Marshall: Vintage Modern 2466H

Marshall Vintage Modern
List: $1,600

Marshall’s Vintage Modern (VM) was a later 2006 debutant, hence its 2007 appearance on our shores. At a single glance, the VM seems to be another blast-from-the-past Marshall whose tonal pedigree then (and now, mind you) pretty much set the standard for ‘loud’. The grille cloth devoid front underscores the vintage of its moniker but that’s strictly looks my friends, the VM is a contemporary Marshall for your exploit

Build/ features
There’s no hiding the single channeled nature of the VM; a quick reference to its front panel reveals an absence of channel switching. Unlike its 1959 Super Lead predecessor, the VM’s power/ standby switches are the black click-press variety. The octet knobs are essential 3-band EQ section, master volume, reverb & an interesting pair of frequency specific pre-amp controls. The VM also sports a single instrument input access as opposed to the ‘59’s quartet.

Over at the rear, the VM has a series FX loop with added boost (push-push button) should the need arises. Should you refuse this function, an on/ off switch is there for your deactivation. This posterior also reveals a steel grille section which protects the valves- 4 x ECC83/ 12AX7 & 4 X KT66 power valve. What?! No EL34s?

Rating: 80%

Tone
Steve Dawson, the VM chief engineer, stated that the KT66 inclusion is to invoke the JTM45 voicing of yore so the classic Bluesbreaker tone would be there as a working basis. This fundamental, upon the employment of power section saturation, would result in a high gain response; what Blackmore did for the early Deep Purple records. We can see where the VM is geared toward; a pre-EL34 tonality, as the KT66 is effectively a 6L6 substitute which has more emphasis in midrange & overall punch without crossing over to the aforementioned valve’s ferocity.

The VM was conceived to be a single channel offering for a simple reason- it thrives on guitar drive. The first guitar plugged into it was an LTD M-50, a modern injection & the VM had no problems adapting. If you are a purveyor of the modern drive, the Dynamic Range button, upon activation, gives you more distortion. In addition to the 3-band EQ, the Detail/ Body knobs help sculpture the treble & bass response respectively, do ignore the ‘volume’ label here, what these control did was to highlight the targeted frequencies’ performances, volume emphasis, if any, was marginal. The overall note sharpness is further manipulated by the presence control. With a satin-body guitar like the M-50, bass enhancement is necessary to prevent the overall proceedings from turning into a midrange showdown.

Subsequently, a P-90 equipped PRS SE Soapbar II was plugged in & the tonal change was rather drastic. Due to the lower output nature of the pickups, no amount of Dynamic Range injection could help bolster convincing high gain saturation. In fact, the VM became a crunch menace; if you thrive on a blues-type drive, forget about employing a pedal, the VM has all the sweet break-up tones you’ll ever need. With the Dynamic Range button deactivated, higher master volume settings here augment the crunch instead of adding more gain per se.

The VM performs readily with single coils for clean tones. If one uses a humbucker, do restrict the volume to prevent dirt from kicking in.

With all those historical tonal accolades, the VM in isolated use wouldn’t quite appeal to high-gain shredmongers. Nevertheless, a simple drive adage in the form of an Ibanez TS-9 (or any equivalent mild-drive unit)ensures this amp’s relevance in various music settings.

Tone test equipment:
• Guitars: LTD M-50, PRS SE Soapbar II
• Pedal: Ibanez TS-9 (reissue)
• Cab: Marshall 1960

Rating: 90%

Conclusion
There you have it, a true oxymoron which isn’t only effective but stellar in tonal performance. If you are lamenting the absence of channel switching, you’ve missed what the VM is all about. Do not despair though; there are other Marshall amps to address your needs. The single channel insistence here gives more emphasis to your guitar’s drive/ tone capacity & playing nuances. Do note the 3-band EQ sweep; the range isn’t as drastic as what the pre-amp controls, Dynamic Range, Mid Boost switch offer. In fact, these subtle frequency authorities reward guitar enthusiasts tremendously. The midrange price tag is also a bona fide lure to the boutique tones available here. If you wish for a glorious Marshall tone of yesterday with fine revisions to cultivate a more wholesome contemporary response, the Vintage Marshall is it.

Overall rating: 88%

Likes:
• User-friendly
• Overall dynamism, responsiveness
• Price

Dislikes:
• 3-band EQ- subtle sweep range
• Weight (yes, the VM is slightly taller to give proper housing to the KT66 valves, hence its added weight…)

**PS: Thank you Janet & all @ Davis GMC for the review invitation & audition.

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

the VM is also for those who:

*believe in pedals to reinforce what the amp has to offer/ lacks
*are in need of good Marshall tones without an over-the-top amp drive

FYI- the VM's latest endorser: Paul Gilbert

Hi sub, just curious is it possible to lower the wattage of the VM 100watt by taking out the power tubes? Can it be done DYI or it has to be done by a tech? Thanx for ur kind attention, cheers!

it's not that easy, the reason they have the 50w version in the market right now. there's a cult following for this amp but people just want a lower wattage version.

Cant take it out for this amp. Steve the amp builder has said so, and some have said the 100w sound better than the 50w... Anyway it aint much louder in terms of volume...

the 'better' here is not quite about volume, it's the saturation achieved at the power amp stage upon volume increment- 50W amps would differ from 100W units in this aspect. however, if you don't set up your rig to actually angage the volume knob + you use drive pedals to get things done (more as a booster function), 50W amps could achieve much in terms of tonal appeal.