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ANYONE LOOKING AT MARSHALL MB....

tom once dead

tom once dead

Mar 8, 2008
2,869
244
Brisbane QLD Australia
#1
Today I went into my local music store and played on a couple of amps, the first one was an ashdown Mag 410 combo. It sounded ok but, then i played on the Marshall.

WOW It was amazing, very punchy clean tone. Its a hybrid and you can switch between classic (high gain overdriven sound) which is really good and Modern which is clean, puchy and crisp.

The only downsides are that the head is only 2 ohms, but still sounds great, and you need a speakon which doesnt affect the tone, but its a bit annoying.

The cab is 1200 watts so you dont realy NEED a second cab but if you did want one you just need another 4 ohm cab.

I will deffinatly be buying it as soon as i have the money.
 
#2
Hey, i've responded to a few of your posts so thought i'd have my 2 cents here as well.

So your looking at the

MB 450h

and a

MBC 410

Now, what to consider looking at the specifications is that if you buy the singular cab- your head will put 300 watts at 4 ohms.

It is only when you put a second 4 ohm cab that you get 450 watts.

So its really a matter of whether there is enough power, and whether there will be enough head room for your situation.

300 watts really isn't that much for a band with 2 guitarists and a heavy metal drummer- but most gigs usually have pa assistance.

Having two channels is great, i love having the ability to mix the ones on my head and getting alot of different sounds. I havent played the marshall so cant comment on sound or anything.

Good luck
 
#3
I just bought head and 410 cab on Wednesday. I'm trying it out "for real" tonight and Saturday live at a gig.

I'm in a 5 piece blues/r&b/funk/classic rock band so I'll be putting it thru its paces (while I still have the 7 day return policy - eventhough I most likely will keep it.)


Some things I've noticed:
The head is really heavy for something this size. Reminds me of early 90s Peavey gear.
All cabinetry seems to be made of 3/4" MDF rather than plywood or particle core material.
Nice solid handles on the MBC 410.
Both boxes are covered in the black vinyl type covering (good for people with cats like me, bad? for durability?)
In total, there are 5 (yes, five!) volume/gain controls - not including the volume on your axe.
 
#5
Sure, if your PA speaker is also 4 ohms. Two 4 ohm cabs will give you a 2 ohm load, which the head needs to put out its max power.
If the PA speaker is 8 ohms, it'll still work fine, but it won't be drawing the full power from the amp.

Glad you managed to find something you liked :-)
 
#6
I'll post here instead of awakening my own thread AGAIN.

Just finished my first night of playing with the Marshall MB450h and MBC410 cab and WOW it sure impressed me.:hyper:

A big fat tone when I wanted, a rich deep sound when I wanted, and a little bit of "fuzzy" distortion on the side.

For most of the night I was just running the two channels blended and only switched to the Classic (tube) channel towards the end of the night on our louder "jam" tunes like Crowbar's Oh What a Feeling

Other than the minor issues I noted in a previous post here, I just wish there was an extra button on the footswitch for the tube channel's boost feature - this would give you instant access the overdrived sound.

I definately WON'T be returning this rig anytime soon! If you are looking for a "value priced" rig for under $950 CDN / $930 USD you gotta at least check this out! :bassist:
 
#10
kissmybASS01 said:
I'll post here instead of awakening my own thread AGAIN.

Just finished my first night of playing with the Marshall MB450h and MBC410 cab and WOW it sure impressed me.:hyper:

A big fat tone when I wanted, a rich deep sound when I wanted, and a little bit of "fuzzy" distortion on the side.

For most of the night I was just running the two channels blended and only switched to the Classic (tube) channel towards the end of the night on our louder "jam" tunes like Crowbar's Oh What a Feeling

Other than the minor issues I noted in a previous post here, I just wish there was an extra button on the footswitch for the tube channel's boost feature - this would give you instant access the overdrived sound.

I definately WON'T be returning this rig anytime soon! If you are looking for a "value priced" rig for under $950 CDN / $930 USD you gotta at least check this out! :bassist:
Click to expand...


Glad you like the new rig! Nice thing is if you are happy with one cabinet imagine how happy you will be when you break down and add a second cab. ;) And have a FULL MARSHALL STACK!
 
