Marshall VS2000 AVT20

Modified to work as a small bass amp, as detailed below.

OK, I read some reviews below that said this made a good little bass practice amp if it was modded a bit. Our sound man has been steering us toward smaller amps run through a higher quality PA system than most bands are likely to be using. I installed the correct Eminence B102 10" speaker with whizzer cone for the full range sound without those earache piezo horn tweeters that most bass cabs use. When are bass amp manufacturers going to quit using piezo horn tweeter crap and start installing decent bass speakers with top end? I ordered one of those speaker vents from Parts Express and dumped in almost a pound of Acousta-Stuf per the previous review. The first few minutes were underwhelming, but I was in a too-small room for bass waves to develop. I moved to a bigger room and pounded the speaker for a while. Holy cow! This is a fine sounding little bass amp now. Gets that vintage Jack Bruce overdriven Marshall bass amp sound without driving you deaf. The gain control lets you dial in the correct amount of overdriven bass amp fuzz without getting too loud for a practice session. I tried running a Tech 21 Sansamp RBI through this unit, and no go. The two preamps interact with each other and produce horrible dreck, although the RBI sounds great through a stereo or PA system or anything else that is squeaky clean and Hi-Fi sounding. The Marshall tone section just has too much tonal shifting to begin with, and needs no help. You COULD just buy this amp and do no mods whatsoever and use the DI output jack to plug straight into the PA system. You will sound almost like a Marshall tube amp through the PA, although the bass coming out of the amp loudspeaker will be bass weak. You will need the bass speaker if you mike it into the PA system. You can also plug into a small bass cab through the external loudspeaker jack and forget about a speaker changeout. However, the Eminence B102 is a better speaker than you will almost ever find in any cabinet, even the expensive ones. No large cab I plugged into could match the quality of tone I could get in a small room with this amp. It actually works better for acoustic and clean electric guitar that it originally did with the cheapo Celestion speaker with little dinky magnet. The B102 magnet is HUGE, and heavier than the heaviest 12" Celestion guitar speaker magnets. Tight and clean is the description of the sound, if you back off the gain and play at lower volumes. I recommend the B102 for guitar amps that need a 10" speaker that is tight and clean. Hey, it even makes a good organ speaker according to the Eminence website. You can get any tone from clean to crazy overdrive, and then use the DI output to drive the PA system. My big amp days are over. I sold my old Peavey solid state bass amp with 18" folded horn cab. This tube emulating bass amp is much more articulate and versatile, and a high end PA cab will outclass most bass cabs for delivering true tone. Put your big bucks into your PA gear. Everybody in the band uses high quality small amps now, and either mikes or runs an internal output straight into the mixing board. The overall sound has improved, as our practice amps have also become our gig amps and we get the exact tones as our practice sessions. My Sansamp RBI run into the mixing board is my other bass sound, but no matter how you tweak those knobs, it CANNOT exactly emulate this little amp. This does Marshall amp sounds better than the RBI. We play mostly rock, British Invasion through the 80's, depending on the audience. The overdriven tube amp tone is our sound, but packing big tube amps is a thing of the past for us. One of the guitarists is now using the Marshall AVT50 the same way I do and going into the mixing board for big gigs, and running through the amp only at medium or smaller indoor gigs. There are usually three to five small tube amps in use by the guitarists at a normal gig, so I decided to follow their lead and go stealth as well. Glad I did. I'l

It's a Marshall, so it's about average. It's small, so carry another small amp or preamp as backup. Our multi-amped PA is our backup.

It's an English company, and you probably aren't in England. It'll get fixed, but not too soon.

This is a modified amp, but the amp circuitry was left intact. All mods centered around the speaker and cabinet upgrades. There are much better guitar speakers on the market than what comes in this, although it's not the worst speaker out there. Amps with open backs can't get down like this one does. It literally rattles the furniture around the house, the doors will buzz, etc. Loaded with a better speaker, this is one of the best heavy metal amps out there at the price, and good for vintage tube bass amp sound as well......at a volume level the neighbors can live with. Oh, I tried several other NOS American tubes in the preamp section, and the standard Marshall tube built by Ei hung with the best of them. If I was mainly a guitarist, I think I would prefer an all tube amp, but the solid state power section improves the amp for bass and detuned heavy metal styles. I guess it gives tighter speaker control or something. I spent $125 on mods and shipping costs. The original amp was $225 with very little use on it. The all tube amps that sound better will all cost more. And probably break more and cost you more upkeep. This does not have a fan like the AVT50 and works better at very quiet levels. This amp took a load off our back. The two smallest AVT amps sound better than the big ones with all the extra power and crap added on. From now on, the PA does the heavy work at our gigs.

This amp can't be older than 4 years since Marshall first released these in 2001, I believe.
This amp has a simplistic presence, which is good for some and not good for the tweakers. I am not gonna parrot the features, but I will say that although the headphone jack will be handy on occasion, the sound out of it is serious ss flab and fuzz. That is OK, I hardy use it.
This amp, through the 30W Celestion, is a LOUD 20 watts. The reverb is good... wet and drippy at 5 and above.
The ECC83/12AX7 is apparently completely saturated at full gain, which is what Marshall promised: not to make the tube into a pilot light... you can tell: the gain is ripping roaring, though I replaced the 3 year old Marshall ECC83 with a cheapo Sovtek 12AX7A/7025, (but the Sovtek was a fresh tube) and it sounded much chunkier and not so buzzy. For kicks I put in a 1959 12AU7 Telefunken though the clean was phenomenal, the gain was even better, though I took it out for I wasn't sure if it was a safe swap.
In essense, a fresh 12AX7 with a rounder gain is recommended, or perhaps even a 12AT7, which is a safe-swap tube for the 12AX7. You will have to experiment with different tubes to find the right one that sounds right for your ears. You mite even like the stock tube.

Using the amp with Ibanez GAX70 and Carvin SC90T, both with 10's. I actually like this amp now that I found a tube that doesn't sound as buzzy as the stock tube. I also have a Fender Champ and an Electar Tube 10.
The clean goes from real smoove clean to gritty clean, which is a very good range and extremely versatile.
The gain, WITH THE RIGHT TUBE, starts where the gritty-clean left off and goes to boarderline metal-mayhem.
When I first had this amp, I was disappointed with the fuzz-buzz distortion of the stock ECC83. Like I mentioned: a tube swap changed all that. Also, at higher volume the speaker also starts to flavor the sound positively, so it is important to be able to get the amp up in the higher decible realm to get a feel for the sound it can produce. Though this amp doesn't have a big power tube, the little preamp ECC83 is maxed out and really butters up the guitar signal like no transistor can.
The amp is a keeper.

Haven't had the amp very long.

Haven't had to deal with them yet.

