Marshall JCM-2000 TSL 100

Marshall 100W JCM2000 TSL100 tube head made in 1999. With its 3 independent channels (clean,crunch,lead), 2 effect loops, reverb, direct out and lots of more amazing features this amp is one of the most versatile tube amps I've ever seen. For me this amp has it all.

The sound of this amp depends very much on the guitar (or pickups) you use. My main guitar is a Gibson ES135 (with Classic 57 humbuckers), but I also use an old (1972) Ibanez Custom Les Paul (with Gibson 498T and 490R) and a Charvel Model 2a (with a DiMarzio Super Distortion 3). I play in two bands modern rock and hardcore/punk, have done 3 complete albums and do a lot of studio work.
I first tried out this amp with my Gibson ES135. The clean sound was the best and most versatile of any Marshall (built past 1980) I've ever heared before. It is really rich and warm and you can even feel the notes while you're playing (even clean at high volumes).
Then I switched to the crunch channel and noticed that it was a bit muddy, like a fuzz, the same with the lead channel. That was the point I changed guitars and with my Ibanez Les Paul the crunch and lead channel just sings - this sound is pure rock, not brutal distortion (like my 5150), but great punch and a superb note definition (same with my Charvel). Well, I guess you need some pickups with hi-output to get a good sound out of the crunch and lead channel.
Before I bought this Marshall I used a Peavey 5150 for my distorted, a Peavey Classic 50 410 for the clean and a Marshall JCM800 for distorted solo sounds. Now I need only one amp in a live situation (with my modern rock band, for heavier stuff in my punk/hardcore band I still use the Peavey 5150). The TSL100 has a better clean sound than the Peavey Classic and the same big Marshall solo sound like my Marshall JCM800.
I won't sell my other amps, because it's always helpful to have some good sounding amps at the studio.
All Marshall tube heads I owned were very noisy at high gain settings, that's why I use a Behriger Guitar Denoiser in the effect loop of the crunch/lead channel - this gives you a very clear distorted sound with a lot of power, great definition and doesn't kill the sound like most noise gates do.
If you play rock/blues/hard rock and if you like this big Marshall rock sound - this is the amp for you. If you are into hardcore, speed metal, death metal,.... look for a real high gain amp (like VHT Pitbull, Peavey 5150).

Haven't had a problem, yet - but made the experience that Marshall isn't that good in building amps like a tank. I won't gig without a backup.

I never dealt with them.

I play rock and classic guitar for about 15 years now and this is my favorite amp.
I love soloing with this amp because of the soustain and the note definition. This amp is 3 amps in one, extreme versatile. You can get lots of different good sounds out of it, a real advantage compared to my Peavey 5150, which has only 1 great sound.
I tried different (versatile) amps before buying it. Bogner Ecstasy 101 - too expensive, but great, too, Engl Savage - power (!!!) but doesn't suit my style, Line 6 HD - nice try and O.K. if you do pop covers. I own a Line6 POD which is very good for studio work but in my opinion the Line6 HD (300W head) has no heart and soul for rock.
Mesa Boogie TOV - great amp, but playing the TSL100 made me feel better, Mesa Triaxis with Mesa 90/90 - maybe the best distorted sounds but I was dissapointed by the clean sounds. That's why I bought the TSL100.
If it were stolen I would buy it again in a heartbeat. I love it and playing with that thing makes me simply feel good - without using tons of effects.

1999 Marshall TSL100 100 Watt head. Made in the USA. 3 Channels: Clean, Crunch, and Lead, all footswitchable by a huge 5 button footswitch. 3 band EQ + presence/reverb for each channel. Virtual Power Reduction, which emulates a 75% cut in wattage. Output Mute to well... mute the output for direct recording without a cabinet. There is really no features that this amp is missing. Maybe a 1/4" jack instead of an XLR for the Direct Out, but still, it has just about everything. Oh yea, its all tube as well.