#11
Had my Marshall bass gear ( MB450H head MBC410 + MBC115 cabnets) for over 2 months now, and i am still impressed.
Kinda lost for words still, it has the 'sound' i have been looking for, and makes my GT6B effects unit a bit redundant.

Some of the facts are ...

it does 450 watts into 2 ohms, 300 watts into 4 ohms.
The Speakon plugs in the head unit (2 of) are dual purpose, so you can use either speakon or 6.5mm jack in the same sockets.
The MBC.... speaker cabnets are 4 ohms each ( 2 x = 2 ohms)

The MB450H head is hybrid type with a ecc83 tube for the classic channel with boost button & tube gain for grit.

If you want 400 watts of all tube amp, the Marshall VBA400 is want you want ( at 4 times the MBC price).

I don't know why some people would judge a 450 watt marshall amp, because they tried the 30 watt model and didn't like it (what use is a 30 watt amp?).

The large MB combo models use the same amp as the MB450H head (300 watts into either a 4x10 or a 2x10 combo) and by adding the extra 4 ohm speaker, takes the power up to 450 watts.
 
#12
I didn't know that you could just use a regular jack to connect them, the guy in the shop mustnt have seen it.

It had such a good sound, they owner of the shop was playing on it (because it was the first time they had plugged it in, and he was figuring it all out) and I just said, "that sounds awsome" because it does.

I only recently found out that you don't need a pedal to get distortion on bass, so that was just a bonus.
 
#13
tom once dead said:
I didn't know that you could just use a regular jack to connect them, the guy in the shop mustnt have seen it.

It had such a good sound, they owner of the shop was playing on it (because it was the first time they had plugged it in, and he was figuring it all out) and I just said, "that sounds awsome" because it does.

I only recently found out that you don't need a pedal to get distortion on bass, so that was just a bonus.
Click to expand...


Packed with the head is a small box that contains the footswitch, AC power cord, and two 1/4" speaker inter-connect cables. The 1/4" phono plug plugs into the middle hole of the "Speakon" jack.
 
#17
not much chance of that happening, Its a two ohm head, 450 watts at 2 300 at 4 I dont think it would run with an 8 ohm cab. I would recommend getting the marshall MBC 410, 1200 watts at 2 ohms 600 at 4 ohms, thats all you need, maybe put the 115 under it and get the full volume out of the head.


I'm lucky because the guy that I'm most likely to mix rigs with has a peavy 700 watts two ohm head and two peavy 15" so his cab setup is also made for a two ohm head
 
#18
Funny,

From the owners manual.....

"Safe operating levels: The MB450, MB4210 and MB4410 amplifiers are designed to deliver 450W safely into 2ohm loads.
However, impedances lower than 4 ohms together with high signal levels will produce more internal heating which may trigger the thermal protective muting."

Doesn't sound too promising.......

BTW.... It's a SS power section... Will work fine with an 8ohm load... Would be guessing but it would prolly be something like 150-180w @ 8...
 
#19
RE; REGRET NOT ENOUGH POWER

I would be very curious to hear whether this has more than enough headroom after someone has gigged with it several times. Every time I have bought an amp that I wasn't 100% sure it had enough wattage I regretted it later.

I hacve been thinking about buying this as a backup for my peavey BAM head. I have two 4 ohm cabinets, so a head that goes to 2 ohms is appealling to me. We generally play bars with up to 300 capacity and mostly my amp doesn't go thru the PA; and I play with a very loud guitarist (Marshall Half Stack, the other a Matchless).

So - I am very curious as to whether the Marshall Bass Head has a comfortable amount of headroom without having to turn the volume and gain past 5 - which from what I understand in speaking to the folks at avatar (cabinets) is not a good thing.

Thanks for any thoughts, experience with the above.
 
#20
This past weekend I played an out of town gig with my 5 piece blues/r&b/rock band where our guitard brought his "power rig" consisting of a tube Carvin head and Marshall 412 half stack.

For most of the gig, using the blended modern and tube channels worked like a charm with most of the volume knobs set between 12 and 2:30ish. For our louder rock tunes like "Rockin in the Free World," I found that running just the classic (tube) channel was required.

Keep in mind that the head pumps out 300w at 4 ohms (what I'm running, btw) and the 410 cab is rated at 600w so I don't think blowing the speakers should be a concern. It's always better safe than sorry, so maybe consider running thru the PA to reinforce your sound.

Hope that helps....
 

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