Marshall JCM-2000 DSL 50

Really only use the crunch channel, the clean is good too. would be great to have separate EQ's for the red and green channels,

Play a custom strat w duncans most of the time I also own a 69 strat which sounds unbelievable thru this thing... this amp can cut thru anything.. but there is a warmth thats missing.. tried an attenuater which helped a lot but still leaves somthing to be desired, as you can tell by now not totally thrilled with overall tone.. I've owned fenders all my life and am about to switch back... great metal amp but not warm and versitile enough for me...

We play every other week... Hendrix.. Doors, J. Winter .. Sabbath
when i first got it I used a thd hot plate.. sounded awesome,
played It -4 db m vol 10 , pre around 4.. But blew a heat fuse..
and had to send it out... tech said tubes biasd to hot, when i got the thing back.. it sounded 100 times better... my advice to anyone buying a marshall is get something older jcm 800 maybe and have a good tech retube it... and check it out, I dont think there is a lot of consistancy with the new heads...

Came from Guitar Center CT... Support was great !!

I quess for me expectations where high, I'm 44 now and playing since 8 th grade.. I bought it cause I could finally afford it after all these years... If your a serious player into tweeking your amp then by all means get it... just remember that all those great marshall tones ie van halen, beck (and i do mean Jeff), zz, aerosmith are the results of modifications... this amp sounds good at the store, but it takes more than the name plate to get those legendary tones..

Its all you need one clean channel and one distortion. I don't like alot of buttons on my amp. Keep it simple.

I have two main guitars i mainly use through this amp, an ESP EC1000(with seymore duncons) and a 1992 Gibson Les Paul Studio. When i play with my ESP i wouldn't trade my amp for anything in the world, but however when i use my Gibson my marshall allways sounds like it has too much treble in it for me. And its not my settings because i have my Pressence at 0, my Bass at 8, my Mid at 7, and my Treble at 2. Its all in the guitar. The clean channel os also good but i lifted my pickups to get more gain so it messes with the sound but i love it.

My amp never messes up.

IDK i got mine off ebay

I have been playing about 2 years. I play in a Post Hardcore/ Screemo band and it works perfectly. If you want this to play metal well then, uh, look at like a mesa/boogie, not this amp. I like this amp alot but i want to see what a 5150 sounds like. Chyea Chyea.

I bought my jcm 2000 in 2005 using only a few pedals, compression, wah, eq and chorus. Am sooo glad i bought the 50 watt head as oppose to the 100 watt. I play in what i consider a loud rock band. i have never had it past 6. So god knows what a 100 watt head would sound like. It does'nt have a contour level like other marshall amps which is a shame as i miss it. Effects sends and recieves are handy for delays and booster pedals (although a little noisey) Its a basic amp.

FIRSTLY - This amp is only good for vintage rock - AC/DC, Hendrix, deep purple or Led Zep fans. You get classic marshall early rock and thats it. So dont buy it for your bedroom or metal band.

If you want distortion this baby only works at gigging volume otherwise the sound you get is really very poor. by gigging volume i mean 4.5 plus this is a marshall and its loud! the valves get better and better from 4.5 onwards. Bearing in mind pub landlords usually start twitching at 4.5 its not ideal for pubs and honestly much past 5.5 you will start twitching. There is a high gain setting but its extremely noisey so noisey that for me it became a problem so i never use it. tho you can get a controlled feedback which is nice think Foxy lady intro.

Clean: The clean sound is pretty good the amp does not need to be cranked up to get a descent sound far from it. At about 1 you can get great tones.

I always use the deep button and tone shift.

I had originally bought a second hand dsl 50 head. Rather stupidly. The reverb was not working but i thought i know some good engineers i'm sure it will not be a problem (thinking this amp had never left the bedroom)Big Mistake!! I had several amp electricians look at it and no one could solve the reverb problem. In the end i took it back to the kid and got my money back and bought a new head with the warranty. The new head has never let me down. Thats more then i can say for other marshall amps!! MG series (crap fans) & mono blocs beautiful but blow fuses not very reliable!
The new head has not been a problem.

never used it.

Good for classic rock and vintage rock sounds only. Not very versitle but then you dont buy these to sound like steve via or george benson! Dont buy unless you gig in a loud rock band or you will never use it and it wont work well for you. Its a basic amp with two sounds. If you are buying it to put a multi effects pedal infront of it shame on you! Go and buy a line6.

