Terrible advice...

Mr Grumpy

Mr Grumpy

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...there's a lot of terrible advice out there on the interwebby.

I came across two articles that had the Marshall MG30 in their top 5 amps under $300 - one of them had the amp as its best option under $300.

This is insanity, and for kids that don't know better, can't easily sell or give stuff away or have very little money to spend, so can't afford to waste money. it's just dire advice.

Here are the two examples, the top two amps are both poor (I've owned both, but the Fender is far better than the Marshall, the Fuse software is good, and you get a variety of ok sounds. I know a few of you here like these Fender amps, but for $300 there are probably 50+ better sounding amps available:

Screenshot 2019-05-02 at 10.33.45.png
The 5 Best Guitar Amps Under $300 2019

&:

Screenshot 2019-05-02 at 10.34.51.png
7 Best Guitar Amplifiers Under $300 - GuitarJunky

^ highlighting the crap speaker as a + is insanity - the MG heads are good, one reason why the combos are so bad is the speakers; Marshall have a reputation for ruining their lower priced amps (some are still $500+) with crap speakers...

I know that folks have different opinions and hear differently, but here's 3 amps I own or have recently owned, under $300 which are far far better amps than the Marshall - I actually think the Marshall MG combos should be discontinued because they just damage Marshall's brand...

Randall RD 1 does far better OD sounds than the Marshall MG30; simply no comparison.

Screenshot 2019-05-02 at 10.36.23.png

The Bugera T5 head with a new decent cab is under $300 and sounds far far better than the MG30:

Screenshot 2019-05-02 at 10.37.03.png

If you wanna avoid tubes then this simple, light, desktop amp is under $300 and has 5 different amp sounds (and a bass setting, and an acoustic setting) - and the Marshall setting sounds clearly better than the Marshall MG, and the effects on the Yamaha sound a lot better than the effects on the MG - it's soooooo much better:

Screenshot 2019-05-02 at 10.37.36.png

I know, I know, people have different opinions, but some stuff is clearly good, some stuff is clearly average and some stuff is clearly crap.

For me, the Marshall MG combos are at best average (I'd personally say they are crap).

Also, all these reviewers on Youtube now, many are quite deceiving. That intheblues fella seems like a really nice guy, but I've owned several bits of gear which he has reviewed and had completely different opinions and experiences - for example he rated the MG30gfx that I have as great. It's so average that I can't actually, with a moral bias, sell it to anyone, so I'm just giving it to a friend.

Rant over...
 
Well now Grump--- IF THE ADS ARE ALL TRUE-- then the YOUTH would not WASTE tons of $$$ buying -- trying-- and LEARNING what we SEASONED TONE JOCKEYS all ready know ;)

so --- let the little bastards suffer :)
 
This $300 amp thing got me thinking and this screed below came to mind as I'll be 66 years young in September ….. while my son was asking lots of questions.

When I was coming of musical age, There were these " Buy and sell " weekly papers called " The Buy Lines ", that was on Long Island, in the burbs 60 miles east of NYC. TonyM probably remembers, no doubt. Couldn't wait for the next one to come out, pages and pages of gear …. thru the mid 60's well into the 80's w/ gigs galore, along with plenty of ways to make money without trying too hard! All the stuff now unobtainable cost very little to buy used back then as there was not any "buzzwords " like " Vintage, " just " used instruments " , that's all …. undt since I played out so much any gear that came somewhat locally available seemed to find it's way to me w/someone always asking me " What is this and how much will you give me for it? " By 1971 I graduated High school … I was driving an XKE, usually
playing an 61' SGLP, 60' burst or 50's and 60's old start's and tele's. Mind you, hair 1/2 way down my back. For almost 15 years of that period I felt I had everything in life I ever needed, was totally content and happy. Amp wise, 200, 100, 50 and 45 plexi Marshall stacks, old Fenders, $250 Gretsch 50's 6120's, and, it was all being usually used as DOOR STOPS !!!! That was way back then.

POINT IS : My son asked me how I was able to exist musically back then as he is now of age where I was then and I had to tell him the world completely changed to it's now difficult ways of $8.5K LP's $4K SG's and #3.5K strats and Chinese Amps/guitars, all questionable reissues. I also said to him it must suck to be a kid just starting out now, since, and he does know that, there's lots of
new, ​
total junk out there and, to be fair, there's still Diamonds in the rough out there waiting to be found, and, you must develop a knack/hunch or an ear to the ground plan to locate them.

