Marshall VS2000 AVT50 112 Combo

Made in 2001 I guess, 2 channels clean/dirt, Accutronics spring-reverb for both channels (not assigable). Effects loop, DI out, Headphone jack, CD input, footswitch to select the channels. I wish
you could select the reverb too.

I use a Fender Strat S/S/S and a Yamaha Strat-clone. I bought this amp mail-order. I didn't demo one cuz I thought it's going to sound right after all the good ratings.

Now I've played it for a couple of weeks both at home and live and I think that I can give you an opinion about it.

1. The clean channel is really nice. Glassy treble and round bass. Headroom is also very good for 50 Watts Solid-State. It doesn't sound as nice as my TSL, but anyway, for what it is it's very good.

The dirt channel is a somewhat different story:

Past twelve'o'clock (gain) it's starting to sing and sound good. The more gain you dial in and crank this son of a bitch, the better it sounds, but be careful with the treble knob.

Below 12'o'clock (gain) or with little gain in general for my taste it sounds like shit. With single coils, you get a raspy, buzzy and always silightly compressed sounding distortion that sounds like a cheap solid-state junk-amp.
With my strat, this is especially the case on the neck/middle and middle/treble PU. It get's kind of muddy, it doesn't sparkle and quack and you can forget about anything "vintage" here. This effect is even more evident at bedroom volume levels where it sounds even worse. Gain-wise, forget about anything below 12'o'clock.

I rate the clean channel 10, the dirt channel 9 with the gain past 12 and 3 with the gain below 12.

Have it since 5 weeks.
The fan is already starting to make noise when I power up the amp. Kind of a "Wwwwwwwrrrrrhwwwwrrrrrhwwwhww...."
I'm gonna replace it anytime soon. Don't know why they had to put in a fan. Just take a larger heat-sink. Just as reliable and dead-quiet.

Beside this, no problems.

Don't know.

I've been playing for 10 years. As mentioned I also own a TSL head with a Marshall 2 x 12 cab.

For Rock and Metal the AVT 50 is a good amp. For mellower or bluesier stuff look for something else.
If it were stolen I think I would check out other amps before making a decision. Maybe the TSL 601 or the AVT 100 (3 channels, maybe they're voiced a bit different).

This amp has enough power for small gigs, jammin' and rehersals. The construction seems sturdy, except for the friggin' fan. Does it sound like a tube amp? No, but for a SS the clean and high-gain sounds are very good. I wish it would sound better on lower gain settings, though.

This is just an update to a previous rating on 9-11-01

After doubting this amp's dirty channel (and trading in my old ibanez w/ EMG's) i thought i would try the boss metalzone. I currently have a Shecter w/stock p/ups. Needless to say, the MZ is going back to Guitar Center tomarrow, after having this amp for almost 4 months now, i think that I have just become accustomed to how awesome this amp really sounds. Granted,the MZ does give you that exteme sound but, this amp sound's much better witout it and to tell the truth,is more original sounding than what all of us are forced to listen to on the radio nowadays. I am going to upgrade this wonderful guitar's pickups to duncan distortion/59's and have no doubt it will turn some heads without the need for stompboxes. My point being if you want to sound like every other band out there go ahead, go by your triple rectifier and PRS if you can afford it. If you can't then go by some crappy amp and guitar and stick some decent pedals in front of it(your MZ-2 and GE-7 no doubt). If you truly want a GREAT AMP go get an AVT you will not be dissapointed. These amp's sound so good putting a distortion box in the mix is a waste of money and tone! I actually feel bad for doubting how good this amp really is and sullying its tone with effects. You may not get your mesa trip rec tone with this BUT, I cant see that as being a bad thing.

This amp is as solid as they come. Never had so much as a glitch, practice once or twice a week with the band for the last four months at extreme volumes. This thing is built like a tank (weighs like one too : ). Cant really see anything going wrong with it, will gig without a backup until i can afford an AVT150 half stack with no worries.

Never called them, doubt I ever will.

