Marshall JCM-2000 DSL 50

It's a 2006 with stock features 2 channels, 2 modes deep switch etc. It would be nice to be able to switch the modes in each channel as well but I can live with just two channels. I play in a semi-pro covers band gigging on average once a week. We play all sorts from ska to soul to new wave to rock. Venues vary from 100 capacity right up to outdoor events 20,000 (largest audience to date!!) and the 50 is more than loud enough. Also had a TSL100 until recently, I had to sell it as I needed the cash but I prefer the DSL sound it's less harsh.

It's a Marshall! I use a Vox tonelab SE in conjunction with this amp and get some quality tones IMO out of the amp. As mentioned previously I find it slightly warmer than the TSL all the tones are there ie. AC/DC through to some great blues sounds. I've owned plexi's, JCM800's, JCM900 and the TSL100. Its not as nice as the 800, can't remember the plexi's although I remember they were loud, 900 was awfull too fizzy.

Amps been great so far although I'm definately going to get another head soon as a back up and because I want to. Maybe a 1959SLP or a 1987X. The one thing that's not been great is the footswitch it stopped working after 3 months!! I've replaced the cable myself come on Marshall sort them out! Stops it getting a 10.

3 year warranty and I live an 90mins from the factory I'm not worried.

30 years plus playing and owned numerous amps including many Marshalls this ones a cracker. Bought this as a replacment for Vox AC30CC (after the fifth one breaking I lost patience took it back and went for the DSL). This ones a keeper.

Reasonable amount of features for a two channel amp. All the basics plus reverb, effects loop, and some tone adjustment buttons that vary the voicing of each channel (deep and overdrive). I rated the features as a 7 because for this amount of money I feel Marshall should have stepped it up a notch.

Ok, here's the problem. This amp sounds like a marshall and that it. If you want an AC/DC or hendrix sound then by all means this amp is probably for you. The lead channel produces the GnR slash lead tone to a T, and the clean channel is one of the best I have ever heard. Very warm and full. Each channel breaks up with higher volume...including the clean channel. It has great classic rock sounds but thats where the fun ends.
For starters this amp does not produce a decent sound at any volume below 4 or 5. Don't be fooled by the 50 watt rating. 50 watt amps are only about 80 or 90 decibles quieter than 100 watt amps. Trust and believe that a 50 watt amp at 4 or 5 will make you go deff in a hurry. Not to mention really piss of your neighbors or your wife. Also, this amp will not produce any tone other than that classic rock marshall sound. If you are looking for metal/hard rock tone then look else where. This is a very one dimentional amp. I actually took this amp home and played through it both at home and at band rehersals over the course of several weeks and could not find the hard rock tone that I was looking for no matter how much I adjusted the controls (keep in mind that I have been playing seriously for 12 years and know my way around guitar amps). It simply doesn't have that tight chunky bottom end or that clear distorted top end sound (think tone like metallica, disturbed, pantera, breaking benjamin). Like I said, classic rock and thats it. I ended up taking it back to guitar center and buying a peavey JSX head. By the way if you are looking for a new amp, as I suspect you are since you are reading this, then you owe it to yourself to try a JSX. It will nock your socks off!
Anyways, if you want classic rock and a marshall sound, then this amp will probibly work for you. If you need some tonal flexibility and play any other style of music then look elsewhere.

I only owned this amp for a few weeks and never had any probs. After speaking with several amp technicians ever one of them said that maralls are a total nightmare. According to them the craftmenship is just not there and they are plauged with problems. I pulled the back pannel just because I was curious and was not impressed by the quality. It looked second rate, like something you would see in an amp costing a fraction of the price (think crate). Also, the control nobs and buttons were extreamly flimsy. Not very road worthy at all. Just walk up to one and monkey around with it and you will see what I mean.

No dealings with marshall customer support.

I rate this amp at a 5 because of the one dimentional tonal qualities, poor construction quality, and in my opinion serious lack of good sounding high gain distortion. Marshall may have been the best of the best back in the 60's and 70's but times have changed and marshall has not. Have no illusions about these amps, the majority of your hard earned money is paying for the name and not the tone.

This is more of a recap now that I've had the amp for about 2 years now. Please keep in mind that I am NO pro player. I'm just an at home player who's been playing for about 10 years now. While I certainley wouldn't consider myself to be a great player I think I'm a fairly decent player. I guess you can interpet that anyway you see fit because the last thing I want to do is to come across as something I'm not. But I think I know what sounds good and what doesn't. I play the DSL 50 thru a Marshall 1960 BV cabinet with 2, 25 watt Greenbacks and 2, 30 watt Weber Blue Dogs. Guitar is a Les Paul Standard, Seymour Duncan Custom Custom bridge, stock Burst Bucker Pro neck. This is also the first Marshall I've ever owned, played thru and have any experience with.

