Marshall JCM-2000 TSL 100

its been metioned before

its pretty good, a bit like a old clasical rock tone and also good when playing clean riffs and solos but it doesn't have the right amount of gain for an amp. So may say mesa boogies' are shit but they aren't there just harder to use cuz you have to ajust them to yourneeds and the spesifics of the guitar. This is a pretty good amp tho.

its a pretty good amp but i'll have to try it out more and compare it to a mesa to see what really fits for me!

There are enough features on the TSL head to not need another AMP ever again. although I wish the "Mid Boost" on the clean channel were foot switchable.

The Overdrives sound great and a lot of shapping is possible. The clean channel is a bit ordinary. the best cleanish tones I get using OD1 with my guitar voulume turned down to about 4 using anything but the hot bridge p/up.
The Amp is a little too susseptable to "mains " noise.

The amp has broken down without explanation. My Marshall Tech tried to explain why one of the resistors burned but couldn't. Said there was no clear reason. Lucky there was another amp belonging to another band. The input socket to the F/Sw has now fucked up three times.
The "output mute" doesn't really work. When recording at home the speakers still produce sound with the switch depressed and it gets louder as you wind up the volume. Also the reverb control pots seem to work only at there own will , and only stay of with the F/Sw plugged in and switched off. The conponents used by Marshall are really fucking shithouse.

Talked to engineers at marshall at least twice , they were friendly. Not that it matters as I have to deal with dickheads in Sydney.And speaking politely will not help my amp or my sound on stage.
Warranty was only a year. I believe Laney offer 3 yrs and Fender 5 yrs.

I wish I never bought it. I actually had a reliable Marshall 2x65watt stereo chorus , Valvestate combo which I sold to raise money for the TSL as soon as it hit Australian shores 1998-9
I should have bought a Fender Deville or whatever.
It really breaks my heart 'cause I love the sound of high gain Marshalls

Features described above.

I use this amp for classic metal/rock (Iron Maiden, Metallica, U2, ACDC, etc.)
The clean tone is smooth, and creamy, and sounds superb with a les paul.
The crunch tone is perfect for Angus Young sounds.
The lead tone is where this amp really blows me away though... This lead tone makes me wanna cry everytime I hear it... think Dave Murray from Iron Maiden, if you haven't heard his lead tone, download Brave New World and listen to the first solo and the intro, you'll see what I mean... this amp is cool.

The rhythm guitarist in my band has a Mesa Triple Rectifier, as soon as I hit the lead channel for a solo the first time, the band just stopped playing and listened to me!!
He payed more than twice as much for his amp, and he was very quiet for the rest of the day :)

For tones, I gan get near perfect tones for Slash, Dave Murray, Angus Young, Adrian Smith, and Jimmy Page.
Personally, I set up the lead for Murray, and crunch for Angus.

I have also heard a local band playing tool-style stuff with it... it sounded great!

I've dropped this thing a few times and had some roadies with not-so-soft hands lugging it around, and never had a problem with it.

N\A

I don't use much in the way of effects, save a dimebag darrel signature crybaby and digital delay, and this amp makes them sound so much better.
I laugh at people who review FX pedals and guitars and say they sound crap, then reveal they are playing through a 15W Peavey or something.
This baby is what good pedals are designed for.

I had a gig a couple of months ago just after I bought this baby, and the sound guy miked up my amp to the PA, then kept telling me to turn down so he could hear the PA. Personally, I would have preferred to play without the PA and just crank it right up, because that's where the awesome sounds are.
Just one final thought...
Don't buy this baby!! I want the tone to myself, and when the public finally hear some great tones and REAL solos after years of all this nu-metal mesa garbage, they will be blown away and hail ME as the saviour of rock/classic metal muhahahahahaha....

its as versatile as an amp can get...and with effects, made me nearlly cry :P

i played through with my Gibson Les Paul Gary Moore signature model...and it blew hard...from heavy(metallica) to nice clean chet atkins...all i can say is, if u want a smashingly good amp that rocks, oh and that excluding effects just on its own it blowz. its a very hard to very nice clean amp. if you dont think so its because you dont know how 2 use it...lol read the manual. Btw im from Australia :)

i havn't seen one 2 break down...all though when i was just playing a JCM 2000 tsl 100w amp(not the head, the full amp) it had a few buzzes and crackles hear and there. Tho that was in a m usic shop and has probaly been there for ages, and very neglected.

i havnt yet... and hope i dont have to :S :)

I believe its the best amp and head running...it sounds perfect through any cabinet and with effects...Hello Professional :)
Australia for ever
John Elliott

Made in England - it's a Marshall!
Feature wise, it has 3 channels, clean, crunch, and lead. It has a VPR switch which emulates a 25w amp, a emulated line out for recording, a mute switch, a deep switch (2 - 1 for crunch and lead, the other for clean), 3 eq's - one for each channel. It also has two mid shift switches, to put it in the "scooped mid" type of sound (for lead and for crunch channels) and a mid boos switch for the clean channel.
Two presence controls, two fx mix controls, two reverb controls, one set for lead/crunch, the other set for clean.
Surprisingly, with all these controls, it is a very clean and easy to read layout. Adjusting tones is very simple to do.
It also has two effects loops and two effect loop mix level switches - one "master" loop, and "secondary" loop - when the secondary is not used, then the "master" works for all three channels. When the secondary is in use, then if I remember correctly, it controls the crunch/lead channels, while "master" controls cleans. also of note, when the FX levels are dimed, it switches from a parallel loop to a serial loop.

I have a couple of guitars - Ibanez RG-470 w/ EMG 81/89 - this one slams the preamp pretty good, creating searing rock tones. Ibanez RG-7421 w/ Blaze nack/bridge in the neck/bridge - nice hot tones, great distortion from the preamp. Epiphone LEs Paul Custom (currently stock) - what can I say, Marshal + Les Paul = drool, even if it is a Epi. I also have a RG-7420 - all stock - sounds a bit muddy, but that is becuase the stock pups are crappy.
Cleans are, clean, crunch is AC/DC style tones. Lead is searing - excellent tones. Some say buzzy - BUT this may be becuase they didn't sit down with the amp long enough. The TSL and DSL are different amps, not just a DSL with an extra channel.
The loudest I have ever had it was at "8" - and it was f$%king LOUD. it starts getting tube breakup around 3.5 - but I also have the tubes biased a bit on the hot side.
BTW- change the tubes out when you get it. The stock tubes, while ok, don't bring the potential out. I bought a set of tubes from eurotubes - www.eurotubes.com - call Bob, and ask him for a complete set of tubes. you'll pay less for the entire set for what it would cost to get a quad of power tubes from groovetubes (who remarks some of the JJ's that Bob sells)

This is the third one I have had - the first one came with bad tubes - this is when I ordered a new set from Bob - the original #2 powertube was arcing inside.
American Musical called me at work (asked them to send me a set of tubes) and said they would replace it and the new one is already on its way. The second one arrived, and every once in a while, when turning it on, it would have "snow" staticy sound coming from it - sent it back, third one comes in, and same thing.
After a couple of emails back and forth with Korg, it turns out it was my fault, since I wasn't waiting the 2-3 minutes for it to fully warm up, which I was waiting about 1 minute (sometimes less) and it would make the noise.
I am now careful that I wait a good 2-3 minutes before turning it on, and not even a hint of the "noise" since.
I give it an 8 since the original had crap tubes in it.

I talked both on the phone and via email to hugh @ Korg - he made my experience a good one, especially since I have heard of bad support from them. I felt the entire time that they were on my side, and working on a solution on it WITH me. Made me feel like I mattered. This, coming from someone who does computer support...
Excellent job!!!

I have been seriously playing guitar for only about 4.5 years, but I have been a musician for around 13 years now - starting off playing drums. I have seen many guitarists play, and had quite a few show me a few things, so I play as if I had been playing longer.
Originally, I was planning on getting a Crate BV 120H and V-30 loaded BV cab. I tried the TSL 60 head with a 1936 cab on a whim on my way to check out the BV120. Man, am I ever glad I did. Never had I heard such AWESOME tones from an amp. If it weren't for the fact that I hadn't the cash on me at the time, I would have bought it then and there.
Every time I turn this amp on, I am amazed. If your bound and determined to buy another amp, at least give this one a shot before you make that purchase. you might change your mind...I did.

I Love the the features on this amp, espically the bass bost and the vpr reduction, and the three individual eq for each channel. Let me tell you one thing about this amp ITS GOT BALLS, put it on 2 and your blow away!

I use a prs custom 24, ibanes rg's wiht emgs, and a fender start. You can scoop out an infinate array of tones with this amp, ive had it for over 2 years and im still blow away with all the different tones i can create. One more thing, NOTHING, I MEAN NOTHING BEATS A MARSHALL, its the sounds of rock and roll, when u crank this baby to about 6 or 7 and get that full tube saturation nothing beats this thing. If you want ear bleeding, glass shatting tone, then BUY THIS AMP, but if your into that shitty nu-metal rap-core bullshit then jump on the band wagon and buy one of those piece of shit mesa boogers(and yes i spelled it that way on purpose). But if your looking for some serious tone buy a fucking marshall!

so far ive dropped this amp about 5 times and nothing has happened to it except for that shitty ass annoying spring reverb sound. Ive taken this to clubs and bars and thew in the back of the truck in the middle of winter and nothing have ever broken on it. Its built like a tank!

never called or asked for anything from them

Ive been playing for over 8 years, ive stumbled across many amps and gear but nothing compares to this. If some one stole it i would personaly seek them out and kick them in the nuts about 10 times. Dont bother wiht those shitty mesa boogies, ive played one before and it was 10 minutes that ill never get back, the 1st 5 were trying to figure out what all the stupid fucking buttons on they back were for. IF you like warm bone crunching tube amp sound, then buy this amp

This is an update for my TSL100, i have owned it for three years now & used / abused it for a considerable amount of time so i felt a follow up would good.
Features, well just read all the posts, there tones on this amp

Re-tubes for constant giging are manditory, however this thing sounds fantastic, i love the sounds i can get 7 have now sold off allot of pedals as i rely on the amp now for my overdrive (i should have to begin with)
One little gripe though, this amp isn't a dual rec, so don't expect the same sound from this amp as they are completely different (ie nu metalers bugger off!)
2nd gripe, this amp is for the Marshall tone, hence the EL34 power section. Yes there is enough gain, too much actually, but if your dissapointed with the amount of gain at hand try turning the damn thing up! it's 100w for christ sake!
3rd gripe, i know people complain that the gain on the 2000 series amps is buzzy, i will agree to that if your using a 100w head in the bedroom, but thurn the thing up in a band sitation like it was meant to and use the gain & volume controls properly & you will find the buzzyness dissapears.

3 years heavy gigging no worries, just make sure regular servicing takes place and you'l be fine.

From my dealings with them i would say that they're doing a good job

If your in the market for a high powered head, this should suit you to a T, but don't buy an amp just based on peoples opinions, go out & try them yourself, you never know what you might prefer.Other than that im very impressed with my purchase & im still having fun with it now.

Nothing further to add to the list of features already mentioned in previous reviews. Except to say that Marshall have got it right with this amp as to what guitarists want! Full marks to them for that!

I use this amp with one sometimes two 1960 4 X 12 cabs, along with a selection of Les Pauls, Strats and Ibanez guitars. I have used this amp extensively for live and studio work playing blues, rock and metal and it always delivers the goods.
The clean channel will stay clean nearly right up to full volume! But with this amp the magic lies in the crunch and lead channels. The crunch channel delivers all the classic Marshall sounds and the lead channel has all the gain you could ever wish for!
I would probably say that this amp is definitely a rock amp, if you're looking for that nu-metal sound, then buy something American.
I've used about twenty different Marshall amps over the years and this, in my opinion, is the best one they've made to date!
It's interesting to note that Marshall seem to be the only manufacturer these days who isn't getting into the whole amp modelling shit! They have no reason to model their own!
Don't believe the other reviews about TSL's sounding crap, if you want an amp with the biggest balls in the park, this one's for you!

Marshalls ARE reliable. I've never had one fail on me yet and the level of customer support from Marshall is impeccable!

Marshall can't do enough to help and assist their customers! Phil Wells - Service Department Manager at Milton Keynes deserves a medal!

Like I said before, best one they've ever made! I may be biased because I've owned and used so many, but after 25 years of using them and comparing them to the competition, they are the best.
If it was lost or stolen, I would just buy another without question.

Not a bad amp. "BUT". This is a nice amp if you like to play classic rock. But if you need a versitile amp to play stuff from classic to modern. This is all wrong for you. Maybe I am spoiled by higher end amps. I like an amp that when you adjust a feature. It adjusts. The presents is somewhat weak as well as the mids. I like to scoop my mids in some types of plaing and bring them up in otheres. With this amp it doesn't make much difference. As for gain. I have an old KMD solid state combo that has more gain. I have to say over all I was very dissapointed in this purchase. The clean channel is clean and thats all. Not like the fenders. The fenders have a much warmer sound. As I said if you are looking for a classic rock ONLY head this might be for you. But if you like to play classic to moderen to jazz to blues you had better look elsewhere. This is classic and thats all.

I play with an Ibanez/Gibson/Strat and a custom made guitar. My guitars have the range to play it all. But this amp left me feeling ripped off.

Well I guess this is the one place I can not complain. As usual it's a Marshall and like all Marshall's they are reliable.

Kind of hard to deal with if you are looking for a return phone call. You have to catch them as you can.

If you want versitility. Don't waist your time

Has been stated in many review's, see below. 1999 model.

I'm using this amp with a gibson les paul classic reissue, 57 classic pickups, JCM 800a cab with vintage 30's. I play Rock-n_Roll. I have owned this amp for 2 1/2 years, recorded 2 full length albums with it. Has never failed me, I have played 100 gigs with this amp. Replaced the tubes once so far. I find the VPR button very usefull, I keep the preamp set low and crank the volumes to 8 or 9. Excellent marshall sound, it holds it's own when playing live always cutting through the mix. Clean channel has a nice ring, and remains faithfull to the word clean. Crunch channel has that classic marshall sound, I find this channel sounds best when the pre-amp is set around 3-5. Lead Channel does produce alot more gain, again I find the best tone can be achieved with this channel by keeping the pre-amp set around 4-6. I do find with this amp the sound does change drastically when playing in different rooms, i.e gigs. I find it's best to adjust the treble and middle with the brightness/darkness of the room you are playing in.

Have had no problems with amp. I did replace the cord on the footswitch when the amp was new, it didn't look very dependable, replaced it with stronger cable.

Have never had to deal with marshall.

I have been playing for 10 years. I own 2 marshall heads, the TSL in this review, and a 1981 JCM 800 2204. They are different amps with different sounds, but the TSL in my opinion holds it's own and Rock's. You have to know how to use the amp, i.e turning the pre-amp levels on 10 is not a good idea when you crank the amp. It has much more gain than the 2204.

It's all been said before. Everything that you need is in place on this amp. My amp is 2 years old.

Yamaha 812 into Crybaby Wah into Rat Pro (very nice sound when used on the clean channel as a boost)into TSL100 into Angled 4 x 12 loaded with vintage 30's or 2 x 12 with Celestion 75's depending on the size of venue.

The band that I currently play in mixes old style funk riffs with blues and rock rythm/lead work.This amp is the first that I have owned in 20 years of playing that can deal with all styles. It can do good impressions of AC30, Blackface, or Messa.

As far as the Marshall sounds go it really does deliver the goods. I have been an avid fan of a local guitarist (who has 40 years behind the fretboard) for many years and have tried many ways to emulate his sound (Very Pure original Plexi Head)we recently gigged together and he played my head. I was most flattered when a week later he called me and advised me that he had just purchased one based upon using mine.

Heres a tip, if you want to practice at home and get a good sound, don't use a 100 watt Marshall. I noticed in one of the other reviews a similar comment. Valve amps depend upon output stage drive...period! I have spent years with pre amps in rack rigs trying to get this sound. If you can afford Bradshaw or / Cornish prices you may well achieve it, but to us mere mortals on a limited budget a single solution in one box is the best option. The Marshall is not the answer to this. It is perfect for live use but not in the bedroom or small home studio.

One final thing, I used to turn everything all the way up! and then wondered why it sounded crap! Back down on the preamp and push the output, play the strings gently, then hit them hard, the dynamics of this amp will amaze you. Like-wise with the Rat pedal, or any distortion, use it to colour your sound, experiment with the tone and drive controls. When we gig and people into Guitar see the settings on my rig against the sound coming out they are usually very supprised.

As far as my rating below for this amp goes, well it does what I purchased it for better than any amp that I have owned before.I agree with the comments that some make about nothing being perfect, and yes this amp does have its problems, a drop in level when channel switching although very minimal, a very noisy effects loop ( I am trying to get this sorted at the moment with the help of Axess Electronics (in Canada)but thats about it! However The sound is really excellent and as far as I am concerned that's what matters the most!

No Problems. I always carry a small amp just in case, which can be patched through the P A in case of main amp failure. This has happened in the past on just about every amp that I have owned. It doesn't mean that they were bad amps, they just got a lot of use and like everything can have a bad day.

Marshalls factory is about 1 hours drive from where I live. I have owned several Marshall products 2 of which have broken down. Both times I rang the factory, made an appointment, turned up and left the product with them and was told to call back the same day. Both times the problems were rectified (One transistor related on JMP 1 and 1 Valve related on a 65 watt combo) I don't think service gets any better than this.

I would replace this amp immediately. In fact I will purchase another in the near future to act as a backup.

It has everything 3 channels (for real) with seprate eq's for all (how many amps have that) to efex loops(thats right I said two) Deep switches a mid scoop switch a switch that turns the amp from 100 watts to 25 (and it still sounds great) a mute switch for silent recording a 5 button footswitch that controls all the channels and the reverb and the efex loops what the hell more do you need and I know I'm missing something. and for a street price of 1200-1300 bucks not to mention used (people give them away) $800-900 bucks (grab one)

Great useable clean (real world) crunch channel is great all the tones in there and more. The lead channel is the only thing thats a little off IMHO it's a little overly compressed if you dial in to much gain but I crank the mids and with the band it sounds great and is very easy to play but I still have to knock off a point for the lead channel it could be better. The thing I have found with tube amps is the pre amp tubes very important to fool with them it changes the sound a lot . I have found JJ pre amp tubes to be the best for Marshall's unless you want to spend a ton on NOS but the JJ's for $7.50 ea are the best they fatten up the sound on all my marshalls This is a killer amp I have had everything soldano's boogies (stay away from Mesa, don't belieave the hype)Fender,LINE^6(pretty cool but not there yetIMHO)The Marshall is the best for what I'm doing classic rock and some heavy stuff but with taht great clean channel you could easly cover country to blues to metal no problem.

I have been using it non stop for about a year no problem I would suggest JJ tubes. The only thing I worry about is the foot switch only becauise I read about people haveing problems but so far it's been great. It comes with a five year waranty

playing for 30 years owned everything if it were stolen I buy a used one and save the cash.I love the sound and the flexability I don't care for the lead sound but it's still good but for me thats the only thing that could be better. Had the Mesa Recto crap Mesa wonders why people get so mad at them it's because there shit cost so much and when you bring it home it drives younuts trying to dial it in and then you have to sell it and lose a ton (yea I'm bitter) Not to mention there attitude (sorry had to vent)

Three channels, two distortion, one clean, and some reverb.

I have a 2 Fender Mexican Strats with emg 80/60 humbuckers. I play in standard B and dropped B tunings and I was looking for a replacement of my Line 6 HD head. This head sounds good (the HD) but it lacks the warmth and tone of a tube amp. I plugged into the TSL and it just roared! I got that low end chug with clarity. I'm into bands like Fear Factory, Messugah, and Black Label Society. I'm sure this amp can do all the classic sounds, but I wasnt looking for that sound. I wanted a pulverizing low with clarity. I also play it through a 1960A cab and it sounds really good. I tried the Mesa Trip Rect before I tried the TSL, the triple rect sounds too muddy, it doesnt clarify the low notes, it all sounding like moosh. The TSL is loud as fuk at the level 4. I've heard that changing the tubes makes it sound even better. I might do that later, the stock ones sound good.

Have owned marshall's in the past............their workhorses.

Good people to talk to.

I've been playing for 5 years, I've owned alot of gear, should this amp be stolen i'd replace it at once or go and kill the poor basterd that took it. The tone is just awsome. I thought I was a Line 6 HD devotee until I played through a TSL. Maybee if L6 used tubes, i'd buy one again. But the proccessed sound lacks the warmth, and sound of the Real Deal. Mesa was too muddy, it lacked clarity and tone.

I'm sure you can read the 1000+ reviews with all of the features.

I use this amp with 6 amazing guitars. A peavey wolfgang standard, a gibson les paul classic, a fender usa strat totally modified with duncan pickups, a washburn n4, an ESP m-II, and a Kramer nightswan. This amp, when used in conjunction with a Marshall powerbrake, is simply musical nirvana. I like older, technical guitarists like Vai, Van Halen , DeMartini, Lynch, Wylde, Bratta, and Nuno. This amp can kick ass if it is played loud and used with quality gear. If you want to sound modern ,,,like nickleback, creed, etc........well, I've been told that I sound good playing such crap in my cover band....but I guess you'd need a Mesa or something to play this stuff perfectly. But then again, you'd only need the skills of an ant. For true rock n roll,,,,,,,this amp is a total knockout!!!!!!!!!!!

