Marshall MG DFX Series Amplifiers Review

Marshall MG DFX Series Amplifiers
Monster Marshallized tone in compact, practical combos.
By Marley Jefferson

Marshall MG DFX Series Amplifiers
If you play rock guitar - any style of rock guitar - you have to appreciate and respect what Marshall has brought to the table. For generations, Marshall has been a major shaping force in the essential sound of rock guitar. The powerhouse crunch, crystal clarity, and musical distortion of a Marshall tube head driving a pile of Celestion speakers has given drive and explosive power to bands from The Who to Static-X.

For many of us non-pro musicians, however, the big Marshall rigs are too expensive , too big for easy bedroom storage, and just too powerful to be appropriate for the kind of playing situations we find ourselves in. You may love the sound, but if you never get to crank the gain above 2, what's the use?

The Marshall Plan
In the past Marshall answered these concerns with their Valvestate Series amps. With these hybrid rigs, Marshall developed and refined its tube emulation circuitry to the degree that these powerful combos managed to capture Marshall's tube tone and response to an amazing degree. They also cut the cost of a Marshall rig in half or more, and gave musicians who play club gigs a practical Marshall alternative.

Down a Major Third
Now with its MG Series amps, Marshall has taken another big step toward serving us money-challenged but deadly serious small-time guitarists. The MGs vary in size from practice and rehearsal amps through a choice of gig-worthy combos. They range from 15W to 100W, and all are very accessibly priced.

The MGs have gone through a number of versions over the last few years, each version incorporating more features that make them practical amps for a variety of players. Now the MGs have incorporated the FDD technology first developed for the Valvestates. This power stage circuitry mimics the interaction between a tube power section and the speakers, giving the speakers different response characteristics depending on frequency. As a result, even these little solid state amps capture much of the Marshall tube amp sound. It's fatter.


The Try Out
I chose the MG30DFX first. With 30W and a 10" speaker, it seemed like it would be the most versatile of the bunch - small enough to be a good practice amp, but with enough swat for jamming and probably, since it is a Marshall, capable of small club gigs. I wasn't wrong. The amp that came out of the box was a compact open-backed unit, roughly the size of a Deluxe. Easy to stash in the bedroom. Easy to pack to a session. This is the only one of the MGs that is open-backed, and I asked Marshall about it. Their explanation was simple. All of the MG amps were originally designed with closed backs, but in testing out the 30, they found it sounded better open. Not so with the other sizes, but since it's the sound that matters, the Marshall engineers made the 30 an exception to their series design plan.

Like all the MGs, it's equipped with a headphone jack for silent practice. Actually the jack doubles as a line out, so headphones run quiet, which is good. You can crank up the amp and still not put your hearing at risk. Without the phones plugged in, this thing can can scream. It gets louder than you'll ever need it to. The MGs also include a CD input so you plug in for jam-along practice.


That Marshall Thing
The controls are simple. Volume/Treble and Bass for the clean channel; Gain/Volume/Treble/Bass and Contour for the Overdrive channel. First I tried out its clean channel. I was impressed at how quiet this channel is even with the gain cranked. The tone is a very tubey clean tone. Thick rather than thin. A little edgy and with good presence. Good sustain, too. It is an expressive amp that responds when you play quick, plucky notes or long, ringing notes.

The Overdrive channel is a trip. With the Gain and Volume set differently you can get a wide range of distortions, from edgy bluesy to total rip. At all settings, the tone stays well defined. It's not the kind of mushy distortion that masks mistakes, but rather one that rewards skillful playing. A Contour control also adds to the flexibility of the distortion channel. It seems like a fairly radical mid-scoop to me. Whatever it does, it does a lot of it.

A digital effects block is another new addition to the MG amps. It's a basic guitarist's setup: Delay, Reverb, Chorus, and Flange (with Chorus/Delay added on larger units).. Two knobs do it all (three on larger units as the Reverb has its own level on the MG50 and above. One knob selects an effect and varies it through a quarter of a turn (chorus speed, delay length, reverb decay, and flange speed). The other knob blends it with the uneffected signal. Simple, straightforward, and it takes the place of a pedalboard of effects.

All the other MGs follow this same basic format. Just more or less power with more or fewer controls. I really liked the 15-watter. It's purely a practice amp, but it is a strong little bugger and has the same clear tone, rhythm chunk, and flexible distortion I found in the MG30. The MG50DFX has all the same features as the MG30 but with a middle control added to the Clean channel and a separate level control for the digital Reverb, adding even more flexibgility to the DFX. It also boasts a 12" Celestion speaker for more volume than the average club rock band can ever use. And if you think that size really matters, or actually do play to large outdoor crowds, the MG100DFX combo, MG100HDFX head, and the MG250DFX rig with 50W + 50W and two 12s may be your cup of tea. All of them will give you full-tilt Marshallicious tone for a sweet price.