For the price I paid, this amp is a dream. It is not a tube amp and it is not a solid state amp, yet it has a non-ss distortion, especially at higher volume when the speaker starts to interact with the amp, and yet it has a shorter warm up time than a full tube amp. I have a few tube amps, and the AVT20 is a very good alternative to them, especially considering the sometimes outrageous prices even the little tube amps command.
I have also had numerous ss amps in the past, and the AVT20 just has an almost organic kind of sound compared to the pure ss amps, though not quite as round, soft and organic as my little Fender Champ.
In my opinion, Marshall has hit a bullseye with the VS2000 AVT20 amp and I have only good things to say about it.
At $400 it is a bit expensive, though if you can get it for under $300, you would be happy. I lucked out like a rabbit by getting this one for $160 and I still can't believe it.
I actually bought this amp without ever hearing it. I bought it on a hunch on ebay... and the price was too good to pass up. Sure enough: my hunch was right on. This little 20 watt amp combines the best of tube amps with the best of ss amps. I really like it a lot.

This amp has 1 channel with distortion/clean button. It is 20 watts, 1 10 inch celestion speaker. CD in, DI emulated out for recording, ext output, and headphone input. I give the features an eight because it has only 1 channel. this amp also has one tube pushing the pre amp.

I use this Marshall with a Dean MLX and a modified Epiphone korina explorer. i mostly play metal, thrash, and rock. I played a solid state Hughes and Kettner that sounded as good if not better than this amp. It dosant get the tube sound like Marshall says it does. probably because it only has one fucking tube in it. It sounds better than most other shitty amps like crate and ibanez but still sounds too shitty to even want to play live with. I hooked it up with two 8 inch speakers it it sounds way better now. The distortion is very good for rythym if you keep it at 10. It sucks for leads. It has good reverb but i never use it. The clean is ok but it takes a while to find the right sounds. It is just not worth the money.

It is very dependable. strong as a fucking tank. I gig without a backup. This amp has never broken down and I abuse all my amps.

I have never had to deal with em

its a great begginer amp if you got the money. I would not recommend pros using it.

Bought new in Feb 2004
Adequate features for what I play (jazz/blues/Miles/Police/pop backup)
Has adequate reverb (barely), wish it went deeper. Would love an effects loop, but after all, what do you expect from a $300 amp? A better speaker is in order: see below.
Use it at home and occasionally at open-mike jams at local pub. Other players have tried it there, and it cranks out, no problem

Boss Octave OC-1>Ibanez TS7> Boss Chorus Ensemble CE5> MXR Phase 90 >
AVT20. Have a Frankenstrat with two Duncan Vintage single coils, and a JB at the bridge: AND a new Squier Affinity Tele (the butterscotch one) that i just put an old Dual Sound Dimarzio HB (coils in parallel)
in at the neck. Great!
The amp has the in-your-face-but-lean punch that I love, the amps I've had before were too flabby, overly soft or thin, too romantic-sounding. All this pertains to the amp with an Eminence Ramrod speaker
I installed --- the factory Celestion lacked the puch and volume I desired; the Ramrod is 6 dB more efficient, which in effect gives me four times the acoustic power of the stock speaker. The stock speaker was OK. butfor $50 you can drop in a Ramrod (Eminence's "British" 10 incher) to give yourself a honkin' musical little monster. I originally had a 12" Eminence GB12 with this amp (had to build a new cab to house the two (see my review of March 1 2004) and this new 10 incher let me go back to the original cabinet and keep the kickass sound.
What i love is the clean channel and the way you can make it break up when you push it, The distortion channel is great, sounds like a stack
ESPECIALLY when you record it via the DI output jack. I play the clean channel exclusively----just my style

No experience with Marshall, but the amp appears well thought-out, laid-out and built to last.

If it were lost or stolen I'd be torn between getting this one or spending the extra to get the AVT50. Whatever i got, however, for anything under $700 or so it would be one of the AVT models. After all these years (25) of playing, these things are a great amp at a great price

You know... I wanted this amp to be everything. It's close. It has CD inputs, tube preamp, headphone jack, etc. Everything you'd need for a nice practice amp...almost.

This is where this amp falls short. If all you've ever played on is a solid state amp, you'll be impressed with this amp. However, if you've done any extensive playing on a genuine tube amplifier, you'll be disappointed. Honestly, the tube preamp doesn't warm the sound up enough to pass as the coveted tube amplifier sound. Nor does it behave like a tube amp, which gives out lush warm tone and just enough natural compression. However, I can't find a nice 15 watt tube amp with CD inputs and a headphone jack for practicing without sacrificing that wonderful sound that comes out of a genuine 100% tube amplifier.

Also, for the price this amp costs (I think that all Marshall amps are overpriced, honestly), I expect a better speaker than what they give you. It's not that it's bad, but a nice 12" Celestion V30 or Greenback would be much nicer, esspecially given the rather high price of the amp.

In all, it sounds maybe a little better than a good quality solid state amp, but miles from a quality class A amp.

N/A

N/A

My local shop has a Traynor YCV-20WR for $499 and will negotiate even further, and it has genuine class A construction and a 12" Celestion Greenback. The AVT 20 goes for around $350, but doesn't sound a lot better than an amp that costs less than $200. If the Traynor had the headphone jack and CD input, it would be a no brainer. However, if you need these options, this is about the best thing going. It's a shame, too. I'm sure there is a market out there for a nice 15 watt practice amp with a quality speaker, headphone jack (preferrably with speaker emulation), and CD inputs at a reasonable price. However, I have yet to find one. Honestly, save your money and get a nice solid state amp with the hookups, or go for either the Traynor YCV-20WR, or the Fender Blues Junior. You'll be much happier with real tubes, or a little more financially sound with a solid state. However, I really can't recommend this hybrid. Cheaper amps deliver the bells and whistles, slightly more expensive amps deliver the sound.

Very basic single channel amp but all you need for practice and jams with friends, decent reverb.

Sounds best with humbuckers or hot single coils like a P90. I pulled the back cover and sawed 3 inches off bottom to get better cleans then installed a new Celestion Tube 10. Much better overall tone! Louder,richer with better bass response. Tube 10 has a much larger magnet and more sensitivity so amp is more fun to play. This is a perfect size and weight amp to throw in your car go jam with people and gets plenty loud and quick dial in to good tones.

Time will tell, no probs yet.

We are in America, they are in England, 'nuff said?

Very good for what it is intended for, a great sounding portable practice amp with Marshall valve tones.

Enough features for a practice amp.

