Marshall JCM-2000 DSL 100

I bought this rig used off of ebay for $764 which included the jcm 900 `1960 slant cab.
I thought it was a good price, but not sure have seen the head used for well under $700.
The cab shows serious road wear which I think looks cool cause it works like a champ. I will have to replace the screen at some point.

Yeah, it's got it all. Two channels with boosts on each.
Two separate reverbs for each channel.
Eq is for both with deep, and inverse bottons.

Effects loop with a what seems to be a push button volume. (I only use the loop for delay.)

Footswitches for both the reverb and channel.

It is my first marshall of any kind stack, combo or otherwise. So when I pulled the trigger it felt like a cannon when off.

My first half stack was a Crate (gscl somethin-or-other with reverb and chorus) I bought in the eighties. It Stayed in the 80s.

I had the original 5150 for quite a while but never really like it because of only one eq for both channels. Which is funny cause I am a huge evh fan.

Other than that I have had a plethora of combo amps.

I have played blues, rock, metal, swing horn band stuff, and country.
I have found that this amp adapts to all of it.
It has a twang up the ying-yang for my tele and it does metal from seymour duncans nicely.

When I first got it it was a little unforgiving. There is a lot of power and I think if you don't get to know the amp it can take of on you.

However the sound is very much infront of the speaker with it giving the richest sound when it is above 4.

I know because it is a marshall I should have all kinds of detailed comments about the sound, but I don't .

I will say that I have played a lot of different size amps. Including the very high end boutique amps.

It provides a consistant memorable sound that no matter who try's to rebrand it, is forever marshall.

It is a tube amp so I am leary of it though it has not failed me yet so I will give it the benefit of the doubt. It does get hot from time to time

I have been playing in bands constantly fro 20 years.
Will I replace it if it is stolen?
Probably.
Will I ever find a better amp?
It is entirely possible.

I simply do not forsee any reason to change my tone other than to tweek it with Marshall.

This one is a 2009 model with the cheaper "platform" speaker cab that everyone has been selling for 1299.00
(price match...hint...hint) I used to have a old super lead 100 watt and sold it. Been kicking myself ever since. Always said if I could find another one at a good price I would jump on it. I jumped.

Its set up with an Ultra gain mode (lead mode) and a classic mode(rhythm mode). In the manual it pretty much lays it out what they were going for, Classic mode its set up to sound like a JCM 800, or a plexi in the crunch mode. On this channel, I have it set to 2 and 8, and get a pretty good clean, with a little growl, rhythm channel. On the ultra gain mode, I have it set to the lead 2 setting and volumes set to 2or 3 and then 9 to get a howling lead channnel! It dosen't get much better than this.... I bet the boutique boys are freaking out!!!

I pretty much play classic rock with this amp and most of the songs we play sound dead on with this amp. Way more than enough CRUNCH!

When you first switch on the amp there is a noticeable hum of the amp firing up.... when you switch off the standby, its not the most quiet amp, it a freaking 100 watt Marshall and it delivers the power....whose gonna notice that measley hum?

Just got the amp. I think if you run the correct ohm settings (which is confusing in the manual I am running it at 4 ohms) and let the rig warm up properly it should be pretty reliable, I know my other one was but I have been know to take good care of my gear. I do have a Hot Rod Deluxe as a back up.

Just got the amp. I have no experience with this yet.
Hope I only call them to say how much I love their stuff.

This amp at this price is pretty much a no-brainer. Yep, its got a cab with the rocket 50s and might not be made as well as a 1960a but the head is the exact the same DSL 100 except for the black piping....for the money, you can't go wrong. Vintage 30s I am sure will be replacing the rockets....but maybe not. The sound,the quality, the look is all MARSHALL! GREAT BANG FOR THE BUCK ! DO IT!

My amp is made in arround 2001/2002, I don't really know, I really don't care either. When I got the amp I noticed it was really well maintained and wasn't used on the road which really fasten up the relic look.

Since other reviews describe the reviews perfect, I will not give any extra info about it.

This amp is almost perfect, however, there are 2 things missing, a Shared EQ and you can't switch between Clean/Crunch and Lead1/Lead2.

I use Lead 1 + the Crunch channel, but I am considering using a tubescreamer, for both solo boosts + crunch.

Since changing between Clean/Crunch isn't possible, the volume boost you get by using this switch is a non-issue.

I play in a punk-rock band, which is influenced by bands such as the Ramones and Screeching Weasel. When I'm not playing with my band I'll try to enhance my guitar skills to play covers by bands and artists such as AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Rory Gallagher, Cream and some metal like Iron Maiden, WASP and Megadeth.

I use a Gibson LP Studio as my main guitar, and like people mention very often, the combination Gibson + Marshall = Amazing! Also I use a Fender Telecaster. Sounds pretty cool too! This is a combination which I will use on our upcoming album on the rhythm track.


The amp itself has it's wide-known Marshall sound, a bit JCM800-ish, as well as a bit JCM900-ish. The distortion sounds are really suitable for Rock/Punk/Classic Metal, but to my opinion you would like to search for something else when you want to play Death Metal e.g. However, you can get a great Slayer sound out of it.

I noticed from other reviewers that they didn't like this amp and rate this amp with 3's, 4's, and comments like awfull sounding amp, etc.

I personally wouldn't buy a amplifier which sounds like crap in the first place. It will happen that your musical style and taste will change over a few years, and so might your gear.

My tip when testing out an amplifier. All EQ's at 12 o clock, gain at 12 o clock, and you have an idea of how an amplifier sounds naturally.

Can't give an answer. Amp seems to be well built. Got it a few month's now.

Never dealt with them.

I amp playing for about 9 or 10 yeas by now, and owned quite a few amps before I bought this one.

If it were stolen, I would probably get another one, but prior to purchasing I would check out amps of other brands. There are some new brands or less famous brands out there, which could be worth a shot.

Made in 2009
This amp it is a monster. you can play any style with it, and being 100 watts means you can get as loud as you like. never played more than 4.
Its a two channels amp, very basic as you dont really need anything more. Any channel has a switch into a deeper one.
Also has deep button which adds bass, maybe too much, excellent for power chords, very cool, and tone button, pretty useless for me.
In studio and live in big venues this is just the amp you want.

I play a vintage epiphone and les paul, and the sound it is like the one you hear from records. Classic marshall sound. Overdrive is a bit too standard, but you can add tone and bass through the switches on amp. the "hard" distortion is not that hard..c`mon, i wounln`t suggest it for metal, i mean it can work but not brutal you might be disappointed.

Clean: absolutely clean, not noises
Crunch: Perfect for vintage rock sound

Overdrive: reasonable overdrive, but a bit flat, which i think is nice and vintage like.
Super drive: i would call it Overdrive as it has more boost, but it is not "metal", more power pop.

I bought it and failed after the third time i used it. for no reason. Marshall took it back and i had a new one in a day!!!
This one never gave a problem.

NB.
THIS AMP IS A TOP CLASS AMP EVER, NEEDS "LOVE". ALWAYS USE STANDBY, NOT PLAYING IT FOR 9 HOURS, TURN IT OFF AND ON PERIODICALLY...EVERY TWO HOURS DURING REHEARSALS..WAIT 5 MINS BEFORE USING IT, POSSIBLY REMOVE THE GRILL ON THE BACK FOR VENTILATION AND IT WILL NEVER DIE. THIS BABE GENERATE SUCH A POWER THAT YOU OWN HIM THIS TREATMENT, IT IS NOT A TRANSISTOR ONE.

I HAD ORANGE, AND THAT IS A KIND OF AMP YOU CAN TREW OUT OF THE WINDOW AND STILL PLAYS, INFACT IS TWICE EXPENSIVE HERE IN UK.

MARSHALL = 10

ALSO LONG WARRANTY.

no regrets.

i`ll give it a 8, cos it is too versatile, and it doesn`t really has a distinctive sound, which is good and bad. but if you`r a good guitarist you`ll love this amp

New 2009 MLB version. Features are the same as the original DSL 100, but with black piping and small rubber feet. Otherwise, it appears identical as far as I can tell.

Lacks a direct out for recording or direct to house. Does come with a small footswitch for the channels.

I've had it for 3 weeks and it sounds incredible through all my cabs, which are 1960A, 1960AV and 1936 - all stock. I'm sitting here with it plugged into the 1936 right now and getting the thickest, juiciest single-note feedback I've heard in a long time. It's been cooking for a couple hours today, the gain is on 5 on Lead 2 and it just sounds thick and warm, no fuzzy highs or flubby bass at all.

The stock tubes are fine, I have no inclination to change them. In fact, if all this tone were simply from these tubes, I'd pull them out and save them. But I think it's a combination of things really.

It's a very dynamic sounding amp on just about any setting. Rolling the guitar's volume down cleans up pretty nice, better than many other amps I've owned including the JVM. (The JVM is great, but not as touch sensitive for me).

As many others have said, the clean channel is bassy compared to the Ultra channel. But every setting sounds great on this amp. The clean mode does nice Jazz IMO, and the Crunch mode gets great older Blues and Rock tones.

Lead 1 is possibly my favorite for home jamming, as it's got a lot of character, but not as much sustain as I'd like. With the band I prefer the Lead 2 mode with the gain at 5, where it begins to sustain well. The amp seems to begin opening up at about 3 or 4 on the master, and the louder it goes the thicker the tone gets. By comparison, the JVM's tone doesn't seem to be much affected by volume other than speaker/eardrum compression. The DSL just gets sweeter as you turn it up.

Reverb is mediocre. I admit I like digital because springs don't sound like naturally occurring reverb.

The amp is reasonably quiet, though mine does have a slight hum from the power transformer (facing the amp from the front, it'd be the transformer to the left of the logo). There is some hiss when turning up the gain, which is normal.

There are amps you hate, amps you dig, and amps you can build a relationship with because they speak to you. I seem to be falling more in love with this thing as time passes.

Don't know yet, but I'd be surprized if it didn't break down within the 3-5 year warranty. The power transformer get too hot to touch after an hour off standby, and the tubes get hot enough to melt the plastic vent above. Each side is biased to exactly 86.4mV and there's no drift.

I hope mines a good one that sounds better and better as time goes by.

30 years, I play everything except Classical and Country.
Lost or stolen I'd get another one.
Compared to the JVM 410H, the JVM's got its good points, but the tone is lacking, it sounds week. The DSL 100 is more direct and in your face.

I gave the DSL a 9 here, because it covers all the base's you could need and then some.

It's a Marshall tube amp. It ROCKS! Mine was made in 2002. I do stoner rock, ala Black Sabbath, Bongzilla, The Sword, Fu Manchu, Kyuss, etc. Nails the sound. The details and specs have been stated below. Plenty loud with 100 watts. I play it in my living room with the volume at around 3, sometimes 4. I just replace the tubes. Put in JJ/Tesla El 34's and 12AX7's. They sound very nice in this amp. A versatile amp, nice cleans, and heavy distortion.

I play a Gibson Les Paul Studio with a Gibson 57' Classic Plus pickup in the bridge and a 496 in the neck. It rocks! I also play a Fender Custom Telecaster, all mahogony with a set neck and maple cap. It's got DiMarzio Custom Wound pickups in it and it sounds rockin through this amp. No noise at all. Very quiet tube amp. The distortion, if turned up to 8, 9, 0r 10 is brutal. Nice Zakk Wylde squeals;) It has all the distortion I need. I am playing it through a Marshall cab with G12-L35's in it. Supposed to be similar to the Greenbacks. A killer sounding halfstack!!

I have not had the amp for too long. Bought it from an amp tech. He gave it a good "going over" before letting it go. I have had no issues with the amp.

N/A

Been playing for many years. Owned a lot of gear in the past 20-plus years or so. To much to list. I currently have an Orange Tiny Terror head that I play through a Carvin 2X12" speaker cab with Eminence speakers in it. I have many pedals. I have a Carvin MTS 2X12" combo, 100 watts of tube power. The Marshall DSL is a great amp. I got it at a great deal, and I could not pass it up. This thing ROCKS!! It's got that "Marshall sound" that so many folks crave.

This amp features two channels that provide both the most powerful distortion sound I've ever heard and also the sweetest cleans ever. From a sound perspective, it has EVERYTHING I want.

I play this amp with a Gibson Les Paul Studio. I play in two different bands, one a hard rock group and the other a folk band. I can use this amp for both bands.

This is the downside of this amplifier. If you do not give it ample time to warm up, meaning turn on the power, but leave the standby off for about 5 minutes, it'll overheat itself and turn off randomly. I have had this happen at a gig...not cooL! I took this amp in for servicing, and they couldn't find anything wrong with it.

Marshall is happy to send you support via email, but often sends the same advice again when you contact them to let them know their previous advice did not work.

If it weren't for the reliability problem, which I have learned to prevent through trial and error, this would be the perfect amp. Sound wise, you cannot find a better amp.

I gave this a 9 for features because you can always have more features but really this is all i need or anyone as long as they aren't metal tech heads and don't get me wrong, i love metal and not just 80's metal but really, korn, slipknot, you guys are silly. I wish I could change the tone between the channels but for the price and tone whatever. Marshall plexi amps sound awesome and they only have one channel. I could always upgrade and get a tsl but if anyone else has played the tsl compared to the dsl you will realize that they sound very little alike and the tsl's are actually worse sounding, and i took one apart and its built like ****... I heard that some of that later dsl's were built ****** aswell but i haven't seen one but than again i dont tear everyones amp apart.

First i would like to say that everyone wants something different so these reviews are just to give you an idea, try things out before you buy them. This sounds great, i would replace it or fix it if i lost it or it was broken... I own alot of marshalls and alot of other amps. Im kinda an amp retard. To get the sound i want out of this amp i have to turn my bass up louder than most amps and i use my presence more as a treble and my treble kinda as a back up treble... play with it and you will see what im saying. Anyways, this amp is mean and ****ing beautiful sounding at the same time. I put groove tubes in it rated at 6(if you know how groove tubes rates you know what im talking about)and they sound rad,i tried many other tubes out aswell, svetlanas and so on. I suggest always replacing your tubes and upgrading them when buying a head. Also, finding a matching cab to what you like, dont cheap out of the ****ing cab guys! I hate how many people hate there heads because they have ****** cabs... I put 2 celestian t-75's and vintage 30's in my birch closed back cab, alot of you people will think thats wierd but i get good comments on it every show hands down. I do like my plexi better but i can't afford to replace that and i had to mod it...

I bought this thing several years used. Looks like no one else has really looked inside but me... I am naturally a cautious person because my amps (and car) are some of my most prized materials. (I drive a kia rio so obviously my amps come first). Anyhow, it has never gone out and im always waiting for it to. Not that it gives me clues, just that i would be sad and everything good that comes goes... But while im constantly pulling my car out of the ditch (whichever one) my head is still in the backseat rock'n it as usual. Haha, when i imagine it in my head i like to think its wearing sunglasses and is smoking a cigarette.

dont know, bought used, had it a long time and i take care of it. Even on the road. Marshall is usually pretty cool though, except when it comes to older amps, but you will get that with most anything. Giving them an 8 on past experience...

Giving it a 9, i love it, you can get them on craigslist for like 600 bones sometimes! Why not buy one, better than the tsl, and if you try out some of the other marshalls out there these days you will be disappointed your paying that much... When you could always buy a jcm 800 for way cheaper. Those are fun amps aswell, i like them with the standard 1960a cabs.

The amount of features on this amp is not overwhelming, but as a basic amp it pretty much covers my needs. The most negative thing is that both channels have the same EQ. And as a metal-guitarist, I have to compromise the clean sound to a certain extent, to fit it to the gain channels EQ.
On the positive side, I really like the deep- and tone shift switches, which gives a lot of choices And the fact that there is enough gain on this amp. And every gig I've done, the soundman has told me to turn it down. Which I of refuse to do. So there's plenty of "wattage" here

I use Jackson guitars with Seymour Duncan's. Mainly the Invader humbucker. I think the top end is a bit to noisy, and the low end should have slightly meatier. But I use GT75 speakers, and probably should have used vintage 30's instead. The clean channel distorts a bit at high volumes (not much), but I like that. As I saide, there's plenty of gain here

It has failed me a couple of times, but that was more of a tube error, I think.

Never contacted Marshall...

I've been playing for almost 20 years, semi pro the last couple of years,so I've tried a lot of stuff. A fried of mine has got an Engl, and in all honesty, I think that one sounds better. But with Marshall, you get the classic rock sound

Split channel, 100watt, dual reverb.
Channel switching with various on amp tone shaping switches.

Using it with my wilkinson loaded strat.
I've had mine revalved with E/H golds for a slightly more hi-fi sound.
Clean:- The clean channel is alright really, it breaks up very early with humbuckers, but can remain very clean when using low output single coils. Its a passable clean sound for live use, but for recorded use it doesnt quite go clean enough. Takes dealy and flange really well though. Bringing the gain up on this channel gives some pretty good crunchy rock sounds, further enhanced by having the crunch switch engaged.
Drive :- OD1: Great for classic rock and indie stuff, you can also get some awesome hardcore sounds with the gain wound round a bit, its a really open and loud sound drive sound. Not very smooth but it'll definately get you heard!
:- OD2: Smoother higher gain than the first OD, can get a bit mushyif the gain is pushed to hard and you really have to crank the mids to be heard on this setting.

The deep switch remains permanently engaged on mine, it just adds a lot of body and warmth to the sound. The tone shift isnt so useful, it basically works by sucking out the character of your guitar and sterilising your sound.

Its always been very quiet for me, but i dont use huge amounts of gain, its a pretty versatile amp that gets overlooked alot just because its a marshall. I still prefer the sound of these amps to the TSL's and JVM's.

This is my third DSL, never had any problems at all, they're built to last and as long as theyre are maintained well they will survive life on the road.

Marshall is only a few miles down the road from me and theyve always been very good to me.

Its a great amp, worth trying through lots of different cabs because it works so well with so many different cabs. Its ofetn overlooked, but i'd take one of these over a mesa, engl or any of the more expensive brands.

I believe that mine was made in 1997? This is the all tube, 100 watt Marshall Duel Super Lead Head.
I play in a hard rock band, with two guitar players. We play hard rock, early heavy metal (Not that screamo, mid scoop crap), and blues styles. We are active and working musicians, and play at medium sized venues at least every two weeks. I think anyone reading this already knows what features that this amp has. The deep switch is just too much low end, and the tone shift makes the amp sound dry and hollow. I don't like the fact that this amp only has one eq setup for both channels, and the amp defiantly does not have enough mid range. I wish that this amp had a fuller range of tone, but what do you expect for a new Marshall.

I play a 67 reissue Gibson Flying V with Seymour Duncan SH-4 (Bridge), and SH-1 (Neck) pickups; a Gibson SG with Dimarzio Super Distortion (Bridge) and a Gibson 498R ceramic (Neck); A Fender American Standard Stratocaster with Dimarzio Super Distortion (Bridge), stock Fender noiseless single coil (Middle), and Dimarzio PAF Pro (Neck). My other amp is a Laney AOR 100 watt head, from 1986. The Laney is a duel preamp setup, and is basically Laney's answer to the JCM800, but with more gain, more versatile, and more balls. I use an analog pedal board: Guitar-> Boss TU-2 Chromatic tuner -> Dunlop Crybaby-> Ibanez Tube Screamer-> Boss Stereo Chorus-> Ibanez Phaser-> Front of amp. I also use a linear power boost through my FX loop to provide a lead volume boost. The tone I go for is reminiscent of eighties Heavy Metal (i.e.: Iron Maiden, Metallica, Danzig, Dio, Judas Priest). Don???t confuse it with scooped mid's metal of today. I hate scooping the mids, it sounds like your amp wants to crap itself or maybe vomit. For a while, I thought that I could use a two-channel amp, to make things easier during live performance. Either switch between clean/brutal distortion, or have a good distortion, use the guitars volume knob to clean it up, and use the other channel as a lead boost. The DSL played by itself, on the clean/crunch channel sounds pretty good. Marshall obviously put a substantial amount of effort into replicating the tones of their prior and past production. This is where the shortcomings of this amp come into play: The Ultra channel SUX!!!! No sustain, no character, not at all useful to me. In concept it's great, but when you switch from crunch to ultra, you have to re-tweek your eq settings to remedy the problem, as the tone seems to become thin and brittle with too much clipping. So basically, the only solution that I could conceive, was to put an Ibanez tube screamer in front of the amp, on the crunch channel, set the gain at about half on the amp, on the pedal: drive on 1, tone at about 8, and volume at about 8 for unity. IT SOUNDS AWSOME! This is the tone I was looking for, although this renders the other channel basically useless. The other lacking feature of this amp is the non-exhistant lead boost option. Yeah... There is Lead 1/Lead 2 on the ultra channel.. And yes you might think: why don???t I just set the volume on the Ultra channel slightly higher with the gain a little lower, use the tube screamer through both channels, and bam.. I have a lead boost channel. Well.... To answer that, I have done such and not only does the tone on the Ultra channel sound thinner, nasty, and unsatisfying, it also feeds back uncontrollably, and still has absolutely no sustain. HORRIBLE!! If you have to have the Marshall sound, than think simple, eat the cost (Because it's worth it), and buy a Marshall JMP Master Model or Super Lead from the 70's or a vintage JCM800, and put the Tube Screamer in front of it. It's a one-channel amp, it has six knobs, but that???s all I need. That???s how all of the greats did it, and that???s just how it's done. Personally I am happier with my Laney.

I bought this amp about 4 months ago. I have used it for live performance, studio practice with my band, and some recording. I have had to take this amp to service three times. Once it just stopped working, with no signal; it ended up being a bad tube socket. Another time, it started making really annoying noises while I was playing, feeding back and squealing; for some reason the amp threw itself out of bias (how does that work?). On the third occasion I was playing live and my volume dropped dramatically; my repair tech told me that the V1 preamp section had fried itself. Comparing this track record to My 20+ year old Laney AOR head: I have had to take this amp in for service every six months to a year for scheduled maintenance, to have it retubed and biased and nothing more in the three years that I have owned it. I have never needed a backup amp for my ???Vintage??? ???Obsolete??? Laney.

Why bother? I have attempted contact before regarding other Marshall products and the experience is much like talking to the Great Wall of China. Every time I need service I go to the same guy. He is certified as a repair tech and works out of a local reputable music store.

