tone.
I mean this f*ck second tone after playing a deaden E !!!
- Orignal tone and woupp, orignal tone and woupp, original tone and etc. -


This amp don't make this bad noise!

I need the amp for my studio. It's perfect ! I think for live with a p.a. its also good.

It's a old amp and i need no support.

I play 15 years and i have searched and searched and searched and searched for the perfect metal sound.
Now the search ended here and i'm a lucky man.
I payed a lot of money for this very rare amp. (only 500 items were produced from 1985-1992 = price for a new one: 599 $ for a 15 W amp was at this time very,very much!)
But for the perfect sound is money a accidental !

About as basic as they get but I use it in a multi amp set up so... who cares

I use les pauls and PRS's. I get some great clean tones and when you push it a very open defined crunch like Jethro Tull's "Aqualung". If you want high gain put a stonp box in front. I use the Boss Turbo Overdrive and it sounds huge, open and very defined without sounding thin.

No problens

I 've been playing for 30 years and play live regularly. My current gig is 80's rock and pop. I plan to get another Studio 15 for stereo. This puppy will drive a 4 x 12 cab no problem. I've used both Marshall 1960A and 5150's. Once my CD is done I plan to use this setup live (ie 2 Studio 15's in stereo with a bit of Verb and chorus, a Marshall Jubilee 2554 w/4 x 12 cab). I think it will be better then using a Fenders for the clean sounds.

So few features that I will probably just get a Princeton and save the cash. The princeton at least is all PTP instead of the Studio's wimpy PC board, with PC mounted pots. Yuck.

It's a single channel tube amp at 15 watts
1 12" vintage
master volume layout
two outs with one 1/4" and one XLR jack
has a cool headphone out

Be careful, don't drop it or let it fall over. I've had my board replaced 3 times now.

Sounds very good, but reminds me of a Fender Princeton with a marshall Guv'nor pedal in front. I like it but if I had not gotten a real good deal I would have passed. I won't get another one but I know how to be carefull with it and it sounds really good.

Replaced board 3 times. They swap out the whole thing pots and all!!
The OT went out on it the second time the board cracked. I guess running it at ten is not what marshall Transformers are made for anymore. The thin PCB with the added heat from the tubes makes it as reliable as a fender blues junior. It sounds good but keep it in your studio!

Very good, the best but why not just use PTP or a thicker PCB? Wouldn't that be cheaper than paying for support and replacement boards? I guess that's why they stopped production...

It's agood amp, not great. Few features but sounds good for what it does. Rare sound for marshall but a 70's Princeton does the same thing for less and is a better investment tone and $$ wise. I won't but another because I don't really nead it.

I don't care about bells and whistles, just great tone, these amps have everything I need.

I use a Fender style guitar with lace sensors through a modified tube screamer and a few other processers through a microverb (stereo) into 2 studio 15s mic'd through our PA, panned right and left. Great sound, both clean and overdrive. Master on ten, main volume on 5. I have bigger rigs but keep going back to this one. I play all styles and a lot of blues.

had one loose terminal on a tube socket, other than that just tube replacement. My amps came from hot climates speaker cones were a little brittle. New vintage 30's warmed the sound up quite a bit.

n/a

I've been playing 38 years, really like these amps. For me, the headphone jack and master volume are unnecessary. Definitly would want to replace if lost. These amps sound even better though vintage 30's in a closed back cabinet.

single channel tube amp with 15 watts, and one 12"{celestion vintage 30} speaker. simple, familiar marshall master volume layout. two line outs {one 1/4" and one XLR}and a headphone output. very small size, with a big sound.

absolutely great! complex clean sounds, beautiful break-up on medium drive settings. not a whole lot of gain, but the midrange control has an extreme gain boost when maxed. sounds excellent with distortion pedals too.this thing sounds HUGE on tape! this is a genius, versatile design. no matter what you are recording it just sounds 'right'. the line outs are also very usable, we have used them for everything from pre-amping clean amps to lining in vocals.it is also louder than its size implies. ive played aot of small tube amps, and this is still my favorite. everything from early clapton to AC/DC to punk, to 60's garage, to metal {with a pedal}.

ive had it for seven years, and it has never blown up { we run it turned up all the way quite a bit,because it sounds so good that way} the pots are starting to get a little scratchy, though.

havnt had to deal with them, but ive heard they are pretty good...

these are pretty hard to find, and can be pretty pricey, but it is well worth it. a friend scored one from a pawn shop for $80 because they thought it was just a practice amp! just a great little amp!!

