Marshall MG10KK practice amp

Marshall MG10KK Kerry King Combo practice amp

Price: $99

Pros: Size, simple operation, surprisingly good clean sound, nice distortion for a very small amp

Cons: Doesn't handle mid-range sounds very well on overdrive channel, no option for a footswitch to switch between clean channel and overdrive

Review: First off, I'll come clean and say this was a complete impulse purchase. That's pretty unusual for me with musical equipment because I preach, as you've seen on this forum, try it before you buy it. My old Crate G-10, which was my first ever amp, died a couple of weeks ago after more than 20 years of use and abuse. I need a small practice amp primarily for Guitar Tricks lessons. My computer is on one end of the house and my main amp is on the other and the spaces really don't allow for me to bring the two together, so I was in the market for a new practice amp (sort of) when I went browsing around online researching new cables and this amp popped up on my screen. Let me say that I'm fully aware that the metal look of the amp and Kerry King's signature are just marketing tools, and I'm also fully aware that I bought in hook, line and sinker. But I ordered the amp without ever hearing a sound out of it.

The good news is that it wasn't a bad purchase. I put it through its paces tonight, and was overall pleased with it. The size is right, as I can easily slide it under my computer desk when not in use, and it won't be in the way. The operation is about as simple as it gets. There's a button to switch channels, a volume control for the clean channel, a volume and a gain control for the overdrive channel, and a tone knob that controls both channels. Those who like to fiddle with all aspects of their sound will be disappointed, but in a tiny practice amp, it's all I really need. There's also a CD in and emulated line out and an emulated headphone line, neither of which I'll likely ever use. I would have liked a foot switch line, but it's not really necessary for how I'll use it.

I started out with the clean channel, and was surprised with how good it sounded for a solid state amp with a 6.5-inch speaker. It's very clear and has a little more warmth than I expected when played on the neck pickup of my Axis. I kind of rolled my eyes at the claims of the "frequency dependent damping" system, but you can hear a difference on the clean channel. Crank the volume up over half on the clean channel, and you can also get a decent, lightly distorted sound that would work well for a little dirty blues. I'm not sure if that's intentional, but it's there.

Then I went to the overdrive channel, which offers a nice range of distortion as you play with it. That was the second thing that struck me about this amp. On cheaper instruments and equipment I've played in the past, the tone knob has usually been more for show than anything else, but here it makes a dramatic difference and makes this a fairly versatile little amp. As you'd expect in a Kerry King model, the MG10KK does well with chunky metal chords. It has a particularly nice feel on a palm-muted open E. Crank up the gain and it also has a good sound for high-pitched soloing and lead work. No surprises there, either. The amp struggled though, on single-note, middle string work. I tried it out with Benoit Nadeau's Metal Rhythm - Song 1 lesson, and while it sounded very good on the chunky part 2 and part 3, I couldn't find a sound that I was really happy with for the single note riffs in part 1. I even had trouble finding a sound I liked on the first riff of Slayer's "Raining Blood," which is odd considering the amp's namesake.

The package also includes a very short "instructional" video from King, but there's not a lot to it. He basically shows you the settings that he uses on the amps and shows off some picking techniques without ever really explaining them or showing the viewer how to do it. You might learn the main riff for "Expendable Youth" if you don't know it, but don't expect to learn much more.

Summary: There are probably practice amps with more features I could have bought for around the same money, but despite being a little upset at myself for buying into the marketing, I'm pretty happy with this little amp. It's got a nice clean sound and some of the best distortion that I've ever heard on a 10-watt amp without a pedal. I probably wouldn't want it as my main amp, but it will work well for what I need it for.