Marshall JCM-2000 TSL 100

2004 model of the TSL 100 head. Features everyone knows about now, 3 independent channels, mute button, VPR etc. The amp is amazingly versatile, anyone who says the tone is weak or it sounds shit or there's no balls to it obviously is either deaf, a complete idiot, or listening to some bullshit band using mesa/boogie amps that just muddy everything up to cover up the lack of talent. The amp is loud as fuck, at band practise i run it at 25w on volume 7 and that's loud enough to cut through loud drums, a 300w bass amp and a PA system for the vocals. I ran it on 100w just to see the difference on the same volume of 7 and the floor was shaking. The amp loses no guts or clarity played on 25w, and has the advantage of allowing you to drive the valves harder to get that sweet tone Marshall are renowned for. The back panel has 3 output sockets, 1 for a single cab at 16ohm to run in mono, and a separate 2 to allow you to run a full stack at either 4 or 8 ohm. Also has 2 effects loops, one for clean channel and one for crunch/lead

I use a Tanglewood Strat copy, a 1994 USA 40th anniversary Fender Strat and a BC Rich NJ Classic Mockingbird, and this amp suits them all. The first 2 guitars can go from nice sweet bluesy sounds, crystal cleans, to balls out roar. The Mockingbird really brings out the rock-side of this amp, the twin humbuckers give that balls-to-the-wall Marshall slam you want, and roll back the volume on the guitar and it cleans up nicely. There's nothing this amp can't achieve, except for muddy fucked up sounds, which is great. Whatever your style of music, this amp is for you

Built like a tank, typical Marshall. I wouldn't gig without backups with any amps because anything can happen, from a blown fuse to a loose connection to a blown valve, so whatever my amp i always have a backup, but i have no problem is this amp on its own if i really had to, and at practises i only use the single one, and i trust it implicitly

Warranty is 90 days for valves, 3 years for parts. No problems yet so haven't had to deal with them, but i hear Marshall are great with customer support

I've been playing for 10 years, and i own a Marshall mg250dfx which muddied up when i turned it up, lacked any sound clarity, and was basically no good for a regular guitarist, but good for beginners or as a practise amp. If it were stolen i'd hunt the fucker down who did it and smash it over his head (because it weighs a ton) and then make him buy me a new one. I love everything about the amp, the only thing i dislike about it is that you can't switch from crunch to lead using the footswitch, you need to unplug the footswitch and use the button on the front of the amp. It's not a big deal because i won't use both channels in one song. Maybe it can be done another way and i just haven't figured it out yet, i haven't spent much time trying to figure it out to be honest. Overall the amp gets 10 out of 10 for having wads of features that allows you to do anything, being as solid as a rock and having the nicest sound you can imagine, no matter what your style of music

2004 Model.
It has three channels - Clean, Crunch and Lead - These are more than just channels though as each has it's own volume and tone controls with no master volume.
One great feature is the power reduction switch which reduces the output from 100 to 25 Watts for more manageable practice levels. A Much improved footswitch (an expensive extra on my beloved Engl Screamer) and bucket loads of classic rock tone.

All of my guitars sound great through this amp from the jangle of my Ric 330, to the growl of my SG and my Les Paul Doublecut with P90s. They all sound just as they should through all three channels. This amp does exactly what I wanted it to. I bought it because my Engl combo just couldn't cut through with a live band. I love the tone of the Engls, but couldn't afford an Engl half stack. Have not been dissapointed with the Marshall, It is not better or worse than the Engl - just different. The only improvement over the Engl is the volume level - this thing is LOUD (but it is 100 Watts compared to 50 Watts from the Engl - having said that, the Marshall manual claims 125 Watts). I play classic rock and that is the sound that this amp was built to make - perfection. It might not suit everybody, so shred heads should go and buy a Line 6 or some such modern monstrocity.

Seems solidly built.
Was worried about the foot pedal due to previous reviews, but that seems to have been fixed in late 2003 / early 2004 - the power of the people!!
Marshall are offering a 3 year warranty on the amp, so it must be reliable - they wouldn't do that unless they were confident in the product.
Hope I never need to find out how good the warranty is.
My only worry is the loud rattle that the reverb springs make when you move it.

Don't know - hope I never need to find out.

Have been playing for about 15 years. I use 3 Gibsons (LP Custom, LP Doublecut and SG Standard), Ric 330, Fender Highway Strat and an Ibanez EDR 470 (hate it). MOst of these are rock classic which suit the music I play (The Who, The Stones, The Darkness etc). This amp sounds exactly as I need it to. It lacks some of the warmth that my beloved Engl Screamer has, but is still an excellent amp. I have connected them both to the stereo inputs of my cab and invented a whole new tone - a blend of the best of both amps.
The best feature of the lot is the fact that each channel is TOTALLY separate - tone controls, volume, the lot. The Engl has different gain settings, but all of the channels use the same master volume and tone controls. Marshall have delivered the goods with this one. When I bought the Engl, I tried the Valvestate range which sounded like crap - I was pleasantly surprised by this amp and will cheerfully grind anyone who steals or damages this amp into pate.

By now, you guys know all the features but here is a quick rundown. It has 3 channels-Clean/Crunch/Lead. Independent Bass, Mid, Treble, Gain, and M-Volume for each of the 3. And 2 of each of the following that is shared betweeen the clean channel and the Crunch/Lead channels; Presence, FX Mix Level(2), Reverb, ToneShift, Deep Switch and on the back, 2 seperate send & return effect loop connections. There is also a "Mid Boost" button on the clean channel only. This monster has 100 Fu****n Huge Watts of power. There is a "VPR"-(virtual power reduction) button, that lets you cut the wattage down from 100 to 25 watts, to have the tubes being driven hard but at lower volume levels to get that, you know, "being pushed and punched" sound. They're a lot more features, but that is for another day. I HAD A DSL-100, the 2 channel model, but I disliked the fact that both channels shared the sam EQ, amongst other things. I definitley didn't have a problem with the DSL's tone or the sound, but the TSL looked more attractive with it's features, so I wanted to trade up. Plus the 2 seperate effect loops caught my ear also. The Triple version, has twice as many features as it's brother-the DSL, and before my 30 day trade-in policy was up, I went for it. I play and love several types of music such as Blues, Metal, HardRock, Classical, Jazz. I grew up with the Priests, Testaments, Maidens, etc, etc, on the Metal side. Older 80's stuff rules. IMO, there are no more good guitar players in this arena. Even Metallica's last album, didn't include any lead work! I think the hard rock and so called Nu-Metal of today suck. Nothing I hear presently floats my boat like the old shit. As far as other types, I love the master himself, HENDRIX, and he taught me (didn't he teach everybody?) the beauty of learning the blues as well as many other things. Anyone can wail and play fast, like that Swedish guy. But if you don't have any soul or "feeling", you don't have shit. "One night in San Fransisco" is one of my favorite albums to date, with Dimeola, McGloclin, and Paco DeLuca. Some of those tracks still give me the chills, and make me want to practice until my fingers bleed. They were really "in the zone" on that night. I like to blend all of my musical tastes, including jazz, and classical, and write or play my own Metalish, hard rockin type of stuff. That is not to say I won't play some classical or really cool jazz from time to time. And I am alway into playing some form of the blues. Whether it's BB King-ish, or Albert Lee-ish, or even Red House-ish! As most of you guys know, it usually depends on what kind of mood your in at the time.
This amp is capable of helping me achieve all my styles of music. But for my old Judas Priest older Metal type stuff, this thing RULES! KICKS MAJOR ASS!! Hey, even the new Pantera and/or DamagePlan stuff isn't to bad either on this thing. THE TONE IS GRADE "A" PURE MARSHALL. And I'm talking guitar-cable-amp, straight into the unit, nothing in between the signal, no processors or stomp boxes, nothing. The bottom line is that this amp can dial in ANY nasty/heavy distortions or hard rock Metal sound you can come up with. I think the clean channel is pretty good, good enough for me anyway, but I'm sure there are better "clean" sounding amps out there. In fact, duh, of course there is. Surprisingly though, I thought the clean channel was excellent for a Marshall. But if you're getting a Marshall, you're getting it for a reason. Especially with a Marshall 100 watt head! There is no other feeling in the world than plugging straight into a 100w Marshall head, (at least one M4X12cab)and feeling the hairs on your back and arms when you're power chording, wailing it, or just in your own zone. It's up there with sex. Not as good, but up there!

What can I say, FREAKIN AWSOME! I was very happy with the tone of the DSL before it, but like I said, the Triple model seemed to have more bells and whistles. On the DSL, I'd get a good sound on one channel, but when I changed the channel, I'd have to play around with the EQ again because both channels shared the EQ's. Not so with this, you can setup all 3 channels like you wish, and switch between them. One thing I was scared of with the TSL compared to the DSL was the tone. The DSL had awsome tone, and most people (including myself), thought the TSL model wasn't as good tone wise. Everyone said that the TSL's didn't give that "Marshall Roar" like the DSL could. I kind of agreed, because every time I tried a the TSL in the stores, the hi-gain sounded "grainy" and saturated, kind of digital-like compared to the DSL. Not as good Marshall growl with its destinctive tone and punch. Even a guy at Marshall told me that most people tell him that the DSL has more of a bite to it. Plus the "cleans" weren't that nice and sounded twangy to me on that channel. So I took the safe bet, and bought the DSL, beause I knew I wanted the best all-valve amp for the money. With the tones I was getting out of it, I couldn't go wrong with it. Classic & Mordern Marshall tones and worth my investment-(cause I'm not going to have the $ for another one). So, after playing the DSL for about a month, and dealing with it's annoyences, (not the sound), I took a chance and traded up for the TSL. I really wanted the 2 seperate effect loops because I figured I can put either my GT3 or POD LIVE on the clean channel, and be able to switch to either the Crunch or Lead channels for the staight no nonsense Marshall tones. Oh yeah, the 5 button footswitch vs. the 1 button the DSL had, was another point.
Well, when I got this thing home, I was very, very, happily surprised that I made the right choice. I thought I'd be bringing it back because the tone wasn't as good as the DSL, but boy was I wrong. I am so happy that I took this risk and love the TSL. The clean I think is great. I had it pretty cranked, and it still kept it's tonal characteristics, and sounded close to the Fender family line of amps. The reverbs could be a little better, but their not that bad. In the short time I've had it, I have to say that the Crunch and Lead channels are excellent. Marshall tone all the way. I can dial in differnt gain and EQ settings and get pretty much any sound I am looking for. From Metallica, Priest, the new crappy metal and anything in between. So far though, the Crunch and Lead channels sound pretty much the same to me. But the distortion is brutal, not "fuzzy" sounding like I thought. I don't know what I was listening to on the floor models I tried, maybe they were bad or something, but I wasn't at all disappointed with the gains, and tones of the TSL compared to the DSL. Now I'm saying all this, and I really haven't "cranked or pushed" the amp yet, so this opinion could change, but I don't think for the bad. You can get ANY Marshall sound from the past in this thing. From Plexi, to Super Lead jumpered, to a cranked JCM800-2203. Plus get Mesa/Solodanish, to a nice fender like cleans too! I absolutely love this thing and am so glad I made the right choice.

I heard some horror stories and that they had problems with the footswitches in the past on the TSL's. Before I got it, I called Marshall in NY. The guy told me that they fixed that in the later 2003, and 2004 models. So it was very important to me to make sure my serial number started with the 2004 numbers in which it did. Haven't had any problems yet-(knock, knock), but Marshalls have been around a pretty long time and I wouldn't think reliablitly is a problem.

So far, So good. Every time I needed to talk to a live person, I got one on the phone within 5 minutes. And the guy was always ready to answer any questions I might have. In fact, when I talked to him before trading up to the TSL, he told me that many people have told him, and feel the same way, that the DSL's have more of a Marshall roar and bite to them than the TSL's. But he also said that is a matter of opinion, for many top Metal players use TSL's in their rig, and by no means, is there a problem getting the most nastiest and brutal distortions from the TSL, as many Metal and Thrash players already do.

I've been playing for 24 years now, and I've been around a little. Guitar wise, I have Gibson Ace Frehley, Fender Voodoo, Jackson RR1, original-(early 80's) Charvel, Gibson Ionmi SG, original Ibanez Destroyer, and a couple of others including I think my fav, a Washburn Dimebag model. I have the Vetta head which in my opinion is one of the best setups money can buy, especially solid state wise. But I wanted the "best" tube amp to have the best of both worlds, and the TSL wins that competition hands down. This amp rocks and is so versitile for a tube amp. I can't wait till the wifey goes out for a couple of hours so I can crank this thing and see what it can really do. WFO-WideFu**nOpen baby! Like all valve amps, the harder they are pushed, the better tone and sound you get. Bottom line is this; The Marshall JCM2000 TSL-100 RULES! I would get another one in a hearbeat. If it were stolen, I'd shoot the guy with my Bushmaster or AK, and then play my little Marsall practice amp in my cell until I get out.

SORRY FOR WRITING SUCH A LONG AND BORING REVIEW, IT'S MY FIRST. I JUST FIGURED I'D WRITE CAUSE I READ THESE ALL THE TIME. I THINK THAT HC IS THE PLACE TO BE WHEN YOU'R LOOKING FOR ADVICE, RESOURCES, HC RULES!

You know what this amp has! 3 channels, each with independant eq, volume and gain. 100 watts of power. dual effects loops. 55 lbs, 22 kg... its fairly heavy, and the strap on the top is a practically useless feature, if you want to NOT bump it into doorways on the way through.

This is the tallest marshall head I've ever seen, and the only one I've seen that has vents in the top.

This is a newer one than my old one and the red power switch is pretty lame on this one. Instead of the deep red my last one had, it's kinda orangey and is my only gripe about this amp.

I was ROBBED about 7 months ago and was pissed off. Insurance reimbursed me and I have a new one. It doesn't sound the same. It sounds awesome, but not the same. Using the same guitar and pickups. I play every style concievable (like acoustic rock, rock, hard rock etc.) and play on many recordings both studio and live. I alsways get good tone with this amp.

this amp is reliable. I have used it on gigs without a backup, but since I have a halfstack I usually just take my combo mesa dc-5 for live stuff and use this for recording. It's live, so I'm not worried about having the best tone in thbe world although the mesa is a decent amp.

For recording the amp's DI is very useable, although I prefer micing it up.

The Marshall Distributer here in Canada which is Yorkville helps me with anything to do with this amp. When I bought my new 4x12 to replace the stolen one it just said 1960 lead in the corner, not jcm900 lead series so I asked them about it and they shipped me the older (and better looking) badge.

When I have contacted Marshall in the past they have sent me magazines, speaker cables, handwritten letters, they are just awesome.

I have been playing 11 years now. This amp really does it for me. I have heard bad reviews about it and I did have a problem with my old footswitch like other people did but it's a great amp. I really wish that the eq said what frequencies they controlled and the Q instead of "low mid high" because that doesn't really help when trying to use it in conjunction with a graphic eq.

this amp has the best features on the market today, save for anything by crate or peavey. i like to use the jcm (which stands for Juicy Crunch Machine) as a means to amplify my guitar (Samick all the way baby!!!) but i am sure it can be used for other things (i'm thinking of running my car stereo through it)
alls i can say is if you like rock n roll, look no further or maybe look further.

this is where the amp truly shines. it's sound. it's soundful without being too "soundy." you jewish guitar players no what i'm talking about. this amp makes my peavey sound like a crate when i a-b'd them. im not sure what a-b means and the manual that came with the amp didnt say anything. but i made up my own method of a-b, which i am submitting to the government for an authorized patent.
this amp snarls with a lick and a promise.

this amp has completely unreliable. but then again, so are mexicans, and we still use them right?

the customer support is Indian, like DELL.

i used this amp until it broke and then i used my peavey crate combo monster thing i built in shop class.
i'd buy another one though because i'm a shop-a-holic!

1998 year of make (or so it says), bought used (no user's guide or floorboard), this is my first all-valve amp. You'd know the drill by now: 3 channels with 2 separate eq's, scoops and spring reverb. A welcome feature is the valve-saturation button. 2 effects loops and emulated line out.
I feed it with Gibson and Fender electrics, and the sound flavour fits hand-in-glove with that of my Gibson acoustics. I've got a Boss/ Roland GT-6 that adds some sweet choruses and distortions that work immaculately with the amp. EQs and effects loops separate for each channel would have made it a 10.

A few words say it all: rich vanilla icecream. Now all of you who assume that a Marshall equals Plexi-style heavy and aggressive distortion are gravely misstaken. I use mine with a vintage 1960A that delivers a smooth, bell-like valve sound. Think old-school rock and blues. Yes it has to handle some sound volume to ring out fully, but I must say the VPR does a good job adding valve saturation at lower volumes. It never sounds harsh, just different degrees of sweet.
When distortion is turned on full lead, the sound really gets messed up, but the sweetness never dies.
Suppose I'd want some overpowering dist I'd buy an aggressive top. Another genre, another amp - if you want a plexi, buy a plexi.

It's currently awaiting a change of valves as the pre-amp has begun making klicks and noices when slightly pushed. I've only used it about a year and it has worked impecably thus far (apart from the worn out valves). Never had it on a gig, but it's clearly built to last.

As above, no problem so far.

I would not sell this piece of tubing for all the whisky in Scotland. If I was to part from it I'd buy another one just like it.
I compared it with some U.S. made tops and the Marshall Mode 4 top, but the JCM 2000s were above the competition.
I wouldn't say metal is a suitable field of use for it. However, if a sweet, warm, fuzzy and likable valve-sound is what you're looking for, a JCM 2000 will do it for you.

everyone should know by now what this thing has!

This thing is bone crushing!! if you can't get it to sound good; you simply don't know how to set up a guitar amp.
I've had this for 3yrs now and i'm blown away each time i turn it on.
i'm playing this with an Engl vintage 4x12 and it's huge

footswitch died on me too, but that's ok coz i'm now using midi :)

have had no probs with the actual amp itself though

overall this amp is great for hard rock, jazz.. you name it.
If you like the sound of marshall you'll love the tsl100.
it kicks absolute ass!!

Mine is made in 2002 I think. Very versatile, can do any sound you wanted to. 3 Channels, like the other reviews msut be great to have the EQ separated on the crunch and lead channels. I'm a weekender and the power is enough. All pure tubes sound. I think Marshall is gaining their reputation on this one.

Humbuckers are married with Marshalls everybody knows that. So for this Baby I use Les Paul Customs. Although Strats with Lace sensors works fine too.I play variety but right now we are in Classic Rock (from cream to G&R). Its the cleanest Marshall sound I heard and I own JCM800 1959 and JCM800 2203.They are all good amps but not as quite and clean like this one. The lead channel can carry all metal sounds. The distortion is amazing just lower the mid for those alternative and grunge sound.

I just had this for 2 months bought it second hand in Japan from a recording studio that used it 3 times total of 16 hours. No comment yet

Never dealt with them . I'm in Japan

I've been playing profesionally since 1975. I'm 47 yrs old now. about 28-29 years. From 1976 to 1983 I play 5 days a week at least cause it's my Job. I'm a Filipino Band playing 6 months contracts in Japan. I think I'll beat most of the guys if you talk about experience. Music is Bread and Butter for me. I'm a real musician. I love this amp for it's versatility. I also have Peavey Classic 120 amp with Rockmaster Pre amp , Mesa DC-5 which is also versatile. JCM800 1959, JCM800 2203, Musicman HD130 I have a 2 Parker fly, 2 American Standard strats one is stock and one is Jeff Beck style Ultra , 2 Les Paul Customs and for Cabinet I have 2 Marshall 1960A,one with G12M & one with Vintage 30. But here's the secret since I love this site I will share this. This amp came with crappy EL34 stock tubes and it sounds Bity and harsh that's why the Studio sold it. I happen to have spare tubes in my house for backup and one day i decided to experiment and change the tube. I switch the tubes to Groovetubes C and I was amazed. It sounded fantastic Do this and you will be surprised!! I did not re-biased the tube yet but it sound excellent now. marshall should change the stock tubes to Groovetubes. I am not working with groove tubes. In fact these tubes were just my spare cause they sound bad on my other Marshalls. Also they are quads I bought from Musiciansfriend a couple of years ago. If you have one of this amp you should replace the tube. This amp is a keeper for me and it sounds good at Bedroom levels unlike my other amps. All amps are good if you take time tweaking them. It took me 3 years to appreciate my Mesa DC5 I almost sold it. The bottom line is "Know your Gear" buy professional stuff, do not use digital pre-amps they sound like computer sound cards beleive me cause I had a couple of them when I was doing solo gigs with a sequencer. But thats another review.

Head is a TSL 100, 2004, 3 channel, Great clean, Sweet and low Crunch and Lead channels.More than enough Power.

Use a Gibson Les Paul and SG through it. What can I say but Great sound. The Higher the volume, the better is sounds. That Marshall Roar sounds great through the 1960TV cab. Yes it does have a THD hot plate. Would tell you to buy one.Clean is fabulous, and the crunch and Lead channel are all Marshall.

HOPE the foot switch does'nt break from other reviews.No problems yet after a week or so, 20 hours runnin.

Recommended a hot plate, bought a THD,Thanx ED.

It's the sound I've air guitar'd for. Only a Marshall. Now its me. Go buy one and set yourself Free.

One of the best sounding amps i've ever heard. I play rock, metal and blues and this amps covers every style perfectly. I also play some jazz (very little) and it sounds amazing aswell. The clean channel produces a very large sound and fuck it's clean. The crunch sound is more for a tradition blues sound and the lead is for a full on blues. The fx loop is really handy for soloist because u can adjust the volume so when u turn it off it goes back to full volume and u can break out into a sexy solo. The amp has a xlr line output which run into my comp to record. The virtual power reduction is very usefull for bedroom usage aswell.

I use an Ibanez RG570 with IBZ v7, v8 and s1 pickups. A vantage with god knows what pickups and a Franpton with seymore duncan lil 59's and JB JNR pickups. I use a korg AX1500G and a morley bad horsie 2 wah. The ibanez through this amp sounds just like steve vais on an album. The louder u crank it, the better sounding it gets. Persnally i use it with the gain around 5/6 and the master volume around 8 while jammin. It sounds so sweat yet dealdy and is perfect for jaw dropping solos. The vantage sounds soo grunty and with a pair of Zakk Wylde extra low strings u get the best sound Godsmack/Black Label Society sound from it. It has alot of deliveramce which is important when playing with a loud drummer.

I would never think about taking a backup amp to a gig. It has never let me down and i don't think it will. The only problem i've had was with the footswitch, the crunch channel button stopped working but the warrinty covered that. No problems besides that.

Everyone knows marshall and would probably deal with marshall. Customer support is not hard to find.

I have used olid state amps b4 this amp and the difference between solid state and an all valve amp is breath taking. Valve is alot more clearer and has a lot more grunt, more balls. I compared the amp to some other amps such as Ashton, Peavy, Laney, Randall and other Marshall all valve amps. This amp was the right value and had the sound i wanted. I wouldn't buy another type amp ever i don't think. It sounded great and looked sweet. If it says marshall on it, ur only gonna get quality.

see other reviews

it sounds amazing...i play a fender strat with SD hotrails in the bridge..SD classic stack(middle)...SD lil 59(neck)...this amp lets u hear the differances between pups, woods, technique better then any other amp...it sounds so alive...the clean channel is super clean and warm...the crunch channel is perfect for classic rock(AC/DC) or turn up the gain and u got a very dave mustaine like tone....the lead channel....o dear god..insanity..perfect for grunge,hard rock, metal...anything..this amp can reproduce any tone uve ever heard and it also lets u come up with any tone u can imagine


btw i use a marshall 1936 cab

when i first pluged the footswitch in it didnt work right..then i unpluged it and plugged it back in and it works great

marshall customer support is ok\

amazing...the best amp marshall makes by far....go play/buy one

Alright, I already subitted a review for this amp but I completely screwed it up, so here is a new good review.

The amp was produced in 2003. The amp is extremely versatile for what I play, I play anything from Deftones-ish metal (lead channel) or any type of Weezer sound after the Blue Album (crunch channel). The amp has 3 channels which are Clean, Crunch and Lead. All which are footswitchable and they have all got separete EQs. The clean channel has reverb/presence/loop level controls and Crunch and Lead have got their own controls also. (same as clean) It has two effects loops, effects loop one is global when not used with the other one or you can use effects loop one for clean and effects loop two for crunch/lead. It does not have a headphone jack but it does have a V.P.R. switch which is good for playing at low volumes, but I don't like it all that much I'd much rather turn up to 5-6 and get the full feel, the V.P.R. switch is too fake. to be precise this switch is a 25-watt valve powered amp emulator. I wish the amp had a master volume control and separete presence controls for the crunch and lead channels. But what it has now is good enough for me. I use this amp in my basement, practice basements for two different bands and I have gigged with it. It has more than enough power for me. I usually practice with the amp volume at about 4-5. Gig with it at about 6-7. Don't need to mic it but I prefer to mic it. The amp also has a XLR output but I have not tried that yet. 100 watts all tube - 4 x EL34 and 4 x 12AX7. 16 ohm single cab or 4 or 8 ohm parallel speaker outputs. Reverb and effects loop are footswitchable. The Clean and Crunch/Lead channels also have a deep switch that adds a resonant bass boost. I have them both on, much more bass with these on. Also, the Crunch and Lead channels have a tone shift button for reconfiguring the mids for more metal tones. The clean channel has a mid boost switch that makes it sound very warm and mid-rangey.

I play a Mexican Strat with a Blue Lace Sensor in the neck Gold Lace Sensor in the middle and Seymour Duncan Hot Rails in Bridge, Brass Nut, 12-68 guage Elixer Baritone strings. This guitar is tuned to C G C F A D. It sounds fantastic with this amp on any setting. Amazing crunch and chunk from the Hot Rails, if you have a Strat but need a humbucker sound get one now, it's a great pickup. I also have a recently purchased new American Telecaster. This guitar sounds very nice for rock, not a metal guitar, period. That's what my strat is for. The Tele is a bit too bright for me, mainly the bridge but I love the neck pickup but I can't stand the hum but I am about to correct that with the purchase of a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails or a Little 59 for the bridge of that and a Vintage Lead Stack for the neck. Because I need hum cancellation. The lead channel suits my style perfectly with both guitars, but I really cant speak for the Tele until I get the new pickups. So, so far the strat suits me perfectly on the Lead Channel. For this channel I have a searing high-gain, metal, deep resonant crunch. The settings are as follows:

Gain: 8.5
Bass: 9
Mid: 2
Tone shift switch: on
Treb: 8
Presence: 7.5
Reverb: I dont use reverb that much but I have it set at 6 and use the footswitch to activate it when needed.

As for the crunch channel, I have a very gruff, heavy, mid-rangey, smooth, buttery overdrive setting:

Gain: 10
Bass: 8.5
Mid: 6.5
Tone shift switch: off
Treb: 7
Presence: Same control as Lead Channel
Reverb: Same control as Lead Channel

The Clean channel has a very, very nice Clean sound. Many have said that they hate the clean on this amp. I love it. Very bassy room-filling clean I have it slightly dirty:

Gain: 8
Bass: 7.5
Mid: 4.5
Mid-Boost switch: off
Treb: 8.5
Presence: 8
Reverb: 6

The clean channel is mainly set to suit my overdrive pedal which is an SIB! Varidrive. This pedal is amazing by the way, the most, tearing, saturated, chunkiest metal overdrive I have ever heard, knocks down a Triple Rectifier. No joke. This is not a metal pedal though. Most play it through a Fender Twin or other non-distorted amps. But the way I tweaked my clean settings makes it metal sounding. Aside from unholy metal. I like the Lead channel more than this pedal, it's good for once in a while use, thats why. I usually don't play stuff THAT heavy. Anyway, back to the Clean channel, the setting for the pedal sound is very, very nice when not used with the pedal, in other words like I said before, Very nice clean. This amp is not noisy at all, whoever thinks it is is an idiot or they care way too much about minor noise, it is perfectly quiet for me. I already named all the sounds (I'm sure there's more.) Like said before, clean channel distorts, very saturated distorton, not a Recto or anything that heavy but it is still perfect for me.

Heres the thing, the footswitch broke after a months use. That seems to be the case with all of the TSL 100s. The amp also came with awful tubes. I retubed with Ruby Svetlana EL34s and Sovtek pre-amp tubes that I ordered from Mesaboogie.com and lo and behold it sounds 100% better. The footswitch is the big downer though. Bad tubes was expected with an amp shipped from England then ordered online.

I called about the footswitch. They were very nice and covered it under warranty, I sent my faulty one in and they sent me a new one in 3 days. It has not broken yet, and I got it from them almost 5 months ago.

I have been playing for 5 years. I also own a Marshall AVT 20. If it was stolen I would get a Marshall JMP-1 preamp and a 9200 or EL34 100/100 poweramp. But I don't have the funds for that right now so I'm all set and perfectly happy. I am going to get a used Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier for some heavy metal tones because thats practically all that they're good for from what I've heard. I have heard horror stories about Mesas breaking down and sounding muddy. The Triple Rectifier that I played sounded great, all metal, nothing else, kind of disappointing at that. I'm not worried about it breaking down as long as I have the TSL100 with me. anyway, I'll use the Dual Rec for some metal tones and keep the TSL 100 for the crunch that I get now. Overall after my footswitch and tube replacement the amp is fantastic and delivers a fantastic sound.

I got this amp brand new this past January; Jan 3, 2004 to be exact. The stock tubes that came with this amp were awful. I re-tubed the amp with Sovtek preamp tubes and Ruby Svetlana power tubes I and had it professionally re-biased and now it sounds fantastic, you can really get some extreme volume out of it not to mention that unmistakable Marshall crunch/roar. The amp has 3 channels, Crunch/Lead/Clean. You can go from crunchy warm overdrive on the Crunch channel to searing high-gain on the Lead channel. Both channels sound like two different amps which is fantastic, both with a "tone shift" button which reconfigures the mids for more metal tones, I use this switch on the Lead channel, and it sounds very, very heavy when activated. The Clean channel provides some very glassy, smooth tones and the Clean channel has a "mid boost" switch, but I never use that because it makes the sound too warm and high-mid for me. I use one overdrive/distortion pedal and it is an S.I.B. Varidrive and the Clean channel compliments it extremely well, the bass is huge on this channel when used with outboard distortion, which is perfect for what I play, it is a very heavy-metal sounding pedal. The amp has reverb/presence/FX mix controls for the Clean and Crunch/Lead channels, I wish that the Crunch and Lead channels had separate reverb/presense/FX mix controls but it's not really that major of an issue with me. The amp has 2 effects loops, Effects Loop 1 is for the Clean channel and Effects Loop 2 is for the Crunch/Lead channels. If you use only Effects Loop one then it will act as the Effects Loop for both the Clean, Crunch, and Lead channels. Each loop has a loop level switch which should be depressed when using pedals and depressed when using rack gear. It has 3 speaker outputs, 2 of them can be switched between 4 or 8 ohms and one is solely reserved for use with one 16 ohm speaker cabinet. The amp definitely has more power than I need. I can play an unmiced gig with the amp at about 4.5 - 5 so it definitely is loud enough. A master volume would be nice though.

I use this amp mainly with a Fender Mexican Stratocaster with a Seymour Duncan Hot-Rails in the Bridge, Fender Blue Lace Sensor in the neck, and a Fender Gold Lace Sensor in the middle tuned to C G C F A D, despite the fact that it is a Mexican guitar it can still rock really hard. I also use a Fender American Telecaster with stock pickups, the clean channel on the amp really needs to be turned up for the Tele though. I play anything from Deftones ish metal to Weezer rock. The amp like I said above can do just about anything from warm crunch to searing metal to glassy clean. The Clean channel distorts when you turn the gain up to about 7 and it can really distort when you turn the volume up to about 7 - 8. The amp overall is perfect for what I play. One time I used the effects loop and there was a slight decrease in volume, but that could probably be corrected with some sort of pedal similar to the "MXR Micro-Amp."

When I got the amp like i said before the tunes were awful, but and I fixed that problem, it is kind of inevitable to get a tune amp off of an online company and have the tubes be shot, I was kind of expecting that. Anoother thing, about a month after I got the amp my footswitch failed, I was supplied with a new one under warranty and it has not failed on me yet. Other than those two things I have not had one problem with the amp.

I called about the footswitch and I sent in the faulty one and they sent me a new one in 3 days. They were really nice about it too.

I have been playing for about 5 years. This is the only amp I own besides a Marshall AVT20. If it was lost or stolen I would probably aim for a Marshall JMP-1 with an EL34 100/100 power amp, I would also be pretty upset that it was stolen but I think that the Marshall rack gear is the next step up from my amp because the TSL 100 is just about the biggest all-valve head that Marshall makes. I compared it to a Mesa Triple Rectifier which when I played the rectifier I was very pleased with it's tone, but I later decided that it was a far bit to heavy sounding for me so I decided to stick with the Marshall, a much more versatile amp. There is really nothing at all that I dislike about this amp.

Packed with features

The best sounding amp I've ever owned.

The clean is beautiful. The middle channel is very smooth. The red channel is nothing short of raw power.

This is where the amp flops. Marshall blew it here. The footswitch jack is mounted directly to the printed circuit board. There is nothing else supporting it. Mine was in the shop about 3 times before I gave up on it. When I got rid of it the fx loop no longer worked and could not be repaired by my local service cinter. Someone offered me a Les Paul Standard in trade and I took it.

Any amp that doesn't last is worthless.

2003. PROBABLY AS VERSATILE AS YOU CAN GO. FROM BACH TO PUDDLE OF MUD.
CLEAN CRUNCH AND LEAD, FOOT SWITCHABLE, 2FX LOOPS. USE AT HOME AND IN THE STUDIO. VERY POWERFULL, PLAY THROUGH 1960 4x12 CABINET. A WIRELESS
FOOT SWITCH MIGHT BE COOL.

USE A 20 YEAR OLD CUSTOM SHOP LES PAUL STANDARD, 500T BRIDGE AND CLASSIC NECK PICKUPS. THIS IS THE MATCH. THIS MUST BE THE BEST MARSHALL HEAD AT THE MOMENT. DOES EVERYTHING ANY OF THE OTHERS CAN DO.
THE DSL AND MORE. THE REISSUES THEY MAKE ARE EXPENSIVE AND REALLY
FOR GUYS THAT LIVE IN THE PAST AS THIS CAN DO EVERYTHING THEY DO AND MORE.THERE IS ENOUGH DISTORTION FOR THE DISCERNING EAR ALTHOUGH MORE REVERB ON THE CLEAN CHANNEL MIGHT BE NICE. THE CRUNCH CHANNEL IS MY FAVOURITE,THE TRADITIONAL MARSHALL SOUND. SOUND IMPROVES WITH VOLUME.

SO FAR SO GOOD

BEEN PLAYING GUITARS OF ONE KIND OR ANOTHER FOR OVER 40 YEARS.
ALSO OWN A FENDER DUAL REVERB. I WOULD BUY IT AGAIN IF IT WERE STOLEN.

blah blah blah NOT VERY SIMPLE AT ALL!!!!!! im not an idiot, but lemme tell ya, it sure aint easy havin all them damn knobs and buttons when youre already half blind.

hmm...where to begin?
1. Overpriced sounding...what i mean is, it isnt THAT versatile. sure its got three channels, but...they all sound the same (except clean)...thin...sterile. not very...nice.
2. not very marshall sounding to me. to me, marshall sounds...green. like a green british sound. but...the clean does i quite nicely. i was impressed as usual. i borrowed this amp from the store. hahah. i haggled, and got to take it home for the weekend. the distortions to me werent all that...great. i never buy an amp for distortion in the first place. i look for amps that project sounds nicely, and truely. as opposed to the usual "nu-metal meets bluegrass with a hint of in-your-face folk grunge". i get myself a nice modded overdrive, and darn near fry them tubes. its the fact of projecting sound im looking for, they sound worse loud. mine also had this weird swelling thing going on. not too cool if that would have happened during a gig. not that bad sounding...just not that good. i play iron maiden, vai, becker, SRV, megadeth, satriani, malmsteen, and ritchie blackmore. distortion was weak, and very much uncalledfor. i stick to plexis. 1987, or 1959. keep em clean, work on them fingers...

eh...its alright...but still i wouldnt trust it for a gig without a couple backups. shouldnt have to have back ups in the first place.

i dont know, never called em...

WAAAAAY too much. at this point, youre paying for all the knobs and the label. kids dont know the difference, thats mainly who they market to. all the "gunslingers" of guitarists in the early days of metal kept it simple. well...sort of. alot of slps, alot of cabs, and a couple of guitars. as opposed to hundreds of dummys, and a crap load of guitars. but, its all opinions. so...dont take this too much to heart. i love marshall, theyre my number ones! but, this amp didnt do me any justice. just not a good model. give marshall time, maybe they might come up with something better than an slp!

Superb, what more do you need? clean, crunch, lead and reverb.
(reverb could be a bit better i suppose) but hey the other features more than make up for that.
ROCK!

I have a Gibson SG Standard (which will die with me), boss DS2, NS, CE5, CS3, Vox Wah Clyde Mccoy, and an Ibanez Tube Screamer.
My first amp was a marshall mg100hdfx, i know, i'm sorry but i did'nt have enough money for a REAL amp.
First time i used my TSL in the studio i sat it on top of 4x12 and plugged my guitar straight into it, i tried all 3 channels, WOW.
Clean was superb, bright, clear with a gain knob to give more edge, but it was the crunch and lead channels that really did it for me.
I mainly use the crunch channel for my distortion and the lead for a bit of soloing.
From then on i decided to take the DS2 and Tube Screamer out my loop, i may try them later but i feel i have no need just now.
I play any sort of rock music i like and am able to do, acdc, thin lizzy, jimi hendrix, stereophonics, oasis etc...
This Amp ROCKS

No problems so far.
ROCK solid

Never dealt with them.

I was almost put off this amp by other reviews on this page i wish people would have the patience to work on their sound. i find i hard to belive you cant get what your looking for from this amp.
i on the other hand like marshall and have the patience to work on my sound, if i wanted a mesa, vox fender etc.. amp i would go buy one and work on it. If you dont want a marshall amp then dont buy it, easy.

All guitar players know that patience is the key to success, please, work with amp and you will not be dissapointed.
If this amp does'nt ROCK its because you not ROCKING it.
End of story.

TSL 100 - 2001
I play in an original giging band that mixes up our sound alot. Our styles range from alternative to metal to punk to grunge to classic rock to pseudo-jazz (basically all types of rock music). Obviously the three channels with independent EQs are a great for the types of music we play. The amp has all the features that I was looking for; it is a great amp. I personally think the VPR is great, because how many unsigned musicians playing club venues need 100 watts? Of course the VPR forces an adjustment of the EQ so don't expect it to sound the same with VPR and with out.

I play a Gibson Les Paul Studio and a 57 Fender strat re-issue. Since we play thick distorted drop-D songs and then switch to a jazzy-loungy sounding song the amp needs to be malleable. The TSL suits this need greatly. If you don't like playing around with EQ at all don't buy this amp. Just go out and buy a foot switch then you can just press a button and imitate your favorite guitarist.

The marshal crunch channel is excellent and the Lead channel is great - yes you metal heads can pull back the mids on the lead channel some to get you know ... that sound (but obviously you don't want to kill the more traditionally marshall crunch sound). I think the clean channel is pretty good (you can get alot of different sounds with adjusting the gain, mids, and highs) but the reverb is only average. I really think the thing that often sets the sound of amp's clean channel apart is the reverb and for some reason nothing has ever compared to the reverb of my old Fender Amp. So yeah I'd like a better reverb for the clean channel.

I've upgraded the preamp tubes and thought it improved the overall sound, but I thought the svetlana power tubes were fine.

I have a major problem with the foot switch and also the build quality and design methodology of the TSL head. I could make a big list but the one that tops the list for now is why have the 6 pin din connector for the footswitch in the head free floating on the circuit board. Absolute madness. Spend an extra buck and bolt it on to the housing. I'm sure that they had to make some cost tradeoffs to get the amp sorta-reasonably priced, but come on that is such a ridiculous excuse.

Anyway I determined (for now) that the 6 pin din connector on the amp was fine - clearly I will need to put in a better connector at some point but I left it as is for now. So I checked the foot switch and found out that it was problem (note: the circuit board in the foot switch is silly thin - it is meant to be stepped on right?). To make a long story short I ended up cutting a larger hole in my footswitch putting in a 6 din receptacle (I am so thankful for companies like mouser : http://www.mouser.com search for 6 pin DIN) and making a few of my own cables (I used switch craft 6 pin DIN plugs and CAT5 cable which has 8 wires and is kind of thin, but I couldn't find a lower gage flexible wire with 6 inside) for my foot switch. For those who gig often I would seriously recommend considering improving the foot switch and making your own cables. How many of us has never had to replace our qrt-instrument cables???? Maybe you are more careful than me, but in reality it is only a matter of time.

Also a side issue is that I find I need to rebias the tubes more often that I have with other tube amps that I've owned.

Aside from the build quality issues and the typical foot switch problem it is a truly great amp. If you need 3 different sounds and you want almost complete control over those sounds this amp really is tough to beat.

Mine s a 2002 model. You know all the effects. Too many too list! The only feature that's stupid is the VPR "power reduction". I don't know about you guys but I don't like "simulated" sounds on my all-tube amps. Maybe on a MG-series...but why waste your time with that garbage. Yuck.

I used mine with either a 2000 Gibson SG Special or a 2001 Gibson Les Paul Classic. I had it for about 4 months and I did not enjoy it. First of all I play metal, like Iron Maiden, System of a Down, Killswitch Engage, the Agony Scene, etc. Overall, the sounds I got were thin and lifeless. My lead tones my okay but only if I used the rythm pickup. But still, the leads were buzzy and not pleasent. Not like a Mesa Mark IV which just plain SINGS. The clean was actually very nice. The reverb was also great. But bottom line, this amp didn't cut it for metal .Not ballsy enough. And waaaaaayy overpriced. Do yourself a favor and get an older JCM 800, Mesa Mark IV, Peavey 5150, Engl Powerball, or Peavey Triple XXX. Those are all EXCELLENT amps.

It worked fine for me...it got REALLY hot though...I could see where all the complaints about them overheating and dying come from.

Don't Know

Don't get it. The distortion sounds (if yu play metal like me) don't cut it. I always had the gain dimed on the lead channel with all the tone shift buttons in, and with the bass and treble maxed, and only then was I able to obtain a "brutal" distortion. That just didn't seem right to me. I don't like paying nearly two grand for an amp a feeling like I can't touch the contrlols because it will sound awful. That just sucked. Overall, the sounds were too thin, buzzy, lifeless, and lacked dynamics. It certainly doesn't have the power of that Mesa/Peavey XXX or 5150/ Engl "wall of sound" that is so savage and just puts a smile across your face. THAT'S what metal is supposed to sound like!

I paid $1350.00 for this head and love it. It sits on top of a four speaker Marshall 1960 cab. Wow!

Had a DSL prior to the TSL. The DSL crapped out on me so I upgraded to the TSL. Am not sorry that I did. I have played Les Pauls through it, SG's and Strats. I get all the rock sound I need and the clean channel really gets along well with the neck pickup on the Strat. I love that "Fender" blues tone and the Marshall satisfies me.

Like the others before me, I replaced two of the pre-amps 'cause they crapped out on me after about a years playing. I replaced them with Groove Tubes and holy cow can you tell a difference! The sound quality was instantly noticeable. MUCH better. The amp was hotter, louder, had more tone, more crispness and so forth. Whatever it was before when I had to old original tubes was multiplied several times over when I put in the Groove Tubes. Other than that, it's held up okay.

I've only been playing for about 6 years but I have had many guitars. If it were lost or stolen, I'd get another one tomorrow...and replace the tubes. I like the flexability and the tone from all three channels. There's not much I do not like about this amp. Hauling the thing around is a pain but that goes with the territory. It's a bit on the pricey side but so are the Mesa's and others.

Made in 2004 All tube, 100 watts, 3 channels, 2 reverbs ( one for clean & 1 for Crunch and Lead channels, 2 effects loops, separate eq for each channel, deep switch, mid boost on clean channel, tone shift/mid scoop on crunch and lead channels. Plenty of power.

This amp sounds great on each channel. I play everything from jazz to blues to classic rock, hard rock, metal this thing covers it all. Not noisy at all unless you max out the gain on the lead channel which is normal. Retubed with JJ E34L's and ECC83S pre amp tubes. This really makes the amp shine. The stock tubes are crap and are not biased correctly from the factory. Mine were at 117 mv per side, they should have been at 85- 90mv. After biasing it sounded better, but after the retube the amp sounds like it should... a friggin' Monster. Been trying an old RCA 12ax7a from the early 1960's in the V1 position and this really makes the amp more robust and increases the sustain even more. Bottom line is that this amp rules.

No problems at all. Gets a little hot on the top due to the tubes, but that's all normal. I never gig without a backup so it's not an issue for me.

Got a response from Marshall tech support same day.. maybe I'm just lucky.

I've owned plenty of tube amps, digital, and solid state. I only own tube amps now. This amp absolutely rules. Buy one now.

You have read the features elsewhere, but here it is again!
4 power amp tubes, 5 preamp tubes
3 seperate channels, each with gain, volume, treb, mid, bass
Reverb and Presence knobs (one each for clean, one for both dirty channels)
100 watts, 120 watt rms output.
Dual effects loops, with an fx mix knob going from completely series to entirely parralell, and even a combination of the 2.

This is my second review, the first was probably 3 or 4 years ago.

I am just checking up to say it still kicks ass!

The clean isn't the cleanest, but it has enough headroom to break through in a live situation (a bar, woodstock etc)

The best part about the clean is the fact that if you crank the gain, it's like you are playing through a JCM800!!! Awesome ac/dc style crunch. A/B with a better clean amp, and there you go, everything you need.

I used to find that the eq wasn't versatile, but since I traded my effects unbit away I have been forced to use the eq on the amp and I must say that I probably didn't realize that the gain controls are interactive. Very nice smooth eq.

The crunch channel = rock heaven
lead = metal or lead. I keep the gain around 4 on this one and still get that "bark at the moon" sound.

Only problem I have ever had was a blown tube. I replaced them with some groove tubes and the sound was way better. Those stock tubes are the devil. I still haul my little mesa dc-5 around for a backup, however it has only ever been a spectator at gigs.

They are on and off. If I go to my local Marshall Dealer, I get great service, but if I contact them directly they either respond right away or so late I forget what the question was.

I have been playing for 11-13 years or something like that. I use a gibson flying V and occasionally some other guitars.

I'm giving this amp a 9 here because I am a firm believer in the KISS method (keep it simple Stupid!) True is has many features, but it doesn't have you scratching your head to get a good sound out of it like other model amps such as Mesa.

One thing you need to know about this amp....IT IS VERY SENSITIVE TO THE GUITAR AND MODS YOU USE. Things like condition of strings, quality pickups, tubes, etc. all take a role in the sound. I have an Ernie Ball Luke guitar with stock EMG 85 in the bridge and it sounds awsome. People have complained about the clean but it's good enough for me. My style of music is mainly fast, agressive modern rock, and this amp suits my style fine. The lead channel is very brutal with the right guitar setup...so keep in mind you may have to upgrade your gear to get the best sound out of this amp.

I can't really give this amp an opinion here. Let's just say that one time it fell from the cabinet and it wasn't smashed and still worked for a little while....and the fottswtich never gave me problems....but friends of mine who have this amp tell a different story...so good luck if you own one.

Haven't dealt with them...yet.

great amp, great features, and very simple for me.....it is my first tube amp to own, but I have played many others. This is my favorite and suits my sound perfectly.

the only thing marshall should have added to this head is a switchable boost for the channels (yes you can use the loops but then you cant use effects), a fourth channel and then you would have to give a 10

this is what I wanted to add too, I've played the TSL100 in both the US and the UK and the US. You need to do a couple of things out of the box to this amp just to get it right.Change the preamp tubes!!Marshall dont seem to get good grade preamp tubes, go for JJs they are excellent. Also have a tech check the bias and make sure nothing has come loose inside. Yeah you shouldnt have to do that but I found a number of loose items needed sorting to the US model but none to the UK model.
Like other reviews the bias is key though I think the svetlanas are great tubes.
After all this work these things sound great (though when recording I use a fender twin for clean, TSL for dirty,a mesa mk3 and VHT for layering) and the three channels cover most things.
I used a mesa dual rec head for a while but found it didnt cut through in a live environment and wanted more of a classic rock sound.I'll give it an 8 as it doesnt sound as good as using single amps but does a great job

I've gig these heavily and had them check out straight from the box. They are flight cased straight away and I re tube after about 50 hours of use. I always have a second amp but have never had a problem with this amp. Like I said, get it checked out ASAP as in the US the model I got (brand new) had a few loose itms. I'll give this an 9 though that is because they are checked out first

having lived 1 hour from Marshall in the UK I have to admit I've found them great. In the US I have a tech in Milwaukee who can manage anything and have not used a marshall service center. Anyhow I'll go with the UK rating as I've delt with them direct on a number of vintage stuff and they have been top notch. You can also have a factory tour whilst your amp being serviced (though you have to book this)

I gig alot so this is a tool of the trade, I look after my kit (you have to if you want it to survive tours!!) and this gives me the sound I need. I'm not saying this is the best amp in the world but it suits me fine, has been reliable, is easy to get a hold of and has the versitility and tone I'm looking for

- 4x EL34 output valves and 4x ECC83 preamp valves

- Footswitchable Accutronics Spring Reverb with Dual controls (one for Clean, one for Crunch/Lead)

- Individual Presence controls and Deep switches for Clean and Crunch/Lead channels

- Two Parallel FX loops (footswitchable)

- XLR DI output featuring Marshall's acclaimed speaker emulation, allowing direct connection to recording or PA mixing desks without the need for microphones or DI boxes

- A Power Amp Mute facility for silent recording via the built-in DI

- A ruggedly built, 5-way LED footcontroller which gives you the ability to switch between the three individual channels, plus switch the Reverb and the two FX Loops on/off

- An innovative Virtual Power Reduction (VPR) switch which, when engaged, emulates the sound and feel of a 25 Watt valve power amp

This was copied from the Marshall site. This amp has everything i could ever need. I could've done with a headphone socket just to put the icing on the cake, but what's here is all good!

I am using this with a Charvel Predator with Seymour Duncans through a wah pedal into the input socket. My main style is definitely metal, but i mess around with others all the time, never had a problem getting a tone i want. I have the clean channel set up with a warm, smooth clean tone, the rhythm channel with a sabbath/zeppelin/acdc tone, and the lead channel is total megadeth/dream theater. It is noisy, but i'm sure this is my choice of pickups and lack of noise gate, as i've played through this with a BC Rich Beast with two EMG pickups with no noise gate and it sounded fine. It sounds okish on low volumes, you won't feel it smack you in the face till it's past 3, but thats just what valve amps are like. The clean channel can dirty up with a change of settings, i can basically get any tone i'm after somewhere on one of the channels. There are many features to tweak your sound, the deep switch and tone shift switches can really metal up your sound, but can also be used to fill out your tone at low levels. The rhythm channel has enough distortion for most, i'm not most! You decide!

There's mixed opinions on here i've seen, it's strange because all the good reviews have come from the UK, and the bad ones from the USA, i dunno what they're like over in America i've never been, but here in the UK these things work fine. God knows why this is i can't say, but mine hasn't broken yet, i dunno who deals Marshall in America, Korg i think i've heard, but mines all good. Buy your Marshall from the UK!

Never dealt with them, although i've heard similar things about this as i have reliability issues, with a USA/UK division of opinion.

I have been playing for 5-6 years, and this is my first and only guitar head i've owned, so i can't really compare, but it sounds good to my ears anyhow. If it was stolen, i'd be gutted, i'd buy it again definitely. I'm thinking of buying some rack gear as well, but the head will always come first. It is annoying about the headphone socket absense, as if you want this thing to really hit you, be prepared for angry neighbours. Still though, this thing screams with my charvel and wah pedal, it is the exact tone in my head, which is a rare discovery as most guitarists know! I compared this to a hughes and kettner warp 7, and a peavey xxx, and chose this from pure versatility, i wasn't disappointed in the slightest. Anyone who thinks Marshalls can't do low end or metal without pedals, you're clueless!

Its a beautiful amp with so much versatility. the clean channel is totally un-Marshall-y, which is why i bought it - i'm more of a fender-sound freak, and the amp does that beautifully! the gain channels (both of them!) are absolutely incredible for sheer gain and volume.

hmmm... the only thing here is, dont even try using it quietly! its one of those amps that will NEVER sound good until cranked (and i live in a block of flats... :( !) but once you get it up there, it is unmatchable! the 1/4 power switch is a cool feature. i only gave it 8 for this section cos i mainly have to practice quietly.

ive actually had quite a bit of trouble with this one. its very temperamental, but other people are well and truly impressed with the reliability of their own tsl. from time to time, it won't even switch on, which is a pain in the butt.

the guy from rock dog amps did the servicing for me. he's brilliant, its the best service ive had of anywhere! he was the sort of guy who you can tell loves his job! of course, not all amp techs will be like that...

ive been playing 13 yrs, and its the best sounding amp ive had to date. its my first stack, and will probably be the last, as im a small bloke and i cant carry a quad around particularly easily. i wish i'd got the 2x12 combo! other than that, the amp is beaut, but i think anyone considering their first stack should think carfully about size and weight. i didnt, and ive had heaps of trouble! basically, the size/weight and reliability lose it the marks.

Mr "Apple" (below) says that he measured the amps output to be 49 watts (VPR mode) and 117watts (full power mode) using a "watt meter".
This method is flawed for a few reasons:
First he "cranked the amp" for the measurement.
When you do a load test on an amp you measure it at the point of clipping or at a certain %THD (Total Harmoic Distortion) -%5 is a common value used. All amps put out signifcantly more power when driven into clipping (distorted) than when they are run linear ("clean" tones).
Second the signal has a power factor by it's nature (speaker load) and this also has to be factored in when using a Watt meter hooked up to a speaker load. However this isn't as big an error factor as running an amp into it's non linear regon (distortion) when measuring out put power.
The proper way to measure output power is to supply the amp with a 1khz sine wave, turn the tone controls to their most linear position, hook the output to a resistive load, and measure the voltage across the (known) resitive load using a Scope. Adjust the gains and master till you reach clipping or a %THD to get the amps maximum "Clean" output voltage across the load. Then you do the math (using the rms voltage and resistive load value).
If "Mr Apple" had used this method I think he would have found that the amp does produce power close to what Marshall claims for both modes of operation...

Il suono e 1. Se ti piace Marshall ok altrimenti evita. Non punterei molto sulla versatilita.
Per quanto riguarda switch/loop/jacks e completo.

Suonato con Peavey Wolfang EVH. Genere A-Rock.
Nessuno dei tre suoni eccelle per qualita e potenza sonora, il crunch e il peggio dei 3.
In generale, secondo il mio parere, manca molto di pienezza/sustain

Nessun problema avuto. Minimo!!

Nessuna esperienza di riparazione.

L'ho suonato per 1 anno per poi passare ad Orange.
Se adori marshall ok altrimenti con i soldi comprati qualcosa di diverso. Per qualsiasi genere.

This is the latest of this amp I got it in may of 2003 and I think I have been playing with it long enough to talk about it with others. First of all I choose to use a super modified Mexican Stratocaster because Americans are too bright for me. I enjoy all of the features of this amp. It would be nice if the amp had a separate reverb for each channel but oh well what can you do. I enjoy the stock tubes on this amp. I wonder if i will ever change them, I honestly kind of enjoy the sound of a tube that has been played through too long. It?s almost been a year and they still sound great.

I combine the neck and middle pickups on my Stratocaster and go through the crunch channel and I believe I have the Hendrix tone with out any fancy compressor?s, limiters, gates, maximizes or any of those goodies. Though I will say you should try this amp playing with the PB100 power break and really crank those tubes. Because I play in a mellow indie band I feel I am the only person posting here who is not 30 years old or older and loves those 80's ripping solos. I am 15 years old but I am not spoiled getting this amp. I have played for 9 years and I got into one of the best music schools in the world for guitar The North Carolina School of the Arts. But I live in San Francisco now and play in a band called Go Go Nasty come check us out www.gogonasty.com, back to the amp, here are some tips for the amp. I like turning the trebles down and the mids up. I don?t really like the deep switch but it?s a cool feature. The VPR really doesn?t cut it for me. Everyone says it cuts your amp to 25 watts but I cranked the amp and put a wattage tester in. with the VPR (virtual power reduction) on and the volume all the way up the amp was running at 49 watts and 117 without the VPR on. Maybe I have an exceptionally louder amp and a off scale VPR but I believe it switches the amp from 50/100. This would be great for when you record and really want to turn it up to get the tubes warm.

Well I can say this amp is a tank but the footswitch broke 2 weeks after I bought it. And for all of you that don?t know why and decide to spend weeks calling Marshall I can tell you HOW TO TEMPORARILY FIX THE FOOTSWITCH! Here is what the problem is. Open up the footswitch and you will see the long green rectangle panel with 5 black boxes solder to it. You will notice where the black box connects to the metal button by a very flimsy piece of metal with two teeth on opposite sides. What happens is if you press the button two hard this piece of metal detaches itself from the button and you might notice it does not make the "click" a button does when you push it down. Before one gig I stuffed a t-shirt I ripped up and stuffed it in with the footswitch under the buttons not in-between them. That will break them. This will help you for a while but you will eventually have to replace it. Just don?t step down to hard and you wont have a problem. Also the cord attaching to the footswitch is not a good cable. It is one of the cables Marshall uses for wiring their amps and it is just shrink wrapped. If you ever cut it open you will even see there is an extra brown wire that is there for nothing. When I pulled this out I noticed a lot of buzzing left. Maybe you should try it. Just cut the cable (I thought the cord was too Long) and pull it out. I am researching other footswitches that may be compatible. I have heard a mesa 3 channels may work because they have 6 prong inputs as well. I will inform everyone if they do though I doubt it. To those of you that hear that cowbell noise when moving the amp around, IT IS OKAY it?s just the reverb not the tubes. But the reverb is a problem on this amp. You may notice it does not work sometimes. Here is what to do. Open up the reverb unit. (Take off the two RCA cables first one is black and one is red) and you will see 4 springs behind a box (I forgot where it is just look for yourself) when the 4 springs are all not touching each other the reverb does not work. Simply setting the amp down can detach them. I usually just tap the grill in the front because that is where the reverb unit is a big rectangle in the front behind the tubes. YOU CANT MISS IT its the only thing made in the USA. Hitting the two ll's in Marshall seems to do the trick for me. I also believe in Re biasing this amp. When I got it the biasing was really off. I wish that Marshall would take the time to correct them considering there the ones making the amp and they are also giving the recommended levels you would assume they would be sure to put those into place (90 mv).

I definitely have to give a 1 on this. I have called korg usa and left so many messages. They close at 5 and out here on the west coast that is 2 in the afternoon. And they are not open weekends, which put?s a big hassle on me to get in touch with them. I have left a total of 7 messages, 2 letters. I did call one day I was sick and not in school. I got a machine and they put me on hold for 20 minutes, then I talked to someone and they told me the footswitch had a 6-month warranty. Thanks Marshall and Korg usa I CANT WAIT TO BUY ANOTHER PRODUCT FROM YOU!

You know I gave some 8's 9's and 1's but ill have to say this amp really does do the trick for me. I have played on most Marshall amps in production and I believe the only other amp that comes close is the 1959 that amp is pretty cool. Feel free to email me guys I am a pretty knowledgeable guy on this amp. I have been studying and playing on it every day since I got it. I can honestly say that I am really happy that I bought this amp. I have a secret too I bought it from musician?s friend without playing it just because I had heard how amazing it was. I also knew Marshall was closing down the British factory and making the ?super factory? in Korea too keep up with the supply and demand. You should hold on to this amp or any British made Marshall head now because they will have significant value later. British amps being made in sweatshops by needy Asian kids. HMM I predict some quality and tone going away.

It's got everything you could want feature wise. If you want FX then there are two loops that can be set for rack or stomp box levels. I've rated it a nine as a global master volume would be very useful.

Prior to this amp I gigged extensively with the combo version the TSL122. Obviously the 4 x 12 cab makes a difference but even I was surprised at how different this amp sounds to the combo. My cab has V30 speakers whereas the combo has one V30 and one heritage. Maybe this is why?? Anyway this amp can do most things except a great clean tone. The clean channel is very warm but if you are after blackface type tones then look elsewhere. If you wanna rock however then just flick to the crunch channel. Angus Young? No prob. Blackmore? Page? Hendrix? It's all there if you look hard enough. This amp does the just breaking up thing really well. Sweet.

The tone controls are effective without being severe. The lead channel is a beaut. Loads of gain and not much noise. I use a Strat with a Dimarzio VV Solo pickup in the bridge and this is a great halfway house between single coil and humbucker tones. I've noticed that there is more reverb available on the crunch and lead channels than there is on the clean. I don't know why this should be but it was the same on the combo.

I have noticed a vibration on these amps. It seems to come from the transformer. I'm not sure if it is the mains or the output tranny. It is a physical vibration rather than anything that comes through the speakers. Not really a problem unless you play very quietly in which case you bought the wrong amp.

The 1/4 power switch (VPR) is useful but if I were to be picky I would point out that wbhen you engage the VPR the tone loses a touch of top end. Similar to turning down the presence. The tone shift feature gives a scooped tone if thats when you like but to me it seems too processed sounding. I prefer a balanced tone for classic rock anyway.

My amp has the original valves still in place after nearly four years of use. They will not get changed in the near future unless one blows as I've noticed that the amp seems to have "matured" ie the tone has just got sweeter and sweeter as time has passed and right now it is really in the zone. I know that I risk a failure and it could convievably take the tranny out when it goes but I'm not losing these sounds for anyone. I've tried the Line 6 amps and the Roland / Boss amp sims and nothing that I have tried comes close. Maybe in 5 - 10 years when the sampling rates are much higher they will get it - maybe. For now valves are the only way to get the tone. I have rated it at eight for this category due to the mediocre clean channel. If I was rating only crunch and lead channels it would be a nine or even a ten.

I've read the remarks about the footswitches here. I have not had any problems in this respect with either this unit or the combo version. Hint - do not wind the cable around the footswitch when packing down. This will put a strain on the cable where it runs into the footswitch itself. Zigzag the cable in the same way it was originally packed loosley. The socket is weak but if you know this then treat it accordingly.

People who rate valve amps low for reliability due to issues with the valves themselves are, in my opinion, misguided. If you buy quality valves and treat your amp with care it should be reliable. Nothing is 100% in this respect but look at the alternatives.

Never had cause to complain so I can only gues what their customer support is like. Generally it seems to be something that we don't do very well in the UK.

You know pretty much what you are going to get with a Marshall. Everyone knows the tone so you either love it or you dont. If Marshall could improve the clean channel then this amp would be all you would need. EL34s are not known for their clean tones so I don't really know if Marshall could do much better with the traditional "brit" valve. As it is the bottom end is always a bit "woolly" on this channel and the reverb lacks depth compared to the crunch and lead channels. In fact a bit more available reverb would be a good thing anyway.

A head and 4 x 12 cab takes some shifting around but you just can't get the same tone from a combo. OK the TSL122 is close. The Boogie F50 is a great amp but neither of these amps sounds as "big" in a live situation. I'm not just talking about volume but the way the bottom E hits you in the chest, the way the tone spreads around the room, the effortless delivery. The midrange seems to blend in better. The combos that I have mentioned are not boxy sounding as such but that is the closest analogy can come up with. You dont get this with the big cab. Even the top end seems sweeter. Is this the V30s? I don't know. I rate it at an eight overall, points being knocked off for the clean channel tone and the weak clean channel reverb as well as the absence of a global master volume.

Plenty of versatilty here

Modern Marshall all the way

Foot switch cable seems to be the problem here. I have replaced the conector once and still had a problem, so I change out the connector and the 7 wire cable and WOW no more problems.If you are going to do this make sure that you use a quality cable and connector, I used a 6 wire shielded cable @ $.23 per foot and a $3.29 connector, Marshall doesn't seam to think they need to do this. I cut appart the old connector and to my supprise I found cold solder joints and bear wire on all 6 connections......BAD NEWS and the wire looked like somthing you would find in a cheep toy. Now I just cant figure it out, even if you get this amp at a deal new your still going to pay around $1,100 U.S. why can't they spend $10.00 more on materails and do away with this issue...? Hey Marshall where is your R&D department I think some firing is in order.

I didn't even bother with it so I'm not going to rate it.

This is a update on a post that I made back on 12/10/03 I think I have had this amp long enough to make a fair posting. On avarge I use this amp 6 hours a week. Over all this amp has a good fundemental tone, cuts well and has great versatilty. How ever if you had to rely on this amp to make a living I think you would go broke, or at the very least pull you hair out. I think untill Marshall makes some improvments on there design, there are better amps out there for the money.

This is an addendum to the review I submitted before. If you recall, I bought this amp brand new. It died 3 weeks later with gewd aweful sounds coming out of the thing whenever I hit a note. I returned it and bought a Mesa Dual Rectifier. At first I loved it. It was solid. It had features, so many features. I played out with it for one gig. I hated it. I guess I'm just a Marshall guy at heart. I could not get rid of the heavy bass of the Mesa. It had way too much bass and the amp didn't cut through the mix like the Marshall had. I brought it back to Guitar Center and had their guitar techs try everything they could to tone down the bass (it was on zero). We tried 3 more Mesa heads, 3 other cabinets, a different guitar, etc. I couldn't get a good "chunk" out of it when palm muting. Very muddy.

So, they brought out my VooDoo Marshall and said they couldn't get it to fail. Hmmm. I plugged it in and it started cracklin' again. Gee, that didn't take long. I plugged in, hit a chord and it went nuts again. "See!" I told the guitar tech, "I'm not crazy! Listen to that!" I stopped playing and he immediately went over and pounded his fist on the amp (not too hard). The amp went nuts. The more he pounded, the worse it sounded. He said, "It's a loose tube. Good thing we caught that before we sold it to someone else, because we couldn't get it to fail. Someone played it for 4 hours and it never failed once." So, they boxed it up and sent it right back to Marshall for repair.

I guess I just happened to buy a lemon. Must be rare because all these artists out there wouldn't be using Marshall if they all broke down like that!

So, he ordered a brand new one from Marshall and it arrived in about 8 days. I unwrapped it myself, opened the box, plugged it in and it sounds fantastic! I even pounded on the top of it, just to see what would happen. Nothing but a little reverb noise, which is expected.

So, I'm back to the Marshall and loving it.

In fairness, however, I still stick to my original review that the Boogie offers more options and more features. But in all honesty, once you select the sound you want, those features are useless. You flip one switch this way, another that way and you leave them for the lifetime of the amp. Even though the boogie has more features, I would personally not use them after the original setup.

I do wish Marshall would include a cover for the amp (like Mesa does) and a footswitch case (like Mesa does) and a more adequate manual (like Mesa does).

Because I realized I wouldn't use all the features of the Mesa, I'm bumping Marshall's score up 2 notches on this category.

It sounds like a Marshall. I still don't think the clean is as clean as it could be (breaks up when you turn up). But Marshall isn't known for clean and it is by far the cleanest I've ever heard a Marshall. If you need to be *that* loud, then mic the damn thing (which we do). I still say the built in Powerbrake (VPR) stinks. Good for bedroom levels but sucky live. The clean is a joke in that mode if you want volume.

If you like Marshall sound, then you won't be disappointed.

Considering my first one died in 3 weeks, I gave this a low score originally, on a sample of one. Now I have another one and so far it's fine. The guitar center said that they haven't had any returns (except mine). I guess mine was a fluke. At least they took care of me. Oh, and there's a 5 year manufacturer's warrantee on them now. Even if the footswitch flakes out like people have stated, it's all covered. I'm increasing the rating for this category since the new amp hasn't failed and all my past Marshalls have been solid. But, I always carry a backup amp to gigs, just in case.

Same as my last review. Customer Support was excellent.

Been playing 16 years. Overall, I'm bumping up the score again since the one that died was a fluke. I'm so much happier now with this amp than with the Mesa. It sounds great, it cuts through the mix and the band members like its sound a lot better than the Mesa.

It was made in 2004. Has all the bells and whistles... you guys know anyway...Loud loud all tube marshall power

I use a Les paul, a 7 string Ibanez with tone zone 7 and air norton 7 ( check'em out, they rule ! ), a custom warmoth and plan on getting more. It sounds great in every style I had a change to put it against...rock, blues, metal, funk, pop...you name it...I did sessions a couple of months ago with it and it really got well. I also have a flextone IIHD which is good, but it's a different animal, this one's got "THE" tone, the one everyone's looking for. Once it is correctly biased and setup of course. YOU MUST BIAS IT RIGHT !!!! I just plug a G-major in the loop and I'm all set...I used to have racks and stuff but now it's just those two and a pedal board ( GCpro voodoolabs ) and an expression pedal+ a wha ( either the good'ole Dunlop or a charlie stringer Whine- O )

I always gig with a backup ( usually a POD or a line6 amp ) but so far so good, never forget murphy's law though...

never dealt with them, probably won't. Customer service is not dependant on MarshallInc in my area

I've played for 18 years ( 10 as a pro on & off ), It's the best marshall head I've had so far and it's the 6th ! None has broken down on me ( except for tubes, to be expected IMO ), all sounded good but this one stands on its own ground. No need for a small analog comp od OD to smooth it out, just a good multi FX in the loop and off you go !

Bought it in February of 2002. The most versitile amp I'VE EVER PLAYED. Period. I play everything (classical, bluegrass, jazz, rock, blues, metal, shred, you name it) and this amp handles all the electic guitar stylings I can throw at it. 3 fully independent chennels with switching. 2 FX loops, emulated line out, deep switch, mid-shift switch, VPR ('virtually' cuts the wattage from 100 to 25 watts), the whole 9 yards here. I use all the features except for the 2nd FX loop and the reverb . . . and that lousy VPR. The VPR is good if you want to play in your bedroom by yourself. However, the VPR sucks tone like you wouldn't believe and I have no use for a device that sucks tone. Marshall can leave that at home. More on the reverb later. I only use this amp for gigging and occasionally at rehersals. More power and features (100 LOUD-AZZ watts) than anyone could possibly need. I sort of wish it had a master volume or some sort of internal attenuator (VPR is close to this, but kills tone) 'cause this beast gets really loud - but sounds best with the volume knob over 5.

LP Custom>>morley bad horsie>>boss tu-2>>ibanez turbo TS>>rocktron deep blue chorus>>boss dd-6>>jcm2000 tsl100>>4x12 w/Celestion v30s. I cannot say enough about how much I love this amp. The bands I am currently in play classic rock/hard rock/modern rock/80s-shred metal/nu-metal. OK, OK, rock and metal. This head absolutely RIPS the skin of faces (mine, the audience, the sound guy, the club owner, bouncers, bar tenders, everyone).
Lemme say this however; When I first bought this amp, I hated it. The floor model that I tried out at the shop was rippin'. I played it along with the DSL100, Mesa Double and Triple Recs. In the store, this was the best amp. Hands down. But when I took mine out of the box and fired it up, it sounded awful. Thin/buzzy/no bottom/too middy (not muddy)/and no ballz. I thought maybe because it was so new, the tubes needed to break in a little and the sound would improve. No such luck. I tried attenuators, o/d pedals, different cabs, different guitars. Nothing helped. I was about to throw in the towel. Then, after a little research, I decided to replace the stock tubes (pre and power). Took it to my tech who also replaced some transformers and caps. It's like he shoved godzilla in my amp now. This amp is the nastiest (nastiest meaning best . . . like Janet Jackson nasty) thing I've ever heard. The only noise (minimal) I get is from my signal chain. I can deal with that. I've never had a complaint from any sound guys so . . . we're cool there.
Clean channel= sounds like a heavy'd-up twin. I can dial in full/warm or bright/chimey. Just fiddle with the EQ a bit. Toss a little chorus in there and I nail that British 'stone roses' clean sound. Before my tech worked on it, the clean was weak with not much character. Now I love it. Clean stays true even at high volumes. I attribute it to the re-tubin'.
Crunch channel= sounds like a modified plexi married with a jcm800. This channel really shines. The overdrive is oh-so organic and punchy. Think early Joe Perry meets Angus Young gets mugged by Adam Jones here. By far my favorite channel and most versatile. Can go from mildly broken up plexi-type warmth to all out "cornbread-fed" marshall chaos. Throughout the entire gain spectrum on this channel, the sound is just awesome. I usually keep the gain around 4 or so to get that mid 70's/early 90's type dirt. Again, sounded like a wool blanket was over my amp before the retubings. Now, I can't get enough of this channel. Without a doubt, the most articulate amp I've heard when gained and pushed as hard as I push those el34's. The decay on it make me weak in the knees. Falls out nicely with great over/under tones. Perhaps the LP has a lot to do with that though.
Lead channel= You want to melt faces? Well, here you go. Hold on tight players! The lead channel absolutely SCREAMS. Harmonics fly out of this channel. Like a pissed off spitting cobra . . . or something. I've watched people pee themselves when they get hit with my lead channel LOL!! Seriously though, with the deep switch in you can dial in anyone's nu-metal tone (if that's what you dig). Doesn't sound like a Dual Rec (all that headroom) as the marshall is a touch more compressed (el34s here) and smooth however, the TSL has ballz to spare in this channel. I set the gain to about 6 to 7 and I've got Kerry King, meets Kurt Hammet, jams with Dave Navarro ('Nothing Shocking' days [he's kind of lame now]) on demand. The palm mutes on this channel hit you right in the focking sternum. Feels good ya know? Not to beat a dead horse, but this channel sucked until my tech got a hold of it. Dig into an open E chord and point to the sky!!

Sorry, but this thing has crapped out on me during live performances. I gigged ONCE without a backup and it fried that night. I was ready to smash it through the floor. I do not leave home without a back-up you better believe that. I've heard other owners have had reliability problems. However, I've also heard others have had no problems at all. I let it warm up and cool down properly and always handle it with care. But I've blown tubes and have fried trannys and fuses a handful of times . . . always at the worst possible moments. Maybe I don't get it rebiased as often as I should, but blowin' thangs every 6 months? C'mon! I had never run into this problem with the other amps i've owned. Also, the reverb tank stopped working after a few weeks. I didn't like the reverb anyway, so insted of getting it fixed, I just threw a EH holy grail in the FX loop. Perfect. If the amp did not sound as good as it does, I'd buy another amp. But it just sounds too good to let go. This amp gets about 10 - 15 hours a week on it. Yeah, the footswitch is as bad as everyone says. Out of the box, the fx loop button didn't not work. BUT, my tech fixed it up and said that the problem was with the cord and not the switches. The switches are actually very modern and high quality. But the cord is shite and that's where all the problems happen. Pretty soon I'll need to buy another footswitch 'cause the cord is starting to get a little short with all of the dead spots that need to be cut out of it. Again, sorry . . . but every time I turn this thing on, I'm praying it doesn't die on me. Because of the footswitch and my anxiety, reliability gets a 5. It really hurts me to say that.

I called them once about a perceived problem with my footswitch. They never called me back. I'm leaving this rating blank because I cannot go on this 1 experience alone.

I've been playing for 24 of my 33 years here. I've owned a lot of marshalls in the past (800's, 900's, reissue plexi's) but this one is by far my favorite. If it were stolen or lost, I'd either get another or look into a 3 channel Dual Rect. I love the sound because it sounds like the tones that I've heard in my head for so long. You can honestly dial in any marshall sound that you've ever heard . . . except for Eddie's brownsound . . . but hey, do you know any amp that can? I also love the features, I use about 90% of them. Only someone like Fripp or Belew could use or need ALL of the features. I love the responsiveness of the EQs and gain knob. Sit down with it and mess around with the EQs to learn it's sweet spots. Thay are in there, you've just got to cull them out. Those that say "this amp sucks", I question the amount of time they've spent with it and what they are trying to accomplish musically. I HATE the fact that I feel that this thing will blow at any minute. Perhaps I need to be better on the maintenance. So take that for what it's worth. This is a great amp for rock. This is a great amp for metal. You better be an accurate player 'cause this thing is articulate as hell. If you flub a note, your audience will hear it. If you are an accurate player, this amp will make you SHINE!
Bottom line; Best sounding amp I've ever played - after the retubings. It acutally inspires me to play and has made me a better player. I'm not kidding. Because of my opinions on it's reliability, I cannot give it a 10. So it's gets a 9. Hurts to only give it a 9. Listen, get one, swap out the stock tubes, put on your safty harness and helmet, and stand back. You will love it. If you "love it loud".

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I use a japanese ibanez with emg pickups and an LTD esp v 250 with emg hz pickups.
I think that it's very suitable for my taste....
I can play different styles without adding effects....
From jazz to rock I found it perfect...

mmmm....

I can't say.....

Reading other reviews I'm waiting something.....

I bought it in 09/2004.. I hope they fixed everything...

The warranty in Italy last 2 years.
I've never needed to call them.

