Marshall - Old vs New question

[Smallmouth Bass]

I'm looking at trying to get a low-priced, hard-wearing head for small-medium gigs and regular practice and I've found a couple of Marshalls in my price range.

Brand new, there's the DB450H which is 300w into 4 ohm, costs about £270 and will, of course, have the usual warranty, etc. Used, there's the DBS7400, 400w into 4 ohms for £300.

Everyone seems to rate the DBS's highly compared to the new, bnudget DB models, but I suppose I'm wodnering whether what was high spec in 1995 (the DBS) is the kind of thing you find in a budget like the DB450 nowadays?

Anyone got any thoughts?

I know Marshall amps seem to get a bad rap with bassists on here, but bear in mind that Eden, Genz Benz and GK all cost about the same over here in £££s as they do in the US in $$s, so we get a bad deal on everything and you have to make do if you're on a budget. I'd thought about the Peavey Tour 450, but that has a lot of dubious reviews for clipping and cutting out, so Marshall looks like a reasonable bet.

 

[JimmyM]

You gotta get what you can afford and what's available to you. And you should be able to get a good sound out of any amp that works. Having said that, I personally am not crazy about them. They're alright, just not what I consider the best in their price range over here.

 

[Metaltronix]

I immediately noticed that you were dealing with £ and I'm assuming that you're in the UK so the 1st thing that popped into my head was Laney. Wouldn't they be abundant and cheaper then their more famous and expensive counterpart?

I also mention this because I have a very old Guitar 4 x 12 that is the best sounding cabinet that I have ever heard, loaded with Fane speakers (celestions counterpart). Tone wise it has blown every other cabinet that I have owned for the last 23 years, guitar wise.

 

[Al Heeley]

Just sent my Marshall MB4210 combo and MBC115 cab back to the retailer as I had a year of problems with them. Got some good sounds, flexible tone being able to blend in modern and classic tones, but the classic was way too mid-scooped for me. Main problem was the poor qc on the crossover cards, both sets failed on me spoiling 2 gigs with distortion, loss of power, overheating. I got 2 replacements promptly from marshall but they both failed on me as well about 2 months later. Now I have a Tour 450 thru a hartke 410XL cab and the sound quality has gone up a peg - it has a huge range of tonal variations possible, great eq for boosting or cancelling narrow freq bands, the whole sound has punch, depth and authority though we are talking about a bit costlier rig. I've been very loyal to Marshall over many years but the bad qc on these new bass amps has ruined 4 separate live gigs for my band.