Oh, at 16 I was banned from any Radio shack for returning their EV SRO's 12", blowout proof, 150watt alnico speakers with the large White magnet covers every 2 weeks. Ah to be young again … that early Maestro SupaFuzz , shin fei, really square waved the hell outta those SRO's so I changed to Altec 417's and speaker life was good again, still have em but their in floor monitors or sometimes side fill monitor duty .. to be continued if anyone cares
 
Yes, I do remember.

Buy Lines...
I got stuff and sold stuff there.
There was also We Buy Guitars on W48 St.
I bought a '58 Strat there for 400 dollars.
It was just an old used guitar.
EV SRO 12s weighed 26 pounds each.
I had 2 Blackface Fender Twin Reverbs loaded with them.
I had BF Twins loaded with Altec 417B's too.
There is no treble in the world like a 417B loaded Twin Reverb.

Also...

A slice and a coke was $.25 cents.
There were 2 kinds of sneakers, PF Flyers and Keds. That was it.
Rambler, Packard, DeSoto, Imperial.
Airplanes had big fans on the wings to pull them through the sky.
The 1/4 mile world record was 207 mph in 7.52 seconds.
Bicycles had 1 speed, except for 3 speed racers.
I was at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for the launching
of the worlds first missile equipped warship.

...and a whole lot more.
 
^ & ^^ that sounds a lot better than my crappy MG amp!

Having said that... I agree with you that you were lucky to live through a period of second hand gear of great quality and lineage at very decent prices, but, hear me out, but, for $300 you can get the Yamaha THR10 with 5 amp simulators which are all close at low volume, usable delay and reverb built in, and many other bits too, very small, very light - fitting on the corner of the desk. I doubt you could get any of your amps to sound better than the Yamaha at 65db (which is useful in an apartment).

The $200 MG30 is poor value, but just out of interest, I looked on ebay for an amp, second hand, Marshall, $200:

All I could find was this:

Screenshot 2019-05-05 at 14.37.44.png

probably a decent amp for $100.

On my local Craigslist: nothing.

So, yeah, the secondhand market is bare pickings. But, maybe, some new gear at low prices is decent. I mean my $400 Epi LP sc is okay for the money; and I could get a PRS SE for similar money, so buying new, there is some gear which is better than ever before.

Last night, I turned on the MG again, it was so noisy at idle, I'm wondering if there's actually something wrong with this amp? I just plugged into the Yamaha instead. I will try today to start to like the MG, try to give it a couple of hours of playing time...
 
Being in the same general area, and age, thou I was a distance from NYC it figured that we went through similar circumstances … and I was an occasional frequent of WE Buy, Manny's, Matt U's , Sam's Ash … 48th street was music row and had to be experienced to really appreciate all those NYC iconic locations! And they only made 24" pizza's while they were $4 a pie
 
well I do favor a tweed champ for those close quarters but again I was even lucky to locate one for an extremely reasonable price. On most modern amps all of the parts are " Standard series for general purposes " . I do find if you upgrade certain parts to higher audio quality as to change any diodes from generic types one can be upgraded to Schottky's to eliminate rectifier switching noise. Green .22 film caps are general purpose polyester. One can replace them with say Russian K73-11 .22 PETP caps. I favor carbon composites resistors in the power supply and near the driver wherever the most voltage swings are actualized. I change all the small electrolytic caps to brown Elna Silmics of the same value. I like the Silmic sound, an open, warm, dynamic presentation. I use them in signal paths when an electrolytic is needed. Also add bypasses caps across each electrolytic to help filter out noise.
I do agree at that price point and limited allowed playing levels, along with effects to work with { Fun } the price value can't be beat. My problem has been growing up with the old original sounds, my ears are skewed toward the originals. And I am an Ampaholic and guitar geek which can be problematic most times!
 
Vox AC30 said:
And I am an Ampaholic and guitar geek which can be problematic most times!
Click to expand...

But amps are so good - especially if you have a place where you can up the volume to 80db, 90db, +.

BTW, I just took off 10 screws on the MG backplate, but it seems to be glued down - just wanted to have a looksee, maybe I could run it into my Origin's v-type speaker, for example, but there's no way in without damaging the back - I'm just gonna give the amp away if I cannot find any sounds in it today.

Edit to add: that MG30 pile of crap is outta here; it is terrible...
 
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O.K. --- see there--- (not targeting you Tony and MAN I WANT a slice and coke for .25!!!!!) but ---- you say you bought a USED Fender for 400.00 in what year??? 78 ish or so??
thats (roughly) 1500.00 in "todays money"

So it was still a LOT of $$ when you bought it (IMHO--- I am getting GREAT guitars in this day and time for 50-250.00 --in today money) -- no its not a 58 Fender ---

We are truly in a great time for gear -- at both CHEAP -- and EXPENSIVE prices---

just have to find what fits your niche--- or like me rotate through ALL OF THEM eventually :)
 
Mr Grumpy said:
^ & ^^ that sounds a lot better than my crappy MG amp!