Okay, in MY basement (drop ceiling, panel walls, carpet on the floor), with MY guitar....and in my VERY humble opinion...it took a while for me to tune it in to my liking. First off, the treble on this amp is very excessive. Of what I gather, Marshalls can be trebley and if true the DSL 50 holds to that claim. I wound up putting a Weber Beam Blocker in front of each speaker and this helped quite a lot in dispursing the high end. I also did a lot of experimenting with differant preamp tubes and the best I found for taming the highs are ECC83S JJ Eurotubes in all 4 preamp positions. The other thing I needed was an attenuator and I settled for a Weber Mass Lite 100. This unit REALLY helped in calming down the high end, thanks to its two dials for attenuation. One for the Lows/Mids and the other for the Mids/Highs. Made an amazing differance. The last thing I did was to take the stock Burst Bucker Pro bridge pickup out and put in the mentioned Duncan pickup. That was the icing on the cake for me, as I found the BB Pro to have too much bite in it for me. Quite a lot, but I did what I felt was needed. But in all fairness the louder you turn the amp up the more it seems to even itself out and a lot of that excessive treble seems to calm down. But it's got to be RIPPING loud and I don't want to go deaf. But even with all of the changes and things I added I found that I cannot turn the treble control past 2 on the dial. Why that much treble is built into an amp is way beyond me.

Even though this amp has two foot switchable channels with an extra mode on each, I still call it a one trick pony. I say that because when going from the Classic to the Ultra channel the EQ doesn't even out at all. The trick for me was in finding "THEE" trick that would work best for what I like to hear. The Ultra channel has more treble response and less bass than the Classic channel, so the two don't even out. I tried everthing I could think off to try and even the channels out too. EQ pedal in the loop and differant combinations of various makes and grades of preamp tubes. For me nothing worked out to my liking. I found that I much prefered the Classic channel over the Ultra, so I don't use the Ultra channel at all. All in all I found it to be way too high gain for my liking. Others may differ and that's fine.

Basically I found two ways to use the Classic channel and both work pretty good. But still, you can only use it one way and not the other. One way is to use the Classic set to clean and use a pedal for your overdriven tone, while the other way is to use the Classic channel with the gain button engaged and use a OD pedal for a bit of extra kick. After all the changes I did I think that the clean channel is actually very good. I get a great clean tone from my LP using either both pickups combined (think rockabilly, CCR, etc.) or by using the neck pickup by itself. Strong, clean and clear. I've tried a few OD pedals and believe it or not I found I like Digitechs Bad Monkey the best! For $40.00 it is a great little pedal and thru the DSL 50 and the 4X12 it works great for things like Van Halen and Led Zeppelin.

Okay, lets say you prefer a tone that's a bit on the gainier side. I also like how the Classic channel sounds with the gain button engaged. I've got the gain set at around a 12:00/1:00 position so it's not too extreame. You can then turn your guitars volume knob down to clean it up a bit (won't be totally clean) and then as mentioned you can also add an OD pedal for a bit extra kick. I recentley bought a ZVEX Box of Rock and in this application it works really well. Outstanding, actually. I don't at all care for the BoR thru a totally clean channel, but with the amp being slightly overdriven and then adding the pedal...wow!! Tonal rock bliss!

So again, it's one way or the other. 1) Clean channel set for clean with a pedal for OD, or, 2) Gain button set for a mild crunch, add an OD pedal for a bit more kick.

As mentioned, I've had the amp for almost 2 years now and so far theres been no reliability issues. But then again it stays put in my basement. The amp works fine and the effects loop works very well also. I use a Boss DD-3 delay pedal and it sounds very clean in the loop.

Basically once you have it seasoned to taste it's a pretty cool amp. It's just a matter of finding what works best for you and of course that differs from person to person because we all hear things bit differantley. I like versatility, and if I was in a cover band I would probably use the amps Classic channel set to clean with a pedal for my overdriven sound. Each of the two ways I mentioned sounds very good but again, it at depends on what works for you. Again, I'm no expert and I know some will differ with what I've had to say and that's fine. I just hope this may be of assistance to someone. Rock on, folks!

I have no idea what year this amp was made. I bought second hand.

Very versatile. I play mainly metal and rock alternative. But occasionally i play pop, a bit jazz tune with it.

It has 2 channels, and total 4 modes. fx loops and no phone jacks.

