Perfect for private practice in an apartment...

Perfect portable! This 'little wonder' is loud enough to 'Rock-Out'. Yet, Neighbor friendly at night. Rest In Peace, Jim Marshall. And THANKS!!!

This Marshall Class 5 is AWESOME

Marshall did some awesome modifications from the original version of this amp with the placement of the components as well as the totally killer low power mode! This amp sounds amazing on its own with a Gibson Les Paul or with overdrive or distortion pedals in front (in either regular 5 watt mode or the low power mode). It should be noted that the clean tone of this amp is fantastic and of course it will roar like a Marshall should. This amp is sensitive to the guitars volume so you can really go from cleaner tones to more crunchy and heavy tones just with your volume on the guitar. I love this amp, its everything I wanted.

great amp

Played one in a shop 6 months ago. Loved it. Had to buy it. Great tones, natural break up. Also have a Gibson GA5 and Fender Blues Jr tweed. I play through this most for low volume. Would probably handle a small gig. This is a great price for a Marshall tube amp made in the UK. Get one.....you won't regret it.

Excellent Tone at the Right Volume

Blends nice and can go over top of rock band if everyone sets there levels to the natural acoustic volume of the drum set. Can hear singing and still get all the tube driven tone you need for all indoor venues. Very responsive to volume, tone control, and change of guitar. Takes pedals nicely - analog man KOT sounds great. Not a clean amp and not a bright amp, not a metal amp. I would recommend this or any other reputable low watt tube amp for anyone who wants there singer to develop good singing habits instead of screaming over top of 1000 watts blasting in his/her ears. Remember to know what you want out of an amp before you buy.

Tone compares to boutique amps 4x the price

I am a guitar tone junkie. I have owned gear by about every major amp maker. This little amp is spectacular. It's tone is highly detailed, responsive, and sounds like your favorite 70s Marshall tone. Put a Purple Nurple pedal in front of it and it breaks up at low volume. Completely ridiculous tone for so little money and plenty loud.

worth every penny of that $399 price tag

Waited 2 months for delivery from England to Sweetwater.... I can see now the wait and demand for this product. Great tone without the "for a small amp" qualifier. Plug your LP and favorite stomps in and you blend in with any blues or rock driven band you want to play along with..... without razing the house or your bank account.......$399?....a steal...btw, if you're interested in a cool demo of the amp, check out Bonamassa's Live at the Royal Albert Hall DVD....the bus tour add on.... spectacular

Screamon Demon

The Marshall Class 5 exceeds expectations. I wanted it for rehearsal and/or studio use. I used it last night at rehearsal with a digital reverb and a Les Paul Goldtop (w/P-90s). I set the volume at 8, treble at 8, mids at 7, bass at 8. I used the volume on the guitar for rhythm or lead and it sounded just the way a Marshall should sound and at the perfect volume for practice. I highly recommend this amp.

What a great amp.

I bought 2 of them around Thanksgiving time. Pretty much all I have been playing since and I own about 20 amps.Have been using them with a Les paul Florenetine at band practice and everyone thinks they sound great. Had a gig last saturday at the local watering hole and was playing a Lonestar special and the power tubes died 3rd song 1st set.So I ran home a grabbed my Class 5 . Room was about 35 by 65 and had about 300 people in it.Cranked it up and sounded amazing.Alot of balls for 5 watts.

Hot Little Devil

I have 2 of them along with a Haze 40 combo. These little things sound great and only $400.00. As clean as you want and as dirty as I want. It took forever to get em, well worth the wait! I use one of them cranked and the other for clean with a Morley ABC switch. Almost any tone you want. I play a Eric Johnson Strat thru them and Les Paul Stantard Pro. The amp compliments both guitars quit well! They are cute little things. Very light and easy to move around. I highly recomend it and thank you Marshall. I suspect we will see other models similar pop up from Marshall.

