PSA - those Marshall Astoria amps at less than half price

terada

Hi Everyone,

Got an email today from DV247 about these amps. They were silly money when they came out but maybe a better buy at these prices?

https://www.musicstore.de/en_GB/GBP/marshall-astoria

No affiliation, just thought I'd share 

jaysmith

I think the styling was one of the biggest things that went against the Astoria, ...and the price... At least this is a better deal... I'm interested in trying the new Origin series when they are available. I think Marshall may be onto a winner with those.

longjaw

The lad out of Greta Van Steel gets a great tone out of the Astoria combo and a SG.

Plectrum

jaysmith said:

I think the styling was one of the biggest things that went against the Astoria, ...and the price... At least this is a better deal... I'm interested in trying the new Origin series when they are available. I think Marshall may be onto a winner with those.

I actually rather like the styling of the Astoria but I'm probably in the minority. But yes I'm sure the price was also a factor. I think Marshall will have a real winner with thee Origin. Plexi-type voicing at power levels which are more usable for the average gigging band and at a very competitive price. 

Sporky

I agree - these look ace. I also agree that the styling probably hurt sales; guitarists in general are a conservative bunch and a Marshall should look like a Marshall to a lot of buyers.

stickyfiddle

Sporky said:

I agree - these look ace. I also agree that the styling probably hurt sales; guitarists in general are a conservative bunch and a Marshall should look like a Marshall to a lot of buyers.

Yeah. While I actually like the look of these as amps, they don't look like Marshalls at all. I guess they problem they have is that all the boutiquey marshall-types generally just look like old Marshalls with a different logo, so if they followed that then there's no way to visually differentiate between the Astorias and the existing handwired stuff. 

Sassafras

longjaw said:

The lad out of Greta Van Steel gets a great time out of the Astoria combo and a SG.

What does he do with it or shouldn't I ask?

Sassafras

The heads look good but I'm not so keen on the cabs.

ICBM

I think they made one single major mistake with the styling - and it’s actually fixable... the black grille cloth.

It just makes them look cheap. If it had been basketweave I think the amps would have come across quite differently. I don’t like the ‘kink’ in the grille frame either, especially at the bottom, but it’s by far the lesser issue.

Collings

It's strange as there are loads of other boutique amp builders that offer their amps in all sorts of strange colours and styling (Dr Z, 65 Amps, Bad Cat, /13) and some people rave about them but if Marshall do it it's like they have committed a sin. Then they also get bashed for there amps "all looking the same (ie a black box).

I actually like the looks other than the green colour on the classic model and have a couple brought for reasonable prices when they lowered the price at dealers to get them moving. They sound great and have the right feature for a gigging and along with decent build quality in line or better than many of the other so called boutique brands.

riffpowers

Has anyone tried one ?! I’m interested in finding out what type of sounds they cover .

Moltisanti

this is one the young man mentioned above is playing, sounds pretty ace to me

Modellista

Moltisanti said:

this is one the young man mentioned above is playing, sounds pretty ace to me

He would appear to be playing through a Chicago Music Exchange Custom Astoria, however that differs from the regular version.  

And - crikey, that lad can sing!

longjaw

Sassafras said:

longjaw said:

The lad out of Greta Van Steel gets a great time out of the Astoria combo and a SG.

What does he do with it or shouldn't I ask?

Oops - 'tone' not 'time'!

vasselmeyer

Moltisanti said:

this is one the young man mentioned above is playing, sounds pretty ace to me

A bit of a Led Zep retread and I reckon none of these lads were born when Zep were still a unit. Decent enough guitar sounds but, damn, that boy has got a set of pipes on him.

John_A

First I've heard of them, more than a nod to Zep, but sound great and agree about the singer

guitargeek62

Moltisanti said:

this is one the young man mentioned above is playing, sounds pretty ace to me

Nice sound, but I can't help but hear them as a Led Zep knock-off? Still, much better than I can do!

*edit* just read the others, yeah...

andyp

I'm a big fan of GvF. They did a Rig Rundown on these lads just the other day. I have tickets for them in Glasgow on Easter Sunday.

https://youtu.be/zWDf_CEkpoU

Collings

riffpowers said:

Has anyone tried one ?! I’m interested in finding out what type of sounds they cover .

I have the Custom 1x12 combo which is the single channel with boost model which is great for classic Marshall crunch tones and there are fairly high levels of gain available if needed using the boost. Its a very "big sounding" amp for a 1x12 and easily loud enough for any gig. However it does not do squeaky clean but does clean up ok with the guitar volume. Very touch sensitive. They come with KT66 valves but all the design and development voicing was done with with EL34s. The KT66 was chosen for marketing reasons really. I do think it sounds slightly better with EL34. Its cathode biased so an easy swap. I guess its sort of like a MV JCM800 a bit.

I also have a Dual which is the 2 channel Astoria so designed to have switchable clean and dirty channels. The cleans are great and the dirty channel is similar to the custom but with less gain on tap and a little less edge to it.

Both amps have switchable valve driven effects loop that seems to work well and the master volumes on them are PPIMVs so in effect out of circuit when flat out.

They have a power reduction switch to drop the power from 30W to 5W but still massively loud at 5W so not the ideal home practice amp.

They are also heavy!

Moltisanti

GVF are definitely a Led Zep follow on, but people said that about Rush in the early days too.

Plus it's been so long since Led Zep were around (in their prime) that there's plenty of room for these lads. Christ they are 10000% better than almost everything else out there, i hope they become huge

rico

Moltisanti said:

GVF are definitely a Led Zep follow on, but people said that about Rush in the early days too.

Plus it's been so long since Led Zep were around (in their prime) that there's plenty of room for these lads. Christ they are 10000% better than almost everything else out there, i hope they become huge

Me too, some raw guitar music that actually makes me pay attention.