If you like Marshall amplifiers and want a stack without the size or price, the Marshall micro stack might just be for you. If you rock out in your bedroom or jam with a small band you are covered by Marshall. Marshall had previously made a micro stack in the late 1980’s but discontinued the model. At the request of various customers they have brought them back. I actually bought mine because of a mid life crisis were I wanted to live my youth again.
The Marshall micro stack is pretty sturdy and well made for being roughly three feet tall. It is made in Vietnam and not England, but don’t let that make you think it is not a good amplifier. It was designed in England and supervised by a Marshall design team. The amplifier has three pieces including the head, one ten inch slanted speaker cabinet, and one 10 inch straight speaker cabinet. It has 15 watts of solid state power. The amp has two channels. One clean channel and one distortion channel to squeal the hottest leads. The equalizer features treble, bass, and contour controls. It also has an overdrive control, and effect level (reverb) control. The contour control acts very similar to a midrange control that is on most amplifiers. There are two line outs for the speaker cabinets. It also includes a CD input so you can play and jam along with your favorite songs. It also has an emulated line out that can be used for recording. I actually prefer to mike the cabinet instead than use the emulated line out for recording. The Marshall micro stack also has a headphone jack that you can use for quiet practice on your own. The list price is $430.00, but you can typically find these online for $299.99 to $349.99.
Overall this Marshall is a pretty good amplifier, but it does not sound like a Marshall stack. The overdrive comes very good to a high gain sound, but it gets very noisy at the level that you will need to run it at to get a good distortion sound out of it. You can probably turn the gain control to 6 and then it starts to get a bit noisy. The contour control is also a bit difficult to use if you are used to a standard midrange control on amplifiers. Overall I would say the amp has a more low level sound than a high level sound. I also will tell you that you will need to turn your channel volume over 6 to have it sound good. The effects are good but not as good as you would get using pedals. A drawback is that you have to purchase the footswitch to change from clean and distortion. This will cost an additional $60. I like the amp overall but it is more the nostalgia or Marshall than quality that make the amplifier a good amp. If you already have a practice amplifier there really is not a reason to buy the Marshall mini stack. If you want one you can usually find one used on eBay for under $200.
