Just a quick note: I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been drooling over Marshall’s new 100% hand-wired 1974X combo since it was first announced last year, and in fact I’ve been keeping an eye out for one to test drive in my area, but so far I haven’t had any luck (damned cow town... I’ll probably need to head over to S.F.)
Anyways, this morning I stumbled across a pretty decent review of the 1974X over at Guitar World’s website, and they’ve got an excellent video demo to boot.
The amp is basically a single-channel rocker disguised as a dual-channel (you’ll need an A/B box,) and built to reproduce Marshall’s original low-wattage model 1974, circa the late ’60s––All tube. Onboard Tremolo. 18-watts of power. 12″ speaker. Vintage grille cloth. That’s about it.
True plug ‘n play. Check it out!
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March 29th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
I’ve tried this amp, and it’s a beauty…. but you have crank it up fairly loud to get the the famous “brown” overdriven sound . It does a good job of bring out the sound of the guitar and letting you control the “gain” from your guitars volume knob. This is one great studio amp.
March 29th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
I still haven’t managed to play the 1974X, but the old Marshall Bluesbreaker is one of my all-time favorite amps, and years ago I came THIS close to buying one… in the end I couldn’t get over the lack of reverb, and ended up with something completely different… a Fender Twin Reverb.
Loved that amp as well, but over the years it became just too freakin’ heavy to haul around all the time, so I’ve continued to purchase smaller, and smaller amps… that’s how I ended up with a 20-watt Swart.
Favorite amp yet :)
March 30th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
one of the coolest things marshall has busted out in a long while. they sound incredible cranked, they’re pretty small and manageable. and they have cool built in trem.
the main problem experienced by 1974x users is the reliability – check the harmony-central reviews, seems like every other person has had to send it in to be fixed (under warranty), some people have had to get multiple replacement units. i’m not an amp guru, but i think it may have had something to do with the transformer crapping out when the amp is run full-speed for extended periods of time. and who wouldn’t run this amp at ten? i was pretty dead-set on buying one until i read about all these problems people were having.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I’ve been hearing the same thing about the PT blowing on the Marshall 1974X when run for a extended period of time. I emailed Marshall and asked if this issue was solved, Marshall did not respond. Would like to buy a used one but I’m afraid I’d end up replacing the PT.
November 23rd, 2010 at 9:44 am
I have a 1974x, it is 3 years old (2007) it has been played at jam nights and done 30 plus gigs and always run flat out for the second set – have never had problems with it. Most reliable amp I have ever owned.