I have nearly bought one of these 8008s before are they any good? I know Billy Gibbons uses them and I have been eyeing up this amp for a while and also wondering what the valvestate switch can add to the tone or a preamp? Do tell guy's since you own them.
To me, it's a very good power amp...not simply a reliable workhorse.
It delivers 100% Marshall tone, no way.
And today it's cheap.
A friend o' mine (I bought my TA '70 power amp from him) had 4 power amps:
1) Marshall 9005
2) Marshall 9200
3) Marshall Valvestate 8008
4) the TA '70 he sold to me
When he decided to reduce the number of items, he started comparisons and A/B testing with preamps (Marshall JMP1 and ADA MP-1), the power amps and different cabinets.
At the end, he kept the 8008...for the above reasons: it has the Marshall tone, it's reliable, it works fine with anything you connect to it, it has a good amount of power, it's silent, it's just 1 unit and it doesn't weight like a B-52.
9005 and TA '70 have been sold already...and the 9200 has not yet because of some issues on a channel (probably tubes..), but I bet it will go as well.
I bought the TA '70 when the channel B on my B200s had issues, but I already had the 8008 paired with the 9150 and I kept it: that is a very easy-to-use and complete backup rack.
About the Linear/Valvestate, the Linear mode reminds me the B200s in some way....while the Valvestate adds some warmth that can be useful in some cases: it depends on the preamp.
With the MP-1 I liked the Linear more (same tone as with the B200s), while with the 9150 I prefer Valvestate (Linear makes it sound too "bright").
Coming back to the '90s, I remember a lot of people and friends using Valvestate power amps (8004 or 8008) in their racks and none of them was disappointed.
It survived through all these years and some people still uses it with a Kemper (also Rocktron Velocity power amps are renowed in the same way).
There must be a reason why...