Marshall VS30R

2 channels, Footswitch, Headphone jack,
ideal 4 practice and small ( i mean small) gigs
although it has a contour control on gain channel it has no mid selection

Using Ibanez AX120 with EMG Zack Wylde Pickups,
Playing Metal, Good gain channel but not so great clean channel

GREAT SOUND FOR ONLY BEING 30 WATT

NO PROBLEMS EVER

n/a

Good for a small amp but usless at gigs unless put through the PA

Yeah,. whatever. Who cares when the amp sucks so bad..

The sound quality is crap. The clean sound is horrible, kind of a wet, thin sound. The distortion channel is awful, yak. This amp doesn't work no matter how you try. With pedals its crap. Impossible to get a good sound at high volume.

Ive never had a problem.

I've been playing for 4 years. This is my first amp. Its okay when youre just practising home at low volume. BUT you can't play in a band with this amp. At high volume its HORRIBLE!!!!! Muddy, shitty etc. Stay away from this amp and buy one with tubes.

Clean channel, dirty channel, reverb on either, contour switch (removal of mids) on dirty channel.

The reverb is pretty good, as Marshall reverb usually is.

The clean is utter crap, while the OD channel is also crap. This is the perfect practice amp, or recording amp for someone who plays in an old school punk band.

The clean is utter crap, while the OD channel is also crap. This is the perfect practice amp, or recording amp for someone who plays in an old school punk band.

I've never had any problems with it, and I've had it for 4 years.

I had put money down on it, and they thought they had lost it, so they were going to sell me the floor model for $100 less than the one I was buying (which was $250), they ended up finding mine, and still gave me it for $150.

2 channels solidstate with separate eq's, reverb and 30watts of power. Footswitch not included, 2 output jacks: Headphones and line out. I guess it is your typical practice amp as far as features are concerned

I am using a Jackson DK-3 with stock pickups and I mostly play hard rock/metal with this amp. The amp is very versatile and you can get various sounds out of it. The clean channel is good if you add a lot of reverb(although it gets a bit noisy) and it distorts in high levels, but not much. The distortion channel though is why you'll get this amp, it is very good and gets pretty heavy with not much gain. The eq is good. The "contour" controller can drammatically shape the sound. Don't expect to get any exact bands sound using this amp because you will not.
As said this amp is a practise amp, not for band practice. If you play with a drummer he will drown you out and even worse after the master volume passes the "4" setting the sound loses its clarity, drammatically. My biggest complaint though goes for the "line out" and "headphones" jacks. I mean the output is soooo bad it isn't even funny. No matter how much I've tweeked the settings I cannot get a decent sound that resembles the amp's sound. Total crap.
To sum up:

Pros
-------
Good clean channel. I give it a 7/10
Very good overdrive channel at LOW volumes. I give it 8/10

Cons
------
Very bad overdrive sound at high volume levels.
Awfull line out sound.

I have the thing for about a year and have used it a LOT and cranked(unfortunatelly)many times.Also have been moving it on week basis. No problems till now, thank god. It cries still and cries well and loud. I might gig with it, if I get it micked at less than half the volume of the amp(See above why). It can't handle a gig by itself, no way
I guess that you can depend on it.

I haven't got a clue. Hope I'll never have to find out about it ;)

I've been playing for about 2 years and I am overally happy with the sounds I get from it. It is much better than the crappy ibanez 25 watt I was using. If it gets stolen I would save up and get a bigger one. I mainly like it cause of its good sound and portabillity although I wish it had an acceptable line out sound for some direct recording. I think that if you want a good portable nice sounding practice amp, this one is for you. It is good bang for the buck.
Keep rockin'

This is the second coming of marshalls illustrious valvestate range-since replaced by the avt2000 range. 30 watt, 10" celestion speaker, 2 channel(clean and overdrive) Bass and treble on clean. Gain, bass, middle, treble on lead. line out, headphone out for when you cant resist in the small hours and reverb. Everything you need for practicing or playing in a band like I do, never turned it up past 5 on lead cos it shakes the floor!

The high gain sounds on this are very good on this little amp. I like to play punk-rock ala offspring, metal ala metallica and funk ala red hot chili peppers which are all done very well. If anything it could do with a touch more bass but combined with the right guitar there isnt really a problem there. i play my own stock strat through it and sometimes my brothers kramer which has a ridiculously high output. Definitely excels in the overdrive department. Clean channel has a "natural crunch" at high volumes says the manual which is good for some situations but can be a bit annoying at times although i only really experience crunch with the bridge pickup. Reverb itself sounds good but for the background hum i get from it (is this a fixable problem or not? email me plz). Did my first gig with it recently through a PA of some sort and got a lot of good comments about my tone, especially the Offspring songs we did.

Havent had any problems with it yet in a year that ive owned it or the 2 years that the previous owner had it (so he says), other than the reverb but i only noticed that just when i got it home after buying it so its had that problem the whole time. Seems robust enough.

Never had to deal with the company but there was a 3 year warranty as standard which is nice. If i had a problem, however i would just take it to my local guitar store cos i know them and they are great when it comes to service (Sound control, best guitar shop in Scotland)

If it were stolen id cry, then go and buy the newer model from the avt2000 range as i have fallen in love with marshall after buying this. If you need something that can make the most of your high gain axe then this could be just the ticket. As i said it gets played with a strat and a cheap crappy wah pedal and it sounds the dogs twitcher. Superb for an upgrade from your first practice amp. Shame about the slight crunch on clean or it might just have got full marks

Pretty good amp, good for in-your-room-with-your-mother-downstairs practicing. I mostly use it for punk and hard rock, and it fills those roles pretty well. Has 2 channels, clean/overdrive (pedal can be used to change), controls are bass, treble, contour (mid level freq.), gain, reverb. headphone jack, also good for quiet practice at home. not much power (30 watt 1X12), but its designed for practice seesions, so thats no surprise. no fx loop.