Very gooooood head!!!!!

I like it very much.

I think I could buy another one if lost.

Read all the other reviews for features. I was always a Marshall guy, but after comparing this to the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, I think Marshall is lacking...

What can I say? It has the Marshall sound, which I do love. It's not quite the same as the older Marshalls, but you can definitely tell it's a Marshall. The clean channel isn't quite so clean at volume, however. If you play live and want to match levels without mic'ing, then your clean isn't going to be very clean. Forget about the built in Power Attenuator. No way you'll ever get a good clean using that option, unless you play at very low volumes. But if you like that Marshall overdrive sound, you should be happy.

This is where it falls apart, unfortunately. After 3 weeks of using it (6 hours a week), it started to do volume swells. Then it stopped and went back to normal. Also, upon powering up in standby mode, a nasty crackling (like a dirty pot or someone plugging in their guitar while the amp is on) came out the speakers. But it was in standby! Nothing should be coming out of the speakers! Okay, so maybe it's just a design fluke. But, upon powering OFF (i.e. amp unplugged from wall) I would get the same crackling out of the speakers. Doesn't sound good. Well, I had a gig 4 weeks after buying it, so I didn't want to return it just yet. All it had to do was get me through the gig. It never got me through the next practice. That's correct. It died. It was making these god aweful sounds every time I hit a chord. I thought the speakers were gonna blow out (4 x 12 1960A cab)! I eliminated all but my guitar and a cable (no pedals, etc) and it still did it. I switched cables and it still did it. I switched guitars and it still did it. I had a gig in 2 days. :-( I returned it to guitar center and bought the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier instead. Yes, it has a different sound, but it can come close to Marshall's sound. But the options on the thing are amazing! And, the clean is clean at volume. ;-) And it got me through the gig. I've had Marshalls my whole life, but I think I'm gonna keep this Boogie and see how it pans out. Spending $1500 on an amp that dies in 3 weeks is just ridiculous.

I called Marshall on 2 seperate occasions to inquire about the crackling noises, to inquire about the footswitch problems everyone talks about and to ask about biasing. My call was answered very quickly each time and the tech spent as much time as needed to fully answer my questions. He said if the footswitch ever fails, they will replace it no questions asked. He also told me the amp should not crackle like that and to bring it back for an exchange. All in all, I can't complain about the customer support. By the way, the Marshall I called was located in NY.

Well, I have to give this a low score. What good is an amp if it's unreliable. Perhaps I just bought a lemon. Perhaps not. All I know is that I don't trust the JCM 2000 series anymore and am not trying the Mesa Boogie to see how it delivers.

This amp has plenty of features....maybe to many at some times. but everything a normal guitarist would ever need to tackle a situation.

Ok....I've had this amp for over a year now.
I use a Gibson Les Paul Studio Plus with the stock pickups. I also use Monster rock performer cables. (they do make a huge difference)
I Morley wah and thats it. I play hard rock/ punk....like Jimmy eat world, RelientK, Finch, All american rejects, Lifehouse, and original material.
There are a few things you have to know when playing this amp.
(Mind you....i still have the stock power tubes in the amp, and these things still made a big improvement. in the preamp i have GT-12AX7-C's in the V1 and V2 positions, with the stock preamp tubes in the V3 and phase inverter.
one is...the bias can be off when you buy it brand new, cause mine was. Get a good multimeter and check the bias and set em around 80mV per side. I find anything lower than 80mV, it makes the treble response really high, and you'll find yourself turning down the treble, Unless thats what you want...thankfully your able to experament with the bias and use your ears and you'll get it where you like it. Also keep in mind when finding the right bias setting, leave all eQ knobs at 12:00, that way your getting a default signal, nothing increased or cut. This way you'll be able to tell the difference in highs and lows. The bias pot is located on the bottom of the tube bay. no risk of shock or having to go inside the amp.
Second...you HAVE to know how to EQ properly...sometimes it takes just moving knobs, but you gotta know some basics, that atleast work for me. I find that when you want to get the proper setting for the presence...you should set the treb, mid, and bass at 12:00 or 5. Then while playing some chords increase the treble from 0 on up and stop it when it sounds good. I always find that the presence should be adjusted first, then you can cut or increase the other EQ's. Presence has a strong role with this amp. too much of it will sound weird and too less makes it sound like somthings missing...you'll be able to find the middle.
This is really not an amp for the person whos buying their first tube amp...unless you know a lot of how tube amps work and you already know their soemtimes quirky actions.
Overall this amp sounds AWESOME when you bias properly and then EQ properly. Also...the stock preamp tubes SUCK atleast switch out V1 and V2...you should be able to hear a better tone...if you dont use a sovtek 12AX7WA, or GT-12AX7-R cause these are really bright and i hate them in high gain amps. Get some chinese 9th generation.
I also believe this amp needs a good guitar to go with it with good pickups.

It hasnt given me grief yet....except the stock preamp tubes went microphonic with noise and pops and crackling. The footswitch is still good, no problems there.
BTW, i bought this amp brand new, not used and I bought it Sept. 2002.

Their alright....if you get the right person. Slow response time...but they will get back to ya....sooner or later.

been playing for 3 years. great amp for rock...i cant see it being used for anything else. but for what it does, it does it best.
The only thing i dislike is maybe....how heavy it is (not heavy as in tone, but heavy as in weight.)...and maybe get rid of the mid boost, cause i find no need for it, atleast for me.
I've learned a lot about this amp...I believe every guitar and amp has a weird quirk that makes you say, "why the crap does it do that?!" You gotta get to know guitars and amps...it's like a relationship, except the amp wont kick you out of the house for any reason. yes weird theory, i know, but i've had my share of experiences...so i know what i'm talking about to some extent.
Great amp can highly reccomend it. just gotta know what your doing when it comes to tube amps.

Wow....so many features....you can read other posts.

Okay....I use a powerbrake so that I can crank this amp to at least 5 or 6 volume wise, and if you really want to hear what this amps sounds like, I would suggest you do the same. I use a lot of different top of the line guitars, from an ESP m-ii to a Wolfgang standard to a Les Paul. This amp "sings."

Okay, so after owning it for three and a half years, and gigging with it heavily, I have finally had to bring it to my tech to have the footswitch input jack tightened up. Oh well,,,not much to ask for after using this amp and moving it extensively. Otherwise, never even a remote flaw.

I have called them quite a few times,,,,, mostly to confirm that the 2000 Marshalls don't use any diode clipping in the preamp. So glad that they gave in and added the extra 12ax7. Always friendly and polite. Next on my wish list,,,,,a DSL 100 head.

Wow, what a killer amp. For the first year and a half that I owned this thing, I gigged extensively, playing 4 hour a night gigs every weekend. This amp performed flawlessly. Over the last year and a half , I have mostly used it at home,,,and finally the footswitch jack in the back began to act up....but after the numerous times that I have pulled that plug in and out over 3 years, that is to be expected. My tech is fixing it ( very minor repair) All I can say is,,,,don't judge this amp until you get the volume over 4 or 5. That's when you get to hear what the distortion really sounds like. And I'll tell you, It has massive tone. I really love the powerbrake , besides what anyone says. It brings on the tone....which this amp has in spades. It is a known fact that preamp tube distortion has a bit of fizz to it....in any modern high gain amp....so get those Marshall power valves working so that they also have a role in your distorted tone. Compared to the many 5150 amps I have played through, which were the extreme of fizzy fuzz, the Marshalls still rule. Hey, don't doubt the best company in the world,,,they do their homework, you just have to know how to use em. I also have a JCM600 combo amp which sounds absolutely amazing and I will have it forever. Like I said,,,,I just want a DSL100 to complete my collection.,

This amp has to be up there in terms of features.
3 Independant channels which are footswitchable (1st reason why I bought the amp)
XLR Speaker Emulated Out (2nd reason why I bought the amp)
VPR Power Reduction
FX Mix controls for Clean/Dirty channels
Deep Switches for Clean/Dirty channels
Reverb settings for Clean/Dirty channels
Footswitchable Reverb & FX

Guitars: 1987 Ibanez JEM with Dimarzio Norton/Tone Zone - Neck/Bridge
1997 Godin LGX Re-wired with EMG-85/81 - Neck/Bridge
Occasionally, Strat Ultra with std Fender neck PU instead of
the blue lace sensor.

I've had this amp for more than 2 years now. Biased it as it was off from the factory.

This amp basically covers it all. From the honky tele through a Fender Champ sound to nice clean lead sounds to Ozzy, Maiden, Halen and to a certain extent Metallica, but I'm not a huge fan of the Metallica scooped mids sounds. This amp does it, but probably not as well as the Mesa.

Distorted sounds: This amp has a modern feel to the sound that the DSL doesn't have. The TSL series has slightly more gain but also more "buzzyness" to its sound. The DSL line is definitely sweeter sounding and seem to have less compression and more attack. The TSL isn't as open sounding as the DSL. I have both at home and compared them extensively. I guess a good way to describe the DSL would be "Classic Rock sound" ala JCM 800 whereas the TSL is the one with a bit more attitude and aggressiveness.

Clean Sound: This amp will in no way, shape of form give you a sound even remotely close to that of a Fender. With that being said, the clean sound has its applications. I really like it for lead lines but for chordal work, it can lose a bit a definition if the gain is set too high and lose presence if the gain is too low - You'll definitely have to find the sweet spot. Has a lot of clarity to it but there's something missing in the upper midrange that I cannot quite dial in with the amp's EQ. I'm sure an external EQ could fix that but that's just another thing to lug around at gigs. The DSL's clean, in comparison, is a little more compressed, breaks up earlier but very smoothely, unlike the TSL which has more of an edge to the breakup but the TSL will stay cleaner more easily. I tend to prefer the DSL for Hendrixy chordal work. I don't think the DSL is necessarily better or vice versa... Just different applications.

Emulated XLR Out: This is my favorite feature I love this thing and use it all almost exclusively, strainght into the PA with the output mute switch in for practicing at lower volumes. Sound great!

Noise wise, it really good. Can't complain - One of the quietest amps I've owned.

Had no problems with it but I haven't plugged in/out the footswitch very much so I'm crossing my fingers.

Been playing since 1984. I've owned a 5150, Peavey Classic 50, Marshall 75w Reverb, 1964 Fender Bassman, Line 6 POD Pro. My main amp is a Marshall DSL 50w and I have played through a number of different Fender amps (twins, hot rods, princeton ...)
If it were stolen, I would seriously look at the Hughes & Kettner 3 channel amp or maybe a JCM2000DSL 100w/JCM 800 re-issue with a marshall speaker emulator for direct recording/practicing.
I wish it had better mids on the clean channel so it wouldn't sound as if a veil was in front of the speakers.
Overall, I really like the amp but I'm not in love with it or anything.

Mine's a 2001 model I bought in late 2003. Same spec's and features everyone else described.

I use Gibson guitars and a Marshall 1960A 4x12 speaker cabinet, and play styles like Metal, Hard Rock, Classic Rock, Punk, Blues, and Jazz. This has been my main gigging amp for over a year now.

CLEAN: Very nice; round, warm top end, very full sounding, with your choice of either ballsy low end or deep Fender-like punch. The Mid Boost and Deep switches are nice features. This channel can be very clean or very dirty like an old Plexi, depending on how you set it up. Has separate effects loop and Reverb/Presence controls.

CRUNCH: Has a very wide tonal range. The low end can sound very broad and full when set higher, or can tighten up when set lower. The gain control will bring you from Blues territory when set low, all the way up to Metal when maxed out. This channel's voicing sounds slightly scooped normally, but has an additional Scoop switch to notch out the Mids altogether. With the switch out and the Midrange set high, it can lend itself more toward classic Marshall tones. In my opinion this is the most complex channel of the three.

LEAD: This is where the amp kicks major ass! This channel is naturally bright and has a lot of presence to cut through live mixes. Has a more "modern" sound than the JCM800 series, although at times it can approach those tones. It's basically what you'd expect in a high-gain Marshall rhythm or lead tone. This channel also has a Mid Scoop switch for those who prefer this channel for chunky rhythms and cutting leads. A "Deep" switch is shared by the Crunch and Lead channels, and really adds a ton of low-end bottom, depth, and punch. There's more gain on tap than anyone could possibly need, so you won't be needing those pedals.

100% reliable in the past 14 months I've owned, operated, and gigged with this amp. Never a hiccup. I keep the bias set properly and check the tubes before every gig. It's a great amp!

I had 3 Mesa Rectos, the last one being the 3 channel Dual. Those are very nice amps, but the TSL really cuts through live mixes much better for me. I'd buy another one right away if anything ever happened to it. Best amp I've ever owned.

I purchased this amp in May of 2003 and submited a review that shows up here on date 7/04/2003. This is still a great sounding amp and I stand behind my review along those matters, however, serious reliability issues have surfaced since then that caused me to reconsider ever buying a Marshall again. By September of 2003, the footswitch failed completely and by October it started having sound problems in the form of volume surges. While playing the amp with the volume set on 3 it would sporadically and at random surge to a very low volume level along with changing its inherrent sound to that of a TV with a guitar pluged into it. Cycling the standby swich would rectify the problem temporarily. I took the amp to an authorized Marshall repair shop only to find out that Marshall would not replace the footswitch due to it being out of its 90 day warranty period and would not cover the repair due to a possible tube problem. (Marshall does not warranty tubes). The shop replaced the power tubes and rebiased the amp. I elected not to get a new footswitch because I have zero confidence that that it will be any better than the original or last any longer. Two weeks later the volume surge began again. So now I will have to take the amp back and start this fiasco all over. Marshall was and is no help and assumes no responsibility while hiding behind their 90 day warranty. The only glimmer of hope is that it may not be a tube problem and Marshall will have to pick up the tab. I have since purchased a Peavy 5150II which sounds better and works for more than five minutes at a time.

Lousy

1999 Model
Extreemly versatile. However it falls a bit short of the Mesa Boogie Mark IV, with respects to the 5 band EQ that the Mesa comes with. But it does have three completely seperate channels, where the Boogie's channel 1 and 2 both use the same mid and bass controls. It also has "boost buttons" for each channel, which are nice, and add a lot to the amp.
100 Watts - Plenty loud.

I play a Fender American Special Strat, with a DiMarzio DP100 in the bridge, Virtual Blues humbucking single coil in the middle, and a FRED in the neck position. I also play a standard strat with a Seymour Duncan lil '59 in the bridge and stock pickups in the middle and neck positions.
The head is over a 1960 Lead 4x12 and can get all the sounds that I need, and more. From classic Marshall, to the warmest blues sounds, to the perfect distortion.
I play old school metal to hard rock to the blues, and this amp does the job and more.
However - please read the reliability and CS sections below. It sounds awesome, in fact it sounds perfect, when it works!!!!!
So if it were not for the problems that I put down below, it would have been a 10 in the category.

I bought it 1 month ago, and I already have a tube problem. Granted its a 1999 model, but it had been at the store for that long and it was purchased new, now I have a tube issue.
It makes me nervous to gig with it without a backup, so thats a problem.
The sounds varies because of the tube problem. For a bit it sounds great then sundenly it sounds like someone put a pillow over the speakers, then it goes back and forth.

Okay, this is where I have a problem. I live in Protland, OR and there is only 1 authorized service center here. The site lists three, but after calling all three, only one actually is. The first time I called CS they said "take it to one of these three and they'll take care of you." The only one that does the work is only open when I'm at work so getting it there is difficult, not to mention the 1 week work time they require. So I have to do without it for at least a week.
So I called CS again, and again they said they had three service centers and it took some convincing to get them to realize that there is only one. And getting the amp to them is difficult with their hours of operation. Needless to say, Marshall were unwilling to do anything else.
So I tried to take the amp to them (service center) yesterday, took time off work and everything. I got there at 1:30 to find out that they close at 1:00 on Monday's. So this was getting crazy. I paid so much for the amp, have to do without it for a week, take time off work, and still cant get it fixed.
So I called CS a third time. I got all the way up to management. They will not have someone come pick it up. They will not call another local dealer and work out an exchange (I bought it in CA, live in OR). They will not do anything to help me out in this situation.
I told them to "sell me the amp then. Why should I buy one?" They said, "Marshall has been around since 1960 and is number one in quality." To which I replied, "but I have a broken one, so qualtiy is no reason to buy one." They said "Marshalls sound is second to none." "But mine is having a power tube issue, and therefore sounds terrible 1/2 the time, so sound quality is nothing to rely on" I said. "Marhsall provides outstanding customer service." Yet they will take no action to assist me in my situation.
To get my amp fixed I have to take more time off work and do without it for at least a week, or box it up myself and ship it somewhere to have it fixed, obviously doing without it for a longer period of time, taking the risk of damage due to shipping and obsorbing the cost of shipping and packaging.
CS is no help at all.

I've been playing over 15 years. I sold a Mesa Boogie Mark IV after buying this amp. Man do I regret that. If this amp were lost or stolen I would replace it with a Mark IV Long Head over a Mesa 4x12 recto cab. Plain and simple. In fact, last night I went down to a local dealer and talked about an exchange of all my marshall gear (the head, the 4x12 and an extra 1936 2x12) for the Mark IV I spoke of before. They would only give me $1000.00 for all of it, leaving another $1200.00 to come out of my pocket. Time to sell it all myself.

This review is a PSA that addresses the footswitch problems.

This review is a PSA that addresses the footswitch problems.

The 5-pin DIN jack for the footswitch on the back of the amp is soldered directly to a circuit board. There is absolutely ZERO reinforcement or strain relief on this jack. So after plugging/unplugging the footswitch a bunch of times, those solder joints crack and make intermittent or no connection. No connections means the footswitch doesn't work and intermittent connections means that the amp acts like it's possesed (changes channels for no reason). Sound familiar? I'm not an amp tech but I piddle with amps and this problem took me about 20 minutes to complete, start to finish. All I did was touch up those solder connections (which means the problem is likely to return). But many of these people replacing the footswitches are not fixing the true problem I don't think.

Also; if you need to limp through a gig or something, try draping the footswitch cable over the top of the head so that the weight of the cable is not pulling down on that jack. Then gently jiggle the connector until you get a good connection (look at the LEDs on the footswitch), then DON'T TOUCH IT! Haha.

This review is a PSA that addresses the footswitch problems.

My Amp i purchased was a 2003 model. The amp is plenty versatile for my styles having 3 footswitchable channels. I mainly play hard / rock punk so covers everything for me. FX loop which is quite quiet so thats cool. Pfffft headphone jack... LOL dont by this amp to use headphones. I wish they made a Class A version of this head but oh well cant have everything. plenty loud at 100W, you wont need more.

I play mainly humbucker guitars. LPs PRSs and Ibanez' so it covers them really well. never tried single coils with it but i am buying an American Deluxe strat in may so i will let you know. Its not really noisy and its good cuz you can get some mad controllable feedback through it.

Ive gigged with this amp and had it around a year now and never had one problem with it so im happy, though i have heard some horror reviews of marshall amps in the new ranges its perfect

Ive never dealt with them so couldnt give an opinion.

Ive been playing around 8 years now. I own/owned tons of gear, at the moment i use this with an ibanez SZ a PRS custom 22 a les paul from the late 70s and some oldschool 80s ibanez rip off that is getting ripped apart and replaced with all new shit. i compared this to a mesa dual recto and it was all over it in price value and sound for me. It wont suit everyone cuz its a rock amp but if you want versatility go buy one. best value on the market and hell yeah i would buy another one. It gets an 8 overall for me. i like Class A amps in particular and the clean isnt fantastic but its hell versatile and the distortion is high gain brit tone i was after so its pretty damned close to perfect.

I bought this amp new from a shop in London, I have it rigged through a power break into a 1960a 4x12" cabinet. It's completely valve based. Sporting three totally independent channels Clean, Crunch and Lead all with their own gain, vol, treble, middle, bass controls. It has two independent fx loops - one for the clean channel and one for the cruch/lead channels. I think the versatility of this amp is totally unmatched by any other Marshall Head, with the exception of possibly the Mode Four - but if you want true valve with this many options it's the only head for the job. I will mainly use it for touring, but also for studio work. My set-up is Gibson SG into Crybaby into TSL - pure tone heaven.

I have mainly used this amp with my Gibson SG and it kicks out. If you're using it to rehearse or at small venues you will definately need a Power Break. Without the break vol 2 is painful!!! :-) With the break on it's lowest setting (most attenuation) I can get it to around 5/6 and the power this provides to the power amp stage valves is 'that valve sound'. It's awesome. Even with the lead channel on the (Nigel Tuffnal approved) max gain setting you can clearly hear each and every note. The clean channel is clean even at massive volume and the crunch/lead channels react exactly as you'd expect a Marshall to. Goodbye 'wasp in a jam jar' tm distortion. If you just want metal get the Mode Four, but if you want a true rock sound this is the head.

Build like a brick. The head alone is heavier than most combos I have used in the past because of the solid construction. I'll have no worries about touring this one. As with all valve amps I will have it regularly serviced though.

Marshall are excellent and they're based in the UK. I will continue to use them for many years to come.

Pure Marshall Valve tone. I've dreamed about owning one of these since I was a kid playing Nirvana covers. I worked at my music and eventually got to this goal. I highly recommend this amp to anyone's whose serious about there tone but needs the versatility of channel switching. If you're not fussed about channel switching go for a vintage every time.

Marshall TSL 100 head 2003.
This amp has loads of features. It may confuse you when you first see it but in fact its very simple- you just have separate equaliser, reverb and gain settings for each channel thats why theres so many knobs. I play a lot of 80-90s rock (slash/metallica etc.) and some earlier stuff like Hendrix. The VPR (virtual power reduction feature) is superb as you can drive the valves at maximum without having to have the amp cranked to full. It emulates a 25w amp according to the manual (although its a lot louder with the VPR on than any 25-30w amp I've ever played)

I now play a Gibson Les Paul standard and find the amp well suited to this guitar. I find the amp is very well suited to the 80s and 90's stuff and not too bad for the vintage tones, I've stopped playing a lot of this though so haven't tested it fully yet, however I also have a MKII JMP 100w superlead head from the 70's which obviously sounds better for the hendrix type stuff. See my review under JMP MKII head. Also this amp isn't as loud for lower output settings as the vintage head but I haven't really cranked it yet so can't say like for like if they were both at max volumes. There's a lot less interference than other amps I've used [the hum or buzzing](and yes I still get some interference even with humbuckers). The sounds available are very versatile, the clean channel doesn't seem to break up at all even at full gain, the middle setting is slightly crunchy and more vintage, also very good for soloing and the full distortion setting has loads of gain available for metal or whatever.

I've owned this amp around a month so can't say/

No idea yet.

A very good amp, highly recommended.

two FX loops, 2 distortions, read the other posts...

ok, this thing sounds ok sometimes... keep in mind i want bass response and clarity...

this amp hums in between channels all the time... the distortion is thin, and for what i play almost usless... it does have an amazing clean channel... and if you want that Deftones Stephen Carpenter lead sound you can get it with some work....

it sounds great for green day weezer stuff... no really depth to the distortion though....

so far so good

no probs yet...

After owning a '65 Fender Blackface, an '83 Mesa Boogie MarkIIC, and other misc. amps over the past 20 years, I finally purchased a Marshall. The amp is wonderful. Just play through one.....especially the clean channel! Great overdrive tones that you would expect.

Now for the foot controller..............beware! These footswitches are defective. I have owned this amp for 30 days and I am now placing my 2nd footswitch with another "warranty" controller. The switches themselves are bad as well as the midi cord.

Will keep you posted....just remember to purchase an extra one for the soundman to bring with him to the gig!

- 3 channels
- Independent Gain, Volume and EQ for all 3 channels.
- 2 FX Loops
- Emulated Output
- Virtual Power Reduction which cuts the power to 25 watts.
- Tone Shift
- Deep Switch

Extremely powerful and versatile tube amp. A real pro piece of gear.

I play mainly shred and metal. Not detuned Nu Metal, but the 80's variety. I'm using an Ibanez 3120 with a DiMarzio Tonezone and PAF Pro. The amp suits many different styles. From jazz(I'm not kidding!) to metal. It can handle anything. It does perform better for some styles than others. It can get pretty much any classic Marshall sound you're after. It excels at blues, classic rock and 80's metal. But its certainly not limited to that. By engaging the tone shift button and raising the gain a bit, you can have some great modern metal sounds. If you play around with the EQ you can get some great chunk for palm muted riffs.

This perhaps the MOST complicated amp Marshall has ever made. That being said, its not hard to get great sounds out of it. Its just not as plug-and-play as a JCM 800, but it also has ALOT more versatility.

I initially went in and played a couple of Dual Rectifiers. They're great amps, but they were not for me. I couldn't get my sound. Every sound I got felt awkward. The feel of the Rectifiers really didn't work for me. I went over to the Marshalls, plugged into a DSL100 and within 30 seconds, I had MY tone and I was wailin'. I then decided to try the DSL100 next to the TSL100 and to me, both sounded practically identical. I went with the TSL100 simply because of all the features. Its just a more versatile amp. But if you don't need all the bells and whistles of the TSL, I would highly recommend the DSL100. The thing I really liked about these amps is that they really had a vibe and personality all their own. You can get a JCM800, JMP or SLP sound out of it, but these amps really have their own mojo.

This amp is also VERY sensitive to guitar and pickup changes. I auditioned this amp with 5 different guitars. The sound ranged from mediocre to absolutely jaw-dropping and everything in between. The best guitars out of the 5 were the Les Paul Standard with Burst Buckers and an Ibanez Jem DNA with Breeds. Both guitars sound different. Both sounded absolutely INCREDIBLE!! The cheap Ibanez with the stock pickups sounded mediocre. The Ernie Ball Petrucci guitar was a bit better. The Ernie Ball Axis sounded pretty good, but the Les Paul and the Jem were phenomenal.

