Marshall JCM-2000 TSL 100

2004 all valve 100 watt amp powered by 4xEL34's and 4x ECC83's, made in good old blighty.

I play in two rock covers bands with the odd blusier and poppy numbers thrown in and this amp covers the styles I need easily.

The amp has three channels (clean, crunch and lead) and is footswitchable as is the reverb and FX loop. Each channel has a 3 band EQ, gain and volume control. The clean channel has a mid boost button and the 2 drive channels have a shared mid cut switch. The master section has two sets of controls (one for clean and the other for the 2 drive channels) which include presence, FX mix and reverb.

This amp features two loops. One is a master loop for all channels and then dependant on how you wire the loop, it can be made assignable to only the clean or only the drive channels. Both loops can either be paralell or serial dependant on the FX mix. It starts as a paralell loop and if you turn the FX mix all the way to 10, it becomes a serial loop. On the back of the head, there are various extension cab options and a DI socket. The front also has a power reduction button to take the amp down to 25 watts and a silent record button. As for features, this amp has loads and if you need anything more this is surely getting into the realms of overkill!

I use this amp for gigging and rehearsals and both the 4 and 5 piece bands I play in (one of which is very loud), there's more then enough power. Marshall 100 watt heads are built to fill stadiums.

I mainly play with a 1958 Gibson VOS guitar loaded with Burstbucker #1 & #2 pickups playing mainly hard rock. This is obviously a very classic rock and roll setup and it's easy to see why this is so popular as it the Les Paul and Marshalls were virtually made for each other and sound awesome. I run this amp into an Orange PPC412AD 4x12 cab loaded with Vintage 30's at gigs and into an Orange PPC212OB for rehearsals, again, loaded with V30's plus various FX both up front (tuner, wah, tubescreamer) and in the loop (chorus, reverb, delay, tremolo).

As for other styles of music, as before mainly rock, blues and some pop and this amp covers those styles with ease. Being a 3 channel amp that goes from mild to wild, whilst it might not be the best amp for say country music, I'd dare say you could get a decent enough country sound out of it it you tried.

The clean channel is very good by Marshall standards, it's never going to be a twin but there's a decent amount of headroom and nice clean sounds can be obtained very easily without the amp breaking into overdrive if you keep the amps gain under half way.

The two drive channels is where this amp is really at. The crunch channel can go all the way to a very high gain sound and the lead channel even further beyond. There's so much gain in the crunch channel that I use it all of the time for my rhythm stuff and really just use the lead channel with pretty much the same settings and a higher volume for soloing.

Unlike most Marshalls, the gain on the drive channels is very smooth and VERY thick and doesn't have the horrible fizzy distortion of say a DSL whilst still retaining that very strong mid range sound that Marshalls are known for. One thing I will say, whilst this amp can cover right up to metal, some people moan it sounds thin. You need to get the volume above 4 on the drive channel and crank those mids before it really starts to come alive.

For some of the tube "purists" who moan about Marshall and this amp specifically using diode clipping(and all of their post jubilee amps), what I can't understand about these idiots is that they'll say it's not a pure valve amp but then stick a tubescreamer or equivalent in front of their "all valve" amp to get that thick distortion but sit happy at night, on the assumption they have an all valve tone. Guys, wake up! Marshall are using the same diode clipping that's found in a tubescreamer, they've just built it into the amp instead! It's no less pure then your "all valve" amp and pedal in front.

I'm still going to rate this as a 10 as like the description of a 10, it sounds awesome, however, if there is one let down in this amp, it's the reverb, it's just very lack lustre so I use an EHX holy grail in the loop (FX mix set to 10 so it's running in serial) and that sounds awesome.

Had this about 6 months and gigged the hell out of it. I bought it used and the guy before me gigged it a lot. So far, touch wood, not a single problem. The known weakness on these amps is the footswitch but the guy I bought it from had 2 so he gave me both and I accordingly have a spare.

Would I gig without a backup? Never. I've owned a few problem amps in the past and always take a 2nd head just incase (currently a dual rec but about to get another TSL 100 head) the worst happens.

