Marshall Valvestate 40V – Model 8040

[Danny Poole]

I have owned this amp for about 8 years and it has been used for live performances for the first 5 or 6 where it was then retired to the lesson/practice room. In live performances it held up ok and at most gigs it was powerful enough. With some of the bigger jobs it had to be pointed directly at me to hear it over the rest of the band. In hindsight I should have gone for the 80Watt version instead of the 40W, just for that little extra volume.

The Sound
I am fussy when it comes to amp sounds and have never been one for a large quad box 1000w amp (love the sound but I’m too lazy to carry it around). Smaller amps never seem to be the complete package of nice clean & distorted sounds. The 8040 was at best a slightly above average sound. I usually fought with the amp to get it right. Naturally every time I played a quiet gig the dynamics of the sound would change compared to a loud performance. This is part of the reason why I changed to the Roland VG-88 pedal board.

Some musicians sway towards “functionality” (like pedal boards, easy to cart around and usually not a great sound) and “tone” (must have the right sound at any cost, weight and size). Since medium size amps are a trade between both then it is only natural that you can expect a sound quality somewhere in the middle and the 8040 lives up to this expectation.

Hardware
The amp has never let me down completely since I’ve had it but some of the knobs are starting to fail and probably need replacing. I think this is mainly from standing in the same position for a long period of time. Other than these minor faults it is a pretty durable unit.

This amp cost around $700 when I bought it new around 8 yeas ago. For around that same price you can get quite a good midrange amp now.

Summary: An average amp and I would give it 6/10