I have been playing for about 15 years. I've owned and operated many different types of amps, and played in numerous bands. I have had other Marshall???s, and played many more. As for picking an amp for it's Brand Name, I think it's a marketing scam. Once upon a time Marshall was the one to buy, but now days you can go to Guitar Center and pick out all of the useless, made in China/assembled in England Garbage you want. If it were stolen I would only be unhappy since I would rather get the money from selling it. I chose this amp because I read a lot of good reviews on it and was confident in the purchase. I'm extremely disappointed. I wish it had a useful Ultra gain channel, since that is my main sound.

I bought this amp used, though based on the serial number, I think it was built in 2002.

Features have been covered over and over again, and frankly, the feature set is a bit disappointing. Everyone wants separate eqs per channel, foot switchable sub-modes, etc... And yeah, these would be great things and it is annoying that these things don't exist and of course weird decisions like footwitchable reverb but not fx loop, the tone shift button, those sorts of things. Nevertheless, its best feature is the sound, and really thats all that matters.

When I first plugged into the amp, I was sort of impressed. It sounded very Marshally and thats never a bad thing in my book, but it wasn't "incredible". After getting it home and working with it a bit, I figured out how to get some amazing tones out of it. First off, I HIGHLY recommend what another user said here in regards to putting a sonic maximizer in the fx loop as it REALLY wakes the amp up. This is pretty true of most instruments, but even with just a VERY small amount of processing from the BBE, it brought out some great overtones. A friend who knows NOTHING about amps said it made the distorted tones sound distorted and clean at the same time, really added clarity and made each note ring well. So now then, to the kinds of tones...

Classic channel clean: Absolutely the best clean I've ever heard from a Marshall. I'm not a giant fan of solid state cleans as they just sound sterile, and I've been using a Fender Bassman for cleans (great sound BTW) and the DSL 100 can hang with it in all regards. I like to turn the gain all the way up and use the guitar volume to control the dirt as I can really dial in the sound that way.

Classic channel crunch: GREAT classic tone, but TOO much bass, especially with the deep switch set. The bass isn't bad or out of control, but for my taste its a bit heavy. It is great for trying to emulate classic Marshall tones and while it doesn't sound exactly like the old school Marshall amps, its pretty close and sounds tremendous.

Ultra channel lead 1: Pretty good tone, though at lower gain and volume settings, the deep switch makes a big difference though, with clever eqing, you can get some really great sounds from it. With the gain turned up about halfway though, it really starts to sing and break up beautifully. Good again for getting some classic tones, but more apt to get some good modern rock sounds too.

Ultra channel lead 2: Not bad, but adds too much in the way of overtones and tends to mush the sound up a bit. Its excellent, however, at low gain settings and works well in conjunction with lead 1, at least when the gain is no more than 3 or so. Above that gain, its good for getting thick lead sounds with controlled feedback, but thats sort of it. Its too rich for comping or any other general rhythm work.

The tone shift switch seems to be much maligned and well, is mostly worthless to me, but sounds interesting with clean tones. Kind of removes the "tubeyness" of the sound and gets closer to the solid state sound some people like. On dirtier settings, it just sounds like a poor mid scoop switch and sort of takes away the Marshall quality of the sound. Its a shame that Marshall felt the need to try to make a jack of all trades instead of making some better design decisions, but whatever...

The eq doesn't have a profound impact on the sound, but the sound tends to be very treble heavy. It takes some time to figure out how to balance the presence and treble but once you get it, it sounds great, but it DOES take time to get the brightness down. It'd be great to have separate channel eq as the classic channel is awfully bassy, but some tweaking gets a decent balance for all channels, well sort of.

The FX loop seems to suck some tone with certain effects processors, but not all oddly. I use a Digitech RP500 in the loop and its completely transparent. Not the case with some rack effects I had been using.

Overall the best sounding amp I've ever owned. Sounds awesome at nearly any setting, but spending time with it really yields incredible results. The sonic maximizer really unlocks the tone though, but again, thats for any amp.

It seems rock solid, though I've heard people say otherwise. Mine is a few years old and works just fine.

Biasing the amp is very easy and can be done by anyone, A+ for that.

Good web presence and well, its Marshall. They're legendary for taking care of their customers. In the UK at least. I have no idea how they in the US though, but that said, all the user groups and what not seem more than adequate with schematics available for download and some knowledgeable users who are always willing to help.

I also have a Crate Blue Voodoo and Fender Bassman ('65 black face) and I play all three amps through a Bassman 2 X 12" and a Marshall 1960 cabinet with 2 12GT75s and 2 Vintage 30s. This is hands down the best sounding and most versatile amp I've ever owned. Not so much in the wide variety of tones (it all sounds very Marshally) but in terms of each mode being quite unique and instantly good sounding. It would be nice if there were separate channel eq and if the eq had more impact, but still a super versatile tone. Plus if you need more tweaking, an eq in the loop works beautifully to dial in the tone.

Compared to the Blue Voodoo; it just has a more usable tone plain and simple. The Voodoo is decent, but doesn't really hold a candle to the DSL.

Compared to the Bassman, the clean is just about comparable, but the dirty sounds really beat the hell out of the bassman, which while good, just doesn't have the richness of the Marshall.

If it were lost or stolen, I might look at the JVM series from Marshall, but I love the DSL and if it didn't sound as good, I'd try to find another DSL 100. At used prices, they can be had pretty cheaply.

One great thing about the amp is it works well with effects. I know that may sound dumb, but some amps I've used sound poor with chorusing our other kinds of effects that just tend to muddy up the sound. This one sounds great with everything I've used.

I'd give it top marks, but the lack of separate channel eq, and the goofy design decisions (e.g. poor foot switching options) keep it from top marks. Still, sound is the ultimate measure and from that perspective, you can't beat beat it. It may not be for everyone, but for those who like the Marshall sound, its as good as it gets, particularly for the price.

I bought this amp new in Jan 2007. It is a limited run matching silver covered head and quad. It is a two channel amp with two modes per channel. It has a deep switch which is helpful to pull a good sound depending on venue and the volume you can get away with. It also has a 'tone shift' which is just plain nasty. It has a noisy effects loop. I don't want to sound uneccessarily harsh as I actually like this amp a lot. I want Marshall to make an amp that sounds like this amp but with independent eq and footswitchable modes for each channel, a quiet effects loop and no 'tone ****' (sic) switch. I would buy that amp!

I have a bunch of different gigs ranging from 1990 til current poprock, classic rock (Lizzy, Purple, Who) and OZ Rock. I sometimes switch to the clean mode of ch 1 and compensate the subsequent volume drop with an MI Audio Boost n Buff. I am lucky enough to play some big shows all across Australia and I specify DSL 100s as hire backline. I used to get 800s but they were too hit and miss in terms of sound. As far as Marshalls go this is a versatile machine - unfortunately not all the sounds it is capable of producing are readily available. If you switch between modes without compensating with volume and eq changes you can end up with some dud sounds. One of my favourite gigs is classic Oz Rock played exceptionally loud. I plug a 335 or LP straight in to a DSL 100 and use Ch 1 crunch mode for rhythm guitar and Ch 2 OD1 set louder for leads.

I hope I'm not going to jinx myself, but this amp has been 100% reliable. Each of the hire DSL 100s I have used have been reliable as well including on short tours (14 shows in 16 days). I have seen DSLs dropped from trucks (in flight cases, of course) fire up and run hard for hours with no problems. I my experience these are supremely reliable machines.

I haven't dealt with Marshall regarding this amp specifically but I did email them to query the claim of the store I bought it from about its limited production nature. Marshall responded very quickly (and assured me it was a legit limited run). I have dealt with Marshall in the past about an incredibly unreliable 900 and the exact specs of a 1962 Bluesbreaker combo I once owned (and stupidly sold) - they were very helpful on both occasions.

I decided I needed to get another half stack in 2006. I tried Mesas, Engls, Oranges, Fenders, Peaveys, TSLs. After initially being turned off new Marshalls because of the TSL (YUCK!), I tried the DSL and just about bought it on the spot. It has an interesting mix of classic and modernish sounds in the one amp. I have been playing for 20 years. I have a bunch of guitars of each of the popular persuasions as well as some oddball sweeties. I have a great pedal collection that changes at a whim - Carl Martin or Roland chorus, vintage SD-1 or Blackstar? I love how this amp looks and for the most part I love how it sounds. I love how it responds to the volume pots on my guitars and I love that it doesn't mask the character of the guitar being used. It could be made better so easily (see features). I have had 3 different JCM900 models, a BBreaker combo, a MESA combo (maybe a 22 cal - I can't remember), various Fenders, a JC120...If this was lost or stolen I would certainly check out other amps but not because I am unhappy with the DSL - Marshall and many other manufacturers are doing some great things. It would be silly to go and blindly buy exactly the same thing without checking that someone else hasn't made a 'DSL 100ish thing with footswitchable modes, independent eq, a quiet effects loop and no stupid tone shift switch'. I already said that is the amp I would buy.

2007 Model, 2 channels; 4 modes. 100 Watts of EL34 power, FX Loop etc etc...

I play metal, the heavier/extreme form of metal. Some call it Death Metal.

It's versatile enough but a half power switch/built in attenuator would be awesome. Also, separate EQ for both channels would be awesome. And a master volume... damn!

Many people dismiss these amps for metal, simply because they aren't BROOOOOT or they don't have enough GAHINZ for TEH SWEEEPZ, but simply put... these people are fools. I went to a guitar store to try out a guitar, the guy said to me - you've gotta use this Boogie Stiletto, its like a Marshall, but much better. Sure enough my eyebrows went very high and I tried it... it sounded like fuzzy crap; so a modern, post MKIV boogie then. I wandered over, grabbed a cable and cranked a Marshall up, the DSL 100... and WHAT AN AMP IT IS!!!
I've used ENGL, MESA, ORANGE, KRANK, PEAVEY live and I can honestly say MARSHALL are the only amps that cut it.
My live rig right now is a JCM800 through a 1960BV cab... but the DSL needs a mention, the trick is to watch the bass and treble, the presence is a wide band, high frequency pot so it controls most of the high end, the treble is quite brittle and does not need to be abused, its a narrow band pot so it only ads some real high HIGH end, so use that to fine tune.

IF YOU SCOOP YOUR MIDS, IT WILL SOUND LIKE A BAG OF BALLS. Crank those mids and get that sound cooking.

The clean is nice and usable, it's no ultra amazing clean, but like I said; live no one is going to complain, The crunch really tasteful for those classic rock moments during sound check!

OD1 is my personal favorite, its got some nice over tones, especially with the deep switch in. I don't rock the gain past halfway because thats when the definition starts to disappear.
OD2 is not where my tone lies, the gain is boosted but so is the bass; but that just swamps you out. With single coils though it sounds pretty fat.

Great metal tones, great rock tones. Completely underrated, a worthwhile shot if you're in the price bracket

the shift button is redundant if you ask me

Never broken, Marshall's are like trucks man, you can tinker and they'll snap out of it!

Got some new marshall logos for the cab etc... free, Marshall rule.

GREAT AMP

Set it up right and you'll be laughing when people ask what you're using. It's happened to me, sort yourself out; get a DSL.

Everyone pretty much has posted all the specs by now. I gave it a 6 because the features are a little weak. No footswitchable FX loop and no footswitchable modes in each channel.Those are my two complaints. Besides having the option of footswitchable reverb(WTF?!?) Later models of Marshalls have added this feature but they don't have the good raw tone that the DSL 100 has.

