Marshall VS2000 AVT50 112 Combo

see below

SOLD IT..........I really liked the sounds of this amp, but I had enought about the damn FAN inside which has been crapping out five times. The last time it happened during a gig, something inside the amp got too hot and broke (smoke).

To the folks at Marshall:

INSTALL A BIGGER HEATSINK AND GET RID OF THESE DAMN FANS IN YOUR NEW LINE AMPS (AVT-Line, MG-Line, MODE FOUR) OR SPEND TWO BUCKS MORE AND GET SOME BETTER QUALITY FANS.

For the price, you get exactly what you need. The reverb is sweet, its the only real effect any amp should have besides overdrive. However, only a bass/treb EQ on the clean channel, I dont know why they didnt put a mid level, but its hardly annoying.

I cant believe this amp, its really an incredible beast. Turning up the gain much above 1/2 is really worthless however, it really does its best metal sound at just above 1/2. The crunch on high gain clean or low gain overdrive is amazing. I absolutly love this amp for its lower overdrive feel! And whats more amazing is how versitile it is, especially when you play with the EQ, you can get some really retro sounds to heavy metal.

However, when trying to play completly clean its no louder then a cheap practice amp, and its sad because this has to be the loudest 1x12 out there. And as mentioned, most of the heavy gain is worthless, its just not needed for anything at all.

Where did they go wrong? After almost a year of owning it there are some problems. First, when switching channels you get a pop while in the middle of holding any degree of note. This is a pain in the ass if you have people sleeping in your house, its quite loud.

I can really live with the pop, but the next problems annoy me very much. First off, it seems the footswitch will flip from clean to overdrive for no reason at all. And it isnt a clean switch, its sounds like its trying to switch back and forth very slowly. Sounds like an amp having a bad trip. Then the fx loop does the same exact thing! It doesnt do it too much, but it just can kill your current playing mood to have to take off your effects and fiddle with the footswitch in the middle of a song.

Its really too bad, this has to be the best sounding distortion ive encountered, especially in such a small amp. Im not keen on paying $1500 for a head and another $1000 for a stack either, but you get what you pay for.

Marshalls everywhere, information everywhere. Never had to deal with customer service, but if your amp doc cant repair a Marshall its time to get a new doc.

Beautiful amp, with some reliability problems and clean channel issues that make this a great small crunchy amp good for practice and small performances.

If your a begginner or intermediate its great, so versitile, but once your taste has developed you really need to get some better equitment that wont fail you.

This Amp was made in 2002. It has one small tube in the pre amp which can accurately re-create tube sound. Has your two channels (clean and overdrive, which are simply amazing I might add), channel switching with pedal (comes with it), effects loop jack, cd jack, and a headphone jack. I mostly play classic rock and maybe a little modern every now and then, no metal whatsoever because it sucks. I use this for practice and to jam with friends/band mates. It can produce well more than enough sounds to play most indoor gigs and more than enough for jamming.

I use this with a Les Paul with two stock Humbuckers and it just blows me away how good this amp sounds. You can pretty much play anything through it, it is very versatile. This will start shaking your house at around 4 or 5 with the gain all the way up which leads me to another thing... The overdrive is crystal clear! You can hear every note being played instead of just a blob of noise.

I have only had it for a week so I cant really judge it here. It is more than two years old and still works fine. Plus if something did go wrong, you have the good old Marshall 5 year warranty to go along with it. :)

IT'S A FREAKING MARSHALL FOR GOD'S SAKE. It isnt one of those crap amps that everybody else makes that is made in Indonesia. It is made in England. Which is probably better than it being made in America. I have never dealt with marshall, but its marshall. 5 YEAR WARRANTY!

I did my homework and tried many amps and this is the one I chose. I just love this amp and If you get it I know you will too.