I WISH THE MODES CAN BE SWITCHED WITH THE PEDAL. Man i wish that can happen, it would be soooo greattt.

You all know marshall's sound right?? yeah, thats the one. crunchy, raw, gritty rock n roll. Also very smooth, if you crank the MASTER volume to 3 - 5. AT first i kinda dissapointed coz the distortion kinda sound bad, but i tried to crank up the vol. until 3 - 4.5 (when i jam with my mates) and then the sound has come to life.

I would say, the distortion is not brutal, it is smooth coz of the 'valves' are el34. If u guys want BRUTAL amo go find rectifier, xxx, 6505 or anything with 6l6 valves. I'd prefer the el34 coz i can get the smooth feeling out of it. really nice IMO

The clean is great for me, i dont know if u compare with fender and such ... but marshall has got its own class.

I use humbuckers with it, and i can get sounds that i want.

I can be noisy in the distortion channel modes 2 but its normal coz of the gain. No drama i just hit my noise suppresor DONE ^_^

Well, i havent really gigged with it yet. But Judging from many famous musicians use this, I think i can depend on it. I.e Trivium (they use dsl 100). But if i ever got a chance to play regular gigs, I would always get backup. At least another marshall dsl's, i just love them.

Been playing for 15 years, but actively playing for 10 years.

I have a variety guitars, godin freeway (w/dimarzio airzone, fasttrack1, tonezone), yamies aes620 (w/ dimarzio evo and megadrive), ibbie sz520 (w/emg's). I play all kind of music.

If its stolen (stupid question!!), I would get another one of the dsl 50 for sure.

Yeah, at first i was comparing with rectifiers (too many knobs and very priceyyy), hughes n kettner trilogy and triamp (sound wise very nice, but still priceyyyy and with all the things that i dont use such as midi gadgets), peavey triplexxx, jsx, classic 50 (they are good products but i need something simple and nice for the price), Laney tt100, vh100r (absolutely nice sound, but for the price nothing can compete marshall)

I wish the modes can be switchable.

Dont get me wrong this is a perfectly good amp. Nothing less than a Marshall. But switching between modes are a drag. The cost of this amp you should be able to switch with a foot controller instead of a button. Such as lead one and lead two and so on. I have been playing for 25 years and I try to use everything an amp can offer. But my hands are full and the only thing open are my feet for feature switch. The eq is easy to work with and like most Marshall amps have to really try to mess up the sound unless you are doing something really stupid.

Sound is nop notch. Like I said nothing less than a marshall. With a hundred watt 4 12 cab and a flat eq and presence and the volume on ten and the pre amp on one or two look out it is pure pleasure. The distortion is smooth and fat with all the low end you could want. I have never had an ear piercing sound come out of this amp. With the right cabinet like the 16 ohm 1960A with 4 15 watt greenbacks you can turn ever eq and presence knob on 10 and face it to the wall and you have the over driven sound that only a marshall can bring you. But I love to play around with the over driven clean channel (what I call the Bad Company sound) The classic 1959 plexi It delivers. I have had this next to a 1959 plexi and with a couple of eq udjustments it sounds very close, just as clean and quiet. I have glossed over a few of the review here and I ahve to say if you buy a Marshall, remember it has bounce it's way all the way from England and if you are a pro you need a tech to look at it befor you play it for any length of time. You can put these amps side by side and both will have slightly differing sound. This is common. My dsl50 sounded muddy out of the box, had it gone through and ended up having new tubes put in at no cost to me. To me the 50 watt is better than the 100 watt as I can get that screamin sound at a lower volume. The 100 watt amps I allways did the AC/DC trick every knob on 10 and face it to the wall.

100 percent!!!!!!!

Never had to deal with them. None of my Marshalls have ever broken down!

As I said I have been playing for 25 years and allwasy give a shout out for Marshall amps. If it were lost and stolen I would buy another one. There are other quality amps out there but I have allways found that you have to go out and spend more money to dial in the tone. Which I call the bbe sonic maximiser trick. With the dsl50 or the 100 all you need is the amp and an ok cabinet with reputable speaker and it will sound better than the really costly stuff. I would suggest a dsl50with a 1960A cab with 15 watt greenbacks if you can find them. I found 4 in england for a 1000.00 bucks on ebay and it is worht it. The sound engineer will love you. So even with the drw back of the button pushing deal I stll give this amp a high 10!!!

Please read other reviews for full features, no point in repeating.
EQ settings are common to both channels i.e lead and rythym, but in practise with this amp it is not the problem you would expect.
Perhaps footswith should control both reverb and channel, the inputs do exist to do this, but Marshall only supply a floor switch for channel selection i.e with one switch. In truth its not important.

