Marshall JCM-2000 DSL 100

When I bought this amp I wanted some versatility for playing different styles of music. For a live situation I just wanted a decent two channel amp that was basic and easy to use. The amp is simple to use and with its great clean channel and incredible crunch mode I find it covers a heck of a lot of tones. I'm really happy with its features. I wish each of the modes were footswitchable but in a live situation (unless you are a cover band) I don't find this to be a problem at all.

I use a Les Paul, a Strat and an Ibanez through this amp.

The clean channel is awesome. Its kind of a blank slate. I wouldn't compare it to anything else. It has plenty of bass, is well balanced, glassy and really freaking good. The crunch mode is awesome. I can easily sound like AC/DC using my Les Paul. I love the crunch channel, its instant classic rock, you can't go wrong with this channel!!!! I would give the clean/crunch channel a 9/10, its just amazing.

The thing I disliked about this amp was its ultra channel. When I first tried the amp, I was playing at low volume and the gain was smooth, sustaining and awesome. I should have tried it at stage volume. As you open up the volume the gain changes to the classic crunchy (or brittle/bright) distortion that is typical of Marshalls and EL34s. It has plenty of gain for rhythm but if you expect to have a smooth sustaining tone for solos you will be disappointed. With the gain pegged in Lead 1 mode and using a Les Paul the note starts off distorted and then the distortion fades off as the note sustains. As far as I'm concerned this is typical of a Marshall however, after all the hype with this amp I expected more. I never use the lead 2 mode, it is too muddy and dark sounding. Even with the deep switch engaged, the bass vanishes when you switch to the ultra gain channel.

Personally, this amp, like any Marshall before it, sounds AWESOME when coupled with a decent overdrive pedal. I use my overdrives (Z.Wylde and Tube Screamer) to blend in with the distortion and get a smoother tone and lots of sustain. I'm not increasing the gain but rather changing the characteristic crunchiness of the amp.

I was really disappointed with the Ultra channel. No bass and a lack of smoothness (ala Van Halen) really kills my opinion of this amp. Using an overdrive and an EQ makes this amp sound godly. I just don't understand how anyone uses this amp stock for metal, unless they are playing like Judas Priest or Maiden. Personally, for all its hype, this amp still needs an overdrive to boost it to its full potential.

With my setup, I can get tons of great tons, unique ones and get close to most popular artists. Just don't expect this amp to be killer straight outta the box!

Never had any problems with it. Knock on wood.

As stated early, using overdrives and an EQ to tame the Ultra channel, this amp is killer. I would definitely replace it. The not so secret, secret of Marshalls is using an overdrive pedal and this amp is no different. If you use an EQ and a good overdrive you can't go wrong. Stock, the ultra channel really sucks IMO.

Can`t tell you the year it was made - bought it in 2004. A simple two channel construction two modes each (lead1/lead2 ; clean/crunch). The problem is the lack of independent equalization for each of the channels (at least for clean/distortion, nevermind the crunch and lead1/2). Yeah, it`s easy to get some in-between equalization to fit both the cleans and distortions, but I enjoy having a full control over my tone. Also the lack of switches for crunch lead1/2 is a flow. I play some quite eclectic music which requires switching between bright sounding cleans and thick, metal sounding leads and it`s quite impossible to do. Yeah, you could try the TSL but it sounds worse than DSL.

Ok, there`s nothing to complain about the sound. Tried various guitars (some S model Ibanez with S/H/S semour-duncans, my standard Gibson Explorer with H/S/S - semour-duncan singles and a EMG81 by the bridge, some cheap stuff like epiphone LP special and others) and I always got the sound I wanted. From bright acoustics to nice, warm crunches, from a hard-rock to insane metal distortion. I also tried to plug a Digi-tech 2112 into it but it didn`t sound right, than I switched to Boss GT8 and it sound very decent. I plug the gt8 into the effect loop and use it as a footswitch (so basically no quite-shitty-sounding boss distortions). When I was looking for the amp I tested various heads like Mesa Rectifiers, the 5150, some laney heads (the tommy iommi signature one) and maybe they had (especially the 5150 and mesa) better sounding distortions (for metal, I mean) but the DSL was definitely the thing because of the wide range of possible tones - no competition. Plugged into a 4x12 AV1960 cabinet it freaking kills. It`s lound, has a thick low-end where you need it and that characteristic, "frying" Marshall sound.