Used for over 8 hours a weekend for over a year and a half,,,,,,,,,,,still the original tubes. Never any problems,,,,even with the footswitch. Go figure!!!!!!! Plus a powerbrake.......which you need to hear what this amp can do. Please don't play this thing with low volume and preamp "buzz" and try to rate it. All Marshalls need an overworked power amp section to sound good. At low volumes, it sounds buzzy. With the powerbrake, I put my gain at 4 on the crunch channel, and I can get squaks and sustain like mad................all from power tube drive.

They are always cool to talk to..........and believe me,,,I've called a lot.

What can I say........if you can really play guitar..this amp kicks ass. If you like new stuff like nickleback,,,,,creed.......you can still sound awesome. Just don't try playing fast licks with this amp unless you can really play. If you practice without your guitar plugged in and can play the solo to Extreme's "play with me", then you will sound even more awesome when plugged in. If you like "new" music........then,,,,,,,I guess at least your three D tuned Chords will sound cool . Just PLEASE don't try any leads. Guitar playing is truly at an all time low with these newer bands,,,,,,,,and this amp is made for guitarists who can really play without relying on tons of solid state gain to make them sound good. Vai....Lynch,,,,Van Halen....DeMartini fans..............REJOICE!

3 channels, independent eq's, etc...
This is a VERY cool amp. Covers a wide range of sounds. Very Nice, but like all things it has a few flaws.
For example, the VPR sucks. It make more noise, plus it doesn't cut down on the output. Who cares about the "tone shift", that's supposed to get the Mesa Sound. People buy marshalls because they want a marshall sound, not a mesa sound. Marshall should concentrate on making better FOOTSWITCHES for their amps, other than a f***ing button that changes the classic marshall sound.

Great clean tones, great dirty tones. That's all I have to say about that.
CHANGE THE STOCK TUBES IMMEDIATELY!!!! Svetlanas suck. It gets an 8 because of the horrible stock tubes.

I'd rely on the amp itself but not the footswitch. I'd take 5 footswitches with me on a gig, but i'd take one amp.
Other than that, its good.

They gave me a new footswitch

This AMP meets up to the Marshall name, but the footswitch doesn't.
I'd replace it, once i'd get the money. If you want the shitty nu-metal sound, buy a Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier, if you want wicked sounds of the greats like Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Slash, Zakk Wylde, (and the list goes on)....BUY A MARSHALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you'er looking at the reviews, then you know whats on it. Best amp ive ever had. i wish it could have just a bit more gain, even though it has pretty much all you ever need. IF you want a heavy metal amp , look at mesa, marshall is for hard rock, and let heavy stuff,

CLean-- the best ive ever heard, except maybe fender.
Crunch-- totally aweseome for classic rock--- rage style just excellent.
Lead- this channel is excellent. great marshall sound, really rocks

this amp is solid!!! very nice, very tough.

never had to deal with them, because ive always had great luck with marshall.

this is the best amp ive ever played on. I would never think about buying another 3 channel head ever! this thing sounds way better than any Mesa on the market. Marshall made a good one for me. and im sure you will have a good experience with it. BUY IT DUDE!

This amp is loaded with features. Check out other reviews for all the details.

Some people say that they can't get good sounds out of it. Well, I've owned mine for a little over two years and it slams. The thing is it's not a bedroom practice amp. That means you have to turn it up for christ sake! It's a 100 watt marshall. Use it like one. If you want to play quietly go buy a solid state amp.

Now, that being said, this amp gets the traditional Marshall sounds and then some.
CLEAN: the best clean sounds I've ever heard out of a Marshall. Thhink of Knockin On Heavens Door(GNR) or What If (CREED)
CRUNCH: This is your normal Marshall O.D. channel. Great for classic rock to rage (anyone that used a Marshall)
Lead: BADA$$!!! This channel rules! More gain than I expected. Use this with the tone shift and your swimming in harmonic overtones.

The secret is to use a different cabinet. Get away from the 1960A. It's a piece of SH!T. Try a Recto Cab or Something. Hell I ran mine through a Waller cabinet and it sounded better than the Marshall.

The only things Ive done is had the tubes changed in it.

Very friendly, they told me over the phone how to bias it after I got new tubes.

I've been playing for about 12 years now. I haven't owned every amp out their, but I do know what I like. GOOD TONE! This amp will not make you sound like your favorite guitar player. No good amp will. Good tone comes from your fingers, the way you fret each string and the way you pick each note. You have to feel what your playing. A good guitar player can make a Crate sound good. A bad one can't make any amp sound good.
TO ANYONE LOOKING FOR A TRIPLE REC: Remember this is not a triple rectifier. I was tempted for a long time to get one. But, never did. the mesa was just too muddy. It doesn't cut through the mix. It really just creates a wall of mud. If you like that, thats cool "to each his own" I just like for people to hear what I'm playing. Besides, if you have a Bass player with a good tone you don't need to cover the whole spectrum of sound. The guitar and bass should compliment each other. If you try to play rhythm with a triple rec then switch to a harmony line or something over top, the whole bottom drops out of the song. This is just my opinion, listen to your ears and let thhem decide.

3 channels. Svetlana tubes (stock) 4 EL34 and 4 12AX7

I purchased this amp to give a little bit of a breather for my old JCM800. (Almost 20 years of bouncing around in the back of a van prompted this). While it is a totally different beast, I'm starting to like it. Some people don't like it compared to the JCM800, my personal opinion is that when I first got this amp I didn't know what to think. It's kindof like the first time you have sex with a new woman and subconsiously you compare her to the great piece that dumped you back in high school. The clean channel is great for a big tube amp and the distortions are typical marshall. Don't try to rock with the Boogies or the 5150's, but these have more tone. I give it an 8 because marshall tried to do too much with this amp. Instead of doing the simple marshall way of things, you have to tweak everything like a boogie to get your sound and this can be a pain.

Well, I got 20 years out of the JCM800 and its still going strong but it was just getting old. This isn't as well built as the JCM800 from the looks of it but Marshall hasn't let me down yet so they get my dough.

I've played nothing but Marshalls for 20 years now and i've never missed a gig. I take care of my equipment, new quality tubes every 6 months, ATA roadcases to and from gigs (whats another 200 bucks for something this expensive?), and lots of TLC. My local music store is pretty good with me and my bass player works there so I'll just take it to them if I have a problem but I don't expect it.

Ok, here's my beef, I popped the back and replaced the tubes when I first got it (hate Shitlena tubes) and was really suprised to look at that big electronic stamp in the back that says "Accutronics Sound Enhancements Inc...blah blah blah...Made in USA".
USA? Ok, i'm in the reserve so don't give me any crap about not being patriotic but I thought marshall was British? Russian Tubes, American electronics....hmmm. If you don't believe me check it out for yourself.

Basically this amp is a rocker, its a good amp. Not great but good. Don't compare it to Bogners or Soldano's. Just crank it hard in 100 watt mode and let it speak for itself. I'm happy I purchased this, I'm happy with the sounds it makes, and I'm glad to purchase this but I will look elsewhere in time when the JCM800 finally dies.

This thing has a lot of features. It has that VPR thing, which I almost never use because I like to feel it not just hear it. It has the mid boast and the bass boast for both distortion channels. I think it comes in very useful on the lead channel. There's enough buttons to keep you busy, but not confuse you too much.

This thing has tone. I play a Les Paul Studio and a Fender Roadhouse strat. I play just about everything from funky stuff to hard stuff. I always like to be able to play heavy stuff with a strat (don't ask me why, I'm just wierd) that's the ultimate test to a lead channel. Well it passes that but barely. I also have a 5150 II and that thing is pure death. The marshall can't compare in saturation, but it has tone and you can hear the guitar through the distortion. Plus it's pretty heavy. I mean you can probably play whatever you want with it. It has a lot of bass but I've noticed that when i use the neck pickup it sounds like it's farting out on me. Maybe it's the tubes, i'm sure they are still stock and i think the amp is around 3 years old. A great warm and bluesy clean, which by the way stays clean. I cranked the shit outta it and even though the clean doesn't seem to get anywhere near as loud as the lead channel it stays clean and gets a little warmer. It doens't seem to breakup at all.

Well I'm not enitrely sure. I picked this thing up at a pawn shop and got a steal for it. I've only had it a couple weeks, but i'm pretty sure this thing is about 3 years old and it's been workign great for me. If i turn up the lead channel and just sit there and can hear a little popping, but i'm not sure if that's the tubs or not. It's not loud and I'm probably the only one who would notice because I'm a perfectionist.

I wouldn't know

From what I can tell about this amp it has God status. This thing can do whatever you want. I've had a few amps in my days and short of maybe a triple rectumfrier I might have finally found an amp I can keep. It is just very versitale and even though not one aspect of the amp is what I would say completely perfect, it has a great lead,crunch, and clean channel. I can't argue with that. If you want pure death and saturation dont' get this, but it'll thrash.

3 channel tube amp with 4 x 12AX7 preamp tubes and 4 x EL34 power tubes.
This amp is a very versatile monster for all styles of music from jazz to blues to flat out rock. The VPR switch is a cool idea but needs some work (more explained later) and the XLR line out is really a good idea and very useful.

Ok, here's my little ditty about the sounds. When I first purchased it, I was replacing a workhorse JCM 800 and a VHT Pittbull 50CL. I just needed something more reliable in the JCM's case and more versatile in the VHT's case. When I first played it, I had the amp set on the VPR "on" position at very low volumes. (I live in an apartment and can't crank my stuff) Honestly I was VERY upset because it sounded like a Crate practice amp with one of those really cheap DOD distortion pedals. MAN WAS I PEEVED and I was ready to take it back. Well, I had a rehearsal and a gig the next night and I was playing my VHT and blew a tube. I was really upset and pulled the Marshall out at practice. Needless to say the Marshall is a totally different beast cranked and came through the gig with flying colors.
While its taken some time to tweak the thing I think its well worth it now. I'm very picky about my equipment and have been known to take things back a month after purchase for little stupid quirks. I give it an 8 because of the wonderful cranked sound but the horrible VPR sound. Don't buy this amp if you want to sound like every other crap nu-metal player...buy it if you want tone. This amp made me realize how lazy I am as a player and its sent me back to the woodshed.

This amp is very well built. I've had it now for 3 months and have played approx 15 gigs with it and rehearsal and haven't had any problems with it so far. In my previous experience with Marshall, i've never had anything wrong with it. I don't gig without a backup anything. Just take care of the stuff...it is a tube amp after all.

well, i've never dealt with marshall in 17 years of playing and my old Marshall is a tank. My local dealer does the routine maintenance and I take care of my stuff so its all good.

I've been playing forever. I play Les Pauls in the rocki/blues area although occasionally I have the odd wedding gig. I've owned Boogie Mark IV's (great amp), JCM800 (The sound!), VHT, you name it. I like this amp and will keep it because it just has that Marshall sound that everybody tries to copy. The problem with amps nowadays is that people play with too much distortion and think that the heavy bands use way more distortion than they actually use. Sure, its fun to stand in front of a recto halfstack and hit chords with one finger between 3 frets and sound like every band on the radio, but is is really going to improve your playing? This amp is a rocker through and through and I'd play this for any gig...metal, rock, blues, or the clean wedding gig. Try doing that with a boogie.

This amp was made in 2001. This amp is incredibly versatile, it can take any style of music. It's got 3 channels (clean, crunch, lead), two FX loops, reverb. All of these features are switchable with a footswitch.
It's got 4 EL34 power valves and 4 ECC83 pre-amp valves. It's got an Emulated line out option, an outpur mute button and a VPR (virtual power reduction) button which allows to still sound great at lower volumes.
Independent EQ for every channel, which is awesome.Seperate Tone shift buttons on the two distortion channels and a mid boost button for the clean channel. There's also a seperate deep switch for the distortion channels and the clean channel to make the amp sound "fuller".

I use an Ibanez RG3120 with a tone zone in the bridge and a PAF pro in the neck. I play mostly tech metal and the amp can take that style very well, perhaps at some times a little heavier distortion would be nice. This amp can be used for every music style and still performs great, it does its job well!

Clean channel:
I absolutely adore my clean channel, I have never heard such a fantastic clean channel before, it's great! Very warm and full.

Crunch channel:
Great distortion channel, but it tends to sound a little fuzzy when the gain is over 8, but actually there's no need to turn it higher than 8, there's plenty of gain on this channel. Thanks to the tone shift button you can get a nice scooped sound.

Lead channel:
The purpose of this channel is mainly to solo and that's why it's got alot more sustain that the crunch channel, it also has more gain and this channel, even though it's a distortion channel just like the crunch channel, sounds totally different from the crunch channel. When you try the same settings on both channels, this is something you'll instantly hear. I like this channel better than the crunch channel and this is a great channel for leads and solos (that's what it's for). This channel also has a tone shift switch but this is not something in use on my solos.

Though this is not my first TSL (I've had some problems at first, more about that later), I've never had a single problem with this amp. I have it for about a year now and it performed always without a single problem.
It's built very sturdy (as all Marshall amps) and I don't think it will break down pretty soon.

This is my third TSL. There were some finish flaws on my first and there were some tube and circuit flaws on the second so this is the third one I got and i haven't got any problems since then. I instantly got a new amp when I complained about my problems (every time) but I never dealt with Marshall personally. My dealer gave a new amp to me every time, so I was very satisfied with that. Since it wasn't a problem for him, I figured that it wasn't a problem for Marshall either.

I really like this amp, but I'm sure that there are other amps I'd like better. This was my first tube amp and I'm satisfied with it. I got what I paid for and it was good. I compared it to a Mesa Boogie single and dual rectifier, a Hughes & Kettner Duotone, a Marshall DSL and a Marshall JCM900 and this one stood out for me. It was the most versatile one and it sounded great. I'd like to try a Mesa Boogie Mark IV, because I think that one will sound better, but I haven't had the chance (nor the money) to try.

Loads of stuff... too much really, verging on being a bit gimmicky, it would be great if the VPR could be switched on the floorboard though, aswell as independant fx loop switches instead of the master switch... they shouldnt of bothered with the tone shift buttons, waste of time really, i mean whats the bloody eq there for? (again unless its footswitchable)

I think this thing sounds incredible, i use a peavey 4 by 12 with it because it seems to handle the low end a lot better than celestion loaded cabs. I do have a couple of gripes though... the crunch and lead channels could do with a touch more low end, whilst the clean channel could do with a touch taking off. Also I feel as if they could of done more to differentiate between the crunch and lead, because basically the lead channel is voiced exactly the same albiet with more preamp drive available. Some of these reviews kind of piss me off in a way, people whinging about how the amp can't shred blah blah blah. Its a fucking valve amp for christs sakes, use solid state stuff if you want mega distortion and powerful eq. I have the privallige of running the head at 10 all the time, and its a completely different beast to the bedroom volumes a lot of peeps will end up using this as. For a start, the eq basically doesnt matter when running the amp at full tilt as the eq is run pre valve as opposed to most generic american valve heads which are post gain (i think). Anyway I'm begging to waffle so i'll shut up now.

the head is built like a tank, the footswitch isn't. Mines broke twice now.

Best company I've ever dealt with, sort out any problems without any hassle whatsoever.

I've gigged this amp twice a week for 2 years, I've finally worked out how to make it sound good, and I tell you what, it pisses on everything. If you are in the US I'd be more weary because of price and customer support issues. So stick with your own 'amps'

Features are the same as any amp with the addition of the scoop button, or poop button, which ever you prefer. Pretty much a useless eq. I wish it had some distortion, that is a pretty useful feature in a amp. You ever notice how everything sounds great at the dealer but when you get it home it is an absolute turd. It has 3 channels which is cool, you get really clean, crappy and really crappy. But I still give it an 8 cause it has all the normal stuff.

The sounds...or lack there of...is the biggest disappointment. I have vomited better sounds than this thing has. Don't get me wrong, if you want cleans beyond earth, this is your amp. If you are heavy into blues, pull Stevie out of his box, if he is not too stiff, and let him wail, but when you need some serious balls, uh uh, nope, not there. My childs diaper after a good bowel movement has more bottom end. The scoop button for modern distortion, the only thing modern about it is that they were able to graft the button into the face plate. Yeah it scoops the mids, but there is not enough distortion to get the sounds you need unless you need some really bad distortion. Now if crank it up, stand back and squint your eyes, put plugs in your ears and.......nope, still sounds like shit.

Well, it is better than my '74 Ford Pinto, but I am not sure about it being more dependable than my old Chevy Vega. I tried numerous times to kill that thing and it just kept on running. I am pretty sure if you jump the Marshall over a set of rail road tracks it would fall apart.

Never dealt with them and won't have the amp long enough to find out.

I will give it a 5 because of its steller clean tones. That alone is worth something. But I also give it a 5 because of it lack of anything you need to get a serious nasty tone. I guess you can't have it all but this is awful pricy for just a clean tone and it is too damn big to put on my desk and use for a paper weight although it would hold down alot of paper.

Read the Marshall site for full specs as their is so many. However note to the XLR emulated output, genious, every amp should have this, combined with the mute switch. It means i can run the amp at volumes 7-10 and not have the hum or fuzz come up on the P.A even with a compressor on!

You can actually emulate your stack at stage with this, by plugging the xlr into a smaller amp and hitting the mute switch, and bingo full blown stack but at bedroom level.

However a lot of the other features have not been fully thought through by marshall and the result is half assed "deep" switches or "mid boosts" to make your marshall "sound like a boogie" No chance anyway, you bought a tsl for a reason you wanted marshall, not a cheap boogie.

I m running a strat plus and a 61 reissue sg into the amp. both guitars get very different tones from the amp at low volumes, however the second you go over 4 they have the age old problem made by marshall which is instant mulch from the poweramp if playing "hard" chord sequences, Playing riffs sounds fine, and thats pretty much it, Play riffs and you will have a promblem free tone journey, play chord based rock and, your gonna spend aged tweaking that pannel, after which your sat on a fine line of what sounds good and what sounds like going to see the Who in 64, Townshend got rid of his marshalls becasue of this very problem.

Anyway for a 100 watter, this thing is silent untill you hit level 7 on the volume, I find that the sound is a lot more rich using the power cutter, but as a result looses any remaining clarity that the amp had.

Furthermore, despite the claims of versitility, it isnt going to become a fender, and certainly not a hiwatt(bugger) Its a marshall, through and through, and despite a little moaning i like that idea that your amp sounds unique in a way. However the amp is capable of covering everything, but its no specialist, ITS A MARSHALL, IT DOES MARSHALL. Yet i am pleased that the amp has got not just a good but an excellent clean channel on it, bearing in mind the mid boost isnt on, then it gets an absolute crystaline sound, pure clarity. (well done marshall) .

At the moment for live settings i am running the Volume at 10 on the lead 10 on the crunch and 6-7 on the clean. The gain on 4.5 on lead 3.5 on crunch and 6 on clean Bass is usually about 6 as any higher results in poor speaker tracking at max volume (plus marshall = bass) mis about 7-8 and trebbles around 4-6 presence is altered varining on what guitar im using, Plus all gimicky nobs and switches are off for live stuff.

ideally i would prefer two Hiwatt dr 103's instead of this amp and my mk2 50 watter as then i could get the required clarity. Its alright, and could be much worse, But appart from that im not gonna find much else that can control itslef like this amp can at max volumes. (but thats mainly for me jacking down the preamp gain, if it goes up then this amp goes nuts!)

Its a marshall, built solid will stay solid forever.


But the foot pedal is a crock of shit, its broken twice on me in 9 months. A shop in london tried to get me to pay #60 for a new one, Well i said sod that and both times marshall have given me a new one on the spot for free.!

For the amp itself i would give it a 10, for the pedal 2 but they are a package, and even though the pedal is almost nessasary it isnt fully so its going to get some marks back on that

Marshall are one of the best companies in the world to deal with, the have replace the pedal twice no questions asked, and this is outside of warranty, plus a free checkup on the internals of the amp, and completed some minor tuning work free of charge, god knows what, but the amp sounded better when it came out, so im dead chuffed about that.

Right, ive been playing for about three years, I already owned a 1977 MK2 super lead and that wernt loud enough, plus it isnt the best sounding amp in the world, way to much bass. I now run both together. And its ok. The tsl itslelf sounds really quite sweet at low volumes, below four on the strat at the neck pickup on mellowed out lead settings and you have instant Eric clapton "journeyman" tone, crank it to 7 roll back the volume on the guitar, add a bit of pressence on the sg bridge, and its all gone communication breakdown.

The amp itself is very capable when combined with the right guitars of gettin any marshall tone form the last 40 years. however dont expect it to work miracles, and marshall could cut the pricetag, the 2000 dsl is actually a Fuller sounding amp to my recognition. But it lacks the good clean sounds of the tsl.

To cut it short, If you play metal and you are a die hard marshall fan, then this amp will be your dream. If you play blues rock then this amp is well worth it, also check the dsl, if you are like me and play a bit more in the style of Townshend, Jonny Greenwood, or your playing requires very precise chord tracking at high volume levels then there are better amps. If you play jazz, then i dont personally know, Actaully get a Vibro-king, Jesus they are meant to be spanking. And if your in a hendrix tribute band, there should be no other choice. This is the only amp which i have found that can actually capture his tone!

Basicly try, try , and try again before you buy, have a look at second hand amps, I trust marshall amps enough not for them to be dodgy second hand, even if they look beaten.

If your looking for a do it all amp, get a cyber twin, if your looking for marshall's entire amp history in a bloody loud little but heavy box then, get this.

LOADED TO THE HILT!! Stated enough times below!!

I sat down with a Triple Rectifier, a Peavy triple XXX, a Marshall 900Jcm , a Plexi reissue and several preamps like a Mesa tiaxis and Sanamp Psa-1 etc., all of which are considered high end units. This thing kills all of them. I feel the rectifiers are way too muddy and the earlier marshalls are missing balls! The peavy Triple XXX is pretty cool and sounds really good but the TSL100 cleans house. You get all the clean and all the meat you can handle. Definatly the best of all the sounds you want in one amp.

never a problem. No scratchy pots and no hissing. Always a pleasure!!