It's practically impossible to find good little bass practice amps that have that old Marshall stack tube bass sound without going to a big Marshall tube head with a speaker stack. Basically, they don't exist without going to digital modeling. The analog Sansamp RBI preamp comes the closest, but you still need the power engine or other power amp/cab combo. The AVT series has a Marshall stack sound in a small package. I needed a low power amp for practice with the Marshall bass sound. I installed an Eminence B102 bass speaker, but I could have used a BP102 for more bottom and less treble response, if using for nothing but vintage bass sound with lack of treble response. You should pack some acousta-stuf or other damping material in the cabinet as well. You can also use a separate bass cab if you want. A Celestion G12H30 speaker in a separate cab would work fine. The early bass speakers did not sound like the bass speakers used today, being similar to regular guitar speakers. The B102 is very clean with treble beyond guitar speakers and the AVT20 can then be used as an acoustic amp when the preamp gain section is disabled. The difference is that you can achieve a level of clean sound that the stock speaker is incapable of. Maybe it would be better to get the AVT50 and install a G12H30 or G12H80 speaker. To use the AVT50 with a G12H30 installed and a separate cab with another G12H30 might be the way to go for a mini-Marshall bass stack to be used in conjuction with a guitarist using a 10-20 watt tube amp. But I wanted a really small "grab-n-go" bass practice amp. Plenty loud enough for the bedroom or living room as it now sits. The tight bassy speaker improves the flexibility as a heavy metal guitar amp as well. Marshall should release a studio model of this amp with a G12H30 speaker installed. The cheap low line Celestion speaker is the letdown of the amp. I tried several replacement tubes in the preamp section, and went back to the original Marshall tube which is a selected Ei tube. If a Marshall tube is not available, install an Ei ECC83 tube as a replacement that preserves the tonal balance. The Ei tube had microphonic problems at first, but latest production seems to have solved the problem, and the tone is great, otherwise Marshall would not use it as standard issue. These tubes are also inexpensive, so you can toss them if they go microphonic. Angela Instruments had them as low as $7 each. Those with negative experiences of the amp should tighten all screws and try another tube before condemning the amp. It was OK for guitar with the original speaker, but terrible for bass. The stock speaker has a dinky magnet, and is low in efficiency. OK for guitar practice in a small room, because you can overdrive the speaker without earbleed. Also, my active Spector bass has 40 Hz bass boost and treble boost that is on either side of the AVT20 tone controls, giving me essentially a 5-band equalizer with the low bass and high treble controls on my bass. Passive basses do not sound as well through my AVT20, mainly due to the midrange hump character of the Marshall sound. You need a bass with bass and treble boost, not a mere passive tone control that simply rolls off the highs. Vintage Fender and Rickenbacker basses do not get the job done as well as the Spector, but OK if you only want a vintage midrange humped bass sound. Detuned heavy metal guitars sound awesome through this amp as it now sits. You need nothing in front of this amp for good tone. Using an RBI in front caused a lot of dead notes and generally ruined the sound, although the RBI sounds awesome through a clean PA system or into a recording console, which is its intended purpose in life. If you can bypass the preamp section, then the RBI would probably work, but you buy a Marshall for the preamp section. Basically, all you need is your axe and this amp with the correct speaker for your style. An overdrive pedal will work for axes with low output passive pickups,

I would say the reliability is about average. No breakdowns yet, but judging by build quality and components chosen. The particle board cabinet means it isn't meant for dropping off the back of trucks. OK if you transport by car away from other extremely heavy gear. You get what you pay for, which means no glass epoxy boards at this price, and board mounted pots, jacks, and switches. You will need exact replacements when breakdowns occur.

Never dealt with Marshall customer service yet.

Price reflects what I paid the original owner, without costs of modifications. Do not pay much over $200 for a used one. The new street price recently rose to $350, so look for a used one so you can spend some money upgrading the speaker. If Marshall would install a premium Celestion speaker from the beginning, my rating would be 10 for the price paid. If you can afford $170 more, the Traynor YCV20 is a much better amp in stock trim. Buying a new AVT20 and paying for a top line speaker raises the price to tube amp territory, and I think you should just get a tube amp if that is the sound you want. This is an amp for buying used and dinking around with to get the sound you want. A pro that wants a small club amp should definitely step up to something like a YCV20 with birch plywood cabinet, long spring reverb, glass epoxy boards, better hardware, and better grade Celestion speaker. A used YCV20 is better than a new AVT20 for guitar use, and about the same price. Using a 12" speaker, the selection for upgrade is much better. Yorkville customer support is the best in the business, and Marshall is mediocre from what I hear. Not a big deal if you fix your amps yourself, like I do. This little amp works for me.

I bought this little sweetheart new around August '93. I had my sights set on an AVT50, but couldn't afford it, so tried this one out.
Great! I've owned Fender, Boogie, Roland, Peavey, Carvin etc., and played through some Marshall heads, but this baby is a little marvel, for me anyway. Love it's projection and punch (more on this later). I play jazzy rock (rocky jazz?), and this thing gives me everything from Van Halen to the Police to blues'nboogie. It has quasi-channel switching between clean and overdrive via pushbutton on the front pannel, but it would be nice if Marshall made that possible by footswitch. But what the hey, this is a $300 amp, and someone with a little technical skill could make it happen. Love the tone controls: simple and wide-range, especially the treble. The amp is very responsive, hair-trigger if you want, and responds to changes in guitar settings and playing styles better than anything remotely close to price that I've tried. It really cuts through in small live gigs.

The amp was pretty impressive in its stock form, but I tied cramming a 12-incher into it to improve things. No luck, not enough room. So I built a new amp cabinet and am running an Eminence Legend GB12. This gives me a 6dB (fourfold)increase in acoustic power, turning this little amp into an awesome little giant (the new cabinet is only 1/2 inch taller than the original). Celestion has come out with a new line of speakers, including a new 10-incher they call the Ramrod, with a similar 6-dB increase of efficiency over the AVT20's stock speaker. This simple drop-in replacement could lead to Valhalla.
I play a put-together hardtail strat with Duncan vintage single coils
in the neck and middle positions and a Duncan JB with tapped coils at the bridge, a phase switch and an onboard preamp with a midrange boost/cut control centered on 300 Hz. This setup lets me dial in anything from old fat-man jazz to Andy Summers lean, and the midrange is a great tool for generating amp-overdrive harmonics while leaving the overall loudness relatively unchanged.
The distortion channel's great, but I use the clean channel for the stuff i play most of the time, with the Gain at about 8. This lets me control distortion from the guitar. To be frank, I never have cranked it up gonzo in the overdrive channel with the 12-incher, as I'm sure it would be pretty scary! The clean sound from this amp is what turned me on originally; everything else sounds either too muddy/fat or too thin. The reverb isn't anything to rave about, but it's adequate.

No experience with Marshalls, but the amp appears to be well-built.

A better 10" stock speaker would improve it a lot. A 12" model would be great.
Footswitch-controlled channel switching would be nice.

