Go on, call me mad. What for you ask? Ok, well I saw a Marshall AVT275 guitar amp on eBay a few days back – the one I’ve wanted for a while. So I contacted the guy about it and wondered if he would end the auction early for a reasonable offer. It was brand new, apparently, so I offered £300 (considering he lives in Torquay and I was hoping to collect in person) and the RRP is about £360. He accepted, and I paid.
So whats the mad bit? Well I drove to Torquay – last night! I didn’t fancy going on my own all the way there and back so Adam came with me. The drive was great and we arrived in the Torquay area at about 9.15pm, we left at 6pm, not bad going!
Long story short, I collected the amp and drove back again. Got back at about 2.30-3am-ish.
The amp itself is something else though, I’ve been messing about with the settings and effects most of the morning and I think its a case of "anything’s possible". It also looks so great, just look for yourself…
So, needless to say, I am a happy bunny at the moment and can’t wait for brand practice to really try it out. Oh, and in-case your wondering, yes its quite LOUD too!
I would review this properly, but I don’t feel that I am experienced enough in this area to compare to other products in the line. My other amp is a 25-watt Peavey, and it doesn’t compare, so I won’t bother. But you can be rest assured, its makes a damn nice sound and its damn loud compared to what I am used to!
My ears are ringing…
[...] As I said in my last post, I was a bit crazy and decided to drive to Torquay and back last night. After we collected the amp, we didn’t stay in the area too long, but I couldn’t help but notice how "nice" everything is in Torquay. The lights, the cars, the hotel’s, the women! everything is just a bit up-class and posh. [...]
I thinks it’s a cool training amp. Well, it’s not a tubeamp! But it’s fine for practising!
It seems to be not bad to be honest. I am hoping to do my first gig with it in about a months time, so I’ll let ya’ll know how it goes!
I love Marshall, and I love my gibson SG, you sound to have very similar tastes in music and equipment. Good stuff. I like the ATVs as well, they work awesome with my Gibson for the price. I noticed a new Marshall I like more though. The JVMs. They are kind of expensive but try it out, you may love it. I play heavy metal though so my preference in what makes a good amp may differ.
Hi Jon, ta for the comments. I’ve love to get a JVM, like you say, but they are on the pricey end of the scale.
I’ve done one gig with this amp so far now and I find it perfect for my use. Its certainly loud enough to accompany un-mic’ed drums and my mates huge bass amp.
What’s more, even at volume 9 or 10, it still sounds great with minimal sound quality loss.
Dave,
I’ve got one of these AVT275′s too, and I love it.
I’ve always been a Marshall fan – when we had our first band as teenagers, all the famous metal bands had them. We used to occasionally play as support for some mates who were a few years older than us and had JCM800 full stacks!!! We were just awestruck as they came flying in on their wheeled 4×12 cabinets, and the noise they made, it we just brilliant.
Anyhow, 20 years later, I’ve had a few Marshall combos including an early Valvestate and an all valve one of similar style to this. To me this AVT is the best I’ve had. So it isn’t all valve? That means when you gig with it, you can be a bit more relaxed about it lasting and not having a catastrophic failure (as my all valve one did) and as you say, it is loud.
I play with an enthusiastic bass player and although this is turned up pretty high, it can still be heard comfortably.
It also really achieves that glorious ‘just breaking up’ sound on the clean channel with a guitar with loud pickups. I currently generally play a telecaster with a hotrails humbucker type single coil sized pickup at the bridge and the amp gives a massive range of sounds. The 4 way switching makes distortion pedals a thing of the past for me.
‘training amp’ is a little patronising I feel.
I never did get a full stack though.
I’m selling one of these having just bought a JCM2000 half stack. I wasn’t a fan of the overdrive channels. They sound broken, as if the speakers are struggling, which they probably where as they only have celestion speakers. The only way I could be heard over people playing with cabs is by using the clean channel (which is way louder) and boosting it with a tube screamer. Sounds great on its own, but as soon as the band fits in you’re drowned out.