My main axe is a Jackson Kelly KE-3 with all new pickups (TB-12 bridge, 57 Classic neck). I play rythm/little bit of lead guitar in my band, Nameless Fear (http://namelessfear.dhs.org). After playing through terrible amps for 5 years (Sovtek MIG100H, Fender RocPro100, Fender Princeton, Fender Bullet Reverb), I finally said to myself, "Self, I think its about time you bought a Marshall TSL100". So I went out and bought one. I brought it home after showing it off to my singer and watched him drool and try to hump the amp and I hooked it up to my cab that has 4 Celestion Vintage 30's. I turned the amp on, let the tubes cook for a little while, fixed the EQ, and turned it on. I started with the clean channel. My singer/guitarist has a VS100 head, which is a great amp, but the clean is very band, so I figured clean sounds werent Marshall's forte, but lo and behold!!! The TSL100 has an AMAZING clean sound! The reverb really helped beef it up too. Im not a big fan of IN YOUR FACE clean stuff, so the Mid Shift is never touched. Then I went to the Crunch channel. GOD DAMN! You could take out the lead channel and i would survive in my metal band situation perfectly with the Crunch channel. Big, thick, and responsive distortion is all that dripped out. I cranked the reverb up and I was doing MacAlpine sweeps in a heartbeat with violin-like tone. Then BAM! I kicked in the LEAD channel. Holy hot damn! It was amazing. Tingly waves of smooth distortion rung through the house. Not a bad tone in this machine. It sounds great, and sounds better the louder you play it.

I've only had it for a little bit. I plan on doing MANY MANY MANY shows with it, since my band plays out a LOT. Steves VS100 has never failed him and Valvestates are Marshalls "budget line", so my TSL100 better withstand anything.

5 year warranty on parts. Sounds good to me.

I have been playing since I was 11 and I am 16 now. After playing all that aforementioned crap, I am very happy with the TSL100. I would recommend this amp to anyone who wants an extremely versatile, responsive head that can handle just about anything you want to play. I love the fact it has TONS of features, SO MANY BUTTONS TO PUSH AND ADJUST!! I was going to buy a DSL100 instead, but im glad i got this. Marshall flat-out beats anything. If it were stolen I would find whoever stole it and put thier head up to my speaker cab and crank the TSL to 10 and let him die slowly.

This is the first truly versatile 3-channel amp that Marshall has produced, blowing away their previous attempt with the aniversary series. The clean channel takes you anywhere from country twang, to extra dark jazz chords, to the Fender "blackface" sound. The two drive channels (crunch and lead) are pretty much classic Marshall with plenty of punch and power. This amp is "knobs and buttons galore" with 2 effects loops, 5 way footswitchable everything and "deep" and "tone-shift" butons for each respectable channel. tons of features. However, the TSL , like any Marshall, can only cover so much of the tonal spectrum, so not enough for a 10, but good enough for me.

Unlke most Marshalls, the TSL was capable of creating many sounds suitable to a lot of different varieties of music and players needs. Imagine a Marshall with a decent clean channel! Warm and punchy and more verstile tan meets he eye. Playing with the gain on the clean setting with the mid-shift activated, gives you the cool plexi sound and so much more. Between the two drive channels on this amp, you can get everything from an old plexi, to the JCM-800 crunch, to over the top distorted fury. The tone shift buttons on each distortion channel provide an aggressive "scooped mid" sound for the punk/metal thing and all the features made things easy to dial up, but the best thing about the amps sound is that, you can realy hear the sound of the guitar too. I found that as usual, humbucker equipped guitars worked best to coax out the goods with this amp, as with most from the Marshall amps throughout their history. It realy picks up the nuances of your playing style and attack, which is pleasing with any tube amp. Overall sounds greeat!

Marshall has always made road-worthy products, but obviously that declines as a manufacturer grows like this company has. But its still built really tough as expected. Ive used it at some pretty wild live shows and even let a guy in another band use it for their set too. Its never failed to deliver yet. The amp is a rock, the footswitch, however is a whole other story. So far Ive gone through one, and I'm waiting on the rapairs of the second one. The jack for it resembles that of a MIDI plug but with less pins. Its a great footswitch for features, but I've heard nothing but complaints on its durability. I unfortunatly, experienced it first hand. The amp is great, the footswitch could be better, and as with any tube amplifier, things can always go wrong, so far other than the switch, I'm doing ok.

I went through an authorized Marshall dealer to by it and for my fotswitch problem. They've been most helpful, but repairs on this type of thing just takes too long! I'm not sure what to say for this one. The story is still unfolding.