I think that you see negative reviews of this amp because people don't know how to tweak. This thing has ALOT of knobs and buttons. It can seem overwhelming at first, but once you get used to the amp, its a snap. One thing I found with this amp is that the Volume and Gain control complement one another. The ratios of those 2 controls can yield a very wide palette of tones. On the lead channel for example, I turned the volume to around 4 (no VPR) and the gain around 5 and this thing had searing gain and sustain. If you go past 8 or 9 then you have too much gain. So the sweet spot is somewhere between 6-9. Each channel has its own sweet spot. I bet alot of people that gave this amp a bad review just cranked the gain, scooped the mids, engaged the deep and tone shift switches and then complained about the buzz and fuzz they heard. Thats NOT the way this amp should be tuned.

The stock preamp tubes the amp comes with are somewhat shrill sounding. I changed the tubes to Svetlana EL34's and Electro Harmonix 12AX7EH's and rebiased the amp. Rebiasing this amp is a snap. You don't have to take anything apart. All you need is a DMM and a small screwdriver. When I checked the bias before retubing, I noticed that the values have drifted considerably. Needless to say, the amp was not properly tuned. With new tubes and a proper bias, the amp came alive. It didn't sound bad at all when I first got it, but it sounds incredible now.

Haven't had any problems. It doesn't leave my house so I can't attest to its road-worthiness.

I haven't had any problems with the footswitch either. I believe Marshall replaced the footswitch buttons for more durable ones. I must have one of those, because the footswitch is built really well.

Haven't had to contact them for anything.

Overall this is a great amp. As good as anything in this price-range or higher. Its very very versatile and has a wealth of excellent Marshall tones. I've been playing the guitar for almost 20 years and this is one of the finest pieces of gear I've owned. The only amp I've ever played that I liked as much was the Bogner Ecstasy. The Marshall just works for me. It fits me like a glove.

I honestly dont understand the negative reviews for this head. This amp and its 3 channels are to me all that anyone, regardless of particular style will EVER need. Its capable of sooooo much. The only things about this amp I can even think to be critical of is the tendency I have for turning it up so loud I anger the neighbors and the noise I am experiencing throught the effects loop(i have yet to determine the cause here), which by the way is really nice, you can choose whether you want to go through just the clean or just the overdrive, or all 3. Ive used the VPR button a limited number of times and personally think It changes the sonic characterisitcs of the amp when driven hard so...I dont use it if I dont have to. All 3 channels are of course footswitch enabled.

I play primarily death metal and hard core with A 79 The Paul, a ESP LTD MV-200 and a recently acquired Les Paul Studio, all of them dropped a whole step then detuned to C. I play it through a Marshall 212 1936 for home applications and a 412 1960A for live applications. Simply put, it has yet not amaze me with the output and fullness. The clean channel can be adjested depending on the guitar for belltone clarity to dirty AC/DC style groovin, then make the walls crumble on Channels 2 and 3. If it were just a LITTLE tighter at high volumes Id give it a 10.

I have had this amp for a while now and it has yet to let me down.

Aside from my local guitar shop helping me out tremedously, ive had no need for support.

Ive been playing for about 11 years, I now own my dream set-up. After playing Mesas, Peaveys, Laney's and Crates, the Marshall has bar-none spanked them all.

got an ass of features, but i usually just read the sound quality review...

I've been playing for about 10 years now. I got a Strat fitted with EMGs and LSR rolling nut. Its got all the versatility in the world and maximum balls. If you've never played a Marshall all-tube stack cranked you just don't know...

Simply put if you like Korn or anything like Korn get a Triple Recto/Mode 4 amp and stop reading Marshall reviews. They are pretty good and loud amps. Just no nads, thats all. i bet you could probably could do a mean "Nookie" cover on a mesa, however.

If you can actually play guitar and respect Hendrix as god, do what he did and get an amp that you can play Sweet Child O'Mine, Mr. Crowely, Back in Black, or f-cking Eruption on. Hell its good enough to do justice to SRV, Silverchair, Floyd, Metallica, Slayer, Zeppelin tones. The amp is the f-cking Force.
If you don't like this amp you probably cannot play Stairway or Eruption and therefore not a true rock guitarist.

Also: David Gilmour is the man.

i've gigged, no problems. i'd hope you'd take care of a $1400 amp head!

never dealt with em, but i heard they are assholes.

More powerful than Superman, Batman, Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk combined.

Three channels clean, crunch and shredd. Good controll on the tone with all the knobs and buttons that are on this amp. It has good power and cuts veary well through a live mix.

Right now I'm using a stock Schecter C1+ and it sounds ok but the pickup's that are in this guitar suck badly and are going to be changed out SOON.I play in a worship band and play just about every style there is to be played, this amp sounds great and is veary versatile, and that is what I need the most. I have had this amp for 1 week now and I am very impressed with the tone that it provides.I did comparied it to a JCM 800 that was sitting on top of it and the 8 was a lot more raw and in your face but for shure a 1 show pony unless you add pedals. Not that thats a bad thing but I already have enough now, and I was able to get the TSL to sound dead on like the 8 and that was good enough for me. The fundemental tone of this amp is marshall all the way and when compaired to the boogie (Road King) that I traded it for + 1960AX cab, the distortions were different in a way that I liked better that the boogie, I not trashing the boogie I liked that amp alot too but it weighed a ton and what I was using it for I was not using it to it's fullest. The cleans are veary good although I do get a ring in the power section when I turn the main volume past 6 even with the gain turned all the way down (0) not shure what that is but I suspect tubes, never had that problem with the boogie.

Can't coment on that yet way too soon. But based on the way it is built I would have to say the if taken care of it should last a few befor you had to do anything to it. I don't care for the Plastic that is all over this amp corners,input jacks buttons and knobs, it may save on weight but gives it a cheep look and feel and wont last under long term useage. Not somthing that I care for. I am going to play this amp without a backup beacuse I don't have the funds to buy another. I baby all my gear this head won't be any different. So we shale see....

Havent had to use them yet and hopfuly I won't need to. I'm quite shure the last two guys have a smile on there face if their reading this, as they wern't to happy and I can see why. no one should have to go through 3 amps after spending this kind of money. Whats up with that Marshall.....?

I have been playing 30 years on and off never serious though and have been through my fair shair of amps and guitars but this is my first Marshall if you can beleve that, and so far i like what im hearing with whats left of it anyway. If it were stolen or lost I would probable try somthin else.

I just bought this amp two weeks ago. Great tones for rock. The third
channel is where it's at, just set it to three and go. Plenty of power, great sound at VPR (virtual power reduction 50Watts)..really lets the tubes get good and warm without having to let the people
down the street know your practicing.

Marshall's and Les Paul's just seem to go together well, thats what I'm using.

The happiest day I will have have with this amp is tomorrow, when I return it.I wouldn't gig with this amp. I have already had to return the first one because of a burned-out power supply. The second on has problems with the effects loop, or the footswitch, I'm not sure yet. Lucky for me I have a 30 day "no questions ask return policy"...so I'm getting out of this amp and buying a Bogner Ecstasy Classic.

Yeah, right, smug pricks. Sorry it's not EVH calling to complain.

This is the amp I always wanted, and then once I had it, I couldn't wait to get rid of it.

Everyone knows the features. There's a lot of features for a tube head.

Amazing. It's got three main sounds: clean, crunch, and what I'd call metal. It's more versatile than many tube amps becuase there are a number of features that allow tweaking. The main sounds are phenominal, especially at higher levels. Playing this thing live is a trip in and of itself because it fills a room beautifully.

Here's where I have my beef. I'm on my third unit. On the first one, the footpedal stopped working, so they replaced the footpedal. It still didn't work, so they replaced the unit. The second unit didn't work at all -- got it home in its box, plugged it in, nothing. Believe it or not, the third one's been the worst. It simply went silent in the middle of practice. I know what you're thinking -- yes, I allowed the tubes to warm up sufficiently. I treated this thing like a baby (because you have to with a tube amp). It just died. I took it to the Marshall repair center, and they returned it to me STILL BROKEN. I brought it back again and finally they fixed it and said there was simply a loose connection caused by poor soddering in manufacturing. Finally, it's up and running, but I'm none too pleased about its reliability.

Marshall is a maze. If you think you're going to call them up and ask a question or two, I've got a bridge in Baghdad I'd like to sell you. Their repair place treated me like I was a petty annoyance to them. They were far too busy working directly with Metallica or with Jim Marshall himself apparently to simply take thirty seconds to answer my questions as to WHY I'VE HAD TO GO THROUGH THREE UNITS !! Also, they kept the unit in repair for a month, and when I got it back it wasn't even repaired (see "Reliability"). I bought a Marshall because of its reputation. It's blatantly apparent that they've grown too big for their britches, because they clearly don't care about focussing on quality or customer satisfaction.

Amazing amp, if it works. I dreamt of buying a Marshall since I was 15 years old. It took me nearly 15 years finally to be able to afford one, and when I did it was a huge disappointment. By the time I finally got an amp that sounded like I'd always dreamt, I was already so bitter about all the returns, etc. etc. that it was a greatly diminished joy.

read the other 200 or so reviews

I tried the mode 4 first for about three hours and was dissapointed by the sound so the music shop assistant said try this TSL 100, it took my 3 seconds to decide on this amp, it was crisp powerfull and what i have been looking for for years!!! i play metal/metalcore and this amp is perfect!!! anyone who says it is crap is deaf.

Cant comment only had it for 4 months.

everytime i phone marshall they are 100% helpfull they send me any info i need and give me advise, i had a vs100 before i bought the TSL and the feet broke of the cab (it had been constantly gigged for 5 years though) and marshall sent me more for free, no questions asked!! i think all the people marking customer support low must live in the us and deal with KORG (they distribute marshall in the us) i live 1 hour away from the uk headquarters and they are perfect.

I have been in a semi pro band for 6 years and this amp is all i need, if it got nicked i would buy it straight away. I ADVISE IF YOU WANT A POWERFULL AMP WITH CLARITY AND THUMP TRY THIS YOU WILL PROBIBLY LIKE IT!!! If you want to sound like a dog barking get some muddy hi gain crap (This does not include mesa retifiers which are awesome as well, but i prefer the more bright sound of the marshall)

I purchased this from musicians friend in October of 2000 for $1429.
At the same time I also bought a marshall 1960AV 280W 4x12 cabinet for $829. This amp has three seperate channels which is a very convenient thing to have.

I have a U.S.(no mexican crap thank you very much) '57 reissue strat w/ seymours in it, a U.S. '62 reissue strat, and a gibson '67 flying V reissue. This amp is great for music style. I play everying from Hendrix and Miles Davis to John Scofield and Slayer. This amp is very versatile. The clean tone w/ my '57 strat is great. If I want to play Slayer I use my V and that works well also. If you are looking for an amp to play metal with, get something else. This is an all purpose amp. Jimi had the right idea.

This amp has been fairly reliable. However, the footswitch broke after about a year and a half of playing. I have taken great care of this amp but the footswitch is CRAP. With the expensive price of this amp, THIS SHOULD NOT HAPPEN. There is an extremely short warranty on the footswitch as well. I'm giving a 5 because of the footswitch.

Never dealt with Marshall, by the time my footswitch broke, the short warranty that's just on the footswitch had already expired.

Overall this amp has been great. I've been playing for 5 years and own a lot of gear, but this amp is essential for me because of its versatility. I love playing Little Wing and other Hendrix and Stevie songs with my strat through this amp. Ladies, if you have any other questions about this amp or anything else, email me with your picture and i'll email you a picture of yours truly, the next boy band rocker, Babyface McGee. I'm 19 and live in the Albany, NY area. We can make beautiful music together and go from there.

Very flexible 3 channel amp.

Out of the box it's pretty evident that this amp is a little more than plug-and play. Knowing the proper method of biasing the tube compliment of this amp is pretty important: you wouldn't play a gig without tuning your guitar would you? Well, the variable resistors used in the bias adjustment on this amp are pretty tight tolerance and moving the amp could be enough to cause the bias to drift a little bit and this can definately affect the sound as well as the overall life of your tubes. (In fact I'll bet the reason for most of the negative reviews popping up on this site is because some folks didn't know about this.) If you're going to be moving the amp a lot get a multitestor and take 5 minutes or so to tweak the bias before you start playing - it makes a HUGE difference. Also change out the stock tubes - I think they could've made some better choices there. Mesas really sound nice in this amp, it kind of pushes it more toward the sound of a Fender but with the low-mid balls of a Marshall. It might not be the right amp for angry kids that want a low frequency fart sound similar to the tailpipe of a Harley Davidson though. Think Jeff Beck or Jimi in the studio.

Like I said before the stock tubes pretty much suck. I had one foot switch die a year ago and was given a complimentary replacement and haven't had any trouble since (knock on wood) And again - I can't stress this enough- the bias is going to need a fair amount of attention. If you're afraid of servicing your own amp, or you're just lazy this probably ain't the choice for you.

So far I haven't needed it aside from the FS that crapped out, Guitar Center replaced it immediately though, free.

I like this amp a lot. It seems to have all the classic elements of a Marshall but is capable of deep, bright shimmering tones I would expect from a fender twin. Then again i like tweaking electronics so I don't mind fussing over the bias - the tiny amount of work is worth it. If you don't like the work get a Boogie, then you can waste a lot more time trying to get a presentable sound out of that merciless Boogie EQ.

Der Amp wurde 2002 in England gebaut.
Drei kanale und verdammt laut!!!!
Die Eigenschaften brauche ich wohl nicht mehr aufzuzahlen!!!
(damn great features)obwohl ich doch noch gerne ein Master volume
hatte.Aber fur den Preis:)genial

Ich habe eine Gibson Les Paul Standard und eine 2001 er Fender
USA stratocaster.
Musikrichtungen:Hard Rock
Classic Rock
Metal
southern rock
Blues (you see it fits me and my styles very well)
Der Clean-Kanal reicht von jazzigen bis ubersteuerten Klangen(gut fur
keith Richard sounds).Klingt sehr gut!!!!!!

Der Crunch-Kanal ist mein Lieblingskanal, denn er reicht von
leicht angezerrten Klangen bis zu fetten, jcm800(hot rod) sounds

Der Lead-Kanal klingt auch sehr gut, er reicht von fast cleanen sounds
(volume-poti bei der strat zuruckgeregelt) bis zu fetten verzerrten
(fuckin' "bolz") sounds mit so einem Punch, das ist schon genial!!!(Probs**** das krist du nie hin, hehe!)
Au?erdem ist der Amp derma?en vielseitig, dass man alle nur erdenklichen SOunds (au?er vielleicht mesa rectifier) hinbekommt.
Mit der 1960 A-box klingt das derma?en fett dass einem die Hosenbeine
wegflattern!(Au?er vielleicht dem B*lz, der tragt ja nur schottenrocke!!!!)
GeiLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!

Allesinallem ein genialer Verstarker weil er alle bekannten marshall
sounds in einem hat(sogar noch verbessert!)und einen neuen Jcm 2000
Lead Kanal besitzt!
Wenn der amp nicht schnellstens in irgendwelchen modeling preamps
auftaucht dann werd ich echt verdammt grantich.

Julgo que faltava uma "review" para este amplificador em portugues. Relativamente a versatilidade ja tudo foi escrito, para quem souber ingles, e se tem 3 canais com func?es independentes para cada um deles, mais versatil n?o poderia ser. As caracteristicas desta cabeca s?o sem duvida enormes tendo em considerac?o a especificidade deste produto!

Bom, aqui realmente e que se fala do que interessa. O SOM! ja algum tempo que consulto esta base de dados, mas so agora resolvi escrever a minha opini?o devido ao que tenho vindo a ler. A guerra dos utilizadores Marshall/MesaBoogie continuara a ser travada indefinidamente pois estes s?o os dois fabricantes dos melhores amplificadores que existem. Agora parece-me e que as pessoas (americanos, porque s?o ricos e o material e muito mais barato!) n?o sabem destinguir entre produtos de alta qualidade mas que se destinam a diferentes tarefas. N?o me parece possivel fazer o Figo jogar Futebol Americano, pelo menos t?o bem como o NOSSO Futebol. Aqui em Portugal a Mesa Boogie e inacessivel, devido aos salarios pagos e ao preco do material (os nossos importadores querem ganhar comiss?es de quase 100%!!!), mas ainda me foi possivel experimentar a triple Rectifier com a coluna correspondente. Realmente tem um optimo som..... p'ra quem tocar maioritariamente metal, de preferencia Nu-Metal. Tambem da pra outras coisas, mas ai ja n?o acho t?o fenomenal. O que realmente sobressai daquele estecticamente belo amplificador e uma distorc?o massiva e cheia de graves, ou low-end como dizem os nossos amigos americanos que caso n?o sejam bem doseados tornam o som demasiadamente abafado e imperceptivel. A coluna da Mesa e impressionante na resposta aos graves.
Mas voltando a TSL, esta cabeca deve ser uma das melhores coisas que a Marshall construiu desde as Plexi. O canal Clean, e limpo :-) sendo obvio o som valvulado e encorpado (com a minha Gibson Les Paul). O canal Crunch e o que uso mais, as minhas sonoridades preferidas andam a volta do Rock Classico e com uma Les Paul e este canal temos tudo o que precisamos para ser felizes. O canal Lead e um monstro de ganho que necessita de muitas horas de "mexer nos bot?es" para se encontrar o sonoridade perfeita. Alias, este e outro facto que leva a escrever esta 'review': esta cabeca e fenomenal e faz practicamente tudo (ainda falta fazer francesinhas, mas vou mandar um mail para a Marshall para incluirem esta caracteristica nos proximos modelos), so que alem de ser preciso saber tocar (algo que ainda estou a tentar fazer decentemente ao fim de 9 anos de guitarra), e preciso ter 'ouvido' e saber como funciona a equalizac?o numa maquina a valvulas. Ate que se sacasse um som minimamente aceitavel andei uns meses a mexer nos bot?es pra esquerda e pra direita e isto serviu para conhecer como era produzido o "tone" da maquina e perceber a sua resposta aos volumes da guitarra e as quantidades de ganhos e e.q. que ia administrando. Se tivermos em atenc?o que todos os settings variam a sua resposta entre si, existem uma infinidade de sons que podem ser extraidos. se alguem necessitar de um som massivo e cheio de graves experimentem o pedal da Tech21 Tri A.C., que e bastante bom e estou a pensar adquiri-lo para devaneios metalicos ao tipico genero Novo Metal.

Tem uma construc?o tipo Mercedes-Benz. Faz um milh?o de quilometros e mesmo assim esta melhor que um Renault ou Seat novos!!! Ta tudo dito: e um tanque de guerra. A quem se queixe do footswitch, mas o meu tem um ano e ta como novo.

Como nunca precisei n?o posso comentar.

Para a realidade monetaria portuguesa e o melhor amplificador do mundo, sem rival nenhum. A nivel World Wide, se tiverem dinheiro comprem o TSL, o Triple Rectifier e um Pedal A/B. So tem um problema, nunca mais tem aquela excitac?o de comprar outro amplificador novo, pois n?o precisar?o.

Features are excellent, but not exactly world-class. Would prefer independant Reverb, Presence and Effects controls for each of the 3 channels. I dislike that channels 2 and 3 share one FX loop. You cannot have [for example] a delay only on the Lead channel for soloing without also having it on the Crunch channel as well. It would have been better to share one loop for the Clean and Crunch channels, since they are typically both used as rhythm channels, etc. Not debilitating, but the design does limit the amp's potential otherwise.

First of all, I'm not a Metal Guru, so I won't review from the perspective of "Pantera" and "Slayer" qualities.

I've owned the amp for 8 months and use it stock (I don't change tubes until they need to be changed, although I do make sure the amp is biased correctly) with a stock 1960A cabinet. I use Les Pauls and Strat's. I'm in a covers band playing everything from The Doors to Creed. I sold my Mesa 3 channel Dual Rectifier for the TSL, because after a year's worth of gigging and recording, I'd had enough of trying to get more cut [through live mixes] and less bass out of the Recto. Recto's are simply incredible amp's, but for me the TSL has much more versatility to say the least.

Overall the amp sounds fantastic, and decent tonal balances between all 3 channels can be achieved after some tweaking and getting your ears accustomed to the amp's character.

The Clean channel is clear and can be bright enough, although it doesn't have the top end shimmer of say, a Twin or something like that. It's a very warm, useable clean tone. Great for Jazz. For my covers band I find I'm running the Presence and Treble up quite high at shows. Turning the Gain all the way up produces a Plexi-like [not a Plexi-exact] kind of gain. Sweet!

The Crunch channel is a bit different than the Lead channel, so it's not the kind of thing where you can set the controls the same for each and have them both sound the same. The Crunch channel has less gain than the Lead, and sounds as though it has a much wider bandwidth on the Bass control. I would prefer it to be the same as the Lead channel though. The Mid and Treble seem the same as on the lead channel. This channel is perfect for medium rhythm gains when running the TSL in a 3-channel setup, or when cranking the Gain and Bass, makes a good 2-channel setup when using the Crunch channel for rhythm and the Lead channel for fatter solo's.

The Lead channel is basically what I always wanted my JCM800 2205 and 2210 heads to sound like: lots of clear, tight gain and plenty of low end. Many complain about this channel being "compressed". I don't agree. It sounds just as compressed as any amp will sound when using this much gain. Rather, I find this channel to be the tightest channel of the three, and depending on the amount of gain you use [there's WAY more than anyone could possibly need], you can get anything from Maiden and Priest classics to all-out modern Metal tones.

Compared to my Dual Recifier, the TSL has "character" where the Rectifier has "attitude". The Recto covers reds, blacks and blues very well, but the TSL covers all the colors in the crayon box.

It hasn't screwed me so far.

Been playing and gigging over a 22-year span. This is the best and most important amp I've ever owned. It has all the tones anyone could need, all in one box. Three channels will take you through any level of gain short of a MIDI rig. It's what guitar amp's really should be in many respects. My gripes are: some of the features are shared, I'd prefer a tighter sounding Crunch channel, and I'd like a bit more edge and sparkle on the Clean channel. Oh well, nothing in life is perfect! If stolen, I'd buy another the next day.

I'm givin a 10 for features on this amp. This amp has more features than any amp I've ever played. That alone isn't enough to give it a 10 - all the features are very usable and worth being there. Makes for an extremely flexible amp. Hopefully the last I'll buy for a long, long time.

Okay, this is the real reason I bought this amp. This thing sounds great! I'm a huge fan of Edwards "brown sound" from the first 6 Halen albums and this thing nails it. Big, warm and majestic. The secret is mids - this amp knows how to kick out the mids in a nice pleasing way.

My last amp was a 5150 - while I liked some of what it did, it was pretty harsh. This amp isn't harsh at all, like I said its very warm - if you set it up that way.

The clean channel is nice and warm - can be super duper clean, or can be overdriven a little. The attack from it is so immediate, its almost frightening.

The crunch channel is where I spend most of my time. Can dial in a rythme sound that just begs you to tickle, hammer, strum and pound your guitar for hours. The trick is to get the EL34s cookin enough to really give it the punch. So you gotta turn it up. If you turn up the gain as well, you'll have a LOT to work with.

The lead channel is fairly compressed compared to the crunch channel, but it works out great. Almost unlimited gain on this thing. You can really turn the gain up and still have it sound warm - something that I couldn't do with my 5150.

Aside from the way it sounds, but eq blocks really do what they should. I've played a lot of amps that really didn't have any flexibility or the eq knobs worked in a really bizzare way. While this amp has a lot of buttons and stuff, its really intuitive and easy to tweak your sound.

Really can't say. Have only had the amp for a month, not enough time for something to go wrong.

Again, haven't had problems so I don't know...

I'm givin this thing a solid 10. Its rock and roll personified. Can also be punk, jazz, blues, metal, reggae if you want as well. I'm super happy with how flexible it is. I haven't been able to explore all the things it can do, but am lookin forward to it.

If it were stolen, I'd definately buy another.

Great features on this amp. Three channels with three seperate eq's,
VPR button which reduces power output from 100 watts to 25 watts, parallel-serial effects loop and reverb. The only reason it does not score a 10 is due to the shared effects loop, reverb and presence controls between the lead and crunch channel.

All of my guitars are various models of USA Jacksons equiped with Seymore Duncan JB and Full Shred pickups in the bridge position.(I am 32 years old with 18 years of playing experience and still not mature enough to use the neck pickup). My style of music is equally immature, stubborn, and limited. The only bands I will listen to and learn songs from are Judas Priest, Black Lable Society, Slayer, Kiss, Halford, Motley Crue, Pantera, Alice in Chains, Skid Row, Loudness, and Megadeath.

I have owned this amp for 62 days now and it has proven to be a Godsend. This is also my first Marshall. My favorite guitar tone would be a combination of Pantera's rythym sound and Judas Priest's lead sound. I have finally aquired this sound with a very expensive yet simple setup. Here it is: USA Jackson--BossSD1--BossSD1--Boss Super Chorus--Korg rack tuner--Marshall TSL100(with Boss GE7 Eq in effects loop)--two Mesa Boogie 4x12 recto cabs. Also, every cable is a Monster cable.

I always use the Lead channel on the TSL for my metal sound. The settings are as follows: BossSD1--This is an overdrive pedal used by Zakk Wylde to compliment his JCM 800. I do not know how he uses it but I have it on all of the time. With the way I set it, it seems to sharpen up the attack and provide razor sharp note definition to the lower notes without adding distortion. I set the Level at 100%, Drive at 0%, and Tone at 50%. The sound is that of a slight treble booster with no harshness. BossSD1--The second sd1 is set with the Level 100%, Drive at 0%, and Tone at 75%. This acts as a double treble booster and is only turned on during solos that require tremendous sustain and harmonics. never used for rythym. Boss Super Chorus--This is on all the time with all knobs set to 40% in order for SLIGHT tone coloration. Boss GE7 Eq--Run in the effects loop with the effects loop knob of the Marshall set fully clockwise on 10. The Eq is set flat with a SLIGHT mid scoop and the Level slider boosted up just a hair. Marshall TSL100--For the Lead channel, Gain 5.5 to 6, Bass 7, Mid 3-4, Treble 6-7, Presence 3, Tone Shift on, and Deep Switch on. When used inconjuction with the Boss SD1, lower gain settings like 5 or 6 end up sounding more massive than gain settings of 7 or higher. This is the sound I have always searched for. The important thing to remember for a massive, heavy, articulate sound is to zero the drive on the SD1 and find the sweet spot of the Marshall's gain by limiting yourself to 5 or 6. Unfortunately for the neighbors, this awesome sound does not come alive until the volume is at LEAST 2.5 or greater; and that is LOUD.

