It’s no shocker that Marshall has been the biggest name in guitar amplification for almost 60 years now. This year Marshall came out with an interesting addition to their line up, and harkens back to the tradition Marshall look with a modern twist. It’s the Code 50 and it’s a top mounted combo amp - and it’s perfection for a gigging musician.

It’s a Digital guitar amp with a huge range of built in digital effects, but what sets this apart is the amp section-it has 14 different types of preamp settings. Among them are of course Marshall preamp settings (THE British sound) American settings, and a number of power amp settings, again - British being your EL-34’s, and more American 6L6. You also have a variety of cabinet simulations ranging from 4x12 right down to the 1x12 it comes stock with. As you can see, you can mix and match all of these at will to be able to sculpt sounds that are truly endless. Classic Rock to clean to saturated overdriven heaven, it’s all achievable.

The amp comes loaded with 100 presets so even if you’re not one to tinker with the different combinations and wants instant gratification, it’s built in and ready to go! You have tradition controls, volume tone etc., along with your built in effects, tuner and also headphone and phone app capabilities. Download the free app, it has a great interface, and it enables you to edit and store your custom settings both on your phone and the amp. You can share settings, download other players settings. The idea really comes alive when you go to a studio, or a gig with a Marshall Code 50 as the backline, and you download your settings to the amp - you have al of your customized sounds. Incredible feature and so convenient for full-time gigging musicians.

This is truly a checkmark in the win column for Marshall. Plenty of headroom, versatility and great looks (hey that counts too). When live music finally gets back to some level of normality this is a knockout and a very solid offering from Marshall for 2021.