Amp was made in 2004.....Very versatile, I play everything from classic rock, jazz and a BIT-O-METAL. I use this amp both as a practice amp and as a small forum gig amp (AKA.... wedding singer) In a few larger settings that I felt that I needed more demension, I mic'd it. If I played at larger forums on a regular basis, I'd either step-up or get a cabinet. . I would like a 2nd overdrive channel, but hard to play the 100/150 watt version in the house at over-drive levels w/o having a visit from the local Sheriffs department.

I play 3 guitars. Gibson Les Paul Studio ( I am sorry, I do play it in public and love it!) Fender American Strat and a beat-up Acoustic Martin. (Mic'd only) The clean channel plays very well at any volume. Has a tube feel to it. Compaired to a Crage ss (solid state) AMP I have used in the past,it has a great full, warm tone, espicailly with the Gibson. The distortion channel, IMHOP, is great TOTAL MARSHALL SOUND. I can get anything from mild to WILD! I just wish it could play at an even lower volume with "Dirt" added. I accomplish this by useing headphones for those times when you do not need, or want the neighbors to know what I am playing. The effects loop is a cool addition. Though, for what I play, just a neat aditional tool that I don't really need. As of yet.

I can't give a TRUE rating as I have only had the amp for 3 months and played at only 5 gigs..........So, I will give it an 8. I'll give it a 10 if it still performs as well in several years.

I have no issues so far. No need to use their customer support.

I'll give it a 10 for any amp under $500.00. It is a great deal. Hybred's give you the TONE comparible to a full tube amp at a much more comfortable price and the reliability of far less tubes. I'll leave the Crate models such as the XT120R to the 16 year old that only wants to play total overdrive, bangs away and only cares about decibels.

2 channels, reverb, headphone out, CD in. All the things I need this amp to do. No built in effects. And that is good for me since I rarely use any. But has a series effects loop if you want to put any in there. And has an external speaker jack that the built in speaker connects to. So can be run right to a cabinet for more/better sound when gigging. I rate it high for a lack of effects and other features I don't want. Hard to find a basic solid state/hybrid type amp that doesn't have DSP in it. Mine came with an Electroharmonix 12AX7 in it. And a 4 ohm Celestion with a really small magnet. Looks like a Rocket 50.

Most of my playing is rock, blues, and also dabble in jazz. Guitars used are a 58 Les Paul Historic, Peavey Wolfgang std, and Fender Telecaster.
I am really happy with this amp. I use it primarily as a practice amp at home. But it is definately capable of gig use. Sounds better at low volumes than my Marshall TSL60. When an all tube amp is to loud for the playing area, I use the AVT . I really like how it responds to the volume control on the guitar. Usually set up clean channel a little dirty with guitar all the way up, and then cleans up when the guitar volume is decreased. And the overall volume stays about the same. The overdrive channel responds the same way, with more distortion of course. Overall it does clean really well, all the way to more gain then I care for. I have played it through Celestion V30 and G12H speakers in my external cabinets and the tone is better at higher volumes than the built in one. I am a tube amp lover, but this AVT is great when you just can't turn it up loud enough to make power tubes sound good.

No problems with mine. This is my second one. Sold the first one, then figured out how much I needed it later. No reliabilty issues. But I haven't had either one more than three months. The 12AX7 tube could go bad I suppose. But I have a stockpile of them. Only takes 4 screws to get to it. This is actually a good backup for my TSL60. The cooling fan in mine is quiet.

No problems. Never would depend on warranty service. Not to say that its bad. I always expect the worst.

I love it. Great as a practice amp. Sounds good at low volumes. Need it loud, plug in a good external cab. Really versatile amp. Fills in when my 3 other all tube amp can't do it.

I am not going to describe the features in details. You can go to Marshall's web site and look for yourself. I bought mine Aug 2004. I like the Headphone jack as I normally use it at night. I wish it had more effects in addition to reverb. I seldom use the clean channel. If I want to play clean, I use my Fender amp.