This amp is massively versatile. I would suggest extreme metal aint it thing, if you want huge bass chug look to a Mesa or Peavey 5150 or something, but this gives a great sound for everything from clean to heavy metal like Iron Maiden, and also hard rock like Guns n Roses, and this is where it unsurprisingly shines the most. 2 channels but each has a boost on (although it would be nice if this were footswitchable. This amp has plenty of power for me though, and, with my ts808 tube screamer, absoloutely sings!!!

This really is a great sounding amp, however, I will say, to me it sounds best with the standard Marshall 1960 with 75 watt celestions, I tried it through an engl vintage and it sounded fairly harsh when any treble over 2 was dialled in. With g12-75s though, it really does sound great especially for heavy rock. It doesnt quite have the tonal colour of, say, a cornford hellcat, or bad cat amp, but for the money I could not ask for more. People say that it doesnt sound quite as great as the jcm 800, and for heavy rock,but tbh you have to crank an 800 loads for it to acheive that great sound, and it will never be as versatile as this, and this really is a great rock sound in its own right!!! well worth buyin, and better than many other amps I have tried at this price!!!!

only had it a few weeks, nowt wrong so far. I aint had trouble with any of the other 4 marhsalls I have had so hope this is the same!

not had to deal with the company!!!

I have been playing four about 4-5 years, but am really into my gear. I have played many great amps, my favourite being the Cornford Hellcat, and while this amp is not quite a Hellcat, i really is a great amp, especially for the price. I would recommend the Marhsall 1960 cabs for this, They may not work well with some amps but it seems the dsl 50 was designed with it in mind. Definitely try one out and dont be put of by people telling you it isnt as good as a Mesa or Engl. Those amps cost a lot more and for, in my opinion, little gain. I play a schecter c1 blackjack and Tokai MIJ love rock through it , and both sing, but the Tokai is glorious, as was the SG I tried it out with in the shop. It seems that those who say Marshall's and Gibson's go together very are totaly right!

Amp purchased new in 2005. I tend to like simple front panels, so this was perfect. Two channels, two voicings for each plus additional tone controls. 50 watts is pleny of power, especially when coupled with a 4 x 12 cab.

Played with an American Telecaster and a Carvin SC90 (Neck through, fixed bridge, dual humbuckers). Perfect for Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, basically everything from classic rock to heavy metal. The head is a natural mate to the 1960 Vintage Series cabinets. I use a 1960AV, which makes for a perfect combination of deep bass and cutting midrange bark. The amp sounds awesome with the very little use of the tone controls. The clean channel is very warm which I tend to prefer over an overly bright/brittle sound.

First amp ordered failed in the store as I was trying it out. Appeared to be a failed tube. Marshall factory replaced the head the following day. No problems now. Seems to be well made. Fit and finish are excellent, head construction is plywood. The black, gold and white makes for a very attactive amp. Very nice overall.

Customer support in the UK is excellent. Have called the Marshall factory on several occassions and always had questions answered by a tech literally within minutes. Specifically I asked about converting the head to US voltage when I return to the states. They said to bring it in, it would cost about 20 pounds and I could tour the factory if I wanted while it was being done. Good people.

I've been playing 15+ years, and have more gear than I care to think about. My practice amp is a Traynor YCV 50 Blue, which is like this amp reduced to a portable size. Same pre-amp tubes, same power tubes, same Celestion Vintage 30 speaker. I bought this amp because after years of buying amps that claim to sound like Marshalls, I thought it was probably best to buy the real thing. No regrets and I'll never sell it.

This is just a slight re-cap here. Thought I'd write to share a few things seeing how I've had the amp for a few months now, minus one more for being in the shop.

This amp is a high gain amp and it has enough treble to rip your ears off. Even when using the Classic channel with the gain button engaged. One thing which helped out considerably was a Beam Blocker from Weber. This helps to dispurse the highs so they're not going straight at you. I would highly recommend trying these if you find the treble hard to control.
I've noticed how the bass differs between the two channels. The bass on the Classic channel can be a bit loose, where the bass on the Ultra channel is nice and tight. When using the Classic channel with the gain engaged I also use an OD pedal set very low. OD pedals have a tendancy to cut bass, and it really helped to tighten up the low end on the Classic channel.

