You would absolutely make it through the gig and the audience would barely notice. But any guitar players at the show would spend the next two weeks complaining about your tone.

This is how most black metal is recorded

As a teenager I often connected the Marshall MS2 to an amp through the headphones output, using it as a distortion box. I remember it as sounding great, but I’m not certain how critical I was back then.

Is it weird that I wanted to hear them both combined?

That piece at 3:23 IMHO sounds haunting on the mini Marshall. I prefer it to the tube amp. I have one of the early Peavy Bandit 112's and it is the destroyer of drywall. I had the top handle break and it took a run down 20 steps and into the drywall at the bottom of our stairs. Amp worked like a charm whereas I had to work like a mofo repairing the damage to the house.

That mini Marshall sounds bad ass. I have one, and it rocks AC/DC perfectly.

I REALLY want to hear this hooked up to a real speaker, like a 6 or 8 inch, and use an overdrive. I think we would all be shocked. But hey, what would I know lol

You know, an eq pedal could go a long way to shaping the sound of that little amp. I have a couple full Marshall stacks, and have become accustomed to their sound. But the first time I encountered one of those little battery powered jobs, was in a pawn shop. I jokingly plugged into it just for the laugh, and was blown away. The thing sounded pretty damn good, considering.

Not even you could make that mini amp sound good

To be honest, that actually works if you put that mini marshall in the “emergency gig” situation. I like the clean tone tho, like you said its pretty cool that it kinda breaks up the clean signal. Nice experiment!

Funny story. My amp blew, and I was due for some Misfits covers with my friends on a Halloween night. I stacked a Roland Cube, and this cheap 10w beginner Dean amp. lol. I was surprised. It did the job. I needed to sound like trash, and that was that.

If you mod that marshall amp and change the headphone output to cab output (only with cutting one resistor) and connect it to any 12" can you can get a pretty useable sound out of it

The Mini Marshall gave me instant black metal vibes (like Burzum or smth), but it is possible to go thru the gig w/ the mini amp (for sure).

The sound man would probably have cut a bunch of 300 hz and boosted the highs a bit. Would have been fun to try some minor mixing on it.

I had a Peavey Bandit yonks ago (like late 80s early 90's)... and yup -- little buggers were damned near indestructible. Was a super-solid backup for the Crate half-stack and a lovely amp all its own.

As a live sound guy, this is why its important to think about these things. I've had this happen a few occasions with some musicians. Personally i would consider getting anything that has a built in IR cab emulation like a Orange Terror Stamp pedal, Vox MV50, etc. Or a mini head like the Orange Micro Terror, Friedman BE-30, Diezel VH Micro, etc. Those don't have IR Cab built in but they'll definitely power a 4x12 cab and will sound much better than putting a mic on one of those tiny amps.

Cool little experiment. If i had to rely on any mini amp, I would go with the Blackstar Fly, sounds surprisingly good for it’s size.

I actually used this at a Jazz Band festival once - there was no power source on the street, so my director had me bring the tiny Marshall. Nobody could hear me, but it was fun :)

That mini Marshall was my first amp for about 6 months because it was all I could afford. I don't know what happened to it, but I miss that thing!

With enough foldback in your ears or monitors and an FOH guy willing to put quite a bit of EQ on, this is absolutely do-able!

I carried an Orange Micro Terror amp in my road case. My main rig was a Hughes & Kettner GM36 that Had in a rack along with a H&K 1x12 cab. I had the power supply for the Orange amp mounted and ready to go in the back of the rack. If the H&K ever crapped out on me, it was going to be a 5 minute fix at most to dig the Orange out, plug it in & be ready to fly. no where near the versatility of my normal rig. But it's 20 watts. It's tube & would have absolutely gotten me through the night. I think I paid $120 for the Orange. Had it in my rig for almost 5 years and fortunately never had to dig it out. But the other guitars in one of the bands I was in, had his amp crap out and used it for a night. Sounded great. I've recently bought one of the Bogner Mini Extacy head. 30 Watts. Solid state and can actually push enough air to be played loudly through my Marshall 4x12. Cool little amp. Again. Not ideal to use as a regular amp for gigging. But plenty good in a pinch. The Orange is much smaller though, so it took up less space in my road case. So many good options out there to carry along as a backup. If you're a gigging musician and you don't carry some sort of backup rig? You're asking for trouble.

