Well, I've had a 410H head for about 3 weeks now. There's a lot to talk about, let me give you my spin. Perspective: I'm a middle aged cork sniffer and not really that much of a player but my 18 yer old son plays lead in a hard rock/metal band and we both use the amp. Was playing it thru an Avatar 2X12 until I picked up a 1960AHW a week ago, the 4x12 format is much more condusive to getting great tone out of the amp. I have a strong suspicion that cabinet/speakers used will DRAMATICALLY change the sound of the amp.
People have posted that they can get, or close to, every Marshall sound ever out of it. I tell you quite frankly that I cannot find Plexi in here, tho there is a vintagey-overdrive to be had. JCM800 is all over this amp, as would be expected given they share most of the power section in common. I haven't really gone looking for 2555/Jubilee but neither have I heard anything real close, at least to a GNR type sound.
Metal - there is indeed an ENORMOUS amount of gain in this amp BUT IT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE A BOOGIE or 6505 (whatever you want to call it). The Marshall is VERY mid heavy. Even dialing out all the mids in the highest gainstage of OD2, which is voiced with a more prominent lower mid, while it is most definitely hard metal, it is not a scooped sound particularly. Apples and Oranges to compare this to a Rectifier, imho.
Each of the 4 channels (Clean, Crunch, OD1, OD2) has 3 voicings, increasing in gain - green, orange, red.
Clean green - actually, a very nice clean. Robust and 3d. I'm spoiled and have 2 blackface Fender's, it's not THAT nice of a clean, but very good nonetheless. Orange is a modest overdrive...I haven't spent much time here, tho I suspect it would sound better than what I've heard so far a) cranked or b) with a pedal. Clean red is a massive gain AND volume jump - it's supposed to be similar to Crunch green, but to me it's hairier, closer to crunch orange or even crunch red with the gain dialed real low.
Crunch green is very low gain, haven't spent much time here either. Orange is starting to be a good rock rhythm tone. I spend most of my time in Crunch red, a good hard driving rhythm tone and very very crunchy indeed as you spin up the gain knob.
OD1 and OD2 are the same gain stages but a different voicing - OD1 is very mid heavy, somewhat upper mid. Very good cut. OD2 is lower mid voiced, as noted above. Don't really use green. OD1 orange is very saturated, sustains well but still has a lot of clarity. Red is somewhat more compressed and everything that goes with that, sustain etc. Very hard rock to metal.
OD2 I don't play with that much, mainly keep the mids scooped out and play it orange or red for metal rhythm & chunk. My son uses orange for his rhythm tone and red for leads, does about the same thing with both OD1 and OD2 to vary his tone somewhat.
Is the amp noisy? Really not. In the OD channels with the gain up in orange or red there is indeed hiss but I don't find it to be extraordinary. Sure, a noise gate would probably be a good idea for stage work but it's not ridiculously overbearing as some online posters have stated. In Crunch red with the gain way over at 3-4 o'clock, there's almost no amp noise at all.
Dual footswitchable masters (over and above channel volumes!) is sheer usable genius - set up a tone you like and step on the switch for your solo volume boost.
Reverb is gonna be take it or leave it. I'm not a big reverb fan or user. It's smoother than a spring reverb but not especially inspiring. I don't dislike it, pretty neutral on the subject.
The footswitch is 6 buttons. Default, the first button is Clean channel and continuing to step on it cycles thru green-orange-red. Ditto button 2 is Crunch, 3 is OD1, 4 is OD2. Button 5 and 6 are reverb and master switching, I forget what order. Each of the footswitch buttons is assignable to a channel + mode (green or orange or red) + master (1 or 2) + reverb (on or off). Very usable indeed.
The Presence and Resonance switches have a MASSIVE effect on the sound. Some have written that it's very subtle, I don't get that at all. The amp is VERY VERY bright - I like bright but the JVM is wowwww over the top bright so I mostly keep the Presence to about 1 (8 o'clock) and even then, dial some treble back from noon on the channels. Taking the presence up high can yield piercing (not ice pick like a Tele just BRIGHT) tone. Phasers on stun. This from an old guy with somewhat damaged hearing, don't say I didn't warn you =P. The resonance adds fatness to the bottom end, more THUMP if you will. Mostly keep it around 11-12 o'clock.
I've used the amp with: Tele 62ri, Am Strat with the 57/62 pups, R0, Dean '79 Z (explorer) and my son's LTD EC1000 and Ravelle. The Dean has the hottest and somewhat scooped pups, it REALLY sounds like rock n roll. But every guitar has, with some knob twiddling, yielded very impressive tones.
Not surprisingly, the single coil gits are pretty noisy and you don't want to be standing closer than about 10' if you have any amount of volume + gain going on. A quick hand on the volume knob + knowledge of where you are in relation to the amp and it's not that much of an issue. The Tele sounds wicked thru this amp. But the JVM, to my NOT surprise, likes humbuckers best and the hotter the better. Actually TO my surprise, both Crunch red and OD1 orange/red clean up VERY well with a roll off of the volume - not crystalline but very clean with maybe just a touch of hair. Perfectly suited for a softer arpeggiated passage, for example.
Reliability - well, way too soon to say of course. I did have a microphonic V1 tube but the dealer changed it out for me on the spot so really no big deal. We've run the amp for 4-5 hours at a time, no signs of overheating or other goofiness. The house is volume friendly so most of that would be at fairly high, easily gig, volume. It's a loud amp tho (DUH keto, it's a 100W Marshall what did you expect, a VibroChamp???) so honestly I haven't had it dimed yet. Mostly run channels dimed and master 10-11-12 o'clock.
That and a buck will get you a cuppa coffee, but it's my opinion so far. I don't have a lot of Marshall in-hand experience but I like what I hear from this one.:rockon:
