Marshall JCM-2000 DSL 401

2004 model I think, 40w 1x12 tube combo. Fairly basic 2 channel system with clean and overdrive/distortion channels, selectable via footswitch. Also has rubbish reverb and an effects loop. I play mainly rock and indie. This thing is loud enough for gigging small to medium sized club venues.

This amp tends to be good at several things, rather than great. The clean channel is probably the highlight, but is lacking in sparkle compared to a Vox or Fender, particularily for aggressive chording. The overdrive mode is nice and makes a decent blues sound, but lacks articulation. The distortion channel is overkill, its fuzzy and pretty useless with effects, unless you like washy unintelligible noise. Don't expect to play metal solos and hear every note clearly.

On the plus side, when this thing is played loud it sounds much better. It cuts through a band mix pretty well.

After a few months the amp began to periodically go silent (a common problem). After getting this fixed I haven't had to take it back. Seems to run very hot.

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I have been playing about seven years, and I play a Telecaster fitted with a Dimarzio Tone Zone. I also have an Ibanez RG320 and an Epi Les Paul Custom Plus.

If it were stolen/lost, I would be sad, because I intend to sell it. If I bought Marshall again I would go for a DSL50/TSL60 and cab.

Its decent for a garage band or doing small gigs, but it just isn't really convincing at anything. Its reasonably inexpensive for a valve combo, but dont buy it just because it says Marshall on the front - theres better out there for less.

Mine is a 2003, just post heat fix era. The amp is plenty loud but not in the same way as you would get from a 4x12. I play all kinds of music but you mostly would get a Marshall for it's characteristic "crunch", everything else is just frosting. Features are well documented on the Marshall web site: http://www.marshallamps.com/product.asp?productCode=DSL401

The only surprise on this amp is the lack of a presence control.

This is a tricky one. If you pay $1000 and expect it to be perfect, you will be dissappointed. The stock speaker sucks (swap it for a Celestion Vintage 30 asap!) and the tubes are horible. Mine were microphonic, squealed and sounded like gravel. A quick swap with JJ's all around and a re-bias (colder than spec) and the amp sounds great. It's dissappointing that right out of the box, this amp is unfit for anyone at the semi-pro and above level.

The amp sounds pretty good with both single coils and humbuckers, very bright as you might expect from Marshall. The lead channels are usable but there is a SIGNIFICANT drop off in bass response on the lead channel(s).

Honestly, Marshall is WAY down the reliability ladder as compared to Mesa Boogie and Fender. There are heating issues, design issues and all kinds of random things that make this a very questionable amp for gigging.

I've owned in excess of 50 amps over 25 years including about 12 Marshall's. There are serious issues with this amp, however, if you are willing to invest the time and energy, this can be made into a good sounding and somewhat reliable amp. If you want the ultimate in engineering, get a Mesa Boogie. If you want the classic Marshall "whump", you might do better with a DSL-50/100 head and 4x12 cabinet setup. If you have your heart set on a 1x12 Marshall combo, this is your amp.

Features, Two channel amp with "boost" on the overdrive channel, 1x12" speaker effect loop, reverbtank

EL84 and 12ax7 (ECC83) tubes

You need to tweak it a litte before finding the "right" sound. I changed the speaker to a Celestion Vintage 30 (16 ohm) and it lifted the sound to "rock heaven".

Note that this is not an heavy metal amp, for Classic rock sounds - especially with a gibson guitar with humbuckers it sounds awesome. I have both strat and gibson, both sound very good.

You dont need anything else than guitar cable and this amp.

I had a 2x12" cab or 4x12" cab in addition to the 12" and it gives even more punch. it is classical marshal sound, and its not noisy (but you must also consider what you put in the chain too)

Both clean and od channel have an EQ, and that is good, They are easy to tweak, when you get the right feel for it.

Marshall, tube amp, proably like any other tube amp,

Very good - reply on email same or next day - good advices

It is kinda expensive, and the celestion vindage 30 speaker cost money too. But when you play on it, its worth the price.

