Marshall JVM Series JVM205H 50W Tube Guitar Amp Head 

Comments about Marshall JVM Series JVM205H 50W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

I bought this amp this past summer. I did a boatload of research and had narrowed my choice to Marshall and a couple of boutique amps that are Marshall "clones." I opted for the JVM and I'm very happy I did. I love everything about this amp! Let me say first it's NOT gonna be everything to everybody! It's a MARSHALL! It's designed to ROCK! The end! If you want country- Fender. If you want clean and jangly- Vox. But if you want the tone of classic Rock and Roll played loud- Marshall! I use this amp extensively in the studio. I use it on the gig but as I play mostly in cover bands that do a wide variety, it's not the 'perfect' amp all the time. It's NOT supposed to be. It's supposed to ROCK and when it does it does the gig like no other! I always wanted a 'real' Marshall (I bought a Haze a few years back) but the price tag and the sheer power always made me push it back on the priority list. Well, I made up my mind to get one and like most other things in life, when you prioritize it, it can become reality. I grew up on the tone of the classic players like Hendrix, Page, Clapton and bands like the Allmans, Doobies, etc. This amp nails that tone! I could go on but this amp is made to ROCK and it's made to be played LOUD! If you can meet those two criteria, you'll be very close to Tone Nirvana man!

Comments about Marshall JVM Series JVM205H 50W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

Overall a great amp for the money. The 50 watt version will get colored at higher gain levels, but I think it provides a great tone. High gain on the lead channel can create quite a bid of feedback, especially with time based effects involved. Effects loop is cool as it provides the option to blend the effects loop with the dry signal. I keep it all the way wet as I have several swell effects in my loop that sound out of sync with any dry signal coming through. I've paired this head with the Mesa Boogie Rectifier Cab. Sounds huge. Lastly, I actually control the amp head with the Line 6 M13 Midi output. This allows me to simultaneously switch the amp head channels and Line 6 effects. Makes my complicated rig a lot more simple.
Provides two independent tube channels with three switchable gain stages each. Also provides two master volume channels. I use the 2 master channels to switch back and forth between rhythm and lead. Makes it super easy with the foot switcher. (I acquired the 410 switch for more options)
Great value. Relatively speaking

Comments about Marshall JVM Series JVM205H 50W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

This is a great amp. I have it paired up with a 1960 4x12 cab from the 90's and it sounds AWESOME. Great sounds from this amp. Very very versatile amp for the cover band guitarist like me. The 3 modes per channel is nice. Two Master volumes so my solos are always right up front! The foot pedal is a vast improvement and uses a instrument cable. They should ALL be like that. You can get this map for a great price and you will LOVE it. I am surprised more people are not using these but I wouldnt mind having the 100 watt either. :-) I have had this map for a year now and simply LOVE it. Highly recommended!!!

Comments about Marshall JVM Series JVM205H 50W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

Old school tone freaks seeing the title of this review will know just what I'm talking about. This head delivers "That" sound in spades and offers all the variations you'll probably ever need. Just keep in mind that every channel sounds like a Marshall; you're not going to get several amps in one package here. Rock and blues tones are represented in full, but high gain metal chug and pristine Fender cleans are absent. Also, buyer beware: the cab and speakers you pair with this head makes a huge difference. The Celestion T75s that come in the cabs Marshall is bundling with the JVMs sound terrible and make having this head a mute point. I had two of these speakers in a smaller Marshall cab and wasn't happy with the tone until I dumped the Celestions. I'm running an Eminence Red Fang and Wizard in the same cab now, and it sounds fantastic (and the speakers aren't even totally broken in yet). Other than that, there really aren't any concerns with this head. The reverb is just okay, but that's what you would expect from anything digital. If you want that signature Marshall tone you really can't go wrong with this head; for the price is delivers the goods.

Comments about Marshall JVM Series JVM205H 50W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

I've owned a few tube amps over the last several years (including Ampeg & Mesa F50) and the JVM is the best sounding and most versatile by far. The cleans are sparkly and chimey (pretty close to the Ampeg, I?d say) and the crunch and OD sounds are exactly what you'd expect from a Marshall. While not a Plexi or JCM 800, you can get very close to these tones and SOOOO much more. IMHO the high gain tones are an improvement over the JCM 2000s.Some amps take endless tweaking and dialing to sound great (including some Marshalls), but it's hard to get a bad sound out of these amps. However, they are quite responsive to different speakers and can sound excessively bright/harsh with some...I'd recommend trying a few different cabs before buying.My only complaint is that the OD channel on this JVM is based on the somewhat scooped OD2 from the 4-channel JVM, and scooped metal is not my thing. But it's pretty subtle, and an EQ pedal in the loop solves that. The footswitching with this amp is awesome. The digital reverb quite nice, as are the effects loops. The one omission on this amp is a noise gate (the reason I gave 4.5 stars for features), but I don't play with huge amounts of gain so it's not a big issue for me.

Comments about Marshall JVM Series JVM205H 50W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

This amp is awesome,50 watts is all you need!I'm not putting down the 100 watt JVM,come on 100 watts- that alot!I play drop metal through a 1960 cab this head is a BEAST!The two channels with six modes covers everything that is MARSHALL.Anything else is a waste,Marshall should be pushing this head alot more!Because in my opinion it blows away the 100watt JVM.Buy this head and you'll hear what i'm talking about!

Comments about Marshall JVM Series JVM205H 50W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

I have been looking for my first tube amp setup after playing a Marshall AVT50 for years. Although that amp has a single tube preamp in it and is a workhorse, I wanted the pure tube tone. I've researched and played various Mesas and the Orange Rockerverb, which is way too expensive. I was leaning towards the DSL 50 which I had gigged with before, but I always felt that amp gave too little gain or too much depending on the settings. So I had heard about this JVM series and thought the 405 was overkill, way too many knobs that most likely are unnecessary. I like my setup as simple as can be, which is when I was turned on to the 205H. This amp sounds better in my opinion than the 405 because it has less to it. I like that all the master controls are laid out in a row, followed by the OD1 row and OD2. It's effectively 6 amps in one, but I really just see it as a normal modern Marshall with less gain or more gain on each channel. I'm still not crazy about the clean tone, but then again, Marshall has never been great with that. I feel like it still has too much grit in it and not enough smoothness. Anyways, the orange setting on the OD2 section of the amp is killer. It sounds exactly like the distortion I love, i.e. the Weezer blue album. However, if you dial down the gain a bit, it definitely becomes more focused for modern stuff. The quality of the amp seems great, and looking inside it, the tubes are nestled in some sort of foam or plastic holder around them. I'm guessing this is so if the amp gets jostled traveling to gigs that the tubes will be less apt to break. I'm running it through a 1960A cab and the distortion is def. excellent. I think for the money this is a great amp that I'll be able to stick with for a long time.