Havent had to deal with them at all so I don't really know.

I cant say enough about this amp. All these whining Mesa crybabys obviuosly have no clue as to what tone and versatility is all about!!
They need Mesas to dirty up thier playing so you can't hear how shitty they are playing. Where did all the guitar solos go? All the newer band leave them out because they have to. They just hit dirty bar chords and the Mesa does that ok. If you cant play, by a Mesa!!

My first comment is that this review comes after a lot of reading on the web and the reviews on this site. Very useful info, thanks to you all. After all this I went ahead with the purchase of the TSL 100.

I tried a number instore and brought some home for evaluation. I cannot say how important it is for you to do this. Make sure you are really happy before you shell out this much cash!

Features have been mentioned many times before

One thing I found out about these amps... There is a slight swell when changing from Lead/Crunch to clean if you are using reverb on your clean channel. After some investigation I discovered that this is a feature to prevent pops and clicks on channel changing. It is not a major problem and is not really noticable when playing at performance volume.

I really chose this amp because of its ability as a three channel amp. The fx loops are a great feature too! The tone controls really are sensitve (not like some of my other gear).

The sounds out of this amp suit my needs very well. I play a wide range of musical styles from modern covers, classic rock to pop and jazz. I have not had the amp for long and am still discovering my perfect tones. I am amazed by the range of sounds that I can get out of this amp!

I A/B this amp verses the 60 Watt TSL and for me ... the 100 Watt kicked the 60 Watt version sideways. I really struggled to get some useful sounds out of the 60 Watt amps Crunch and Lead channel. On the 100 Watt TSL I am struggling to find sounds i don't like!

The three channel nature of this amp suits me perfectly and I definitly prefer the extra eq that the TSL100 provides over the TSL60. My preference has always been to get a great sound from my amp without the need for stomp boxes - and this amp really has the tones!

I'm not an overly loud player and this amp has way more volume than i will ever use. But I believe it still sounds great at lower volumes. The worst thing is that it just gets better as you turn it up :)

I recommend tring as many amps as you can in store. I found quite a lot of variablity between the amps i played. In fairness i think that this had something to do with the hard in-store life many of the amps had lead. I ended up getting a brand new one from the supplier.

But please double check all your gear before walking out the door. Twiddle every pot (make sure they are not buzzy or scratchy). Make sure the channel changing is clean and instant. CHECK the fx loop, even if you may not use it - Watch for volume drops.

I got the opinion from a working musican that i respect. He tours constantly with his TSL122 and has had no problems, other than usual tube amp maintenance.

I believe this is a reliable amp and that most of the problems i encounted were from poor amp maintenance by the retail store.

I would always take backups to gig's because I am paranoid :)

As i live in New Zealand i have basically accepted the fact that my support is really with ...
1) The store I purchased if from
2) The NZ supplier
3) IF its a major fault back to the international distributor

But I have faith in my own contacts that can repair these amps and have a good track record doing so.

I don't think there are many corporations that support outlying countries very well and I don't really expect it for this amp. If its within the Warrenty period I will expect it to be fixed or replaced!

Been playing about 15 years. Own a Fender Strat, Fender Tele and an Gibson SG. Other amps, Marshall valvestate, Peavey 30 Classic, Fender Pro185.

The only other amp I would want would have the tone and versatility of this TSL - but maybe not quite as loud. I couldn't find one so this is it!

No need to go into all the features. That's all covered 500 times below. If there is something that you need and it is not on this amp, you should probably should play keyboard. I play in a 3 piece cover band doing Sublime, Bush, STP, Puddle of Mud, Doors, Zep, Wild Cherry and this amp can get the cleanest clean & so many ranges of dirty, I can't count em.

I play a Strat Plus with gold lace sensors. I use a Sovtek 4x12 cabinet. I was so happy with this amp that I put my effects processor up (RP2000) & now only use a Vox Wah, Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus & a Dunlop Volume pedal. I am thinking about adding a tremelo. I also use Midiverb IV in the "A" effects loop.

I had read all the reviews in Harmony Central as I have done with the last 15 pieces of gear I bought & I am glad I didn't listen to all these whiners bitching about the foo switch. I too, had a problem with the foot switch the first week I had this amp. I took it back to the Store where I bought it and was given another. I was told by the salesman (whom I happen to network with his band), that if this second foot switch goes bad, He will have the tech replace all the switches with heavy duty switches. I have not had another problem and that was 3 1/2 monthes ago. My point is that regardless of the footswitch, This amp is still well worth it. I don't carry a second amp which happens to be a Mesa. I'll give it a 9 just because of the footswitch.

Only support needed was for the footswitch. Luckily I didn't have to deal with marshall from what I've heard & been reading

If this amp was stolen or lost, I would definately go into hock to get another. I tried th 5150 but it didn't compare. I also thought about Buying the TSL 601 but since I already had a 4x12, I decided to go with the TSL 100. It's funny how sometimes you make a purchase and have mixed toughts about the money you spend and was it worth it. The only regrets I have about this amp is that I didn't buy it sooner!!

This is a 3 channel amp, with a complicatingly simple layout; power switch, standby switch, mute button, variac-like power-cut button. For each of the three channels (clean, crunch, lead), there are the bass/mid/treble EQ, volume, and gain knobs. In addition to that, there is a set of controls of bass boost, presence, FX mix, and reverb, one set for the overdrives, one set for the clean setting. There is a Tone Shift button on the overdrives, which scoops the mids, and a mid boost switch on the clean channel.
In the back, this head has two effects loops, with levels for each. For speaker outs it has one 16Ohm, and two 4/8 ohm jacks with a selector switch.
Use it for a few minutes and it' a breeze.
It also has an XLR "emulated line out."
It is rated at 100W, with 4 ECC83 (12AX7) and 4 EL34 tubes.
The manual states that it's "typical" output is 120W @ 5% THD

I'm playing a Gibson Les Paul Classic with the stock ceramic pickups; a koa neck-thru Carvin DC135 with 2 EMG SA's (neck/mid) and an EMG 85 for the bridge; a Fender American Standard strat with a DiMarzio Steve's Special in the bridge position and a splittable Rio Grande Muy Grande in the neck; a Mexican-made Fender '60's strat completely stock.

I play blues and metal, to keep the list short.

Occasionally I have nasty romps with feedback, to my dismay, but that may be due to the pickups and the resonant frequencies. This amp give me incredible rhythm metal tones in the lead mode with the VPR "out," deep and tone shift buttons "in," and the presence and treble at 7, bass at 6, mids at 5 (roughly).

I haven't been able to REALLY crank it, so I don't know how well it'll hold up.

The cleans are better than I would've expected, the can be warm and jazzy, they can be chimey, and crisp.

Working in MI retail, I found Marshall footswitches to be unreliable, and the fact that this is a proprietary 6-pin foot switch makes it that much more worrysome.
With Marshall being located across the sea, there's almost no reason to contact them: just take the amp and receipt to an authorized repair center.

I've been playing 6 years, and worked in MI retail for 2.6 years.
I also own a Cervantes classical, Tacoma DM18 acoustic, Mexican Fender Deluxe active J bass, GK 400RB II 2x10, Fender Princeton Chorus, and Fender Hot Rod DeVille 2x12.
If I lost this amp I'd A/B/C/D it against a MESA/Boogie Triple Rectifier, Road King (for fun), Diesel, and Bogner. The Marshall's the most practical; it's cheaper!
If the features doesn't matter as much as the tone, check out the Fender Prosonic, it's a pain to use, but sounds fantastic!

I was a little intimidated by the number of knobs at first, but the key is to think of it as 3 amps in one. It is accually very simple to use and I had tone in aprox. 3 minutes.

I play hardcore in the style of DISCHARGE, CHAOS UK, UNCURBED, DRI, with a little touch of SLAYER. People who say there is not enough gain are probably using a strat style with single coils or somthing. I can take this amp from ultra clean (very loud and clear clean channel) to AC/DC and old Judas Preist tones (crunch channel)to some smokin distortion death (Lead Channel). I get amazing blues tones and jazz tones with my Les Paul custom. My flying V give me straight death. I tried 5 different Boogies before I finally decided to stick with the best. All my freinds who own Boogies (dual and triple rectifiers) have thier amps break if they dont transport them in ATA cases. Boogies are great if you want that Creed, Puddle of Mud, or new metal tone,(sucks!)but if you play the real shit only a Marshall is good enough. In all the other reviews people mainly complian about the footswitch. The cable and the input seems a little weak but I dont care. A foot switch would just get booted off the stage. I hate em. This amp gives me a straight forward brutal distortion sound and thats alll I really care about. I get a tone very simalar to King and Hanneman's tone on REIGHN IN BLOOD, But with more bottom end and crunch. This thing crunches like no other, EVEN BOOGIE!! They key is the right guitar and pickups. Marshall would only add 2 more EL34's and make it 150 watts, It would be the utimate boogie killer. I would sell this amp and buy that if Marshall would do it. Come on Jim, Im waiting!

Its a Marshall. They last forever. I bought this amp to retire my '81 100 watt JMP. Marshall has never let me down at gig time, EVER!! (But I have fried a few at practice)

Never needed support. Ive been playing Marshalls for a while now. If a Marshall breaks, its not hard to find someone who can fix it.

Ive tried everything and Marshall is still the best after all these years. If its good enough for Hendrix, Page, Malcolm and Angus, Tipton and Downing, and KERRY KING, then its good enough for me. I am very satisfied so far with this amp.

This is a followup review to one i posted some time back....this thing never ceases to amaze me...i bought a trem pedal and i am now tonally complete....

i have had country and blues from this am from a long time and i finally got this thing going surf (no shit) "ala dick dale"....the reverb isnt as wet as dales but it is about 3 /4 of the way there and when you crank it you can get a little closer to that tone...and on the lead channel....email me if you want settings....

Get it....it is incredible!!!!!

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they(Marshall in England) won't pay the repair of the rear female plug of the footswtich cord. I told them the problem (see: "Overall Rating"), they gave the probable diagnose, but when I asked them where I could get it fixed for free, they never replied. The plug at the back is clearly not very professional.

I own a TSL 100; I get the strong feeling that people are trying to keep the score down, are they Mesa employees or something?
The only thing I don't like is the female plug at the back of the amp which is not connected to the chassis of the amp (it moves and the internal connections go bad),it fucks up the channel switching. Sometimes the footswitch shows a different setting than the amp does!
but I still give it a ten!

You got them by now

I use a 57 goldtop reissue les paul and a pair of strats( clapton signature and a lonestar with dimarzio virtual vintage blues ).I play blues and classic rock. This amp can cover a pretty wide range of tones. I keep reading that the distortion sucks and it doesn't compare
to a boogie blah,blah,blah.......so buy a boogie or a randall. This amp isn,t the highest gain amp on the market.It's a loud, aggressive(plenty of mids)Marshall with a modern leaning design. Probably the best they ever made. The distortion tones, if you spend the time dialing them in,can cover joe perry's 70,s sound to Metallica.Unlike the triple rectifiers, this amp isn,t a one trick pony.The clean channel,Though not as Fat as a Fender, is fantastic.Throw a low gain Pedal in front of the clean channel( tube screamer, sparkle drive,ect..) and your in Plexiville.It's possible to go from Curtis mayfield clean to G n'R in seconds. The only problem here is That Marshall tried to be all things to all people.The mid scoop buttons and the power reduction switch are only semi-useful and are only there to attract the Kids used to a Boogie type of sound.This amp definetly has it's own sound happening and Marshall should have left the bells and whistles to the kiddie amp makers.The Mid-boost function on the clean channel, Oddly enough, gives you a nice dark jazz box tone!The reverb on the amp isn,t bad either. If you like a surf type sound though, Buy a 63 fender stand alone.

The footswitch broke the day after I took it home. Pretty sad for an amp in this price range. It took me 2 months to get a new one from Marshall, they had so many problems with them they couldn't get replacements out fast enough. other than that no problems.

not very quick.

I'm no pro, I play for kicks.I've been playing over 20 years and to my ears, this is a great rock amp.Midrange is the key to a great tone,hit that sweet spot and the guitar sings.This amp has plenty, though you can scoop it with the switch,if a scooped tone is your thing, I'd look at a decent randall or a Boogie. For the rest of you, This amp can really rip...........

this amp delivers very versital high gain it tears ass and low gain it ripps ass it has many diferent and good sounds i cant decide where to leave it set at . it is vintage rock tone i use a srat with hot rails and 2 stock fender pickups with heavy gauge wire not that wimppy crap on some pickups it doesnt sound good with the wrong pickups my les paul is muddy but i switched pickiups to ceramic mag from the alnicos i cant stand the stock pickups and now i hear every note no problems at all with foot switch

classic rock old style pickups volume turned down on guitar and cranked 7or8or10 on amp it sounds good on 3or4 also seams to have multiple sweet spots distortion can be brutal with gain up dont get a distortion pedal it sounds best with its own i set the gain at around 8 for heavy and around 4to6 for cleaner sounds this amp is not noisy at all i use a pb 100 and set it at 2oclock and crank the amp also i use a boss super overdrive on the 25 watt setting and it is the sweetest amp i ever heard on 100 watts i dont use the overdrive but turn up the guitar volume try to do some extreme adjustments youll find the secrets of this beast out the last review was probably from some idiot who cant play and i dont believe he owns one he probably played it at the store and it showed all his mistakes this amp will force you to play better or walk away to a muddy solid state amp

never broke down yet

warranty great

playing f or 30 years i would get another or a jtm45 or a 50 watt dsl the only other amp i like is a fender twin but this is the one to have all the pros cant be wrong

features are good, for features. 3 channels, fx loop, reverb, 5-way footsitch that constantly breaks and is a peice of SH!T!!!!! DI output but never used.

Classic channel: simply one of the best i have heard Marshall make.

Crunch channel: kind of good but not really, EQ doesn't do a lot
and neither does the gain, sounds the same from 4
to 10.

Lead channel: awful. simply awful.

the amp sounds the way it does and that's it. tube replacement, pickups, and guitars just change the tone a little tiny bit. granted this amp sounds decent for your average joe but i am looking for more response out of a "100% tube amplifier", 100% my ass!!! this thing has more transistors and non-tube components of any solid state amp (slight exaggeration, used for effect). see tone-man.com on why marshall WAS the best and now they are but glorified PEAVEY'S. the cheap parts used on this amp make it sound flat and wimpy.

the footswitch breaks every time isreal and palestine fight, like clockwork. on several gigs the footswitch broke and left me floundering back and forth on stage pushing buttons. reliable? hardly!!! the head itself is pretty reliable i guess. i didn't have some of the other problems others had.

they did send me a new shitty footswitch once after they blamed me for it's constant breaking. i guess that's worth something, but not much.

i played this and another jcm 900 for the last 2 years of my 6 years of playing. then at a guitar show i played a dr.z amp, this amp changed my whole outlook on amps. i thought i alittle more, i learned about amps a little more, compared new marshall with new dr. z, SOLD my two heads and 4x12 marshall cab to get dr.z kt-45 and Z best 2x12 cab. people need to realize marshall USED to be awesome but now make everything in the amps cheap to improve profit and charge us out the ass for the name, that's right, at least $1000 dollars of what i paid for was the right to say i play a marshall. people, look around!!! great amps are being made, just not where everyone can see them, but if you look they're there. research what makes good tone, don't buy something simply because someone else plays it. don't listen to the mainstream radio because that makes me have to listen to it, and it SUCKS!!!!!!!!!! Look a little more for good tone, it is definetely worth it!

you know...has basically every feature you could ever need. So without considering the quality of the features, versatility is a 10.

Using a 1984 Gibson Les Paul Standard with two Seymour Duncan Alnico II Humbuckers, and a 4x12 Vintage cab. I prefer the vintage cab over the regular cab, for hard rock style. Also a 1985 Fender Strat with Lace sensor p/up's. Sounds great. Use the Les Paul almost all the time, really good crunch, lead channel cuts nicely, also a great clean channel, one of the best i've heard. This amp will satisfy a wide range of music tastes. Distortion is not too brutal, but satisfies any AC/DC, GNR, Metallica, even Pantera, etc...

Never had a problem.

N/A

Been playing for 10 years, this amp is great if you want one purchase o satisfy you long term. Owned this amp since it was introduced in 1999, and am completely satisfied. Also, this amp is very, very, very, loud!!! (But has a virtual power reduction (VPR) switch to reduce this to a 30W amp and still sound like at full volume)

3-channel, each its own eq. 2 loops very versitile 5 button switch. in some ways i wish it had the master volume like a boogie, but i have heard bad things about that so i guess it is better the way it is. i play in a san diego hard rock/alternative band. i never turn it up past 3 on the lead channel cause it is very loud.

i use a gibson les paul custom flame top and a customized fender strat and a dean evo 7-string. i can play anything from bluesy stuff to korn with this amp, if it does not have enough crunch just use a pedal with it and you can get it right. surprisingly to me it is not noisy when your not playing it. really clean and full clean channel and the crunch channel is great for that pushed/half distortion sound for bluesy floyd/hendrix stuff. the lead is great for that throaty tool sound and the tone stays true at loud volumes. it does not have a huge amount of crunch at the loud volume but like i said i use a pedal for that.

i gig with this and i do not have a backup so hopefully it will not fail me. i have not had any probs with it and it always sounds good on stage and i have had it a year now so i am very pleased with it.

never delt with them

i have been playing for 7 years and i am the type of person that loves to go and play on gear that i have no chance of purchasing, i have owned peavey's, marshall's, fender's and i have played all the "most popular" amps (mesa) and i think that they all are ok but everytime that i go to get rid of this amp and get something else i am playing it and i can not believe that incredible tone that i get, so i end up keeping it. i love mine and i will always be glad that i chose it over the others.

1999 JCM2000 TSL100, three channel (clean, crunch, lead), reverb, FX loop, virtual power reduction (VPR), silent recording, footswitch, XLR line out, laydown mains and output trannies, etc...

I play through this amp an '89 Strat Plus with gold Lace Sensors,
stock American '62 RI Strat, and a Gibson Les Paul Elegant with 57 humbuckers. Full stack of 1960 vintage cabs set to 8 ohms making the head drive 4 ohms load with MesaBoogie Svetlana EL34's.
I play mostly southern rock, blues, funk, contemporary, some country.
This amp delivers a vantastic range of tone with the big marshall
sound in spades from ACDC to Zepplin. Can also sound very warm and
sweet like Pink Floyd's "Brick in the Wall". And the definition is
superb. You can crank it up, feel the sound flowing through your body,
and still pretty much hold a normal conversation. Very low noise
however the XLR ouput for PA and recording does generate some hum, but
not very much. Mostly comming from the XLR cable. The silent recording
feature is really nice.

I would not reccomend this amp for someone who wants to play only
extremely high gain/thrash type styles unless one uses some FX loop
distortion.

Other than that, this is the best sounding and most versatile amp
I have ever owned. And would highly reccomed this amp to anyone that
has the bucks and the playing experience.

The foot pedal connection in the rear is a very bad design. There is
nothing attaching the rear plug to the chasis for strength. When you
connect the foot pedal you are actually pressing against the circut
board inside the amp, which over little time, will break the solder
connections away from the circut board and plug. I've had to resolder
mine. I bought mine used at a discount because of this and was able to
easily resolder it. However not everyone knows how to do this and
could be dangerous and even fatal. Take it to a technician!!!

Other than this, it always fires up and sounds great. I don't gig
this amp so I couldn't say how it would perform on the road.

Never had to deal with customer support.

Been playing 23 years. I own a mid 70's MusicMan 65 reverb, '83 Boogie
MarkIIC, Peavy Classic Chorus 212. And have owned or played through many others. The JCM2000 TSL100 is the finest amp I have ever owned
for my taste and style. If I ever lost it I would definatly try to get
another. I highly reccomend this amp for those who have the money and
experience. I would not go out and buy it for someone just learning.
And not for those not living in an apartment or where others in the
neighborhood would be botherd. This amp was made to crank.

I would also highly reccomend getting quality speaker cab(s) to match.
No sense in buying a fine amp head like this and getting a second rate
cab.

amp is brand new 2002-3 channels-best clean ive ever heard from an amp-the ac/dc crunch channel and the balls out sweet lead channel-or the red channelas i like to call it
has dual effect loops for clean and distortion
direct out
all the crap you would expect
100 watts with el34 power tubes
i use this amp in a metal band and it absolutly the best
i have it cranked up to 7 and its just tone in a box

this amp will sound like clean jaz all the way to deicide
bottom line
tone in a box

i bout a tsl in may and it crapped out on me 5 months later
marshall replced the head at no extra cost

what a guy

replaced my head no questions asked
thats hog ststus

ive been playing 89 years and im a gear junkie
ill own the tsl for life
its that damn good
if i could have a tiny bit more distortion that would be cool but i dont need it

I have no idea when it was made. The amp is extremely versatile for my styles. I play everything from ska to hard rock to death metal to country, folk..whatever - everything to anything. 3 channels, I use all all of them. I don't use the effects loop since I have none and don't really need them. I've gone from Line6 that had too many features to next to no features. I gig and practice with this amp, it goes everywhere I go.

