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View Full Version : Marshall MB30 my new bass practice amp



Duff
September 3rd, 2008, 12:58 AM
Had to pick up a portable bass amp to take to lessons and just plain carry around because my Fender Rumble 100 is really heavy. I should put the included casters on it.

Anyway I bought a new Marshall MB30 bass amp and it is light enough to carry around and has a ten inch speaker. It has great features including two channels: clean and drive. The drive channel is like we are familiar with and has the volume and gain knobs. This little gem also has a switchable compression button with a level control knob, three switchable "voices" with a voice intensitty knob and an eq. It has an effects loop, footswitch jack and line out, headphones jack too. Nice white faced black knobs that feel smooth and sturdy, plus a strong metal speaker grill instead of cloth.

It is not an overwhelmingly loud thirty watts, its a bass. But it makes up for the volume with super great tone and really good tone shaping, especially with the two channels.

It's not like the Fender Rumble 100 when it comes to full heavy deep tone and rumble, but it is a great practice amp and is portable and highly tweakable.

Very reasonable at 199, but I got my Fender Rumble for 239 at the GC Fourth of July sale at half price plus minus.

The Marshall MB30 suits me fine and works great as a portable amp to take to lessons, etc. Loud enough to play with a moderate drummer who knows how to play less than full blast; somewhat of a rareity seemingly. How many times have you heard a drummer tell you to get a real amp? Practice amps don't usually cut it with drummers, but this one will with a moderate drummer playing at home or some other smaller place, even a small club / bar setting; plus it has a line out for places that have a house system if you don't want to lug around your big bass rig.

Check out this neat fairly portable amp if you get a chance. You might like it like I did. I thought it was better than the competition in both tone and features and didn't break up on the five string's B string like almost all of the practice amps did; including the SWR LA10. I probably would have bought the LA 10 if it didn't crackle and distort excessively - couldn't handle the five string.

If you are looking for an amp for a five string, be sure to test them out really well because some of them are not built for five string basses and crackle and distort very badly. The Fender Rumble 100 hangs in there really well for a moderately loud bass amp. But you should hear my son's SWR Workingman 15. That's a nice bass amp. The Rumble is a nice amp too, but within its own realm. Suits me fine for a fraction of the cost of the SWR.

I want to get a four string now. Maybe an SX PJ for 120 or so, just to have to play and not have to worry about. Plus my Schecter is heavy but tone city for sure, can't hit a sour note on it. I'm gassin' for that SX though. I even have my ears open for some used deals and might make another project guitar out of a cheap bass; that would be fun. I'm even thinking of having a body custom painted at a auto body place. Some nice gold metallic urethane or racing orange metallic. No racing stripes or anything, just a nice cool looking solid color; even a nice sea foam green metallic. I bet they would do a great job for a small fee, especially if you provided the paint. I would sand it down and take off all the hardware but probably leave the neck on and tape it off super well. Hey, nothing's perfect and this would be a cheap project guitar. Lemon metallic would look great too.

Duffy

"(Gas) never sleeps" similar to NY