Classs five in it's own class

Don't buy this amp if you want a Swiss army knife. One channel with many tones based on gain. As with all amps the end quality is the result
of the essential fundamental tone of the amp. In the case of the Class 5
you get that unique Marshall signature sound from warm cleans to some
fairly rich grind. I can play through it in the living room and my wife loves
it. Great sounds at a usable volume.

Class 5

I tried many amps to get the sound I wanted, the HT-5 blackstar being one. This marshall is amazing, I run it through a cabinet when looking for full sound and through the combo 10" when the kids are sleeping. The diversity is like nothing I have used before, turn down the volume on the guitar when the amp is at full and it cleans up to whatever you want. Cant rate it highly enough. I play a Les Paul and SG, sounds great on both

Marshall Class 5

This is a single channel, class A ,1x10 combo tube amp driven by a single EL84 power tube and two ECC83 preamp tubes.

I've owned other low watt tube amps such as the Fender Champ (70s model), Epiphone Valve Jr, Epiphone Valve Special, and the Vox AC4TV.

By far this is the best sounding one of the lot. Most small amps leave you feeling like you're playing a toy but this is the first one that actually kicks out a room full of usable sound. Turn the amp volume up and control levels with your guitar. Use the line out an plug into a closed back cabinet and look out!! Hard to believe that it is only 5 watts.

Very responsive to picking dynamics. Perfect for practice/studio/bedroom levels or stick a microphone in front of it and run it through a PA system. This is a must have amp for any level musician.

Marshall Class 5

The low-power mode is very quiet, and 5 watts is pretty loud. Playing quietly in a bedroom will full volume wouldn't be a problem on the low-power mode. Playing at home with full volume and full wattage, that would be loud.

Its "vintage" voiced, like an old plexi/bluesbreaker sound, not like a modern metal amp. After about 2 o'clock on the volume knob, the volume didn't really go up, but the gain did. At full volume, the gain it pretty loose.

The 10" Celestion sounds excellent, the bass had to be dialed back to about 9 o'clock. I am almost positive this is due to accommodating different speakers, as I imagine a 4x12 cab would sound massive.

It takes pedals very well, I found exactly what I was looking for with the volume set just barely dirty, and my OCD pedal. Sounded very raw, 80s style. Phaser sounded nice and juicy. With full gain, the OCD tightened everything up and sounded great with my Jackson.

Overall it fell into place very easily, 4 knobs, and easy to find good tones.

Really great amp, good job Marshall.

Tube+SOD1=Tone heaven

i played my LP Gibson Junior and it very responsive with my picking so i need to start back at practicing. With the Gibson it was a nice thick sound and crunchy. I also tried my Fender Strat with this that have Dimarzzio bridge pickup. It gives you a blues tone such as SRV who im not a big fan of but many people i am sure will say that this amp gives it that tone. I played my boss super overdrive pedal into the amp and it was perfect! I can use the OD pedal for lead tones and it good! I'm looking to play this on stage mic up at church.

Looking for a Rocking 5 watt amp, this is it.

I was reluctant to get this amp as I have had mediocre results from other small amps. This gamble paid off. I have the mini-colossal and it really doesn't compare to the Class 5. The 10" speaker is a definite plus over the 8" in the mini.
The 3 band EQ instead of an effect was another great move.
You can get a variety of "dirty" sounds by adjusting the amp volume and guitar volume. The amp volume can act like a gain/drive level, then just roll back the guitar level to clean up the sound.
The low power mode works great too. It comes in handy since this 5 watts sounds like 30.
This amp also responds well with pedals in front.
I still have a couple of things to check out like external speakers and headphones, but pretty impressive over all and worth the money.

Perfect

The Marshall Class 5 is a top-shelf amplifier. It will amplify your sound plain and simple. If there's anything you don't like about your rig or how you play, this amp is not for you. If you want the perfect compliment to your sound, you will not be disappointed.
My other amp is a Marshall 250 DFX; I would take the Class 5 into a mic'ed situation over the 250 anytime, performance or studio.
I only didn't mark 5 stars because they don't go up to "11".