Again, I've been playin' bout 15 years and this amp is the best thing that has hapenned to my sound in that time. After these four months I do wish that the amp had a mid EQ for the clean channel, and that's about my only complaint. This amp is not cheap compared to the other 50 watt combos it is competing with but you get what you pay for, and in this case i think that I finally got more than I paid for. If me and my fellow bandmates ever happen to get signed, this thing is going to be yelling at the mic's in all it's glory regardless of the equipment that is available.

Made in 2000 has 2 channels, tube preamp and 12 inch Celestion speaker with 50 watt power amp section. Looks as good as it sounds. Its a Marshall.

I use a 1981 Frender Strat and this amp is all me. This is the amp of my dreams- creamy clean channel with compression and sustain and a tremendous lead channel for a variety of distortion tones. Very loud amp- plenty loud for a band but responsive enough to be used in an apartment as a dream practice amp. Great tone.

Just bought it- seems tuff enough.

Marshall is a good company. They answer e-mails right away.

Best amp on the market for under $500. I have used Fender amps in the past and this Marshall has much better tone than the Fender amps and is more versatile. Good for blues, rock, metal, or even jazz or country/rock. I have been playing for 20 years and this amp sounds as good as the best all-tube amps I have ever heard- Boogie, Music Man, you name the brand and Marshall has them covered. This is the amp to get- for practice, studio or gigging it does it all. A winner. I also use the VOX Cambridge 15 as a practice amp.

The amp was made in the year 2001 and it sounds sweet. It features good eq but I wish there was more in the clean section for contouring and maybe the contour switch in the overdrive channel. But it sounds terrific regardless. And everyone says how unversatile this is, but I think it suits many styles of music. I happen to play alternative, rock, and classic stuff and its great for everything. Its got a great emulated output so u can send your guitar signal directly to a recorder and get the sound of a Marshall stack straight instead of through a mic. I hear its the best. The tube driven preamp is the best part of the amp and makes it happen. I like the closed back too.

great sound. I think this is the best value of any amp in this price range and the only good amps are Marshall, Fender, and Mesa/Boogie. Crates suck and so do Peaveys. Don't waster your money on these crappy amps, and at least invest your dinero in something like this Marshall, cuz its a great, solid amp. The bass on it is incredible and makes my Fender Mustang sounds so much heavier than it is, but also the clean makes it sound so clear and focused. Its a great amp.

Wouldn't break down at all. I've already had it up all the way, and although it eventually gets saturated tone as any amp does, its stays focused to about 7 which is great. It makes a weird revving motor noise when I start it up, but other than that nothing would ever be WRONG at all with this thing. Its extremely trustworthy.

They give a limited lifetime warranty for 5 years so thats good. Other than that I really don't know.

I have been playing for 7 some years and I've had this for a few months. I played it live 3 times and its never failed. It sounds great anywhere and the headphone jack is a plus. Some people think that is a wussy thing to have on powerful amps and just think they should be played loud or not at all. but man, this thing sounds great at 3 am when my parents are in bed. Its a great feature and great for spur of the moment song ideas! I also love the tube driven preamp and excellent Celestion extened bass speaker. The sound is so tight. I love it. It is great from Hendrix to Weezer. Can't get better for the price, thats for sure. And I know its got rave reviews from the pros as well.

This is a newer amp, of the latest line of Valvestate. Has the normal stuff, effects loop, reverb, and all that. Kind of limited features for the price, but other factors more than compensate that. Reverb is VERY nice. Very rich and real sounding, that Accutronics reverb really sounds good. The effects loop is kind of funny (sounds different), but works good. Comes with a 1 button footswitch, which was kind of dessapointing, since I expected something to turn the reverb on and off with. Use it at home, and it is definetly much more powerful for what I use it for. Tubes are nice...heh, heh, heh.