I received my new ATV-20 from a good friend who owns Fayette Music Merchants,in Fayetteville, Ga. as a Christmas gift! Talk about a surprize! The amp has already seen several gigs with a 5 piece blues/rock/oldies band and works real well. Reverb is ok, just like others, I wish it had channel switching-got to use my 1980 Ibanez STL tubescreamer to get good tube overdrive. Power is a little weak, but guys- that's what the DI jack is for- just pump it throuhg youe PA just a touch, and you're in tone paradise- Marshall sytle,, for $300 or so. And it doesn't weigh a ton either. Great sound for hybrid amp.

I play out a '59 Les Les Paul historic that just rips with this amp. I get a good clean tone for almost any style of music, great for blues. Amp doesn't make any weird noise, but if your push volume past about 6-7, she begins to break up a tad- just like a 20 watt tube should. The darn thing sounds just like a 50 watt Marshall going thru a 4-12 cabinet,tone wise,only smaller! Only pedals I use are the tubescreamer and an old analog Boss DM-3 delay. Again- I wish they'd jack the price $20 and give us a 2nd channel with footswitch. The on board distortion channel is very good- just have to access it with a push button.

It's about a month old- already seen a lot of play and practice time- I think these hybrid amps were pretty unreliable when they first came out, but I think Marshall has these down right now. Don't expect any problems- will be only amp I take out on small-medium club jobs.

Never dealt with Marshall. Expect they would play fair. Amp has a year warranty, and service shouldn't be a problem, should you need it.

Guys, I've been paid to play since I was 14 years old, have a good professional day job but still enjoy club work and opening up for concerts 1-2 times a month. I have several nice guitars and amps, but this new little Marshall is my favorite amp right now. Compact, good tone, adquate volume, good looks, built well, hey - I like it! It's got more push than my Blues Jr, more tone than Crate or Peavey, yeah I'd probably get another one if this one walked off. It really is a Marshall- has that tone and feel- just right with a Les Paul with hot humbucker pick ups. A big "THANK YOU" to my friend Mitch- you da man! This is a very nice amp for $300 or so. And if it ain't loud enough for you, buy it for the tone, and run a line out into the PA- you'll be glad you did! Should do well for about any style of music.

this hybrid amp pretty much has the basic stuff, just read the past reviews. my only complaint is that the channels are not footswitchable and don't have seperate eqs.

i'm using a terrible jay turser les paul copy with two humbuckers >> dunlop jimi hendrix crybaby >> dod 7-band eq >> boss ds-1 >> marshall avt 20

i play pretty much the 80's metal style, but modernized of course. the amp does a very good job of getting the sound i want, but i actually get a better sound through headphones.

the tone of this amp is just simply amazing, the mids are your best friend on this amp. i bought a boss ds-1 earlier and i still use amp distortion more, it just shows that the amp distortion is great. the eq works well and the gain knob is very wide ranged, i can go from clean to heavy metal distortion. no matter how i tried, i could not get a bad sound with this thing, it can never go harsh.

this amp is a freakin' tank, but the knobs do worry me a bit. the volume knob has slightly gotten loose, but not enough to hassle or worry me. it has seen some road use and it holds up really well. i don't think i would need a backup.

never had to deal with marshall.

i'm 14 right now and i have been playing for two years. if this amp was stolen, i would go for a much more advanced amp (marshall jcm 800, 2000, etc). i just wish this amp was footswitchable, if it was, i would use this thing continuously for gigs. i got this amp because it was a hybrid amp, not all solid state, it kicked all of the other amps asses. although, i can say that i could have gotten a much better amp for a better price, but i'm happy with what i have.

This amp is a hybrid and features a tube preamp section, and amazing crunch. I really like that ?Marshall tone.? Versatility is really not an issue, as I like it HEAVY; period. After all, who plays through a Marshall for clean tones!!! The owner's manual is helpful in suggested settings. I can get that classic "British" sound as well as the more modern thrash metal sound. It features 2 channels, but I always use the heavy channel. If I switched back and forth, the lack of a footswitch would bother me, but it's moot. I use it as a practice amp, so it?s MORE than enough power. I suppose it could be used for small public performances. If I could change anything, I'd LOVE to see a tube power amp section as well, but with fewer watts, so as to get the heavy sound at lower volumes. The line out effect is nice for recording.

I rated it "10" in this category simply because I love the sound which I consider the most important feature! See below as well.

As for sounds, as stated earlier, I play heavy rock. I play ONLY Gibsons through the amp. There?s nothing sweeter than a Gibson through a Marshall on overdrive. This amp delivers in that arena (heaviness). I never use the clean channel.

The jury is still out on reliability. Valvestates have been notoriously unreliable in the past, but we shall see.

N/A yet, and I hope it stays that way!

Overall, I'd rate this at least a 9 so far (about 1 1/2 months after purchasing it. The only reason it is not "10" is that it's still young and so the reliability issues are still in question). I've played 20+ years. I've played through Peaveys (not bad) and a Marshall head (too much power for what I need), also a Marshall MG 10 (which is amazing for size & power). I would buy the AVT 20 again if it were lost or stolen. I love the "pure" tube distortion of the preamp (that almost sounds oxymorinic!) I was planning on buying a Marshall MG 30DFX (a solid state!!!), but (honestly) the store didn't have one; it only had this one. Once I plugged in, I was sold, and only $50 more that the aforementioned MG 30 DFX!

See other reviews. Made for practice and studio. This is NOT a do everything guitar amp, but an affordable practice amp for Marshall tone freaks.

It sounds a lot like a Marshall tube amp, without the cost and hassles of frequent output tube replacement. It has only one channel, but you can get clean to overdrive gain distortion on that channel. The reverb is a nice feature, but surf music players had better stick to their Fenders. The only reason to get this amp is for its good bottom end and a need for the classic Marshall sound. There are actually better deals if you are not hung up on Marshall tone. This is as close to a Marshall stack as you will find in a small portable package. This is a small amp for small rooms, even a small club, and if you want Marshall tone and use it in the right way, you should be satisfied. Also a good practice amp for bass players wanting a vintage Marshall overdriven fuzz bass tone. The stock speaker isn't good for bass guitar, but you can use the DI output jack to hook to a better amp or PA system. Those wanting an upgrade should really change the speaker first. The supplied EI tube that is branded Marshall is a very good preamp tube, because I tried several others I had and preferred the stock Marshall tube. You are limited in selection of 10" speakers, compared to 12" speakers, so you might just want to hook it to an external cabinet with a 12" speaker. The supplied speaker is fairly weak when it comes to clean tone, and the undersized magnet does not give tight bass notes. At the very least, through some speaker damping material in the cabinet to reduce the internal reflection distortions, unless that peakiness of certain frequencies is what you want. This mod costs next to nothing, and you can add the amount and type of damping material that sounds best to you. I have Acoust-Stuf in mine, and it is available at places that sell speaker components, like Parts Express. It doesn't matter if you use single coil or humbucker pickups. I use both, and famous users of Marshall amps used both kinds as well. You can sound like Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page with this amp as long as you use the right guitar.