I am using Epi LP custom with Gibson pickups and Mex Fender Strat. Sounds very good to me on the overdrive channel. This is one of the sounds I have been looking for an amps that cost less than $500. Unfortunately, the cooling fan of this amp is very very annoying to me. Most of the time I play soft like volume 1 to 1.5 and I can really hear the motor of the cooling fan. I unplugged my guitar, turned on the amp, went down stairs and I can still hear the motor of the cooling fan. I cannot stand it! In the store you cannot hear it because it was very noisy there. So, I returned the amps and I feel bad about it cause I really like the amp. Since the cooling fan impacts the sounds, I am giving it a 7. It would have been 9 otherwise. If you play loud you won't hear it and probably it won't bother you. Don't let this stop you from buying it. Give it a shot first. It is not fair to compare this amp to a tube amp but it is fair to compare it to another hybrid amp. However, it sounds like a tube amp sometimes.

I am using Epi LP custom with Gibson pickups and Mex Fender Strat. Sounds very good to me on the overdrive channel. This is one of the sounds I have been looking for an amps that cost less than $500. Unfortunately, the cooling fan of this amp is very very annoying to me. Most of the time I play soft like volume 1 to 1.5 and I can really hear the motor of the cooling fan. I unplugged my guitar, turned on the amp, went down stairs and I can still hear the motor of the cooling fan. I cannot stand it! In the store you cannot hear it because it was very noisy there. So, I returned the amps and I feel bad about it cause I really like the amp. Since the cooling fan impacts the sounds, I am giving it a 7. It would have been 9 otherwise. If you play loud you won't hear it and probably it won't bother you. Don't let this stop you from buying it. Give it a shot first. It is not fair to compare this amp to a tube amp but it is fair to compare it to another hybrid amp. However, it sounds like a tube amp sometimes.

Never deal with them.

If the store has the same amp with a quiet cooling fan, Yes, I will buy it again. I like the sound of the overdrive. I am not sure about the clean sound. One thing I do not like about this amp is the cabinet. It is made of particleboard - cheap! Would have been nice if it were thick plywood. I have been playing the guitar since 1960. I first play the Ukulele on 1958.

I paid $450 in Jan '04, so I believe it is an '03 model. The features cover my needs for playing Led Zepplin, Kiss, Aerosmith and other similar bands. The reverb sounds great. Its nice to have a real spring reverb rather than a simulated digital reverb. I was not looking for fancy effects but for a good sounding amp.

I use a Les Paul Studio. The clean channel is just ok. It seems to distort at lower volumes than I had hoped for. However if clean was the most important sound I would have bought a Fender or other amp. Marshall is about rocking and the overdrive channel sounds great. When the volume is high I have to back off the gain to keep it from getting too muddy. I may try a speaker upgrade.

I played this amp beside a Crate 60 Watt solid state amp with lots of digital effects and the Marshall kicked its butt. I use this amp mostly at home but have jammed with a garage band on several occasions and it definately held its own with a drummer. I also played an all tube marshall JCM 112 combo for almost twice as much and was just as happy with the AVT-50 sound.

Its an amp that roars and can be played without going deaf.

I have owned this amp for 8 months and have had no problems. I cannot speak for reliability yet as I don't haul it around so it does not receive any physical abuse.

I have not had to deal with customer support. My only concern is that if there are problems you have to deal with Korg USA. I would prefer dealing direct with Marshall. Not sure if Korg is a "parent" company or if they are the USA distributors.

If the amp had a clean mid-range control and if a better speaker would make an overall improvement I would rate this a solid 9. Placing a skimpy speaker with a great sounding amp does not make sense other than to cut costs. For these reasons I give it a solid 8. A great amp considering the price of all tube amps. Also, to saturate a power amp you would have to crake up the volume and use an attenuator to not blow your ear drums out. Therefore I am not dead set on having an all tube amp. The 12AX7 preamp seems to do a great job. I would love to hear this amp in a 4x12 cab.