This amp as so few features that many would mark it down just for that, but for it's size and sound, it has everything I need, plus an actual gain control so I do not have to turn the volume to 10 to get distortion (I am a vintage amp collector). If you play a bare-bones style with minimal effects, then it's not missing anything. While for gigs, I split the duties between my Major and AC30, it's a regular for practice and in rotation in the studio as well. The studio 15 is just great - it's small, has a great tone, and if it got stolen it wouldn't set me back too much.

For hard rock or a dark blues tone, a Gibson Les Paul Standard will obtain that classic Led Zeppelin tone almost as good as my Marshall Major (the same amp Jimmy Page used for many years) and with my Classic, it sounds fairly close, but even darker. Most other guitars (Jacksons, ESPs) won't drive the amp as much, but most guitars with a humbucker in the bridge position work fine. If you want a warmer tone, grab a stratocaster or telecaster and plug it in. With the single coils, there is a lack of gain for the heavier tunes, but the blues tone is great. To buy a new amp and get comprable sound quality, it would run one over $1000 easily!

I have not had any problems with it yet other than replacing tubes on occasion, and while I do not gig with it, it does travel with me and has withstood all the abuse. I have had more trouble with my AC30, which is known to be a very dependable amp (with the exception of the tubes since it is a class A amp).

I've played for nearly 14 years, and I have never been able to find a small amp that I thought really sounded great with both a Les Paul and a Stratocaster until this one. I've played some old Supro's, and they sound fairly good with a Les Paul, good enough that I might considering picking one of them up on the side, but still not as good as the Studio 15. If you like the classic Marshall tone, don't want to spend a fortune and have an army of roadies, you can't possibly go wrong!

I bought the amp new in 1985 or 86. I play anything from Beach Boys to Counting Crows to The Clash to White Zombie with this set up. It does it all. It has one channel. I always use it that way and add distortion with an outboard pre-amp, so I'm not concerned that the amp is so straightforward. In fact I prefer that. I use this amp in night clubs, sometimes miked, sometimes not. One useful feature is the XLR direct out. I think other guitarists are surprised to learn that it has only 15 watts.

I play through this amp using a Stratocaster, a DigiTech pre-amp and a vintage Tube Screamer. The amp has a fairly clean tone at a very useful volume. . Overdriving the amp will create the smoothest distortion. Turning up the mid-range adds more distortion. It is kind of bass shy, but by adding an Ampeg 2-12 cab with Celestions, I can solve that problem. That kind of defeats the delightfulness of showing up at a gig with an amp the size of a lunch box. This amp just plains SINGS. I have a Fender Blues Junior as a back-up amp. Compared to the Marshall it sucks.

This is the most unreliable amp have ever used, but it sounds so good I've stuck with it for all these years. It has been in the shop many times.

This never occurred to me. They're in England aren't they?

I've been playing for 38 years. If it were to go up in smoke I would look for something similar, but it might be a hard act to follow. I love the tone even if it can be a bit boxy, I have often cursed it for being so unreliable. I got a fifteen watt amp because while in a road band back in the day, we guitarists were always at odds with our sound man. "It's too loud!" he would complain. "If I turn it down the sound falls on the floor!" We would argue. We went round and round until one sound check when I set up my practice amp on stage just to be spiteful. It was a revelation.

Volume, Gain, Mid,Treble, Bass, Headphone out, XLR out, line out. Very simple to use, not complicated. 12" Celestion vintage 30 speaker.