Other notes: The clean sound is easy to dial in and is one of the best I have ever heard.
I never use the VPR button. It changes your sound and forces you into a re-tweaking fiasco.
I never use the Crunch channel. It is good, however not quite my style. Sometimes I will use it when playing old Kiss songs because of the more vintage sound, but I like the sound of the same Kiss songs better with the sound of the lead channel.
I have played the DSL100 and like it, but cannot compare the two fairly unless I hook it through the same equipment.
I love the sound of the TSL100 through these Mesa 4x12 cabs, but I have never heard the Marshall cabs with this so I can't compare.
The most important thing I have learned is this: EVERYTHING MATTERS. Belive it or not. When I replaced all my crappy cables with Monster cables my sound improved. When I use a brand new .88mm Dunlop Tortise Pick as opposed to a pick that has as little as 3 songs played on it, my sound improves. All of my guitars are the same, but two sound better than the other two. I thought the TSL100 was great when I bought it, but completly outstanding with the BossSD1.

The footswitch is a common problem here. Mine is showing its first signs of refusal to switch channels.

Have not contacted them, yet.

I spent a ton of money searching in the wrong direction. 1985--dumb practice Peavy amp. 1986--semidumb Marshall 30watt solid state 1x12 combo. 1996--Mesa Boogie DC-5 half stack. Almost a descent metal sound, but flubby. 2001--Line Six Flextone II HD. Very fake sounding amp, got worse as volume was turned up. 2002--Mesa Triaxes,G-Force,Mesa 50/50, sonic maximizer, noise gate. I tried very hard to like this set up, but to me it ended up sounding over processed and lacked balls. 2002---Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Triple channel. I tried to like this too, but did not. When the effects loop is used, it gives your tone a very processed sound. Too muddy sounding, lack of articulation. When mids are used, the amp still sounds scooped. When terble is used, the amp just sounds irritating. The overwhelming bass cannot be dialed out without thinning the sound out too much.
The Marshall TSL100 is the antithises of the Dual Recto. It has a perfect amount of bass. Massivie but not overwhelming. A Marshall TSL with its mids on 3 will cut through a mix better than a Dual Recto with its mids on 8. The TSL responds to increased trebel very well without sounding harsh. Most important, your inherrent tone is not changed when using the effects loop, unlike the Dual Recto.
I will end by saying that the Marshall is 60% responsible for this sound I am getting now, however the other 40%(guitar, pickups,effects,cables,cabinets) is a necessary ingredient aswell. To give an example of the sound I have now is a combination of Ride The Lighting, Vulgar Display of Power, Reign in Blood, and Defenders of the Faith.
I LOVE THIS AMP.

You know the features, and it cost $1,429.00 plus tax.
All three channel amps deserve a 10 in this category DUH!!!

Ok my style is METAL, NU-metal, OLD metal, DEATH metal, and oh yeah more METAL. My setup is a ESP explorer with emg-81 and afterburner circuit, and a ESP F-200 Gothic looking thing with emg-81 and afterburner circuit tuned down. I use (2) MESA 4x12 standard Recto cabs (the big ones w/ massive bass), and a large home made 4x12 w/ Vintage 30's also. First off you need to use the MODE FOUR cab or MESA big RECTO cabs to get good bass out of this amp or any other amp either. Oh yeah I also have a 3 channel MESA dual rectifier too.
This amp first off I would like to say it kicks ass, It's solo sounds are truley unmatched with the mids cranked with your neck pickup.
If you like SLAYER you must own this amp, I mean I have their sound down with amp to a tee. The CLEAN channel does not sparkle as much as my recto, but it does have a nice warm clean sound and the reverb is really cool and really does save the clean channel from being boring and sterile. The CRUNCH channel fucking has so much tone it rules, but its is dont perfect, it needs more gain. Dont get me wrong I love this channel you just have to crank it almost all the way up to get it to sustain. I like to use my afterburner circuit in my guitars to get it to sustain and give it more gain, the afterburner is made by EMG and adds 20db of gain when you turn it on, it replaces your tone knob, I guess a distortion pedal would work to like Zack Wlyde does to his JCM-800, but then you are introducing solid state into your all tube head, I HATE EFFECTS!!
The LEAD channel has tons more gain then the crunch channel. I love to set the this channel for slayer. Pressence at 4, Bass at 5, Gain at 10, Middle all the way to 10, Treble at 5, then set the volume to3 3-5 and it just kicks ass and so much like slayer and old school metal. Ass far as mid scooping this amp using the typical DIMEBAG DARREL setting this amp is pretty fucking brutal, and I love it.
BUT it is gain is not as thick or as Extreme as the Mesa Recto, also the Bass is not as heavy and the highs are more harsh and not ass creamy. I am not here to rip this amp it just not as Heavy as a VHT Ultra lead, or a MESA Recto. Ok alot people think the Recto does not have alot of bass because everyone uses the modern mode on channle 3, when they should be using channel 2. This is the most bass HEAVY sound I have ever heard. Back to the marshall, the marshall is less compressed than the Recto and a little more articulate when scooping it out like DIME. But overall I think the marshall is way better for solo's and for old school Metal and Rock too, but the Mesa Recto is better for super heavy shit because of its massive bass and over the top amount of bass. So it is not perfect but Damn close so I give a sound rating of a 9. While I gave my Mesa Recto a 10. I must add that using the Marshall and the Mesa is like a 20 on a 1-10 scale. Using a ABY box and the 2 heads you have to hear it to believe it, it is better than any sound I have ever heard, Better than the most expensive Bogner, Soldano, VHT, or Disel, that I have ever heard or tryed out.

So good so far, but it does rattle alot more than any other head that I have ever owned when you move it around

Flat out dont know?

Overall it will cover every style you could ever need and its sounds are awsesome and verstile, in a 3 channel gig ready package. If you where just into EXTREME HEAVY shit there are slightly better amps for that, but if you want some amazing tone to boot, You NEED one of these!!!

3 channels. more than enough coverage of the entire marshall sound spectrum. i think everything else has been said before....only thing would be the fact that the crunch and clean channel both share presence, fx loop and reverb controls. it would have been nice to have individual dials for both gain channels. having said that though, i don't really see it as a problem anymore, as both crunch and lead channels are well balanced against each other.

i play an epiphone les paul std which has had some serious modding done to it, including a seymore duncan pearly gates in the bridge and a seymore duncan alnicoIIpro humbucker in the neck position. the pick-ups in the les paul respond extremely well to the tsl-100 and vice versa. i'd expect this to be the same case for any humbucker based guitar. the other guitarist in our band plays a gibson les paul studio with stock pick-ups and the amp responds euqally well to tone and volume adjustments to the humbuckers.
the clean channel sounds awesome. period. at times almost fender-esque. the reverb on the clean channel adds enough depth without being over-powering. nicely done marshall. the crunch channel has that classic retro-marshall feel. personally i think it could have done with just a tad more gain, but hey... there's the lead channel...
this channel is the dogs bollocks! believe me when i say this, i haven't ever played through an amp where one can feel that gutair-amp response as well as with the tsl-100. this amp will never part with me. the only thing that could possibly be better than playiong through one of these babies would be, well, playing through two of 'em i guess. ;) there is some noise on the lead channel, but well less than a lot of other all-valve heads... my other guitarist plays his les paul through a laney vh100r and the hiss on his lead channel is a million times louder... the sustain the amp delivers via the seymore duncan is incredible. a lot of my soloing is done with a jimdunlop original crybaby, and the tone through the marshall is phenomenal. with some tweeking and tuning you can get anything from hendrix/ clapton to zakk wylde. which is f*!?ing great!!!
the rest of my floorboard consits of: les paul into a boss turbo distortion (which is used with the gain pretty low, but the volume almost on the full to push the signal for solos and palm muting), which goes into a boss chromatic tuner, which foolows into the crybaby, and then into the tsl-100. good stuff. i also use an old beat up zoom4040 multi fx unit in the fx loop of the tsl-100. purely for chorus and delay sounds. the fx loop on the amp is well balanced in the over level of pre-amp and power amp. also footswitchable, which i find highly useful.

well... this amp does come across as being built like damn tank, and belive me it is. although it has to be said that i had a few little internal hick-ups when i bought the amp. luckily i live 30 minutes away from the marshall hq in milton keynes, uk, so i just drove it up there and the guys fixed it for me the and there. no questions asked. not a penny demanded in labour work. thanks marshall!
the footswitch for my model, as with many other people's on this page, gave me the tiniest of grief at first... after gigging the amp for a week straight after purchase the led on the lead channel switch gave up on me. to be honest it never really bothered me that much so i just forgot about it. then the other day, it just decided to work again...?! so i'm feeling a bit dodgy about the footswitch and am considering buying a back-up for touring.

the guys at marshall are well cool. nuff respect.

i've been playing guitar guitar for 8 years now and am currently playing in a touring band here in the uk. this amp gets my full stamp of approval. if it got knicked, i'd would buy another one, and nothing less.
i'd just like to say that i have recently used the tsl-100 to record an EP and it totaly kicked my other guitarist's laney vh100r to the curb! in the end he ended up recording half his parts through my marshall...!
if you like big ass rock sounds then get this amp. this is what marshall do. it's pure genius. it ain't no boogie, 5150, cornford or vht. if that's your thing go play one of 'em. if you love everything rock'n'roll you will never beat a marshall! and compared to the prices one pays for some amps these days i found the tsl-100 fairly cheap.

Very versatile amp. I like to have a lot of different tones at my fingertips without having to lug more than 1 amp to a gig. This amp certainly delivers. Plenty on tonal control in all of the channels. This amp has more than enough volume for live situations. The VPR button is nice, although I don't use it often. I would have liked a boost switch on the FS.

I'm playing a G&L Legacy Special with Blade humbucking pickups. I play a lot of different styles on this amp, ranging from ambient noise to solid hard rock.

The amp isn't quiet per se, but it's a tube amp, so I don't expect silence. I don't like some of the clicks and pops that happen when switching channels, seems Marshall could have spent some more time on this.

Clean channel is what sold me on this amp. It's got an amazing sparkly, bell-like tone, with amazing presence. I love it. Stays clean even at high volumes.

I use the crunch channel the most, although it took a long time to get it set just right. But now that I have it dialed in, I am getting a gritty, messy sound without a loss of clarity. I'm not one of those guys who rolls all the knobs to 10, I like to roll off the distortion and look for sweet spots. And there are plenty of sweet spots on this channel. I haven't noticed an inordinate amount of low-end in this channel like some of the other reviewers.

I struggle most with the lead channel, mainly because I think this channel mushes up the sound of the guitar. But this channel simply screams. The distortion is sweet and powerful, and the tone is great. It will knock you off your feet.

When I first bought the amp, I had some issues with... you guessed it, the FS! However, the replacement has been good for almost a year now, and I'm hoping I won't have any more issues. The amp itself seems sturdy enough, no problems at all.

Warranty is nice and long, haven't had to deal with Korg yet, and I'm hoping I never have to.

I've had this amp for about a year now, and I'm pretty happy with it. It really has added a lot to my sound. I think I would buy another one, it's just a great versatile amp. I think the most difficult purchase for a guitarist is the amplifier purchase, because it takes about 6 months to really get to know an amp. After a year, I can say I made a good choice.

This amp has a lot of features and is very versatile. it has things that no other amp has like and output mute and a vpr switch. when you have 3 channels with seperate eq, gain, and level for each. your pretty much set.

no offense to the great marshall amplification, but this amp was a slight disapointment. although its very versatile. the sound doesn't sound right. it sounds like your volume pot on your guitar is only up to 5, and theres a blanket over your speakers. the clean doesn't have a lot of ring to it, and isn't full. if your playing in a small room with it, forget about it. i happen to use a distortion pedal, delay, noise supressor, compressor, and parametric eq with the amp. these effects make the amp sound much better, but sometimes i wish i can get i nice direct tone from the amp. i am an experianced guitar player whoi knows what specifications are needed to make your tone sound good, and this amp doesn't quite fit the qualifications, although it doesn't sound extremely bad.

no problems with it yet.

never had to deal with them

people say this amp is great. i happen to think its a cool amp, but can't fit my standards if no effects are used. marshall make awesome amps, so this amp was kind of upsetting to me. i suggest a jcm 800, but right now i'm using a carvin legacy head.

It was built in 2000
I play many style from Jazz to Death Metal; so I need an amp that can deliver the tones when I need them...
I play Guitar since 1986.
I use this head with a Marshall Cab 1960B (bottom)
This head is 100w and feature 3 distinct channels switchable via a footswitch (included). The 3 channels are: CLEAN, CRUNCH, and LEAD using their own EQ (Bas, Mid,Treble) Volume and Gain for maximum tone shaping capability. 2 Sections :CLEAN and CRUNCH/LEAD have controls
including: Presence, Deep Switch, Tone Shift, FX/MIX and Reverb. The Clean channel has got a MidBoost switch!
There is also a VPR (Virtual Power Reduction) switch that can take the power from 100w to 25w approx. without losing the Tone (a kind of Pentode thing); very useful in a practice situation.
A very cool switch is also provided: A MUTE!!!!!!!! yes you can mute the sound to the output valves! useful for a recording via the speaker simulation jack (back of the head).
I mainly use the tone shift to "scoope" the mid in order to get that Modern Metal Tone. It can be used also to get a less mid/marshall sound at low volume...
The Presence switch can be used to boost the upperMid/lowerTreble when you have to cut through cymbal but I dont use it since I dislike trebly sound. On the other side I use the Deep switch to gives the tone a more resonant texture to the low frequency in the loudspeakers cabinet. As the they say in the manual its great for filling out the Bottom end at low volume (ex: using VPR) but will also give a resonant but "controlled" growl to the tone at high volumes.
Speaking of High Volume: CAREFUL WITH THE VOLUME ITS A VERY LOUD AMP!!
But we are in marshall mainly for 2 things...TONE AND POWER!!!
The only thing missing...well may be a master volume...but with all those features...

Giving a 2 on 10 to this amp when the average user gives a 8.6 speaks for itself...some people here aren't listening or they don't know anything about setting a sound...anyways here is my rating:

I use a Gibson Lespaul Standard with Stock pick-ups soon to be upgraded with a 500t (bridge). This amp respond marvelously to a high output passive pick-up.
I have 2 Roland JC-120 which are great (by the way) that I use with a GT-5. I wanted a more natural, powerful less processed (more tube)sound; so the Marshall was my logic choice. I will sell one of my JC-120 and A+B the other with my JCM 2000 TSL.
I was amazed by the CLEAN channel on my JCM 2000 (I am a JC-120 user don't forget). Marshall lost his "bad clean" reputation with that baby!
The Clean is clean even at high volume but can break if you set the gain to high (but some people including myself like that...).
For the Crunch channel well,it really delivers a good punchy and thicky sound. If set properly you won't miss your old vintage amp.I like the old overdrived sound a la Robert Fripp (think of RED) but could not afford a Hiwatt...anyway much less versatile.
For the LEAD channel well just raise the gain and you will get a very razor sharp attack (depends on your pick-up) suitable for Metal and very hard rock. If you use the Tone shift and the Deep switch with high gain on this channel prepare for a real headbanging thrash/death assault. But keep in mind one thing: This is MARSHALL tone not Peavey 5150 or Boogie sound...if you want those sounds buy those amps...
For more Tone shaping (for the purist) I suggest to put a Graphic EQ in the Effects Loop like the BOSS GE-7 . I did and it can now produce EVERY sound I need. If you like the Marshall tone you will get plenty of. If you are more into Overoverdrived ultra compressed Tonedeaf 7 strings Rap/Metal stuff (personal opinion here) check somewhere else.
Keep one thing in mind, this amp will sound as good as you are...if you are not confident go to Transistor based or compressed stuff it will cover your misplaying...

Been playing with this amp since 2000 and it rules !
No problem at all...even the so called fragile footswitch keep up the beat.

Never had to deal with them

This amp rocks, if you

See other reviews. It's 3 channels and 100 watts.

It sounds like a Marshall with a blanket over the speakers. Everything is dull and lifeless. Boring sounding. It's loud. But, it's still a shitty sounding amp. Typical of Marshall these days. It sucks.

Well, it broke right away. I got it fixed under warranty, with a bit of finageling. New tubes, new screen resistors,new fuses, a new output transformer. Sounded just like new, and still sounded like shit.

Well, after a bit of runaround and acting pissed off at their incompetence, Korg came through and I got it fixed.

I was hoping that this would be the be all and end all amp for me. But, it wasn't. It was totally a let down. Give me a JCM900 4100 anyday, at least that amp has tone and character that a real musician can use. The TSL-100, like all Marshalls these days, is just another poser amp.

The real Marshall sound is not in it, and this amp sounds just as bad as the POS JMP-1 preamp they sell.

WELL, I ALREADY PUT MY REVIEW ABOUT THIS AMP JUST ABOUT ONE WEEK, BUT I FORGOT TO TELL SOMETHING REALLY IMPORTANT ABOUT IT.

OK READ ON...

IF YOU REMOVE THE METAL COVER OF THE REAR PANEL, YOU WILL NOTICE THAT THERE'S A THREE PIN MOLEX CONNECTOR BETWEEN EACH PAIR OF POWER VALVES. SO, WHEN I BOUGHT THIS AMP, I FOUND THIS MOLEX CONNECTOR, IGNORING EVERYTHING ABOUT IT, I INVESTIGATED A LOT ON THE WEB, UNTIL I FOUND INFORMATION ABOUT IT'S FUNCTION, AND BELIEVE ME, IT'S CRUCIAL.

THIS CONNECTOR ALLOWS YOU TO CHECK AND ADJUST THE "BIAS VOLTAGE" WHAT I DEFINE AS THE STRENGHT OF SIGNAL THAT THE POWER VALVES SEND TO THE SPEAKER CABINET, AND NEED TO BE ADJUSTED IN THE RIGHT WAY TO PROLONG THE LIFE OF YOUR VALVES AND LET THE SPEAKERS HANDLE THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF POWER. THE BIAS VOLTAGE CHECKING AND ADJUSTMENT IS SIMPLE AN EASY, JUST GET YOURSELF A MULTI-METER, AND I RECOMEND YOU TO ENTER THIS SITE FOR TIPS AND INSTRUCTIONS:


http://web.aoct.org/marshall/JCM2000-Bias.txt


WELL, I GUESS THAT MANY USERS OF THE TSL100, COMPLETLY IGNORE THAT THIS CONNECTOR IS INSIDE THEIR AMP, I'M READING MANY REVIEWS, AND FROM A GREAT NUMBER OF REVIEWS, JUST TWO OR THREE SAY SOMETHING ABOUT IT, AND I CONSIDER A LITTLE BIT STRANGE THAT THE MANUAL OF THIS AMP, DOESN'T MAKE ANY REFERENCE ABOUT THE CONNECTOR.

BUT ANYWAY, THE FACTORY RECOMEND THAT THE BIAS VOLTAGE IN THE TSL100 SHOULD BE ADJUSTED AT: (90mV EACH POT THAT ARE LOCATED AT THE SIDES OF THE CONNECTOR) EACH POT CONTROLS THE BIAS VOLTAGE OF EACH PAIR OF VALVES, LEFT POT CONTROLS THE BIAS VOLTAGE OF VALVES 1 AND 2, AND RIGHT POT CONTROLS THE VOLTAGE OF VALVES 3 AND 4. AND EACH SIDE NEED TO BE ADJUSTED IN THE SAME RATING.

I SET MY AMP IN 80mV, CAUSE THE VARIATION OF ELECTRICAL POTENCIAL IN MANY PLACES THAT I PLAY, AND MY AMP BIAS SETTINGS AT THE FACTORY WAS LEFT SIDE: 69mV AND RIGHT SIDE: 75mV. NOT GOOD... SO BEWARE. CHECK YOURS!

EVEN THAT I SET MY AMP IN 80mV, BELIEVE ME, STILLS VERY VERY LOUD, SO THERE'S NO PROBLEM.

AGAIN AS I TOLD YOU IN MY REVIEW, THIS AMP IS ONE OF THE BETTER VALVE AMPS IN THE WORLD BUT, """SEAT DOWN AND WORK IT, AND KNOW IT AT ALL.

This amp is great. I play mostly hard rock styles of music but every now and then I like to experiment just for fun. This thing kicks the crap out of any amp I have played before. The two separate FX loops are great, 3 channels for very specific tone quality, decent reverb, and a slew of push buttons that can alter your tone in almost any way imaginable. The VPR button is very useful for wanting that great tube sound at a lower volume, and the output mute buttuon it much better that having to shut off the standby switch every 2 second if you need to. Great features.

Like I said...I play hard rock, and this amp pulls it off without a flaw. The clean channel is excellent, offering great bell like tones. You can even fill the sound of your clean tone by pushing in the MID BOOST button. The crunch channel is great, although i don';t use it much. It has a bit more bass than the lead channel, but no as much gain. Also, palm muting sounds kind of muffled on the crunch channel to me. However, the lead channel ROCKS!!! Brutal distortion that is fluid and crunchy and smooth all at once. It doesn't have an overkill of bass like some other amps, which i like, and it has a growl to it that makes this amp worth the buy. By the way, this amp is very sensitive to the type of guitar/pickups you are using.I find I get my best sound with EMG's, although other pickups will sound great, trying different guitars with this amp could vary your sound even more.

ok Let me tell you some things about this amp. 1:The Footswitch hasn't crapped out on me. 2:The 4 and 8 ohm outputs have crapped out on me, but the 16 still works fine. 3: The return effects jack for loop 1 has crapped out on me, but the send is fine. 4: This all may be do to the fact that when I was moving my cab with the amp on top, it tipped over and fell HARD on the floor. However!!!! The AMP STILL WORKS!! Just a few jack problems. I have to give this a 10 because I would expect a tube amp to be shattered to pieces after taking a fall like that, but it didn't. Tubes are still good!

haven't dealt with them yet, although, did you know that in the US, Marshall is Distributed by KORG.....so you can always try and contact them if you are having problems.

Great amp and great reliability. Beats Mesa by a long shot and will be around for years to come.

Well, for complete features you may want to enter marshallamps.com
Excellent amp for live and studio sessions. Some features that are really fine to me, are the power amp section and the emulated line out as well as the effect loops.
I think that this amp works for every kind of players and styles, you can use it however you want. Yoy will love this amp (if you like the classic marshall sound) I do. Very verstile all valve amp.

As I told you, I think this amp will suit every kind of playing and style cause its versatillity in features and sounds, just set it as you like, three channels to experiment.
I run this amp with an Ibanez Double Edge RG2020X and a JEM7VSBL and those guitars suit very good to my style as well as this amp. But.... I suggest you to seat down and work this amp with care an patience, the amp won't sound good in its own right until you hear it several times, if you use this amp live, pay attention to the sound, you will notice the hidden amazing stuff of this amp at high volumes, just work it and play it.

Marshall amps are tough and well constructed, the wood is very hard, but i'm just thinking about buying or built a case, for a better protection.
Valves are always the delicate part, there are some rules and tips for valve care and impedance settings, if you follow them, your amp will work for years without trouble.

********** !!!!I also use this amp as a microwave oven for instant meal and as a calefactor in cold nights!!!!******** ja!! just kidding!!! but... !!!BEWARE!!! THIS AMP GETS EXTREMELY HOT.

I have been playing about 10 years, different styles and with different bands and tried different kinds of amps, but I like the Marshall sound a lot, and I chose this amp cause the features and versatillity, and its good to me. Something that really amazed me was the quallity of sound of the emulated line out, sounds great direct to a P.A. system or even to a computer or recording devices, and its enough power to play live, very very loud.
Listen at your TSL100 carefully and patienly, its some of the best valve amps ever, but you must work it and your ears will do the right thing and... read all the manual until you understand all the functions; learn and follow in the best way all the rules for operation, care and caution.

An amazing amp for all those fans of the big big marshall sound.

Thanks to Jim Marshall.

Lots for a Marshall.3 channels,buttons galore,knobs out the yang,2 fx loops etc...Very versatile, but ther are a couple of things you should know before you pop $1400 for one. First , there is a drop out of volume when switching from the crunch channel to the clean channel-I don't do this that often so it isn't a huge problem for me.Second, there is a drop in volume when you turn the effects loop on, which is usually the exact opposite of what you want. These are problems which can be overcome by careful layout of your fx setup, just think about it and you can figure out what I mean by that.Other than that it is a Marshall!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is worth alot!

