MI Pro

2009 has been a pretty special year for Marshall Amplification, kicking off in January with the loudest (and some might say strangest) NAMM breakfast ever seen, as Kerry King from Slayer appeared on stage after the bacon and eggs had been suitably washed down with a gallon or so of coffee to run some of his band’s heaviest riffs through the new MG4 series amp.

The new MGs (a head and five combos) took Marshall’s solid state offerings to a new level, with all the popular features one would expect from a digital amp, but with a very workable analog tone built in. Four user-assignable channels with specially voiced effects, a new footswitching system and Marshall’s first portable, multi-voiced, battery-powered amp rounded the extensive series off.

At the Anaheim breakfast, King was ably followed onto the stage by Whitesnake’s Doug Aldrich, who then re-appeared in April at the Frankfurt Musikmesse for the (dinner time) launch of the new Haze series of guitar amps. These mid-priced amps for the gigging semi-pro (comprising a 40-Watt combo and 15-Watt head) again combine Marshall tone with an extensive effects bank, with setting automatically stored into the current channel, for a pure valve tone and studio quality processing, controllable from a single footswitch.

Frankfurt also saw the launch of the Dave Mustaine signature cab (another first for Marshall). Described as ‘monstrous and sinister’ the 1960 DM cab was built with Mustaine closely involved in the design and is made with custom 12-inch Celestion speakers, a ‘Kevlar-inspired’ covering and an industrial kick grille – this is Marshall’s most metal of cabinets.

Following on from the 2008 one-off replica of Jim Marshall’s original DSL amp, presented to the good doctor on the occasion of his 85th birthday, the amp was put into limited edition production in 2009 under the moniker of the 1923 range. The 50-Watt combo and the first ever DSL 50-Watt head are already going a long way to making the best-selling Marshall amp ever that much better.

And that, for most companies, would probably have been more than enough for the year – but do not underestimate the keenness of Marshall’s R&D team.
July 28th saw the company inviting a broad selection of press, special guests and Marshall dignitaries and employees alike to Ronnie Scott’s club in the West End of London for the launch of a brand new amp: the Class 5.

As well as a fine scoff and quaff for the assembled, everyone there was also treated to the new amp being put through its paces by the young (just 17 years old) and unbelievably talented Krissy Matthews and his eponymous band, and a full set from Joe Bonamassa and his band. It was an impressive work out.

This is a special little unit and will go a long way to underlining Marshall’s position as the world’s number one amp maker, not least with retailers. It’s valve, it’s handwired, it’s made in England and it retails at less than £350. One will be hard-pressed to find anything matching it on the market anywhere.

The Class 5 is a five-Watt, ten-inch speaker-loaded combo with Class A circuitry from input to output and is the result of research into the needs and wants of bedroom, studio, club and stadium players alike, which would appear to boil down to something simple that can, at the turn of any one of four knobs, create a multitude of valve-based tones. The low Wattage, of course, making it easier to bring about degrees of crunch – from subtle to excessive – at very manageable volumes.

The combo is based on the classic Marshall Bluesbreaker and, accordingly, is a back-to-basics unit with a top-loaded, ‘plexiesque’ panel with volume, treble, middle and bass controls – and this is the USP of the amp. There is nothing complex in getting hold of or altering the settings in even the most pressured of live environments and with the circuitry valve-driven from beginning to end, this is an amp for the purists out there – of which there are a considerable number.

All of this is powered through a specially designed G10F-15, ten-inch Celestion speaker, which (as one would expect) gives some lovely mids and highs, but (surprisingly, perhaps) maintains very constant and clear range of bass tones, too.

The back panel has a headphone output and a 16-Ohm extension cab output, capable of driving a 4x12 unit.
The jewel in the crown, as it were, is that this is a British-made amp, handwired at the Marshall HQ in Bletchley, making this a real flag-waver from design right through to construction.

“This amp is designed and built by some of the most experienced hands in the business,” comments Paul Marshall. “We have deliberately gone for the best components and put our very best craftsmanship into it. I think it is Marshall sound at its best – pure and inspiring and not a little audacious.”

With that £349 price tag, it is going to turn a lot of heads, Marshall thinks.

“I usually play through something about 345 Watts more powerful than this,” admits Bonamassa during his set at Ronnie Scott’s, where he played through (what looked like) four Class 5s daisy-chained. “But this amp has really impressed me and I’m using it regularly now at home, in the studio and for rehearsing. It’s a great little box.”

If the queues outside Ronnie Scott’s were impressive for the launch of this little powerhouse, one suspects the waiting lists for ownership of the Class 5 might well be remarkable.
Marshall: 01908 375411