I heard stories about Dave Grohl dropping one of these in a coffee can and putting a mic over the top. I literally bought one of these to try it and it wasn’t horrible. It could definitely be something you could play around with. But even if you never do that walking around with that little Marshall clipped on your belt or pocket is fun.

The MS-2 was my first amp, so I've got a lot of love for it (I still have mine from 30 years ago). This was a really cool experiment, and thank you for sharing!

I was surprised it sounded that good. Yeah, it's not a 2k rig, but you could run with something like a 20 watts Amp, and still rock. Over time though you might burn it out.

My JCM2000 stopped mid-gig a couple of years back. The only thing I had was a small 3W Blackstar Fly thing. Stuck the mic in front of it and continued. It wasn't great but it kept us going. Three songs later, my JCM decided it was going to work again..... out of embarrassment I think !!

the clean tone on the mini did sound kinda cool, not good but like not good in a cool way lol

That engl into the marshal cab sounds great

That was pretty cool. Actually loved you used Mick Mars' work.

Pretty awesome seeing that tiny rig rock so hard 😂 awesome video !

Very nice 😂 I actually do like the breakup sound on the clean channel is kinda unique!

Pretty great. Happy i have a first gen Micro Cube. good little amp.

Amazed to see that mini Amp with a mic and no whistling

The Blackstar Fly 3 has a headphone jack that also works as an emulated output. If you wanted to you could plug it into to a PA mixer and also an interface. It doesn't sound bad either.

I feel 100% that a Microcube would be able to pull this off. Would love to see that comparison.

I've got the MS-4 version with two speakers. If you turn the gain about half way up it's actually a surprisingly acceptable sound in a small room! Don't know about gigging with it though!😂 Enjoyed this, you do come up with some interesting ideas!

I spent an afternoon playing around with miking one of these in the studio once, and the one thing that worked surprisingly well was a ribbon mic pointing at the logo from a 45 degree angle - somehow it seemed to kill a lot of the more obnoxious boxy frequencies. Not the most useful afternoon ever, but it was kind of fun!

I had a micro terror with me for a backup when we gigged more. Takes almost no space and works pretty well. I use mostly solid state amps nowdays, cause normally they go through a pa which is solid state also, so it sounds good enough for me. You can also do a easy modification and put a jack in your practice amp and use it as a head. Sounds good, no joking. I like the warmth of tube amps, but easy maintenance of solid states (plus they are cheap.) I recorded our last ep with Randall rh150 and it cost me only 150€!

I bet blending the two would sound glorious. The mini set up almost has that room mic sound!

The difference is that the Peavey Bandit is a very good gigging amp. It's quite loud, has plenty of headroom, takes pedals well, etc. For a classic solid-state, I can't think of any better.

I have a Fender Mini Twin that is ten watts of power. I've never had to use it in the sort of emergency you describe, but it's pretty loud and powerful for it's size and wattage. I basically use it as a travel amp for practices and such, but I'm sure if I was in a pinch, I could put a microphone up to the speaker and have it carry me through live gig. Thanks for sharing this helpful hint with people, and let's hope it never has to come down to this, unless it's a dire emergency.

This is pretty neat. The idea of a backup rig is pretty nifty too. I have a Boss Katana head that I'll be plugging into a Marshall 4x12 and I plan on getting a POD Go at some point too. They can be used together or separately if one goes down.

I've heard that Steve Albini is notorious for using these (or amps that resemble these) when people want a huge guitar sound. Jawbreaker used one on their song "Ache." Blake (their singer/guitarist) told Steve that the song had a descending chorus melody that he wanted to sound huge, like a stadium/arena type of sound. Steve whipped out the mini Marshall and that's what has been immortalized on the record.

The mini certainly has a vibe

Great Crue cover!

For a practice amp, i usually use the blackstar amplug into the mini Marshall. It's actually a really great little rig that you can wear on your hip

If you short out the resistor on the headphone out it'll let the full power through it, so you can plug the MS2 in a 4x12. It's really incredible!

