Marshall Mg-10cd Guitar Combo Amplifier Review

Back in my apartment living days I felt a need for a small amp so that I wouldn't blow out the neighbors' windows with the bigger Marshall, so I tested out this little Marshall MG-10CD. It's not a bad looking little practice amp. There really isn't much to it: 2 channels, one clean, one overdrive; 1 volume control for the clean side, 1 volume and 1 gain control for the OD side and a push button to switch between channels; 1 Tone "Contour" control; 1 input jack, 1 CD in/Emulated Line out jack, 1 Headphone jack. This is a solid state amp that feeds 10 watts RMS into a little 6.5" speaker.

My first impression was ok, overall. It wasn't anything to write home about. The clean channel provided an "ok" sound, but it really lacked any kind of warmth or tonal response. The lack of reverb of any kind is also a big drawback. Sure, you can buy stomp boxes to emulate reverb, but I hate stomp boxes. The OD channel has mucho distortion, but very little "life". The warmth and tonal response I was looking for from a Marshall just wasn't there.

Overall, for a $70 cheapie solid state practice amp, it's not bad, but I wouldn't want my friends to hear me playing through it. My advice would be to spend a little bit more $$ on a small tube amp like the Epi Valve Jr.