So I was looking for some kind of amp stand...

...to put the little Marshall practice amp I received last week. What better than another Marshall combo?
 

 
 
More seriously, my wife wanted to drop by at a nearby pawshop to see bass amps and stuff. The lady in charge took us to the storage facility because they didn't have much in the actual store. My trained eye immediately spotted the Marshall logo somewhere in the back of the room on a little combo. But we were there for a bass amp so I assisted my wife the best I could. She found a little SWR cube which she liked. Only a 10" but she decided that it sounded good enough for her to begin.
 
My wife asked if I saw anything I liked - yes, really, she said... I knew I'd regret it if I didn't at least check out the Marshall combo and give it a try. When the lady said $100, my wife said deal - I figured what the heck...
 
It's an AVT50X, made in 2006. I was familiar w/ the first line of Valvestate amps, back in the mid 90s. No crazy love story (I actually prefered my old Master Lead) but I got used to the little Valvestate practice amp. As I mentioned recently, that's what made me want to grab the little practice amp.
 
Anyway... The AVT still isn't the almighty tube amp I want to eventually acquire - it does have a single tube, but it's definitely not a tube amp per se. 
 
But judging from the serious fun I've had messing w/ the little Marshall MG, if I'm having half as much fun w/ this one, it will have been worth it. After being sans amp for so many years and relying exclusively on modeling, even just the little MG sounds more interesting than any big fat model to my ear. I know how to work with this, I know how to make it work for me - whereas amp sims have always seemed to have this element of randomness and I was never too sure what I'd be getting out of them. I think I actually play better in an actual amp than in a model or even a modeling amp.
 
So that's Marcel (on top) and Marciano
Yes, I even give names to my amps... :P

You should have gotten red...
 
I think it looks better with your guitar :)
( like my stand?:)

After testing...
 
The amp on its own through its own speaker doesn't really sound good - it has that buzzy sound in the high frequencies.  I would have loved it as a teen, back when I believed that the mid knob was something you could duct tape at 0, that a boss distortion was the holy grail and that And Justice for All sounded amazing... :P
 
Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, even putting a mic in front of it wouldn't work.
 
The emulated speaker output is pretty much useless, as I expected. More sizzling and buzzing.
 
But it has a FX send and that thing had been in the back of my mind since last night as I thought I could use that in conjunction w/ impulses - even if the emulated output worked, the send would have the advantage of increased flexibility. 
 
That worked and redeemed the amp - otherwise, it'd still would have made a nice amp stand methinks :P I admit that I had no expectation at that point after hearing the amp on its own, but for some reason, impulses seem to tame that buzzing sound. W/ Guitar Rig 5' control room pro, it worked pretty good.
 
For anything a bit heavier, I think I'll be able to get a few decent tones out of it. For rock and hard rock, just forget it though. The little carbon MG is actually closer to that and probably the funniest to play - even though I've read countless negative reviews, I guess from people who figure that the Marshall logo shouldn't be put on anything unless it sounds exactly like a Plexi or a JCM 800.
 
 

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