Marshall MG15 DFX

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The usually Marshall quality. I could drop this from my window and it would be ok. A very sturdy unit. The unit also has a carry strap at the top to carry the amp around. Very easy to move about.

Price

I paid £80 for mine and that is quite dear for this item. You can pick it up for around £70 I believe.

Now for the important stuff!

Features.

Ok in short let's run ...
...each feature in a bit more detail.

Ok left to right as you look at the picture. Line in - volume - the small black switch is to engage/disengage overdrive - Gain - Gain volume - then the EQ, Bass - Contour - Treble - Then the Digital FX, Preset adjustment - fx level, next small black switch is fx engage/disengage. CD In/Line out - Headphone - Power.

Line In

Easy enough, lead from your instrument is plugged ... more

Ok well seeing as I suggested this product I suppose I should actually review it :D.

Name

Let’s not beat about the bush. They don't come much finer than marshall. Superb build quality. Value and all round goodness.

Looks

As you can see from the pic it's quite a pretty item from the front with the nice gold plate and knobs. The Outer plastic shell however resembles 70's woodchip wallpaper (apologies if any of you have wood chip wall paper!) and is not very aesthetically pleasing.

Build Quality

The usually Marshall quality. I could drop this from my window and it would be ok. A very sturdy unit. The unit also has a carry strap at the top to carry the amp around. Very easy to move about.

Price

I paid £80 for mine and that is quite dear for this item. You can pick it up for around £70 I believe.

Now for the important stuff!

Features.

Ok in short let's run through exactly what's on the amp then we will explore each feature in a bit more detail.

Ok left to right as you look at the picture. Line in - volume - the small black switch is to engage/disengage overdrive - Gain - Gain volume - then the EQ, Bass - Contour - Treble - Then the Digital FX, Preset adjustment - fx level, next small black switch is fx engage/disengage. CD In/Line out - Headphone - Power.

Line In

Easy enough, lead from your instrument is plugged into here.

Volume

This is the clean volume. It raises and lowers the volume of the amp clean sound. This can be mixed with the digital FX. We will go into those later on.

OD (Overdrive) select

Pushing this button in will disengage clean mode and put the amp into OD mode.

The two knobs that operate under OD mode are Gain and the second volume knob. Turning the gain up will give you a fuzzier rockier sound. The second volume switch will simply quieten/make louder the gain. Unfortunately the gain on this amp is quite poor. It can give you a decent rocky sound although it's really no substitute for a good quality pedal (I would recommend the Boss Metal Zone MT-2 maybe will review at later date). Although the gain will entertain you at first you will soon start to wonder why you don’t sound quite like a slipknot guitarist on speed. The pedal will remedy this :D.

EQ

The EQ Has three knobs, Bass - Contour - Treble.

The quality in the bass setting is quite poor. Although the knobs are adequate. The settings will differ depending on your particular style or how you are feeling at any particular moment. The EQ Does what it needs to do although it's certainly not jaw droppingley brilliant.

Digital FX (DFX)

Two knobs here. FX Level 1-10. More or less of the effect.

There 4 different effects to play with. Only one effect at a time can be used.

The FX Knob is set into 4 different parts depending on which effect you want to you use. The 4 effects are Reverb (rvb) Delay (dly) Chorus (chr) and Flange (flg)

From 0-60 degrees you have the Reverb, the closer to 60 degrees the more reverb you get. The reverb gives the effect that you are playing in a large (or smaller) hall. It is similar to an echo.

Then from 60 degrees to 120 you have the Delay. The delay simply takes what you have played and repeats it around 5 times depending on how strong you have set it. The from

From 120 the 180 degrees you have the chorus. The chorus allows for a rhythm guitar feel. I personally don't enjoy the effect.

180 - 240 degrees. Flange. The flange sound is awful in my opinion. The effect is similar to the delay only the delay repeat is much faster and repeats for a longer time. It's slightly country and western in its tone.

You then have the effects engage/disengage.

Then comes the CD Line in or line out.

This is fantastic and you can run a lead from your stereo into the amp and the amp will pump the music out of itself so you can jam along to your fave band through the same amp. It's also a line out which means you can run a lead into your soundcard and hey presto. Digital recording.

Then come the headphone socket. Very handy if you're neighbours can hear pins dropping!

And finally the on off switch.

In summary this amp is a fantastic beginner amp. It will delight you as you get better and better with your guitar. Although it will only be a matter of time before you learn its limitations and yearn for something that will give you just that bit more!

That feeling can be stemmed for a while with the addition of an effects pedal however soon the feeling will creep back into your mind that you just want something a little bit better!

I will review what that something a little better is in the near future ;).

I would seriously recommend this amp if you are a beginner. You will grow to love it as I have. As with most new things you will grow out of it and want to move on but it will always hold a fond place in your heart!

If you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to ask :).

 

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