No problems so far, changed the original tubes to sovetecs, got a little more middles. I still have no case for it and it played a few concerts and traveled a long way in my trunk.

Never had to use it, so no opinion.

Well, I play for like 6 years now. Currently I own my trusty Gibson Explorer, a mexican strat, some lesser guitars used as back-ups. I use a gt-8, but I`m planning to change it for a set of stomp-boxes. I sometimes use a Dunlop crybaby as I don`t like the sound of the gt8`s one. Also a Laney TF300 amp I use for practice and some bass equipment. If it were lost or stolen I`d go berserk - kill, fry, rape than kill and rape one again. I`m planing to upgrade my DSL so it would have a switch for turning the other controls on/off and the same for the effects loop since gt8 modifies the sound a bit even in the bypass mode. I tried a lot of amps and none of them was even nearly so universal as the DSL100 - I can go from jazz, blues to some grind-core riffing. Nine goes for the equalization and switching things.

Not sure what year model it is. I wanted to get Marshall and i tried and JCM 800 and there wasnt that much growl too it. I played JCM 2000 DSL 50 and i liked that. Then i saw in the same store a DSL 100. Tried it out and had to buy it. Its a pretty simple head, two channels, two lead and one clean and one crunch. Basic Bass, middle, trebel, pressence controls, reverb for both channels. It also has a Deep button which adds more bass and low end, and Tone button which when its pressed, it scoops the mids.

Its an awesome tube head, it serves the purpose i need and flys above everything ive ever played. Came with a foot switch, didnt get the manuel or anything because i bought it used but i found it on Marshall's site. Despite the basic controls theres alot you can do with it, it has very little play so any switch of the knob will change everything dramaticly.

I play death metal and jazz and it hits both dead on. I bought it when i figured i needed a tube head because my solid state Hughes & Kettner wasnt cutting it at practice so i use it for studio and home. I use the Marshall for practice, shows, studio, you name it. Its loud ass hell, doesnt muddel up anything, responds well with my GT-8, alot of low end. Dont get this head if you have a feeble cab!

No problems with the sound quality. I play death metal and i get the exact tone i want straight from the head. Lots of gain, huge amounts of low end, it makes my band room shake from the power.

I run it through two Ibanez guitars and my Gibson V-90 with an early EMG in it. The Ibanez have high end Ibanez pick up's in them, one is the new Giger RG, and the other is a RG-7420 7-String. It responds well to the low B string unlike alot of amps. When i switch tpo Lead 1 i can get a really good 80's thrash sound and up the reverb a bit and you can get a sick lead tone, Lead 2 is the setting i use because it has a massive low end boost. I keep the mids down to 3 or 0. It gets this brutal roar and great grinding sound.

It isnt noisy, doesnt have a hum like alot of heads get with alot of gain, its amazing.

I just bought it, havent had any issues

Did need to find the manual for it and Marshall's site had it so thats a plus.

I got an awesome deal on this thing. If you want a great sounding head, with a lot of natural gain and huge amount of power. Get this one!

Not sure when the amp was made but I bought it new in 2001. I tried all the Marshall models at that time and decided the DSL100 was most suited to my needs as a semi-pro player playing about 100 gigs a year. Back in 2001, our band signed to a small label and we were playing original songs, sort of in the style of Blink 182. I found the Ultra gain channel ideal for that sort of tone.

Now we play covers ranging from soft pop-rock to heavier stuff like Zeppelin and onto Metallica. The amp is very versatile and can handle all this easily at our normal gig volume (both gains and both volumes set to around 6). The FX loop (which I always use) works very well and I also like the two independent reverbs.

The amp has two channels but it can be better to think of it almost as being two amps in one head as the channels are voiced very differently. I use the amp in small to medium venues i.e. up to 300 people, sometimes mic'ing up a cab. The amp has three speaker outputs, one dedicated 16ohm output for using just one cab, and another pair which can be set to 8 or 4 ohms for use with a full stack.