I compared to other EL84 powered amps, ac30 cc2 ,peavey classic etc - they all cost about the same price, this one weighs 19 kg, and it has the marshall sound, so i went for this one.

They are still making these so i would get a new one if stolen - if you loose a marshall amp , you diserve it....

Have a lot of other stuff too - this one is nice and use it often.

2004 model.update

this amp rules. good clean channel and the best OD ever. if you forget your pedals. this will get you through the night alone. this amp heats up but not as bad others posted. my band uses fans anyway for air on stage so i set my box fan the size of this amp, maybe a little bigger where it blows on the amp and gets air on stage. another fan on the other side of the stage too. the reverb sucks but who cares. this didnt seem very loud at first but now i guess its fully broke in and very loud now. plenty of punch. i love it. i need amps with good OD in case of pedal break down or gigs where the amp will just do and this wins....

got it in july 06 new. floor model. no probs. yet

i ve had good luck with marshalls in the past

30 yeARS ALL HARD ROCK. STILL LOVE THE BOSS METAL ZONE but this amp does the trick if the pedal breaks.i would try to replace the amp if stolen but they are $$$. i would just use my fender twin amp '98 USA.that has good OD too just different sound but gets it done without trouble. the dsl401 is just as portable as the hot rod deluxe but doulble the $$$ but way better tone. no ice pick highs. just tone...the tone i get with the les paul standard is worth the money to me..

you know all this already.

Very amazed with sound qaulity but it is ??400 worth of amp, much better than my old JCM900 4100 100 watt tube head. Lots of dynamics and good low level overdrive and natural tube break up distortion with a humbucker on the clean channel.

Only 2 days old.

Met Jim at the london guitar show this summer, had a prob with my old JCM900 marshall at the time and he invited me down the factory to pick up spare parts (I live in MK also) and they didnt charge me for them, the head was 15 years old, well out of warenty! Good stuff by Marshall.

Playing 6 years, 2nd tube amp, much more usuable, have mic'd it up through a PA and plays great with the band. Looked at MESA F30 and AC30s but this beat them all.

see the marshall web site.. 2004 model

bought it yesterday. this amp was made in 2004 and has been the floor model for two years. ive been playing this amp for a while in that store. 2 years and no problem while in the store so i thought it might be trouble free. hope so. i traded my blues jr and hot rod deluxe and a fender cabinet even for this. used the amp lastnite at a gig and worked great. pure marshall tone 100% and was very controllable. used an amp stand and a sm57 mic and sounded stellar. o/d 1 and o/d 2 flat out rule. need more compression ? buy a Boss metal zone and youll be set.

ive always had good luck with marshalls. we'll see. cant be any worse than the crappy made in mexico FENDERS. ive bought 4 Fender amps in 2 years and have nothing but trouble. deville, jr, deluxe, twin reverb. all mexico garbage. and sounds like it too.. i sold them all.

30 years of playing. more gear than god. Gibson and Marshall rule everything....

This is an "What you see is what you get" amp - Controls in front, standard marshall style. Two Channels drive channel has a +20db Boost stage , there is an reverb tank, and effect loop. Marshall gives a foot controller for channelswitching

Basically, buying this amp - knowing why you buy it, and what you want from it there should not be more features. It is an basic tube amplifier with a classic technical design.

Want other stuff, with more "jalla" ? - buy the valvestate - good sound for less money (DSL 401 is not cheap)

Due to the thermal stuff undernath I would like to see air holes on top to let the heat escape better...

I bought this brand new - so it took some hrs to "Burn in" the tubes (EL84) And that doesn't take too long time - it gets really hot. But the sound gets better the hotter the amp gets.

I Have tried with three differend guitars :

Gibson Les Paul WIth Burstbucker II pickups:

You get everything from classic Zeppelin, AC/DC Guns and Roses (Slash style) Allmann Brothers rock style sounds - from tne OD1 Channel - Dont need the OD2 unless you want real gainy lead stuff.


Epiphone ES335

Get the classic Jazz styles, and the "allmost distorted" blues stuff like BB King etc this is very good - Get allmost the same rock sound as les paul, but the ES is a little brighter in itself.