I use a Strat with Duncan JB humbucker installed in the bridge. Also a Jackson 7 string and a TCM Polaris with a Duncan Distortion in bridge. This amp goes from country twang to Death distortion at the touch of a button. These people that even compare Mesa's to Marshall aren't too bright. I tried every single amp I could find. VHT's, Mesa's, Hughes and Kettner, etc. The only thing that almost came close was the VHT Pitbull 100, but it still lacked the sound quality I was looking for. The Mesa's are just ugly amps with ugly sounds for people that need saturation to cover up their sorry playing. Trust me, I almost jumped on that bandwagon. If you suck, the Marshall will show it. If you are good, the Marshall will feed you the tone you've been looking for.
As for distortion - I have hot pickups for a reason, a stock single coil is not going to give you brutal distortion...go install some custom pickups in your guitar and then tell me this thing doesn't growl at Satan. The clean channel I find to be very good, I don't even use my chorus pedal, I got rid of it, just tweak the EQ and you're all set.

I have it for a few months and it seems to be built very solid. I've heard the footswitches going bad, but I ended up getting a free extra one when guitar center F'd up the exchange. I had originally bought the TSL60 but it didn't have enough power for the shows I play. Then I used the floor model TSL100 while they ordered me a new one. So they forgot about the footswitch and now I have two - one brand new and in it's plastic. Shh, don't tell anyone.

Don't know yet but don't look forward to it.

I've been playing for about 7 years now. I have grown out of the need for all the effects and gadgets that most younger kids feel they need to have. I rely on my amp by itself and it proves to be exactly what it is. Just pure power and tone. It was unbelievable the first time I really plugged in and turned this thing up. Anyone who thinks otherwise either owns shitty guitars, doesn't know any better, or is just on some little kiddie bandwagon. This amp is the real deal. PERIOD

With three seperate channels, Clean, Crunch and Lead, and no master volume switch, the JCM 2000 TSL is indeed three amps in one. Since I play original alt rock with heavy retro Metal influences (Thin Lizzy, Motorhead, Zep, ZZ Top, etc), I employ the Crunch and Lead channels almost exclusively. Feature-wise, I love the channel switching for lead work (nice long cable for bigger stages), the VPR button for low volume practicing with a fairly decent tone, the speaker bypass switch for muting your cab when recording (a plus for separation in the studio when you're tracing the rest of your band), reverb is nice. The 100 Watts are a plus both in the tone category and the overall volume output; there's nothing worse than a great sounding amp that can't be heard, right? The new midrange scoop buttons are lost on me...why does Marshall try to pander to "new" versions of gain and distortion? It's like Queen Elizabeth trying to be Elizabeth Hurley, for gods sake...I will say, howvever, that the mid boost button on the clean channel does work nicely when you're looking for that Fender Twin sound...

I run a 93 American Standard Strat with Texas Specials and a 79 Goldtop Deluxe Les Paul with Seymour Mini Humbuckers. The Strat dials in the Hendrix/Stevie tones on Crunch channel and blows doors on the Lead channel. The Paul is nearly-classic metal on both dirty channels. I say nearly-classic because the JCM2000 is NOT a JCM 800; it differs from its earlier counterparts in the primary respect that it is a much higher gain amp, running a slightly different circuit path from the 800. For those looking for an ultra warm, super bluesy head like the 800 was, the JCM 2000 may be a tad gritty and aggressive. This head is 100% animal in the gain department and, while probably not the highest gain tube amp ever manufactured (Randall, etc.), it will tear a grown man's ears off at 10 paces.
Clean channel's the big news to most people on this amp; it sounds like a loud Bassman or some other Fender creation. The Crunch and Lead channels, when run loud but without heavy gain, will reward you with some sweet natural Marshall overdriven tones that are both classic and yet aren't a simple repetition of what Marshall's done before.

I've only owned the amp for a few months, but my previous experience with Marshall has always been reliable, and tough on the road. I would not use a backup with this amp, although again from experience, its always good to carry extra fuses, and an extra AC power cord. Be sure and hit Standby on before turning this girl off, and ALWAYS run correct ohmage and speaker wire!

Never have dealt with Marshall, but the warranty is five years on workmanship on this unit.

I've played for 22 years, the last 10 or so professionally. I've recorded a number of LPS, a Single, and done a number of tours throughout the Western US. There's inevitable compromise and benefit that comes with changing your equipment. Bottom line: close out of this e-review and practice with your band! Great rock tone comes from the heart and from the fingers: I just believe that Marshall can get me there the best. I compared the TSL 100 to the TSL 60 and the DSL100; this amp is by far the beter investment. I heard the Mesa RoadKing, which is also a great amp, but another 50% more expensive. Who in their right mind would pay that much for an tube-modelling amp? I'm a pro, and I wouldn't!

As said before this is a valve driven 100 watt,3 channel head with reverb.I beleive Marshall has nailed it with this one.No feature that I need that isnt here.

I play mostly my Gibson custom Les Paul Black beauty(3 pickup model) and it is a match made in heaven.Also I play a "79" telecaster, and on the clean channel this pair shine!I play rock and a little blues,I havent played a amp better suited than this one.This amp is totally silent until you ask it to speak and then she roars.Disortion is perfect for my style and my Boss heavy metal footswitch just became obsolete.As a matter of fact I am not using any effects with this rig,between the three channels I am able to preset the sounds I need and use the footswitch(supplied) to fire em up.

Its a new amp,I have read the reviews here and can see there is room for improvment with the footswitch( cable is so wimpy).A 5 year warranty is outstanding and gives me the comfort to know Marshall is willing to stand behind these.There is a reason that so many pros use marshalls on tour and that is because they are BRUTES!!!!They have proven they CAN take it.

5 year warranty,plenty of service centers in my area.

I paid $2000 for the head, a 1960a cab(with G12T-75 celestions)and a powerbrake.I feel I got an awsome deal.This is the rig I could only dream about as a young guitarist,Pinch me.........................

I just got the Marshall JCM 2000 TSL 100 and it is by far the best amp I have ever played on. The three channels are unbelievable. The clean is cleaner that a fender, the crunch is the dirtiest mother i have ever heard, and the lead has a back breaking growl to it that could never be mistaken for anything other than a Marshall. I play large concert halls and seldomly take off the VPR button. This is a wicked feature because it gives you that nasty tone at low volumes. Theres more tone knobs than you know what to do with and I love that, custom sounds are a given with this amp.

I play an Ibanez custom RBM series with 2 hot rails and a humbucker. Also a standard Fender Tele, and a Gibson Les Paul. All of these guitars compliment the marshall incredibly. I play rock and I would never consider an alternative to a Marshall. The amp can make the cleanest sound even with an acoustic plugged in to an in your face crunch and lead sound. crank the gain and you can actually feel the tubes being pushed!

I'm in a working band that plays every weekend and I bring my Marshall to every show. I've never had a problem with it at all and would never even consider a backup. Its a marshall, why would you?!

I had to special order this amp from the distributor in Quebec. It took 4 months to ship it there from England. Perfect condition when it came out of the box. I don't even care what the warranty is because I know it'll never let me down.

I've been playing for 5 years and have been in a band for 4 1/2 of those years. I own a Samson wireless system (completely wicked), the following Boss pedals: super chorus, delay, phaser, tremelo, metal zone, acoustic sim, and power supply, and a DOD mutli effects. I would definitly buy this amp again, after i hunted down the man who would ever steal it. I love the tone, looks, and feel to it. It blows anything Fender, Mesa, Vox, or Peavey away. I could never think of anything to add to this amp. I've always dreamed of a marshall, and i finally got it. The other guitarist in my band has a AVT marshall and he loves it, especially cause its got on board effects, but admits that its nothing compared to mine!! Long Live Marshall!!!

The three channels cover all the bases and then some. This amp is severely powerful. It's got enough features to let you discover a new sound every week or so.

The clean channel sounds fantastic, especially with the mid-boost option. The lead channel has just enough drive and distortion to sound great but not overcome with fuzz. The rythm channel is my favorite, because it has such a clear and chunky sound.

I just bought a Lane6 POD to use, but my amp sounds so good on its own, I can't stand to use the POD.

There is a small bit of static hum on the clean channel, but it goes away with your hearing :)

All my pals are still in awe at how damned good the amp sounds.

I haven't had any problems, and since this is my first tube amp I have never let the tubes cool down out of stupidity.

No opinion.

I've had this guy for about six months now. I don't play gigs (admittedly a waste for this caliber amp), but have been playing for about twelve years, and have recently gotten a band together.

I play on a solid state Fender 80W half stack, Les Paul Custom, Fender American Deluxe Strat, and a Gretsch Hot Rod.

After playing on a weak transistor-powered Fender half stack for 10 years, I finally took the time to look around Mars for a couple of hours and try out the amps of the 21st century. After all the Fenders and Boogies, this amp blew me away. It sounded so good, I impulsively bought it the same day -- from a cheaper store.

It has the best sound of anything I've ever played or heard.

2002 JCM 2000 TSL 100 Head. You probably know the features if youve read the other reviews.

Pretty good amp. I like it better than the JCM 800s and 900s. Good clean channel, surprisingly enough. But, it lacks "oomph". The EQ knobs do very little on the 2nd and 3rd channels. Still, can get some great sounds out of it. Although it sounds good and all, it pales in compairison to the Diamond Plated monster (triple rectifier or even a dual rectifier). Mesa has more guts to their sound, the knobs are very responcive, even on the 3rd channel, which shames the TSL's 3rd channel by ALOT. For 200 bucks more, I took the triple rectifier. Besides, they are hand made in the USA. Can't say that about a Marshall.

Dont know.

Dont know.

Alright amp, but seriously, if your into hard rock, metal, or anything with distortion, GET THE TRIPLE (OR EVEN DUAL) RECTIFIER. If you wanna be a Marshall snob and get it because its a Marshall, be my guest. Mesa beats Marshall any day.

MADE IN LATE '99 AT MARSHALL FACTORY,THIS AMP IS A 3 CHANNEL TUBE-HEAD.
POWERED BY 4 EL84 FOR PRE-SECTION AND 4 EL34 OF POWER.
3 CHANNEL:CLEAN,OVERDRIVE,LEAD.
FREE EQ FOR EVERY CHANNEL.
REVERB,PRESENCE,LOUD,FX-MIX ARE FREE FOR CLEAN AND SHARED ON CRUNCH/LEAD.
REVERB IS AN ANALOG TRIPLE ACCUTRONICS SPRING FOOT-SWITCHABLE
FX-MIX IS FOOT-SWITHABLE
THIS AMP HAS BEEN PROJECTED TO BE "3 ON 1".
EVERY CHANNEL HAVE A DEDICATED CIRCUIT,THERE'S NO A MASTER VOLUME,SO THIS IS A TREE AMPS ON ONE!
FX-LOOP CAN BE USED AS A EXTENTION OF ANY CHANNEL (try a dummy plug in Fx-A return,push footswitch and adjust fx-mix)....THIS IS INTERSTING FOR RITHMICS,ISN'T?

I USE IT WITH MY FENDER STRAT GODDESS(tm)...SIMPLY FANTASTIC
FOR MY STYLE ROCK'70 AND BLUES.
CLEAN IS SPARKLE
CRUNCH IS PURPLE
LEAD IS A WALL

A FRIEND.....

MARSHALL....I DON'T NEED WARRANTY!

BUY IT,SO NOT TO METAL...IS TOO WARM!

Best Marshall ever hands down!! Never did i dream that Marshall would make a clean channel that even would come close to comparing with a Fender Twin. Versatile? Shit its got 3 damn channels!! How much more versatile do u want? Let me just say...who in the hell is the dumbass who is bout 4 reviews under this one? How drunk do u get for God's sake? Damn...you're bitchin cuz the TSL Head controls are reversed from the combo. Damn how stupid can u be? If that's the only excuse u have to diss this amp...you're the lamest sombitch i could think of. And...for all u Mesa fanatics...you can just take that Mesa Rectifier and stick it up your rectum. If you know what rock and roll is supposed to sound like...you'd throw that piece of shit in the garbage!!!!

Awesome!! Only downside is the reverb...but if i max it out at 10, it is perfect for what i like...i just dont like having to put something on 10 cuz it makes me feel like im doing something wrong...but it sounds good when it gets up there. Loud as hell, love the VPR, i dont use the mid boost...but i do use the bass boost thing. Damnit let me cut this shit out and say that this thing is the best amp ever made. Congrats Jim...you done goooood.

Its a Marshall...shit. But from other users griping so much...im kinda worried about the footswitch. No probs yet though

5 year Warranty. Great Job (like im gonna need it)

Overall this is the most versatile and best amp ever. Ive played every tube Marshall ever made and its best hands down!

2000 tsl this amp is tone if you can adjust the knobs properly and use a boss sd 1 it sounds better than a power brake and at room volume on the 100 watt channel it screams hendrix sound at low to med volume this is tone without the sd 1 i had to crank it way to high and the power brake is ok if you are in a large room

this thing went from a toy to hendrix sonic gibson les paul that at first sounded like crap but i adjusted the pickup height and the poles and wow the thing went balistic before i did that it was tinny and shrill and went out of tune a lot i found out the pickups make a hell of a difference on the amp tone i thought i was gonna have to get new pickups but by lowering them and adjusting the poles this amp went hendrix on me now i will never trade this amp

has a good warranty

dealer outlet has a certified marshall repair man on call

this is a great amp people who bash it have crap guitars bad technique and dont try extream adjustments that make tis amp get jtm plexi and any other marshal sound and at room volume or cranked thats very versitile for a 100 watts

A 2001 year amplifier UK made amp. I'm a rocker and I always wanted a MArshall. I bought it without trying it. And i'm was not dissapointed and i'm still not. It have 3 chanels and lead is of course the best one, two effects loops, all tube, but i'm missing a headphone jack. I like VPR- so I can play on 25 Watts.

I have a JS1000 guitar before I had a Washburn CS-780 but it doesn't matter because that is an amplifier that plays great no matter what kind of guitar do you have. VPR svitch is great cause you can get a great distortion on 25 Watts. No noise...

I would play on a gig I'm not afraid that Marhshall would let me down

I've been playing for 6 years and i've played on Laney, Mesa Boogie, Huges&Kettner and on Marshall and I would newer sell. If someon would steal my Marshall I would cry and then buy another one.

Amp made in 2001. Purchased in early 2002. Others have well detailed the features. Good effects loop, very handy to have reverb control on the footpedal. headphone jack, and virtual power reduction are very nice features, if you want to play at home and don't feel like spending $300 on a Power Brake.

I play Fender Jazzmasters, and a Gibson Les Paul Zakk Wylde with EMG's. My style ranges from alt-pop-punk to tool-ish prog metal. The Amp has plain vanilla "rawk" sounds, but lacks the character that a plexi or JTM puts out. I bought this amp cuz I like the vintage Marshall sound, but this amp simply lacks it. Has very good clean tone, much better than the 900's or other recent marshall models, but crunch channel lacks bite, and overdrive channel; sounds like a fart. I don't like it. Tried it for a month, and sold it on eBay at only a slight loss, which was nice. Bought at JTM 45, which totally kicks this amp's butt for character and crispnes, and with a tube screamer pedal, that drive tone is way better than this amp's red channel.

Always have had good reliability with Marshalls over the years.

Never had to call them for anything.

Been playing 18 years. In terms of amps I play through a Soldano Decatone (which has features similar to this amp, but has infinitely more character and better tone) for gigs, and use a Marshall JTM 45 and Matchless HC/30 in the studio.

My amp was purchased new in 1999. As everyone probably already knows its a three channel 100w amp. I play mostly punk/hard rock and the range of sounds the amp provides fit my needs perfectly. The amp has switch for a mid-boost on the lead channel (generates sweet blues tones), and scoop switches on the crunch and lead channels which I don't use (I prefer dialing in the bass/mid/treble tone knobs to taste).
The crunch and lead channels share the same effects loop controls.

One thing that bugs me is the control layout. They use the same chassis for the TSL combo, but in the combo the chassis hangs upside down, and as a result the order of the front panel controls are reversed.
That'd be OK except that it appears the the controls were laid out with the combo rather than the head in mind, so everything is reversed on the head version. That means that on the TSL100 the effect loops controls are first, then the lead and crunch and finally the clean channel controls. Within each section the controls go: Bass/Middle/Treble/Volume/Gain rather than the more sensible Gain/Volume/Treble/Middle/Bass.

The best feature for me is the Virtual Power Reduction (VPR) switch. When switched off this amp is too damn loud for anything other than a stadium. I always have it switched on and rarely have the volume over 5 (12 o'clock). (Note to folks that think this is wussie: You will be deaf, soon!). This gives me plenty of volume even though I think my drummer and bass player play too loud for most venues, and allows me to acheieve some real nice power tube distortion without ear-blistering volume..

This head sounds so good that sometimes I'd swear its playing itself. Its hard to get bad tones out of it. I've got a Les Paul Classic with super hot pickups and an American Deluxe Strat with "vintage noiseless" pickups. Honestly, I prefer the way the LP sounds (fuller), but the strat sounds awesome in its own way, especially for lead sections. I generally keep the gain down below 5 on the crunch channel and set it to 7-8 on the lead channel. The clean channel is a little too clean for our material, but it does distort nicely even at low gain settings and sounds monstrous with a distortion pedal (I use a Tech-21 XXL). Its perfect for blues, especially with the mid-boost on.
I read reviews that claim the gain on the lead channel is too fuzzy or mushy, or that it doesn't have enough gain. I think these folks either have the wrong or damaged tubes, because I can get even Mesa sounding distortions on the lead channel and get good bottom from it even at high gain settings. I did get the tubes replaced after about a year and had it rebiased, but even the factory tubes sounded good until just before I had them replaced.

The amp itself is great. The footswitch sucks!!! I've had it replaced three times and it just broke again. I think the problem is actually the cable, but when gigging, pack the footswitch in a pillow because its as fragile as a wine glass. I guess I'll spend the bucks to have a new cable attached to the current switch, because I sick of trading it in every few months.
The head's very reliable, even though my asshole bass player keeps turning off my powerstrip at the end of practice, before I've had a chance to warm it down with the standby switch.

OK, I know Marshall support is supposed to suck, but the Korg folks have been very understanding of the footswitch problem and have twice express mailed me out a new one without getting the old one first or even verifying that I own a TSL100. That's pretty cool!

I've been playing for about 6 years, originally I started with an Epiphone solid state amp, then I bought a Fender Hot Rod Deville 2x12 and now the Marshall. The Deville sounded great with the Strat but like shit with the Les Paul. I seriously considered Mesa when I got the Marshall but after an A/B comparison the Marshall won hands down. The Mesa sounded great, but needed a lot of tweeking. The Marshall sounded great no matter what the settings! If it were stolen I'd buy another, provide my insurance covered it!

2000 model, same featues as below. Three channel amps are necessary if you play modern rock covers ... easilly can do Aerosmith to Creed to Lit to Fuel. The clean channel is NOT praised enough, and it should be. Why the HELL do you want a Fender sound? What planet of surfing rejects do all these Fender nutballs come from? Surf's out, guys ... this type of EL34 clean is in! It breaks up nicely with the gain up high, and has a wonderful warm texture with the mids up and the reverb going. And put a fuzz or overdrive in front of it, and this baby really wails. 3 channels of great sounding rock tones.

I play a Brian Moore i8 guitar (yes, I have owned Anderson's and Pauls and Strats etc..) and I get exactly what I want ... great spanky cleans or warm reverb tones, killer crunch without too much gain, and a wonderfully compressed lead channel for screaming notes. Does this sound as good as my former Bogner Ecstacy? Who gives a crap! The Bogner costs almost 2 1/2 times as much, and I was always afraid to even scratch the thing! These amps are loud, though, meaning do not expect a professional recording-type sound with the volume at 1 ... the power tube distortion kicks in nicely at 3.5 on my amp ... which is small/medium club volumes.

Ok, here is where the fun begins....
These amps have the biggest POS tubes in them from the factory. I have bought 3 new Marshalls in my playing history (30 years), and all of them had bad tubes. For a company that has been around as long as Marshall, you would think they would do a better job with the tubes. Granted, they are shipped from England ...

Marshall customer support? Yeah, right ... the snooty English bastards let Korg USA handle their dirty work. This is where Bogner/Dr.Z/Top Hat and other US manufactuers really outshine Marshall. With all the damn US bands advertised in the Marshall catelogs, you would think that Marshall would be more receptive of actually supporting the US directly.

Let's face it, you can go buy a plexi if you want ... or any other old Marshall head, and relive the "good old days" ... I personally want to kick some ass with the modern sounds, while having the ability to conjur up plexi tones if I desire. The TSL 100s are worth every penny if you are a real musician. Others may want to try Mesa rectifier amps ... another great amp, but still a one trick pony. This TSL through a half stack is pure rock ... not jazz, not country, not anything else...just balls-to-the-walls rock tones. If you just need clean tones and are a pedal pusher, then Fender is probably your bag. Lots of big rock bands play Fender amps ... just not the ass-kicking ones I listen to.

This amp is a couple years old not sure what year it is I bought it used. I play mostly alternative hard rock. My influences are: Jane's addiction, Pixies, Dave Matthews, Radiohead, RHCP, Pearl Jam, etc. This amp is incredibly versatile with a capital "V". You can pretty much get any type of sound out of this amp no matter what your style is. Amp has 3 channels, Clean, Crunch and Lead. Dual effects loops. I don't think that there are any additional features that I would add to this beast. The power is more than efficient, I play out of a 1960a Cabinet which has more power than you would ever need. One feature that I'm particulairly fond of is you can insert a dummy jack into the effects loop and on the foot controller use the "FX" switch as a master volume switch. So if you need to step up your volume when you are soloing, this feture comes in really handy. I literally, Can't think of any additional features to this thing.

