[Harp-L] Marshall class 5

[Will Spear <will.spear@xxxxxxxxx>]

I was sitting at guitar center today monkeying around with amps  

I brought a couple microphones and my harp case. I am out to get something less powerful than a bassman that really breaks up and has a moderately fat tone. 

I tested out 
A Marshall class 5 head
A stock blues junior III
A  nos tweed blues jr
A Vox ac4 tv
A bugera v65 combo 

I also played through a 212 fender bass breaker  for fun. 

I expected the nos blues junior to smash the others but was honestly surprised by both the bugera and Marshall. The bugera was probably more universally useful if one was playing a guitar through it sometimes. It got a fantastic overdriven Chicago sound. Had feedback issues when running really loud but it was easily gig loud for a decent venue. 

The Marshall blew me away. It has a huge voice and a nice fat sound. Reminded me of a champ dimed on the volume. It was easily gig loud. It had little sparkling clean headroom it got quite a bit of dirt. I tried to make it squeal with feedback and honestly it didn't happen until I cranked it and put the mic right square in front of it. I was running it through a half dozen different  Cabs. It did best obviously with a really expensive 412 loaded with jensens. 

I was shocked it was one of the amps all the guys there hated. I thought it was pretty lousy for guitar. I mean sure it was serviceable but that was it. For harp it honestly was one of the best amps I have plugged into in the small modern amp arena. It had a fat almost trumpet like tone but with a huge load of dirt. For the 200 bucks they were asking the amp was more than a steal. 

I just figured I'd mention it as I don't recall seeing it discussed anywhere harmonica related.