Not really a dedicated gig amp, but you could use it for that. Marshalls have been average in reliability, and I would expect this to be one notch above their all-tube amps in reliability.

Marshall service is mediocre in the States, but I hear they are better in Great Britain.

I bought mine in slightly used condition. You can do better at the retail price if all you want is a good practice amp. I could have bought a new Roland Blues Cube 30 for what I gave for mine, and enjoyed superior Roland reliability and a 12" speaker, but I wanted an amp with Marshall tone. I also needed a portable practice amp, or else I would have just bought a Tech 21 SansAmp RBI or one of their even cheaper pedal boxes like a Tri-AC. The new Epiphone Galaxie 25 Tube goes for $350, and it's real tube type circuitry and uses 12" speakers. The Roland Blues Cube 60 is also attractive in the same price range, but it's a bit much for practice. For about $520 you can get a Traynor YCV20 that craps all over this amp (as it should at over $200 difference in street price), but you can't find them used for $200 or less. If you want a sound that is similar to a Marshall stack in your bedroom, then this is your best choice. All others would be better off looking elsewhere. Buy the Roland Blues Cube 30 if you just want a good reliable practice amp for the least money. But for those that will only be satisfied with classic Marshall tone, THIS is your "baby Marshall", and as close as you will ever get without investing big bucks in a Marshall tube amp.

A lot of features for a little practice amp.

For $200 on the used market, it really gives you all you need for practice. Later on, when you improve, you can upgrade the speaker and take your playing to a higher level. 20W is plenty for practice, believe me. I make furniture rattle in my small bedroom where I practice. Don't even consider a new MG series amp, just pick up one of these used if money is tight. The closed back design gives less of an open sound, but the bass is excellent for the size and price. Throw some acoustic stuffing in the cabinet though, in order to do away with harshness caused by the internal reflections through the paper speaker cone. The reverb is decent, but you'll never mistake it for a vintage Fender. This is an amp for rock tone, which is exactly why you buy a Marshall in the first place.

This seems a lot better made than the MG series, but of course it isn't a boutique amp. Mine has performed flawlessly so far. The plastic input jacks do not inspire confidence, however. Since they are PCB mounted, you will need exact replacements.

The best customer support is workers who build it right so that you never have to dink around with warranty claims. We'll see.

These amps are fairly common, so look for one in mint used condition. I see them all the time on eBay. Musician's Friend (and a lot of other online dealers) has them new for $300 delivered.

This is a 2 channel 20W hybrid combo. It has a headphone jack a DI out and a CD input to jam along with a CD play out of the same speaker. The DI out sounds pretty sweet, you can tell the speaker the amp comes with is rather cheap. I really wish it had footswitchable channels, I hate stopping in the middle of a song to switch channels.

I play an ESP Eclipse with EMG 81's and a Dean 7 string. I bought the AVT 20 because it could do the metal and hard rock sound pretty good for a practice amp. It does have heavy speaker distortion when playing the 7 string, I do not mind it though as I am usually playing distorted with that guitar anyway.

The distortion channel sounds as full as a peavey prowler all tube combo that I tried, though not as loud of course. The clean channel was a little lacking, it is no Fender. It is pretty loud for a 20W amp, makes it easy to piss off the neighbors in my apartment. I did have to make some adjustments to it to get it to sound more like I wanted though. Strait out of the box I found the sound to be rather muddy and the distortion kindy of fizzy when cranked. The reverb is a little weak and tended to go "sproing" during hard playing when set above 11 o'clock. I put in an EH 12ax7 and pitched the POS tube it came with. This made the amp a little louder, a little less muddy and made the distortion channel less fizzy. It still didn't sound right so I took off the back panel. This really helped with the muddiness on the clean channel. I swear it was strangling the speaker.

I can get very close (need a little more gain) to a metallica style distortion with it now.
My big complaint is the channel switching. No footswitch, and there is a major boost in volume when switching from clean to dirty. Enough to make you jump until you get used to it.

For the rating it would be a 7 without the mods and an 9 with. I think I may try to change the speaker in the future based on some of the reviews I have seen here.

As a note I did try a friends NOS telefunken 12ax7 to see if it sounded different from the EH12ax7. Sounded warmer than the EH but it did not have quite as much distortion. I'll keep the much cheaper EH.

Shortly after I bought the amp I had trouble with the volume dropping off and the noise level sky rocketing at the same time. Sounded like a waterfall or something. I took it to the store I bought it from and they said they couldn't find the problem. So I took it home and the same problem kept happening only for longer periods. I brought it back to the store again and they kept it for 6 weeks and still did not find the problem. I changed the tube later and voila, all problems gone and have stayed gone.

I did try to get a hold of marshall through the website but found it difficult to get a hold of them and brought the amp to the store instead. The repair was not fixed under the warranty. I repaired it myself.

For a practice amp, it is very good.
I have been playing for about three years and this is my second amp. I started with a Fender Champion 30 and didn't really like it compared to the AVT 20. The AVT was a lot more warm and had a much more satisfying distortion channel.
I usually use my ESP into a crybaby classic wah into a DS-1 into the amp. I only use the DS-1 when I need both clean and dirty in the same song. I tried using the guitar volume knob but the amp does not clean up enough to be very clear when on the distortion channel at the gain level I like.
I like the AVT20, it does lack a bit of fullness in the clean channel until you crank the gain, then it gets a pretty good blues tone. The distortion channel is almost enough for me, it can get really heavy though, heh heh.
If it was lost or stolen I would probably try and find a good all tube combe to upgrade to.

It's a 20 watt practice amp, with the usual features. The speaker out jack and DI out jacks really add to the versatility. No footswitching is available, so that limits it for gigs, but it's really a practice amp at heart. The CD input and headphone jack attest to that. No effects loop, so any effects need to plug into the single input jack.

