• All the amp you could ever need

  
  As reviewed by Rock 'n' Roll Cole on 6/6/2010

  If you love the amp tone that Hendrix, Clapton and The Who had. All the way up thru Zeppelin, Aerosmith to Van Halen and on to G'n'R and on to today. If you are a serious guitarist who tours and/or gigs, and might or do record in the studio. Then this is the only amp set up you could ever possibly need. Just incredible with single coils or humbuckers, Les Pauls to Teles n Stats. The 1987xl head is the reissue of the the original x model with an effects loop, that I must say is perfect. I also have an original 50 watt "Plexi" from 68 and I find all of them even back then, to have a tiny, tiny difference from amp to amp in tone and/or volume. Especially as to when the gain starts to dial in on the volume knob. Which is all you get with these old timers. No "Pre" or "Gain", just "Volume", and as you dial it up, it gets more distorted. Now mind you there is 2 different channel inputs on the front panel both with a high and low plug making a total of 4 input jacks, which can be jumped together with a pedal cable or the like and you can then use both volumes together for even more tonal options and maximum gain. On my new 1987xl from GC, it is clean only until about 2, 2.5 on the amps volume knob then all hell starts to break loose. It gets incredibly loud and distorted quickly and from there on up to about 7, which is where it gets to it's peak in gain and volume. From 7 to 10 it just gets mushier, not even louder. If you use your volume on your guitar or a volume pedal, you can now dial it down to get amazing, sparkling clean tones at still big volumes. It seems to only clean up the signal until about 3 on the guitar volume knob then gets quieter until off. Since Plexi's don't come with reverb, I use my effects loop for a reverb pedal and/or digital delay or tape delay and when it is switched out of the loop, it is completely gone. I have never had a need to use any kind of overdrive and/or distortion pedal as I find the amps gain is incredible and massive. I would have never thought something designed in 1966 would have so much amazing and useful distortion and sustain. Not to mention the dynamics, harmonics and interaction between you and the way you play, and what comes out the cabinet. Now it is not a super high gain monster, but with a little delay and the amp dialed up, it sounds as good as any "Guitar Hero's" tone, I have EVER heard. It is massive but still articulate, and it is also the loudest 50 watts I have ever heard in my life, anywhere. I mean really loud, so I'd advise an attenuator/power brake of sorts to tame the volume but still allow you to use it dialed up without the cops coming. The Marshall "1960" model cabs are simply the best built cabinet in the industry. Everyone knows it. The 1960's are the best period. What makes things even better is that there are different Celestion madels of speakers you can get in the 1960 cabs and these ones, the AX & BX come with the "Greenback" 25 watt model. Being only a hundred watt cabinet makes it the perfect match for this 50 watt head. You get justs the right amount of speaker break up to go with your tube break up and ta'da, you got Eddie Van Halen's exact same set up from his first album up to 1989. A 50 watt plexi and 1960 cabinets with "Greenback" speakers. Now if it worked for him as well as a load of other pro's to long to list. It's more than great for you and I. Oh and I use mine in my 1000 square foot professional recording studio as my number one! guitar amp, and I own 7 other half stacks of which 2 are different Marshall set ups, so there you go, I hope that will help you decide to spend your money on the only real choice and that being this 1987xl and 1960ax or bx.

  2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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• All the amp you could ever need

  
  As reviewed by Rock 'n' Roll Cole on 6/6/2010

  If you love the amp tone that Hendrix, Clapton and The Who had. All the way up thru Zeppelin, Aerosmith to Van Halen and on to G'n'R and on to today. If you are a serious guitarist who tours and/or gigs, and might or do record in the studio. Then this is the only amp set up you could ever possibly need. Just incredible with single coils or humbuckers, Les Pauls to Teles n Stats. The 1987xl head is the reissue of the the original x model with an effects loop, that I must say is perfect. I also have an original 50 watt "Plexi" from 68 and I find all of them even back then, to have a tiny, tiny difference from amp to amp in tone and/or volume. Especially as to when the gain starts to dial in on the volume knob. Which is all you get with these old timers. No "Pre" or "Gain", just "Volume", and as you dial it up, it gets more distorted. Now mind you there is 2 different channel inputs on the front panel both with a high and low plug making a total of 4 input jacks, which can be jumped together with a pedal cable or the like and you can then use both volumes together for even more tonal options and maximum gain. On my new 1987xl from GC, it is clean only until about 2, 2.5 on the amps volume knob then all hell starts to break loose. It gets incredibly loud and distorted quickly and from there on up to about 7, which is where it gets to it's peak in gain and volume. From 7 to 10 it just gets mushier, not even louder. If you use your volume on your guitar or a volume pedal, you can now dial it down to get amazing, sparkling clean tones at still big volumes. It seems to only clean up the signal until about 3 on the guitar volume knob then gets quieter until off. Since Plexi's don't come with reverb, I use my effects loop for a reverb pedal and/or digital delay or tape delay and when it is switched out of the loop, it is completely gone. I have never had a need to use any kind of overdrive and/or distortion pedal as I find the amps gain is incredible and massive. I would have never thought something designed in 1966 would have so much amazing and useful distortion and sustain. Not to mention the dynamics, harmonics and interaction between you and the way you play, and what comes out the cabinet. Now it is not a super high gain monster, but with a little delay and the amp dialed up, it sounds as good as any "Guitar Hero's" tone, I have EVER heard. It is massive but still articulate, and it is also the loudest 50 watts I have ever heard in my life, anywhere. I mean really loud, so I'd advise an attenuator/power brake of sorts to tame the volume but still allow you to use it dialed up without the cops coming. The Marshall "1960" model cabs are simply the best built cabinet in the industry. Everyone knows it. The 1960's are the best period. What makes things even better is that there are different Celestion madels of speakers you can get in the 1960 cabs and these ones, the AX & BX come with the "Greenback" 25 watt model. Being only a hundred watt cabinet makes it the perfect match for this 50 watt head. You get justs the right amount of speaker break up to go with your tube break up and ta'da, you got Eddie Van Halen's exact same set up from his first album up to 1989. A 50 watt plexi and 1960 cabinets with "Greenback" speakers. Now if it worked for him as well as a load of other pro's to long to list. It's more than great for you and I. Oh and I use mine in my 1000 square foot professional recording studio as my number one! guitar amp, and I own 7 other half stacks of which 2 are different Marshall set ups, so there you go, I hope that will help you decide to spend your money on the only real choice and that being this 1987xl and 1960ax or bx.

  3 of 4 people found this review helpful.
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