I've played a lot of amps, but this is definatly in the top 5 of all for me. It has tons of features, and just sounds good when I need it too and thats all the really needs to be said. It happens to make a geat match with the guitars I own so I've been fortunate to find some great sounds with it so far. At this point I couldn't live without my TSL and its fiery tube disortion.

Year Made: 1999 (I assume since it was shipped in May of 99)
Versatility: Amazingly versatile. Everything from clean jazz tones to "woman tone" blues with a harsh aggressive heaviness factor on the distortion channels.
Channels: 3; clean, crunch, and lead. The included 5-way footswitch (footswitchable for each of the three channels, with one for reverb, and one for effects loop) also has about twenty-six feet of chord, so you aren't bound to the amp. There are two effects loops which can be configured to have different loops for the clean and crunch/lead channels. Loop A is the master, but you can utilize LoopB to have different effects for the distortion channels which makes LoopA available to the clean channel only. The clean channel has a Mid Boost switch which disengages the Mid control from the circuit and reconfigures the way the Treble and Bass controls work. Enabling this switch and cranking the gain (Yes, the clean channel has gain) and the volume gives a really awesome blues "woman tone" especially when playing on the neck pickup with 0 or very low tone control on the guitar. There is also a separate deep switch for the clean and crunch/lead channels. The deep switch adds a little more low end resonance to either channel setting at all volumes. There are separate treble, mid, and bass controls for each individual channel. Meanwhile, the clean and crunch/lead channels have their own Presence, FX Mix, and Reverb controls. The crunch and lead channels also have their own tone shift switch which gives more of a "scooped mids" sound for heavier metal riffage, as well as some other chunkified variations of tone. Top it all off with a Virtual Power Reduction Switch (for use in smaller rooms which cuts the amp down to about 25 watts) and a n output mute switch to bypass the output tubes when using the DI output for silent recording. And it works like a champ too. The speaker emulation of the DI output works really well for those late night recording sessions when you don't want to give the neighbors a reason to call the cops on you.
With four 12AX7's for preamp tubes and 4 EL34 Svetlana's on the output end this amp has no shortage of tubeage. Throw in Accutronics Spring Reverb and you have a master-crafted powerhouse lurking in your music room. Mine has nearly knocked the dishes out of the china cabinet on several occassions. That is until the misses comes in to disturb my vicarious travel to other dimensions with demented guitar work.

Guitar: Gibson SG Special with dual Humbuckers
This amp totally suits just about any style that I choose to play. And I delve into my wanna-be jazz motifs, and then some Satriani-ish things, as well as some clapton-like ideas, not to mention the complete amount of power-riffage ala Korn, Coal Chamber, and Slipknot. Not to mention those weak Metalliqueers, it can play that kind of crap too. This amp can pretty much power any idea you have in your head.
Noise Factor: The only time I notice any noise from the amplifier is when I am working with it on Guitar Studio on my computer. I believe that the reason for this is that my computer is a little exposed at the moment due to the fact that I spend all of my time playing guitar. I haven't had the urge to remedy the situation yet since I can't put my guitar down long enough to think about it. BTW, I also have a BOSS ME-X expandable effects unit which I am currently running on LoopA. I made a patch which I currently have on Bank Two Patch Two which makes this amplifier break it chains and come off sounding 10 times heavier with an attitude. The best word I can think of to describe it is monstrous.

I haven't had a problem with this head since I got it home. And that is after several bumpy rides to various gigs, friend's abodes, and into band practice. I would definitely always have a backup, just because you never know what might happen. I just don't think the backup would be needed very often.

I haven't had need for support as of yet, and with the abuse this thing has taken, I don't plan on it.