I use this baby with my Squier Affinity Strat, and believe me, if it makes this guitar sound pretty damn good, then it can make pretty much any guitar sound good. Even though it makes quite a bit of noise with the bridge pickup (that's my guitar's problem, not the amp) it sounds absolutely great. The clean chanel can get so f*cking loud, it's amazing, and with reverb it sounds awesome. Always stays clean. Raise the gain and it'll start crunching up, something I haven't had much chance to try, since the volume is so high it sends me flying to the cold, hard stone floor. Overdrive channel is superb. With max gain and bass, and about 8 on treble (suggested setting in manual), I can't turn the volume up past 2, because it just gets too damn loud. Amazing volume, with incredible bass thanks too that special Celestion. Makes my house totally shake.

Of course I would rely on my baby. Hey, look! I'm standing on my amp! I'm standing on my f*cking amp! Very well built, and heavy. Me and my girlfriend had to carry it to my house. Damn. I spent the rest of the day shaky and weak. Solid enough to break cement. I would most definetly use this monster on a gig without a backup, for 2 important reasons:
1. I love this amp, and it's sound, and have total confidence in it.
2. So all those little idiot m*therf*ckers who have their dumb little prick (barf!) Crate (barf!) "amps" can see the raw power of a 50w AVT.
It has never broken down, and never will, because I take good care of it.

3 month warranty, which isn't to bad, I guess. The authorized service center nearest me isn't to great, so I don't really have anybody to depend on to fix my babe. Except for a couple of buds, of course.

I've been playing for about 2 years now, this is my third Marshall amp, if you can consider a 1 watt and a 10 watt transistor amp as amps. I own 4 pedals right now, but have owned more than 6. I love this amp, I checked reviews for all the AVT's, but this one got the highest score out of all of them. I only compared it to other Marshalls, because all other brands of amps (Fender being the exception perhaps) are for sissies, and sound like shit. If it was stolen, I would buy another one, and find who stole it and make him listen to CRATE and PEAVEY "amps". WHAT TORTURE COULD BE WORSE THAN THAT??? Thanks to harmony central for leading me to buying this great amp. WOOOO!!

Features are kept simple... Just the clean chan and the od.. never used the footswitch.. couldnt not bear to take i t outa the wrapping..lame but true. heh. I play mainy rock.. and th od channel suits it fine. 50W is more than enough for me.. the volume knob is always kept at 1. Unless i feel wild, then it goes to 2.

Im using a yamaha pacifica... my first guitar.. has a hum and 2 singles. I awlays use the hum.. sounds gorgeous. I never dare to try turning it on a high volumes, so i will never know whether it sounds great or not. Overall, clean is clean, dist is dist..great!

Got it for a week, not too sure.

Not too sure again, never used them

Well..i used a boss xt-2 xtortion on my previous amp cos the amps dist was peanuts.. now i think i wanna sell the pedal.. lol. The amp rocks!

Made in 2001, 2 channels - clean and overdrive (can be switched with a footswitch), accutronics spring reverb, 1 ECC83 tube in the preamp section (the rest of it is made from solid state), headphone jack, cd input jack, emulated line out, FX loop, 12" Celestion spkr.

I use it with a Les Paul standard. Music I play: Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Metalica, Guns n Roses, Bon Jovi, Lenny Kravitz, Green Day, Creed, I love the clean channel - nice and crisp and very quiet when not playing. The overdrive channel I am not too impressed with it, why - it sounds like a loud waterfall-a continuous hiss that gets worse as the volume and or gain is increased. I also think that it sounds very muffled or muddy, when you play a chord you can only hear the first string. Example: if you were to strike the top E string, you could strike any string after that and you wouldn't hear it. But for amps in this price range I think it is the best I have heard so far. I think it blows away the Crates and Line6. (the loud hissing noise did not change when I unplugged the patch cord from the amp, so it definately is not from my cord or guitar)

No problems after 1 month. It is nicely constructed.

1 year store warranty, the manufacturer warranty I am not sure.

I am seriously considering getting an all tube amp.

Made in 2001, two channels, clean and overdrive, accutronics spring reverb. Comes with footswitch for the 2 channels. No digital-effects, no frills.

I use a Fender Strat and play different styles with different bands.