I always get my amps serviced regularly as I probably do in the region of 60 - 80 gigs a year with them.

Not with this amp but as a massive Marshall fan, I've owned so many of their amps down the years and have had numerous dealings with the factory direct (being that I am based in the UK fairly close to Marshall).

Every time, I have dealt with them, Marshall's service has been superb whether I ring them, drop them a mail or just order merchandise from them. I've even had a few freebies out of their parts department a few times! Marshall know how to look after their customers (well certainly in the UK)

I've been playing for around 15 years and I've owned so many amps including:

Mesa Dual Rectifier
Mesa F50
Orange Rockerverb
Orange Tiny Terror
Marshall Jubilee
Marshall 800 / 900
Marshall Slash
Marshall JTM
Marshall JVM
Fender Supersonic
EVH 5150 III
Hughes and Kettner Switchblade

Whilst a few of these amps might have had one thing it did better then the TSL, the TSL overall I personally found is a much more flexible amp and more akin to my needs and style.

I'm about to buy another one for backup but yes if this were lost, stolen or damaged, I wouldn't bother going out and trying other stuff again (I've been through so many amps anyhow) and I'd just buy another TSL end of.

The thing I love about this amp is the amazing drive tones that are easy to coax out of this amp plus the overall flexibility. I wouldn't wish for anything more on this amp

I had it one afternoon... Seems to be versatile, has a ton of knobs&functions, quite confusing if you ask me.
Best thing is the parallel fx loops (one per channel) but you have to use a 100% wet effects device to avoid phase problems.
Noisy, rumbles constantly even with new tubes installed.

Let me clear, this amp ain't sounding good at all. Very slim, no substance, no dynamics either, it is a shame for Marshall.
And it squeals like a slaughtered pig (tried 12 quality guitars) with the gain only on 6 and the master on 4 (box is a 412 good tempered).
Unusable IMHO.
Now, if you need to be heard in a band this amp delivers since it's relatively clear sounding (no bass on its own, since you already have a bass player in the band no problem) and you certainly find your niche in the band. And with 100 watts you don't need to push it too far, which is always a good thing.

BUT, it doesn't sound like tubes at all, we are far away from a simple crate V1512 in the tone quality and lushness (15 watts or not).
So it is a major disappointment I find.

For the good it does, it is reliable. According to forums the switching devices inside can act but overall it is quite ok.

I am happy not to own this. It seems my line6 spider3 has more character in some sounds (I mean the structure), sorry guys.
In fact this tsl is not a proper tube amp at all, it has far too much transistors and op amps inside, no wonder it sounds so poor.
If you can have one for cheap and the tone suits you, then match it with a bass-heavy box and you could enjoy it for some time. The 5150 cab seems a good match (the sheffield are lively speakers, very good and organic).
I would take a 2266 vintage modern any day instead of the tsl... No multi channel, but good tone. Choose your team, pal!

This amp is pretty damn versatile. I can play ska, reggae, country, hard rock, and metal tones very easily on this amp. the only amp I think might beat this amp in versatility is the mesa road king, the mesa roadster, and the marshall JVM 410. all amps I like a lot.

I use several different guitars on this amp and they all sound great for the proper application.

in ten years that I've had this amp, it has broken down on me one time. keep in mind that the only reason it did break down is because a "friend" use my amp which is mono on a marshall 1960 cab set in stereo.
the repair was covered under warranty and I paid nothing to get it fixed, and then I got rid of the friend.
in ten years I've replaced the power tubes three times and the preamp tubes twice, and this amp still sounds great, even though i never had it rebiased.
and yes, I know what a good amp sounds like, I've been playing for 20 plus years.
the only issue I've ever had on this amp is the foot switch. they break fairly easily, but I've gotten all mine as free replacements from marshall via the warranty. since the warranty is only for 5 years, I guess I'll have to buy my next one, but I haven't had one break on me in 6 years now. the foot switch problem is the only reason i give this amp an 8 rating.

marshall has always treated my right with dealing with warranty issues. In the US you'll have to go through Korg, who handles marshall's warranty issues, just keep your receipt with your amp, and any marshall repair guy should honor the warranty. at least my repair guy did.

