Postby Lizzy » 24 Oct 2015, 15:29
I like them a lot. Tom Morello seems to like them too. I own a 1987 model year 2205. IMO the 2205/2210 was one of the last really great sounding amps Marshall made. The overdrive "Boost" channel to me has wonderfully organic sounding mids with good note definition and a nice crunchy low end thunk. Also responds nicely to being juiced with a Tube Screamer type overdrive. Great for classic rock and 80's metal. The spring reverb unit is also nice to my ears.
The clean channel (at least on mine) is another story. With the right guitar (single coils) it's ok but otherwise it is pretty bland sounding. I bought mine used and it was in rough shape and it is probably long overdue for a cap job. Also I don't know if it was been modded at all so either of those may contribute to the lousy clean channel sound. I gig with it sometimes when I forget how much I don't like the clean channel.
There's also a lot of misinformation about these amps online concerning "channel bleed". Mine does not have this issue at all. The common story I've found is Marshall kept tweaking the circuit like every other year to cure the channel bleed but didn't solve it completely until 1987. But then I 've also seen it stated they continued changing things so the 1988/1989's don't sound like the 1987's either.
Personally I think if Marshall is ever going to release anything new in the future they ought to look to the 2205 as a starting point tone and function wise. Give the clean channel some more character, keep the boost channel and spring reverb as is, and put the whole thing in a smallbox or lunchbox head. Sold!