First of all, have you noticed that all your posts end with the word "quick", followed by an exclamation mark?

I find it somewhat humourous to see the words "nice Marshall amp" and "to learn on" in the same sentence. I don't think that there are many people here that ever had experience with that sort of thing.

Most Marshall amps are nice, but I would suggest that you do some general research on the 'net, not about Marshall amps, but about amps in general. Find out how many watts is enough, whether tube or solid-state is better for you, etc. Check out www.guitarnuts.com

Also, as with the guitar situation, it would be prudent to buy a used or cheap new amp. You won't be having any gigs right away, so it's not as if you need an amp you can perform with. Then, when you decide that you hate Marshall distortion, or that you wanted a tube amp all along, you won't be kicking yourself for buying a $1000 amp that has a $500 resale value.

I've found that www.musiciansfriend.com and www.music123.com seem to have the best prices around.


P.S. 80 watts is really overkill, especially for in-your-basement type jamming. Check out the website above, or even the "Tech Talk" section of the forum (you might need to go back a few months) and see how many watts are enough.