Marshall VS30R

I think my amp was mad in 1999. My amp is very versatile, is good for Blues, Metal and Barn dances. It has two channels with switching vai a footswitch. What's an effect loo? Headphone jack straw comes as standard.
I wish it had a cup holder, for when I balanced my cup of coffee on my amp and played real loud, she fell over and my amp made this wikked banging noise.
I use this amp for barn dances and has plenty of power.
Solid State, 30 watts, Mono.

I am playing a Squier Affinity Strat. Wit this setup I can play the blues as well as ole madd johnny boy and his cavaliers. It is very noisey except after I spillt coffee on it. Then it sounded wikked for a minute, before she blew. Then I sent it back to Marhsall, who were well cool and gave me a Squier Sidekick 10 watt amp, which suits my tastes more.

She blew.

Marhsall are jolly good sports. It took ages to phone up as I live in Ghana with my boyfriend Sven (and his father, Axel). But I didnt mind coz they sent me a nu-amp.

I have been playing 40 years with my boyfriend Sven. He is a fun piece of gear.

i got this amp a year ago (00). After owning a small 10watt amp. the amp posseses an average range of tones and a good mixture of functions. I used to use it for home practice, but now as i am in a band i will need to buy a larger amp. Its excellent for home playing, and starting a band.

I use a Washburn WG-300.. that wont mean much to anyone.. Washburn dont even recognise it was built.. but its an ibanez style guitar with two single coils and a humbucker with split coil. The marshall produces an outstanding clean tone with nice sound recreation.. this is due to the Valve preamp being in the Clean section. The distorted tone isnt as good however, it can carry well but the tone is false and kinda gritty, and when whacked up on full tends to be characterless.

No problems

N/A

A good overall amp, some nice tones, and an average distortion. A good buy.

The amp was made in 99', let me tell you if your buying an amp for it's destortion, this is not the amp for you. I bought this strictly for practice. It has a good sound, and enough power for a small jam session with the band and that's about it. I use effects, so all that matters is that it has a nice clean, and quiet tone. It comes with most of the fetures that a practice amp should have, and for that i'll give it some credit, but if your not going to buy effects look somewhere else. I play mostly metallica, and if your looking for that metallica crunch, such as that on the black album look no further then a mesa boogie strategy 400, it's all you'll ever need.

I use all of my guitars with it, which are an esp kh-1, 2, and 3, also a jh-2. They all have emg's so they help out the sound of the amp. Like i said before buy this amp for the clean sounding channel, and add effects, don't buy it for the desortion built into the amp.

I would never use this amp in a gig, it dosn't have enough power for that, But it is pretty solid, it could go through a gig, if i wanted it to, but i use a mesa strategy 400, going into two 4X12 mesa cabs for livve gigs.

never delt with them, and that's always good.

i have been playing for a while, i own lots of gear, if it was stolen i probably would buy it again, or i would just use the lower settings on my strategy 400.

From the other reviews everybody propably knows the features of this
amp by now. Anyway, it has 2 channels, clean and overdrive, and a reverb. Well, it has everything necessary, but not much extra.

I'm reviewing my friends amp, and he has a Squier Strat, with lots of
deluxe stuff, he had to pay a price of a nice Fender of it :) We've also played my guitar through it, which is a nice sounding japanese Fender. Both guitars have single pickups. We both play rock/pop, some blues and a bit of jazz. This amp is no good for anything, the clean channel is *very* ... something not good, can't think a word for it. Sucks anyway. The overdrive has nice Marshall sound, except for its thinness and lack of low frequencies, which makes the sound really shitty.

The reverb continues in the same line, which means I wouldn't use it.