With a 1960 2x12 Marshall cab plugged in and the volume above 3 on classic lead channel, the Marshall power and big bottom end sound is there. The clean sound with this cab is amazingly sparkly for a Marshall and is Fenderish in quality helped by full size accutronics reverb unit within the head. Well done Marshall, but it was about time!

If you change power valves (EL34`s) make sure you bias them properly, check out website: Eurotubes.com , this American firm will teach you a lot about biasing and valve tones. He even provides a free video to show all us non-techs how to do the job. Brill! Marshall tech dept was also very helpful and said that Marshall bias at 45mv on DSL50 as they feel its the sweet spot using Svetlana EL34`s. Tone wise this Marshall DSL50 is seen worldwide as one of the best Marshall Valve Amps ever made.

Built well and very good value for money. It will take a lot of hammer providing power valve biasing is done by a pro or properly by the user with a few simple tools. Second hand DSL`s should be checked out for valve types and biasing as soon as bought, if you want the best Marshall sound. As to Marshall reliabilty I own five Marshall amps MG30FX,2 AVT50`s,30 watt Acoustic Amp, a JTM 30 and a DSL50 head and 2 by 12 cab.They have all worked perfectly for years and all have that BIG Marshall soul. The AVT 50 and DSL 50 especially.

Great people to deal with, especially the tech`s no bull just facts and useful advise. They must know their stuff to design amps sounding like the AVT 50 and DSL50.

The JCM 2000 DSL50 set up correctly and matched to a good cab is as good as it gets. A head and cab set up will always have a bigger sound at volume than an open back valve combo. Obviously you have more to cart around, but if a big valve sound is needed at volume, then try a DSL50 with the right cab. All we want now is a 6 to 10 watt Marshall pure valve combo with a closed back cab and matched 12 inch speaker i.e a mini DSL50!

Dual channels with dual modes in each channel. Ability to footswitch between channels, but not between modes. Bass boost switch, mid scoop switch, separate reverbs for each channel. Pretty flexible overall though the ability to footswitch between modes would have been nice.

Prior to a modification I made, I would rate this as an 8, my rating reflects the tone after the mod which I will describe below. Previous to modding the amp, the clean channel was fairly sterile sounding and the distortions had a bit of a grainy sound. I replaced the factory tubes with a set of JJ preamp and power tubes and they made a significant improvement in the tone quality biased to 43ma). The mod I made was to upgrade the output transformer with a Mercury Magnetics Axiom tranny designed for the DSL50. The difference it made was dramatic, it just opened the amp up tonally. The clean channel has a lot of depth and chime now and distortions are fat and thick. The clarity and sustain increased significantly. This mod takes the amp to boutique quality imho. The output tranny is the audio link between the preamp section and the power tubes so it does have a significant impact on tone. I highly recommend this mod, the tranny cost me $150 plus $30 for my amp tech to install.

I usually play an American Deluxe Strat or Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion III and both sound great through this amp. With the mod, the tonal qualities of the individual guitars really shine.

Seems well built, but tube amps can be finicky.

Never dealt with them.

With the modded output tranny, this is a killer amp. Without it, it's a good amp but seems to leave me wanting more. Now it sounds the way I expected it to sound. If you changed the tubes and still weren't happy with the tone, try the OT upgrade. Here's their website: http://www.mercurymagnetics.com

nice and simple
gain, eq, reverb
perfect

the greatest sounding amp i have ever heard period.

don't know, but hope its good
going on three years no problems

very helpful

there is no better sounding amp made!
this is the one!

Features are good,
I think you should be able to switch between modes though.

Heres my review.
The amp had master volumes at noon, a STD Fender USA Strat with stock pickups was used.
The amp was biased to 40ma per tube before hand.

Channel 1, Clean/ I didnt really enjoy playing this channel much, it felt "rubbery" somewhat like the F#%der Hot Rod amps, while some people praise these amps clean characteristics, I do not.
It sounds and feels a little artificial to me.

Channel 1, Mode 2/ crunch, This channel was loud n clean, with gain maxed out there is almost as much as an early non master volume amplifier, it did sound good but again, it did sound artificial.
I believe Marshalls spiel on this channel was to market it as a plexi/800 type of tone.
while it is reminicent of an 800 in EQ, I didnt think there was enough to tie in with that statement.
It sounds like a Marshall ,all Marshalls sound like Marshalls with their larger than life sonic crunch but there is a purity that the early metal face amp has that the DSL just cant reach.

