VINTAGE BRITISH BLUES TONE
Back when I was about 18 years old I came incredibly close to just selling everything I had (which wasn’t much) to purchase a Marshall 1962 Bluesbreaker… seriously, I’ve never been able to afford one, and to this day it’s my most coveted guitar amp.
If you’ve never had the pleasure of playing one, you’ll have to trust me when I say that the 1962 Bluesbreaker, besides sporting a drop-dead gorgeous retro design, produces about the creamiest overdrive and sustain you’ve ever heard from an amplifier.
This is the amp that helped put Eric Clapton on the map during his stint with The Bluesbreakers, and in my humble opinion it sounds as delicious today as it did then. Of course, it ain’t cheap, but I think it’s probably worth every penny. The only thing missing is a reverb unit, but then this is an accurate re-issue, so you get what you get.
FEATURES: The Bluesbreaker does come with a foot-switchable tremolo, and sports a 3-band EQ, 30 watts of power, three pre-amp tubes, two power-amp tubes, and a pair of 12“ Celestion Greenback speakers.
Just plug it in, find your sweet spot, and go!
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March 19th, 2009 at 7:13 am
I agree totally with this review. As a teenager in the 90′s I became osessed with 1960′s Beat music.I had some well off friends who owned Vox ac30′s I could use and although there is a lot to be said in favour of those amps however didn’t deliver the sound I had in my head. Marshall amps however I associated with later heavier and more distorted sounding guitar bands. Some time later I acquired a very,very cheap 70′s AC30. A solid state model. As I developped a love for surf and had my first job I bought a Fender Reverb unit. It’s to my ears the most gorgeous sounding reverb I’ve ever heard.
When I had to take the Vox to the repair shop a friend of mine borrowed me his 100 watt Marshall plexi and I wasn blown away by the sound. It didn’t make my guitar sound like Hendrix, Clapton or Purple. It gave me the Small Faces and Who sound I craved for. It was however extremely loud.
In order to get that sound but at a tlerable volume I went out to seek for a second hand Bluesbreaker and found a gorgeous one in creamy white for a small price.
It’s a stunning, good-looking amp and the sound is gorgeous. I can get nice early clean to crunshy Beat band sounds out of it. Surf rock and indeed those creamy sounds of the Mayall guitarists.
I think it’s a masterpiece.