bassix Posted July 26, 2004 Share Posted July 26, 2004 Anyone heard that Marshall "Mode Four" yet? 2 x tube pre and 350w solid state power amp. It looks nice anyway. I wonder if it's any good... Stirring shit up since 1968 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StinkMonkey Posted July 26, 2004 Share Posted July 26, 2004 The Tube Heads hate it. I've owned a MF350 with the 400A cab for about a year now. The fans in the newer Marshalls are cheap computer fans. I had to lube the amp two fan twice. I replaced them both with light up fans just for fun. The dots on the control knobs are hard to see at low light levels. The Clean Channnel and Crunch Channel need their own seperate gains, and the damn thing has rendered all my distortion pedals obsolete. Now for the good stuff. The record outs are awesome. There's a mute tuner switch and using it you can go to silent record. It's extremely quiet for a massive high watt amp. Clean goes from Clean (you may have to turn the clean gain to under a half and roll off you guitar volume some with a humbucker) to some Crunch, Crunch goes from a bit of crunch to amp two OD1 where the distortion really starts to get heavy, OD2 goes from the end of OD1s range to massive distortion. Press the scoop switch and you easily get modern metal and black metal tones. It's stupid loud. It has so much variation in the controls it gets touchy with humbuckers. There is no amp out there that has more bottom (bass). There is no topout of headroom, you can crank it up and there's no 'extra' distortion from the speakers. The trebel will split your skull and make your ears bleed at full volume so ear plugs are recommended. There are sweet spots in the gain settings so read the Marshall manual online THEN take your guitar and try one out. The MF isn't for everyone. Once you know how to dial it in it's a freakin' tone monster. It's NOT a modeling amp, it has the Marshall tone, but in it's own way. It sounds better the louder you crank it. It sounds good at low volume say main at 1/8. But it really comes to life at 1/4 or more master volume. The clean really brings out the individual tones of different guitars. I have a Texas Special FrankenStrat, a Limited Edition Fat Strat with 85/SA/SA EMG's, a SG special and a Historic'57 Custom Reissue Les Paul. I play all types of Rock, Blues, some metal and I've even dabbled in some Funk. Once you know how to set it up it'll do it all. I'll put my MF350 up against any amp for tone. It's not my only amp, but she's my favorite. Play really loud and everything will be allright. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoes Posted July 27, 2004 Share Posted July 27, 2004 If I have the need and money to buy something like that I'd go all the way and get a MESA RoadKing and have something real. I get the feeling they'll be making TSLs longer than they'll be making Mode 4s. But then that just a feeling and we know what feelings are for. I still think guitars are like shoes, but louder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StinkMonkey Posted July 27, 2004 Share Posted July 27, 2004 Good choice. I would have been VERY happy with the other hiwatt amps I tried, I liked the Mesa Road King and the Triple Rec. I liked the Randall Warhead, I liked the Blue Voodoo 300 watt. I also liked a couple of other Marshalls too. I wanted to try the Soldano and the Bogner but there weren't any around to try. The problem I have is like guitars the amps all have their own tones too. Kinda like the old Lays potato chip commericials here in the states. Ya can't have just one. Now if I can only hit the lottery! Play really loud and everything will be allright. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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