I usually run the head into one Marshall 4x12 cab but I have a pair of cabs which I use in bigger gigs for the extra spread. I've fitted both cabs with Celestion Vintage 30's.

The Deep switch is useful on the Ultra-gain channel but can be overwhelming on the Classic gain channel. However, speaker choice has such an impact on this that it really will depend on what's in your cab/s. Before I changed my speakers to V30's the Deep switch had less of an effect. The Tone shift button can be fun when playing alone but it seems to remove those frequenices which are most needed when you're playing in a band - so I don't use it live at all.

One great feature for me is the ability to bias the power valves myself. This means I don't have the hassle of taking it somewhere and paying someone to do it, plus I'm not without my amp for days whilst I wait for some guy to eventually get around to doing it. As a gigging musician with little money (and amp techs living 30 miles away) this feature was and is important to me. I raise it here because it doesn't seem to get mentioned much.

My three main guitars are a '99 PRS, a '74 Les Paul Custom and a '77 hardtail Strat.

I run floor-based effects in the loop as follows: Korg tuner, Boss Chorus, Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man, Vestafire digital delay and an MXR micro-amp which I use as a clean volume boost for solos.

Starting with the Classic gain or green channel, I find I can get very rich clean tones by fully opening the volume and adjusting the gain to get the volume I need. Removing some mids and adding bass produces a beautifully clean sound with all my guitars with plenty of headroom.

Another way I like to use this channel is to fully crank the gain (with the crunch off) and adjust the volume to where its needed. This way the tone starts to break up beautifully in a very clean 'plexi' sort of way. Another great tone is to set this channel to crunch with volume and gain both about halfway. With the Les Paul, this is a great classic rock, AC/DC sort of tone which gets heard through any mix. With the Strat and a hint of delay and vibrato from the Memory Man, I can even get close to U2 style sounds, quite amazing really for a big Marshall feeding closed-back cabs.

Moving to the Ultra-gain or red channel, I normally run this in Lead 1 mode with the volume about 5 or 6 and the gain about 4. To me, this sounds like my old JCM800, although to make it just right I have to add some bass when compared to the green channel. However, I find that the shared EQ doesn't present a problem if I run the green channel with the gain quite low, about 2 or 3 with the crunch in. The sounds I can get from the red channel range from early 80's rock such as Maiden, Scorpions, Judas Priest etc through to early Metallica. It's such a great all round tone I find I rarely need to do anything else with this channel. But hey, rock n roll shouldn't be complicated.

I don't use the Lead 2 setting to get my usual tone, but sometimes it's fun to play about with in the house.

As for background hum and noise I find this is not a problem. Any hiss I get generally comes from the leads or the guitar rather than the amp.

I do depend on this amp for all my gigs, although I rehearse with a DSL401 combo.

I've had a speaker output fail on me which I had to get fixed by a tech. Otherwise no problems. I change the power valves every 12 months and the pre-amp valves every 24 months. I always get a matched quad but have tried different brands. For power valves I find the Harma STR's are good as are JJ Tesla's.

I once visited the Marshall factory with an old JCM900 head I had which sounded awful. This was a 300 mile round trip for me and when the guys found out they gave me a cup of tea and a look around the workshop. Turned out all it needed was new pre and power valves and a re-bias. They did this work for free and didn't charge for the valves (they even gave me the old valves back). Can't really ask for more than that.

Playing 25 years and yes I would get one again. I love the way its so easy to use and maintain.

Marshall JCM-2000 DSL 100. I look at this amp as an updated version of the last full sized Marshall that I owned and gigged with in the 80's. That one was a JCM 800 100 watt cannel switching #2210. The new amp is all that plus some added tonal features/choices which sound great and are actaully useful. All of which are well documented in the previous reviews. Guessing by the serial # my amp was made in 2005.