Fender Strat with Texas Specials

Sounds like a "texas" strat with this amp. Also very nice Country Twang - with a little "break" on the clean channel.


All in all this amp sounds great. However I dont think I would play Heavy metal with this amp - but that is not of any interest for me either...

Dont know - it is all new - with a warranty. But my other marshalls have been OK for 20 years or more - tubes blow sometimes - but its an valve amp yoy know

Give 10 because of preivous marshalls have never been bad

Warranty is OK

Repairs is OK, done by my own or guitar tech.

But Marshall is hard to get on e-mail, you have to call them, but in Europe that is OK -

I played for 30 years in various settings, I Own a Marshall Rack and some guitars + some stompboxes.

If someone stole it, I would get a nother, the will still be made for a while I guess. But if it gets stolen in 20 years, I'd proably be too old to catch the bastard stealing it..

I compared this to Peavey Classic, Peavey Valve King, and Vox AC30CC2 - I chosed this one because it doesnt weigh a ton (my rack does...) and I feel familiar with Marshall and how to crank them and tune them to "my sound". THe others are very nice too.

I WIsh it had tremolo like the AC30 - but I use a BOSS TR-2 who does the job very well - so it doesnt bother me.

This is an amp yuo can plug right in to, and get the right sound at once. I think it will be better as I use it. Only had it for some weeks, but have gigged, rehearsed and "explored" it a lot, and I have already a better rig (Marshalll rack : JMP-1 & 9200 Mono Block on 2x1922 cabinets with an BOSS GE215 EQ, and an ALesis Qadraverb II in the loop) but this is my "backup" and "small gig" amp. ANd I look forward to use it

I have had this amp for about eight months. Made in 2005. Featurewise I first liked the cruch channel with higher gain, and did not like the clean and the red chanels, and the fx loop. Later I started to like to clean channel a lot (with adjustable gain), and the yellow (cruch) channel with touch of gain. Also, I grew to like the fx loop as well, it's really designed to sound well with time based fxs, like a reverb. I don't care much for the red channel. I can't think of any further features that I would really need. I take one point off, because the fx loop (as well as the built in reverb) is too much weaker on the clean ch compared to the drive channels.

It takes a while to get the hang of this amp. First I too felt bad about the fx loop, the too big volume difference between the yellow and red channels, and a weak clean channel. Then, I discovered the clean channel, it has a really nice sound with the neck pickup, and as you go up with the gain, each twist up gives another sound. At about 2-3, and 5 are my two favourite spots. One problem is that the fx loop is weaker on the clean channel, but I solve that by using a Digitech multiFX processor (only for the reverbs) in the loop, and I have a softer and a stronger reverb setting ready, for the od and clean chs.

The sound makes me want to play the amp again and again, the dynamics is beautiful, and dhe cruch is soo sweet. The only weakness in terms of sound is the built in reverb, it sounds week and tinny, or boingy, I don't know how to put it. The spring reverb in my Tech21 Trademark10 (also accutronics) is way nicer.

I don't really like the red channel. The way to think about it is that (if you turn the gain to about 1) it picks up where yellow channel stops with the gain at 10. If you use it that way, there are no volume difference probelms (though you have to adjust the gain). Anywhere above 3 with the gain on the red channel is way too fizzy, noisy. And I have relatively low output humbuckers (super 58's in an Ibanez Artist)

The direct out is far poorer than the mic-ed sound of the amp (too buzzy, harsh), but that I guess is generally true for all amps.

All in all, if you have a way to footswitch reverbs in the fx loop with varyous levels, it's easy to have beutiful clean and dirty sounds footswitchable.

No probelms yet (although I was conscous to get one made after 2003 as others recommended on this forum - thanks).

no idea, got it used.

I like the stories people make up about what they would do to someone who stole the amp. Well, if the thief ran away with the amp qiuck anough (about 45 pounds) I wouldn't bother trying to fight that guy.

Not my amp, a friends'. Made 2000-2003. This amp is versatile, but it doesn't completely satisfy with the clean or overdrive. It's nice that there's two overdrives, good for kicking into a nice solo.
The amp has more than enough power for a garage(with a drummer and bassist). I don't mind the ok cleans, but the overdrive could be better.