I've read some of the bad reviews on the TSL 100 and I felt I had to get on here and defend this amp. I've owned this amp since 1999, and it has always treated me well. I've played through all kinds of marshalls, new and old, mesa's, fenders, etc. and I keep coming back to my marshall TSL 100.
I been thinking of getting a another amp, either a mesa boogie road king, roadster, or a marshall JVM 410. I think the mesa's are made better, but I don't like the crap load of tubes in them. and I've had bad luck twice now with a road king. I'm not one of those guys that want to bad mouth mesa boogies' , I just prefer the marshall tone a little more.
I wish marshall would step up a notch on there quality, like the older marshalls were. but over all I'm really happy with their products.

This is an all-tube amp built my Marshall in 2003.
I play mostly hardcore and metalish-type music, and this amp works well without any pedals.
There are three channels, Clean, Crunch, and Lead. I usually use the lead channel, and it works wonders, from shrill pinch harmonics to thumping palm muting that shake your body.
This amp has a deep switch, which is much like a loudness button on a stereo, and a tone shift, which scoops the mids. I use both features.
It has a spring reverb, which is quite subtle.

I use a homebuilt guitar with a basswood body and maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. My bridge pickup is a Seymour Duncan SH-6, and that is the pickup I usually use.
It is a little bit hissy when you turn up the volume all the way, but it's not really bad, and you don't notice it when you're playing.
The clean channel is very bell-like. It does break up when it's played at VERY high volumes, but I have found that its not bad until you turn the volume past about 8. If you want Fender cleans, get a Fender. Otherwise, the clean channel is fine for most anything.
The crunch channel makes a very good vintage sound, I can get sounds out of it that resemble old style surf music.
I usually play on the lead channel with the preamp gain at about 8 or 9. At low volumes, the amp does sound plasticy, but when it is turned up past about 2, it sounds quite natural. This amp has enough drive for hardcore music.

I have had the amp for about two months, and nothing has happened yet. Just like all tube amps, it will eventually need re-tubing and biasing.

Never needed customer support. The amp originally had a 5 year warranty. Routine maintenance is not hard to do.

I really like this amp. I also own a Marshall MG100hdfx. The MG's sound is tighter than the TSL's. However, I judge amps on how energetic their sound is. Running both amps through the same cab, the TSL sounds like a floored car, whereas the MG sounds like a car with the gas pressed in quite conservatively.
I would definately buy this amp again.

This amp is NOT for people who are looking for a sound other than a modern Marshall roar. It should not be looked at in the same light as a vintage amp.

2005 marshall tsl100 head.3 independant channels.all tube.wish it had dual master volumes but hey...i got boosters.

I play hard rock, classic rock and blues.i have a prs singlecut,prs singlecut trem and a us strat.
I have never liked marshalls..ill state that right away.ive owned Engl's, Mesa's, peavey valve stuff, fender etc etc etc.I record through a podxt as its just so easy but have used the marshall once or twice and got very good results.
Clean channel is good but not fender deluxe good
Crunch is great..blues through to angus and more
Lead channel is good but could get fizzy at high gain.....even though i use little pre amp gain and lots of power amp squeeze.
I replaced the tubes pre and power, with eh tubes..no mods..the result was fantastic.No more fizz just great power and clarity..even the clean sound is miles better.
I now have a higher regard for marshall although i wish they made em sound like mine out of the factory.I have thought about downsizing to a 50 watt combo but every week when i plug in and turn up i just smile.The other guitarist in our band uses a dual rec with a boogie cab and a gibson Les Paul, people cant believe that my marshall sounds as good if not better!!!
Bottom line : its the guitarist not the gear!!!! If I use his rig I sound like me....he uses my rig...sounds like him! If eddie van halen used my rig...he would still sound like eddie!!!!!!
Gear is only a minor part of your tone.Learn how to set your controls to find your tone.8 rating cos the clean channel could be better.