I use a '94 les paul studio and a 2001 fender American strat and a 84 American strat with the Gilmour emg setup.All three sound great but different which is what is cool about this amp.Some amps color each guitar with their own flavor where this amp brings out the flavor of each guitar. I still believe, through experience, that strats go with fenders and les pauls go with marshalls. I know all about hendrix and all that but in general strats -fenders , pauls -marshalls. o.k. music styles -all over the place , I like it all, and this is not a one trick pony amp. If you try you can get any sound out of this amp except that boogie saturated sound , sorry it just will not do that. This is a Marshall, it smeels like a Marshall, it looks like a Maeshall, it tastes like a Marhsall , and it breathes like a Marshall, IF YOU TURN IT UP DUMBASS!THIS IS THE KEY . YOU CANNOT PLAY THIS THING AT 2 OR 3 AND HEAR WHAT A MARSHALL SOUNDS LIKE!BEFORE YOU GO TO THE MUSIC STORE AND SHOW OFF YOUR LICKS WITH THIS THING SET AT 2 STUDY UP ON HOW TUBE AMPS WORK. LEARN ABOUT A LITTLE THING CALLED POWER TUBE SATURATION AND YOU WILL FIGURE OUT THAT THE SOUND OF THE COOL GUITAR TONE ,THOUGH NOT THAT LOUD COMING OUT OF YOUR SPEAKERS,WAS A TUBE AMP TURNED UP REALLY FREEKIN LOUD HIT REAL HARD TO TAPE. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU WILL READ IN THIS WHOLE REVIEW COLUMN TOP TO BOTTOM. I,M NO GENIUS WHEN IT COMES TO ELECTRONICS BUT I KNOW THIS FOR SURE-WHEN YOU HIT ABOUT 4 OR 5 WITH THE VOLUME KNOB THIS AMP CHANGES-GGGGGGEEERRRRRRARSTICALLY!

it's a Marshall- who the hell knows?No problems with mine in 2 years, just new tubes and re-bias like all owners of tube amps should know.

FOOTSWITCH SUCKS - BUY A BACKUP

Been playing all my life-guitar , bass , keys- really have tried it all. Thats why i ranted about thr volume thing. YOU HAVE GOT TO TURN THIS THING UP!!!!!!!! If it were stolen I'd be sad. I would also tell whoever stole it to TURN THE DAMN THING UP PAST 2!!!!HERE WE GO AGAIN.

Fellas, See my post below for my reveiw, just thought I would post this great trick I found with the TSL 100. This won't hurt you amp at all, trust me, the trick is strait from Marshall. If your not useing any effect loops (which I am not) Plug a dummy cable just into the return input on Loop A. Play with the loop level for the channels and it will lower your volume. Not only does this let you drive the amp harder at a lower volume but you can set it so that turning the effect loop off with the foot controller giver you a volume boost for solos! You can, in essence, turn this 3 channel amp into a six channel with an old worn out cable! Hope this little trick comes in handy!

Bought brand new. This is a very powerful and quite versital amp. It is incredibly handy having that third channel. The other guitarist in my band got the DSL 100 half stack and is kicking himself for not getting this one, simply for that extra channel. The other key feature is the VPR switch. It allows my to get the tone i desire without having to crank it to 10 at 100 watts and making everyone's ears bleed.

I am playing a PRS McCarty through it and can get the cleanest of cleans and the crunchiest of crunches. Exactly the sound and tone I was looking for. Great control of all tonal pieces for each individual channel.

Have had the amp for a few months now and not a problem yet.

no dealings yet.

I have been playing for 15 years and this was my first "REAL" amp purchase. Everything prior to this seems like a toy. I couldn't be more pleased.

Late 2001 model purchased new 4 months ago. I play original modern pop radio rock and use the amp for live performance only. 100 watts is quite enough power for anyone, but power can be reduced using VPR switch. Very versatile amp, which is the real attraction to the TSL100. It does lack independant reverb & presence controls for Crunch & Lead channels, independant deep switches for Crunch & Lead channels, and independant control over FX for Crunch & Lead channels. So, while this amp is generally loaded with features, some corners were still cut in the true Marshall tradition. One feature I do appreciate is the new addition of a Molex connector outside of the chassis for checking and adjusting bias voltages. That alone saves big bucks in the long run.

I use Les Pauls exclusively. The TSL100 suits my musical needs which are; 3 channels and tone that cuts through a live mix well. It's a very quiet amp. The clean channel is a milestone for Marshall, though I find myself cranking the highs to keep it from being a bit dark on stages. The Crunch channel is very nice and produces a decent Marshall growl. I don't like the broad low end this channel has, but it's ok for a rhythm tone. It would be the best channel for Mesa Recifier-style tones because it gets very deep, broad low end, especially when using the Tone Shift. Channel 3 is more typical of what you'd expect from a high gain Marshall tone. I don't find anything buzzy, muffled, or thin about it, although I would prefer a bit more range out of the mid control. This channel IS a little compressed sounding, but nevertheless, cuts through the mix easily. I've gigged it with and without using the VPR power reduction. I think the VPR is ok for home use, but makes the amp sound too dark on stages. I don't really care for it, but it's still a good feature. I like the tones better than my Dual Rectifier for what I'm using it for right now, and especially for live performance use.

The newer Marshall amps are not made as good and solid as the old ones. After the JCM800 series was discontinued, Marshall has put more emphasis on making amps as cheap and commercial as possible, while trying to maintain an acceptible level of reliability. There have been too many complaints over the footswitch for this amp. Mine hasn't failed on me so far, but I felt the need to buy a spare and keep it on hand. So far the amp is holding up just fine.

Overall I love the TSL100. It gets a number of useable tones from pure clean to modern metal. If you're expecting it to be a box full of past Marshall tones, you'll find it's not the same as owning those amps individually. It's a modern take on the traditional Marshall tone. I would buy another unless reliability became an issue. I also think that the whole AVT series of hybrids are great as well, especially for those who want Marshall tones without the hassle of tubes. I feel that Marshall should improve the overall quality of their products.

Re reweiw from the past!

great features, improvements should be, control of the "deep" switch with a dial, and umm seperate presence control. thats it.

fruicking great, ! played all ranges of volumes, best of course was ten, not loud enough though! (people may be confused, but i like mega!!! volumes) anyway it was all about the lead channel, i wam in an indie band and the lead was so sweet, i just stayed on that almost all the time, and controled the gain with volume and a compressor to drive it. However, it does not cut in the mids like all marshalls i found even when above the rest of the band, that i was getting lost in the mix. so i sold this and bough a hiwatt. booom i have the amp i want now but not to the discredit of the marshall, (it does its job)

some people i know have had problems with the combo, which uses the same amp, but i put that down to heat, being in a small box and all that. never broke, i could throw this thing. infact i dropped it down my steps outside my house, no worry.!

how do you think marshall got known as the greatest amp company in the world? it may not have been my ideal amp but the sevice is A****

been playing four years, only ever played stacks really. Im on a board of old geezers who complain about new marshalls compared to thier #4000 jtm45's but i will let them, this thng is not the same amp as those vintage things, trust me i only own vintage amps now. and the tsl is in a different league, not saying its better or worse, its just not a vintage amp, so dot go thinking it will do that for you, what it will do for you though is give you tone no matter what you dial in. it just doesnt suit my playing, and as much as i miss it, i will never sell my hiwatt dr103 for this thing ever, its my ideal amp full stop. but this amp wont let you down it basicly wont be less than good! and if you play covers, BUY IT! since that is the only disadvantage i now have going back to my single channel vintage stacks. but hey with a bit of time i will get my way around it!

SOLID AMP!

Has 3 channels including 2 distortion channels and a nice bright clean tone. I play in a ska-punk band and we many shows and this amp head is amazing.

The sound is amazing. There are so many possible ways to set the distortion channels. You have you normal EQ with the mid, gain, bass, treb, pres and then you have a few other buttons to make the distortion bright or dark. The distortion just cuts right through and sounds like a million bucks. The clean is prefect too. i can't be any happier. everyone was telling me not to get this head and to buy a mesa boogie, but i am not trading this head in. It just takes a little big to get the right settings.

no problems yet

haven't needed to deal with them yet, but my old marshall head broke before and i sent it to guitar center and i got it back in about 1 and a half weeks, not bad.

I can't be happier. The distortion is so warm sounding and the clean tone is perfect for ska.

Im sure you know all the features this amp has. Definetely a versatile amp. I love being able to go from a Heavy distortion to an old vintage slp sound.
I just wish the Lead and crunch channels had seperate reverb and presnece controlls.

Ive posted a review awhile back and im alittle disappointed with what I said. Ive been reading alot of peoples reviews and some arent happy becuase the distortion is not "Heavy" Enough. Well, I thought the same thing until i found the best piece of equiment known to man. Its called the BBE Sonic Maximizer. What a gods send! I cant even express to you in words what this did to my sound. The tone went from Apples to oranges. Its totally in your face Tone, Found on million dollar records. You must try this out with the amp, you will not be sorry, I guarntee it.
My axe is a 1960 Gibson Les Paul Classic Reissue. I have in the effects loop the tc Electronic G major> to a BBE Sonic Maximizer 482. In front I use a Dunlop wah. This is the best setup. Ive spent so much money on different pedals, to get a good sound, and im finally happy. Im so anal on tone its not even funny.

Ok, after the first year, the capaciators and alot of other things fried out on me. I was so pissed. Thank god for Marshalls warranty, I didnt have to pay a dime.

When I had the problem with the amp, I found an authorized dealer in my area. Everything was taken care of, no problems.

The other gear I have is a Marshall Zakk Wylde jcm 800 zw2203 Head and cab and a 1961 Gibson Sg Reissue. (Read my review on Zakks head)
Im very happy with this amp now. It just needed alittle bit of a wake up. I dont think I will ever sell this amp. If someone stole it, I would find them and beat them with a stick.

This is my 1 year review after having this amp for quite some time. I'll save the basics since they've already been listed.

Right now I currently own a Budda Superdrive 18, Soldano Astroverb, and have just recently sold a Mesa Boogie Mark IV. This has been my main gigging amp for 13 months now and I must say this has been a pleasure to own after and only after a few things explained later. It's an incredible value for the money

Well, after I purchased this I must say I was not too impressed after being so accustomed to the modded JCM800 sound (Astroverb) that we all have experienced. After about 6 months I replaced the Svetlana tubes with Groove Tubes and it made the difference night and day.
Stock, there is this kindof buzzy sound that I just couldn't seem to EQ out. Now, it's smooth.

Another thing to factor is that this amplifier is a tweaker. All the nimwit players who play with this thing for 30 minutes think it sucks. Take some time, sit down and work with it...it'll be fabulous.
At first I did not like the VPR switch as I believed it killed my tone. Well, after a years worth of gigging in all types of places I have found out that you must tweak for your sound for full-power, and then tweak for the VPR power. This might be a pain in the butt, but it has proven to be well worth the time and effort. Now i'm not killing people and breaking beer-bottles at tables 15 feet in front of me.

I play in 2 bands plus at my church...one (the money maker!) plays blues/classic rock in smokey bars and the other plays all kinds of heavy rock in addition to the clean chimey stuff on Sunday mornings. This is the only amp i've found that can do this. The mesa came close, the Budda definately can but isn't big enough and the soldano cant get clean. I give it a 9 for the sound because I don't give 10's

To spite all the Diezel, ENGL, and Bogner guys...yes I will be joining you someday but I'll never sell this amp...it just rocks

I take care of my gear, new tubes every 6 months, transport in cases, and let cool down before moving. I haven't had a problem at all, have gigged without an amp backup (I have a POD in the bag) but this definately is well built. I did have a problem with the footswitch, but that was easily repaired by myself no problem.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, my 6 year old accidentally knocked it off a table one time and it fired right up. It was a nasty fall onto a hardwood floor and the floor came out worse than the amp did.

Never had to deal with the company. My dealer is cool and has taken care of me before. One of the last guys with service! Yeah, its a little more expensive than other folks but it's worth it for piece of mind.

While there are some better amps out there (for way more money I might add)...I think folks would be hard pressed to find a more versatile and reliable rig ONLY after getting rid of the first set of tubes and sitting with it for awhile. It's a pleasure to play and I can see myself picking up another one and running in stereo. hmmmmm

I use this Tube head for my metal band and punk band. So I need a lot off versatilaty. This amp gives me that up to a certain amount. This amp has three channels but the overdrive and the lead channel are almost the same. But with the deep and tone shift switch it's ok.

It sounds very good for what I need. It blasts away even (in my opinion) a mesa head. It's more raw when I use the switch to go to 25 watts instead of the full 100. In that way I can really put it to 10 without going deaf instantly. The sound also gets much thicker that way. It has the fullest sound I heard with my Jackson KE-2 and Gibson SG-X.

I've done about 200 shows with it the last 2 years and the only problem I had was with the reverbspring that got loose because of the traveling.

Very good. For the reverb it took a week to replace it. VEry fast since it has to go from my dealer to the distributor to the factory and back.
And you can get this sucka everywere

I used it for two years now and I still haven't heared an amp that sounds better for what I use it for.
If I had the money I'd buy 10 of them and go for the Manowar wall of amps.

There are allot of feature on this amp, you guys already have seen them listed above/below so I wont go into them. The features were a BIG selling point for me.

I use this amp with a Epiphone Pual I have customized out the ass. The only thing the same on the guitar is the wood. I also use a American Strat with a Duncan hot rail in the bridge. I have rack mounted and floor effects. My two beefs would be that I can't switch guitars and get the tone I want with out resetting the knob configuration and the audible POP heard when channel switching from clean to either distorted chennel. Other than that this baby ROARS. The sound goes from suprisingly clean to jazzy to Zeppelin to crushingly heavy, almost boogie-like tones. I have been useing the rhythm crunch channel as my clean and it is warm and sweet. The "lead" channel is VERY heavy. No stompboxes needed for the extra push. The sound is tight, hot and precise, exactly what I am looking for. This is NOT an amp to have in an appartment, it sounds so-so at low volumes, it pays the bills when you start raising the volume knobs. The tonal differance is unreal. I play modern rock covers and this thing does every sound I have asked it to do with minimal help from my rack and floor effects.

Just bought, tell you after 20 gigs.

See above.

I really, really love this amp. I have owned many the Fender and didn't think I would change teams but I have. My Fenders were not cutting the mustard when it came to really rocking out. I can sound like who I want to, when I want to. The versatility is just unmatched. You can take those nasty modeling amps and use them as coffee tables as far as I am concerned. What is the point of sacrificing tone for versatility? No need here, thing is a Marshall beast, has very Fender like cleans and ALMOST boogie like crunch (not quite, but close). Great price, Great tone and hell, man, standing in front of a Marshall stack is just cool. Sorry, had to say it.

I have been playing this amp for two years,I am in my late thirties and have owned a pile of amps and played countless gigs,I find the features decent,but that is not why I bought it

I play a Strat,in a band that has a hammond organ and a real 70's vibe and I find all the sounds I want,don't you people realize that for the most part tone is in your fingers,yes a highgain amp can help improve the articulation of the tone but a poor craftsman often blames his tools.In the past I have I have been usinga 5150 and a hiwatt.While both amps are fine I slightly prefer the Marshall tone

I have been gigging with it for two years and my only beef is the damn footswitch,it has broken twice I hate it.there I said it,but I have had no other problems with it.

I am an electronics tech so I repaired the switch myself

I have been playing for 25 years,and own a fair bit of gear: Hiwatt 100,Hiwatt pitbull,Peavey 5150,music man combo,Mesa boogie 4yb 4x12,Fender bassman 2x12,Marshall jcm 800 combo and of course jcm 200 tsl:Guitars: 91 Fender stratocaster,Epihone Les Paul,60,s Rickenbacker450,

I just got this amp like a few weeks ago, and i must say it's all i've been lusting after and more. it's well laid out and well made, though a few of my friends had a hell of a time with the footswitch. so far, not probs, then again it's been a week... and i agree, boosts for each channel would be nice, but then again just get an EQ pedal.

Sounds supurb, even with stock tubes, but i've heard these babies SING with new tubes in it. since i just layed down 1100 to get the fella new, i think i'm gonna have to work a few shows first. I play it thru a Sonic 4x12 with Celestion 75w'ers. it had the most beautiful low end. true, it doesnt scream like a mesa, but it's got a ton of bite.

again, a week, but i'm scared of the F.S.

now on the card, it says "serial number"............................................WHERE IS IT???

overall, thus far and over the past times i've used other ppl's, it is a great amp for someone that wants to ROCK. BUT if you got the 3000 bux, get a Bogner.

you already read the specs

unbelievable

will let you know in 10 years, though the footswitch sucks.

n/a

a couple of comments- 1. does anyone listen to an amp before they buy it? If i read one more " when i got it home it sounded...." it,s not a boogie dummy. I need more of this or that.... didn;t you play through it before you laid out 1500 bucks? If not i,d love to sell you some stuff. 2. turn it up, I hope you didn;t buy a 100 watt amp for your bedroom. The distortion turned up and the volume low is always going to give you a buzzy top end. 3.No, the clean channel isn,t just like a Fender, guess what it,s not a Fender. This amp is fantastic for almost any situation from country to metal( try it with a tele and you,ll see what i,m talking about ) Take some time to master it and you,ll be rewarded. That said my three gripes with the amp are this - the Reverb was an afterthought( use a 63 reissue from fender )the footswitch is poorly built and a boost function for each channel would have been nice ( they could have done that instead of going with the mid scoop function, anyone who knows anything knows the proper amount of mids are the key to great tone )Anyway, it,s the best sounding and versatile Marshall ever made, definetley not a one trick pony..

Read the 189 reviews before me.

For me this is simply the best amp Marshall has made to date. Period.

I've had them all (Plexi, JCM800 2203, JCM900 SLX, JCM 2000 DSL) and sold them all. Instead I got me a second TSL as a backup. The clean channel can be made to sound excactly like the Plexi I've had, Overdrive Channel 1 gives me the sounds of a JCM800 on lower gain settings and will sound like a modded one with the gain set at 1/2 or higher. Last but not least, Channel 3 packs all the high gain sounds my SLX was able to do and then some.
I've had the JCM2000 DSL for a short period of time and while I did like the Clean channel and its modes, I wasn't happy with the Overdrive channel and the shared tone controls. When I got a sound I liked out of the Clean channel, the tone settings wouldn't work with the Overdrive et vice versa.
What can be said about the sounds of the TSL that hasn't already been said. I didn't read all the reviews so maybe you will find this somewhere else too.
1) Although for me the two overdrive channels have each their distinct sound no matter what cabinet, you'll notice the differences the best with at least a 2x12 or 4x12.
2) The amp sounds good at bedroom levels (VPR comes in handy for this)
but sounds better with the volume turned up a notch or two higher.
3) With this amp, you really don't need any pedal to get a great distortion or to push up the gain (something I couldn't say about the JCM800 or the Plexi) and you also don't need to turn the gain full up to get a good sound (both channels).

As for the rest, I guess it has been covered sufficiently
by all the other reviews here.

In terms of guitars I own both a Strat and a Paul and the amp sounds excellent with both guitars. You can pretty much cover all musical styles with it. The amp is not pariculary noisy.

When you push the MidBoost button of the Clean channel there's a rather huge volume increase. If you're a bedroom player, this could be a problem since it doesn't have a master volume for this channel. There's also a slight "pop" when I switch from Clean to Overdrive using the channel selector knob on the front panel, but this "pop" doesn't increase as the volume is turned up and my second TSL has it too.
No big deal though.

I didn't have problems with both amps. Just to make shure when I got them I've played them flat out a couple of times in our rehearsal room (using ear plugs as I don't want to become deaf) and really let those tubes cook for a while. The amp did hold up nicely.
I also didn't have problems with the footswitch. Maybe in the meantime Marshall changed somthing in the design or whatever.

I never had significant problems with my other Marshalls during all the years (except for some scratchy pots from time to time).

don't know

If you like the Marshall sound look no further. This amp has it all - vintage and modern sounds. I sold all my other amps and got me a second one as backup. Need I say more?

2002 JCM TSL100 head. I LOVE THIS Amp!!! I originally purchased a Hughes and Kettner Duotone but after after two weeks I returned it and got the Marshall (Saved $300 too). All 3 Channels are great--I was most impressed with the Clean channel; but the Crunch and the Lead WOW!! One can summon the dead and the other will shake the fillings out of the skulls. CLEAN though...Add the Gain, put the neck pickup in charge and be taken away by the sa-weeeetest blues sound--with plenty of headroom (trust me--try it) All the features are useable: VPR, Mid Boost, Deep, and Mid-Scoop are well done. Power!?...more than I'll ever need. The Cab I use it with is a 1960 Vintage 4x12-- Can't beat a Marshall 1/2 stack....at any price.

And by the way, I have it in my bedroom and I disagree with some of the Horse's asses out there that say it "isn't a bedroom amp". I do own my own home though and can crank it...I find with the gain at 3/4 and the volume at 1/4 it "takes you there".

Ok. I have two American Strats(S/S/S); A Les Paul Classic(496R and 500T); and a PRS Custom 22 (Dragon II PUs). It totally "skates to where the puck is going to be--it follows my playing really well. I don't find it excessively noisy even with the Strats and it is remarkably quiet with the the Humbuckers. The only thing I have between me and the amp/guitar is a G-Major by TC Electronic--it's a 24bit processor that DOES NOT adulterate the sound at all--I can hear some of you now, and I was dubious about this too, but it is the ultimate rack mount processor (they run in at $499, but I got mine through Musician's Friend at $350...they made an error and didn't catch it). People talk of "tone"...Well, I get my tone in any channel...I think that "tone" isn't always contingent solely on an amp--or a guitar for that matter....it transcends that....it's when you can make your statement on ANY setup...an amp...a guitar...is only as good as the chump playing it. My style is this: 3 chords and the truth--Clapton, SRV, Tognoni, Leslie West, Gary Moore...this covers all them all with ease.

Can't really say I've only gigged with it 7 times but it seems sturdy...try lugging the fucker up or down 14 stairs--unforgiving stairs at that. It's all tube...so it's like a tempermental woman.

I called them several times before the swap out of the H&K and they were pretty cool....patient and knowledgeable

Been playing for 15 years. It won't "get lost...and I can't see it being stolen. In any event, I would replace it if it warranted--I love it. It really is a Great Value for an all tube amp touting 3 channels.

I recently bought this amp about 6 months ago. Its 100 Watts of ALL TUBE Marshall Power. Probaly too much power. Definatly, as stated above, not a bedroom amplifier. It is a 3 channel amp. It has 3 completely independent channels with 2 effects loops and Accutronics Spring Reverb. This thing is super versitile, think about the concept; 3 channels, 3 EQ's, although i would like to have a separate presence for the crunch and lead channel. A midboost for the clean channel and tone shifts for each of the OD channels. I give it a 9 though because i do wish it have all separate presences.

My main guitar is a PRS McCarty. and i use a Jackson Soloist on occasion for a little heavier of a feel. I play sort of an array of music,... im one of those guys that are just freaks over tone, when i sat down with this amp in the music store, i played the first note i smiled because it was the tone ive been searching for. I play Vai, Satriani, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Metallica, AC/DC,.. put it this way, i look for a lot of versitility in tone, and i get it. Put it on the lead channel and play one note, it puts out probaly the most clean well rounded lead tone out there. For those of you that post reviews complaining that the lead channel is fuzzy, or buzzes... yeah, at bedroom levels. Let me teach you some magic, turn it up and suddenly, the buzz ::disapears:: All this amp knows is versatility. The clean channel is VERY clean for marshall, it has kindof a sparkle to it. Very clean at All levels. I use my crunch channel for a bad company, hendrix, page, tone. Very nice and velvetly. I use my lead tone for an expression, for something unworldly, its an awesome tone. And even if you wanted a Dimebag Darrell rhythm chop sound,.. its there. Its all there with the marshall tsl100. I hate these immature newbies they say sumtin dumb like the clean channel dosnt have enough head room,.. yeah, it probally dosnt when the gain is one like ONE, turn the gain up to like 7 and you still have a good clean tone.

Hmm,... well i think all marshall TSL100s are coming a little off bias. I have talked to others with this amp and they have all had to get it rebiased like a week after purchase. What happened with me is, i was jamming and all of a sudden BOOM.. my HT fuse blew, so i got a new fuse and took it in to the shop, because fuses just dont blow. Anyways.. result was 2 bad tubes and it was a little off bias. Otherwise this amp is a tank.

Well,.. i have never had to deal with marshall though my music store offers lifetime adjustments and repairs.

Ive been playing about 3 years. On my pedal board i have a 535Q, Digitech WH1(whammy) and tuner, in the effects loop i have a boss OC2, CE5, DD6 and a ElectroHarmix Holygrail. In the rack i have a TC Electronics G.Force, Eventide Harmonizer H3000, Chandler Delay(600-800ms) and a Furman PowerStrip. If this thing were stolen i would track him down and kill him not before i beat him. and chop off his toes and fingers so everyone will know who stole my TSL100, or i will kill all his loved ones and make him live. I played many of the 12 most sought after amps in history and i ended up with this, remember im a tone gurue, and i ended up with this amp. Its awesome, take my word, and kids, dont let some guy that dosnt know what hes talking about writes a bad reviews on this amp and says sumtin like clean channel dont have enough headroom or lead channel is fuzzy. dont let that steer you away from a great amplifier. Go try one out for your self, crank it up. Get some tone.

'99 model
Definitely versatile (no complaints in that dept.) You all know the features. Plenty of power out of this bad boy.

I use this w/ a strat, a paul, and a 88 charvel. Good sounding amp overall. Definitely takes some tweak time to set it up right. It is a bit on the bright side though (I could use a little less treble). Not a noisy amp (even on the high gain channel.) Clean channel is very clean, crunch goes from overdriven to distorted to saturated (its my favorite channel). THe lead channel has LOTS of gain. Its a good channel overall but lacks some of the "meat" of the crunch channel. NICE CLEANS AND BRUTAL DISTORTION ARE ABUNDANT

I give it a 10 because I like its character. It is different from my 5150 or my Laney vh100 (which also sounds killer). I enjoy all of these amps (they each have their own distinct sounds and feel).

now for the negatives. I've had problems w/ the footswitch like many others. Thats not a big deal to me because I've had it rebuilt w/ higher end cable. My current problem is an intermittent one. AT loud volumes the sound just kind of cuts out (fizzles out) for a second and comes back. It hasn't been to the tech yet. I'm hoping its some cold solder joints that can be easily repaired but we'll see.

haven't dealt with them but I may have to because of my current problem. Can't give a rating here.

