I have had a chance to spend a few days with the Marshall code 25 and I would like to share with you a few of my findings. I have played guitar professionally for over 30 years and have had all makes and models of guitars and amps in my time, but in general I would have killed for the equipment available to guitarist today.

This is the point where I look at the Code 25 and think “that looks like fun”. I have a few amps kicking about already, mostly gigging volume amps but I also have a Blackstar ID-Core 40, so this would be in reality what I would compare the Code 25 against.

Firstly my experience with the amp and a look around these forums makes one thing apparent. This amp is well named because it is a bit of an enigma.Out of the box I would consider the amplifier not fit for purpose this is really down to a few reasons.

Firstly, some of the presets are just absolutely terrible, I mean some of the worst patches I’ve ever heard on anything, “Small combo” and the “Brit” overdrive amps for instance are shockingly bad. You can make the excuse that all amp and effects units come with bad presets. However this is usually down to strange or weird effects to give bizarre sounds to show off effects but that nobody would ever use in a musical context. However some patches (such as Small Combo) are just basic amp modelling with no effects and are still absolutely terrible. Maybe these sound better on the 50 or 100, but if that’s the case remove them from the 25 it just gives a bad impression.

Secondly, the amp is stupidly loud. I don’t know if this is a marketing decision, but Marshall should look at its target demographic. This thing is a small bedroom practice amp, maybe at a push for some very small live situations, but that is it. Why make the thing so loud? If you need to use this amp near anything over half volume you have bought the wrong amp it’s as simple as that.

Thirdly, some of the modelling is not all it could be with digital artefacts (in the low end in particular), and a fizzy noise gate that for some reason is on patches where there is absolutely no need to have it as the patch is pretty quiet. Once again this is not a professional gigging or recording product and it should be judgged accordingly.

The last bad point I would say against this amp is the tuner, both onboard and on the app are two of the least responsive and wildly inaccurate tuners I have ever seen. Really not even close to tune! Put this down to another marketing tick box.

OK, now the good points.

It seems pretty well made and solid for what it is.

I like the size and weight, ideal for a bedroom practice amp.

I like the complete range of controls on the amp, and how you can do everything on the amp that you can do on the app, and it’s easy to do. Great user interface design work.

I like the Bluetooth features and the app. I know people have had problems with Bluetooth, but both my IOS and Android phones connected right away and are stable. I can stream music no problem from outside the house or in other rooms with no issues.

I like having 100 presets to store all the patches I could want (My Blackstar only had 6, and you can only have 1 for each model).

The headphone socket sounds OK, but if I wanted that as a primary feature I would have just bought headphone amp with effects.

I don’t use the recording over USB feature. If I did I wouldn’t expect something this cheap to be amazing. Once again if you want this you probably have bought the wrong product, and are in the wrong price bracket.

I like the cost, its amazing what it does for the money.

I like the sounds, now that I’ve got rid of the awful ones.

It looks pretty cool.

It’s a Marshall.

To make this amp useable, I basically had to do the following:

1. Delete all those terrible patches that are just filler and basically just give the user a bad experience. After doing this I was left with around 20 good sounding patches and 20 OK patches, the other 60 I replaced with a patch called “Blank” (which I have put up on this site). That way every patch sound good to me.
2. I turned the Mater volume up to ¼ (around 9 o’clock)  and went through the remaining patches adjusting the patch volume of each to make it a sensible volume for bedroom levels. This ranged from around 0.3 to 5 for most patches depending on the patch. This means that you have more control over the master volume and can change patches without is suddenly blowing you head off. There is still plent of volume in the amp after doing this. OK I admit if I want to use headphones I have to turn the master up around half way, but that’s no big deal. Likewise as I said I don’t use the USB for recording, but I assume I would have to turn up the volume for that too. I don’t see that as a problem either for a product in this price range.

Overall I like the amp and doing just these 2 thing make it much more of a pleasure to use. The volume level are more what they should be for a product of this type and I don’t ever hear any of the awful patches (there are plenty of good ones).

Maybe other people can share their first experiences or tips with the Code 25?

Trying to connect the gateway to my new code 50...I can get the bluetoth to connect but when I try to connect to the gateway it says connection rejected?

often times, gateway will not save my edits.  i hit save, edit the preset name, hit save again, but the button does not go away and the edits wont save

I have the Gateway apps on my android phone but I don't have WIFI at home so I can't reach the cloud to  use my downloaded saved presets.

Is there a way when I am connected to a free WIFI to save my presets to a file on my phone and then when I am home send them blue tooth to my Code100 amp. 

