Subversion did a great job reviewing the Vintage Modern that I find it hard to really add anything of value. But since I love this amp so much I’m going to try anyway…
First up, this amp is not for everybody. It appears to be targeted towards those looking for vintage tones in a modern package – hence the name. If you crave for American scooped metal tones, you’re better off looking at the JVM410H. But if early Blackmore, ACDC, Led Zeppelin albums give you goosebumps, look no further.
As Sub has pointed out, this is a pure single channel amp. Although it comes with a footswitch, it is only to switch between the two dynamic ranges of the amp (more of this later). In this respect, the VM is closer to the JTM45 or JCM800 than Marshall’s later high gain offerings in the form of the DSL and TSL. With KT66s in its power amp section, the VM aims at giving you the classic Marshall tones (the Bluesbreakers’ Clapton-tone as Sub indicated). Do not let this simple design fool you into thinking that it is a one-tone pony. Far from it, the amp loves to play with you guitar. Yes, you read right; you can get a myriad of tones just by playing with the pickup selection and volume knob/s on your guitar.
The signal from your guitar goes through the pre-amp stage controlled by a duet of pre-amp gain knobs, named the Body and the Detail. The Body adds gain to frequencies below 400Hz while the Detail does so to those above 400Hz. Careful manipulation of these two knobs is essential to getting a good sound. Note that they do not cascade into one another but work in tandem. Next comes the Mid Boost button which gives the amp an adrenalin shot at 400Hz. This is extremely useful if you want to get some beef to your strat’s single coils.
The Dynamic Range button offers Low and High selection. Low allows you to go from clean to a mild break up while High takes off from there. Kicking in the High actually activates a second preamp tube to give you more gain and increased volume. This is not to say that in the High Dynamic range, you cannot get a clean tone. Again, rolling off your guitar volume and the signal cleans up nicely.
For those who need to know the inner workings, there are 4 pre-amp tubes and 4 power amp tubes (2 power amp tubes for the 50 watt head and combo). In the pre-amp section, V1 is the first gain stage, V2 is an extra gain stage activated if you select the High Dynamic Range. V3 is the tone stack and V4 is the phase inverter. The master volume is situated after the phase inverter. This is an important point as the placement allows higher level of distortion at the phase inverter, meaning more gain at lower volume essentially. Whether this is a plus point, however, depends pretty much on the user. The effects loop, which is bypassable, is placed post tone but before the phase inverter.
As mentioned at the start of this review, the VM is not for everybody. If you are looking to get gratifying tones instantly, this is not the amp for you. This amp is for those trained in the old school, literally playing the guitar, manipulating the tone and volume controls, pickup switches, easing back on the picking or giving it a full whack. If you fall under this category, the VM will suit you splendidly.
Likes:
-Great classic tones, even at bedroom level
-Low noise
Dislikes:
-Dark reverb
-Vintage stylings extended to footswitch
-Effects bypass not on footswitch
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