I play a mid 1990's Fender Tex Mex strat through the amp. For those unfamiliar with this guitar it is sort of a hot rodded strat with pretty strong single coil pickups in it. With this guitar I get everthing from really clean to crunchy clean with the classic gain channel and when using the ultra gain channel there is plenty (to too much) of real Marshall distortion to be had. Shared EQ, no problem. This rig gets every sound needed for Sabbath, AC/DC, KISS and all the other related songs that we play **with the Strat**.


I've read on here a lot of people bashing this amp in favour of the JCM 800's. It amazes me that this crap never stops as it was going on back then also. Yes, the 800's were/are great amps. I have a load of tape from back then with me, my Les Paul and the 2210, live and studio. Yes ,it sounded great. My ears tell me and my opinion is this: The DSL is not 'less than' the 800's were. I'd say the new amp is equal plus to the JCM 800's. I owned 3 of 'em from '85 thru the early 90's.

I've owned it for a month. I've owned Marshalls straight through for the last 20 years without ever a problem so my expectation is more of the same. I'm not rating the DSL because I have not owned it that long.

Never needed.

30 plus years of playing. I own the guitar as stated above and a Marshall model 8040 Valvestate. I'll only gig with a Marshall so I would definately get another. I don't hate anything about it. I love the 'real' rock sound that you get out of it.

I play original rock and metal.
The two channels are good, I'm with previous reviews here about the clean channel not being fender twin clean but it's adjustable enough between the gain and volume to get a decent sparkle. A frustration I've had every now and again is why didn't they make the two channel footswith to toggle between the clean / crunch and OD1 / OD2 like the valvestate VS100? Would have been so much better to toggle these 2 into 4 channels via a stereo cabled footswitch. I use this amp live and loud week in week out and it's very powerful - never drive it over 5 on the OD channel before the sound man tells me to 'chill'...Marshall footswith cables should be upgraded on purchase - they will break! I've had the back of all my Marshall footswith pedals drilled out to install a standard guitar 1/4" input jack and just run a standard guitar cable to and from the amp. Much better and means you can get rid of all long cables from your pedal set up and leave the marshall switch in place.

I would prefer the clean to be a bit cleaner, however I do use a Les Paul Classic with the hot pickups which are as they say on the tin - very angry so I tend to get a more crunched sound than say a fender strat or even more standard / custom les's. That aside it sounds great with some tweaking to get the gain balance just so. Nice to have seperate reverbs between channels too.
Distortion - well what can you say, it's wide, deep, sustained and rich to boot. There's a great range of distorted tones you can get out of the overdrive channels, from very gentle edgey rock passing through angus young type rock, through to full on big chord epic sustain. It chugs really well on the palm mute for metal - and I'm with a previous review again who clearly understands live and recorded tone. Big sweeps in the mids and increased bass & top will not make you sound like a metal god - Try less gain and less tonal shifting buttons aswell. Again, a footswitch toggle between OD1 and OD2 would have really given this amp the lifetime trophey for me as the varied strengths of distorted sounds are only limited by the fact that you can only have one of them at any one time.
The perfect set up for me and I think a lot of other players would be Super mega ultra clean channel, clean but with edge / bordering soft rock (great for clean blues) channel, Rock with good face and depth channel and all out war crushing rock / metal channel with optional db boost on all - something this amp has got all of (bar the db push) but can't switch between...argghh.
Good marks for sound generally though, nice and quiet, picks up your natural guitar tone really well.

Had it over five years - just took it in for it's first sort out as I really should do - just not had a gap in gigs long enough to take it before..or write a review.

Never dealt with Marshall themselves but met Jim a couple of times - nice guy who has time for a chat!

I've been playing 18 years. I also own a VS100 head which is also in getting sorted as it's been sat broken for a while, I have a Hughes & Kettner Montana acoustic combo which again, is also in for service but is in my opinion a real steal of an acoustic amp - very versitile to get your ideal sound and a decent 12 inch speaker to get a full tone rather than these 8 - 10 inch things that just sound harsh to me...
I have numerous boss pedals, electro harmonix, just bought a Pod XT live floorboard which is pretty good aswell...