I have finally found a combination of pedals that make this thing incredible. By itself it's an 8 at best. The classic channel is really good with articulate highs and tight warm lows, gives a good classic rock crunch, probably the best I've heard on an amp made after 1975. The second channel is good if you don't scoop the mids, don't use the OD2 button and play it really loud. In fact I've found that the secret to this amp is to lay off on the Treble Eq, jack up the mids and use the presence for the treble. The treble frequency is really high and crispy on this amp and unmusical. If you really want a good sound out of this use a Tubescreamer or any good classic overdrive on low gain, high volume in front of the amp through the input, then use a BBE Sonic Stomp throught the FX loop with a Boss NS-2 to calm the storm.The overdrive enriches harmonics of the amp and gives it more life. The Sonic Stomp with this amp has made the rating a 10+ for me because i can quickly adjust the TWO knobs on the pedal to compensate for the tonal qualities of whatever guitar I'm using at the time. And it makes it sound like you are pulling a blanket off of your amp. No kiddin. Also make sure the next time you get it retubed and biased, have the tech increase the plate draw to the power tubes to make it run hotter. They are initially biased and set up pretty cold. You'll burn through tubes alot faster this way but, oh sweet tone city, will it sound a hell of a lot better.
I have the best distortion I've ever heard now and I'll take the pepsi challenge with this statement. It also helps that you play a good heavy piece of mahogany with good pickups too. Hamer USA Standard with EMG 81,85 and high output tone pots is my weapon of choice!

Power Transformer sucks. "nuff said. Everyone who has these amps and plays them loud for any length of time will encounter this problem with this amp. The originals are garbage. When replacing power transformers make sure that you get a different brand in there. Other than that I had a problem with the tube socket screen resistors and had it promptly fixed. This is isn't the best out of the box amp I've ever experienced but tube amps are notoriously inefficient and fickle.

haven't ever used this service.

I've been playing for 15 years and have tried many other amps but after finding the right pedal combination with the DSL100 I have been least inclined to replace it with something new. It works for me for now. The features are kind of a drag for me. It they reissued this amp with more footswitchable options (FX loop, modes on each channel) and kept the exact same preamp schematic and upgraded the power transformer, Marshall would have its best amplifier ever made. I've tried newer models from Marshall and they fail in comparison (distortion sucks, modes all sound alike, clean sucks). Overall if you find this amp available for less than $900 then buy it. If not then don't. I got mine in a trade for a Rivera era Fender 75 head and mid 80's fender champ. I got the better end of the deal.

not sure what year, possible 04. this thing Kicks a@#, its a 100 watt head that features ec83's in the pre-amp section and el34 power amp tubes, classic marshall valve setup.it has 2 channels with two switchable modes on each, 1st channel is a clean, very clean, the best clean tone on a marshall ive ever heard, then it features a classic gain channel thats similar to the old plexi's and old supers. then the other channel has two switchable lead's the 1st is your jcm 800 gain and the 2nd is a ultra gain witch is the only real beef i have with this head, its very grainy and fuzzy as metioned in previous reviews but lower the gain setting will counteract that crap for the most part. you got your typical eq , presense t. m. b. for all the channels, no idependent eq for each channel(doesnt bother me, i have eq in fx loop) this thing has 2 buttons, the deep switch which tightens the end and boosts the lows, a mid scoop button thats self explanitory. also has an fx loop which is good for us effect geeks. another beef is that you can only switch between channel A and B and not the others but its a minor beef. its really loud amp so dont use at room volumes to gauge this thing, its gotta be cranked up to get the true tone of this thing.

Killer.. everything and every style of music can be dailed up on this thing, the most impressive thing on the amp is the clean channel, as i said early its the best clean channel on a marshall ive heard, been playing for 18 yrs and have heard many a marshalls. the lead channel is just as killer, pure marshall tone. very versatile for any gig, covers ,blues, jazz(yes jazz), rock and metal. it will keep up with anything you through at it. I know because all those styles i mentioned above im doing. I have a custom tele that has S.D. pearly gates in the bridge and vintage rails in the neck and a olp mmluke that has the luke emgs in it, both guitars sound ballzy coming out of this amp, can get that old van halen/zz top ,classic rock sound to more edger tones like my man steve lukather(by no means will you play like him if you get this amp)from toto.

its a marshall, its the harley davidson of amps.

overall this thnig gets an 9 cause of flaws i mentioned above. ive had this amp for about 3 mnths know, i own many other boutique amps and effects, to many to list. this thing will sing with a good overdrive pedal like a fulltone or a klon. i really love this amp for its versatility and tone. i would cry if it were stolen and eventually replace it. always hear stff for yourself before buying.

You all know what it does. I'm writing this to share the misery I'v gon through in the last year. Read on...

Sounds Awesome! It is a Marshall that sounds like a true Marshall, actually, 3 different Marshalls. Classic gain sounds like a jtm 45 with it set right. When you push in the button it is very JMP or JCM 800, throw an sd-1 or tube screamer in front of it and hold on. Depending on your settings you get everything you heard back in the day, ZZ, Zep, SRV, AC/DC, Blackfoot, Mollyhatchet, Motorhead...
Got the ultra gain and you have a hotrodded jcm 800 and with a pedal in front you get the firs 3 Metallica albums, Anthrax, Tesla, G-n-R, again all depending on your settings. Best sounding Marshall I ever owned.
I love it! I hate it!

This thing craps out on me every 8-10 weeks. I play out 4-7 nights a week 4-5 hrs a night. The first time I lost the effects loop, I still made it through the gig. Next time I lost the classic channel, I couldn't switch to it, still made it through the night. Then on night,2nd set, the place is blowing up, we're in such a groove it was out oof this world, then, i'm playing air guitar. Still lit up but no output. I did wha any rockstar without a tech would do, I gave it shaken baby syndrome and turned it back on and finished the night. My repair shop said it was probably a tube, since we coundn't re create the issue. I retubed it, went to rehearsal before we were gonna open for Marshall Tucker and one of the power tube went nucular! Now I'm 2 hrs. from soundcheck and I have an amp that greenpeace would sue me for. I scrambled and borrowed my friends 5150 (Bulletproof, he hoses it out after every gig and puts it away wet)and it saved me. We went on and it sounded sweet, not Marshall sweet, but sweet in it's own way,,as a side note, it sounded nothing like any Van Halen recored I ever heard, but it sounded great with my Les Paul. I took the Marshall back to the shop and he said that the bias was floating and when it goes away the tube goes Chernobyl. I sold it AS IS and dropped the hammer and bought a brand new one, they are now discontinued by the way. So for $1271.00 out the door I got a five year warranty, YAYYY??? No BOOOO!!!! They only cover Parts, I gotta eat the labor, how do I know you may ask? 3rd gig with the new head, stock power tubes, never touched them The tube ran away again and CAUGHT FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! Kept playing though, It was so Rock n Roll, We wer killing it playing For whom the Bell Tolls and I smelled that smell, you know the one, the smell of electronic DEATH, I turned around and I couldn't tell because of the fog machine, but I could tell because the flames were flickering out from behind the head. I quickly unplugged it and another musician at tthe gig ran home a brought me his Bogner Shiva (A$$hole) Thanks for kicking me when I'm down. But it saved the gig. So tomorrow morning I am returning this 54 pound piece of fire wood to Sam Ash. I have 6 days left on their 30 day return policy. I hate it. I love the sound but I need the reliability. Iam going back to my old 5150. Everyone can rag on peavey, but, when you hit the standby switch the play and sound sweet too. Not Marshall sweet, but Peavey sweet. Great for getting Skynyrd and .38 special sounds, and on the ultra channel you get moderm Metallica, Godsmack,Lamb Of God stuff.

As a final note, I know what I do. I know my equipment, so it's not because of me wiring cabinet wrong or useing power brakes. I use 1 2x12 vintage 30 cab at 8 ohms. Marshal won, game over man, game over, I tapped out. I love it but I can't afford to keep fixing these things. I need to save up and get an old handwired ptp Marshall, maybe that will be mor reliable.
I saw Zakk wylde at Ozzfest and he had 8 halfstacks, only 3 wer mic'd... I'm guessing clean dirty and lead tone. During his 2 hr. guitar solo, to give ozzy a break, his shit cut in & out then it did it again and the stage hand moved the mic to another stack. Lesson here. Play til you can hang like Zak and afford 10 G's worth Of Marshalls. Done!

Roll the Dice, The three I went through this year were made of glass. My other 2 friends never had a problem with theirs, but they play half as much as I do.

Marshall DSL 100 with 1960 A&B cabs (full stack). I would have given this a 10 if the Marshall foot switch supplied could switch between the high low setting on each channel and not just between channels.

I play this with a PRS Single Cut Standard guitar - just amp and guitar and the sound is great. I would give sound a 10 however, the amp is very bright, the treble knob never goes over 3 and I don't use the presence knob for the same reason. If there is one improvement for the amp it would be to knock down the treble a bit so the player has some control over the high end EQ settings.

I own two DSL 100 heads (one for a back up). After a year neither amp has given me any problems. A huge improvement over the 1959HW horror story I went through prior to owning these two heads.

I have not had to deal with customer support on this line of amp so no comment.

I have been playing for roughly 40 years. This amp with a PRS guitar provides an excellent classic rock sound without the need for any stomp boxes or rack gear (key). I tried a lot of different Marshall heads before settling on this line. Some advice to new buyers: not all Marshall heads sound (or work) good. A good strategy is to free-trial as many different heads and cabinets as you can with YOUR GUITAR before you make your purchase. Finding the right guitar/amp combination that fits your style of music takes time - don't rush it and don't rush into a wrong purchase and then try to fix a bad tone with stomp boxes, rack gear or modifications to your guitar or amp because you can't fix something that's not there to begin with. Lastly, buy the best guitar/amp you can afford (make payments if you have to) as there is nothing worse than settling for a bad tone and nothing more exciting than finding and playing with a great one. This amp & guitar combination provides a great tone for what I play - Good luck in finding your tone!

I believe my amp was made in 2004, but it is not so important, it whether works or not for me... It has 4 12AX7 valves and 4 EL34,2 separate footswitchable channels with separate spring reverb, standard TMB equalization with presence pot and Scoop and Deep switches, effect loop. Basically this amp has 4 gain settings or channels however you please, as it has on first channel Clean/Crunch and on the other (Ultra Gain) Lead 1/Lead 2.

I'll start describing the sound by channels:
Clean - very very nice, gutsy, lots of bass, treble, very articulated and when cranked up does nice sweet vintage distorsion, but it is very loud so you wouldn't find that distorsion at bedroom level unless u have some killing pickups.
Crunch - think 1959 plexi distorsion, crunchy, full, proper valvy sound! Great for vintage tones - think Led Zepp, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, Cream, Hendrix and stuff...
Lead 1 - My favorite here - sort of like a hot rodded jcm800, great distorsion for reaching that Gary Moore sound, nice harmonics. I like it when it is a bit toppy or trebly however u like. A tiny remark here.. it is a bit fuzzy, but that's all
Lead 2 - Could be very nice but this actually made me give it a 9. It is too fuzzy... It isn't noisy, it is actually very good, but just too fuzzy... maybe a new set of valves would do - thinking of getting a set of matched JJ EL34L and JJ 12AX7... If you really don't like it and have 400$ spare send it to these guys who do mods and have the fuzz removed... i haven't :)
I am using it with my Epiphone Les Paul with Seymour Duncan Antiquity humbuckers and my Fender USA Standard Strat with DigiTech Bad Monkey and Marshall Guv'nor 2... Sounds amazing with Les Paul on every setting with every pedal i've tried, but i prefer playing Strat directly without pedals - completely relying on amps distorsion as pedals add some strange noise to the Strat - anyway most of the time i use Strat on clean where it is in its element and Les Paul for muddy jazz clean and everything else.
I mostly play blues and rock, from some Dire Straits stuff, ZZ Top, Eric Clapton, Gary Moore, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC to Guns N' Roses...

