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Marshall Valvestate surprise...


Karma1

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I have a Marshall Valvestate VS230, which is a 60w. stereo chorus combo, that I put a nice set of Eminence speakers into. I had a loose connection on the input jack, so I figured while I had the thing open for repair, I'd replace the tube in the preamp with a nice JJ Tesla hi-gain 12AX7.

However, once inside, I looked for the tube and there was none to be found! I thought the whole premise of the Marshall Valvestate was that it was a hybrid amp with a tube in the preamp and a solid state amp section. So I went to the Marshall website and found that only some Valvestate models have tubes - the larger more expensive ones. So, anyone considering a Valvestate with the idea that there is at least one tube in the signal path, should check it out first and see if that model has one. Not that one tube is going to make that much of a difference, but it seems misleading that the Valvestate concept is built around a tube/solid state combo.

 

I've got a Mesa Boogie Studio 22+ and Fender Blues Jr. for real tube tone, but the Valvestate is actually not a bad sounding solid state amp, especially with the upgraded speakers. But you'd think somthing with the name Valvestate would at least have a valve in it.

Incidentally, I put that JJ tube in my Mesa Boogie V-Twin pedal, and it made a big difference in tone over the Sovtek that was in there.

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You had to get one more model up in the series anything below the VS65 didn't get tubes. I had a VS232 for about 7 years, and didn't make that discovery till two years ago as changing the tube had never occured to me, then one day I went looking for it and it wasn't there.

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Nah - it's not illegal.

 

{censored}ty - yes.

 

Some floor pedals with a valve in them have little red diodes behind hem to fakethat it is 'on' and powered up, when it hasn't even reached a decent operating temp.

 

But it's pretty general knowledge that teh Valvestates (and Hybrid amps in general) are 'valve' only in name.

 

If who you bought it off told you it was an 'all valve' amp, then you have been ripped off. If not, you (and million others) were sucked in by a marketing man's clever word play.

 

Sorry dude. Not too bad a price for the amp though.

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If you read Marshall's sales literature properly, you will find that 'Valvestate' refers to the power amp design, which emulates the way a valve power amp interacts with a speaker and the way it breaks up. Valvestate was never about the preamp.

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