This amp gets great Marshall overdriven tones at volume levels that will not leave you deaf. It's still quite loud in a home environment, however, if you turn the volume up enough for the FDD power amp output circuitry to kick in. Preamp distortion can be had at any volume level due to the master volume control. The clean channel is adequate at lower volumes, but don't sell your Fender amp if sparkling clean sounds are what blows your hair back. True, the Celestion G10-30 speaker is a cheapo with a small magnet, but that is what allows the speaker to interact with the FDD circuitry to get a sound similar to a transformer coupled tube amp that is driven hard at full power. The sound is better with humbuckers (less hum) and has quite a bit of singing sustain. Single coils work OK as well, but be prepared for the hum and know it will not capture the classic Marshall rock tones as well since they are usually based on humbucker pickups. Hendrix and Clapton with their Strats are notable exceptions, of course. This amp really gets close to a lot of classic Marshall amp sounds. It sounds more like a real tube amp than any hybrid amp I have ever heard. It sounds better than some tube amps I have heard. If you HATE the cost and problems associated with tubes, this could be your answer. The preamp section uses an ECC83 tube, and it therefore has a genuine tube preamp sound. Marshall has done a good job getting the output section to sound tubelike. You really don't have to buy any extra pedals to get classic rock sounds in your home or studio with this baby. In that respect, it's a real bargain for a beginner with little cash to spend. Just remember, it ain't Fender, Vox, Ampeg, or Hiwatt tones this amp excells at; it was made to capture a variety of classic Marshall tones in the overdriven mode. You can use the clean mode for other tones provided you have the right guitar and/or pedals for what you are looking for (I used a SansAmp RBI, but found it wasn't necessary for Marshall tones and it actually hurt the sound some of the time). The tone controls have quite a bit of range. They seem to interact with each other; for instance, making a large change with the midrange will affect how the bass and treble controls act. This may cause a lot of knob twiddling at first, but once you lock onto several basic tone setups, it's quick and easy. The reverb is a dinky unit and has limited usefulness. You have to turn it up quite a bit for a noticeable effect. Like I said, it ain't a Fender. The peakiness in the sound is very easily fixed by putting some damping material in the cab. The sound is 8 in an absolute sense, but is the best at it's price point if a classic Marshall type tone is desired.

Now for gigging, the output will be a bit weak and the lack of footswitching may cause problems for you. I looked up the G10-30 specs on the Celestion website and discovered that the efficiency is rather low at 94 dB. I really don't know who makes the best 10" speaker to load into this if you need more volume and need that classic Marshall tone to stay around. Using a B102 like a couple of other reviewers did WILL definitely alter the tone, as that is a clean bass guitar speaker. The best Celestion 10" speaker made might do the trick (Vintage 10?). I hear good things about Weber speakers, and they sell direct and can offer good advice based on what you are looking for. At least they know their own speakers as they are the factory. You will need at least 97 dB efficiency for enough volume capability for live gigs. If you basically leave your amp set up the way it is and don't switch between channels, I see no reason you couldn't gig with it provided you find the right speaker with enough efficiency. You could also say to hell with a speaker changeout and just use the DI out jack straight into the PA system if the club where you play has a good PA system. As you know, the quality of club PA systems is a real crapshoot at best. Anyway, the tone ca

These sell for $300 street price, and you don't get the world's best built amp at that price. It's a practice amp, and not meant for touring and heavy banging about. You should get a decade or two out of it if you treat it halfway right. One thing I did was take the particle board back off and give it a nice thick coat of flat black spray paint. The ultra thin coat of paint it came with was getting scratched very easily and looking ratty. This quick fix makes it look $100 more expensive. You should throw in some damping material while you're at it and see if you like the change (smoother sound). The output section is mounted on a fairly hefty heatsink, so I'm hoping it doesn't burn out from constant high output usage. This amp hasn't been out long enough to really form any long term opinions. You will have to change out the preamp tube every so often, but that's a minor expense and a small cost to pay for real tube preamp tone.

Never dealt with Marshall service.

I bought mine used. It had some scratches on the back that I painted over. After throwing in some damping material, the sound has really been smooth and reminiscent of Marshall amps I have on favorite recordings. If Marshall had put a decent coat of paint or some tolex on that back panel, and if they had thrown in a bit of acoustic damping material (about $2 their cost for the materials), then it would get a solid 10 considering the price. I suppose you could get a cleaner sound by changing out the speaker, but that might hamper it from getting the classic Marshall tones it was designed to capture. It is what it is: a Marshall practice amp designed to get classic Marshall amp tonal response without a lot of cost or upkeep problems that all tube amps come with. It's the best tube emulator amp I ever heard, and with none of that digital crap. The single preamp tube shouldn't cause much in the way of problems or expense. It's more versatile than many all tube amps, and better sounding than some of them, as well as being more affordable. I've been messing around with amps, mostly solid state, since the late 70's. Big Marshall stacks were expensive, often unreliable, and not practical in a home environment. The AVT20 changes all that. Classic Marshall tone in a small and affordable package, PLUS you don't need to go deaf in getting that sound, or need to hook up an expensive "power brake" or other such nonsense. I like this amp a lot and am glad I bought it. I would buy it again, especially at the $200 price you spend for a clean used one. It's the cheapest way I know of getting that classic Marshall sound. It might work for you as well.

Fairly standard for a basic practice amp. Reverb is a spring unit, but it has very short springs. No effects loop. You have to get special effects from an input pedal. Has external speaker jack, which greatly ups the versatility, but keep it 8 ohms or higher. No channel switching or reverb switching, but has a gain boost feature. You are going to be sitting/standing next to this amp, so you don't really need footswitching.

The sound is a little better than mediocre for this price class. It turned out to have a very good tube installed in the Ei ECC83. I compared it to another Ei ECC83 I had and a NOS 12AX7 and an E-H 12AX7, I liked Marshall's tube the best by a small margin. The cheapo Celestion is what compromises the tone. Buy yourself an upscale Celestion, Eminence, Jensen, Weber, Fane, etc. I installed a little over a half pound of Acousta Stuf damping fiber and a Scan-Speak resistive flow vent to tame the resonant peaks and dips. I then installed an Eminence B102, and it's now a mean little metalhead practice amp, but it also does amazingly well on the clean channel with the gain cranked way down. Almost like a Fender and clean enough to play acoustic guitar through. The B102 sounds like total crap for several hours until the suspension loosens up. You might want to load it into a 2x10 bas cab first and let the bassist pound the crap out of it for a while with a lot more than the 20 waatts the AVT20 puts out. The AVT20 can break it in, but it takes some time due to the low power. The speaker breakup is now caused by the FDD circuitry, and not any by the bass guitar speaker. It's more of a Hiwatt/ Orange/ Matamp type of output distortion that doesn't kick in until really pushing the output stage. Of course, you always have preamp distortion, but it's the FDD circuitry that gets the most tube tone in my opinion, as it tries to mimic an output transformer that is overloading. You have to buy a great old tube amp at a cheap price to get better tone for the money when you install an upgrade speaker. Use some common sense when choosing the speaker. Weber makes all kinds, but the Eminence B102 gives a great metal sound with awesome bass response for a 10" speaker. Like an Orange stack but at a manageable practice volume.

Marshall is mediocre. Try it before you buy it, as these amps are very mass produced and can have glitches that a slower and better built amp would rarely have.

Marshall service is variable, as a lot of people do it. Find a good warranty station and you should be satisfied. Marshall is big and a bit impersonal as a result. Rely on a good Marshall dealer or repair shop.

My price includes upgrades. I gave $225 delivered for a slightly used unit. You should really like this amp IF you get the right speaker installed. The speaker that comes with the amp has a dinky magnet and distorts too soon for my taste, which muddies up the tone. Too muddy with humbuckers, so go for a speaker with tighter bass response if using humbuckers. I use a Gretsch, Rickenbacker, and Washburn 6-string guitars.

2 channel 20watt tube pre-amp solid state power amp with reverb, built in the UK. Only thing missing is a footswitch input.

I just traded in my MG15DFX for this model. Although this modle was just about twice the cost of the MG15DFX it was money well spent. This thing can get just about all the classic Marshall tones and it is quite loud for a small package (all i need for at home). The clean channel is just brilliant and with the proper tweaking you can get it to just begin to break-up for a great classic tone. The Dirty channel is every bit as good giving everything from that classic SRV & Hendrix tone to Zeppelin to Rush and just about anything else. It even comes real close to that true warm tube feel and tone. If I had the extra money and a place to crank it up I would have entertained the idea of the 50watt version. But as it turns out this tyhing just plain screams.

Since it is less than a month old I can not comment on this as of yet. But being UK built and not from Asia I assume the quality is quite good.

Haven't needed to ever use Marshal CS, I have never had an amp go out, at least not a Marshall.

Overall rating is a 9 due to the lack of a footswitch input. Being 37yrs old my taste in music is mostly classic rock 70's & 80's and blues/fusion (SRV & Hendrix) and this tiny beast gives me all I need (for now at least). Just turn it up to just over half volume, set the reverb at about 1 0'clock, step back and roll the volume up on your guitar and look out.

Has:
-gain
-OD switch
-volume
-3-band EQ
-reverb
-headphone
-DI out
-Speaker Cab out
-Direct power-amp input

-Pretty versatile, reasonable clean, crunch, in-between, this is what Marshall does now - they try to make amps that can imitate every Marshall ever made.
-Could have more gain for metal type players but I play bluesy stuff and classic rock so there is more than enough gain for me
-If it had a footswitch that would be great, or two channels, but it's too cheap for two-channel design
-More reverb would be nice, but just for when you want tons of reverb. For normal playing there is enough.

-I have used it with an Ibanez GRX 20 which is a Strat with humbuckers essentially, I put Seymour Duncan 59 pickups in it and it worked fairly well. Good classic rock sound, Marshally type you know. sounds like mix between Strat and LP, versatile open sound
-Used it with Warmoth LP Special guitar made with mahogany body and maple neck, same pickups as above (the very same individual pickups, yes). Sounds like LP and Marshall surprise surprise, not so bright, the guitar itself is not as loud as Ibanez so I need to use more gain, EQ differently with more mids and less treble
-Used it with above-mentioned Ibanez GRX 20 and Seymour Duncan Custom pickup, does metal, punk stuff since it is now essentially a Tom Delonge strat. I don't play that guitar through the amp since I don't like heavy stuff.
-It's open and responsive, certainly enough for me. I haven't played a valve amp but I imagine this is pretty close. I get the same frustration as the valve amp guys when I use digital modeller stuff so I can say for sure that it is better than that.
-Needs high-output pickups to get really distorted

Urrm, no. This is the main problem with this amp, or my one at least.
-Bought it November 7, 2002.
-Broke January 8, 2003, really annoyed me because I got a new guitar for Christmas and I couldn't play it with this amp.
-Arrived in repair shop January 11, 2003
-Repaired after "issues" with serial-number-on-receipt problems in June, had problem with a fuse.
-Broke again on July 22, 2003 (two days ago as I write), likely same fuse problem due to similar symptoms. Not happy, I am thinking of buying something else.
-Out of the box all the screws were loose, so it buzzed even at low volumes. Luckily I had the experience and proper tools to rectify this problem. Righty-tighty, lefty-loosy.

Wow, I have sure had experience with this.
-Yes, I have tried to get it repaired, under warranty. Warranty is 90 days for valves and fuses, 3 years for speakers and labour, 5 years for other stuff I think.
-Had fuse changed under warranty the first time, took so long that now (the second time) it's not under warranty.
-Found authorized service center quickly, easily, but was not at all happy with his efficiency or work ethic. Terrible.
-Marshall responded in one day to this guy when he finally got around to calling them, not their problem, just the local techy I guess
-Got to take both people into account, since Marshall was quick but the service center was amazingly, astonishingly, mind-bogglingly, incredibly, and last but not least depressingly slow. I would split it 50-50 but you know Marshall should really deal with these guys so I shan't

I have gone through my electric guitar and pickup collection above, I also have a Fender dG10 acoustic guitar and a Yamaha Clavinova CLP80 digital piano. I have also a Behringer V-AMP2 and a MX60 6-channel mini-mixer. I don't feel like documenting various guitar cases and picks and cables and strings and stuff so I won't.
-Played guitar for two years, played piano for about six sort of. . .
-Didn't actively compare it with other stuff, but I figured that for about $300 it would be one of the better amps. Sounds good, looks nice, but well you know it broke.
-It has broken and I'd like someone to steal it or preferably buy it from me so I won't have to fix it, then I'll have an excuse to buy a new amp and I won't need to pay for this one to be repaired.
-If I knew that I would hardly get two months of actual playing time (seriously, check out the timeline above) out of it I would not have bought it. No way. No-one should. I would have bought a Fender Pro Junior, or a Crate since those things have a reputation for not breaking and they sound alright.

Somewhat limited features, but the sound is really good. I just add a effects box (which actually sometimes makes the sound worse). Excellent for recording as it has DI jack which allows you to basically run the same sound to the line as through the speaker. I;'m not an expert in this, but it's gives much better results

I used Washburn Mercury with stock pick-ups. Most ups I've tried gave me annoying loud clean channel, I thought the problem was guitar. When I heard this I was sold, pretty quick. Before that I owned a dean M-16 which pretty much drove me to classical music. This amp will definetely insure electric come-back. It's laud as hell for 20W. Tone is really good and versatily. Lacks base a little. Great amp, no need for any distortion pedals

Looks good so far

I only owned it for couple of days, so I'm considering replacing it with the 50W version. Separate control for both channels would be nice but it suits my needs

two channels with shared eq. Every thing else has been covered below.