I definately reccomend giving this amp a good try at your local music store.

Two channels - clean and distorted. At the moment im in to doing john petrucci and paul gilbert exercises, that kind of tone - I mostly play rock and anything above it. This amp isnt versatile enough to nail anything, but it'll "do the job" providing you dont need to use the clean channel for a cheap price. The reverb is half decent.

Using this with a Brian Moore I-1. Clean channel is basically a joke, not worth commenting on - and the distortion is good, well as good as you could expect from a hybrid amp at such a cheap price. For a beginner or amateur it'll do the job but lets be realistic - it cant compare to the likes of an all tube amp. Can't really hit any "sounds" as such, but it'll do.

Well it did me proud, no problems UNTIL after about 4 years of ownership the thing stopped and started to smell like smoke, now all I get is a crappy frizzle. Don't know why this happened - it's in amp hospital now.

Took it to Billy Hydes in melbourne - god knows if ill ever see it again lol

I've been playing five years, and owned this amp for 4 of them. If this was lost or stolen I'd have a good laugh cause the theif would have wasted his energy, he might as well have stolen a bar fridge - costs about the same and makes the same kind of hum, just less loud, plus the marshall won't keep your drinks cold. I'm waiting on a genzbenz el diablo to be shipped to Australia - a REAL amp - so in summary - buy this if you're a beginner wanting something better than a 15 watt solid state - or amatuer needing a backup - apart from that its nothing special.

This is perhaps the best hybrid single tube amp on the market.

This is one of the best sounding Marshall amps out there right now. It's let down by that cheapass bottom feeder Celestion speaker which is OK for practice volumes. For live work, you need an upgrade. If you want Classic Marshall tone, you have to upgrade to a top line Celestion Speaker like the Vintage 30, Greenback, or G12H. My fave is the G12H for its fabulous low end response, but my style is moderate to heavy distortion at high volume. Country players need the Vintage 30 or an Eminence speaker. Save the bottom feeder Celestion speaker for an old Crate or Peavey solid state amp you can pick up for chump change. It's an 8 after a speaker changeout, and the volume is increased. I stuffed my cab with 1/2 pound of acousta-stuf to take out resonant peaks. Now its a true quality sounding amp, and fairly loud. The tube was pulled and tested as well as other tubes I had laying around, including some NOS tubes.

This depends on how you treat it. The particle board cabinet and phenolic resin circuit board will NOT stand the abuse that an amp with a plywood cab and glass epoxy boards will take. If you keep it in the home or studio, or transport it very carefully, it should hold up. The workmanship is of a higher level than the construction materials. Slap another coat of paint or two on the underpainted backboard to prevent scratching of the particle board or it gets trashy looking quickly if you haul it around. All jacks and pots are soldered to the board and require exact replacements.

It's from a big company and they act like a big company. Expect it to be a bit slow and impersonal. People have wildly varying experiences with Marshall gear.

I'd buy a few spare pots and jacks if I depended on it for a living. It's only a 6 or 7 as a stock unit, which is good at the low price end of acceptable REAL amps. Try a better speaker and consider another tube before passing judgement on it. Those things make a lot of difference. It almost plays at the quality tube amp level now, and I would prefer it over some all tube amps I have heard. Fairly easy to get up to the 8 level. Buy this amp used, because lots of them are in circulation. Then spend the money you saved on a few upgrades and for less than a new one you get better sound with better parts. This amp is too expensive new because several all tube amps can be had at that price on the used market and will perform at a higher level.

Do you know what year the amp was made in?
- Yes, it was made in 2003

Is the amp versatile enough for you and the styles of music you play? What are those styles?
- It's extremely versatile. You name it, you can get the sound, if you take the time to fiddle with the settings. I play nothing but metal.

How many channels? Does it have channel switching? Effects loops? Headphone jack?
- Two channels, Channel switching via foot controller, Effects send and return, headphone jack, reverb.