I've played for couple years, the owner of the amp couple more, and we both think the same way about it. He's got a Lead20 also, and it's a much louder amp than VS30R, and better sounding, so he uses it. I've got a Vox Cambridge 30 Reverb (Korean reissue, has a tube in the preamp section), so mainly the Lead 20 and my Vox are the amps I've compared this one to. the VS30R sucks, wouldn't recommend it for any use, not even practice amp.

this amp is a decent little 30 watt amp. its not loud enough for stage playing. its a solid state 30 watt amp with an alright reverb. this is the first amp i have had with reverb so i have nothing to compare that to. the enclosure was horrible.i just dont like the particle board enclosures i thought about making a new one out of Medium density fiberboard but its pretty soft . I chose to make it out of poplar due to its availabilty in our woodshop downstairs and its ease to work with. i remade the enclosure and left it natural color with a finishing coat on it. it looks classy with the dovetailed joints and nice colors that poplar has . i think it ever cleared up some of the muddiness at higher volumes. this amp is good for playing many different styles but mainly guns n roses and some ozzy and stuff like that due to its high gain overdrive channel. the clean channel is really clean but sounds like it might have a little of the reverb effects still on it. not as smooth of a clean as a fender and not as versatile as my epiphone amp with my les paul but good sounds.

it is pretty quite in operation once in a while it will make a hum but it goes away not sure where that is from.

havent had it long enough to know but it is a used amp so it should last a while.

N/A

nice for home practice and maybe small gigs.

A solidstate amp, has reverb and two channels. It's not bad, the reverb can change the shape of the sound pretty dramatically. Channel switching via footpedal. Footpedal isn't included, those damn corporate bastards! Has a line out, comes in useful if you feel like using it in combination with other small amps. I play mostly alternative and pop/rock and it satisfies most of my needs. I wish it was louder....but hey, it's a 30W amp, i suppose i can't ask for too much power from something like it. All the same, it can go pretty damn loud.
It's not jam-packed with features, it's pretty standard really...but I'll give it an 8 just because Marshall bothered to put in reverb.

I use a Les Paul '56 Goldtop with P-90 soapbars and Spectraflex cables. It siiiings when I'm on the overdrive channel. The overdrive is really thick and....round (for lack of a better word). It's great for classic rock and pop/rock. I can get some sweet bluesy tones from it too. I don't imagine jazz players and heavy metal-heads will enjoy it as much as I do. The clean channel isn't as clean as I'd like. It's actually pretty dirty. I like "dirty" clean channels, but I'd really like to be able to play on a pristine clean channel every once in a while. Clean starts to break up at high volume levels, for the tone puritan.
I'd give a 10 if the clean was...well....clean.

Shitty cabinet. Need I say more?

It hasn't let me down yet, but the cabinet really just totally sucks. I mean, you'd think such a respectable company would make cabinets with plywood at least. *shakeshead*

6 because it hasn't fallen apart yet. 4 because I'm expecting it to. Average = 5

didn't bother.

Been on it for about......a year. I like it, I would probably save up and get a Mesa/Boogie, Orange Amps, VHT, Vox or Marshall stack if it was stolen. It's great as a practice amp, and it's good for jam sessions with a band because it can go pretty loud for a 30W amp. I LOVE the overdrive, I can't express enough how much I love it. I've used a bunch of overdrive and distortion pedals and none of them have really come close to the kind of tone this amp's overdrive produces. I hate the cabinet. Wish it was plywood, at least. Oh, and clean isn't as clean as it should be....so I guess whether that's a good thing depends on your personal preference. I'd prefer it to be cleaner.
Overall, I'd say it's a terrific practice amp. I really like it.

This amp is a current model. I bought it new 2-3 years ago. I wish I had bought the VS65 as the VS35 is a little weak in power department...not much bottom and not enough guts for live band, but great for practice...which luckily, is the main reason I bought it.

My main guitar is a US Strat with Texas Specials pickups, but the amp sounds better with my secondary.. a Les Paul Special. It sounds a little thin with the Fender, but it gets help by using 11 strings. I play classic rock and some blues and jazz fusion. The tone of the overdrive is probably the best thing about the amp. Changed the speaker from supplied Celestion to a Carvin and sounds warmer and more meaty (better). Used the line out to drive a Fender twin reverb for some help, and it sounds great.