Having said that... I agree with you that you were lucky to live through a period of second hand gear of great quality and lineage at very decent prices, but, hear me out, but, for $300 you can get the Yamaha THR10 with 5 amp simulators which are all close at low volume, usable delay and reverb built in, and many other bits too, very small, very light - fitting on the corner of the desk. I doubt you could get any of your amps to sound better than the Yamaha at 65db (which is useful in an apartment).

The $200 MG30 is poor value, but just out of interest, I looked on ebay for an amp, second hand, Marshall, $200:

All I could find was this:

View attachment 24797

probably a decent amp for $100.

On my local Craigslist: nothing.

So, yeah, the secondhand market is bare pickings. But, maybe, some new gear at low prices is decent. I mean my $400 Epi LP sc is okay for the money; and I could get a PRS SE for similar money, so buying new, there is some gear which is better than ever before.

Last night, I turned on the MG again, it was so noisy at idle, I'm wondering if there's actually something wrong with this amp? I just plugged into the Yamaha instead. I will try today to start to like the MG, try to give it a couple of hours of playing time...
Click to expand...

Hi, Grump....

I bought a brand new MG50CRD in 2002 for students to play. Quietest amp ever. Try a different power source, but i dont think the noise you describe is normal...
 
Vox AC30 said:
Being in the same general area, and age, thou I was a distance from NYC it figured that we went through similar circumstances … and I was an occasional frequent of WE Buy, Manny's, Matt U's , Sam's Ash … 48th street was music row and had to be experienced to really appreciate all those NYC iconic locations! And they only made 24" pizza's while they were $4 a pie
Click to expand...

Marshall Valvestates. English made. English Speakers. Most Authentic 80's metal tone ever...period. Crystal clear cleans. You can run full gain and it is still defined and articulate.

Cheap too...
 
Robert Herndon said:
Try a different power source, but i dont think the noise you describe is normal...
Click to expand...

I did that, and it helped. It doesn't like sitting next to the Origin either (even when the Origin is off).

Still very noisy on the OD channel and terrible sounding - just a crap amp. I've been playing the Origin today, and life is so much better.
 
I will say:
-I remember the buy lines. That is where I looked for dirt bikes (the 80 or 125cc kind).
- with respect to guitars, this is the best time to be a consumer. The import guitars are getting SO GOOD. Cases in point- Agile and Michael Kelly. And availability- Wow!!! Reverb and eBay and 10,000 online stores!!. Kids are super lucky to have the internet to do research (not to mention free lessons and TAB). All they need to do is research thoroughly and buy from a place with a return policy. Maybe they should do their research on TTR.
- SS amps are getting SO GOOD. Oh yeah, let's not forget that you can have an entire professional virtual studio with 1,000 cab and amp Sims, virtual effects, virtual mixers, .

This is the best time to be a gear consumer. Just adhere to the age old rule - don't believe everything you read and hear, especially from sales people
 
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RVA said:
I will say:
-I remember the buy lines. That is where I looked for dirt bikes (the 80 or 125cc kind).
- with respect to guitars, this is the best time to be a consumer. The import guitars are getting SO GOOD. Cases in point- Agile and Michael Kelly. And availability- Wow!!! Reverb and eBay and 10,000 online stores!!. Kids are super lucky to have the internet to do research (not to mention free lessons and TAB). All they need to do is research thoroughly and buy from a place with a return policy. Maybe they should do their research on TTR.
- SS amps are getting SO GOOD. Oh yeah, let's not forget that you can have an entire professional virtual studio with 1,000 cab and amp Sims, virtual effects, virtual mixers, .

This is the best time to be a gear consumer. Just adhere to the age old rule - don't believe everything you read and hear, especially from sales people
Click to expand...

We had one music store in our town!
 
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Mr Grumpy said:
I did that, and it helped. It doesn't like sitting next to the Origin either (even when the Origin is off).

Still very noisy on the OD channel and terrible sounding - just a crap amp. I've been playing the Origin today, and life is so much better.
Click to expand...

Sounds like something isnt right....all the MG's I have messed with are super quiet.
 
I think its a joke people wanting professional sound out of a communist made product. With the exception of former Russian block country's.
In the 1950's and 1960's things were made to last now everything made is disposable. Theirs a few unicorn's
 
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