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View Full Version : Review: Marshall 8100 head and 8412 cab



ibanezjunkie
May 17th, 2009, 11:22 AM
this is my review of the 1991-2 marshall valvestate 8100 head and the matching 8412 4x12" cab.

first off, this thing must be build like a tank, its about 18 years old now, and still packs a punch. pretty good for a hybrid amp, that has never been retubed (to my knowledge anyway).

so heres the lowdown:

Price Paid: £175GBP in april (used, from 1991-2)

features
it has 2 footswitchable channels: normal and boost. the 'normal' channel is solid state, and is only really good for clean stuff. The boost channel has an ECC83 driven preamp, and gives out some nice distorted tones. The amp has seperate gain and volume controls, and the boost channel also lets you choose your OD mode and also features a contour control. so 10/10 for features, no too much but enough for create a wide variety of sounds.

Sound Quality
the normal channel is good for clean tones but once you start trying to dial in some distortion on its SS circuitry you start to lose your tone quite alot. the boost channel is good all the way from crunch to modern high gain stuff. 8/10for sound quality.

Reliability
to my knowledge, this amp has only had 1 repair done to it, abour 2 years ago, and the pots were cleaned out etc. other than that the circuitry and chassis have remained in perfect working order. in short, this thing is built like a tank 10/10

overall its an impressive 9/10 from me. highly recommended if you can find one.