Here's where things went a bit awry. One night while playing at home the amps volume went down by itself then back up. Down and then back up again. I turned the amp off for a while and checked a number of things out, including all of my cords as well as the connections inside my speaker cabinet. Turned it all back on and all for fine for the next hour.
While playing the next night the amp started to hum very, very loudly. I mean LOUD! The hum was'nt coming from the speaker but from the amp head itself. I turned the amp off and took it to a great amp tech that I know the following day. I've read that DSL's can be rather unpredictable and sometimes totally unreliable. With that in mind I told the tech to keep it until it's fixed. He called me up one month later and said dispite all efforts he could not get the amp to act up. He tried it out in 4, 8 and 16 ohm operation, ran effects thru the loop, checked the tubes, the bias, connections, checked this, checked that and in his words, "I ran the shit out of it. I mean, I pushed it hard and nothing. It works fine." Great. All I can say is hopefully it was just one of those things that won't happen again. As of now I'm just playing at home. I would have hated to have been at a gig when it started to act up on me.

I've never dealt directley with Marshall so I can't comment. Anytime I have an amp problem I always take it to the tech that I mentioned.

I'm not dissing Marshall here although it sounds like I am. And I have learned how to get some good sounds from my DSL 50. Some great sounds, actually. But of what I've read (and have experienced for myself) it sounds like the DSL's are a 50/50 proposition. I've read of people who've had nothing but repeated bad luck with them, and I've read of folks who've never had a problem after years of use. I've read of a lot of people complaining how Marshalls quality has taken a real dive by using the cheapest components these days in thier amps. So I guess you just take your chances and hope for the best. Should'nt be that way considering how much you pay for them these days. Hell, I paid $425.00 for my Peavey Classic 30 about 3 years ago and that little amp delivers everytime. Everytime.

Simple features, which was what I wanted. You have a clean sound and a distortion sound. Would be nice to have a lead boost.

I researched every head in the $500 - $1500 category I could find and I tried several of the heads in this price range. All other amps left me a little disappointed. The main thing I was looking for was an excellent distortion sound without any effects required. When I plugged into this head, I knew it was exactly what I was looking for. I play in a pro metal band with a loud drummer and bassist. Turning this thing up to 6 when running through a 4-12 cab, I can destroy them live. The distortion of this thing is absolutely brutal. I get a ton of compliments on my sound. FYI- I use a B52 cab. I compared it side by side with several Marshall cabs and I prefer the B52, and the price cannot be beat.

No problems yet. Marshall has a great rep so I am not worried.

No experience with them.

Marshall is legendary for a reason. I could have saved a few dollars but my sound would have been compromised and that was not acceptable to me. I highly recommend you check out this amp if you are looking for a head in this price range. I found nothing that was even close to as good.

2005 model jcm2000 Dsl 50 has 2 channels individual reverb for each channel. clean channel is bad its always distorted ecc83 preamp valves and el34 power amp valves. for a 50 watt its pretty loud

im using a epiphone g400 with seymour duncan invaders. ive had the dsl for about 8 months. the distortion is crap its pretty disapointing i expected a lot more from a marshall it had no balls
but some parts are ok. i play punk\hardcore and this amp is just totally wrong it would suit 70's and 80' rock good . the jcm900 hi gain amps are supposed to be better

built like a tank. i don't see it breaking down. but still i would
use a backup

Clean and distortion. Both channels share an eq....which sucks.

I was dissappointed. Distortion was ok, but not what you'd expect from the legendary Marshall name. Marshall isn't Marshall anymore.
They are catering to new music...Nu Metal. And this amp isn't even great for that. I played it live and it was just muddy. No balls, no meat. And the channel switching is AWFUL! You can hear like a gap in sound when you switch. How can Marshall do this and sell this for the price they do? Every amp repair guy I've talked to has stated that the new Marshalls are horrid. Cheaply made, sold expensive.
I sold this thing on ebay (I would have gladly traded this for a grilled cheese sandwich), and went back to my JCM800s (I have 4 of them). Those were the last good amps Marshall made. I also have a JMP 100w head. It is interesting to note that whereas I love the 800s, there are guys that grew up before me who dog the 800s as I dog the 2000s! Maybe it is a generation thing. Nah....the 2000s are still just plain hopeless.

Didn't have it long enough. I'm sure it would have broken down.

For some reason Marshall just won't admit that their older amps, the amps that gave them their legendary status, were better amps. They actually feel that the 2000 are the best amps they ever had.
I mean I asked why there is a sound gap when switching channels.
One guy actually said that it was just the way they were designed!
Is that a freaking answer? WHy would you design something like that. And every one of these in every store did this. From what i know, it is just bad/cheap relays. Thanks marshall.