I have 3 guitars which I use. My primary is a Hamer Sunburst Archtop with Seymore Duncan Double Humbuckers, A 1992 Fender American Standard Strat with stock pickups, and a Gibson II (I think it's a melody maker) with single coil pickups. This Amp is amazing for any style like I said earlier. The Clean sound is a beautiful elastic warm tube sound. You can do a pitch shift so there are numerous ways to tweak your tone. The possibilities are endless. The crunch channel is a little more beefed up (actually gets incredible gain.....more than most amps can even handle) and the Lead channel just screams. There is a "Deep" switch which will give you a great bottom (low end) sound for that heavy grunge type sound.

I've only owned this amp for less than a month so I really can't intelligibly comment on this, but I can say that it was shipped accross the whole country to get over to me in Cali. and it's in Tip-top condition. I can tell it is built like a tank and take a serious beating.

I guess Support on this bad boy is through Korg. I've had trouble getting a contact number from their website. Hopefully I'll never need to use them. The warranty is 5 yrs so I have 3 left on mine.

I have been playing for 11 years and after all this time playing on crappy Solid state and weak tube amps I have finally graduated to the "Real Deal." I've played on Peavy, tubeworks, and fenders and the TSL 100 skools them all. I only wish I didn't waste all the time and $$$ I spent on old amps. If you are a serious player my reccommendation is just fork out the cash and start with the best. When you upgrade amps every 2-3 years it get's pricey. It is definitly the best sounding most versatile amp on the market. I also own a Digitech GSP 2101 processor which I don't even use anymore b/c the pure marshall tone is incredible. I probably won't use any effects other than my Wah Pedal. If it was stolen I would definitely get a new one. I will give this bad boy an overall "9" for the rating just because 10 is perfect and there is always room for improvement. My last and final comment....."Don't listen to any bad hype you might hear about this amp. It is the real deal and anyone who says it doesn't live up to it's sound, quality, features, etc. is obviously an amateur. Go and buy yourself one, you won't regret it.

This is a follow up to a review I made over 2 years ago for this amp. I figured it would be good to let people know how this amp's been holding up.

This has proven to be a consistently great amp for home use AND for gigs. I play a lot of Gary Moore / Santana type blues and this amp's perfect (Gary uses DSLs on tour). This amp sounds really good at all sorts of different volumes - I've even dimed the thing a few times and it sounded great. A couple of tweaks to compensate for the additional tube compression at higher volumes (slightly lower gain, lower treble, slightly lower mids, slightly more bass) and I consistently get a great tone. I don't use the tone shift or deep switches as much any more, though. They take away from the classic Marshall tones this amp's capable of. As far as the reverb goes, it's OK at lower settings but it's no match compared to an old Fender.

Also, you may want to take some of the reviews here with a grain of salt - this amp was not really designed to be a Mesa or Bogner so it's not right to compare this amp to them. Those amps are EQ'd differently and have a completely different tone.

It still runs hotter than I would like (TSL's have no fan), but the tubes have lasted way longer than I expected. I always wait a minute or two between switching the standy on & off and turning the mains on & off - that seems to help a lot. I did have to have the footswitch replaced twice - that's a known problem with these amps. A spare footswitch is a VERY good idea if you're gigging.

Poor. Guitar Center replaced the footswitch twice no problem, but I haven't had any success with Marshall (aka Korg USA). I contacted them several times to get a pinout diagram for their footswitch but got diddly from them.

Overall, I still think this is a fabulous amp. It's got its quirks but all amps do. I should know - I've owned over 20 amps over the years. To me, the real trick is to be patient and take some time to tune the EQ to match your gain and volume levels. Also, I've found that the quality of tubes you use can play a difference in this amp - especially at louder stage volumes. The same goes for any pedals and cables you use.

Hope that helps!

all you need.3 channels,100watts,made in 1998,versatile,...just great for a marshall...

with my telecaster it sounds great, just awesome!.with my new seymour duncan vintage rail (bridge position), just brilliant,im in love with this monster of great sound... OH babe...

its a marshall, what can I say?...

not needed yet!but, They were very quikly when i asked for the original schematics.great people behind a great amp brand... I love you all... thx for this beauty...

just a great amp for all situations and styles, very,very versatile... (dont wait that this thing play alone).. you need to have fingers for this... it sounds great.. i love my marshall...

3channels: clean, crunch, lead. 2 fx loops, reverb, direct out, vpr (cuts it down to 25 watts) 5 button footswitch. 100watts.

Iuse an early 80's Ibanez Artist with DiMarzio pickups (Norton-bridge and Fred-neck). TSL100 through a Marshall 1960A

CLEAN: the clean channel is very good its not really a fender clean, because fenders are a little fuller sounding. But, its very clean especially for a Marshall

CRUNCH: the crunch channel is good from AC/DC to Rage somewhere in that range.

LEAD: This channel sounds like a sorry attempt to sound like a Dual Rectifier. Very Muddy. If you have a thin sounding strat with lots of sustain it might be usable. If you use a les paul forget it. I have tried all kinds of pickups and nothing helps.
Low power pickup = no sustain
Hot pickup = mud

the DI is junk super thin. The reverb sounds more like a retarded tremolo ( you have to hear it to understand what I'm saying) the fx loop is noisy and the overall volume drops then the loop is on.

One thing to remember about this amp, you have to turn it up. Mine sounds its best at about 4. Doesn't seem like much, but trust me it's loud.

I've owned mine for about a year now. It has been in the shop twice once for a volume drop issue. once for the footswitch jack. and I've had to replace the footswitch itself. This amp now stays in my bedroom foor a practice amp. I wouldn't trust one straight out of the box.

for the money I spent, I got raped. I've been playing for 11 years and have about 10 grand in equipment. Think long and hard before getting this amp. There are better amps out there for less money.
Personally I regret ever buying this amp. In the end YOUR ears have to decide if it sounds good.

Some free advice. NEVER EVER EVER buy a piece of musical equipment until you use it with the rest of your rig.

2000 tsl 100 rock hard rock solos rhythum skynard ,nails the pat benatar song hit me with your best shot effects loop headphone jack 3 channels lead crunch clean never use the clean channel only wish it came with an attenuater i can use the 25 watt vpr and on low settings it doesnt lose to much sound although you can tell it loses a little but still sounds better than my 5150 in my opinion

using a les paul standard stock sounds crappy with my fender but thats the crappy pickups the guy i bought it from put in it not noisy to me but hey im used to the 5150 it was really noisy rhythum is roaring and growling but can clean up with the gain down and vol up iprefer the roar it makes long slow solos are so the best it doesnt make a ton of sounds not like a line 6 vetta but i dont like that prossesed cheap sound to tinny but it can be fun to play a good moddeling amp and wack out the leads just wouldnt want to take it home especially for 2500 dollers for a vetta combo i want an amp that makes you play well without hidding behind effects though i might use a boss sd 1 and an attenuater hot plate to get that satturation i like in my house thats probably all i need

i wouldnt do anything without a backup no problems but have heard stories and you know what i dont believe anything i hear and only half of what i read it has a good warranty

never dealt with the company service can be done by a qulified marshall tech through th e store so they said i think the warranty had 2 or 3 parts i think it said 3 years and 5 or 10 on something else maybee it was the cab i dont remember

been playing for 25 years i woud get it again or maybee i would get a used one thats a lot of cash considering all the gear i have it ads up fasthate nothing love the tone sustain punch rhythum and overall sound reall fat wish it had metal corner protaectors instead of the dreaded plastic this product nailed the sound i wanted so i didnt even try a messa though did consider waiting for a road king

I bought this little brute in 1999 to cover all my bases for jamming, recording and home use....i play alotta blues and country, with some hard rock and metal from time to time and this bad boy never fails me....3 channels all availaible from a footswitch: a pristine clean channel, a high powered crunch channel and a searing lead channel....lots of features....effects loop(dont use it much), midscoop/boost, VPR circuit "Virtual Power Reduction," etc. lots more....reverb isnt bad either!...this amp sounds incredible....if it had tremolo on it i would be in tone heaven!...it would probably do it for me...but it doesnt...so how many Marshall metal players do you know who want tremolo?? None...i dont play metal much...but i like the amp...and if it was on there...it would be Hands Down, THE BEST..but all in all...Pretty damn good if you ask me!

I use a strat with custom shop pickups and a tele loaded with buckers...i have the clean channel dialed for jazzy sounds, which doesnt really distort much...but is really pleasing clean...sounds good....the crunch channel i have set for a really "hot clean" sound kinda like a fender twin....and the lead channel set to full blown marshall roar...the buckers in my tele sound absolutely awesome when playing power chords on the lead and the strat gets really close to that SRV sound on the crunch channel after a little knob tweaking....JAZZ to HEAVY METAL...thats a pretty good chunk of sonic landscape to cover....but boy does this baby do it!

Reliable?- its a marshall for christs sake!! This thing is like a mule - i guess every company makes a lemon once on a while in its history, but this one aint it!..marshall amps are known for being work horses in the music industry and this one doesnt fail to meet that expectation. it has become one of my favrite amps to play through...i dont abuse it as much as marhsalls can take but it takes enough and doesnt fail me...i dont buy junk and i try not to abuse it cause i cant afford another one (this baby wasnt cheap at all!!) I always keep a fan on the tubes to keep em cool in hope that i can make em last a little longer before replacing them....but as of yet, she still runs smooth and clean and hassle free!

Never needed em

This amp is incredible...its what i wanted and needed...if you want an amp loaded with enough features to shake a stick at...this is it! its like 3 amps in one (cost a little less than 3 amps though!) If you play a whole bunch of styles like i do, and have a little bit of cash to make an investment...check into it before buying other amps and amp simulators....this thing is a real blessing...real marshall sounds with the addition of some pretty damn good fender-type sounds too! It works well for me and im happy with it. its hassle free as of yet, and has some awesome tones!

i got my amp used, 1998 in 1999. it does everything i need it to do, from full clean near accousitc sounds to all out roar, and a good footswitch to go with it. I like the deep switch and the many other pretty contols too such as the VPR, it has all the power i need.

I use mostly Gibson Les Pauls, but i dont like the way my fender american strats sound through it, kinda thin, but the Pauls through it sound perfect, incredibly thick and full of tone, the sound ive always been looking for. i switch between all the channels all the time, at home, in practice and at gigs and nothing has givin me a problen, but that might just be because i really know tube amps and how to treat tubes, all the earlier review problems seem to sum up th that, um set your damn bias, it helps, oh and check to see if you need new tubes. perfect heavy metal is through a gibson 500t and the lead channel all the way to clean classic '57 on the clean, it's what ive used and it's like a freakin' dream.

never had a problem, cuz well you just need to know how a tube amp works.

N/A

ive been playing ten years, solid state, tube, fenders, peaveys, mesas, marshalls, laneys, and all i have to say is this amp has become my main toy for all applications, id set my life on how it runs, it's tube and it needs to be treated like a lady cuz of that, so solid-state idiots, quit your bitching.

This is the most versatile head I have ever seen. Whith an excellent clean channel and 2 great distortion channels, I can use this all by itself, without the use for any other amp or pedel.

I really like the sound of this thing. Theclean is fabulous and the crunch and lead channels are all you'd ever need. The only amp with better distortion I know of is the mesa/boogie rectifiers. I like to have one distortion channel for crunch (crunch channel without mid scoop) and one for lead/metel (lead channel w/ mid scoop)

Hasn't fucked up yet.

never had to deal with 'em.

A great amp, if you can afford it. I have never regretted the 5 months it took to save for it.

I play Gibson Les Pauls, SGs, and a Gretsch Silver Jet. I play indie/punk. This amp is very versatile, and you can dial in all the Marshall sounds from the last 40 years.

This amp is very versatile, and you can dial in all the Marshall sounds from the last 40 years. I don't use it as my principal amp (I use a Soldano Decatone for playing live and rehearsing), but this is a great amp to have in your back pocket so to speak, for getting THAT MARSHALL SOUND on occasion in the studio... which is exactly why I bought it.

Don't use it regularly in the rehearsal space, just for the odd recording session, but so far so good.

Bought this amp at SamAsh on 48th Street in NYC. Very friendly salespeope for a NY Store. Never had to use Marshall (thank goodness from what I have read here).

Been playing 15 years. Have played Marshalls, Boogies, Matchless, Vox and Soldano. Soldano is the best for my style of playing, but this is still a damn good amp.

I bought my first one in 2000 for $800 bucks (I had a friend who'd rip off Guitar Center) and the thing sounded awesome. It's PLENTY loud, and has enough different sounds to satisfy any player.

The thing sounds awesome, you can pretty much recreate any amp sound, I can get that death metal "recto" sound or that subtle Roland Jazz sound. The only thing that isn't too flattering about the thing is the direct output on the back that sounds to dull for my taste. I tried it in the studio but wound up miking a cab. That and the clean is too soft in comparison to the other 2

OK, here's the bad part, like I said in my first sentence, " I bought my first.." yeah, not meaning I liked it soo much that I got a backup, but meaning that within 1 week I noticed that there was a channel hangup between all 3 channels. So I took mine back to the dealer and demanded a brand new one, ah much better. i've played about 60 shows now and no problems, But just last night practicing in my room the new one starts to act up. The front panel looked like the damn lights were on a chase scene. I don't know what to do, I think I'll just buy an old 800.

I looked for an authorized marshall repairman. In Houston they're hard to find, I tried to call Marshall but no response. In away I felt jipped, but then I took it back to GC and got a brand new one. I swore that if it broke I'd quit guitar and play kazoo.

I wish that I had a JCM800 2205 instead with a rocktron prophecy. I've been playing for 10 out of the 20 years of my life and I hope this amp will make till I'm old enough to afford a new one again. I love the quality of sound but hate the un reliability of the thing.

This is the best tube amp that ive EVER played!!!
Forget the DSL, this amp is the best Marshall Amp.
Never used the second FX loop but the features are more then enough

The sound is amazing. I used to use my H & K vortex with a RP20 and now just use the amp and Boss DD3 delay pedal. I use a Ibanez JEM7VWH with Evolution pickups and this is the most versatile setup ive used.

This is the only problem ive had with this amp. Something went wrong in 7 weeks and got a new one. I then blow the valves in another 4 weeks. However, now that ive had the valves replaced it has been working fine. Now that ive said this, it'll break.

I've been playing for 6 years and own lots of other gear but now i dont use the rest of it. I play through a Steve Vai JEM a DD3 delay and the JCM2000 TSL 100 head through a 1960B cab. If your looking for THE BEST amp EVER look no further.

This is just an update from a previous review.

Sounds. Ok how about popping and spontanious volume changes. This amp has a mind of its own. I took it in to have this problem fixed once already. The service center said it needed 2 tubes replaced and something else I don't remember what it was. This was about 3 months ago. Guess where it is now. Thats right its back in the shop. for the same thing. However when this amp is working properly it kicks F$CKING ASS. I'll give it a 1 because I'm fed up with the bullsh!t. Oh yeah the fx loop is noisy and there is a noticeable volume drop when the loop is on.

HAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! one of the switches died on the footpedal about a month after I got the amp. Now I'm on #2. And just recently the footswitch jack on the back of the amp started to crap out. It seems that the jackasses at Marshall decided to solder the jack straight to the pc board. I thought that was really sweet of them. You'd think that by now that they would design their amps better. IMO they were in a hurry to produce something that would compete with Mesa. Anyway, I've had too many problems with this amp to trust it I'll use it to practice but thats about it.

I've been playing for 11 years. I've spent thousands in gear over the past 11 years and I've learned the hard way. You dooon't always get what you pay for. Like I said before, when the amp is working it has killer tones. But, the fx loop sucks, the footswitch sucks. There are too many flaws on this amp. IF MARSHALL IS ANY KIND OF COMPANY THEY WILL RECALL THIS AMP AND FIX IT RIGHT. HOW MANY PEOPLE OUT THERE SPENT ALL OF THEIR MONEY TO GET AN AMP THAT THEY THOUGHT WOULD BE THE ONLY AMP THEY WOULD EVER NEED. AND NOW THEY, LIKE ME, ARE STUCK WITH A PIECE OF SH!T. I can't sell the amp I'd feel bad pawning it off on some sucker. If it were stolen I would appologize to the poor thief who had to carry that heavy piece of crap all the way home.

bought in 1999, out of the box, 3 channels, 4 x el34's, 4 x ecc83's, play mostly metal (slayer, anthrax, pantera, etc.) also classical like yngwie malmsteen and other greats such as george lynch steve vai and joe satraini, its a marshall, its not crap to me, it kicks ass, 2 effects loops, floor pedal, mid shifts, sepereate eqs and presensece and reverb for all channels, all tube, 100w, used with a 4x12 1960 vintage (30) cab

play metal and shredhead stuff, gains always all up with me, clean channel is amazing for a marshall, an excellent job, im using a flying V emg loaded with the after burner system and it really really shreds, got that whole george lynch nagasake thing going, I hate effects boards, they confuse me, all i use is wah and volume, sometimes a boss dd-5 delay, usually just plug in and jam, kinda noisy, but it needs new tubes now i belive after a few years (1999) now almost 2002, distrosion on crunch and lead totally kick ass, expecially with the right guitar and setup in it, better than a mesa in my opinion, awesome amps though too, marshall owns

the pedal is pretty much a piece of , other than that it has never let me down, well the pedal aint bad, i do stomp on it all the time, but when the pedal gets screwed, it changes channel and all this whacky sh*t, its quite hilarious, other than that its very reliable, damn pedal

never had to use em, should get footpedal repaired though...keep you guys posted...

awesome awesome amp, I like boogie and all other marshalls, but this thing really kicks ass, 3 channels is awesome, clean, crunch, than the lead for busting out high octave shreds, I really love this amp, damn footpedal though man! the switches are crap in it, the footpedal i mean, other than that, its million buttons are easier than programming floor crap, i hate that, awesome shred sound though, ought a test, but beware some floor s sound like crap, some young solid state kids, I was one once, dont know what the hell the two switches do, why is there no sound, flip flip (power and standby) POP POP haha what a joke, TRY IT!

You can read the other reviews below for features...you know the deal....the 3 channel Marshall JCM 2000. Lots of great features. I love the VPR function for late night jamming in my room.

Well, I've had this baby for a year now and love it. My first Marshall and definatly not my last. The clean is very good. Not quite a Fender, but close. Very sparkly and chimmey. Crank the channel vol and gain and you venture into classic rock world. The mid boost function is great here. Boosts the mids just enough to sound like the old AC/DC records. Very versitile channel. Crunch channel is what I bought it for. To me this sounds similar to a hot rodded 800. A little more gain than a stock 800. Very crunchy and clear. Gain on 3 gives AC/DC, 6, think The Cult, and maxed out is a great lead sound. This channel along with the lead channel has a deep switch to fatten the bass ( I rarely use it) and tone shift to scoop the mids. It makes the mid control N/A and the treb and bass controls shape the sound. Pretty cool feature. Don't use it much cause I'm not a metal player. Smooth crunchy overdrive from this channel. Lead channel is good to. Voiced similar to the crunch with more gain. High gain gets a little buzzy but I never have a need to go that high. 2 gives that great AC/DC lead sound (can you tell I'm a fan???), and higher than that gets into the Slash type lead sound. Could do metal, but I'm not a metal player. I use this channel basically for what it's for, my leads. This thing really sounds great. Some people say the DSL is better....have not played one. But I really like the sounds it gets. Everything I need for my Marshall sounds. I would say this is really a rock amp, and not a metal amp.

SO far, no probs.

No need as of yet.

I really love this amp. great usable clean. Crunch to die for, and great leads. I would like to get a JCM 800 and Silver Jubilee to round out my Marshall collection but, for now this thing rocks. If I had to do it over, I may have tried the DSL just because of what everyone says about them. A good, versitile Marshall amp.

Bought new June 2001. Lots of button and knobs. All of them useful apart from the "Presence" perhaps. I play lots of different stuff from early Stones stuff and Cream etc, and also AC/DC, Radiohead, GnR Nirvana, just really anything that has guitars in it.

Fender Strat(with lace sensors), Gibson SG (original covered humbuckers).
This amp is very versatile, WATCH how you use the tone controls DONT set them to 10 and forget.. they have a WIDE effect.
Using this with my distortion boxes (RAT, MUFF, Shredmaster etc) I can do whatever distortion tone/level I want. If you can't get the sound you want out of this amp then stop and ask yourself if you can acually play the guitar. You can nail that 60's Marshall sound, 70's Crunch and Slash type tone. I can do this and I'm no great player, if you can't then umm perhaps your crap :(

In the first month 2 of the Svetlana ECC833 Preamp valves failed me. I replaced these with Mullard valves which never seem to die. The footswitch is NOT the version you see in the pic on this page, its a substantial metal unit with thick cable. 8 for not sourcing reliable valves to sell it with.

Marshall HQ in england is very helpfull.

Playing for 14 years. I love the whole thing. Looks great,sounds great why bother with anything else?