Cmon, it's Marshall - My teacher who is one of the best Serbian musicians used to tell me: "Get a Marshall, but a proper 100W one! It can never let you down you will always have enough power and it is reliable as a tank!" So so far it is :) Just take care of it and it will take care that you sound great! I would use it on a gig definitely if i was good enough to gig, but i'd have a backup... People die of heart-attack out of a sudden, so could an amp - maybe not a hear attack but valves or transformers :)

I've never tried to reach Marshall, i bought it used... Shouldn't be too bad though... Anything u need call the Marshall factory - spares department and get it... No idea about the warranty as again, i've bought it used

I've been playing for a year and a half, I own also an Epiphone Valve Junior 5W practice amp and another small valve amp which i've made that runs on 12ax7 and 6V6 valves. Digitech Bad Monkey, Marshall Guv'nor, Epiphone Les Paul Standard (SD Antiquity pups), Fender USA Stratocaster Standard...
I'd be really gutted to have it lost or stolen, but it is not a needle to loose it it is a huge 20+ kilos monster. I would definitely buy it again if i am able to find such a great value again. In my opinion MUCH MUCH better than JCM2000 TSL series, and also for its original price of about ??650 much more sensible solution than a plexi or JCM800 wich cost at least ??200 more and are not nearly as versatile.
Haven't tried any of its rivals - Soldano SLO or Boogies so i can't judge.
I've wanted to get this amp cause of it versatility and a bit due to the fact that my favorite guitarist Gary Moore is using one.
I am giving it a 9 as the sound is not perfect, but pleases me and will definitely please nearly everyone who is after proper Marshall rock tone.
Try buying amps used, much better value, it is whether they work or not, it can't be worse than new one if it is in good shape, change the valves and you'll be more than glad that you have saved a lot of money. Get some nice pedals for that money!

one channel of two distortions and one channel of a clean or drive

I've tried everything from hell and back. I play in a cover band that covers everthing from CCR to Blue Rodeo (Canadians know who) to Green Day to U2, And let me tell you Im an extremist when it comes to U2. This Amp can do it all. Clean, Blues, Hard Rock,(death metal type in Mesa Boggie)). I accidently stumbled upon this amp and was floored by the versatility. If it a seperate channel switch between the clean and drive it would be absolutely perfect

Dont buy this new, buy it used and save half the money cause its built well

For the sound versatility this thing cannot be beat. Rent one and you'll find awe in every pickup configuration on all types of guitars. My Strat sound amazing on this. Goes from heavy distortion to prestine clean with the roll of you volume pot. NOT A ONE TRICK PONY BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION.

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.

Mine was made in 2004, 2 channels each with 2 modes - crunch (which is basically clean and light overdrive) and ultra (OD1 and OD1, the former being the Marshall distortion, and OD2 being it beefed up. effects loop, reverb, channel switching (between channels only not modes) four EL34 power tubes & four 12ax7 (ECC83) preamp tubes. blah blah blah you know the rest. 100 watts, this thing is LOUD.

For me, this amp is perfect. Why do people whine about the shared EQ? the less the better, a purer signal. if you need seperate EQs check out the TSL100 people, thats what its for!!

The band i'm in plays a brand of hard rock / punk, but aside from that i have also delved into funk, blues etc. The channels available give a large array of tones... it really isnt hard to mess around for a while and dial in a tone you can use. Mine is very responsive to my guitars volume control and playing style, ive read others say its not... strange.

Generally for features its got everything i need. 100 watts is great for the clean headroom, this amp gets LOUD. its a beautiful sound when its cranked.

I give it a 9, as i kinda wish it had a 50/100 watt switch... it would be nice to be able to push those tubes at a lower volume. but im not bitching cuz thats what the DSL50 is for :)

footswitch works fine for me, people have complained about a pop when you change chennels. well i removed the reverb tank from mine (seeing as i never use it*, and hearing it when travelling to gigs clanging away in the van/car is VERY annoying. without it the pop disappeared... there is still a SLIGHT delay, but yeah its not noticeable in a live situation.

deep switch = good.
tone shift = bad.

use the tone shift if you like disappearing into the mix. deep adds a nice thump to the sound, without it, it sounds a little bass thin.

also rebiasing the amp is easy thanks to the mini pot system on the back, always check the bias of the amp, when its set it will sound smooth.

Ive used this amp from small venues to massive venues and this thing always has enough power... but lets be honest, most, if not all places mic you up anyway, so its hardly an issue.

I'll summarise each channel and mode.

Crunch - clean sound - the clean sound on this amp for me was a pleasant suprise. can go from very clean to a lovely breakup clean, to a very mild overdrive if pushed, works perfectly and hasnt been an issue with the shared EQ. Its a nice clean thats perfectly useable.

Crunch - crunch sound - this is the same as clean, but with some balls. This is a lovely mode, really reactive to your playing style, and sounds beautiful cranked. Sounds a little similar to a JMP head i used to own, but easier to manipulate.

Ultra - OD1 - this is THE distortion sound for me. goes anywhere from classic rock to hard rock, and suits my style perfectly, especially when cranked. Very easy to dial a tone, when its cranked its crushing, but can still drop to a decent overdrive if i drop the volume control. Very Marshall tone, i love it.

Ultra - OD2 - now i tried this mode out and tried hard to like it. its like OD1 but far more gainy, and just seems to induce feedback... not the best sound, and the least "Marshall" sounding of all the tones on this amp. Perhaps one for the metallers amongst us.

All in all, suits my style perfectly, but sounds good the higher the volume is set. can sound a little thin at lower volumes... hey this amp is meant to be played LOUD.

Ive been using it regularly (as my only amp) for every gig and practice for the last 3 years. that means being transported to and from gigs, moved around and knocked about with other gear, bumped into things, blah blah you get the idea. Its NEVER (touch wood) broken down on me. ive used Marshalls before, and this one has been the most reliable. Way more reliable than my JMP ever was, although being a tube amp, remember tube life is random, its either working or its not.

i hate gigging without a backup, but when ive got more money, im going to buy a DSL50 as a backup (and to use at small venues, to get those tubes going). Its also wearing well, the tolex is ripped in a few places, but its wearing a lot better than my 1960 cab.

ive rang and emailed Marshall on countless occasions, over the years ive been using their amps. Their staff are always helpful, always ring back if they say they will, and always reply to emails. They sent me a bunch of information packs i asked for as well for free, and are always polite and nice to talk to.

I met Jim Marshall... ok so he has nothing to do with customer support, but hes a top bloke.

Ive been playing guitar seriously for over over 7 years now, i forget when i started properly. I always had a guitar before that, just never got to learning it properly. I also play the drums, piano, and sing, singing and guitar being my duties in the band im in.

My other gear - i use a couple of Fender Strats, through a Boss TU-2 chromatic stage tuner, into the amp, which is running a single Marshall 1960B 4x12 (although i have used a pair of cabs, an A and B at various gigs). That cab is showing its years of being gigged, tolex torn off, replaced the grill cloth once already... love it. Yup simple, quick to set up, and the amp gives me all the tones i need.

Both my Strats are modified with Sperzel locking tuners, Seymour Duncan JB humbuckers in the bridge, and graphtech nuts and saddles. I always mod the guitars this way, i know i can trust them to be played hard at gigs and be reliable.

I own a number of other guitars, mainly Strats and variants of that, although i have owned Les Pauls before as well (never got on with them... im a Strat man).

If it were stolen? wouldnt be hard to identify it. its got my bands logo sprayed all over it, stickers, and UV markings on it to identify it as mine. The bastard that stole it would end up lacking kneecaps as well.

What do i love? the simplicity, the realiability, the tone, the sheer power of it. The image onstage is great as well... What do i hate? nothing!

Before i bought it i directly A/B'd it with both a TSL100 and a TSL60, in a soundproofed room. The TSL60 appealed to me initially due to its lower power (more scope for pushing the tubes) but the yellow (light overdrive) sounded too weak to my ears, and therefore rendered it pretty much pointless.

The TSL100 i was originally going to buy, thinking features = great. The tone of the thing just isnt the same to the DSL... it may have a million features but it just doesnt have the raw sound of the DSL. People needing that 3rd channel, or the fancy doo dahs things should get one. Those needing tone, get the DSL.

Have previously owned a 70s Marshall JMP 50 watt head, which had a beautiful tone, but also a nasty habit of breaking down at inoppurtune times, as well as random volume cuts and other noises... in the end i had to sell it. Previous to that i owned a load of other Marshalls, valvestates (including the AVT50 head), and other amps i forget.

This has, and will be my main amp for a long time yet. Pure tone, power and simplicity yet vast range of tones available.

Check out my band... the amp can be seen in a lot of the pics, and heard in the live recordings (wasnt used for our album, although i wish it had been...)

www.myspace.com/dysfunctionalonline.

thanks for reading.

100w Marshall head, 2 channels, fx loop, reverb. Please read other reviews for more details.

The amp sounds really good. It has more gain than I could ever use, I never needed to set my gain past 6 and I'm not exactly a classic rocker. Clean channel sounds really good too, the shared eq is fine with me since I was able to find a setting I like for both channels. There is a little too much bottom end on the clean channel but I can work around it. Reverb sounds great, by far the best sounding reverb I've ever heard on a Marshall. The loop does its job well too.

Most tube amps will need a backup for gigs because you never know when a tube will fail. But that has nothing to do with the quality of this amp, every tube amp is the same when it comes to that. I just take a POD for a backup though. I never needed to use it

no opinion

Ive been playing for 25 years. I started with Marshalls (jcm800s) then went throuh every amp you can possibly imagine (Fender, Laney, Mesa, Peavey. Soldano etc..) and ended up realizing that all I really need is a good Marshall. I wish I knew that 15 years and 10,000 dollars ago but hey that's life. This Marshall gets extra points for having a real decent clean channel and reverb. That was always the weak point of the brand. The distortion tone is just pure rock n roll.. it really does get that Marshall crunch..
I play a Gibson Les Paul DC as my main guitar and I have other guitars (strats, PRS etc) and at the end of the day the Gibson/Marshall combination really owns them all. I dont use a lot of effects, just a delay and a clean bost for my solos to stand out. I play in a modern hard rock band and I also play some instrumental rock like Eric Johnson, Satch etc. The amp covers all the styles with ease. Not to say it will get a hundred of different tones, it won't, it will always sound like a Marshall no mater what you do.
But the couple tones it does get really work for any rock or blues-based style. Marshall tone is the foundation of rock guitar tone, period. All you need is to learn how to work work your gain knob and your guitar volume knob and you can go from the 50's to the 00's in a nanosecond. You can't go wrong with this amp.

