I bought this model with my very first electric Schecter guitar, and this is my very first combo so I may be missing something. Actually, I wanted to buy a Boss Katana 50, but they wouldn't ship it to my country. So I chose this one for the name, features, and power. And then, the prices here are very attractive compared to what I can buy locally.
The pros are:
+ A LOT of power, I don't use it above 20% power at home. I knew it would be like this, just wanted to make sure I have the right monitor in case of any live gigs.
+ Many effects, you can really change the way your guitar sounds regardless of the pickups you have. I could (almost) mimic the vibrating bass guitar part in the Twin Peaks main theme.
+ The great and recognizable design, gold with black.
+ The phone out is also a line out, you can send the resulting signal with FX to an audio interface without any noise.
+ 2-button pedal included. I thought of buying the 4-button model with total control of the FX but couldn't justify this purchase, all I need I can do with this included pedal.
Cons are:
- The speaker amplifier is way too noisy. Maybe it's just my ungrounded AC connection. Especially you can hear it in any of the OD modes. I understand how this works: the original line signal is amplified until it clips a lot and the noise is amplified as well. But here, the noise is too distinct.
- This thing's got its own character and it always adds it to the output even if you choose any of the clean modes, without any FX or OD. It always sounds somewhat harsh and angry. When I connect my guitar directly to the audio interface (Focusrite 2i2), it sounds noticeably calmer and bluesy. Looks like this is the Marshall tone, the British sound. It does let you reproduce the sound of many famous hard-rock groups, but sorry, I didn't quite like it.
That's why I gave the highest marks for the features (FX) but only 3 for the sound. Maybe I'm wrong and it's just a matter of taste. Anyway, I've recorded a couple of tracks with my group using this model and, as a softened rhythm guitar, this sounds good as a result (through the line out only).