Marshall Class 5

I don't now how Marshall rates it's power but this amp is LOUD. It truly has shimmering tones. I like it's simplicity. It works very well with stomp boxes. My only fault is that the knobs feel cheap. I don't travel with amps but I don't think the knobs would last too long. The looks are beautiful and the detail and finish are great. This is my first Marshall after playing for 40 plus years. I missed buying the red version and would have liked to add that one to my collection. Small amps are becoming quite popular and this is truly one of the go-to amps for studio guys.

Cooks!

This review is written after only a few hours of use, and subject to updating. I bought it for use in my project studio. I sort of collect 5-watt tube amps, so have some experience.

I got one of the first shipments of Marshall Class 5 combo amps. The build quality seem high, although I have not disassembled it yet. It's made in England, not China, which is very refreshing! It is loud, especially when you turn it up to get some crunch or distortion. I will probably install an “L” pad on the back so I can turn the input volume up and turn down the gain at the speaker. A built-in one would be nice. It has quite a bit of headroom. You can play clean fairly loud. The tone controls are responsive.

I like the ergonomics. You can read the controls over the front of the amp. The 10” speaker sounds great. It's a mostly enclosed cabinet with a small rear port. The bass response is very good. I do not like the 16 ohm only speaker output. It limits choices - a 4, 8 and 16 ohm tapped output transformer would have been nice. I did use it through an external vintage L Pad I made and a 12” Blackheart closed back speaker cabinet. I can only use one cabinet, since they are 16 ohms each. The internal 10” speaker may be louder than the external 12” . . .

This amp uses two preamp tubes, where most other 5-watt class A amps use one. That may account for the tone quality. It does not have reverb. I usually record dry, but use a Boss / Fender FRV-1 pedal when I practice. It works especially well with my Ibanez / Keeley Modified TS-9 Tube Screamer. It really warms up lead sounds with both single and humbucking pickup guitars.

This could be a true modern classic. In summary, I'm gobsmacked by this bloody little valve amp made on the island (and watch too many Brit-coms).

joel in Dallas

Marshall Class 5

Received this amp from Sweetwater yesterday. Took it through it's paces...not too bad. The 10" speaker leaves a little to be desired at higher volumes but I understand it needs to be broken in and will then warm up. Through a 4X12 - WOW! Really nice.

One of the pre-amps tubes became microphonic, had to change it out. Understandable with shipping vs. combos.

I will take this to the studio AFTER the speaker breaks in...Should perform nicely.

Alright, Not the best thouf

I've played and used this amp in a live setting and all I really think of it is Meh. Its got a decent sound and a good feel but its really lacks a lot. Its really dark sounding and does not have a great deal of liveliness. I found myself taking the Bass down almost all the way and cranking the treble to around 3 o clock. I think its best for a rhythm guy but i don't recommend it if you play a whole lot of lead stuff. I would go with a AC15C1 Instead. I play A lot of pop rock style worship music. If you play blues or some classic rock then maybe you would like this amp more.

Returned.....

Put this in the box to return the same day.

Bad:
I just couldn't get the tone I wanted out of the amp. Way tomuch mid - range Even with it turned down, I couldn't get rid of that nasal 1940's microphone sound.

The "cranked" sound was ok but my socks where still on after hearing it. Past #8 it started to sound somewhat harsh. Not it in a nice hard rock tone but in an overdriven mixer channel sound

Good:

It is loud. Don't let the 5 watt label fool you

Light and "looks" like a real marshall.

I would recommend Playing one in a local store first. Mine just did sound anything like sweetwater video. Its like the mid-range control was having serious issues.

WATT IT IS ?

I find this amp tobe greatly over ratered! To me it sounds boxy and flat out dull. I don't know what the "hyp" is all about. I have a few amps both solid and valve type. This misses the mark on both! It looks great i can't take that away from it but thats' where it stops. Others might like this unit but it dose nada for me.Maybe the one i purchased is defective, iam returning it pronto..