2004' simple design and easy to use. basic features to get the job done.only 10 knobs to worry about. A+ ! less is more IMO. i never use fx loops or line outs. i need clean and dirty and my stomp boxes. i play hard rock with a gibson LP standard.this amp fits the bill for rock music. can be used for small and large venues. ive done it.

awsome! dont believe the bad reviews. a lot of folks here are never happy with their tone no matter what amp it is. some need to see an ear doctor. nothings perfect anyway. shared eq is fine with me. sounds great on both channels all modes. learn to dial in your sound people. dont worry about what number the dial is set on, just as long as it sounds good. one guy said there is no bottom end. he's nuts ! plenty of bottom on both channels. look, this is a simple kick ass rock n roll amp seen on pro stages everywhere.yes, some are modded but this is a good foundation to build your tone on.

2 years same tubes. so far so good

marshalls have been good to me. never a problem unlike fender amps in my experiences.

20 years of gigging in bands and solo work. been through a lot of stuff. this amp is the amp to end all other amps in tone, simplicity, reliability. this is just my opinion and im sure my band mates will agree. they love all my amps. i always have a great sound. how ? Marshall amps,1960A & B, Boss pedals, Gibson les paul standard. that my friend is what i use and im happy with the tone that i hear.

I believe this amp is a 2004 made model. I purchased it in Apr. 2005. Right away I used it for a live Gospel recording. That tells you the versatility it has. I also play Fusion Jazz and rock styles. As mine is the 100watt DSL it has all the power I need and features I like. I've wanted a real Marshall for a long time (I once owned a vs100). I like the way the amp looks.

The sound is good.Of course it sounds better the longer it's played when the tubes get really warm. There was one instance where the gain got away from me and got a bit noisy, but I count that as my bad. I've noticed that with the right settings for the guitar used I don't need any overdrive or distortion pedals. Plus it's cool to come straight from the amp or a wah pedal, but still get amazing sound variations. I use a strat most of the time, but can tell this amp would sound great with a humbucking guitar. I have an old les paul copy my mother gave me back in 1980 and I've installed 85, 81 emg pickups in it. I will also be picking up a custom Gibson les paul soon. With the strat I enjoy using the Pickup Booster pedal made by seymour Duncan. It helps thicken the tone of the guitar to keep up the amp.

So far so good. Because this amp is still relatively new I can rely on it right now and in most situations I'm doing currently I don't use a backup (which is not a great idea).

I've never dealt with the company.

I've playing over 20 years and I am pleased with this amp for the most part. I just feel so blessed to be able to have a Marshall amp of this class. I play through a Fender Twin alot and use a polytone for the straightup Jazz stuff although I have actually played a hollowbody through my DSL100. One important thing people must realize is knowing what the amp does and what your needs are. I don't think it's right for people to complain that one amp doesn't get a Twin, Boogie, Carvin, and Marshall sound all in one. That's not going to happen too often. Sure there things that I know my Marshall don't do all that well, yet for what it does do it does it better than anything else on the planet. It does what I want it to and expect it to. In my opinion there should really never be a totally bad review on an amp (unless it's cheaply made). When reading a negative review I usually think that person simpy purchase the wrong amp for what he or she is trying to do. The JCM2000 DSL100 is a good amp. It's a MARSHALL.

This is a 2003 JCM 2000 DSL100. 2 channel head with 2 modes per channel, effects loop, single 'master' EQ and seperate reverb controls for each channel. Effects loop has a switch in the back for level, and amp has seperate 16ohm and switchable 4/8ohm outputs. Head also features a 'deep' switch to add a punchier bass sound without too much muddiness and a 'tone shift' switch to cut the mids for a more modern or even 'american' amp sound than what Marshall is usually known for.

Would be nice if there was channel switching with mode select for each channel via footswitch. you can only access 2 sounds at a time when there are actually 4 available. that means you can have either clean or crunch *the clean is also a little crunchy unless you drop the pre gain down very low* switchable with either lead1 or lead2.

the deep switch does a nice job of keeping the bottom end punchy without muddy'ing up your low notes. the tone shift button is terrible. it cuts the mids completely and leave you lost in the mix. might work if you think of yourself as a nu metal guy, i dunno. every nu metal show i've ever gone to has undefined guitars that have high end sizzle and low end thump but no distinct frequencies in between. not my thing.

i have gigged with a DSL100 in the past. plenty of power... the extra 'L' is for loud after all.

i use this amp with Les Pauls, SG's, RG's or any other humbucker equipped guitar. i have an array of pickup combinations... too many to list here.

it sounds ok. its very versitile going from respectfully clean to nice AC/DC crunch (channel 1) and beyond to Megadeath and other heavy metal tones (channel 2). responds decently well to picking dynamics for a 'modern' amp.

clean channel is always distored slightly, crunch is similar to a JCM 800 *when the gain is cranked* but lacking in that full range feel of the 800. crunch and lead channels do not clean up when the volume is rolled down on the guitar.

distortion is very classic marshall sounding, but can be tweaked by changing preamp tubes. EQ is very sensitive in the mid range, and the top end can hurt you its so bright on the second channel.

first channel is unusually dark and bass heavy while the second channel tends to be more bright. the deep switch helps keep that thick palm muted sound on the second channel which is good for rehearsals or situations where you aren't mic'ed and eq'ed elsewhere.

compared to many others that i've owned or still own *mesa, traynor, peavey, other marshalls, line6 ect...* it stands up on its own as a versitile workhorse of a stage amp. i can't even compare it to my favorite JCM 800... the 800 blows it out of the water, but for a modern amp made of stacked pcb's and microchips, it doesn't sound half bad.

when i got it, it had a blown output tranny. apparently its pretty common in these amps because they run pretty hot.

Marshall recommends you set the bias voltage to 90mv per side. that seems a little high to me, and will definitely lessen tube life. 80-85 seems more reasonable to me.

whenever we gig, we bring enough gear that there is never more than a 5 minute delay if something fails. its tough to act like a professional band these days, since most clubs wont pay you professional money, but if you gig without a backup you might as well leave your car running in the parking lot too, cuz you will be going home early.

reliablitiy has yet to be proven to me. its a tube amp, with wearable parts *ie. TUBES* so i wouldn't bet my life on it.

i've emailed Marshall about dating an old plexi i have. they were very quick to reply and very polite in their email.

i have an amp tech who is a genius and he solves all my problems for me almost immediately, provided i show up with beer. so 10 out of 10 for my own tech, no comment on Marshall support.

been playing for 20 years, hard rock/classic rock/metal.
i have a ton of gear, and i've owned a ton of gear.

if this amp were stolen, i'd probably buy something else. for a new one of these its $1799 CAD. thats a little crazy. if i found a reasonable priced used one, i'd pick it up.

i read a lot of reviews of people saying the amp 'sucks for metal' ect. they couldn't be more wrong. years of experience live and in the studio has taught me that your favorite metal bands and guitar heroes do NOT use as much gain or distortion as you think they do. that heavy balls out thumping sound you hear on the record is a product of a classic tube amp turned up really loud, some compression, SKILL and 'studio magic'.

people who cut the mids, boost the bass and high and expect to sound like their heroes in a live situation will be sorely disapointed. do yourself a favor and avoid the 'lead 2' and tone shift switches, even keep the deep switch off and get yourself a good sound man. a guitar is a mid range instrument. your PA or soundtech will do the rest.

also the single EQ for both channels is actually a good thing. too many people complain about that, but they dont realize that the more stuff you add to a circuit, the more you change the tone of the amp. that is why simple 1 channel amps are all that get used in the studio 98.9% of the time. i'm willing to bet those who complain about a lack of features spend more time trying to find 'the sound' than they do actually practicing the guitar.

Two channel. With two modes each.
Clean is a Marshall clean. I have a twin reverb. I know what is a clean tone.
But, the clean is good for rock.
If you think that only a channel is enought, this amp has 4 (two modes for two channels).

The best sound quality in an amp, for the last 20 years.
I play rock, heavy, hard rock, pop...
The channel A in crunch mode is the best overdrive sound. Please, volume 4 or higher. Gain 5-7.

For solos channel B mode 1. The second mode of the channel B is as the mode 1 but with more gain. I prefer to use a tube screamer o a booster if i need more sustain. Seymour Duncan booster is exceptional for this amp.

The eq in the channel 2 is different. More mids (mids-high), and less balls. If you put 2 points more of bass, and 2 less in mids, sounds like the channel A. (more or less).

I use:
Gain 5 for both channels.
Volume 4-5.
I use two heads.
EQ: 5 presence, 5 high, 8 mids, 8 bass.

Screams.

Sustain for days. With the booster, more.

You must see the bias, and check it.
Biasing is very easy in this amp, if you know what you are doing. High voltaje, risk..
90 mvolts. The amp has 3 pins in the back. Near to the power tubes. It is very easy. It is your risk, but it is easy.

MARSHALL SERVICE BULLETIN

SUBJECT: Bias Info/Procedure for JCM2000 series Marshall amplifiers

THEORY OF OPERATION: We are setting the bias using the current method instead of cross over distortion method. The Bias PCB assembly is as follows:
PR1: Bias mini-pot adjustment for pin1 which is one side of the push pull amp (two output tubes in a 100watt amp and one output tube in a
50watt amp). Pin1: Connected to the cathode of the output tube(s) which then goes through a 1 ohm resistor then to ground. Pin2: ground reference.
Pin3: Same as pin1 but for the other side of the push/pull amp. PR2: Bias mini-pot adjustment for pin3, the other side of the push/pull amp.


Procedure:
1. Make sure the amp is connected to a load with the proper impedance selected.
2. Power up amp on Standby, and let the circuit stabilize for a couple of minutes.
3. Locate the male three pin molex connector (CON2) with the two mini pots (PR1 and PR2)
(located on each side of the molex connector) on both ends found at the bottom of tube bay.
4. Connect DMM (set to read mV) with alligator leads, reference common lead to center pin (pin2) on molex connector CON2 and positive lead to pin1 on CON2.
5. Take amp off Standby with no signal, adjust mini-pot (PR1) closest to pin that the positive lead from your DMM is connected to and set it to mV voltage that is listed below.
6. Repeat steps 4 & 5 for pin3 mV and until pin1 & pin3 mV readings are the same.

Bias Settings:
DSL50 45 mV
DSL100 90 mV
TSL100/122 90mV
TSL 601&602 80 mV
DSL 401 1.375V
DSL201 .675V

I have JCM900 cabinets. 300 watts. If you use a cabinet with less than 300 w. you will have broken speaker, sure!!! This amp sounds loud.

The Amp Has a clean channel and 2 distortions but it is not foot switchable you can only switch from 1 distortion to clean. It is a little confusing

The Sound Quality is great! The amp is loud and the distortion is heavy. I play with a Les Paul that i customized by putting in seymour duncan pickups so when i play with that guitar the sound is a little better.

My amp has never broken down it is a tube amp and when you take it off make sure you wait for the sound to end then put it on standby. If you dont do that the tubes will fill up with gas.

Never needed to get it repaired and i dont need to talk to marshall

If it was lost i would buy a JCM 800

It's a very basic 100 watt tube amplifier. I only have two complaints about the design of the amp. First is the shared eq sucks. Second, the effects loop should be footswitchable. There is no footswitch jack for this function. Who wants footswitchable reverb? If these two things were changed I would love this amp even more. I find that the Overdrive 2 switch on the Lead channel is pretty useless as the distortion triples in strength but loses harmonic richness and it sounds awfully compressed . I have found the secret to this amp. Throw a Ibanez TS 808 or an Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer in front of the amp on the Classic Gain on the Clean Channel. Sounds ridiculous huge. That's how the lead channel should sound. The only thing is this severely restricts my amps "on the fly" versatility as there is NO FOOTSWITCHABLE EFFECTS LOOP! so to go clean from gain I'd have to hit the footswitch and roll the volume knob on the axe back a bit.

