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found one at the local GC, so I gave it a spin through a V30 loaded marshall cab.
I messed with it for about 20 minutes... loved how it would save the info for channels. Very easy to dial stuff in, even though it's frightening at first with the number of knobs.
I've owned old Marshalls (had a late 60s 100 watt when I was a kid and dumped it for a channel switching amp, kill me now) a silver jubilee 50 watt, every JCM 800 head (2203, 2204, 2205, 2210) voodoo modded 2203, a 4100 JCM900 high gain reverb, etc. Marshall is on the right track with this amp, I don't think it's 'every marshall in a box' as some people think, but it's a good sounding amp. The thing had TONS of gain with pretty good hiss levels. If you were looking for a bedroom amp where you could just get sustain at will, here it is. The amp was so freaking easy to play it was unbelievable. Anyone who thinks the JVM is hard to play hasn't encountered a VHT.
However... there were several things that bugged me. The mode switches would stick - it would go from green to red, you'd have to dick around with it to make it switch to orange. ALL of the switches did this. I gave the knobs a little pull and they wormed back and forth as mentioned in other threads. I could probably give the amp an angry look and make half the knobs shear off. I know that people are seeing this amp as a bargain, but a bargain to me would include at least average build quality. If things like this are so glaring when the amp is new, I don't want to find out the other compromises that were made.
I really was let down a little - it's a nice amp, don't get me wrong, but all the hyperbole on the amp made me think that it's the best thing on the planet. I dig my Randall RM setup right now quite a bit more, and I haven't really scratched the surface on it yet.
Glad some guys like it, but right now, it's not for me.
I messed with it for about 20 minutes... loved how it would save the info for channels. Very easy to dial stuff in, even though it's frightening at first with the number of knobs.
I've owned old Marshalls (had a late 60s 100 watt when I was a kid and dumped it for a channel switching amp, kill me now) a silver jubilee 50 watt, every JCM 800 head (2203, 2204, 2205, 2210) voodoo modded 2203, a 4100 JCM900 high gain reverb, etc. Marshall is on the right track with this amp, I don't think it's 'every marshall in a box' as some people think, but it's a good sounding amp. The thing had TONS of gain with pretty good hiss levels. If you were looking for a bedroom amp where you could just get sustain at will, here it is. The amp was so freaking easy to play it was unbelievable. Anyone who thinks the JVM is hard to play hasn't encountered a VHT.
However... there were several things that bugged me. The mode switches would stick - it would go from green to red, you'd have to dick around with it to make it switch to orange. ALL of the switches did this. I gave the knobs a little pull and they wormed back and forth as mentioned in other threads. I could probably give the amp an angry look and make half the knobs shear off. I know that people are seeing this amp as a bargain, but a bargain to me would include at least average build quality. If things like this are so glaring when the amp is new, I don't want to find out the other compromises that were made.
I really was let down a little - it's a nice amp, don't get me wrong, but all the hyperbole on the amp made me think that it's the best thing on the planet. I dig my Randall RM setup right now quite a bit more, and I haven't really scratched the surface on it yet.
Glad some guys like it, but right now, it's not for me.
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