I have been playing only for abotu 3 or 4 years now. This was my first real amplifier. I bought with the intentions of not having to buy another amp pretty much ever again. My other amps are a simple 8 inch 20 watt (or some other small wattage) Crate practice amp (which I mostly use for the headphone jack when the neighbors have finally CALLED the cops on me!). I also had an old Fender Stage Lead Solid-State Pile that my uncle was loaning me, and of course the gain knob was busted. I compared this amp to the Mesa Boogie Triple Rectofier. This thing smoked it. I think part of it was due to the salesman's lack of knowledge about the Boogie, but the Boogie has no reverb. As soon as I plugged my SG into the Marshall, I knew I was sold. I just had to battle the salesman for a more reasonable price. I currently only use it with one 1960 angled cabinet Marshall cabinet, but as soon as I move into a bigger place I am putting a 1960B under it. Overall, this amp really kicks butt. It took me some time to familarize myself with it's tonal abilities, but the learning curve is pretty short. My philosophy is just to play for hours and mess with the knobs religiously. Only then can you truly appreciate the wide range of sounds that this amplifier can bring to your fingertips. And once you get some effects going, the whole process begins again...

This amp has three independent channels, each with dedicated eq and gain controls. The clean channel has a mid boost switch, while the crunch and lead channel have tone shift switches (basically a mid scoop that adds some bass). The amp has two seperate sets of presence, fx mix, and reverb controls for the clean and dirty channels. There are also independent deep (ie bass boost) switches here as well. There is also a VPR switch. There is some confusion about this switch, basically it causes the amp to behave like a fully saturated lower wattage amp. It does not drop the power from 100 watts to 25 watts. There is also a output mute on the front as well. On the back you get two fx loops with loop level switches for the clean and dirty side of the amp. A emulated di out also resides here. The foot switch jack is here as well. Finally, you have a 16 ohm speaker jack that when plugged in shuts off the 8/4 ohm jacks. 8/4 ohm jacks are dependent on 8/4 ohm switch for the selected ohm load.

Allright, first thing if you do not like Marshall distortion forget about it. That said, this amp has a distinct voice, while clearly Marshall it is different. It has the ability to get you close to a jcm 800 or 1959 but it doesn't nail them. Personally, I feel if you want the tone an 800 produces go find a jcm 800 and shut up. The dirty sounds are super flexible and cover alot of ground. The crunch channel in my opinion is the best of the two. The lead channel is very chainsaw like. I find that I tend to turn the treble and presence way down on these channels. Then again I like it really dark. The mid shifts need to be in if you want a metal tone but otherwise keep them out. Being the bass freak I am the deep switch is always in. The distortion sounds like a Marshall (fairly mid rangey) and I think that is a good thing. The kicker to this amp though is the clean channel. Generally, Marshalls blow for clean but this not the case here. This channel is the best clean tone since the Twin. While several other amps try to fake Fender clean tone (usually with poor results) Marshall finally developed some thing new. The clean tone is not Fenderesque but much more midrangey. Typically more mid range equals breakup but not here. Kudos to Marshall for this channel. This channels sounds great, period! You can push the clean channel to break up if you run the gain up but it seems kind of pointless. The mid boost switch is the don't switch of the amp. This swicth pretty munch makes the amp really farty and nasty.

Ok, here is the deal, I work for a music shop and for those of you who think Marshall makes crap while others like Boogie don't are just wrong. I have had more Boogie heads die than Marshall by far. That said here are the potential trouble spots on a TSL 1) the footswitch sometimes has problems. First thng to do is check it when you buy it and try to get a back up. Also be kind to the footswitch jack while they have improved it. it may be a point of trouble if abused 2)I have heard that if you run the amp really hard for a really long time the transformer may go, however of the roughly thirty I have sold, mine included, no problems 3)It does eat tubes and be prepared to have change them but this is true of all high gain amps I deal with. I think that if is going to crap out it will do it right off, other wise you should be fine if you treat it with some love. Oh yeah check the reverb out , they do vary from fairly deep to kinda wimpy with it cranked. Everybody uses those acutronics tanks and they vary a whole lot. I like the ones with the deeper Reverb because you can always back it off if you chose. Finally, you will hear a slight delay when switching to the clean channel form the dirty channel. This is normal and is the nature of the relay switch that must be used to navigate three channels. If you don't like it get a single or dual channel amp.

If you buy the amp in the US forget about any support from Korg (Marshall's US distributor) They are useless! (even to me as dealer) Basically, you are going to end up relying on your dealer or qualified tech to fix problems. Good dealer or tech equals good service on your amp. As long as there is a authorized Marshall service center your warranty is good as gold which is 5 yrs and 90 days on tubes .
If your out side of the US, I can't say.