Thankfully these days, affordable amp modellers and multifx have reached the point where - while not as outright awesome as having a stack - they're absolutely good enough to gig with, plugged straight into the soundboard, can have a smaller footprint than your pedalboard and only weigh a few lbs.

That slide sounded nice on the mini marshall

You could separate the speaker lead from the terminals along with a male and female jack so theres the option of using the standard speaker or connecting it to a proper cab, 4X12 for example.

This one was so much fun! I own one of those mini Marshalls, and I think you ran the volume up high enough to get less than optimal tones out of it. Perhaps doing a video of how to make the mini sound good is necessary?

That was a fun experiment…..good stuff

2 of those mini amps running as a full stack would be a killer rig.

I used to put the speaker side against a pillow in my bedroom. Cuts all the harsh tones. I recommend trying that.

Theres a video of Dimebag Darrell practicing backstage with a marshall ms-2 and the sound coming from that little unit and his fingers is incredible

I've never gigged with one but rehearsed with my group for about 6 months with one of these with a mic to the PA. Worked great. Love your channel

I think the answer is ultimately "no". In the mix with the band you might get away with it and it's better than canceling. I would be heartbroken though.

Excellent review dude! Sounds great, not bad at all. Definitely not as good as the half-stack, but still tasty! Hell can you imagine recording with it? I thought it sounded better distorted, over clean... IMO!

As always, love the video, especially Motley Crue! Too Young to Fall in Love and God Bless the Children of the Beast … great songs!

Roland cube x amp , hard to find now but bang , done job !! Love mine with the metal stack button on , little compressor and delay pedal

I like how the mic in the picture is not centered but is on the left like it made any difference.

Cool concept. And you're nailing the Motley Cru (Sorry , I can't figure out how to do an umlaut)!!! I'd bring my Peavey Bandit Teal Stripe as my primary and Katana Mark 2 as my backup.☺☺☺

The Peavey bandit 212 red stripe was my first amp :), and nowadays its my backup for my boogie

That Engl sounds so glorious. You should definitely compare with other small amps.

fun! happened to me, too and for some reason i had my little Fender with a 5 inch speaker or something with me. it didn't have a speaker out so i just took the leads and plugged it into my 4 x 12. good Lemmy that thing sounded awesome for a few songs! LOL. (smelled wonderful!) after that i had to revert to a distortion pedal direct into the board. yep, the dreaded kazoo tone! kind of impossible to happen these days being anyone can download an Orange full stack onto their phone before your amp even stops smoking.

"This pic for size reference. " Haha, that was classic!

The content I never knew I needed

Interesting reminds me of ZZ Top Tejas... During one of the drum takes a mic basically fell into the kickdrum, and they assumed playback would be ruined... In the end they listened to it and liked it so much they left it in. I believe they still used that mic'ing technique on some things going forward. It's unique and could work pretty slick on a lowfi, distorted track.

I have an old RP50 I plug into my mini Marshall. Makes all the difference in the world! Gets rid of that flabby sound when you turn it up.

MusicMan 112 RD is my main amp and I carry a Crate Powerblock for gig emergencies.

The mini Marshall with a dedicated distorsion pedal sounds better than with the built-in OD, I was really impressed when I heard it !

You could use it for something like the intro for Wish You Were Here, that old radio effect

The tiny Marshall sounds awesome so Lofi

Would’ve been interesting to hear both amps together with the band

I did this at home a LONG time ago...i ran the amp through a compressor and midi verb 3...it sounded pretty damn good

Nice! I usually bring my 40w Fender Champ with me as a backup and keep a set of presets on my effects board to work with it as an emergency. It isn't phenomenal but it gets the job done. Every place I play at they mic the cab so it would work in order to be heard.

As a kid i made a speaker cabinet of a cardboard box and two speakers i salvaged from old radios, and plugged that into the headphone jack of my Peavey Audition Chorus. With the amp dimed through those little speakers i get a gnarly but quiet tone. But, put an SM57 right up on one of the cones and it turns into a giant metal guitar tone, great for recording. Hooray, proximity effect!

I have a Vox AC30 Amplug and the tones you get out of it crushes that Marshall mini.

