Steve Vai - Guitar Interactive Magazine Issue 12: Marshall AS500 Soloist Amp Review

Guitar Interactive Magazine Issue 12 Featuring Steve Vai! iGuitar Magazine! Steve Vai talks with Guitar Interactive Magazine at his home studio in L.A to talk about playing, his gear & his brand new album. Learn how to play like Steve Vai in Guitar Interactive Magazine Issue 12 free guitar lessons to learn Steve Vai style and tricks with Andy James. Featured exclusively in this issue we were loaned the Steve Vai Ibanez EVO - only 100 were made as exact replicas & we have one to talk about in this issue. Win a Steve Vai Gem EVOs in our Free Entry Competition - Also featured in Guitar Interactive this Issue - We featured the band The Aristrocrats - headed by the fantastic Guthrie Govan check out the live performances of this super group!! To celebrate Marshall Amplification 50 Years - we interview Paul Marshall about the companies history & we talk with the man behind the designs of Marshall amps with an exclusive tour around the factory. Guitar Reviews this month feature; Review of the Ibanez Jem Evo & JEM 70V Review of the Duesenburg Fullerton CC Review of the Fender Excelsior combo Review of the Godin Session Custom Guitar Review of the Cornell Valve Pre Amp Pedal Review of the Hayden HGT A20 Head Review 2 x12 Cab review IK Multimedia iRig Stomp review TC Electronic Spark Booster Review A/DA APP-1 Pre Amp Pedal Rocktron Boutique Series FX Pedals Review Faith Eclipse Venus 12 String Review Review Marshall as50d Soloist Huss And Dalton acoustic review Review of the Laney NEXUS Fet & NX410 & NX115 Review of the overwater Tanglewood Standard Bass and plus bass Review of Elixir Coated & Coated Nickel sbass strings

THE QUIET ROOM_AMP REVIEW

So you thought Marshall only made iconic Rock screamers? If so, it’s time you met the Marshall AS50D - designed for electro-acoustic instruments and with a very special claim to fame in the Marshall story, as Michael Casswell explains.

So would you believe it? Marshall’s best selling product ever turns out to be an acoustic amp! I can see why, having tried this AS50D. It’s a 50 Watt combo with two eight inch drivers, a tweeter, two channels, auxiliary input, mix input, reverb, chorus, all wrapped up in a very portable package that won’t hurt your back or your pocket. There are more expensive, complex, purist acoustic amps out there, but really, for the money, this is very hard to beat!

I used my cheap Yamaha nylon string to get a gauge on what this amp is like. The Yammy has generally always sounded good in studio situations, sometimes mic’d, sometimes DI’d, and for best results, a combination of the two, but for live work, having a good acoustic amp gives you control of things, and stacks the odds of a good on-stage sound in your favour. Yes, you can use the house PA, but then you are at the mercy of the on-stage monitor guy, who probably will not have the same idea of EQ as you, and will not be able notch or cancel out any feedback issues you might encounter at volume, or even be

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bothered to give you a nice reverb to monitor with! The AS50D deals with it all for you.

If you play bigger professional gigs, then you could plug into the AS50D, set your EQ with the onboard bass and treble (separate on both channels), set the amount of onboard digital reverb you fancy, which is voiced very nicely for acoustic use, cancel out any frequencies that might feedback with the onboard anti-feedback pot, or even reverse the phase with the phase button, and DI out of the back of the amp to the PA. Then tilt the amp up facing you and away from the audience for your own monitoring. The sound guy is happy, you’re happy, and the world is a nicer place.

Equally, supposing you go out solo, just you and your acoustic, playing to backing tracks anywhere that will have you. The AS50D will let you plug your guitar into channel one, set your level, EQ and reverb, then you could plug your mp3 or CD player with your backing tracks in to the aux in, and plug your vocal microphone in to the mic input

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