You should know this by now.... but in case you didnt.. check out www.boner.com

First i walked into the store right, and i was all like, "hey sk8 bust out that heath legder groove man" so he brought out wrestling pants from the back and he was like, "man i was in the middle of teaching president mook the whole fade to black, minus the last solo but if you drop d it watch out for the cock" he grabbed the nearest death metal tool he could get his shredding little hands on. in this case his weapon of choice was a peavey wolfgang ("EXCELLENT do do lu do do lu do do lu" thanks bill thanks ted) so he plugs this sum-bitch in and says, "yeah dawgs, the tubes are a roostin'" by this point im pretty f'ing scaredm but i stay with it because my girlfriend wants to get it on with heath. so the tubes warm up and he starts cranking tones out this bitch that ive never heard before. smells like teen spirit never sounded so sweet. then i was like "what if i wanted to do some metal..." he suddenly becomes all shy and shit, so i was like girl like metal and he goes, "ERHHHHHH" and i say c'mon girl think sexy. so that's when he throw one leg up on the amp and busted out the sweetest rendition of beserker ive ever heard man. so my girlfriend is adequately moist at this point but i dont care, all i can think about are sk8's huge hairy balls. but the amp had a really sweet sound tight as a nun's cooter.

as reliable as a hooker on 14th street

like a gold plated jock strap

overalls??? marshall overalls are by far the sweetest. they provide all the thrills of denim without the chaffing tendencies of a bob vila

Think it was built in 2000.
It's got right about everything you could ever need on an amp.
Three channels (clean, crunch, lead), all with seperate EQ's, volumes and gains. Presence, reverb and FX-mix are seperate for clean and crunch/lead.
And then there's some push buttons to suck out the middle, to lower the frequency where the EQ has it's effect, there's a mid boost for the clean.
And, really cool, some push buttons for the power section, such as: VPR (slims the power down to about 25W) and Mute button.
On the back you'se gots two 4/8 Ohms jacks and one 16 Ohms jack (negates the use of the other two), there's a XLR line out, two FX-loops with push button for the gain level.
And then there's probably some shit I even haven't found out about...
No headphone jack though, but you can plug that doohicky into the send-jack of the FX-loop (which works nicely as a jack line-out too).
But believe me, you'll never wanna use headphones on this thing (It simply wasn't made for headphone usage).
The only kinda bummer is the volume-ramping when you switch from overdrive to clean. The volume cuts away to zilch and then climbs up again. Takes about one second. Was meant to prevent crackling, popping switch noises, which is very thoughtful, but it can bug the shit out of you when you need quick response.
And then there's the footswitch... I don't know who's ass is responsible for this piece o' non-operating crap, but that ass ought to be kicked in half by now.

All in all this TSL is one versatile, power-to-spare mother. Sure there's always something you wish they'd change, but there's no such thing as a perfect amp. But this one comes pretty close.

I play a early Fender Squire Japan, with three standard single coils, but my personal favorite is a guitar i built myself from crap. Les Paul TV model with Les Paul Standard stuff. Don't know the brand of the pick-ups, just two low-price humbuckers. Sounds great, why bother.
I've been playing for about ten years now, and I'm THE guitar person in a band called the Skavengers (http://drink.to/skavengers). We play ska, punk,... a la Less than Jake, Slapstick (R.I.P.), Rancid, ... So I need a sparkly clean sound for the upbeat ska bits (i.e. fender type clean, not that muddy, half-assed clipping, pseudo-clean you get with Mesa's) and some full, tight, modern distortion for soloing and chords and stuff (this you CAN get with Mesa's). Normally our songs go from clean to disto, from ska to punk, from crap to even more crap. So I needed the most versatile thing I could find. This one does the trick.

Now about the amp itself.
I've read other reviews and some people love this amp, others hate it. I'm still in the "afraid to commit myself" zone, but I'm really beginning to like this baby.
If you wanna be the next Korn or Bizkit (no offence Mr Durst) go ask daddy for cash and buy a Mesa. Mesa is cool, if you only play modern metallike distortion (no offence Mr Mesa).
If you wanna play ALL sorts of music and have great sound every time, buy this one. People always bitch about lack of tone, not enough gain, ... those people will propably ALWAYS keep bitching and never find a suitable amp. The TSL can deliver nice vintage Marshall distortion (crunch), as well as tight packed modern kick-in-the-groin distortion (although a 7 band EQ could help to scoop the mids a bit more, if you REALLY want that Mesa sound).
All it takes is a little bit of patience and a bit of tweaking.
At first I too felt like I was ripped off, but, being the stuborn ass that I am, I kept it and thought "by God, you WILL produce heavenly tones even if I have to kick'em out of you myself!"
And it did, just give it some time and some love, and you'll get the sound you're looking for.

For now I'm still playing through 2 12" speakers (1 celestion and 1 German piece of crap I took out of our deceased Mike-amp). Because this thing is so damn expensive, I couldn't afford to buy a cab immediately.
Even playing through these two old hunks o' garbage I still get great sound. I can't wait to hear it roar through a 4x12. oooohhhhh baby.

I don't like playing with pedals that much. Although this amp is perfect for it (thanks to the divine clean channel). Before you know it, you'll have this huge heap of small boxes in front of you, pinning you down to one spot, making you stomp the floor all set long like an idiot. I guess that some FX could help to improve the sound. Maybe a compressor, a 7 band EQ, some delay effects.
But don't think "ah, great clean, that'll go well with my hyperfatmegahardsuperthick metal pedal". This amp wasn't made for that shit! Use the disto it has, 'cause it's great.

There's not much else to say. Great sound, massive power, good distortion.

First of all: the footswitch. Now that's one piece of patented horse pee. I got a new amp, but I didn't see it come out of the box. The footswitch came from behind the counter, and the cable was wrapped around it. You know, wrapped in such way that you can kill the cable off. And indeed, when I came home the footswitch was dead. I cut open de cable and it just fell apart in my hands. It's a bad quality cable, whatever you do, NEVER wrap it tight and snugly around your footswitch or it'll BREAK into a trizillion pieces!
Now, I replaced the cable myself (I'm kindy a DIY-guy), but it still wouldn't work. Seems their was a faulty connection on the circuit board. So, after venting my anger on the nearest person, I went back to the store and asked a new one. Luckily this store-guy was a cool dude. He said he knew about the problem, didn't care that i put in a new cable myself and just gave me a new footswitch.
So. TSL good, footswitch bad. First one anyway.
Other than that I haven't had any problems. It's been banged up quite a bit since I had it. I've did three gigs with it so far. Never any problem. When you put the head in the trunk of your car you can hear the reverb springs clatter pretty damn hard. But they'll hold I suppose.

Never dealt with the Marshall people themselves.

Other gear I own? I have a Jimi Hendrix Wah-wah pedal (so old it squeeks), a crybaby (some damn fine material) and a Pandora PX-II Effects-processor. All works fine with this head.
If it were stolen I'd hunt the sorry fuck down, molest him in the most brutal way possible and force him to carry the head back on foot (yeah it's heavy).
No, seriously, if it were lost for some reason I'd like to get a new one, but I don't know if I could bring up the same amount of cash again. I'm not rich. I would look out for and try other amps, knowing they could never replace the emptiness my beloved TSL would've left in my living room.
Anything I wish it had? ... tits

really awesome used with emgs! all styles possible on this amp!scoop the mid out for that total metal killer tone!

shite shite shite footswitch.. im on my fourth! guess its time for a custom board dont wanna sell the amp its great but when you hit the lead channel and fuck all happens mid gig you get really pissed four pedals later!

they replaced the f/switches no worries but each time you think they are gonna send sommat that boogie would build and you get toys r us unfortunately!

been playing too long! i would get another tsl yeah and 10 footswitches just to get thru the next two weeks safely!maybe midi switching might help just to get rid of the bastard footswitch!have i told you the footswitch sucks?

This is Marshall B stock Amp (cheaper)
Great tone on lower levels. I play it in my apartment for several weeks and nobody complained about the noise. It has 3 channels, reverb, effects loop, tone shift, deep boost, V.P.R (50 watt mode), footswitch should be a better design looks cheap

The Sound depends on guitar I use, and this is the sound I've been looking for, it's Marshall ! I plug it in 1960 A cabinet.
I am using this amp for jazz and rock.

It came with broken footswitch, everything else was fine. it has tubes and they have time limit.

I had trouble looking for right Marshall repair center in Manhattan they are listed on http://www.korgusa.com. I went to Rouge Muic and they could not fix it, called DBM Technical Services they need 3 weeks to fix it. At last I went to EARS (Expert Audio Repairs & Services) and they fixed it same day 212-868-4357 Great Service I am so happy. The reason I gave 9 instead of 10 for Customer Support are other Services centers that failed to deliver.

I have been playing for 25 years, I had Fender Deluxe Reverb II, Marshall 50W head (forgot the model it had master vol and gain).
I have Peavy Classic 30. Guitars: 1979 Stratocatser, Gibson Les Paul 1958 reissue, Parker Fly Deluxe, Parker Fly Concert and D'Angelico NYL-2.
If the amp was stolen I would buy a new one.
If you are looking for Masrhall sounbd at low volumes, this is the one and don't forget to get a cabinet 1960A or B

this amp is a three channel all tube amp with separate e.q. and gain for each channel separate effects loops and a five button foot switch it also sports bass boosts and mid shift switches

i use a gibson 57 reissue gold top with duncan pickups,a deluxe super strat with 2 texas specials and a jb jr. i play classic rock,blues,and some metal.i feel i can get almost any sound with this amp.i have owned many amps over 20 yrs and this is one of the most versitile!it really shines with the goldtop!

when i first got it home it made a crackle once in a while and the output tubes were running hot,so i had my marshall auth. tech check it and he reset the bias and tightened a preamp tube socket.it has been flawless since then.i've had no problem with my footswitch as others have reported.i trust this amp but all tube amps should have backups cause you never know!

i got this from sam ash 30 miles away in an unopened box and no warranty card was in it!when i called them and asked them to mail me one theysaid o.k. and i never got it!my last purchase from them! i just took it to my amp tech who is the man!sam ash sux!marshall gets some points off for bad set up and for no card in the box

i've been playing 20 yrs,i've had peavey,fender,other marshalls,and also now owna flextone2.if i lost it that would suck cause though i love it i couldn't afford another.i love the tone at all volumes,and the switchable efx loop,and the versatility.i don't like tube maint. iwould recommend this but if you don't like the marshall sound you won't like it cause the clean sounds fender,but the dirts all marshall

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...

Well since my amp is new (2 weeks ago) I cannot give any construKctive comments. It seems well built and everything looks okay.

Never dealed with them!

What a great head! 3 channels to switch between, clean, dirty and dirtier, effects loop, spring reverb, killer tube sound, basically everything you could ever want in an amp. I swear! I have owned a few Marshalls in my time, and other amps by other companies too, all I can say is this, I feel sorry for the rest, cause I play through the best! Try one of these bad boys, and see for yourself!

I use a PRS with Dragon pickups, I play classic to hard rock, and even an occasional rockin country tune...this amp is the true meaning of versatality. Brutal indeed Sir!

I keep a backup amp, a 50 watt(tube of course..) but feel confident I will probably never have a problem with this one..never have had any problems with Marshalls reliability yet...

100 watts, 3 channels: clean crucnh and lead. all tubes, seperate eq for each channel and switchable fx loop.

i use a jem7vwh stock with evolution p/u. i play satch/vai type stuff and its perfect for that. the tone is insane if you eq it just right. the clean is the cleanest sound i've ever heard from a tube amp. the crucnh is fat and great for heavy or bluesy rythyms. the lead is the best lead tone i've heard except for maybe the bogner extasy but thats a $3,000 head. and i'm not even sure its better the tone shift gives it a more modern and slightly prcoessed sound which is my fav. this amps sounds great low as well as high. its very loud. at 4 it was louder than my buddy's 50 watt head at 7! its great for quiet practicing. i have a small peavy classic 30 that is too loud at low levels so i use the marshall for everything. sounds awesome recorded as well.

i use this amp alot. everyday for at least 2 or 3 hours. i have to change the power tubes every 6 months i thought that was a lot but i hear its normal for high use. the one problem i have is the fx loop is very noisy. it always buzzes whenever its on. that is my one complaint about this amp. my pedal hasn't broken after 2 years of use but the lights to go out occasionaly.

never dealt with them

i've owned 3 other amps and this is by far the best. if it were stolen i probably buy another one. i love everything about it except for the fx loop buzz but i don't think they all do it. if you play progressive rock like vai or satch this amp is awesome but i think it could do it all in the right hands.

Clean, Crunch, Lead. Mid boost, deep (worthless), reverb, 1/4 power. I have a valvestate amp with built in Chorus, and I wish this amp had that to. It's as wholesome as reverb in my opinion.

The clean chanel is to infinite and beyond. It gets louder than by bros JCM 900 without distorting. This might be the first Marshall to ever have a notable clean sound. The clean channel has a gain knob that lets you add brightness and punchyness without fuzzing.

The distortion channels only sound good at performance volume. At practice volume they sound thin and cold like a bad solid state distortion. But don't even use those, get a SansAmp or a TS9 and be done with it.

I got this Marshall because it has such a nice clean tone and is extremely loud, then I use pedals for everything else. It's a shame it had to include all those worthless kobs and buttons. Oh well, maybe dumb people will think my skill is relative to the number of knobs on my amp.

minus 1 for all the stupid switches and knobs and what appear to be second choice stock tubes.

Made in 2000, Function is a dream Very, very versatile

Ok, here is the thing so, PLEASE, everyone, listen up!!
This particular amp is very, very sensitive to the type of tube/valves are used. I have used mine now on approx. 100 gigs, and have been to heaven, hell and back.....With a good set of valves (Mullards in my case) this amp is untouchable in sound and versatility.With your average modern Russian /Eastern valve be it Sovtek, Svetlana, whatever, you are usually ,and I stress, usually, in amplifier hell.Yes , I have read the reviews and glowing reports of the new breeds of Eastern European valves, but in this amp at least, you must avoid them like the plague... I have tried many to find an acceptable tone that doesnt break the bank, but have ended up with distortion reminiscent of old hh transistor amps, not nice when youve spent a fortune on the ultimate gigging machine....
Please, use your ears, dump the Russian /Eastern valves, replace with N>O>S> British or American, then use your ears again and hear the difference. You really want to run your Ferrari on remolds, go ahead, ignore my advice!

Footswitch old or new still very unreliable, Im on my 3rd, its the new type, and one of the switches still needs continuos rotation to keep it working. Ive taken the head back to Marshall twice, second time they replaced the whole chassis! (Volume drop problem)
A Transformer has recently become very hummy....

A1 customer support in UK. Faultless, if only their quality control was this good!

been playing Pro/Semi Pro 20 years. It is extremely versatile and with the right tubes/valves reigns supreme...

Loads of features, lots of different sounds available from turning all the different EQ buttons.

I use a fender telecaster deluxe and a yamaha SBG 1200(with fat sounding seymour duncan at the neck for some more beef).
I play quiet verse/loud chorus type songs most of the time and a bit of jazz.The amp is great on crunch/lead channels through my yamaha, i only use the beefy seymour duncan neck pickup on the crunch channell and it sounds fantastic !! i only use the amp in my bedroom at the moment im just about to gig it with my new band ill give a reveiw of what its like in gig situations. But at the moment i have tried it at home at quiet/loud volumes and it sounds AMAZING !!!! if you spend quite a long time with the EQ to get the amp setup to your taste you will be happy, be patient !!
Through my tele the clean sound is amazing !! i can make it full sounding or twangy sixties style, and on lead/crunch channell my tele gives a real good sonic youth sound, crystal clear on everything you play on the frets.
The amp can sound really big and full !!! or it can sound thin and far away depending on how you use the presence, EQ, deep switch and tone switch as well as the bass,middle and treble.
Im surprised this amp isnt being used by all the signed artists.
reverb unit isnt that great but i dont use reverb anyway or effects, apart from my wah-wah ( for one song ).
crunch can be used for old style ( 60's)marshall classic gain when you have gain turned down and volume up, turn the gain down to 2-3, clean-ish when you play strings soft more distorted when you hit strings harder.
oh yeah and i play the amp through a 60s cab ( made 64-67 ) with celestian G12m Greenbacks and van damm cable connecting the speakers inside, nice warm sounding.
This amp can do nearly anything you want.

I spoke to a man at Marshall headquarters cause everyone has been having problems with it and i was a bit concerned but he put my mind to rest because theyr getting the foot pedals built by another company who build them better , so if u have a crap foot pedal that means you have an old one, nae joy.
As yet my foot pedall has stayed in one piece despite me giving at a real good kick when i hit overdrive.
The amp hasnt been out the house much so i cant say much for reliability except iv had it for 8 months and it still sounds great.

Marshall people are really friendly and very helpful ( and quick to help on the phone too, no long delays listening to crap music on hold . Iv phoned up twice, once to ask about the tube configuration and the other time about my 60's cab to find out when it was built and the guys and gals at marshall were friendly.

This is a classic marshall, just remember to play around with the buttons, i keep coming up with new sounds whenever i play around with them.

Great features:

- 100 watt (4x EL34 Tubes).
- 3 independant EQ channels (Clean, Crunch, and Lead).
- Tone Shift and Deep Switch on Gain cahnnels (very useful) and a mid boost on the Clean channel.
- Seperate Reverb and FX Mix for Gain and Clean channels.
- 5-button Foot Controller.

Raw Power, Great Tone. What more could you want?

Let me start off by telling you what I use and play. I use EMG pickups (the 81 in the bridge, and 2 SA's in the middle and neck position). I play this head through the Marshall 4x12 1960B Cabinet.

I play thrash metal (Slayer, Old Metallica, Sepultura, Iced Earth, Tesatment). Basically my pickups are set to give me the heaviest tone (EMG-81) and the cleanest tone (SA's) that I can get. Now all that counts is waht amp I play them through.

Clean Channel:

I've never known Marshall amps to have a crappy clean channel. The clean channels is so sweet, so sparkly, and so clear. It's beautiful with any pickup I've heard (of course with the obvious exception of EMG-81's which are built for metal. Those things distort any cahnnel.) I've heard it with Dimarzio Evolutions, with stock Gibson pickups, with stock Ibanex pickups, my pickups, and basically, with every guitar I've ever played. This just gives you one of the sweetest clean tones you can get.

Crunch Channel:

Here is where your equipment really makes the difference. With my guitar, the Crunch channel is BRUTAL! It is so crunchy and chunky. I'm telling you, the sound of the riffs coming through this amp will tear your face off. It's also very clear sounding in that you will hear every note (unlike the sound from a Metal Zone pedal), bit don't take that the wrong way. This is an angy brutal amp.

My other guitarist uses the Evolutions. These are also heavy pickups, but they don't get the amount of distortion that my 81 gets on this channel, so it sometimes sounds weak, no matter how high he puts the gain.

Basically what I'm saying is, your equipment will make all the difference. I've heard many reviews on how this amp is not built for metal and how it's weak, meanwhile it's the farthest thing from it. Like I said earlier, this channel is SICK GAIN, LIKE NONE I'VE EVER HEARD. I just recently played a show with Vader, Skinless, Origin, and Whithered Earth, and was told that my tone was definitly better than all of theirs. That fuckin says something.

Lead Channel:

This is such a great feature. It's basically the Crunch channel, but less chuncky. It's much rounder and fuller, designed to make your single soloing notes have more resonance. Another reason this is so great because in my band, our solos never cut through. Ever since we bought this head, we have another channel (which we put 2 notches higher than out rythm channel) and it makes all the difference in the world.
If you don't have very powerful pickups, this channel will sound much bettr than the Crunch channel. If it is metal you are looking to play, this amp, plus an EMG-81 will give you EXACTLY what you're looking for, that goes as a defiite. If you like the the tone of an Evolution, or an X2N, or whatever better, then that's your thing. Some say the 81 can make you sound kinda sloppy. All that minor shit is up to you, just understand my point.

I'm giving this a 10 here because for me and my equipment, it is perfect

I don't think I'd use anything at a gig without a backup. I hear the footswitch breaks down a lot. One of the lights on my other guitarist's footswitch broke, but it got fixed immediately, and sometimes his Crunch channel switch won't go down, but that's very fixable too.

With me, so far so good. Shit, I jinxed myself . . .

The amp itself is solid and sturdy. Like i said, haven't had a problem with it.

WIth a monster tone like this, it's worth it.

I've heard Marshall is a bitch, but I haven't experienced it. Once my guitarist blew out the tubes on his head ciz he wired the thing totally wrong (REMEMBER! Hook the speaker cable into the 16 OHM jack on the head and the cabinet, and keep the cabinet switch on MONO). When he returned it to our music shop to have it sent back, the owner of the shop checked it out, and found it was defective. In that case, Marshall has to come, pick it up, check it out, and then send back a new one. Well, Marshall did not come to pick it up to examine it, they just sent them a new one. That's not a bad deal.

I love this Head. It was worth every single penny I spent on it. This is the only amp for me.

I've played Mesa Boogies (Dual and Triple Rectifiers) and they didn't come close. I don't understand why people rave about them. They're clean channel sucks. The gain channels are deep and heavy, but not very distorted or crunch. They are actually quite muddy and ugly sounding. Nothing I've played compared to this, and, of course, I did a lot of researching and testing before I made such a big investment.

The Randall Warhead has realy sick distortion, but it's a transistor amp, which does not caryy like a tube and if your band has more than one guitarist, the sound will be lost and note will go unheard.

If you find that the Marshall is too brutal for your taste, I'd STRONGLY suggest the Laney VH100R. Great tone, but not as brutal.

The Marshall JCM-2000 TSL 100 is THE perfect for me and for my tastes. Check it out for yourselves and with as many different pickups as you can, because that is very important.

No amp out there has "everything" designed as you would have designed yourself, but I give Marshall credit for coming pretty close to what I'd have done. I have purposely not played Marshalls for the past 10 years because they weren't versatile enough for my needs. The TSL's 3 channels with independent eq allow me to easily move through the multiple sounds I need for my music with total flexibility in shaping each channel's sound. One feature you'll never get enough of is headroom. This amp will easily cut through the mix, no matter how loud you need to be. The downside is that the tonal shape on all channels changes significantly at different volume levels, with different effects setups and in different rooms. You have to tweak a lot every time you set up in a different location or change volumes significantly, but if you take your time and do it right you'll be in love with this head.