I did this in a recording studio over 20 years ago. It was the full stack mini Marshall. We put it in a cardboard box and micd it up. Ran the mic through the board and added reverb and delay and some compression etc. It sounded good enough to record with. The guys were making an album for a local Blink 182 style band's first album and I was doing some light leads on it. I ended up buying one. Still use it. That mini Marshall in this vid sounded more like Mick live than the Engel. Lol! Sounded great. Too bad it was breaking up a little.

Any decent combo amp would work very well for a backup amp, and there are many good combos that are often used by a lot of musicians as there primary amplifiers. I knew a guy many years ago that used a small Fender Champ as his main amplifier for gigs and just used a microphone on it through the PA, this made it very easy for him to pack his equipment around, we all called it the “Fender Fetus”, at the time, it was the smallest amplifier that Fender had available. That was back in the late seventies, long before they began making micro-amplifiers. Fender now makes several micro amps, some even have additional outputs, Marshall also has a selection of micro amps, so does Vox and Orange Amps. I suppose in a pinch these could be used for a gig, especially if you have a good PA system. It’s interesting that you would consider using such an amplifier for a backup, but, “the show must go on” and we work with what we have at our disposal. With the right gear, you can also plug into the PA if necessary. Joe Pass, in the later part of his career just ran his guitar through the house PA, of course, he was specifically setting up to get a clean sound, but if a person wanted to, they could run the instrument through any effect units they would like. It is not an ideal setup, but may help someone to get through a gig when their main gear is being temperamental. Thank you for posting these videos! Please have an excellent and awesome day! ☀️✨

Nice! I always keep an orange micro terror if anything happened to my hot Rod deluxe

I've got that marshall mini amp and what I've found is that it sounds better with a pretty loud pedal in front of it and just keep the volume below the clipping on the marshall. Doesn't sound as good as a real full sized half stack or anything but I feel it's using it to the best of its ability

With a precision drive and post EQ the little Marshall can surprise you. Btw the Marshall also has a headphone out jack that could be plugged into the PA

I like the mini clean.

Most my playing nowadays is straight on the Marshall MS-4. I just roll volume and tone back on the guitar a little bit, it sound surprisingly decent.

with a relatively simple mod to the MS-2 it can be used with an external cab. Into a 4x12, it ain't bad at all, even volume wise it is pretty loud.

It's funny you did this video now because I've been thinking recently about getting a micro rig like a JOYO BantAMP or an Orange Micro Terror. Both have tube pre-amps and have gotten good reviews.

That's why you bring something like a Tech21 fly rig or a Kemper/Axe FX and use that as a 1 pedal backup. Ritchie Kotzen can bring the roof down using a flyrig.

I once saw with my own two eyes. A Peavey basic 60 bass amp fall off a truck bed while on the road. And at the gig. Worked perfectly.

Mike can you do the same video idea but with the Boss Mini Katana please?

When our guitarist rig crashed, I plugged him into the low input on my bass amp and I used the high. Worked out pretty good

My live amp is a Moore UK GOLD 90 pedal into a direct box straight into the pa...I don't miss the heavy half stacks

incredible charvel.

That cranked clean tone is sweet. Would probably work fine for a vocal forward song from a band like The Scorpions.

Mini amp sounds great. It’s definitely to use in the arsenal if you want to

That Charvel is giving me life.

This is actually why I used to keep a vox pathfinder in my trunk. Ever since I blew up my cab at a show one night I decided to have a spare. It actually sounds good, especially with a bit of tweaking; pa systems nowadays are amazing and I'm starting to get rid of my bigger amps and cabs

There's this Blackstar mini amp that sounds amazing for the size! Fun riff btw

I got a fender mini twin,,, and I really like the sound ,, I get from it,, but I’m not trying to play other groups music,,so I’m not shooting for a specific tone,,, I’m working around the tone coming out of the amp, since I play my own music,, I can do that,, but I do like the sound.

One good way to go in similar situation is Tech21 sansamp gt2 as a backup and you can plug in direct into pa and you can plug your pedalboard in✌🏻

I carry a Vox MV50 clean and a Boss ST-2 pedal for a backup rig, into the cab I already use… 50w, tiny footprint, and sounds great.