I play a Gibson Les Paul with Burstbuckers, and it suits my music styles just fine. It suits it, but could have gotten the job better! Sounds from Allman Bros. to Sabbath. The clean stays pretty clean the whole way through the volume range. The distortion can get pretty dirty, but not dirtier than Sabbath, for example. The distortion has a certain quality that I do not like, maybe it is the el-84s.

It hasn't broken on my friend, but the tubes are starting to sound weaker.

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I've been playing for two years, but I don't mean to brag I have a good ear. I play through a Rivera Chubster, which I bought used for $670. (goes 1300+ new) The Rivera is by far superior, and I would recommend people to save up or wait for a good deal on a Rivera, because although this amp gets the job done and is good compared to Solid State, it leaves something to be desired. I didn't expect it to be a plexi in a box, but still... :(

This is not my amp, it belongs to my girlfriend's father, and I generally use it playing in his band filling both lead and rhythm duties on 3rd guitar.

The DSL401 is a fairly compact 1x12 combo rated at 40W that uses 4x12AX7/ECC83s and 4xEL84s in - as far as I can gather from the schematic and what Marshall say the amp ISN'T in their manual - Class AB mode. It uses a solid state recifier and there are op amps and transistors used in the reverb, FX loop and switching control sections.

It has 2 fairly independent (separate EQs) channels, with footswitchable (included) overdrive voices (basically crunch and lead), global spring reverb (optionally footswitchable), global FX loop and master volume. It has a DI out but no headphone out, but does have selectable 8/16ohm speaker out settings.

Basically it is a very well rounded amp that does everything you'd expect a proper amp to have, without all the extra stuff you probably won't use. Footswitchable FX loop would be useful but you can just control your pedalboard instead. Bit of a shame they left the reverb switch off the otherwise very nice included footswitch.

Everything's nicely laid out and it only takes seconds to figure out how to drive this amp, which can't be said for all amps certainly. It's also not too weightly, which is important because we have to cart the band's gear around a lot.

I have a standard Fender Mexican Telecaster and have used this amp extensively with a late 90s PRS Custom 22, but most of the time it is played through a.... Fender Squier Strat!

And my word, it sounds flippin' awesome through this amp!

In this band we play classic blues and early rock staples - think songs that have been covered by so many people you don't know who did the original! We also squeeze in some Elvis, Clapton and Creedence, amongst others. So I'm usually using a fairly clean tone just on the verge of overdriving, using the guitar's vol control to give me more dirt for leads.

In this roll, the 401 works brilliantly. It has a lovely chimey sound and the lower output fits this band very well. The other two guitarists both use Fender amps (Hot Rod Deville 2x12 and Reissue Blues Deluxe) which are simply too loud (I'm also the band's sound man). Naturally, they both complain they can't get that "just breaking up" tone at low volumes. The 401 has no such issue.

The overdrive channel sounds great though I rarely use OD2, it has a nice cremy lead tone but in this band there is rarely a need for it. The reverb isn't the typical Fenderish "spank" but it adds a nice depth.

Very little hiss through the amp too. Bottom word, it sounds great! Ironically, the other guy in the band who sold it to its new owner (who is the drummer, btw) really regrets selling it and getting a DSL half stack.

Not mine but as far as I know, it hasn't had any problems. We don't back the amp up with anything (already enough guitarists) at gigs. Will probably need a retube and rebias at some point but otherwise totally troublefree.

Other than getting the user manual off their website, no involvement.

I've been playing for about 13 years, and play a lot of different styles of music. I've been lucky enough to play a lot of really really nice guitars through really really nice amps and to be honest, the sound of this amp through any guitar is very very surprising. It sounds fantastic! For what we do in our band, it is simple to use, gets the right tones at the right volume and doesn't weigh a tonne (have you ever picked up a DeVille 2x12"? it weighs more than our loaded 14U mixer rack!). For the price, it is insanely great. I'm building my own tube amp now, but if another came up around the price, I'd probably buy it.

Very impressive.