Thanks Tommy

Good morning,

 I have a Code 25 and am using my Iphone with Gateway to control it. How do I add downloaded presets to the app so I can put them into the amp?

Hello, i play on my marshall code 25 with a mobile phone app in bluetooth "songsterr" , it allow me to have the guitar sound on my amp with some other instrument from my mobile phone, when i use the usb cable to record on my computer , only the guitar sound is recorded on laptop, can you help me to have on the computer all the music from the amp on the computer : guitar and music from "songsterr " directly   

hello everyone, 

I have an issue  with my monitor II.

during conversation on computer, I have a sound of connection and discnnection continusly, every minute, sometine a little more.

I cut the sound on the app but this change nothing.

as anyone have a idee?

BR,

How can i get my marshall code 50 to connect to my laptop? I have a USB cable connecting the two, and I also have a bluetooth connection but I can't use the live editor or the marshall gateway.

Hello from Germany,

first of all I want to say sorry for my bad english..

I just downloaded the Marshall App to my iPad. The app works and i can connect it to my CODE100H.

It is also possible to read out the actual setup of the 100 channels of the AMP on my tablet. 

Now here comes my problem. If I change any setups on the tablet, for example rename the channel, I tab on "save on amp" but nothing changes on the amp. It is always the same like before. 

Can you please help me?

Thanks a lot.

Can someone please tell me how to backup default presets from my Marshall Code 50 AMP to the My.Marshall website account (if this is even possible)?  I know there are a number of Manuals that can be downloaded; but I can find nothing that provides an overview of how to make that happen. I have Gateway on my iPhone, but that donesn't provide relevant information either. I will so appreciate information on whether it is possible to backup presets, preferably to my My.Marshall account?

Thanks,

Dick Gleason

I have followed all the Forum and Support threads, re-installed current  Amp firmware, updated the Gateway App, restared everything several times... the iPhone does not see the Amp when blue light is flashing to 'pair'. Also not visible to ipad or other devices so I'm assuming it's a problem with the CODE system itself. I haven't even got as far as connecting the Gateway App!

Looking through the forum, this is clearly not an isolated event - looks like the Amp firmware is WAY behind current Bluetooth versions.

Any suggestions please? I am still within my return for credit timeline - should I send it back to the dealer?

Hi everybody, no question but just a statement (just to show how satisfied I am with this amp, but also maybe to encourage other users): I LOVE THE CODE50!

I own two Code50's, one for rehearsels and one for gigs - so one is the clone of the other. Today I had a feeling I should "finetune" some of my already established presets due to a new guitar I recently bought. And what can I say? Everything worked as expected: The amp (sw-version 1.44) connected with the phone (iPhone XR, iOS 14.4, Gateway version 1.5), I was able to change presets via footswitch or phone, downloaded presets and edited them - as always absolutely no problems or issues.

Thanks to Marshall for an absolutely satisfying and reliable, easy to transport and always great sounding product! 'nuff said!

Phone is connected to code by bluetooth but i can't connect when I'm running gateway.

I just bought a Marshall code and found the apps on iOS do not work. Research says that the problem is the app need s to be updated. When are you going to update the IOS apps ?  

I have spent 4 Hrs.  at least trying everything and I have actually used this App to control my code 25 for about 15 min.This App does not work. The code interface is bulky. I love the sounds but it is such a pain to program it is hardly worth it. Marshall should supply an App that actually works with this Amp.  Marshall has a good amp but gets a 0 on its app. What a waste of time. Too bad. I will tell everyone not to get this great Amp because the App that is supposed to work does not. Come on Marshall get with it. I am let down with your products.

I know this forum has this question asked a number of times, and the reply is always to delete the app and re-install.  I've done this multiple times, and it never solves the problem.  In fact, I had this app successfully installed on my iPad a few years ago, and hadn't used it latey.  When I use it now, I get the same message.  

Context3d not available! Possible reasons: wrong renderMode or missing device support

I googled this message and found out that it's related to Flash.  Apple has discontinued all support of Flash on iOS devices.  So my educated guess is that you need to re-vamp this application to not use any Flash programming.  No ammount of deleting and reinstalling the app will ever solve this problem.  You need to update the app.

Hey all, Just received my Code 50 yesterday from Amazon and I cannot get the eq knobs to work in any preset. I can adjust the eq through the gateway app but when I turn the physical knobs on the amp nothing happens. Is this normal? how can I adjust the eq on a preset without using the gateway app?

Hi,

Just received my Code 25.

I can't download the Gateway app on Google play store (Android) as I get a message "Your device is not suitable for this app" or something along those lines.

I use a Huawei P9

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Code 50 does not connect to the gateway app. Iphone 11.