Gigged it every week for the past 12 months.Only problem has been the input for the footswith came loose...5 minute fix.
I dont throw it about,drop it or spill my beer into it so i dont envisage a problem apart from valve problems but i change them every year anyway.Wouldnt ever take a back up as Im only in a pub/club band not Van Halen and I have to carry it and set it up!

never needed to contact them.

For me this works...may not be the best amp in the world but after trying other amps ,Mesa,engl etc this one works best for me and i saved a bundle selling my powerball to buy this.
Each to his own i guess

Lots of features, you can spend years figuring it all out

Clean channel is great. Lots of overhead. Thick too.
Crunch channel is allright. Very thick. Usually sounds like 80's rock unless totally dialed in. I always thought it sounded like Def Leppord or something. That was not what I wanted.
The led channel is like Kurt Cobain...and is prettty noisy.
The amp sounds nice...but really, its kinda plain.

Ive owned this amp for 6 years. Ive gigged quite a bit. This amp breaks down in an expensive way atleast 2 or 3 times a year. Its totally complicated amp to work on and few people qualify to fix it. Ive had people try and mess it up more, or fix something that ends up breaking something else. So much trouble when it gives you trouble.

Oh yeah, dont use the footswitch unless you want to break it. And they usually cost atleast a hundred dollars to replace if you can find one

nobody wants to deal with a jcm2000 customer. Wait and see..

Its okay while its working. Its pretty versatile. Its sounds good, not outstanding. If your not gigging and moving the amp around a whole lot you MIGHT be okay, but theres so much going on inside this amp that when something goes wrong...and it will, it really goes wrong. Dont let just any dummy try and work on this amp.

What a piece of CRAP! I am a repair tech and one of these came across my bench. What poor quality, but I was most appalled by the abundance of undersized and even unnecessary components that fail and cause severe damage to the really cheesy PCB. The PCB were so thin I was afraid of breaking them getting them in and out. They flex terribly and this is the main cause of PCB failure. the transformer appear to be pretty small for a 100 watt amp. And the design is a nightmare to service. Get a real marshall like an old JTM or JMP hand wired or even the early PCB ones are mich better than this CRAP.

Really not so good. If you ever heard a great amp like a Trainwreck or early JTM or JMP, Fender tweed etc.

Very Poor. open your wallet.

emailed Marshall for support , NONE EXISTENT.

how low can you go. I can't believe all the high marks people are giving this. Maybe they have no experience with a great amp. Or Marshall's Advertising works as advertised. They should their money into making amps not ads.

What a piece of junk, very poorly made and a lot of under rated components. Had a shorted C14 cap( that is a small ceramic that bypassed a 22 uf 450vdc power supply cap. Took out the whole power supply. Thing is there is no need for this cap at all! The cheapo PCB is toasted and the traces are burnt. Got it fixed but for how long?

Never buy this amp, oh , it really does not sound that good.

so so, try a real marshall or a Trainwreck, or a vintage fender .

VERY POOR !

emailed Marshall, NO Response!

-1 , only a sucker work own one of these.

Anyone who has looked at this amp will understand the complexity of the many knobs and buttons on the TSL 100. I count 21 knobs and 9 switches on the front panel alone.

It has 3 channels, clean, crunch and lead, which is plenty for me, I rarely use the crunch channel. There are loads of small useful features like a 25% power mode and an output mute for recording through the DI on the back.

This was sold to me from a guy who rented amps like this, and he said it was too complicated for someone to use only once, so he had to sell if for something simpler, so this does make me think; are there too many features?

First of all, I noticed even in power attenuated mode that this amp is LOUD. I've had this amp for about 4 months now and I have never turned off the power attenuation switch. Even for gigs in medium sized venues it's got plenty of volume at 25%, so maybe if you're just playing at home I would go for a TSL60.

I really like the clean channel on this amp, you have to push it quite hard to get it to break up, but it's beautiful when it does. I like to take a bit off bass out of my clean channel because it can be overly bassy and this can ruin the nice high end of this channel.

