Bedroom Fender Vs Marshall 2007

Monday the UPS man brought me two packages, a small Fender box and a larger Marshall Box. It was easier to carry them than to decide which to open first. Once I got over the hard decisions I had a Fender Champion 600 and a Marshall Zakk Wylde Microstack standing in the living room. I didn't intend to end up with two amps but I got anxious especially with my recent Van Halen concert excitement. I had ordered the Marshall but since it is a limited edition of 1400 it took a while for my order to go through. Thinking the Marshall was indefinitely on hold I ordered the Fender so I could get something new to play. But it was kind of cool to get them both together and switching back and forth. The two amps are as dissimilar as their sounds, yet they do have a common bond as they can be played in the bedroom. Though I would love to have a 100 watt stack I have never really had the place to use one. I don't tour or play bars so it is good to be able to have some fun playing without someone knocking on the door. Though I have had and played acoustics they don't seem to hold my interest as well as being plugged in.

The smaller of the two is the Fender Champion 600 which has 5 watts of tube power with one volume knob and a high and low input. I had a early 70's silverface Champ that I really liked so when the new Champion came out it was easier and cheaper than finding a good old Champ. The Champion 600 is based on the 1949-1953 student model with a 12AX7 preamp and 6V6 power tube. This amp is as simple as it comes, the lower the volume the cleaner and you start getting some distortion after you pass half way up. It has a different distortion than my old Champ but I like it. I have played it with several guitars and find I like hearing the differences in inputs and pickups. The high input works good with my single coil Strat pickups, and I really like the low with my 59' Humbucker. I have also liked the way a tube amp changes with how hard you hit the strings.

The big package was my Marshall MG15MSZW Zakk Wylde Microstack that has 15 watts of power with all kinds of knobs. The Microstack is a miniature version of the famous Marshall stack with 15 watt head and a straight and angled speaker cabinet. I have had all kinds of amps but my favorite sound has always been Marshall, especially a stack. I also owned a similar amp in the old Lead 12 Microstack, but I like this one better. There are more features and I like this one better than the old Lead 12, especially having reverb. The Zakk Wylde bullseyes on the control panel are cool but I really like the vintage style speaker-cloth and gold Marshall emblems. It sounds good too, the clean channel isn't the Fender but is good, and the distortion can go as far as you want. I have been liking the tone with the gain at about 3.

Verdict is, I am keeping them both. The new Champ has found a home on top of the Marshall Stack and I can switch back and forth between the two and have a lot of different tones to work with for a while. I could have just bought something to model the tones, but there is just something about having a true Fender and Marshall tone. And I guess the Fender/Marshall stack is just more inspirational than just looking at a box. It is good to see there are some new choices for those of us who like to play and our neighbors too.