The amp has had some moments of failure. Power switch problem within 1 month (bad solder connection)...and later, loss of power and noisy also caused by bad solder connections...but overall, it has been fairly good. Workmanship INSIDE is a pretty flimsy PC board held only by the bushings on the knobs. But outside, at least the cabinet is well built.

Been playing for over 30 years. I feel no great loyalty to Marshall, but it's a nice contrast to Fender.

I Think the amp was made in '99 or 2000.
I play rock, pop, metal, and much more. The amp is really great for all of them.
It has 2 channels, Clean & Overdrive. It has a foot switch, a line out & a headphone jack, and reverb.
If I could switch the reverb and on & off with the foot switch, it sure would be useful.
I use this amp in my room. It's a 30 watter, so it's loud enough for me. Even if I crank the overdrive 4th of the way it's too loud!!! I think I'll use the really loud features when I'll start playing in a band or gigging.
It's a solid state.

I play a Fender 48th St. Strat (Sam Ash Custom). It has a humbucker, so the overdrive sounds really good with it. The singles also sound good with the Clean channel.
The guitar starts humming around neon bulbs (and my computer screen), but I don't think that's because of the amp.
The overdrive channel has a gain knob and a contour knob, so I can get a variety of sounds and go from a nice and warm sound to a heavy metal sound.

I can totally depend on it. I don't know if it's good for gigging (it's a 30 watter, after all..)
It never broke down, and I don't think it will. I have it for 2 monthes, so I'll wait and see...

Never dealt with 'em.
The warranty is 5 years. I don't think I'll ever need it.

I've been playing for about 2 years.
If the amp was stolen or lost, I couldn't but another one. I saved for a year and a half for my guitar and ampy and I don't have any money left...
I love the way it looks, the way it sounds, how easy it is... everything!!!
I thought about buying a MG30RCD but the guys down at Sam Ash told me it's made in Korea by a lame company, and they just put the Marshall logo on it. I saw this one in the store and just got it.

Made 1999. Covers a wide range of styles, depending on your guitar (s). 2 channels, clean and distortion, changable by footswitch. Headphone jack, and line out, I haven't used either yet. No effects loop. I would like it to have an effects loop, that's the only thing it really lacks that I'd hope for.

I'm using it with an Ibanez GSA-60 and I can get a very wide variety of pleasant tones. The higher you put the volume controls and reverbs, the more noisy it becomes, not particularly the gain though. Guitar volume contributes a lot to the distortion.
I've found it possible to accidentally get the clean channel more distorteds than the distortion, if you keep your guitar volume down and out the clean volume very high.
9 for its quality compared to price

It seems very good. It takes half a second to turn off, channel switching is almost instant, just try to do it while you are not playing a note or it'll sound nasty.
5 cause I haven't played it enough yet.

Cannot say. 3 year warranty

I have been playing 3 years acoustic, 6 months electric. Compared with the other amps i've played on, it has a very good variety of tones, and in this respect my VS30R and Ibanez GSA60 beat my friend's Gibson LP Studio and VOX AC30 reissue.

Update: Although I have sold the original VS30R which I reinforced with the beads of glue which I ran on the amp, someone has just purchased a fantastic sounding amp. My other VS30R with the Birch Cabinet and mod electronics, is still in the process of experimentation. These VS30Rs are incredible sounding studio amps.
Hopefully, Marshall will realize this and treat them like the vintage Fender Champ, which was also perceived as an "entry level amp." Marshall should upgrade the EQ shelves and cabinet. Apart from that, they kick ass.

See review below regarding mods.

See below.

See below.

If you're willing to do some work, you could ultimately create a versatile brutal stack by combining these amps and performing some mods. Marshall wake up! These are good amps!