The crunch channel does what is says on the tin; it has a nice crunch to it. I don't use this channel as much as the other two but it's the easiest to work with. It doesn't take much tweaking to sound great.

I use the lead channel the most and this is the most disappointing for me. I've spent so long tweaking it to a good sound, it should be easier than that. The gain has a nasal frequency to it that immediately made me take away the high end. After a few weeks I realised that this wasn't the way to go and understood the distortion works well in a mix, but not always on it's own.

However, when you crank up this amp this channel begins to sing and all plastic nasalness begins to fade away.

Overall this amp is very versatile and I could almost guarantee you that you'd be happy with this amp whatever genre of music you play.

I have only had this amp for 4 months, and of course there have been no real problems, but there have been a few small ones.

The footswitch:
The footswitch itself is built like a brick s*ithouse and will NEVER break, but the cheap plastic cable that comes with it will. The footswitch stopped working on me mid-gig which was incredibly frustrating, however it seems to work fine if I loop it through the handle of the amp before plugging it in, the pins may not be aligned properly or something?

Also, there is a loose spring in the reverb unit, and this rattles whenever you move the amp. There is nothing actually wrong with the reverb unit, it's just a bit annoying rattling away while driving to a gig, and was quite an alarming sound at first.

But as I said above, these are both minor problems and overall this amp has been rock solid, even second hand.

For a while I owned this amp without a speaker cabinet, and decided to try and plug it into the inbuilt speaker on my AVT combo. I wasn't sure if the impedances would match up so I emailed the Marshall Customer Suport, and they came back with an answer 3 weeks later that was barely related to my question and didn't help in the slightest.

I emailed another two times and got similair answers (one being "you should not connect the outputs of the AVT or TSL to anything other than a speaker"), so I emailed the guy I bought it off and he gave me the all clear.

So this rather long and strange story is to say that from my experiences with Marshall customer support they haqve not been helpful at all.

However, saying this I've had friends who've sent amps off to receive them a week later fixed.

Overall I do love this amp, I believe I got a great deal out of it for ??320, and I play on it a lot. The small disadvantages don't outweigh the advantages of this amp at all and it is great for me.

However, if it were lost or stolen I think I would look at purchasing a DSL100 as I don't use the crunch channel that much.

I think this amp would be better if the gain was a bit more toned on the lead channel. I am planning to buy a graphic EQ to put in front of it, and I shouldn't have to do that. I still adore this amp though, and would reccomend it.

I bought this amp used and it's a 2003. I believe the guy before me had it in a head case so it looks like it's brand new. I play alternative and heavy rock music and I find the amp versatile enough to get all the tones I need. I like the independent reverb per channel feature since I only like a lot of reverb on the clean sounds. The FX A and B I haven't really found a use for yet ... maybe I'll play around with it and see what I can come up with. I love the VPR switch but It defiantly deadens tone but at least you don't deaden your ears while practicing because it is pretty loud. Why is the actual cabinet so huge though? Ow well ....

I use a Gibson BFG and a BC Rich platinum mockingbird. The FX I use are a EB jr volume pedal and an EB wah in line. Through the send I used a Boss CE-5, PH-3 and a DD-7. I can make very small adjustments with the FX level on the amp which isn't possible with other amps ... It's usually on or off. Im running the amp through an Orange PPc412 so the vintage 30's RIP! at first I found this amp a little muddy but I turned down the bass and hit the deep switch which seems to be a frequency below the bass in this amp probably at the 150 HZ range. Im not overly fond of the clean tones in this amp but I've tweaked it enough that I've gotten the sound I'm used to. Overall I like it

Haven't had it long enough for it to die. I know the foot switch midi thing is crap because Peavey already showed the world how much they suck. My only complaint is why the hell does a $1500 amp have plastic jacks? ... what ever

Marshall in my neck of the woods is hard to deal with directly. I guess I would have to deal with grant rustle of Ericson Music. He's a cool dude ... Marshalls don't break down very often so I think customer service is gonna be ok

I love it