Today I went down to my local music store intending to try different amps. I asked the owner to let me play a Gibson SG Standard (just like mine). In short I tryed basically all the amps in the store tubes and combos alike, afer almost giving up I got to the Marshall combo amp section. I tryed an MG100fx and I thought "it has an extraordinary sound". I kept trying Marshall amps until I hit the MG50fx which was much clearer and had simpler controls. I was immediately in love so I kept playing with the controls, and even though I never got to use the foot switch, I noticed that my simple mind was easily able to understand the layout and how everything worked. Even though all that stuff was great the thing that really hit me was the incredibly clear sound AND a deep thick bass range. so all I have to do now is get a job, save up all my money until I have the money for it.

You can get any tone from clean to scream, as long as it's a Metal tone. That's all this amp does. The entire frequency range is the most unnatural sounding thing I've ever heard from any amp in my 30 years of playing and buying/selling gear. For a lot less money you can get much more in the Line 6 Spider series, if modelling is your thing. I don't like the new MG series, the previous models were much better.

This amp is all Marshall. The set up is fairly easy. The sounds that come out of this thing are almost limitless. The sound overall is pure Marshall. It may not be a tube amp, but hey for the working class guy this amp is a great alternative. Having the on board effects will save you some dough also. My only gripe is that I wish the included footswitch had lights on it, but that's a small thing. If you need a great sounding amp at an affordable price, I highly reccomend taking a look at this well built, great sounding bad boy.

Here's everything you want to know about this amp.

All the 50 and 100-watt MG4 amps have the exact same preamps and front panel controls. The pricing difference is about the power amp section and speaker configuration. The only rear panel difference I can see is that the head has 2 speaker outs rated at down to 4 ohms, where the combos have a single out at 8 ohms.

Next, the amp truly does have 4 distinct channels, organized as two sections each with an A/B setting. Going from clean to crunch to OD1 to OD2, you can rate them by amount of breakup/distortion as none, some, lots, and OMG. Though every channel has 2-stage gain, even at it's highest setting the clean channel doesn't break up, just gets a nice thickness. Each channel retains a set of stored settings, which include everything except master volume. So a setting includes pre and post gain, 3 band eq, reverb, effects, delay, and FDD (boosts highs and lows).

Modifying a preset is quick and easy. Pick the channel with front panel buttons or footswitch. Twist the knobs until you like the sound. Press the store button once. You're done. Reading the manual makes it sound confusing, but in practice it is dead simple.

I play classic rock covers using a 2-channel amp and a full pedalboard including 1 distortion and 2 overdrives, and this rig will allow me to dump everything except my tuner and my volume pedal. Clean channel with chorus; Crunch channel with classic Marshall sound for Eagles, Skynyrd, and Stones; OD1 with modern scooped distorion for ZZ Top, Kiss, and Modern Rock, OD2 with high gain, reverb and delay for solos.

One final note: The MG4 series can use a trick footpedal which is available for an extra charge and gives you added features like the tuner and more preset storage, but the basic 50-watt package comes with a 2-button footswitch which allows you to select between the 4 presets in the same way as the front panel buttons. This is enough to get you started and may be all you need.

The effects are digital, but according to the Marshall web site, all the amp voicings are analog. So no DSP amp modeling, just a real solid-state preamp. While it may not have the sizzle and shine of an all-tube Marshall stack, you will know the brand of this amp with your eyes closed. It has the throaty Marshall roar. The first time I played my new amp, the other guitar player had a Marshall tube head and a 4x12, and I was getting similar tone (thougn not quite as much volume). It sounded like 2 Marshalls, not a Marhsall and a lame wanna-be.

Buy this amp. It has the sound, the features, and the price.