I've been playing 15 yrs. Other gear that own ...lets see... a peavey 5150, laney gh100l, laney vh100r (awesome), and a Marshall artist 3203 (nice amp too). Overall I'll give it an 8.5 (even though the rating system doesn't offer this option) I really like the amp but until its working again I can't trust it.

Already listed. Handy 3 channel footswitching. (The main reason I bought it) Pretty much a straight out rock sound on the rythym and lead channels, the clean channel is AWESOME. 11 out of 10 for the clean sound.

I used a Floyr Rose Classic Strat through this adbomination.

The 2 distortion channels (lead and rythym), are possessed of a buzzy, loose distortion i compare to a transistor distortion, or even worse, a 5150 distortion. The only thing I could do to "tighten" the distortion was to use a rack chorus unit (nanoverb), which tightened the sound considerably. It also made my sound very "spacey" and "out there". Good one.

The rythym channel wouldn't pick up harmonics very well, nor would the lead for that matter either. I basically always struggled with this amp which is why i sold it!

Soloing was usually a real chore.

As I said b4 the clean sound is amazing though. Slippery, bell like, amazing for funky rythyms, just wicked. I REALLY miss that clean sound! Wouldn't cross the road 4 the distortion sound though.

Some other previewers have said you can get and AC/DC rythym sound. WISHFUL THINKING. There is no way you can get that sound from this thing. Or any other Marshall sound you can think of.

Eric Clapton Bluesbreaker sound? Forget it. Hendrix. NO WAY. Gary MOORE? NOT IN THIS LIFETIME. Iron Maiden, as one other reviewer said. WAKE UP!

I'll admit the sound cuts through though in a live situation. I'll give the Clean channel an 11, the Distortion channels a 0.

I since bought a Trademark 60 by Tech 21, their Marshall setting souhnds MORE like a MArshall than this piece of shit.

There is no real way to shape your sound either. What you hear is what you get.

Pedal broke at a gig. Wouldn't switch between Rythym and Lead. Good one. The bloody multi pin on the plug is too fragile. The pedal for the Trademark 60 I bought uses a JACK plug. How's that for innovation? Why couldn't Marshall do that?

never dealt with them

I've been playing since i was 15, I'm into Iron Maiden and Hendrix mainly.

I was playing with it in a pub band though, playing everything, Rock, Funk, R'n' B, blues, Motown. All the pub standards.

This amp is okay for gigs cause of the footswitching between channels, but the sound is just rubbish. No smooth singing distortion, just harsh buzzy crap. Is this the best modern science can do? Actually no. Have a look at the reviews of the Trademark 60 on Harmony Central and see the difference.

I'm a gigging muso with a good ear for a good sound. This don't have it. I sold it in disgust.

My advice to you is, if you can play well, like if you can do a good solo, improvise, if you feel like there's really nothing u couldn't play if u set your mind to it. (ie, if you're pretty good) then DON"T BUY THIS AMP.

If you're a punk rocker or a death metaller or something then go ahead, you'll probably love this buzzy piece of shit.

It was built in 2000
I play many style from Jazz to Death Metal; so I need an amp that can deliver the tones when I need them...
I play Guitar since 1986.
I use this head with a Marshall Cab 1960B (bottom)
This head is 100w and feature 3 distinct channels switchable via a footswitch (included). The 3 channels are: CLEAN, CRUNCH, and LEAD using their own EQ (Bas, Mid,Treble) Volume and Gain for maximum tone shaping capability. 2 Sections :CLEAN and CRUNCH/LEAD have controls
including: Presence, Deep Switch, Tone Shift, FX/MIX and Reverb. The Clean channel has got a MidBoost switch!
There is also a VPR (Virtual Power Reduction) switch that can take the power from 100w to 25w approx. without losing the Tone (a kind of Pentode thing); very useful in a practice situation.
A very cool switch is also provided: A MUTE!!!!!!!! yes you can mute the sound to the output valves! useful for a recording via the speaker simulation jack (back of the head).
I mainly use the tone shift to "scoope" the mid in order to get that Modern Metal Tone. It can be used also to get a less mid/marshall sound at low volume...
The Presence switch can be used to boost the upperMid/lowerTreble when you have to cut through cymbal but I dont use it since I dislike trebly sound. On the other side I use the Deep switch to gives the tone a more resonant texture to the low frequency in the loudspeakers cabinet. As the they say in the manual its great for filling out the Bottom end at low volume (ex: using VPR) but will also give a resonant but "controlled" growl to the tone at high volumes.
Speaking of High Volume: CAREFUL WITH THE VOLUME ITS A VERY LOUD AMP!!
But we are in marshall mainly for 2 things...TONE AND POWER!!!
The only thing missing...well may be a master volume...but with all those features...

I use a Gibson Lespaul Standard with Stock pick-ups soon to be upgraded with a 500t (bridge). This amp respond marvelously to a high output passive pick-up.
I have 2 Roland JC-120 which are great (by the way) that I use with a GT-5. I wanted a more natural, powerful less processed (more tube)sound; so the Marshall was my logic choice. I will sell one of my JC-120 and A+B the other with my JCM 2000 TSL.
I was amazed by the CLEAN channel on my JCM 2000 (I am a JC-120 user don't forget). Marshall lost his "bad clean" reputation with that baby!
The Clean is clean even at high volume but can break if you set the gain to high (but some people including myself like that...).
For the Crunch channel well,it really delivers a good punchy and thicky sound. If set properly you won't miss your old vintage amp.I like the old overdrived sound a la Robert Fripp (think of RED) but could not afford a Hiwatt...anyway much less versatile.
For the LEAD channel well just raise the gain and you will get a very razor sharp attack (depends on your pick-up) suitable for Metal and very hard rock. If you use the Tone shift and the Deep switch with high gain on this channel prepare for a real headbanging thrash/death assault. But keep in mind one thing: This is MARSHALL tone not Peavey 5150 or Boogie sound...if you want those sounds buy those amps...
For more Tone shaping (for the purist) I suggest to put a Graphic EQ in the Effects Loop like the BOSS GE-7 . I did and it can now produce EVERY sound I need. If you like the Marshall tone you will get plenty of. If you are more into Overoverdrived ultra compressed Tonedeaf 7 strings Rap/Metal stuff (personal opinion here) check somewhere else.
Keep one thing in mind, this amp will sound as good as you are...if you are not confident go to Transistor based or compressed stuff it will cover your misplaying...

Been playing with this amp since 2000 and it rules !
No problem at all...even the so called fragile footswitch keep up the beat.

Never dealt with them

This amp will stay with me it rocks....

3 channels, clean, crunch, lead, reverb, switchable FX loop. It's all covered below and on Marshall's web site.

Versatility...well this is pretty much what the TSL100 is all about. Yeah, its a pretty versatile amp. It's certainly not shy on features (well, tremelo would be nice, but I don't think I'd trust marshall to come up with a good sounding tremelo).

In the power department it's pretty good, but the clean channel is lacking in the headroom department. I find it needs to have it's master volume at around twice what the lead master is at in order to be comparable. At any rate, it's plenty loud!

I'm using the TSL with a peavey wolfgang and Gretsch 6120 and a Korg SDD3000 in the FX loop (shared) and into a Marshall 2X12 (I forget the model #) to do original music in the vein of U2, & Radiohead.

The amp is bright...very bright, make that too bright. In my setup, all the treble knobs are below 5 (clean on 5, lead on 2, crunch somewhere in between). I find the EQ a little weak in the tone shaping department (way different than my boogie MkIII, and also different from Fenders). I wish the presence knob could go below 0 on the lead channel!

Noise...well, it's noisy. Not the noisiest amp I've owned, but it's not quiet thats for sure, and the FX loop only makes it worse. There is a certain level of noise present at any master volume setting, so you need the masters up above 2 or so just to overcome this and get decent signal to noise ratio. This is one reason why this amp is so bad at low volumes. The sound totally changes with volume setting too. At lower settings it's bright and thin, but at higher settings it starts to fill out. I agree with the folks below, this is not a bedroom amp, you will not be happy with it unless you play at rehearsal volume. The VPR function is useless IMO...it robs the sound, and doesn't affect the noise level (so you still can't play it at low volumes).

The clean sound...wow, for a Marshall, you've got to give them credit on this one. My last Marshall was a JCM900 (one with EL34's and no diode clipping)...there was no clean, but the TSL has a pretty respectable clean sound. It's not Fender-y (not as much shimmer or thump), but a different flavour...very useable at any rate. The amp has reverb, but it's more of an afterthought, it sounds thin, almost as if it was just 'added on top' of the signal, and not part of the signal. The clean channel is hard to make very clean with high output pickups, the gain needs to be very low, and the master needs to come up pretty high. Fortunately when the clean channel does distort is still sounds pretty good.

Crunch...I remember it as being okay, but bright. Unfortunately, my foot pedal broke, and I no longer use the crunch channel, so I won't really comment on it.

Lead...way to much available gain! I have the gain on 2 and I still need to roll the volume of my guitar back in order to get a good rythm tone. I can't imagine this thing with the gain on 10. The lead channel is pretty bright, but has pretty good tone to it. Again, the EQ doesn't have a great sound to it. As a side note, this amp is quite different from most marshalls...normally, on a marshall you roll all the EQ knobs to 10 and work backwards, but this one seems to have a sweet spot around 5, and you work around that.

The FX loop, I think is poor...there should be a level control (not a switch), balanced I/O (c'mon it's a solid state FX loop anyways, it's only a few cents to make it balanced), also there is always some bleed thru of the FX no matter how the FX blend knob is set (the loop is a parallel loop with a blend control...I set mine to full wet and control the wet dry from my FX unit). This control should have had a switch to make it a pure serial loop.

Overall, I'm reasonably happy with the sound...it's better than the Boogie mkIII it replaced (esp in the clean department).

Poor....

1 month after purchase my Crunch footswitch got 'crunched'...it started by being intermittent, now it just doesn't function. This is bad... My last Marshall ate tubes fast, so I'm not expecting much from this one either. But so far the amp itself has been reliable.

I never bothered getting the footswitch fixed, as I just used the lead channel with the gain rolled back (and liked it better than crunch). I'll get it fixed eventually...before the warranty runs out.

It's a decent amp, definitely worth a try!

It's a three channel amp.That's what a guy needs right

I have never played on,or let alone heard an amp that sounds this great.Beautiful clean and the nastiest lead channel(bad as you want)! The only thing is the shared reverb and resonance.And no master volume what the hell.Honestly who doesn't put a master volume an an amp nowadays.I cant complain to much it still rocks

dont know yet.But I'm not to excited about the foot switch.Heard bad things

My drummer works as the tech at our music store.Damn better be good

I've only had it one week.But it really blew my 2 channel noisy as all hell 5150 right out of the water

Sometimes I wonder if there are any adults who post reviews here. Too many reviews seem as though they were written by children. I use this database to research features, quality and satisfaction, and reading reviews about how "Mesa sucks" doesn't help.

Marshall TSL100: 100 watts, 3 channels, reverb, dual effects loops (in some ways shared), and some other bells and whisles like "Deep" switches, "Tone Shift" switches, and "VPR" or "Virtual Power Reduction", which changes something with the tubes from triode to pentode operation- this is supposed to be like a half-power switch, reducing the amp's output. The rear of the amp has an ohm switch for 4, 8, or 16 ohm cabinets. Marshall just cannot seem to produce a multi-channel amp without sharing some part of the EQ, and in the case of the TSL100, it's the Presence and reverb controls; one of each for the clean channel, and one of each shared between the two gain channels. The effects loop has some sharing as well, but too complex to explain here. If anyone would like to read the spec's and see the pictures, they can visit the Marshall website and view/download the manual from the "Handbooks" page. I rate 3-channel amp features pretty high since they're usually among the best in features.

I use Les Pauls. I play a lot of different styles like Jazz, Blues, Rock, 80's Metal, NuMetal, etc. My impression is that the TSL covers all of these styles better than any other single amp I've played in 25 years.

The Clean channel is a milestone for Marshall. It sparkles, shines and shimmers. It can achieve a hefty amount of bouncey bottom, and it can get plenty of midrange body. When the mid boost is activated ("in") the mid control is disconnected from the circuit, and the bass and treble controls take on different properties. There is quite a bit of headroom on the clean channel when using the master, and the gain control can produce Plexi-like tones when turning it full-up. I find the controls on the clean channel to be very interactive with each other. I tend to spend some time adjusting my tone here, because there's a bit of variety to be found here.

The Crunch channel produces a number of Classic Marshall gain tones. Many variations are possible between the gain and tone controls, allowing basically everything from Blues rhythms to Soloing. I think this channel sounds better than my JCM800 2210 and 2205 amps' gain channels, and has much more flexibility and tonal possibilities. I use it for Classic Rock rhythms, and it has growl and bite like only Marshalls can produce. I'm very satisfied with this channel.

The Lead channel is just as anyone would expect from Marshall. It produces the highest amounts of gain of all the 3 channels. In my experience, this channel is slightly more compressed compared to the Crunch channel's open-sound. It also seems that the EQ controls are centered around different frequencies than the Crunch channel, perhaps producing lower lows. Where the Crunch channel has sufficient bass at 2:00, the Lead channel may equal that at a wide-open setting. When setting both the Lead and Crunch channels to the same exact settings, the tones will be different, even if the gain is turned up high enough to meet the Lead channel. Anyway, the Lead channel sounds excellent, and produces gain to spare for high-gain rhythm and solo playing. The overall sound of the amp is tight, focused, and clear.

The Tone Shift switches scoop the midrange for the Lead and Crunch channels. I don't find that sound useful, but that's my preference. I do prefer using the Deep switches, because they seem to balance the sound more and reduce the boxiness that the TSL may produce otherwise. The VPR apparently reduces the output of the amp somewhat and allows "high power saturation at lower volumes", but I find it rolls off too much high frequencies for my taste. Last, there's a Mute switch for completely muting the amp's output for situations like late night recording, etc.

I've only had it for a few weeks at this point. I am nervous about the footswitch because I've read some bad reviews. I am told that my amp has a newer footswitch. However, the inside of the housing has a date of 2000. Therefore, I am afraid it's an older, less reliable footswitch. This would present a catastrophy for me in any live performance situation. The individual switches from the inside, look as though they're solid, but not nearly the quality of genuine Switchcraft(TM) parts. It is actually unforgivable that this amp was released with an inferior footswitch that hadn't been properly field tested before the amp's release.

If I have to call them, I'm going to be really pissed off.

So far I feel that this is the most tonally versatile amp I've ever owned, and it has even more tonal flexibility than my Mesa 3 Channel Dual Rectifier. Mesa makes an amplifier of far better quality than Marshall does, and their customer satisfaction policies are the industry standard. Where the TSL uses plastic switches, Mesa amps use metal. I like both amps and manufacturers, and I choose my amplifiers for different things. Liking one brand does not mean we need to hate the others.

Note: The TSL has a Molex connector inside the rear panel which allows the tubes to be biased (though the manual mentions nothing about this and I have no knowledge of it's use voiding the warranty. I recommend servicing by a qualified technician). To my knowledge (and experience) each pair (two) of EL34's needs to be correctly set at 90mV Max (which equals the correct EL34 rating of 45mV Max each individual tube). When I purchased mine, one pair was set at 56mV and the other pair was set at 72mV. Setting the bias to the correct settings noticeably improved the sound.

I dislike the TSL100's plastic switches, shared EQ & Reverb, and interdependant effects loop configuration.

I almost didn't buy the amp because of all the reported failures of the footswitch. That switch is key to performing live with any 3 channel amp.

Bottom line: the TSL100 is a great all-around versatile amp which can cover many styles of music. It's sure to become another classic. I feel that it's Marshall's best work to date!

The amp have an incredible feature: THE VPR (Virtual Power Reduction) option. The amp make incredible sounds in lower volume.

What?! It's a Tube Amp with 8 valves!!!! If you need to make Punk Rock sound, buy it!

I've been playing with it since the last year... I think that this amp is really good!

just ordered 1 and don't have it yet. i know its got 3 channels clean crunch and lead. that's good enough 4 me. its got reverb, seperate 4 clean channel and crunch/lead channels.

fav. is of coarse the gibson les paul studio goth. i've only played one in a music store but anybody knows that u have to know what ur doin w/ the eq b4 any amp will sound good. so all u dip shi!z sayin it sucks, i'm a firm believer in marshall and apparently everybody else is to cuz u c what most of the pros use.

everybody sayz u can depend on it. hell the damn thing w/a full stack has got to b about 250 lbs.

i like it at low volumes hell i'll love the damn thing on 10

This amp is a 2000 model, And is quite versatile For every kind of music that i play ( blues, jazz, funk, metal, progressive) It is a 3 channel head, with a 5 way foot switch, 2 effects loops, no headphone jack! this aint no toy, but if you really needed something like that you could take the direct XLR out into a submixer and mute the output of the head to play through headphones but whatever haha. This amp really covers everything doesn't need anything else in my opinion. i use this amp for home use, Practice , and live. Its a all tube amp, and i love it. Like I said, if you sit and tweak this amp you can get virtually any sound you need.

I play a Fender Mexican Standard Strat, A BC RICH nj series warlock (1983) Nech thru, and a Jackson Dinky reverse all have stock pickups. These guitars are great for all kinds of music. Its noisy if your in front of a computer screen =) The amp can make Blistering metal sounds , to sparkling clean Fender tones, and it has a great Crunch ac/dc like in between. The Clean channel can sound like a Plexi when the gain is cranked, The distortion is brutal, but its not over compressed like other amps, if you are not a good player then dont buy this amp it wont hide your playing.

Definatly dependable, I do gig without a backup with this head. Amp has never broken down on me yet....Ill keep you posted...

I cant say , because in the 10 years i've been playing marshall amps I've never had one break on me sooo, again ill keep you posted....

i've been playing for 10 years, I own A boss gt3 effects board, some other cool effects. If this amp were stolen I'd buy it again definatly, I love the clarity of the marshall, i play next to a mesa boogie dual rectifier and my tone has so much more life. The mesa has a little more gain , but the marshall really does have enough for thrash metal and , beautiful lead solos. I dont hate anything about the amp. Compared this amp to a whole HURD of amps.....Dual Rec, Trip rec, 5150, XXX, Fender amps, vox's, line 6 flextone, ect ect...I chose this one for one simple reason , all those heads above do only some things right , where as this one does them all right all in one package, my second choice would have been a Dual rec, but the clean just doesnt compare im sorry...I can't stress this enough Do not judge this amp from playing it in the store, take this thing home and play with it for hours and you will fall in love.

Features - well, they have been listed above (or below?!). I would give it a 10, but I would like midi-switching like the 6100 had, so I give it a 9.

Man this thing sounds good. No, let me change that, it sounds good at live volumes. As with any tube Marshall the sound at bedroom level really sucks - but you shouldn't have a 100W tube amp in your bedroom! They are meant for on stage. I have had (and still own many of) a bunch of Marshall amps - this one is the best.

No problems at all. Others have bitched about the footswitch - not had anyproblems myself - although I don't actually use the footswitch - I built a midi-switch so my rack controls the system.

Marshall (UK) are very helpfull.

I would buy one of these again in an instant.

Features, wow, this amp is incredible in this field. The amp is rated at 100 watts, but in the manuel it says it can reach 120 watts, my marshall dealer also told me this. Either way, its loud as hell. Im not looking at my amp, but we'll see what i know off by heart.

Channel 1 - Clean:
Bass
Mid
Treble
Mid Boost
Master Volume
Gain
Presence
"deep" switch
Reverb
FX mix

Channel 2 - Crunch
Bass
Mid
Treble
Tone Shift
Master Volume
Gain

----the following are shared with channel 3---
"deep" switch
reverb
Fx mix


channel 3 - Lead
Bass
Mid
Treb
Tone Shift
Master
Gain
(reverb, presence, and fx mix are shared with channel 2)


-----others----
output mute
vpr(cuts power to 25 watts)
4, 8, 16 ohms outputs
XLR slave output
Just look that the list, thats a load of features. Only 1 complaint: no output volume.. It would be great if there was a output control, like on the mesa's, that you could quickly
adjust all 3 channels, but thats about the only thing that mesa beats the marshall in. There is a line out, but i wouldn't recommend using it. Most amps create feedback when wired directly into a console so i would recommend putting a mic on your amp. A good condenser always works great. Other than that, this amp has sweet, well designed features.

WOW! The tones that come from this amp are astonishing. I use a 1968 Gibson SG special, 1999 Gibson Les Paul Classic, and a 2002 Gibson Les Paul Custom with this amp, and it sounds great with all three. I have a strat too, but i really have been a strat type of guy, and gibson is rediculously better anyways. The clean channel is great. The tone is very warm and thick (especially with the bridge pickup). I always crack the preamp and have the adjust the volume. This gives you a very crisp but slightly broken up sound. When I play jazz and blues, and have the preamp about half way and adjust the master. This gives prefectly clear thick warm marshall sound. Even when i crank the master, it stays clear as can be. A bit a reverb goes a long way too. The cruch channel is like my second clean. I keep the preamp at about 9 oclock with the bass half way, the mid at about 6, and the treble at about 7. This gives me a dirty clean sound, but it is still crisp and juicy and you know. The lead channel is amazing, and frightening. Its loud loud loud, but the tone only gets better. I have the bass at 8, mid at 5, tone shift on, treb levels very depending on where im playing. There is plenty of headroom on this channel. I usually play gigs up mic'd, and i never go about 3 on the lead channel. Especially with the les paul classic, i get the famous marshall roar. its absolutely wonderful. This amp does not need any processing. With the right touch, you can make most amps sound half decent(except crates), with the marshall tsl 100, it sounds superb. I dont think that many people appreciate a good amp when they get one. Its a waste of money to run a DOD death metal thru a marshall tsl. There is already plently of versatility there, but if thats your thing, more power to you. For those who can't get teh right sound out of your tsl just play with it. Start with all of the controls down and just work your way on thru, making everything perfect. This is the best amp i have ever played, and it i could, i'd give it a 20, the rating thing only goes to 10, poop.

Never had a problem. I never gig with a back up, why would I? Its a Marshall, not a crate.

My marshall dealer is the coolest guy around, not to mention the best guitar player i've ever heard. I've had questions before and i contacted marshall and got a quick helpful response. this deserves a 10.

10, this is the best sounding amp i've played. simple as that. i get all the sounds i want from it and more. i experience no problems. simply a well-designed, well-made, amp. its a marshall.

It's a 2002 model 3 channel 100watt head with 4 EL34 and 4 ECC83's,Output mute and vpr and two effect's loops and a emulated line out.There's deep and tone shift for the gain channels and a mid boost for the clean.All three channels are footsitchble and also the reverb making with it's 4 way footswitch

I got this as my first tube amp,Order'd a 4x12av to go with it but it whould'nt come in till 3 week's later so the shop gave me a loan of a s/h std marshall 4x12.All sound's on all channel's where so bad i took it back and got another,But it sound'd exactly the same execpt a bit brighter on the lead channel.As i was cursing marshall for three week's a finaly got my 4x12av.It turned out most of the problem was the speaker the shop had lent me,I mean in listening the the head as it is supossed to sound.That's where my really bad disapointment with the amp came as it has horrible hearshness to the dis channels and legato,Frettapping etc is a joke it never come's out.It sound's so bad it is really unrecordble as i bought this amp hoping it to give me pro sound's.Playing along to some satch or vai slash etc the tonally quality is something you'd expect to hear from a #300 combo.As i have bought it i have very rarely used it and i don't even have another amp to play,Even a #300 combo whould give me the insperation to play with it everyday.As this is the second TSL100 i have had and both sound the same there is nothing wrong with the vavles and not a bum one out the factory it's hard to belive they came make such ****.I have heard early versions of this amp and it sound's completely different,Though close to a good sound.Its pretty much useless to use it sound's that horrible,But it's not just the TSL also my previos JCM900 was just as bad witch i have sold and also my most recent marshall a 1987 2205 witch is also getting sold along with my TSL100 soon.Man i have played since i was 11 and and the money i have spent to get a decent tone{i don't ask much:(((}and i still can't get a amp to give me satisfaction of playing has even made me think of giving up{not to much though:)))}.Thinking i'am the most jinked guitarist on the planet because know i don't know what to do in my buying my next amp.For sure i hope none of you ever buy a TSL in future,conserning my other amp's i've talked about maybe it's just because they where old.O and if your thinking of buying one contact the email below and ill be happy to let you hear how it sound's over yahoo etc{as long as i still have it still can't sell the thing:(((}

No pops,no exesse noice nothing!!!

Whould'nt know

Never even think about buying it,guitarist's have it ruff already with expensive instrument's without wasting #700

We all know about the features by now... it pretty much does it all

I play mostly thrash/death metal sounds, and for fun here and there some blues or classic rock sounds also. Anyone who says this amp doesn't have enough gain/distortion either has unrealistic ideas of how distortion works or just plain ISN'T TURNING THE AMP UP LOUD!!!! This IS NOT a bedroom amp. I have it running through a dbx compressor and a dbx eq, and the thing sounds absolutely evil, very low and "chuggy". I have no idea what these people are talking about. When I turn the thing up to 8 it blows my head off! It's sitting on top of a 1960 B straight cab. Also, I run an Ibanez TS9 overdrive pedal through the clean channel with the gain set about 1/2 way and I get the sweetest blues sounds out of it. With the crunch channel and a compressor, you can get the led zep "communication breakdown" sound no problem.

With the exception of the footswitch seeming to have a mind of its own, the amp seems pretty well built. It hasn't gone on the road yet however so I can't give an honest answer. The back is easily removable and the tube biasing seems simple enough.

Haven't had to use it yet.

I love this amp, it seems to do anything a mesa can do 100 times better. Again, this amp is NOT a wimp when it comes to high distortion metal, these kids just don't know how to use it. I HIGHLY recomend running it through an EQ in the loop, it will give you any sound you want.