This amp rocks, but it's not for everyone. My gutars are a PRS Custom-22, PRS Hollowbody II, Gibson EDS-1275 doubleneck and a Peavy Wolfgang. I run the TSL into two Mesa Engineering 2 X 12 closed back slant cabinets. This setup works well for me and in my opinion sounds fatter and tighter than the usual 1960A cabinet setup. One thing I've found is that at higher volumes, you have to shift your method of shaping the tone. The highs get overbearing as you go louder, and my remedy is to back off on the treble for the crunch & lead channels and use the presence control to get the highs. This works great at loud settings and helps maintain the bottom end growl I love, where as at lower volumes I find it to be the opposite and I back the presence way off and bring the highs up on the channel eq. My bass and mids are ussually between 4-6 depending on the room. The variety of buttons lead to interesting changes, most of which I forego with the exception of the deep switch wich is on all the time. As some people have stated here, this amp is fully capable of sounding like crap. Mine has on several occasions! You simply have to realize that this amp needs tons of tweaking to find exactly the sound you want. Anyone who states this can't be done, in my opinion, hasn't tweaked enough. When you find settings you like at each location you set up, write them down! This saves a lot of time the next time you play there. This amp also handles effects very well. Since I use a wide variety of sounds during each song, versatility and the ability to use multiple effects are a major criteria. I run multiple effects up front as well as through the loop and everything blends together very well without much tonal degradation (there's always a little when you use a lot of effects). Again, you have to tweak the effects chain too to get the amp sounding the way you want it. Different settings on on effect levels and the amp's effects mix through the loops will greatly vary your sound. This is a very complex setup and takes time and patience to get it right. I write and record my own music which sounds a lot like my favorite band, Rush. I enjoy playing Rush and Van Halen when not working on my own tunes and this amp nails every sound I need. That's saying a lot when you consider the major differences in these two band's sound. I have been playing for 23 years and have tried a lot of gear. I highly recommend this amp for seasoned players who love the "Marshall" sounds heard on many records. As I mentioned above, however, you have to spend considerable time tweaking it to unlock it's potential. If you are not adept at fine tuning, you may find nothing but frustration trying to get the sounds you want. Those players who are bashing this amp's sound, I fear, may be falling into this trap. I personally have not heard better sounds in my 23 years as a professional and now as a home hobbyist. Mind you, there are other amps out there better suited to different tastes, but if it's the classic earth shattering Marshall tone you crave, it's in here, hiding behind a zillion knobs and buttons.

I'm a little worried about the footswitch, only because of some of the comments here. So far, mine works fine. I've had it for 4 months.

No experience with Marshall. Luckily every one I've ever owned (4 over 23 years)has never broken.

Years ago I played nothing but Marshalls, using a 100 watt 2X12 combo and a 50 watt head when touring. When I quit playing for a living I went on a long journey through a variety of gear searching for greener pastures. In recent yearsI have played through Rocktron and Digitech rack-mount setups, a Peavy 5150 and Yamaha DG-80. After playing the TSL 100 for a while, I doubt I'll go back to any of them. When I plug in to this amp I just want to play for hours, it sounds that good. It's easy to nitpick equipment and list all it's faults. One player's positives are another's negatives. It all boils down to what you want out of an amp and what you're willing or unwilling to go through to get "your" sound. This amp has it's own groove that really suits me but may be totally wrong for others. I'd spend a LOT of time playing it at the store before spending this kind of money. When you take it home, remember that it's not going to sound like it did in the store, because you're not at the store anymore and every new environment is going to change the amp's tone. Tweak away. You'll find it.

Read other peoples info

This thing really bitz my ballz. Distortion is thin, the reverb sux. At high volume the sound starts to crack, its real hard to play fast licks. Very Difficult amp to play out of. Makes you sound shitty.

Foot pedal sux, everything else A ok

Never had to deal with them

This amp really isnt that great. Try it out before you blow $1300.00

3 channels 2fx loops 5button footswitch. 100 watts really loud

I run an Ibanez Artist with semour duncan pickups. It is great for what I do. The clean channel is as clean as a Fender, but not quit as full. It growls a little with the tone shift on. Kinda funky soundin. Not practical for me. The crunch channel is kinda weak for really heavy metal. I use it for everything from ac/dc to tool or rage. It sucks with the tone shift on. The lead channel I use for a mesa-like crunch w/ the tone shift on. great harmonics. good for godsmack, pantera, disturbed, all that good stuff. Then I run an eq in the fx loop to boost the mids and level a liitle bit on leads. One thing that sucks is that at least for me, if the fx level is up too high is lowers the overall level of the amp. Which sucks because if you turn the loop off the amp gets louder, so I have to leave the loop on all the time. Thats annoying. Overall I'd say It's the most versitile amp I've ever played.

Here's where Marshall screwed up. As you might have heard by now the footswitches suck. The first one I had lasted about a month. My friend had one that lasted about 2 weeks. We are both on our second and they seem to be holding up good. Still makes me a little weary. One other complaint with mine is that I've had mine 6 months and I've noticed that the volume changes when ever it wants to. I don't know if I'm the only one who has had this problem or not. Hopefully I can get it fixed soon.

Ive been playing about 11 years. I use an Ibanez Artist with a jb model humbucker in the bridge and a pearly gates in the neck. both of which are coil tapped. and I run a Dean explorer lookin thing with Dimarzio pickups for different tunings. my fx chain goes like this univibe, crybaby 535q, mxr phaser, ernie ball volume pedal with a boss tu-2 plugged into the tuner out. Then in my loop I have a digitech echo plus, a boss eq, dod fx75c flanger, and a boss rv-3 delay/reverb. It's pretty quiete considering what I run. If it were stolen I would kill the s.o.b. as slowly as possible. Because I spent alot of money on this amp. I love everything except for the footswitch and the fx loop. If I had a choice I would check out the triple rectifier a little more. (didn't get a chance to because the guy at Guitar Center kept d*cking with it while I was trying to dial in different sounds) So I went to the local music store and got my Marshall. It's no dissapointment by any means. Check one out for self.

My amp was a 2000 model, maybe 2001. I believe you already know all the features. It's got everything a guy (or girl I guess) could wan from an amp. This amp is loud, the highest I've ever had it on was 4 out of ten on the Volume and that was outside. And believe me that was plenty loud.

I play a American strat with single coils, and feed the amp through a Marshall 1960A cab. I play everything style wise (I mean everything, our last set list in my band was: Shaft, Purple Haze, Plush, Cleveland Rocks, My Hero, Back In Black, Killin in the Name Of, Whole Lotta Love) and this amp works for everything. It's not noisy at all, and I imagine if I had humbuckers this thing would be silent. The clean channel is Fender Clean, I'm not Bullshitting you, I would've bought this amp just for the clean channel. I don't use Mid the Mid Boost that much, it sounds a little nasty I think, but it could be good for some Louisiana plucking I guess. The Crunch channel is my main distortion channel, if you use the tone switch out you get Vintage, Jimi to Zepplin distortion, with it in you can get a Foo Fighters, Blink punk sound. I use this feature alot. The lead channel is like the end of the world, I don't use this that much, excep for solos, but the crunch channel has enough gain that I use that for solos alot. The reverb on the amp is gushing, very nice. Some times it takes some tweeking toi get a really saturated, Limp Bizkit sound, but thats also because I'm using singel coil pickup, even though I have obtained that sound.

The amp itself is solid as a rock. I've used it on about 7 gigs so far and have had no problems at all. As long as you let the tubes warm up two min before plaing and then let it cool down for about ten minutes before moving it, it will treat you nice. The only hing thats a little shady is the foot pedal. I've had mine about 5 months and thought that I had gotten a good pedal, but last week it started acting up on me. Its only happened a few times but I'll probably have to take it in in the coming months. Don't kid yourself, if you by this amp you'll probably eventually have to get a new foot pedal, however, a faulty foot pedal is not a reason why you shouldn't by this amp.

Havn't dealt with them

I've been playing about five years, and this is my first real amp. Everybody I know syas by as nice as you can to begin with so you don't ever have to upgrade, and I agree. The only amp that I think comes close to comparing to the versatility of this amp is a Triple Rectifier, but the clean channel on those kind of sucks ass. The only thing I'd say keep an eye out for is the Mesa Boogie Roadking, a new amp that looks damn nice. If someone stole this I'd probably commit suicide cause it costs so damn much, but then I'd probably save up for a new one. Anyone who thinks this amp sounds bad obviously has sticks in their ears or such a crappy guitar that it makes this amp sound bad, if thats possible. Definitely check out this amp.

When i first heard this head it was a 60 watt version and i loved it....but that was at the dreaded store volume. The clean channel was great, the crunch was like old Billy Squire,and AC-DC. The lead was like nothing i had heard, it made me drool! So i bought the 60 watt version. While at home i learned the effects loop was damaged and did not work. So back to the store this time leaving with the 100 watt version.....Heavan in a box.

Plugged into my wolfgang this thing absolutly sizzled. I actually went from a 5150 to the TSL 100. But the louder and harder i pushed the head the more it sounded brttle, you know that sound that just crushes your eardrums. I spent weeks trying to tune this thing in. At low volumes it sounded great especially with the bass boost on. But higher volumes was very diappointing. The best sound i had out it was running a BBE and a Boss se-50 through the effect loop but still had to do alot of tweeking.If this head sounded as good loud as it does at low volumes it would rock. The clean channel was outstanding.

First one i purchased had a bad effects loop. The second 100 watt version lasted a little longer but low and behold the effect loop bit the dust also. I treated that thing like a baby, face it its a major investment. Thankfully i was not at a gig at the time. Very disapointed.

The first head was no problem taking it back for return but it took 2 months for the 100 watt head to come in.

The clean channel was great but the crunch and lead channels sounded like a some one tossed it into a midrange woodchipper screaming all the way.

This section has been covered extensively in the below reviews. A quick recap: All tube (4 preamp, 4 power EL34), 3 channels, 2 effects loops, independent EQ network per channel(treble/mid/bass/ gain/volume), footswitchable effects/reverb, shared FX mix/ presence/reverb/tone shift on crunch and lead channels, deep switch on each OD channel, mid boost on clean, dual signal levels for the effects loops, DI output for recording (with signal mute), VPR (cuts power to approx 25 watts).

Whew! I bought this amp 3 months ago and wanted to give it a work out before posting my thoughts on it. I was looking for a versatile amp that could fill a number of roles. I want to state from the beginning that I am heavily into effects, and although I love a warm tube sound, I am not a vintage purist. This amp has all the features I could ask for. (minor gripes are listed below)

I play three 84-86 MIJ Fender Strats, and an Ibanez XV500 (hot rails!). All Strats have bridge humbuckers, one with a neck bucker, and others with single coils. I picked up a 1960A 4x12 cab with Celestion GT75s at the same time as I bought the head.

My group is into an experimental rock style that is somewhere in between Finger 11/Incubus/Tool/Classic Metallica, with a little more clean riffs thrown in for dynamics. This amp delivers the rapid dramatic changes I need in my sound.

First the Clean Channel: While not a Fender type clean to be sure, the amp does cut through clearly. I find the mid boost button to be useful for giving the sound a "punchiness". The EQ on this channel is very responsive. Rolling back the bass and turning the presence to 5-6 gives a very pleasing crystal type sound with neck single coils. The channel just starts to break up at gain 10, almost a bluesy Tubescreamer kinda sound. Note: On all 3 channels the reverb seems weak if you are playing at a bedroom type volume, or with the VPR switch in (25 watt mode). Once the amp is cranked a bit, the reverb is quite lush and natural sounding. Finally, to tweak my sound on the clean channel I am using a Danelectro Fish and Chips. Although the amp EQ is good, there is no substitute for 7 band control.

Crunch Channel: Let me start by saying that I tend to use the OD channels in reverse. So I use the crunch channel for soloing, and lead channel for brutal riffing. After toying with the amp for weeks, I decided that this channel is better suited for the liquidy-syrupy neck tone used in solos. I leave out the deep switch (to scooped, kills the mids) and the tone shift is in for the OD channels. Bass 4, Mid 8, Treble 7, Presence 5-7 and add effects to taste. Voila! Vintage tone heaven. Even on my neck single coil, I can get a smooth creamy lasting sustain. I haven't seen the need for an outboard boost although I do have a Tubescreamer. Throwing in a touch of chorus/delay and I have what I want for a "solo tone". I tried and tried to use this channel for chords and riffing, but it wasn't the modern gain that I wanted. Perfect for AC/DC or G'n'R though.

Lead Channel: Still reading? Ok I will try and keep this one short. On this channel there is nearly unlimited modern high gain. I use a Boss GE-7 EQ in the OD effects loop to give a "Boogie" style sound with a bit more growl and mids. There is no Marshall buzz or trebly bite, which seems to be a common complaint. The deep switch is in on this channel, it changes the way the Mid EQ knob sweeps the tone. Very happy with this channel, no problem nailing any of the modern 90's band saturated tones.

Other notes: The tone completely changes for all channels when you use the VPR switch. I can practice by myself at a reasonable volume with the switch in, but I tend to jam in my drummers basement in full out 100 watt mode. Please! Please, use the amp in 100 watt mode (a little cranked) before deciding whether you like it or not. Also I found that the amp is so clear, that every minor change in effect pedal or guitar makes a huge difference. Take some of your gear to the store if you can to try this baby out. I am giving it a 9 simply because I use outboard EQs to nail my sound, although the banks on each channel are quite good.

No problems yet. The construction is solid, and the finishing is very fine work. The final line inspector hand signed a tag on the back of the head. (included finish date on production line)

The footswitch will likely be replaced within the warranty period, but I expected that. The salesman even told me that the first footswitch that comes with these heads tend to be bad.

I imagine the first real head maintenance will be a tube replacement and biasing somewhere in the next 2 years.

Picked up this head from our local Mother's Music. Great people there. The amp is under warranty for one year, but I am not too concerned. Never had to contact Marshall, Mother's will do that for me if it ever becomes necessary.

Been playing 3 years, and have tried 7 good amps that I can recall. If I lost this amp (or my God! it was stolen) I would test another along side the new 3 channel Rectifiers. But I think I would go with this again. The most important feature of the amp for me (aside from pure tone) is the 2 separate effects loops. It lets me switch from one set of effects to another, and change channels with one button push. Sweet for me since I am not into Midi and rack gear (yet, gulp!). Also the clean channel is impressive for a Marshall.

My only gripe is I wish that the amp could "remember" if the FX loop was on or off for each channel. If I am playing dry and clean, and I switch to the Lead channel, the FX loop stays off. If I then turn on the OD FX loop, and change back to the clean channel, the Clean FX loop is now on. This is a minor complaint though. Oh yeah, I almost forgot the footswitch.... Well what can I say, it is not up the same standard as the rest of the amp. I took mine out of the box and there is something loose inside that rattles when I tip it. Works fine though and the buttons don't really feel cheap. The LED for the crunch channel lights up dimly when I am on the Lead channel. Doesn't bother me though. I see a warrany replacement in the near future.

I took a long time choosing this amp. I tried out Mesa's (Mark and Rectifiers), Fender's, Crates, Vox. All in the 75-100 watt range, and mostly heads vs combos. This amp is more versatile than all the others, and very few amps have multiple FX loops. When I read all the negative reviews here of TSL 100, I wonder if people have taken the time to really tweak the amp. It is so versatile that you are not going to find "your sound" in five or ten minutes. I even felt somewhat disappointed when I first brought it home. The trick is to take your time and play with settings for a while. I am sold.

I welcome any comments, and would really like to hear from anyone who also has this head. Email me with questions/comments. Cheers.

THIS IS 3 CHANNELS. BASSICALY, TO ME I DON'T BY AN AMP FOR THE FEATURES.

THIS THING SUCKS. IT HAS NO GAIN WHAT SO EVER. I PLAY METAL/DEATH METAL, AND THIS AMP DOES NOT DO THAT WELL. ITS GOOD FOR AN AC/DC TYPE OF TONE, BUT IMAGINE PLAYING WITH THAT TONE IN MORBID ANGEL OR SLAYER SONGS. IF YOU LIKE AC/DC(BY THE WAY I LIKE AC/DC) BUY THIS AMP. ANOTHER THING THAT I REALLY DISLIKE IS THAT IT SOUNDS VERY DULL AND HAS NO PUNCH AND DOES NOT GIVE YOU THAT KICK IN THE BALLS.

I WOULDN'T KNOW SINCE I DIDNT BUY IT.

OUT OF ALL OF MY TIME PLAYING GUITAR, I HAVE NEVER SEEN A WORSE AMP. THIS IS THE MOST OVERHYPED AMP OUT THERE. I SPENT HOURS AT THE MUSIC STORE SEVERAL TIMES BUT I DIDN'T LIKE IT. NOW WHEN I GO TO THE MUSIC STORE I DON'T EVEN PLAY IT. EVER SINCE THE JCM 800, MARSHALLS HAVE SUCKED. IF YOU WANT A GOOD AMP GO WITH A PEAVEY 5150 1 (AND I KNOW YOU ALL ARE GOING TO BASH ME FOR THIS ONE,) OR IF YOU WANT A DUAL RECTOFIER SOUND GET A PEAVEY ULTRAPLUS. WHILE MARSHALL HAS GOTTEN WORSE OVER THE YEARS BRANDS LIKE PEAVEY, CRATE, AND CARVIN ARE MAKING QUALITY AMPS FOR MUCH CHEAPER. MARSHALLS ARE LIKE THE NIKE SHOES OF THE GUITAR PLAYING WORLD BECAUSE EVERYONE FEELS THE NEED TO BUY THE NEWEST MARSHALL OUT THERE AND FLAUNT IT, WHILE MARSHALL SUCK AT PERFORMANCE LIKE NIKE, AND WHEN YOU PAY FOR NIKE SHOES YOU PAY FOR LOOKS AND A NAME JUST LIKE MARSHALL(SORRY FOR COMPARING AN AMP WITH A SHOE.) IN CONCLUSION, IF YOU WANT A GOOD AMP THAT CAN COMPAR WITH THE BEST, TRY OUT BRANDS LIKE PEAVEY, CRATE, AND CARVIN, AND PUT ASIDE YOUR PREJUDICES ABOUT THESE COMAPNIES LIKE I DID.

My TSL 100 is made in 1998. The main reason I bought it was that I had owned an Ampeg J-12T (poor construction), a VOX AC 15 (poor construction, bad sound) and a Marshall Bluesbreaker (a good amp, but not versatile enough - a problem with Ampeg and VOX too). Finally I realized that the re-issue amps are all about show and no go and decided to buy a modern amp with enough channels and power. I have owned many Marshall amps and they all have worked OK, so there was only one option. The TSL 100 has all the features I need for traditional rock `n roll and blues. The TSL 100 is the only amp I need, so I use it at home, at practice and gigs.

I play a Gibson Flying V `67 and it matches perfectly with the TSL 100. All varieties of rock and blues can be played with this couple! The amp is not too noisy, except sometimes the clean channel tends to hum a bit. It only does this at home, so I think that it is because of the electrics of our house and not the amp. The clean channel is very warm-sounding and very usable from very clean tones to blues-style solo sounds. It needs very loud settings to distort the clean channel. The crunch and gain channels have a lots of bite, but the sound remains warm all the time.

I use this on almost every gig without a backup. Now that our band has toured with a few other bands, my TSL has been in the use of them, too. No complainments, no problems.

I have not dealt with Marshall itself, but the finnish importer has been very friendly. The warranty is one year.

I have played for seven years, five years in a band. I have owned very much gear during the years, but now I have such a great guitar/amp -combination that all other stuff can go! I also play the bass (both electric and upright). If the amp was stolen, I would definetely get a new one. I choose the TSL 100 because I knew it would do the trick. Marshall amps have always suited to my style.

This amp has plenty of features but is missing the most important one... tone. The amp is not versatile at all due to the fact that it's sounds are unusable. The only feature that this amp is missing is a good tone.

This amp does not sound anything like a Marshall. It sounds similar to some of the lower end Crates and Peaveys I've heard. The crunch channel lacks the punch and crunch of a JCM-800. All I could coax out of it was a lame buzzy sound with no balls whatsoever. This channel is about as brutal as an angry mosquito. The high gain channel was just a buzzier version of the crunch channel. The clean channel was a bad as any other channel switching Marshall I've ever heard.

I had to go through about 5 of these at the stores before I found one that worked.

Korg USA has good support. No problems there.

This amp is an all around failure on Marshall's part. They need to stop trying to sound like Peavey and Crate, and get back to their roots.

This amp has more features than probably any other Marshall. Some people would see three channels as 3 different amps and Marshall market it that way but I don't see it like that. There is not three amps in this box, there are three channels and all three share tonal qualities but sperate EQ and volume etc.. The FX loops are a great idea but why couldn't Marhsall spend the time getting them right before launching this product. As soon as you use the FX and turn up the FX level your tone suffers and there is more hiss and hum. Same happens with both lead and Clean loops......I hate using the FX loops becuase I know I losing some tone.

Clean Channel- The best of the three, it's great, real clarity and plenty of power behind it. The best Marshall clean tone for ages. Don't use the VPR switch with the clean channel as it totally changes the sound to a dull trebleless sound which I dislike. Using the full 100 watts gives great results on the clean channel. I use an Ibanez RG550LTD and the neck pickup and middle single coil sound great, so does the bridge. The clean channel doesn't distort at all which I find a bad thing but it's not that important seeing as though you have three channels to play with.