I mainly play a Hamer Standard with EMG 81 in the bridge and an EMG 85 in the neck. Ibanez Tube Screamer pedal in front to boost the classic gain channel. This makes it sound like the best boosted JCM 800 you've ever heard. This is my full on sound. As for a high gain amp it has a really good clean channel and even is able to get that broken up blues sound, especially if you play a strat through it. Very versatile indeed. Better versatility than most other modern high gain amps because the tones are actually usable unlike say a 5150's garbage clean tone or a Dual Rectifier's complete inability to cover any middle ground. Here's another secret too. 100 WATT 4 OHM MUTHERFUCKIN CABINETS. You got to push those speakers to get fat tone. People wonder why they can't get good tone when there pushing their speaker load like 30% or something. You have to monkey with it a bit to get tone but if you put in good power tubes (Tesla JJ's,good preamp tubes (JJ 12ax7 or Winged C ECC83) and a decent guitar (i have found that big pieces of mahogany sound the best with this amp, sorry, no Jackson dinky reverses or schecters here) you should be able to get good tone too. Also practice helps.

The power transformer blew up after I got it used from someone. I figured they were probably ignorant of Ohm impedance rules. But I got this marshall in a straight swap for a Fender 75 head so i figured what the hell, I'll fork over the cash and get a new transformer. They are hard to find though. I would tour with a back up for sure. But then no matter what amp I had I would do this. I also had to replace a tube socket screen filter.. So not the most reliable. But I've taken it to a really good tech and he replaced some of the stock electronics and have had no problems since.

I wouldn't even call Marshall anyways.....

It's a good solid amp. Nothing too flashy. Not too complicated and it's pretty plug and play. Some small features changes would be nice. If it was stolen I'd probably get something else like a Mesa Mark IIC+ or a Mark IV or a JMP MK II or a Peavey 6550+ or a Wizard 200 watt head!!! Just surround it with good gear and it'll sound great....

Right features,maybe too many options.

Set bias 90mA per side ( it's VERY simple operation with its external trim pots and test points ).CLASSIC GAIN : mode CRUNCH; gain pot at 3-4; if it's possible open Master Volume. Great plexi sound ! ULTRA CHANNEL : mode LEAD 1; open Master Volume and gain at 5. Great JCM800 sound ! TONE SHIFT : off. BASS : 10 MIDDLE : 10 TREBLE 0 PRESENCE 5 DEEP : on. If you need more, get a optional clean overdrive for both channels and you'll have available 4 channels !

Never problems. Never brought to assistance center ( through 3 years )

I don't know

It's a mix about Plexi, JCM800 and JCM 900 too. The charge is not too much. Try it with options I explained before and just let me know !

2005, 2 channels, with 2 different voicings. They share the same EQ. Which is limiting, but less features = More tone.

I have previously gigged TSL60's and TSL100's for the last 5/6 years. But I've always been knocked out with the DSL's tone. It is better than the TSL in my opinion. Having less circutry makes it somehow more soulful.

Compared to a lot of other amps it does seem basic, but to be frank. I'd rather have 2 really good sounds than 20 mediocre ones.

I play in a hybrid Shoegaze/Alternative Rock band. We get the dreampop crowd, but elements of our music appeal to metalheads etc.

I only use a Delay and a wah and a Sansamp Tri AC for solo tones and extra Fuzz. But tonally I love the cleans of this amp and I also love the Classic Marshall crunch of this amp.

I play a Fender Ritchie Kotzen Tele, Yamaha SG1300t and a Gibson Les Paul Classic.

I think the thing is. You either love the Marshall sound or you don't. Theres plenty of twats on here who are going on about transformers and Valves and Mods etc. They are usually American and mad. You never see a bad review from a European user. But the Americans want you to buy there amps so I would take all the negative comments with a healthy pinch of salt. It's just economic dominance!

This is quite new to me but I've gigged Marshalls for my entire playing career and have yet to encounter any problems. People slag off the JCM2000. But I've never had one go down on me. Unlike my ealy 70's Artiste and Jubilee 25/50 combo's both of which had transformers die.

I've dealt with them before and they've been fine.

23 years, I own a Kotzen Tele/ Yamaha SG1300t/ Gibson Les Paul Classic.

If it were Stolen I'd buy another

I like its robustness

Well, i'm sure you know all about this amp by now. Basically the weird thing about this amp is the channel switching. Because you can only switch between the two ultra-gain channels or the Classic/Clean channels. So, you can only go back and forth between say the Ultra 1 channel and the Classic. If you want Ultra 1 and clean you have to first set it to clean. You can switch between the Classic and the clean becuase they share the same channel essentially. That is a very big drag if you ask me. And the other bummer is that everything shares the same EQ. I'll tell you why that is a drag later. My amp has JJ Power Tubes and Winged C pre-amp tubes.

I never use single coils, and find myself using my Fender Super Sonics. One with a JB bridge and one with a Duncan Custom. Both rock. The Custom sounds great in that guitar. I also use a Les Paul Std w/ a Jeff Beck, and a Gibson SG Special with P90's. Both are the bee knees thru this amp.

I play thur an Avatar G12H cab w/ two different 30W Celestions. Great cab. And even though it's underpowerd, it handles this head fine. I usually play live on about 5 and it's really really loud. You'd have to up to like 8 or higher to worry about blowing the cab.

I play in a classic rock cover band that does anything from Metallica to Motown and this amp does it all pretty well. It cleans up pretty nice if you roll yer vol off, so I never use the clean channel anyway. I spend most of my time on the Classic setting. People talk about how great the clean setting is on this amp, and I would have to agree that it's really nice for a Marshall. So all that being said, I'd say it's pretty versitile. However, I don't think that it's a great "heavy metal" amp, and I'll tell you why later...

I use other pedasl via the FX loop and find that it works great and is clean. My FX aren't "dirty" which is nice.

Here is where things get kinda ugly. I would say that even though this amp sounds good, it has a serious serious limitation. And this showed itself on other DSL100's and DSL50's that I played. It's the fact that the Ultra Channels have NO LOW END, even with the bass switch engaged. It's quite unbelievable how lacking it is. So.. what to do? Well, you HAVE to put an EQ pedal in the FX loop. This will help a ton, but then when you switch to the Classic setting you have to turn it off because the Classic setting has tons of low end!! It's weird. The amp should sound the way it does normally with the bass switch turn on, and then when you press the knob you get TONS. But it's not the case. It's NO low end, then when pressed a decent amount, but not enuff. So for this reason, I don't use the Ultra settins at all. Besides, the distortion is too "glassy and crunchy" anyway. Not defined and focused. I'm not even trying to go for air moving Pantera either. Too much low end and you lose yer sound on stage. I'm talking just a nice warm full sound. And either Ultra setting just doesn't have it, by a long shot.

Ok. so the Classic setting is pretty much the BEST setting. Sounds KILLER. However, there is simply not enuff gain it. It's way under powered gain wise. So, in order to make it sound great, you have to use a Tube Screamer or something in front of it. THEN it sounds really really good. But my point is... should one have to do that with this amp?? You shouldn't HAVE to have an EQ pedal or a Tube Screamer.

Let's put it this way... I hooked my little Marshall VS100 up to my cab and it DESTROYED my DSL100 and with the use of NO pedals. Now, that VS100 is Solid State and has serious drawback feature wise, but that's another review. The point is, this $225 used VS100 made me realize that I don't even NEED the DSL100. It offers me nothing that the cheap combo doesn't offer already. And that makes me really really sad. Granted, there is something about the DSL100 that the cheap VS100 has. And I think it's gotta be the tubes. But that VS100 was loud, had nice warmth thru it, and a really nice clean channel. It made me realize that the DSL100 was just not cutting it as the price tag would indicate.

Never once had a problem, but with any amp... you just never know. I'd say reliability is great with Marshalls.

Never used them, but they seem to offer a wide variety of choices on their website as far as documentation is concerned.

This amp SHOULD be at least as good as sounding as a cheap solid state VS100 and it just isn't. It's almost like the DSL100 just needs a couple more notches of each setting. More low end when the bass is engaged, more gain on the Classic setting (which to me would be darn near perfect), and a better channel switching layout. Not to mention the fact that my sound just kinda got lost on stage and seemed undefined. I just can't recommend this amp at all, and would never consider buying one again. Well, I take that back, I probl would if I could get it for $200 then keep it as a back up, but it's just not an amp that I could recommend. I've heard the 50W's sound better, but I just don't know. I've also head the TSL100's are great. I think it's a great idea, but not well executed by Marshall, and I'm a Marshall guy thru and thru. There is no better "rock" sound to my ears. Mesa's are cool if you like that modern gain tone, but a "classic" tone will get you a lot farther I think, and cover more ground. Mind you, everything is subjective. What may sound great to me, might sound aweful to you. I'm kinda picky, but I'm also very realisitic. Gimmie a good sound and let's rock. This amp just didn't do that for me. I replaced this amp with a Marshall 6100LM and it to me is one of the most awesome Marshall's ever made as far as flexability. Snag one while they are still reasonable!

Although i like the amp i feel that the shared Eq takes away from the tonal possibilities of the amp. it is hard to find a happy medium between a good clean and a good distortion setting but it takes time and i feel that i have found that happy medium. :)

When i first bought the amp I was happy with the tone, then after a while i started to notice things that i didnt like about the tone. the highs were a little fizzy and the lows a little muddy. so i changed the tubes myself with some EH EL34 and gold plated EH12AX7 very nice tone,(i heard some people saying this is a hybid amp, YOU ARE DUMB ASSES, look up the meaning of ALL TUBE, duh). one thing to remeber when changing tubes is to REBIAS THE DAMN AMP!!!!! you do not know how many of my freinds ask me how i got the tone to be so good. it seems people dont know that you have to rebias every time you change tubes it will make a WORLD OF DIFFRENCE!!! I rebiased it around 80MV very warm tone. the distortion is fuller without being muddy. cleans are cleaner with more headroom. this amp is not for nu metal. it does 80s metal perfectaly but i like it for more of a warm creamy overdrive. If any of you read this there is a great site that helps guys like me to achive the best tone out of the amp its marshallampforum.com. they have great tips on how to get the best tone

never had to have it repiared, have giged sevral times without any problems

it is a great amp when you get the bias right and a set of new tubes. I feel that the amp could atleast have had a seperate eq for the clean channle for the price of the amp but i guess the less there is on the tone circuit the better the tone.

Has clean channel and high gain channel. Overall it does what its advertised to do. The eq isnt anything special, which is a common trend among marshalls. Turning the Trebble and Mid knobs doesnt change the sound a whole lot, and the reverb isnt anything special either.

I own a 72' American Tele, Gibson Les Paul Supreme, and 59' Gibson Les Paul Standard Reissue. I play mostly Hard Rock and Alternative styles, and it has that great punk rock sound, but i wasnt satisfied with the high gain channel. The clean channel is pretty good for a Marshall but the high gain channel just didnt cut it for me. I also own a JTM 45 which i use with a 1960A cab. Ive tried both heads with the cab and the Dsl doesnt even compare with the Jtm 45. The sound is actually horrid at volumes around 2-3, but once you get it up around 6-7 it gets better.