If my JCM broke, I'd probably get it fixed and keep using it but something really appeals now about scaling down the whole head and cab thing and getting something like a Mesa Lonestar with a TC G system and a couple of tonebone distortion options. mmmmmmmm

i bought this amp 4 years ago , first one i bought packed up halfway through a band practice after say 1hr and a half, so took it back to shop for a replacement.
sounded great , so much better than the tsl which has a terrible clean channel , sounds like mud ! and not good mud, and the effects loop is useless if i run a volume pedal through it and turn it to off position on the pedal , the there is still a signal comig through ?

anyway the dsl has none of these bad features at all the clean is bright and crisp and sounds light it should full of good ol' marshall heritage
distortion is amazing good for rock and heavy rock not so much for heavy heavy metal but depends on your taste, there are so many great distortion sounds you can get out of this beast !
the effects loop is perfect and cuts off when i want it to via the volume pedal , channel changing is perfect (no delays) and there is more than enough power for this to be used in a full stack to not have to be mic'd up on stage!

as stated above , i love the sound , this amp is more to buy in for the shops than the tsl, i was told by a shop owner for a major music shop in the uk that they buy the tsl in for around ??80 and flog them off for ??749 and that the dsl costs around ??200 maybe more and are flogged off for ??649 ?????? how does that work , well marshall put more love into the dsl and it has less working parts and sticks to a more original marshall design ie the older jcms
so by that you can tell now why the dsl sound so much better than the tsl
my set up is a gibson explorer with seymour duncan sh-1 '59 pickups in set at bridge position , and with the dsl it rules

trouble with this amp is reliability ! i'm giving it a three as it has broken down on me around 5 or 6 times since owning it luckily not at a gig but because of this i have to cart around a backup amp (marshall valvestate vs100 which rules )
now at nearly ??200 a repair each time it dies isn't good i could of bought another 2 new ones in this time !
faults were, power arking from the speaker output (common fault ) quite cheap but you have to replace tubes as this fault blows blue sparks outa the speaker outputs! this is a fault that has happened to me 3 times and twice i had to replace the transformer also !
this is due to this reason , when i am at practice and at most gigs i use a full stack so i am using 2 of the three outputs the (the two 8ohm outputs) this will work fine like this forever but at some gigs i'm only allowed 1 cab so half a stack ! trouble is when i come to plug just 1 input into the head it is stiff like something is blocking it , so with a bit of light fiddling it goes in, now i was told by an engineer this is because when i use the 2 input as usual there sometimes, at peak times, causes electrical arking where the electric somehow finds a way to ark over to the 16 ohm output and frying the output lead input !
so i played the gig, the amp sounded a little messy and muddy
got to practice and plugged my 2 cabs in , started off fine , then bang and burning plastic ! turn it off get a shock , turn it on again , get another shock and find blue flames and sparks shooting out of the 16 ohm output !!!! broken head !
this is a common fault but if you stick with either 1 cab or 2 cabs , stick with that setup , otherwise you'll end up ??200 worse off

tubes don't last all that long, i found after usage of 4 times a week for peiods of 1 hr over 6months i had to have them changed but i gather thats tubes for ya, but they sound so nice it doesn't matter

other faults include pots crackling and having to be replaced fuses going due to faulty board
and now only last week it blew up for the 7th and final time , took it to an enginner and they couldn't find the fault and caps and other parts ahd blown, rplaced them and still not working, after a week of trying to find the fault they sent it back to marshall who said they also could find the fault and that the best thing to do was to replace the whole inards, basically all that is left that is old is the wooden surround ! all this for ??400 , no thanx the head is no longer worth that ! and i just can't afford to keep going through this

trouble is i have recorded 3 cds with this amp and now i just need it to be replaced !

i wish this head was more reliable and wish that marshall still made heads like they used to in the 70's 80's and 90's with more care and love instead of just chucking them out at an alarming rate to keep up with customer demand ! let 'em wait , mesa do !