This amp has plenty of power for a solid-state amp. The clean channel really sounds damn good - and stays clean and thight even when you crank it up. One of the best clean sounds I've heard (also compared to tube amps) and great for funk, chicken-picking, jazz etc. If you max the gain if breaks-up a little bit, but not much and gives you a bluesy sound.
This amp is worth his money alone for this channel if you ask me.

The overdrive channel has a great crunch sound at medium gain (good for riffs) and really screams when you turn the gain up. Bottom stays real tight, as with the clean channel. I think this has to do with the new speaker and the closed back construction of the amp.
The overdrive channel is rather raw and vicious than refined and smooth, so if you're looking for a nice vintage overdrive or rather dark Recto sounds (high gain settings) probably you will be dissapointed. It's 100% Marshall chrunch and bite with a good amount of mids and treble.

One good point is that this amp really cuts through the mix. You will be heard, no problems here.

At very, very quiet bedroom levels the overdrive sounds are brittle (as with many other high-gain amps) so you'll have to turn it up a bit to really hear how it sounds like.

I'd give it a 10 for the clean and 9 for overdrive.

Have it since 2 months, no probs to date. I've had and have other Marshall amps and never had serious problems, so I don't expect to have it with this amp.

Usually, if an amp doesn't brake in the first few weeks chances are it will never break at all, tube wear and other thins excluded.

don't know

I like this amp. The first solid-state amp that I belive the 50 Watts.
The sounds are cool and sound good. The reverb too.

I also have a TSL 100 Head, a modded Plexi, a Boogie Mark I and a Flextone. The Flex is fun to tweak and doesn't sound bad, but on the high gain settings if you turn it up it gets mushy and doesn't stay tight. Not so with the AVT 50. For smaller gigs now I use the AVT, the Mark I is so damn heavy to carry around, besides that it's a different kind of sound.

To all the other posters that give this and other amps on this board a rating of 1 - stop whining and bashing about the amp and go home and practice. Don't blame the amp if you can't play.

In todays competition you hardly will find any amp from any company that really sounds so lousy to deserve a rating of 1 - and if, then why did you buy that piece of shit??????

I thought this would be a versitile amp. Much to my dismay when I got it out of the box, I found that the footswitch only changes the channels, it does not turn the reverb on/off. What the hell is up with that, I mean I like my chorus pedal but I don't want to leave it on all the time!! For that reason alone I sent this amp back, sorry I need versatility.

The problem here is that it actually sounds fantastic. I had my 2501 JCM 900 (50w/1x12 combo) right next to it and could actually get the same overdrive sounds out of the Valvestate. It goes from crunch to grind with no problem. The clean channel is good too, you can hear all the notes played. Reverb sounds nice (too bad it's not switchable :( .

This is a great sounding amp, unfortunately you can't switch the reverb on/off. That is a MAJOR issue with me, I need flexability in a 2 channel setup. Maybe Marshall will get a clue and come out with a 2002 series AVT50 that you can switch the reverb on and off. I sent mine back to Musician's Friend and went back to playing my Mesa Maverick. Too bad I really liked the sound. If you don't mind leaving the reverb on or off all the time, or are planning to use it as a studio amp I think it's great.

I am a huge fan of Tube amps, but have never really been Marshall fan. This amp has all the features you will need for a 50 watt combo.

As I said I have played a lot of Marshalls, but never purchased one because they always sound very nid range to me. With this amp they changed the rules. Tons of bottom end. What really amazed me about this amp is the clean channel. I have about 10 amps now from peavey to Matchless and this amp is my favorite clean!!! Crank the preamp and you get a growl that is in the Tube Amp Realm. Out of all my amps I have this one hooked to a Rivera Los Lobottom, and will have to say it is pretty close to the ultimate club rig. And of course the distortion is just Nasty on this thing!!

I have not had any problems so far, and the amp sems to be well built.

Never Dealt with them..

One of the reasons I liked this amp is simplicity. I had the money to but the 100 or 150 but you should play them and see the difference. The 100 and above has a digital reverb unlike this amp which is standard spring. I can tell a huge difference here. Give me the spring. Thats what sold me. The digital reverb on the other models sounded almost fake.