What features do you wish it had? Why? Are there features you never use?
- I wish it had two OD channels like the AVT100 and up models and an FX mix dial a la the MG100 series. Since this model is pretty basic, I pretty much use them all. I have no effects currently so the FX send/return isn't being used.

Where do you use this amp? Does it have enough power for you?
- I'm new to playing, and I kinda suck, so I just play in the basement. It's 50 watts of hybrid power, and it doesn't take a whole lot to start shaking the ductwork in my basement.

What guitar and pickup styles are you using it with?
- I play a pre-Fender Jackson RX10D with a EMG81 in the bridge. Tasty stuff.

How does it suit your music style (and what is that style)?
- I only play metal, and it does one heck of a job at that. It's no triple rectified monster, but for what it is, it suits me perfectly.

Is it noisy? On what settings, and in what environments?
- If I get within a foot of the amp with the drive cranked I get some squealing, otherwise it's pretty darn quiet. I've only used it indoors in rooms and in the basement, so I can't tell you much more about how it performs in other environments.

What kind of sounds can the amp make? How much variety?
- Like I said before, you name it, you got it. You have to spend some time tweaking, but the options are vast. The clean is very clean actually, I didn't detect any noise, break-up or dirt in the sound at all. Everything from pop/rock to metal is covered, it just takes time playing with the controls.

Is the clean channel distorted at high volumes? In what settings?
- If you really want the cleanest signal, just crank the volume all the way up and adjust the level with the gain control. This will ensure you're getting the cleanest signal you can get from the amp before the gain becomes an issue. I'd imagine the clean channel will start to get dirty at some point, but I'd go deaf before I found out.

How brutal is the distortion?
- Well....it's definitely more brutal than anything you'll get from the MG series that's for sure. I think it's Metallica brutal, without the deep, deep lows. It's not JCM 800 2203 brutal, but considering what you're playing with, it's 99% brutal enough for me (and brutal is what I live for!)

Can you depend on it? Would you use it on a gig without a backup?
- It's a Made in England Marshall, none of this Made in India or China or Taiwan junk. It's quality, serious quality. I'd go to war with this bad boy.

Has the amp ever broken down? Because of neglect of
regular servicing (as in tubes), or just plain neglect?
- Nope, and as a matter of fact, I've never met a person that's had an issue with one either.

If you've dealt with the company, how helpful/friendly were they?
- No idea.

Ever try and get it repaired? Was the repair done under warranty?
- Never had an issue.

Were you able to find
an authorized service center easily?
- Shouldn't be an issue with anyone. The internet can point you in the right direction for that sort of thing.

How long is the warranty?
- Good question! Between a year and 5 years, probably one year.

How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?
- I'm a newb. I've been playing briefly here and there for almost a year. In that last year, in the way of amps, I've owned an MG10, MG50, Brand X X-25 and this one. This one slaughters the other ones by the way.

If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?
- If it were lost, I'd get one within an hour. If it were stolen, I would get something else. I'd get a big ass truck and run the dumbass over that stole my amp.

Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one?
- I compared it to everything in the MG series (drive sounds tinny with no definition, very flat), the Brand X amps (not bad for a starter, but the speaker craps out way too early when volume is applied), and Peavey Transtube amps (pretty damn good too, only issue was the drive was even worse than the MG amps). Why did I choose this one? TONE.

Anything you wish it had?
- I think I answered that one already. hmmm.....reverb control on the footswitch would be nice, as well as a mid control for the clean channel.

Anything else you'd like to share?
- Are you tired of the solid state combo scene? Do you want a good tube-like sound from your amp without breaking the bank? Do you want a vicious, bone shaking amp that, when connected to the MG412 cabinet, will shake yer nuts when you stand in front of it? All this for the fraction of the price of an all tube Marshall? Look no further ladies and gentlemen.........this is the cats ass.