so i'm looking for a new and more reliable head and i'm told that the jcm 800 lead series is the one for me ! they are industry standard and live forever ! but rare as these are 2 channel jcm 800's

marshall have no idea of what customer support is, they have a switch board with a poor lady directing you through to people who just don't pick up their phones ! this was not a warranty repair so i am paying them for their time but no answer and no respect for buying their product,
they do fix warranty repairs quick tho

if they call you make sure that you get all the information in in that one phone call because if you forget you'll be forever chasing them !

sort it out marshall

you got some real heritage and amazing sounding amps but your making your amps shite !

the older amps are amazing and the dsl is amazing but you make so many that they are made to low standards !
charge more if you have to and stop using computer printed circuit boards they don't last ! hand wire them like you used to ! even your newer range should be !

i used to swear by marshall but now i'm thinking of checking out orange and mesa at least they last !

My DSL 100 was made in 1999. Paid 1149$ US Dollars for it. I consider that a bargain.

The DSL can do anything and everything from Nashville clean all the way to full out flame thrower. I wish it had a straight signal path where this was all available on a linear plane, but, cannot have everything. I once used a Fender Bandmaster that could do close to the range of the DSL. Clean all the way to Moby Dick and Metallica, with just the volume control, but that was in the late 60s and early 70s and I have not come across a Fender with 5 preamp tubes in many a year.

The First gain section really does play clean and crystal clear. It gets a little crunchy on overdrive but not much to my liking. Just starts to get crunchy and muddy on OD 1. However, put it on Ultra Gain 1 or 2 and prepare to launch.

It has a high quality reverb and a clean, tight effects loop I don;t use enough, but it is outstanding. The range of the DSL suits me just fine. I love the amp. One input. Wish it had 2. Has more power than I can handle, and I usually run it at 50w instead of 100w (more like 120) because I can roast my ears and those around me too well at 50w.

I don;t play professionally anymore, so I use this sparingly, but enjoy it greatly when I do play; I have major health problems, otherwise I would play it each and every day, probably most of the time if I could. I like the 4100 (JCM 900 series) but like the DSL a bit more because of the 4th pre-amp tube. More flame, more fun.

I play rock, metal, film tracks, a bit of everything, Floyd, Zep, that sort of thing. Hans Zimmer music. I use Svetlana tubes. Reliable, high quality.

Sound quality of the DSL is tops in my book. I do everything from clean acoustic electric, with a 6 string acoustic/elec, to Les Pauls and a couple of strats with noiseless pickups. I can get any tone I want, clean all the way to fried metal, and everything in between. With the 4th ECC83 (12AX7A) pre-amp tube, you can saturate your distortion and crunch into the ionosphere. If you need more distortion, well, you don;t. If you want more distortion, get a boss pedal and really make in grungier. I can't see how anyone would want more sustain and overdrive.

The volume is excruciating if you crank ultra 1 or 2 over 6, especially set at 100w. So to protect your ears I would chose a lower volume and higher gain, or lower power. Do your ears a favor. And your neighbors. This amp can really crank.

I love the tone, but as I always qualify, your amp is only as good as your speakers. A top end Celestion (Greenback, G12H30, G12T-75 or 85) or JB Lansing D or E series speaker set will really make this amp sing.

I use two, well, actually three, cabs. One 1960 A with Celestion G12T-75s. One with 1960B with 3 G12Ts and one VIntage 30 (great for the LEs Pauls, strats don;t like the Vintage 30 much.) Also have an old Sunn cab with 2-JBL E-120-8 300w speakers. JBL may have the market here. My favorite has to be the Sunn with the JBLs. Although Lansing stopped making this speaker in the mid 90s, they can still be found thru JBL's pro used affiliate dealers in CA and NJ. The E 120 is one of the most phenomenal speakers of all time. 22 lb magnet assembly. 27 lb speakers. VERY HEAVY. Sunn's cabs were just so so, using birch plywood, but load the E-120s in there with Lansing gaskets and they are unbeatable, to me. Even without the sturier and more toneful solid birch of the Marshall.

This is one quiet amp. Settings range from midrange to presence to bass and treble. I find this 4 way range perfect, as I like to doodle with the tone range for each song separately. What works for me for one song does not necessarily work on the next song. I like the dual midrange options. Tone curve and deep switches both have their uses. I like the scooped sound on some songs, and the deep on some heavy metal songs, but all things in moderation.