Crunch and Lead Channels- There is hardly any difference between the two of these but you can set up different levels for lead and solo. My main problem with this amp is that it is just too raw, too unsubtle and the distortion is un-pleasent to the ear. I like a Smooth power chord sound ala soundgarden, Nirvana and Tool. This amp is just too raw and evil. There is no saturation, well there might be but my ears cannot take the volume past 3 so it's wasted. That would be another thing I dislike, I know 100 watt amps are meant to be loud be this is crazy, why anyone would need all this power is beyond me...I play at college in a large theatre and I just can't go past 4...if your playing in your bedroom then you won't take it past 1, hell you won't even past 0, no shit.
There are some usable settings but they are hard to find and even when you find them you know you have heard better. Using the bridge humbucker is harsh, there's so much treble on this amp you have to roll off the tone on the amp and guitar. I prefered the lead sound with VPR on but then I prefered the clean channel with it off so this sucks. The sustain isn't good, I can get more using Valvestates at college than I can with this. People suggest turning up the volume and leaving the gain low to get some tone which to a certain extent is true but your still gonna go deaf along with the rest of your band and your audience, it's like behind hit with a really ugly bus becuase it's not sweet. The amp is hard work, if your a bad player then it will make you look worse as every mistake is heard for miles, if your a good player then you'll get benefit but I'm lazy and I like my amps to aid me. Rectifiers are effortless.....this isn't. If you want some screaming lead sounds then you'll need a chorus and a delay pedal becuase they cannot be found in this amp at lower volumes. BTW I PLAY THROUGH A MARSHALL 1936 2X12 CAB.

It's well built and looks great. The footswitch sucks and mine had to be replaced, my UK version came with a Marshall footswitch and it still broke. Other than that it holds up great. Just a shame I can't rely on the tone and sound from the thing.

It took ages for my footswitch to be repaired, almost a year!!....I called Marshall in the UK and they said "send it to the shop where you got it". The warranty means you'll get your stuff fixed but not in a hurry. Plus you have to pay for shipping, I'm just gald it was only the fottswitch.

I got this amp cheap becuase a UK store missprinted an advert in a national guitar magazine so they had to sell it to me at the advertised price. Still 610 is alot.
This amp is a LION, just not a very elegant one. If you wanna have dirtiest most distorted, loudest lead sound in the world then you'll love this, just don't expect anyone else too. I have tried and tried to like this amp but Today I finally decided it has to go. Some people will love it, blues players will find some great tones as long as they kill the treble. If it were stolen I would love it becuase it would spend the insurance money on another amp. I goin to get myself a JCM 800 I think now, a 50 watt model maybe.

This was an impulse purchase and I trusted the Marshall name too much, I should have tested it more. Im guess I thought that top of the range amp from the Biggest amp company in the world has to be good right?........wrong!

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peace

Three channels:Clean, Crunch & Lead with individual tone controls. The Lead and Crunch channels share the same reverb and presence controls. Comes with a 5 function footswitch that some reviewers think is as cheap as they come. I have my TSL for 2 years and no problems with QC.
If you're a modern Marshall fan, you'll really like this amp.

Ok.......now the facts. Marshall fans will probably like this amp. Boogie fans will say that it's gain is not enough or it doesn't have brutal distortion. Well, if in your opinion Kirk Hammet (Mesa User) has a good tone, then skip the TSL.
I found that classic rock phrasing skills sound fine through the TSL. It's not a warm sounding amp. Kinda edgey. Like a channel switching modern plexi. I'm old enough to have played Plexi's in the late 60's and early 70's before they were the "holy grail" and have found a lot of them shrill and trebley. OK, I just blasphemed. NOT ALL PLEXI'S BUT THE MYSTICAL FEW WERE KEEPERS. Now, not all of us old fart rockers lost their sense of reality and hearing from standing in front of Marshall Majors.
The TSL will appeal to Marshall fans because of the Marshall tonal identity and Fender people because of the surprisingly good clean channel.
You can approach Plexi era tones but it's not quite there.
Again, if your phrasing skills are adequate, you have a versatile amp in the TSL.
I've found that the 1936 cabinet or a 2x12 vintage 30 Celestion cab works and sounds better that a 1960 4x12 300 watt cab. I don't think the 300 watt 4x12 cabs are very tonefull. Again, my opinion.

Owned it for 2 years.
No break downs.

Never called them.

A versatile tonefull loud Marshall 100 watter.
Probably not geared for a Shania Twain player but if you like AC/DC; Aerosmith; Zep and Black Crows, you'll be able to get similar tones.

By now you all know the features........

This is where the JCM2000 excells, from warm clear tones through to rock-out lead. Since I've owned this I've stopped using my stomp boxes and multi fx - they all just compromise the incredible tone available. Sure, you're going to have to take some time to set up the tone and gain controls to get the best out of it, and it will probably never give the extreem level of distortion some players want, but it comes with bags of tone and that classic Marshal punch. In all honesty, I've never played through an amp that is capable of so much expression, and it's raised the level of my playing just trying to keep up with it. The JCM2000 really does go all the way to 11!

Owned it for a year and reliability has never been an issue.

Every time I have to switch it off I'm filled with sadness!

This is marshall's answer to the Dual Rectifier.

I've given this thing too many chances. I've played it through les pauls, strats of all makes, peavey wolfgangs, ernie ball wolfgangs, teles, bc riches, jacksons, single coils, humbuckers, active, passive, etc and I still don't like this amp. The reason I looked into this amp in the first place is because I didn't want to buy a mesa like everyone else. The fact that I'm talking about a dual rect should tell you something about the general sound we're going for here. Marshall boasts that this thing is their contribution to the high-gain world. I boast that it's ass crap. It just can't stand up to anything. I've played crate blue voodoos that sound better than this thing. Sorry Jim, but it's true, and I've given this thing way to many chances. It's be cool for other styles of music, but metal in the Pantera, Morbid Angel, Goatwhore, Malevolent, Cannibal Corpse style cannot be played through this amp. The distortion is most certainly not brutal, bassy, tight or ballsy. It's been neutered.

Ass crap for metal players.

I'm goin' to be a guitar hero and bought this amp c. 2 years ago - I'm never gonna give it away. As it's got 3 seperated channels the variety of sounds is nearly unlimited. You can choose between clean, crunch and lead within milli-seconds. The reverbs for the lead/crunch section and the clean section can be individually set up and switched on/off with the foot controller, too. Additional, there are two different fx-loops (one for the clean channel and one for the lead/crunch channels) witch can be controlled by the floor board as well.
By Using the emulated line out you can record directly and when you push the mute button you can even record silently. Well, however, I never used this feature.
But it would be cool if the TSl100 was midi-controllable ...

I play it thru a low-budget Pacifica 112x (by Yamaha) with two no-name single coils and one no-name humbucker. My style is not fixed, it
's anything between heavy metal, blues and jazz. And this amp gives me the sounds I need: Using the bridge humbucker into the lead channel you get a fantastic modern hi-gain distortion. I use the "Metallica-setting": full bass, no mids, full treble. Combined with the bass shift - knob the sound becomes ... well ... extremely heavy - but always direct, brutal and straight. The crunch channel is the most variable channel: only by changing the pickup I get either that rock 'n' roll sound or Jimi's sound or blues sound or ... - without touching one of the amp's knobs. The clean channel is clean.
YEEEAAAAAAHAAAAAW!!!

Never had problems except one time when the main fuse broke down.

Null problemo.

I've been playing for three-four years and I bought the TSL 100 two years ago. Furthermore I possess a Crybaby wah and I'm planning to buy additional fx such as a modulizer, a harmonizer, a reverb unit, a compressor ... but I don't have the money. By the way, I need a new guitar, too.
However, if my Marshall amp were stolen or lost, I would buy exactly the same once again. I just love its variety and this dirty Marshall sound. And the pricing ...

i want more effects loops but i am spoiled so....

here it is......the day it came out of the box....i was ready to send it back....it sounded like a piece of shit.....i felt like i just purchased a crate 1/2 stack. No life no wail, so i came to this site and evaluated others.....yes you can get a kick ass sound....but with some help. First you must adjust properly the settings. i thought more was better....wrong. Gain up volume up....and disapointed i was, You must back off...and slowly approach your settings. But i was still ready to send it back!!!.....i was making excused....well that sounds better....but for the money i still thought it sucked.....so in a last ditch effort i hooked an aphex aural exciter to the effects loop....OH MY GOD!!!!!.......brand new kick ass amp.....lets put it this way ...i through my guitar down and ran to type this in.... if you dont own one pinch the $180 bucks out of you tight fist and get one. If you spent 1400 for this head whats another 180 ya cheap bastard....really holy shit im in heaven now. I am still disapointed that it took the aphex to change my mind but oh well.....and by the way the clean sound still sucks.....much better than it used to be but come on it still hurts my ears with its punchyness.....but i didn't buy a marshall for its pretty little clean sound......have fun

still works....

come on this is america. only sweetwater.com is the only true support left out there.....really

as noted.....

I'm sure you know them....right ?

So, what's missing....You could always have more :
3 FX loops instead of 2, or 3 independant master sections instead of 2
No seriously, it has features more than enough for me
Hmmm...... I always wanted a Mid frequency range selector. With that, you can REALLY tweak it all
Here, there's only that Mid Shift button which gives you modern metal mid scooped sound.
Hmmmm....I have no use for that

Well I never liked Marshalls..........

Until now I've always been short on money, so I always looked for combos. A long
time ago, I extensively tried out a Marshall Valvestate something and it was an incredible piece of mother fucking shit !
So I've been along with other combos (Laney, Fender) but kept on trying other Marshalls on occasion...didn't like 'em
Now we have some more $$$ (that's what our manager said) and received this one without even trying it.
I had some bad expectations, but I have to admit : it's an overall excellent amp !!
Read the other reviews if you need to know what type of tone you get from this amp.

Been playing it for a few weeks (giged only once with this) , I noticed a few points of interest :
1. The louder, the better ------ Opposite to all amps I've played this far, this one gets better with increasing volume.
This makes it an excellent gig amp. (Honestly, at bedroom levels, there really are better and far cheaper amps around)
You have to play it loud (I REALLY don't like its sound at low volumes)
2. Noise : fairly acceptable with single coils and gain at 7 (above it becomes somewhat high). No problem with humbucks.
3. Clean channel : I know you ain't gonna like it but..... the clean channel is GOOD (not EXCELLENT) compared to other
amps I tried out. It remains clean with volume at 10 (=OK) and also with gain at 10 (Not OK - I don't see any reason
why things should be this way) I like to have some very slight breakup on clean songs... I'll get me a pedal for that.
4. Crunch channel : This is what you pay the money for ! Real good sound as long as you don't use the gizmo buttons
(deep switch, mid switch, VPR switch) EXCELLENT crunch !! Gain below 7 !!!!!!! and please tweak the EQ buttons you lazy you...
5. Lead channel : More gain than the crunch channel . I leave it below 5 otherwise I have problems on solos.
6. The VPR button is interesting but hardly usable - the tone is not the same (You practice with VPR on and gig with VPR off .....)
7. Mid boost button on clean channel : I don't know what use this is for. If you use it, the tone isn't good anymore for
clean songs. Maybe for some specific use with FX..... really don't know....
8. I finally got an amp from which I'll probably never grow out. It has enough power and potentials for improving
my playing. It makes me want to play more....

I'm praying that this shitty looking footswitch keeps up.
When you look at the stomp switches and the cable entrance,
this footswitch CAN NOT DO ANYTHING THAN BREAK ! It's just a matter of time .....

Oh yeah ... too fun .... I had it for about two days, one of these gold covers on the presence
knob just fell off in the middle of a song during rehearsal (all my band mates had stomach ache
for about 10 minutes from laughin' on the floor...)
OK I glued it back - basta !

I have some bad bad feeling about the reliability of this amp ....

I'm happily surprised : We play rock/hard-rock and this amp is built for that.

Playin' 15 years or so now and still climbing (and still million miles away from the top)
As gigs become more important, I needed a better gig amp - Now i got an excellent gig amp
(gigs is where this amps excells) I don't need anything more (OK of course some FX in the FX loop
but we're talking about the amp)

I play a PRS custom 22 Lefty (Dragon II PU) since few (...my manager...) and my backup Ibanez GRX20L trough it.
Both sound different, but excellent (Di Marzio Air Zone on the bridge of the Ibanez instead of the stinkin' stock
powersound pu). Also my other backup Epiphone Legacy Les Paul Standard Lefty (sounds really bad, but I verified,
it's due to the guitar...it will go down the toilet very soon).

I BOUGHT THE AMP WHEN THEY FIRST CAME ON THE MARKET A LITTLE OVER A YEAR AGO. I PLAY MOSTLY BLUES BUT SPEND A HUGE AMOUNT OF TIME ON THE CRUNCH & LEAD CHANNELS MAKING THE HAIR ON MY NECK AND ARM'S STAND-UP!!3 SEPERATE CHANNELS W/THERE OWN E.Q.'S. WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR.
tHE AMP IS VERY LOUD!!

I PLAY A STRAT WITH A PRS-HFS HUMBUCKER IN BRIDGE AND SEYMOUR DUNCAN VINTAGE SINGLE COILS IN NECK & MID. WITH THE GUITAR AND THIS AMP I CAN WORK-UP ANYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF. CLEAN AS YOU WANT IT, AS LOUD AS YOU WANT IT. GAIN IS MORE THAN NEEDED. I THINK THE PEOPLE WRITING IN AND GIVING THIS AMP A BAD REVIEW HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND MAYBE SHOWING THERE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE. THIS AMP TAKES A WHILE WITH HOURS OF WORKING THE KNOBS UNTIL ALL OF A SUDDEN IT MAKES TOTAL SENCE. THE KEY TO THIS AMP IS KEEPING THE GAIN AT A REASONABLE SETTING. THIS AMP HAS A TON OF GAIN. CRUNCH CHANNEL, 7 OR 8. LEAD CHANNEL, BETWEEN 4 & 6 AND THIS BEAST WILL ROCK THE HOUSE!! REMEMBER TONE IS THE KEY.
I RUN THE HEAD THROUGH A 1960 LEAD & A 1960 VINTAGE 4X12 CAB'S. MIX THE VINTAGE CAB WITH THE 1960 LEAD AND BE IN FOR A REAL TREAT.

NOT A GLITCH!!

NO NEED

CHECK OUT THE PRICE I PAID GUY'S. IT WAS WORTH IT TO SNAG THIS BABY WHEN IT FIRST CAME OUT.
IT'S PRICE'Y BUT IF YOU WANT A VERY VERSITILE AMP THAT YOU WILL NEVER GROW OUT OF, THIS IS A GREAT CHOICE. BUT REMEMBER, YOUR NOT GOING TO GET THIS AMP AND TAKE IT HOME, PLUG IT IN AND SOUND LIKE YOU'VE BEEN PLAYING ON IT FOR YEARS. BE PATIENT, I STILL SURPRISE MYSELF WITH THE TONE I AM GETTING & WHAT A DIFFERENCE THE SMALL TWIST OF A KNOB MAKES. AWSOME AMP!!

all that are listed below. Most versitle amp I've ever played. But still easy to use.

Look. This thing is a Marshall. Nost a Mesa, not a Fender. If you want a Marshall sound this is it. Best amp I've ever played and I've owned and played a bunch. you can get a great clean, southern rock, classic 80's metal, and balls to the walls gain. It sounds best when played live at a show. It really cuts through the other instruments. I've had numerous complements on how great it sounds. You want a Marshall, buy this one.

No Probelms. Not even with the foot switch which was a concern.

I emailed them before I bougt it about my concern with the foot switch. They e-mailed me back in a day. Very helpful and quick.

This is great amp. It's not for everybody and that's ok. If you love the Marshall sound, this is it. Give it a try.

Very well covered in all other reviews.

I am posting this for all the folks with the negative feedback on this amp. When I first bought this, I too thought it was a brittle sounding solid state type hunk of garbage. However, through trial and error I finally figured out the versatility and the incredible tones you can get from this amp. My preference being power amp saturation vs. preamp saturation, I overdrive the amp, by cranking the master volumes, and using the gain for volume level. This produces a very lush brown sound such as early Van Halen, Neal Schon, etc. To be honest, I only use this with the Virtual power reduction button on, because unless your outdoors on a large stage you will never need the full power this amp has to offer. i.e. bedroom players & bar bands. Another factor I've found is that you get even better tone running two 4X12 cabs. I'm not technically sure, but I think the tone sounds better running at 4Ohms on each cab? I also use a Rocktron Intellifex for reverb rather than the spring tank. This is very useful because you can use the input and output levels of the effects unit as a type of power brake. (And it sounds a helluva lot better than normal brakes) Anyway, point in fact, is that before downplaying this piece of equipment, it's definitely worth your time and pocketbook to try everything possible. You might be as surprised as I.

So far so Good.

Have not dealt with them?

I've been playing for over 20 years and have gone through an insane amount of gear. (Can you say GAS?) I currently own various boogie,fender,johnson,setups and each serves it's own purpose. I play numerous different guitars dependent on the type of gig and as most players my favorite changes daily. Although interesting enough the best sounding one is a really ugly discount aqua looking PRS C3 bolt-on that kicks butt on my Custom 22. (I call them Beauty & the Beast)

3 SEPERATE CHANNELS, FOOT SWITCH,100 WATTS

I HAVE HAD THIS AMP FOR ABOUT A MONTH NOW AND I CANT GET ENOUGH OF IT. IT IS HEAVEN. ONCE YOU GET FAMILIAR WITH ALL THE OPTIONS YOU CAN GET JUST ABOUT ANY TONE DESIRED. MY GUITAR IS A TELE AND IT IS A RELIGOUS EXPEREINCE PLAYING THROUGH THIS AMP.THE DISTORTION ROCKS.THE REVEB IS COOL, AND THE CLEAN CHANNEL IS PRETTY. I THINK I HAVE THE SWEETEST TONE OUT OF EVERYONE I KNOW HERE NOW THAT I HAVE THIS NOTHING COMPARES. I AM NOT JOKING.

IT IS BUILT MARSHALL TOUGH.

DONT KNOW YET

IF YOU HAVE THE MONEY GO OUT AND PICK THIS UP. AFTER SAVING UP I WENT THROUGH WEEKS OF PLAYING AMPS READING REVEIWS AND SO FORTH IN SEARCH OF THE AMP TO END ALL. AND I HAVE FOUND IT. JUST PLAY IT TWEAK WITH KNOBS AND YOULL FIND OUT WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT. I MATCH IT WITH A 1960 AE AND 1960 AX CAB. I HAVE A TELE AND I ALSO HAVE PLAYED WITH A GIBSON STANDARD AND IT HASNT DISSAPOINTED ME YET. ALSO DONT BE AFRAID OF ALL THE KNOBS AFTER ABOUT FIFTEEN MINUTES THEY ARE EASIER TO USE THAN YOU T.V. REMOTE. NEXT OT MY GUILD JUMBO THIS IS THE MOST SATISFIED I HAVE EVER BEEN WITH A PURCHASE
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA+++++++++++++++++++

It was made in 2000 in England.
This amp is very versatile: I play mainly Heavy progressive stuff and epic melodic black metal.
Its a 100W ALL TUBE amp that is very loud.
Its got 3 independant channels: Clean, Crunch and Lead that can be switched via a 5 way footswitch.
There is a vpr (Virtual Power Reduction) switch that enables you to play at low volume (kinda 25w).
2 effect Loops, a Mute switch, XLR direct recording plug, Tone shift (to get that heavy scooped mid sound) and Deep switch to add low end response at low volume.
There is a separate volume, Presence , Treble, Mid, Bass and Reverb for each channel.
You have to tweak a bit with the knobs to get "your" tone.
Many people complain without having set it properly...

I use a Gibson Lespaul Standard with 490R(neck) and 498T(bridge).
With the clean channel I get almost my JC-120 clean sound; perfectly suitable for that "King Crimson Discipline" kinda tone. At high volume the clean stay clean it will break a bit if pushing the gain to extreme.
The Crunch channel is pefect for that tight rhythm sound that I need when playing old King Crimson or Anekdoten stuff. I don't set the gain to high and the dynamic response is great.
For extreme heavy rhythm or shrieking metal lead I use the Lead channel that provide me with enough gain for ballsy Metal like that Borknagar : Quintessence roaring sound...
But I also use a Boss Graphic EQ in the Crunch/Lead effect loop to fine tune my sound to my exact need.
This is one of the less noisy (tube) amp I know.
I think many people are dissapointed with the amp because the don't spend time setting properly thieir sound....its what happen with very versatile amp...you have many possibilities but you will end up with what YOU SET!
If you are into very compressed distortion a la Korn, Biskit, Cannibal Corpse etc...you should check with Solid State amps...even a plain Boogie wont do...
I have played many things from Jazz to Deathmetal with this amp...but what you get is Tone, not overcompressed synthetic solid state sound!
A real Middy Marshall Roarr like it is suppose to be...

Well I don't gig right now but used it for 6 months...no problem at all (even the footswitch never failed...)
Don't need a backup its well built and I wouldn't be affraid to tour with it.

Never dealt with Marshall...so I Cannot comment.

I have been playing guitar for 11 years.
I do think its a great amp as long as you set it right.
And please try it before buying...I can't understand people giving a 1 or 2 rating to an amp that they should have test before buying???
It will be as good as you are...it won't covers missplaying or bad sound setting: don't be affraid to tweak!
It can be used in Jazz, Fusion, Rock Metal even Thrash, Black and Deathmetal...
The most versatile Tube amp I know.
The only complain is the price but you have to

Yeah, it's got everything. So what...

I hate this amp. No gain, no low end, no balls. I have a $350 crate GFX212 that blows this thing out of the water, sound-wise. Pussy distortion. If you play metal, this is NOT the amp for you. Like to do some cool chugging and palm mutes? Don't buy this amp. All you'll get are some THIN thuds. This amp is WEAK!

This is the most disappointing purchase I have ever made. I'm taking the whole damned thing (even the 1960A 412 cab) back tomorrow and trading it in for something with some balls.