The sound is pretty good, although the bass is a little too weak in my humble opinion. Very rich and full, not noisy, only with heavy gain. The distortion is very powerful, i hardly ever turn more than halfway up. Has tendency to get a little false. clean channel IS distorted at hi volume, but not very much.

The casing seems very shabby, it has this really cheap plastic leather imitation glued to it, and its already coming of in the edges. the cabinets got paper clips sticking out of it. the amp unit itself looks pretty and seems very sturdy too. It hasnt ever left my home really, so i havent ever tested it in rough environments, but it seems really crappy, not what youd except from a company with marshalls reputation. hasnt broken down yet though.

no idea, man. 1 year warranty, i think, but im not really sure.

ive played it for about a year now, and im quite satisfied with it. Visually, it appears to be poor quality, but on the other hand i havent had a single problem with it yet, so it must be better that it looks. anyways, it has good sound, and plenty features for home or backstage practice.

This amp is an excellent practice amp. Not enough power for gigging, but it's plenty for basement / bedroom practice. 30W with 2 channels. Like many other reviews, I agree the cabinet construction could be better.

For the money I don't think you will find better. The overdrive channel has great distortion. The clean channel does distort at high volume but I think it sounds good. For hard rock (AC/DC, etc) this is a great amp. Plenty loud for practice, and killer sound compared to your $200 range solid state amp.

The cabinet construction isn't the greatest so I wouldn't be dropping it off any roofs but for normal use there should be no problem. Beyond that, it's a Marshall so you wouldn't expect many problems.

After reading some of the reviews I was unsure if I was going to buy this amp but when you compare other amps in this price range it's easily the best value. Compare it with a Fender Champion 30, or a Peavy / Crate in the same price range. If I lost this amp I would buy one again right away if I could find one. If not I would get the AVT20.

I don't use the distorion on this amp because it sucks. Everything sounds really cracky at high volume levels. My line out jack doesn't work anymore and I didn't even get it a year ago. :( .

Sounds cracky and crappy at high levels. I go though an Ibanez RG270, then a Digitech RP3 processor and then the amp. It sounds great on low volumes, though.

My line out doesn't work anymore and I havn't even had it for a year. I used this for a few gigs (small ones of course) and it was fine. But the damn line out makes me mad. I have to use my little Crate GRX15R to record. Whoopee.

its okay

Its okay if you have a drummer that doesn't beat the crap out of the drums. Otherwise, it sounds too cracky (especially on clean) But it is a fairly good amp.

30Watt 1x12 amp with 2 channels (clean and distortion); reverb, high/low levels, and master volume on both. The distortion channel has knobs for gain and contour. Both channels are useable. This amp is a perfect practice amp. I use it when practicing in my room or with other people as long as there's no drums. I've played through it before with a drummer and even cranked to 10 it gets a little lost. But that's not what this amp is for, it has plenty of power for a "practice amp" and suits that purpose very well. I have a box full or pedals but I never use them with this amp, very convenient for transporting for small practice sessions.

I play a fender tele and play mostly gritty punk and revved up rock a la the Stooges. I also have a hollow body Guild starfire for jazz and this amp is OK for jazz but the clean channel is missing that sparkle that you need. The distortion sound is as good as you're going to get from solid state devices. I also have a Roland JC-120 guitar amp (a highly regarded solid state amp, perhaps THE most famous solid state amp) and no matter what pedals I use, I can't get as good a rock sound as I get plugged straight into this little Marshall. There's a "contour" knob that is very useful. I play with the contour rolled all the way off which gets a gritty dirty distortion. Turning the contour up will smoothen the distortion. The gain knob can get you mild overdrive to heavy crunch. I play at around 4 o'clock. The reverb sounds fine at low levels. This is the perfect rock practice amp. I give it an 8 because it is still a practice amp.

No problems.

N/A

I would buy this again. I have 3 amps: this, a Roland and a Marhshall half stack, and I use this amp the most frequently because

1) It's small and light
2) It's loud enough to play with other non-drummers
3) I don't need to lug around pedals when I use it
4) It sounds good

Don't be cheap about practice amps because you will use it probably more than your gigging amp. This is a great amp that you will use.

the amp was made in 2000, its overall a great little amp, i play folk music and hard rock mainly. the clean channel is pretty good for surf with the reverb cranked. 2 channels, no f/x loop (sad thing). i use this amp for home practice and quick jamming. its pretty good in my setting.

i play a hamer arched top with duncan desigened pickups(humbucker) and an ibanez custom shop model(humbuckers with coil taps). the distortion is good for the type of music i play. and the clean channel is ok, it can be a little noisy at times in the bridge setting. the clean you can play so high or youll get noise. the distortion can be a pain in the ass at the wrong settings.

this is one tough bastard, its fallen down the stairs, hit the street, kicked, sat on, everything and ive never had to bring it into the shop for anything. stays in great shape and the sound hasnt changed one bit.

never had to deal with the bozos at the marshall amplification company

this is a great amp for someone starting off, or someone who wants just a good amp that holds its end of the bargain. if it were lost id get an other (if i could find it, they dont make these no more)far better than the fender princeton 65 and all that crate solid state practice amp crap. this little devil box is worth every dollar.