There's no shortage of Marshall profiles on the market, so it's no easy task to find those who will truly inspire you to play - and t's been quite some time since a brit-flavored pack caught my fancy like this, hence I felt like sharing these quite lengthy impressions.
Matt is already known for some stellar profiles, but I feel these effectively raise the bar. Starting with a (modded) JCM800 and '68 Super Lead, what makes the Marshall Experiment really tick is - as always - a careful dialing and cabinet pairing work, plus a great set of years and talent for capturing the magic. Here is a package that not only runs the gamut from low to high gain on both heads, but also provides different shades of girth courtesy of a supertight 2x12 and a very even-sounding 4x12.
The pairing doesn't stop there: you also get both amps running together (no phase issues!), plus all the above alternatives AND the added fairy dust of Dave Friedman's Golden Pearl boost. Though you get all the possible permutations, there's simply no filler material - and I'd like to stress just how great the mid-gain profiles sound here. There's a midrange complexity that shines through the 4x12, and a great balance of chewiness and immediacy with the 2x12, that make it really hard to put the guitar down.
And did I mention the 'thrash' sounds? Those kicked my ass back to 1986, when my high school was teeming with Bay Area sounds and Sepultura's Andreas Kisser was still dwelling in the same canteen. It's beyond authentic, and not some clueless modern interpretation. They're incisive, brutal, but very tight and precise.
Alas, I guess FEEL is what makes the Marshall Experiment profiles so addictive, going even beyond the so many great tones. Rounding up everything, DI versions of each profile - going out of my PowerHead into a 1x12 cab (Scumback H75), they sound as glorious as their studio counterparts did through the monitors. Effects are tasteful and unobtrusive, letting the profiles truly shine. This is a real winner, and I feel that that Marshall fans (specially those who were raised on the late 70s-late 80s flavours like myself) will be stoked.