If you have the right speakers, this amp will not disappoint sound quality wise.

I have used this DSL amp for 8 years and never had a problem. I have driven it damn hard and never had a failure. Matter of fact, I have used Marshall since the 80s and never had a service issue of importance. However, that being said, Marshall is like a lot of brands, your reliability and support is only as good as your dealer. Check out the other brands. Whether it comes to amp materials or cabinet materials (like Nothern Birch, etc heavy tolex), MArshall builds their gear to last many decades. At this rate, my Marshall cabs will last 50-80 years. My oldest cab (nearly 20 years) looks just like it did 19 years ago.

Jim Marshall counts on his employees making solid, heavy duty amps. I have met him and spoken with him about this. He is a very intersting person, and committed to the musician. A real gent and quite a businessman. Have a problem with a Marshall your dealer can't resolve? Call Jim Marshall at BLetchley Keynes UK, and report it to him and he will take care of it.

None of my Marshalls have ever broken down, but my buddies amp died because he never changed the tubes in 13 years. Never go 12,13 or 14 years without putting new tubes in a valve (tube) amp.

I remember when I came up in the guitarist ranks, circa 1969. Marshalls were 1800$ due to (into US) import fees, and heavy export fees (from the UK on Marshall), the cost of a new car. THAT was a ton of money. $800 for the cab, 1,000 for an SLP 1959 head.

Essentially that translates into about 8,000$ in US dollars 2006. Marshall has done a great job with modern manufacturing to make these amps available to ordinary guys like me these days.

I have worked with Korg USA (Marshall USA support) on a couple of cust service/support issues in the 90s and found them exceptional. I have never had a Marshall fail, but have had a couple of items pop up. I had a finish flaw once, and Korg took care of that right off with a new cab and a copy of their book on Marshall Amps. Pretty nice.

Korg maintains a database of all local dealers, so they are easy to find and work well, last I heard, with any problems. I do not know if anything has changed in the last 4 years or so. I would be shocked if they have changed, as Marshall's support is legendary. Artists and performers mean a lot to Marshall. Your Marshall support is only as good as your dealer. If your dealer does not bias your amp when you get new tubes, find a new dealer.

I have been playing since mid 60s. Played a lot of amps, used every brand of speakers available, or seems that way. Sears, Sunn, Fender, Music Man, Vox, Marshall, etc, but my main front line is all Marshall these days. Been that way for 17 years.. EL-34 makes an interesting tone. It works with most guitars, some it just does not jive with. Try it first with your favorite axe before you shell out the moola.

I own a couple of other Marshalls, a Valvestate, a JCM 4100 (900 series). My best buddy has a 900 Series SL-X which is similar to my DSL. Barn Burner. Love them as well. Have several different cabs, each with a different configuration of speakers. I have Celestion Greenbacks, GH30 reissues, G12T-75s, JBL E series, Eminence, etc. All have tonal qualities special to them. I play 335s, LesPauls, Strats, SG, etc. Obviously, I am preferential to Marshall. I have never had any major problem with any aspect of JCM. Marshalls and JBLs were made in heaven, but upper end Celestions are top notch too. All depends on your ears and your personal style.

I would recommend guitarists never buy and amp/speaker combination without listening to a variety (the bigger the variety the better) of speaker brands and models, to get {"YOUR"} tone. There is a combination out there that is exactly YOU. Your challenge is to find that combination and explore it to its utmost.

This DSL can sound just good, or it can sound as glorious as Hendrix at Woodstock. Jimmy Page doing Stairway in '72 at LA Forum. It is your call and your challenge to match it up to your own sound pallette and your speakers. Only you can figure that out.

Also, new guitarists, be sure and change your tubes once or twice a year. I use Svetlanas, but Sovtek makes good EL-34s and 12AX7As also. Depends on what pleases your ears.

If mine were stolen I would get another DSL Asap. Would not blink or think twice. This is top quality equipment and never settle for second or third best.

