One of the latest equipment I got to try was a Marshall Haze 40W combo.
This Haze 40W was my companion when I used to play in a praise and worship sessions at a church (U Naw Baptist Church) here. So I had spent quite a lot of time tweaking around with this amp. And here is what I have to say for it. If you would search for reviews on the Internet, you will see some people praising this amp while the others think this is a failure product by Marshall. But well, here is my opinions on this amp at a neutral point of view since I am not inclined to a specific genre and rather versatile. You will understand what I mean by this later.
Simple introduction on Haze 40W
A tube amp loaded with 3 ECC83 tubes and 2 EL34. It comes with a 3 band EQ like many standard amps do and needless to say, two channels. The EQ is shared between the two channels. There is a boost switch to drive more gain into the amp. So if you add some boost into a clean channel, you would hear some dirt in the tone as well as a volume boost. Well, of course, if you add some in your drive channel, you just get more drive. It also comes with some simple effects; a delay, chorus and vibe and only one will be active at one time. Of course, there is a reverb but I am not so much of a reverb fan so this function is the most under-utilised. It comes with a footswitch which allows you to switch the two channels quickly and also includes a switch for the effect.
Clean channel
The clean channel of this amp, I have to say, is pretty awesome. Being a tube amp, it usually have a warm clean tone. The tone is rather balanced. With all the EQ settings at 12 O'clock, the sound is neither too treble-ish, nor too bassy. I would call this 'neutral' sounding. Such warm and balanced sounding clean channel is good to be played clean (well, of course. -.- ) or you can also plug in your drive pedals and play as well. I did exactly just that and I'd try my Satchurator, TS7, Speedbox and Metal End King through this. The outcome was rather satisfying. It brings out the full potential of each of these pedals very well without any tone-sucking. This is why some guitarists would recommend us buying a tube amp with a warm clean channel if most of our guitar tone is coming from the pedals than the amp. But during the worship sessions, I have always played without any of my pedals and just utilising the amp's clean channel. Occasionally when I need some drive, I would add some dirt using the boost and switch to my bridge pickup on my UNO or my Squier.
Drive channel
Tone-wise, the drive channel has a very warm overdrive tone when all the EQ settings are at 12 o'clock. The gain rolls up rather slowly and steadily, which I would say it an advantage since you have more control on the gain. For Christian musics, the drive channel is rather suitable. But you may have read many people saying that this amp has a very bad drive channel while others are praising it. This is because of the range of gain this amp has. Even with the booster on, the amp's gain is not fierce enough to meet the expectation of the metal heads. As such, I would drive extra gain to the amp by either using a Tubescreamer or even a distortion pedal. Another solution is to use it's clean channel and play through a metal distortion pedal. However, for rockers, I would say it is just perfect without needing much adjustments. With all that said, the amount of distortion or gain that you can produce may also depends on how hot the pickups on the guitar are. A simple illustration would be this: you have 2 litres of water but the bottle you have can contain a litre of them. Likewise, an amp may be capable of producing much greater gain but given that your pickups are hot enough.
Effects
The effects are the best thing I like about this amp. One reason is because of the simplicity in controlling them just like many other Marshalls are. Another is because of the tone. Chorus is of course one of my favourites. It is not modern voicing but a simple vintage-style chorus. However, I don't use it to colour my tone but instead use them to play arpeggios in clean. The delay tone, I would say, isn't too dry like what many would say about digital delays; the delay in this Marshall is digital (please correct me if I'm wrong, I can't remember on that and I have troubles checking that one the net thanks to the connection). So please do not expect warmth of an MXR Carbon Copy. Personally, I prefer delay to sound neutral in tone, without adding too much colour, precisely why I prefer my Memory Boy over MXR CC despite both of them being analog. Vibe is the effect I used the least. I have to admit that I can't think of a creative way of using it yet and I hardly get to use much of it at that church, too.
Summary
Here's a quick summary in bullet format:
- A 40W Tube combo.
- 3-band Eq controls
- Warm clean channel, excellent for playing if you are using effect pedals.
- Simple and user-friendly effects with a relatively decent tone. Comes with reverb.
- Limited gain capacity. But could be solved by boosting the amp.
- Rating 8.5/10
Phew, I hope this is good enough. I am really getting rusty at this. Please forgive me. =(
Loki
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