So many amp companies used to try to emulate the Marshall sound. Now marshall is just trying to copy the Boogie Rectifiers (don't even get me started on them! I sold a Rectifier that I hated and replaced it with the 2000....another bad choice). I think it is ok maybe for kids that are just starting out, but then again, the price is ridiculous.

My amp is a 2005 JCM 2000 DSL 50 Head. Bought the DSL 50 because I do not need the extra Power of the DSL 100. Most folks know about the features of the DSL Heads: 2 channels, 2 modes per channel, individual reverb controls per channel, effects send and return, bootom boost and mid cut buttons, footswitch to change the channel. All tube preamp and all tube power amp...another "Marshall Classic". I run the head through a Marshall 1960A Slant Cab.

I added this amp to my rig with an A/B Switch for added tonal felxibility (now this is a Mesa/Peavey/Marshall rig). The two channel/four mode configuration of the DSL 50 is very nice, but it would be cool if Marshall added another button to the footswitch that would let you change modes from clean to crunch in channel one and from lead 1 to lead 2 gain in the lead channel. Other than that, the amp has what I need. The amp has more than enough power for me as I play in a home studio, recording, small clubs and small parties. All tube...tube is the only way to go if you can afford it.

I use a Fender American Deluxe FAT Strat, PRS Custom 24 and a Vintage Les Paul Custom through this amp and all of them sound great thorugh the Marshall...to my hear. I have not had the amp that long, so I'm still tweaking it to get the right mix between the three amp setup I use.

The DSL 50 suites my style well as I play everyhting from soft to hard rock...60's through 90's style. The overdrive tones are nice (maybe not as "sweet" as my Mesa. the Marshall is more "harsh", but I like it) and their is plenty of gain for my needs. Given my style of music (classic rock/soft-hard rock/some country), I do not care much for the mid-cut button, but I'm sure MetalHeads love that feature. For my needs, there are three things I like about this Marshall configuration:
1. I was suprised to find that I really like the clean sound you can get out of channel one. It's very pleasing to my ear...not as harsh as a small combo's clean tone.
2. The bottom boost does just wat it says; it boosts without making things muddy. So you cann really "feel" the music when you want to.
3. The combined sound I get when I use both the Mesa and the Marshall. All I can says is Overdrive Tube Heaven!

The amp is no more noisy than any other amp I have. And I would expect that MetalHeads could get all the overdrive grind they may want. If not, add a Marshall Powerbrake...if you can afford it.

The one complaint I have is that there is a slight delay (somewhat noticeable) when you change from channel one to channel two with the footswitch. not sure what is going on there (Marshall, are you listening?), but many other reveiwers have said the same thing.

To new to judge, so I'll hold off on making a judgement here. Given Marshall's reputation and the fact that they have been around since the 60's, I hope to have no probelms with it. I take good care of my gear, so if if I do have any problems, I hope Marshall steps up to the plate.

I am not sure I will lug this thing around for gigs. Small gigs, no way. But for a larger show, I would bring it. As stated, I have a three tube amp rig now...so I have a backup. I would never gig anywhere except a casual small party without a backup.

Have not had to deal with them yet. I can say that I did try to use their website to get a question answered and their website did not work at all (Marshall, are you listening?)

I'm 45 and have I've been playing guitar (and other instruments) for over 40 years now. I played on a professional basis earlier in life, recorded (2 albums, several singles, etc.) toured, blah blah, but gave up the professional musician career many years ago. Consequently, I own or have owned too much gear over the years to list. Now I just play in a band for fun and I'm constantly searching for the ultimate tone and flexibility in my guitar rig (I guess I'm a gearhead). I own other Marshall stuff and knew what I was getting when I bought this...the Marshall Tube Head/Half Stack Sound...most love it, some hate it, but to most folks, Marshall is the most recognized name and sound in rock music.

I did comapre this to other products (Mesa, Peavey, other Marshall, etc.) but decided to add this to my mix because of the Marshall Sound.

If it were lost or stolen, I hope my insurance company would replace it.

Bottom line, if you like the Marshall all tube/half stack sound, this might be the most flexible and best Marshall ever. It's not a modeling amp...it's a flexible two channel. But do you want to play guitar through a REAL Tube Classic Marshall...or a computer simulation of one? I love it.