My DSL100 head is a 2004 model -I originally wanted just a straight,one channel Marshall, something like a JCM800, no channel switching, but I got this one as it was at a really good price. I never use effects loops etc, but that's part of the amp, so no problems. It is far more versatile than I expected with three good useable sounds

The best clean channel I have heard from a 100w Marshall, and that's from over 30 years of playing different Marshalls. I do some rockabilly and I am more than pleased with the normal and crunch clean channel - beautiful rich clean, to a slightly grainy old-style Marshall clean, both very adjustable. The OD channels are great and very useable. This amp capable of very clean through to big dirty rock, but metal/grunge players may not find this is their amp.

My long experience with Marshall is that they are pretty reliable and they have the track record on live stages everywhere.

No real need to have warranty claims

It would be pointless to spend more for any other Marshall 100w head as I think this one covers a lot of classic Marshall sounds with a bonus excellent clean sound -the amp has surprised me with its tone and it is not a one-trick-pony. I use it through a Framus CS212 speaker box loaded with Celestion vintage 30s and the tone is great -fat bottoms, chimey highs. I play a 6120 Gretsch with Dynasonic pickups and a Tele. The Gretsch sounds fantastic through the clean channel..wow, and the Tele always sounds good no matter what. A hard act for Marshall to follow.

Ok, I bought this amp in 2005 and have been messing with the settings for a while so I guess I have a pretty good idea now about what this amp is capable of. At first I was impressed but not too impressed about the sound quality and the tones I got. Then, after some experiences with different settings I started to understand how you can get the sound you are after. The shared EQ never posed a problem.
I play in a post-hardcore/punk band (think Refused). The features are basic, but that's what I like about the amp. The TSL seemed too 'modern' for my taste and needs. I'm giving it a 9 because I think a 50W/100W switch would be a great feature.

I'm using a Les Paul Custom with a Seymour Duncan SH-5 in the bridge.

The clean channel mode 1 - great, really full clean sound but it starts getting dirty with the gain past 5. You can get different sounds if you set different gain and volume positions. It's really responsive to your playing . When the gain is around 7-10 you get warm overdrive sounds and complement well a nice distortion pedal for a true full distorted tone.
Clean channel mode 2 - is the next step. It gets from nice overdrive to a very crunchy distortion. Nice valve distorted sounds that are responsive to your playing.

Distortion channel mode 1 - I rarely use it because I love the combination of a cranked clean channel with my mxr distorion +. This is a standard distortion channel with lots of gain. It's not a brutal gain channel like the 5150 and nor it pretends to be. It's a 'classic' distortion channel that is might serve most people's needs. Mode 2 - never used it. I played with it for a while but it's just layers upon layer of distortion and it's not the sound I like anyway. Seems to feedback a bit as well, way more that the other channels.

The amp is very quiet, unless you are using cheap guitars with bad pickups.

Personally I can find my tone in the first channels. The reverb is useful. Deep switch gives it a nice, balanced bass boost, but since I'm using a Les Paul with hambuckers I just don't need it. I might be useful if your playing a tele or statocaster type of guitar and want an extended bass response. Tone shift - forget it, the tone just disappears, unless you're into black metal with a very saturated scooped sound.

I put some Mesa Boogie pre-amp tubes some time ago to see if there was a difference in sound and it sure was, more gain and more focused sound. I'm curious to see the differences when I change the power amp ones.

This amp literally fell down two stairs on a bus and it survived without a problem. I played lots of shows, have been on the road, practiced with it and it nener let me down. I hope it just stays that way.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing for more than 10 years, owned Marshall valvestates and played many different tube amps.
I read many reviews here before I bought it. Some people said that the clean channel is Fender-like. I don't agree - it's fuller and more versatile. I guess it's more like a plexi kind of clean, but with more headroom.
I like the classic design of the amp. The way small changes in gain or tone make such a big difference in the sound. There's is nothing I really hate about it. I'd like to be able to switch between 50 and 100 watts, because this thing can get pretty loud, and sounds best when it's pushed hard.
If it were stolen I think I would buy it again because I just know how it works now. It's an amp that takes time to understand and take the most advantage out of it, but the outcome is great.