Classic Marshall JCM 800 tone in a little box!!! Although its single channel, its sound can change dramatically with changing the gain and eq. Great for studio work, you can turn it up to get the Marshall sound without going deaf. XLR out makes it easy to connect to your mixer.

No problems, its a solid little amp. Stays true even though I blast it on occasion. Just changed the tubes once.. that's it.

Emailed them, took awhile to respond. Alright I guess

This amp fit the bill for exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a JCM 800 to practice in the bedroom with and do some recordings with. This amp is perfect, cranked up, the sound is classic JCM tone. It's not too difficult to mic either, since it's not like the 100W heads. I even use the XLR out, and it sounds close the speaker output. The headphone out is great for playing quiet. If this thing were stolen, I'd cry and go look for another one right away. Great tone, portable, and versatile. Can't go wrong with this one.

1 channel tube marshall.12"celestion speaker.....made in '86

Distortion is average,overall sound is what you'd expect from an older Marshall.warm and crunchy..but you need to put in a higher frequency speaker,as it sounds like mud the way it is......even cranked,a digitech processor gets sounds way better than this amp does.

reliable

My name is Rob Lindbeck,i've been playing for 14 years,upside down and backwards,totally self taught in this fashion,main influences are Rhoads and Howe.I originally bought this as a recording amp because it sounds great direct to a multitrack,but the way higher bandwidth is in right now for great live playing,this amp is just way too dull in the highs to sound articulate over the drums and bass.

This is a small combo amp with one channel. It only has knobs for gain, trebele, mid, bass, and output. mono headphone jack.
Very LOUD for a little amp. wish it had more channels (you need to adjust the gain knob to go from clean to overdriven)or reverb but i just bought an echo and it sounds sweet with this amp.

I am using a 76 gibson les paul standard with this in my house and in garage jams with friends. It has enough power to compete with the loud drums. It has a real classic zeppelin/bluesbreaker tone

knobs are making a crackling noise but other than that its ok.

I grew up with that 70's zep sound and wanted a tube amp but didn't want to spend too much. I picked it up at a musicians flea market and had to borrow another seller's guitar and outlet to try it out. he was really impressed with the tone. The only downside is you can't adjust your sound much.

This is a 15 Watt Marshall with 12 inch speaker and all tude circuitry. It has a master volume, pre-amp volume, treble, bass and mid-range. It has a line-out and headphone jack. I give the features an 8 becuase I like amp controls simple. It seems the more stuff, the more artificial the sound. An important note on the knobs, the mid-range has an interesting quality to it...as it is moved to 6 and 7, the sound fattens up considerably and at 9 and 10 it acts as a second over-drive, although different because of the beefy mid-range.

I play a 1968 SG Special (P90s), a 1973 Les Paul Custom and a 1999 Mexican Tele with texas special pickups. I play a lot of blues, 60's rock, late 70's punk. This amp is great for all of it. The amp is very vesatile. You can get fat, shreddy white-noise as well as nice jangly mid-60's and country twang sounds. It is a bit beefier than a Fender, however. Also, the tone controls offer a lot of versatility. As I said about the mid-range control, it can beef-up the sound but back it off to 2 to 4 and you also get a nice jazzy tones. It is a Marshal, and so while it gets a clean sound, it always has the feel of pushing the sound a bit. Okay by me. Also, it being all tube and with not a lot of add-ons to confuse the issue, it has a very nice direct warmth about it.

Its about twelve years old, I think and its been great. I have to take it in for some work right now because the guitar jack input is buzzing a bit. I live in a very humid part of the country and all my amps seem to corrode a bit sooner or later.

Not had a need...

I have been playing electrics for about 25 years. This is one of the nicest small amps I have played. I like it a great deal. I played it against other amps when I bought it (Atomic Music in College Park, MD)and I really liked the sound and simplicity of operation. It would be tough to replace this if I lost it and it seems that the price is going up for old Studio 15's. It is a lot like having the baby brother of a Marshall stack. I may get another small amp soon, a Fender Blues Junior maybe, but only for variety, not to repalce.