Nothing has gone wrong so far, but im gonna be changing the tubes next weekend.

This will be short cause I there isn't much to say about the emp. I've owned a Peavey XXX for a few years before that a Mesa DC-10. I happened upon a DSL and a 1960a for 500 bucks and I couldn't pass it up. Features are crap. No switch for the FX loop. One set of tone controls for both channels. Not enough low end or gain for what I need to do. And this is supposed to be a high gain amp.

I'm playing progressive metal, influenced by Tool, Deftones, Lamb of God and In Flames. I tried and tried but could not get this amp to fit into my set up. The clean is very nice I must say, way better than the XXX but I rarely use the clean channel without some kind of FX. So it tends to muddy up with heavy FX. At max gain the sound gets mooshy and loses definition. The med and low-gain sounds are quite nice for your AC/DC classic rock sounds. So over all its just not a big contender for high-gain applications. Good for classic and pop rock, but not much more.

Shit. My buddy I bought it from had it go out on him after he had transported it in the back seat of his pick up. I don't remember what the problem was but it had to go into the shop. Since I've had it, its started to make a crackling sound every once in a while, loudly if the volume is up. I pretty much quit messing with it since then. I don't want it to burn up before I can get rid of it.

no idea

Like I said, not a real good high gain/metal amp. If your set on marshall tone, go buy a VHT CL-50 or 100 you can a used cl-50 for about the same price as a DSL and it will be plenty loud I promise and it will give you the tone you expected from a marshall and much much more. I love my XXX too, that thing is a terror. I wouldn't trade it for anything less than a Diezel.

I was trying out a few guitars as I was buying a guitar (strat & teles I Tried out) and I tried it in 3 amps. JCM800 Reissue, TSL100 and DSL100 and out of the 3, The DSL100 was the best. Im defently getting one of these when I get some cash together

I tried the amp out with 1 USA Strat & 1 Mexican Strat & 2 USA Telecasters (no humbuckers in them). And they sounded great with the DSL100. The gain was really good. My uncle was impressed...although he preffers his JCM900 setup.

This amp was set up with a Marshall 4x12 1960A Cab.

I dont know as I dont own one

Havent dealt with them.

Ive been playing for 2 years (i'm 16) and ive wanted a marshall valve amp for a while. I was set on saving up for a 2nd hand JCM900 or 800 but This sounds twice as better so I will defently get this.

I ended up getting a Fender Stratocaster Mexican with HSS configuration I didnt try it with the DSL100 but I reckon it will sound awesome. I also own a Squire stratocaster.

very simple setup, similar to older Marshalls except it has four channels.

i have the DSL 100 and a 1960A cab... half stack.

the sound from this amp is amazing.......and very loud.

i can't understand from reading some of the posts on this board why you guys are having such a problem.....get your ears cleaned bro.

this is probably one of the best amps availible for any music. every band i know uses them. from metal to nu metal, from country to jazz and no one i know has a complaint. they love it.

its' not the amp......this amp is a solid 10.

i have had mine 1 1/2 years and it works perfect....i check the tube bias from time to time.

they are good. called them with setup questions and they had great answers and suggestions.

i've been playing thirty four years and i've have been through tons of gear. from racks to pedals, amps, combos and poweramps.

my setup is simple Marshall DSL 100 and a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.

((( stereo )))

i use a Rocktron Intelefx and a Gibson SG standard.....thats it.

i have no trouble nailing down any tone, sound or feel.

The JCM 2000 is argulably the greatest rock amp of all time. It has everything a guitar player of any style needs: headroom in the clean channel, rediculous amounts of gain, unparalleled road-worthyness, and suprising simplicity to top it off. The only complaint: the clean channel can sometimes sound bassy if you have the bass eq up to made the heavy channel beefy. I wish there were two seperate eq settings for the channels, but Marshall adresses that with the TSL series (which is basically a DSL on steroids).

Had the amp for almost a month, and I've gotten every sound I've looked for. If you set the eqs and gains right, it has a suprisingly large range of tones. I've gotten everything from new hardcore metal grind and old thrash/speed metal tones, all the way to good old rock sounds and jazz cleans full of headroom. It's the most versatile amp I've ever played.

As far as road-worthyness and construction goes, Marshall is legendary. How many beat-up Marshalls do you see that still sound incredible? Let's put it this way: I have a Marshall 1959 Lead Head that my dad used in the 70's, and aside from inevitable scuffs from countless gigs over the years, the thing works like new. I expect to have this one for the next 30 years as well. I'd absolutely buy another one if it ever got stolen (You'd better believe that I'd beat the poor bastard who tried to steal my gear!)

Traded another amp to a friend for this one, so I don't have a factory warranty. The original owner seldom used it, and evey more rarely giged with it, so it was in near-mint conditon when I got it (except for one little tear in the vinyl, but a little Gorilla Glue fixed that!) I have no problem taking it somewhere if it ever needs fixed. Word has it that Jim & Co. are great about fixing stuff if you're ever in town and need a repair at the factory.

I've gone on record as saying that another amp sounded better than Marshall. I will now retract that statement, and say that Marshall is undoubtedly the king of amplifiars. Like I said above, I've been using my dad's old Marshall for the past 5 years, and when I got that other amp, I thought that I had found something new and great. I thought about it, and every time I ever walked off stage and someone told me how great I sounded, I realized: that Marshall had been behind me every time. I always got compliments on the originality of my tone. And it's funny, because there was once a point in time when I thought: "EVERYBODY USES MARSHALL!!! Why would I want to sound like everybody else?" The answer is simple: there is really no "Marshall sound." Marshalls are tools. You use them to build your own tone and it becomes your very own personal amp that nobody else has. The "Marshall sound" is whatever YOU want to be. That is what makes this amp great.

We all know the features of this amp!!! but any way: it's a 2 channel amp. the clean alternates between a really clean sond and a crunch. the lead chanel just sais every thing.
Changind between the crunch and clean sound is not an option a "foot switch option.... you can only change it be fingher (or by any point part of your body! but no: no foot switch for this option! no nead!!!!!!!!!!! looool)

Oh!!! you can also count with a deep switch... and of corse: you can only change the mod..... (try to gess......) with your finger!!!

It also as the normal FX loop, and and a switch in-put for changing between lead and clean/crunch

It has no effects... wich is normal... and a good thing in a valve amp... but as a nice reverve...

I've tried lots of guitar with this amp... a tele with HR1 and a alnico pro 2, a strat w/ HR1 (Seymour duncan) and noiseless, a Jazzmaster with a Superdistortion and a humbucker from hell (both from dimarzio - and yes... i had to make some changes so they could fit), a 1 gison les paul, a superstrat - ibanez - RG, and many more...)

The Clean Chanel is very nice! it doent bit the fender tone... but is very nice indead! if you ad reverb... you get very nice, clean, sharpy, thine tones if you like... or... you can even change the mids and bass and get thicker sounds

The Crunch chanel is vey nice! you can make nice rock sounds...play nice riffs.... alternating between indy style or grunge. Really nice

The lead chanel....... is very nice if only use it for soloing....
because... the distortion is just to darm mudy! it was a big deception for me! iven when you turn on the "deep"... it will still sound mudy... heavier... the mudy. I tried many eq. but.... it's not just a powerfull big distortion amp.

The amp has power... is good for some kinds of sound... you can even play grunge or hard rock.... but the mud is always there! You get the impretion that the distortion is.... over distorted... but with no power! very strange! No way you can play really heavy things with this amp! No way.

And the problem... apears to be in the marshall design... I think! It's always like this!

I learned that even Slash changes is tubes so he can get the desired sound!!! (and he plays a JCM800... with special modifications)

For some reason this amp sells! but it's not an easy task... changing the tubes... and it's expensive!

Please! I really recomend that you try some other things before buying this amp! there are lots of amps out there! some better and some mutch mutch better (and some worts, of corse!!) marshall is not the only amp maker in the world.... and many people who buys them... as to change the tubes to get the sound they where expecting... think about that...

The only thing you are buying... is the name!the label!.... and one thing is sure! the amp is very beautifull and afordable... but if money is the problem... and tube is a need... try fame... or ashdown...

This is the one downfall I have with this amp. It has Crunch and Super lead. It also has the ability to tune in on a clean channel. It is not super clean, but does the trick. However I have not found a way to switch from clean to crunch quickly. It requires a fair amount of adjusting, from gain to EQ. It keeps things simple, but I think that stepping up to a TSL would be a good move. Cleaner cleans and more EQ options. I bought mine used, so I didn't have much to choose from.

Wow, when you want the crunch, watch out. I play this through a Genz Benz 212 and it pumps out tone. Lots of power and great tone (for crunch and lead). Not the amp for clean tones.

I am a plug and play guy, and this works great for me to just rock out. I play lots of Punk and Alternative with some (power) pop.

Bought used 4 years ago and has never given me a problem.

Overall, I love having this thing behind my. I would like to trade up to the TSL someday, but this gets the jobs done. If clean isn't your thing, then this amp might just be for you. If you like to mess around with some clean tones, I would keeping looking.

There's good features in this amp.
Two footswichable channels with separate volume and gain, the clean channel has a switch for the crunch.
The reverb is footswitchable.
The amp has a deep switch for more bass power, a good equalization controls, send return, 4-8-16 ohm speaker selection, 220-110v.

The amp is good but marshall lost a lot of tone in the road, in the years.
I tried a lot of amps and this is the worst (or one of these).
First of all, place good tubes in it and use good speakers (as 1960ax or 1960av), then the sound can be decent.

The deep switch is a good idea and useless at the same time, too much bass create confused chords, for more bass response i prefer to use better speakers.

The clean channel is good but a jcm800 is better 1000 times!
The crunch channel create a good saturation in the preamp, with high volumes (when also the power tubes are saturated) can be very good, but at low volumes isn't great too.
The amount of distortion of the second channel is good, but the distortion is insipid, without definition, it's not a valve distortion, it's an hybrid amp and i don't like it.

I prefer the pure sound of tubes in saturation, I have a '73 marshall jmp with a ts9 overdrive, it has more amount of distortion and pure tube quality, round tone, no noise, how can i compare they?

The reverb doesn't make a lot of sound changes; when activated, seems to be switched off.

All the marshall amps maded from '90 are very awful.
All the amps are maded in strong cab, but with stupid PCB's, fragile boards with cheap solders, and VERY AWFUL TRANSFORMERS that broken down after 1 year of hard use.

Bleah, puke! Jim Marshall should have shame to build those amps with dagnall output transformers!

Dagnall's OT makes a horrible sound and have bad building system, tend easily to have short circuits in the windings, breaks and ruin the power tubes!!!

If you want a "PRO" amp, upgrade your jcm900 - 2000 with Mercury Magnetics or shinrock transformers and you will hear incredibly improvements in tone!!!

I had only two years of warranty, after it i didn't have support but a lot of troubles... then i sell it!

In the years, marshall became a company that makes inane amps.
They save money in all the components.

For the beginners and who play the amp at lower volume this amp is OK, but i don't know why some people buy a 100w head to use the volume max at 3....

But for pro users or trained ears, I dissuade deeply!

If you want a good modern amp with modern brit sound, buy a mesa road king, or search a vintage used amp!

If you want a good jcm2000, replace the OT with a shinrock transformer, and possibly make an hand wired circuit...but it became a good plexi...