Crunchy little amp. I've noticed many below have changed tubes, speakers and removed back panel. Tells me they did not like it as is. I think the tone of this amp is great but it has too many peaks and valleys. Maybe I did not set it right but my ears would ring every time after playing it. Like razor blades hiting my eardrums. Maybe I had it too loud or did not set the eq right but I tried different settings and as much as I liked the tone this amp just burned my ears. The reverb is weak. Digital would have been better.

production line Marshall. Looks like it would last 20 years.

n/a

Would I buy again? Well I bought two. I returned the first one because it did not work. Then I bought another kept it for about 3 weeks but I thought if I kept it longer I'd damage my ears for ever. I'd try it again but I found a Lead 20 Marshall that sounds great and I can play at the same volume as the AVT20 without the icepicks on my ears. The Lead 20 does not respond as well as the AVT20 when rolling back the volume on the guitar and it does not have as much crunch but I was able to afford a good distortion pedal with the money I saved. Even if I spend 100 bucks on a reverb pedal I'll have spent the same amount total as I spent on this amp in total and have "channel switching" with the use of the distortion pedal. I'd say try it yourself and see what you think. The tone is good but I just could not take the bright, shrill sound. But maybe I set it up wrong.

Marshall AVT20...made in 2003. I play hard rock, like: Creed, 12 Stones, Kutless, Lifehouse, ect. It works pretty well for any style.
1 channel, 3 band EQ, reverb, headphone jack, DI jack, ect.
I wish it had 2 channels, but the AVT50 costs more, so. I use this amp at home in my room, most of the time. I have taken it out once or twice for a little practice with one of my friends and it holds up pretty well for low level practice. The amp is loud enough for practice....not for all out gigs though, cause theres just one channel and no channel switching. It's got a ECC83/12AX7 pre-amp tube...I've found that it's a peice of cake to change the tube in it...it's plug and play.

I use a Gibson Les Paul Studio Plus, Morley Mark wah. The amp tends not to have the best of the best distortion, but I've found some good EQ settings for it. The amp does 'hiss' and 'crackle', but thats because you gotta change the pre-amp tube...the amp will lose some of it's punch and will lose volume...thats an indication ya gotta change the tube...but once a new one is in there it's back to tip-top condition. Overall...it's got the best sound i've ever heard in a low watt combo.

I depend on it all the time...it hasnt let me down yet.
It's the perfect practice amp.

Korg USA is pretty good....i've emailed them once and answered my questions very well.

I've been playing for 2 and a half years. If it were stolen I would buy the AVT50, cause I could use it for smaller gigs and it has 2 channels, with a footswitch. I love almost everything about this amp...except one channel, but ya cant have everything. I compared it to Marshall's MG line but, the MG line sucks.
It's the perfect practice amp....I use it everyday for an hour...it's a lot less hasle buying the AVT line, cause when you buy a small all tube amp...sooner or later your gonna wear out the power tubes...and then ya gotta go through all the stupid bias crap and it's costs money....so in the long run it pays for itself (the AVT)cause all ya gotta do every once in awhile is cough up just a few dollars for only one 12AX7 and it lasts a long time.

This is an update on an upgrade that I made to this amp. The Celestion speaker that comes with the amp is not bad at all but I believe almost all mass produced amps under a grand suffer from price point speaker deficiency. So I contacted Ted Weber at WeberVST.com and asked him for a recommenation on this type of amp. Without hesitation he suggested the 10F150T. About a week and a half later that speaker was installed in my amp and I have to admit I was a bit skeptical that the change would warrant the extra $80 investment. I must say that after putting approximately four hours break in on the speaker the tone of this amp improved significantly. Mass improvement!

Now the amp has a much tighter bottom end, stays articulate throughout the entire register, and is not so sharp in the peaks. It sounds much more Fendery. I noticed only a tad more volume to this already loud 20 watter. The new circuitry using the EH 12AX7 really warms the SS tone up. What I'm playing thru this amp are a Cort Jazz guitar w/ Fralin humbuckers and a couple of Danelectro's a U2 and a modified Danoblaster that gets really good Tele sounds but with a whammy bar.

Time will tell...

I have found my perfect home/practice amp that has more than enough features with low and higher volume tone to satisfy my needs for a long time. And this is using only the clean channel. It's like having a Marshall and a Fender all in one package. With the Weber upgrade I couldn't be more pleased. It just sounds...right!.

Pretty standard stuff, distortion channel, 3 band EQ, reverb--just one channel. I wish it had a foot switch input but for the money I don't mind. I mainly use it in my apartment and it's plenty loud--my favorite feature of it is actually how good it sounds at moderate levels.

I mainly play rock/emo stuff, and it's perfect for that. I use it w/ a Gibson LP and I can totally get the Jimmy Eat World-esque guitar sound, as well as the more over the top metal distortion. On the clean channel it's pretty nice sounding, and very quiet (buzzes a bit with my Strat but that's the guitar's fault.) It also doesn't have a cooling fan which helps keep background noise low in recording situations.

Seems pretty durable to me.

The 5 year warranty has my back if needed.

Only been playing a year, but have been recording guitars for years--this thing sounds great for what it is. I would definitely buy another--the DI output even sounds pretty good.

2002. Same features as in other model described here. made on the cheaper side: glue, woodwork..does not really inspire confidence

well, my other practice amp is a Roland Blues Cube 30 and for 100 bucks less, thre is no best value here.
warm but muffled, very loud, so OK for practice small gigs but not really abetter sound than most of the cheap all tube amp or some very cheap entry level solid state, specially for 300 bucks

should be OK but for home practice. constrution does not seem very strong and cabinet will fear humidity. Knobs and some parts really cheap looking. assembly is OK. Speaker is well attached but overall cabinet squeaks a little.

n/a

OK for home practice and if you wanna own a Marshall for the brand but there are definitely better deals on the market.

I chose the AVT 20 over all other practice type amps for five important reasons. Tone/warmth, compactness/portablilty, excellent reverb, clean headroom, and tone....oh, I already said that.The AVT 50 was even better but was much too much for in house playing. The 20 does just fine. These two amps share unbelievable tube like warmth for a SS/hybred amp. Far and away better than the pact.

I try to emulate sounds as much as actually play guitar. I lean towards the Frisell, Cooder soundtrack stuff with surf and blues thrown in the mix and was very picky as to clarity in a managable package. Sonic goo is good as well but this amp is as quiet as they get on the clean channel. I don't see using the distortion channel much if at all.

I've had a couple Marshall amps and they are as durable as any mass produced amps out there.

No idea.

Been playing since 1980 and own and have owned many name brands as well as a boutique tube amp. It takes a lot to impress me tonally because of these acquisitions. I really don't care about all the gadgets on modeling amps thought they do have their place. I needed a strong base to work from and believe this amp will work perfectly for my fiddling about. If I do decide to play out again I see no reason why one couldn't mic it. I usually ended up doing that anyway. The AVT 50 is a real player for the gigging musician but for home use the AVT 20 is super. I highly recommend both for any type of music.