I think that it is more of the case of the smaller family business v. mega corporation. Back when Marshall was small they were really nice too. I too think that their QA went downhill as did their choice of parts and customer service. This is sad because they put out so many amps. It would be great if they could keep up with the Joneses and still make the production requirements. I think the mass production and choice of parts is what makes it possible for more people to access the amps financially though. If they were handbuilt they would all be at least as expensive as the premium HW lines. I think if that was the case they would still be competitive with Mesa as far as quality goes. Pricewise it comes down to the number of units sold. Marshall far outsells Mesa with their current operations. I don't think that would necessarily be so if they were operating like Mesa. So yeah, I agree with you there. I think that if you have to look back at Marshall for where things went wrong the crux would have to be somewhere about the JCM800 line. To me, the series went through some oddball changes and eventually ended up leading to the JCM900's that were the epitome of what Marshall had become. The JCM2000's I believe were an attempt to redeem themselves but without a change in operations is still the same even though it was a new design. It is hard to get the same great customer service that you would from Mesa from people as large as the likes of Korg anyway. When a company outgrows itself it gets difficult to maintain the same qualities that made it great to begin with.