Channel 2, Lead, Mode 1, this was my favourite channel of all,
I was quite happy using this channel for rhythm and lead.
High notes sung for lead work, all notes in a chord came through nicely, BUT.. one thing I just couldnt help but notice was that dry, hollow mid sound that could not be dialled out.
The amp also sounded a bit mushy all round.

Channel 2, lead 2 mode, this was a natural extension of channel 2 mode 1, with more gain on tap.

I didnt find a use for the deep switch, there was plenty of bass with the 4x12 can I used, these resonate low end naturally anyway.

Mid scoop is something I would never use.

Reverb was good, it was a welcome suprise for me because I own all non master amps with no built in reverb.
non as bright as a F#%der style amp, a little darker which I think is voiced well.

I didnt get around to checking out the series FX loop.

Marshall service sucks in Australia,
you could be waiting for a replacent part for a loooong time.
this is a major downer and I am even hesitant to buy any more Marshall stuff for that reason alone.
The amp however is reliable, maybe even more so than the 900's, now thats saying something.
Sure PCB mounted tubes plastic pots [not unlike the hot rod series of amps mind you..]are not the best way to make a roadworthy amplifier but Marshall has always used cheap parts no matter what, as long as they all function correctly and sound good there is no problem,,unless youre a real amp snob.
but those people arent whinging about the vintage 70's Marshalls are they.. these were also made with cheap parts, for instance, carbon comp resistors.. these are not normally used in much these days, known for being unreliable and changing out of spec over time these were technically a design flaw.. not desirable at all, amp snobs are most likely unaware of this fact. off the shelf transformers, although trannies were made bigger and tougher in the day.
tubes, NOS tubes were more reliable than todays specimens. blah blah blah.. its reliable

Not good at all. I dont know if this is Marshall themselves or just Marshall in Australia.
We also only get a 1 year warranty here unlike the 5 year in the States, thats a big gap isnt it?? whats up with that?
F#%der offer a 5 year on their top of the line stuff.

Ive been playing for 28 years, Im now 33.
I play in a rock cover band for the main part and travel sometimes to do other umm..projects :}

I own a few old Marshalls which I love, have never found any other amp that Ive been happy with.

I love amplifiers and have tried most big name brands, most Fenders, all Marshalls, etc etc, I basically cant walk past an amp without plugging in and am always on the hunt for divine tone.
this one has something to be desired but just fell a bit short for me.

This amp is extremely versitile, i can acheive just about any tone i want, from country to metal, you name it, you can dial it in. There are sub-channels within both of the channels that can give you completely different sounds. Channel A (clean) gives you a smooth crisp clean, but with the push of a button you have perfect crunch tones. Channel B (distortion) gives you a nice well rounded distortion along with a full out, balls to the walls, high gain distortion. The presence control can add a lot of life to the amp along with separate reverbs for each channel. Also the tone shift and deep options can help you to perfect that tone that your looking for. Also comes with an effects loop, i've never used it, but i'm sure it works fine. The head can hold up two speaker cabinets with a 4 or 8 ohm switch and one cabinet rated at 16 ohms.

my only problems with the features is the master eq and the inability to switch the sub-channels with a foot pedal. The way this amp is set up, your eq settings are the same for both channels A & B. this could be fixed by buying an eq pedal, but that's too much work onstage. also this amp would be so much better if you could change the sub-channels by foot instead of walking over to your amp and pressing a button.

This amp sounds amazing. Think of a tone, any tone, and you most likely can acheive it. This amp gives you a perfect clean, a crunchy bite, a smooth gain, and an ear-splitting distortion. I would suggest buying a tubescreamer for this head, it will smooth out your distortion and produce perfect harmonics. Marshall prefected the spring reverb for this unit. I keep the head plugged into an 1960's marshall 4x12 cab and a jcm800 2x12 both set to 8 ohms and i can't beleive the power this thing can pump.

my only problem with this head is that i don't particularly love the sound of it when cranked. I think it gives a little too much of a bite and you loose your bottom end. Then again, i always mic my amp at practice and shows so i don't have to deal with it too much.

This head is built to last. I received the head with a loose spring in the reverb, but it doesn't affect my sound in any way. just sounds funny when bumped around.

Haven't had to deal with the customer support, but the website provides manuals which can be handy.

I've been playing this head for 2 years without a single problem. If this head was ever stolen, i wouldn't think twice about buying a new one, i'd be out there right away. My father owns a jcm900 hi-gain combo, and the dsl blows it away. personally i hate the jcm900's but marshall made a huge upgrade 10 years later with the jcm2000 series.