This amp is for the guy who needs flexibilty and likes the Marshall tone. This amp works for me because I need the options it has, while the tone is not perfect I think it is far beyond others. Basically at this price point your only other 3 channel amp is the Boogie nomad, which is good but I have some reservations about. The TSL definelty works for my setup which depends on a clean, dirty, and hyperdrive settings. If you hate to rely on pedals for gain sounds but need more than one from an amp check the TSL out.

The TSL is a 3-channel amp featuring clean, crunch and lead channel. All controls, which I don't wanna descripe in detail, are usefull.The only thing I'm missing is a master volume for all three channels, cause you have to adapt the distict volumes seperatly if you change the venue your playing. Especially the two FX-loops are a very intelligent feature.

Compared to the sound of older Marshalls the TSL sounds not so "brutal" as many people were used to. Fender-like cleansound, very bluesy if you use the mid-boost, good crunch sound and singing lead sounds, which tend a little bit to the Mesa/Boogie direction, thats what my ears hear. Interesstingly, if you use the lead channel with low gain settings, you'll got a strong 1959 Plexi-sound. What you have definetly to do when you use this amp is to spent some time to check different gain/volume setting in combination with the pesence controll and the deep switches. If you spend this time, you'll have definatlly a sound machine which will satisfy your requests. Nevertheless, check out for example the crunch channel on medium gain setting in combination with a good overdrive pedal, e.g. Fulltone 2.
Even with a Strat you'll get an absolutly singing lead sound.

I had so far no problems within the 4 month I own the amp, but due to the short time I'll give just a 6.

After using a Digitech GSP 2101/Poweramp combination which had, regardless what Poweramp I used (Engl, Marshall, Peavy) always Problems with sounds, when no effects were involved, the TSL is a
fine amp for the use on stage. It's powerfull and due to it's two FX-loops very versatile if you like to use pedals, 9.5" or 19" systems. Furthermore, in Germany the price of a Marshall is half the price of a Mesa/Boogie or 30% the price of a Bogner, so it's real value for money what you get when you buy a TSL.

I'm sure most of you know what the features are. 3 channels, independant eq's, 2 effects loops, 100 / 25 watt power selection, reverb, 5 button footswitch, deep switch, mid sift. The only thing I could see adding is an overall master volume.

I've had this amp for about 6 months now, so I would like to update my last post. This amp just flat out rules. It took a while to find the right settings for my playing, but now the amp sings. I have a Les Paul studio, Strat Plus and a old Ibanez Flying V ('74 - '76). Each guitar's sounds great with this amp. The amp really lets the character of each guitar stand out. The thing that I really like about this amp is that it is really clean. Notes ring out nicely even if it is just a power chord. The clean channel can be as clean as you want it or a little pushed. The crunch channel is classic marshall all the way. The lead channel is just great. Plenty of sustain and gain to let any guitar sustain for at least a day! So far I am mainly using the amp with the virtual power reduction on (25 watt setting) since the amp is really loud (even at the 25 watt setting). I've only used it with full power for a few shows. All in all, you have everything from crystal clear clean to full on metal and everything in between. With a little bit of tweaking, you can just get about any Marshall tone you've ever heard.

Had it for 6 months. It's seen many gigs of many different sorts. Bars, clubs, outdoors, etc... It hasn't let me down yet. I don't have a backup, and don't feel like I need one. As with any other tube amp, a little care goes a long way. I still won't give it higher than a 7 because I really haven't had it for that long.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I've been playing for around 16 years. This amp is the best one I've had so far. It is my second marshall. Before this I had a 100 watt SL-x. I've also had a 5150, rack units, and solid state amps. This one kicks 'em all in the ass! If it were stolen, I'd have to beat the thief to a bloody pulp with my Les Paul. It's a fairly pricey amp, but worth every penny. I've read some bad reviews about it, but I can't see where they are coming from. To each there own! Try it out and decide for yourself.

This is a FINAL ammendment to the two previous posts I'd made immediately after I bought the amp, and I'd like to say something after having actually having used the amp in several different stage and studio situations. I have been playing for 33 years. I play many different styles of old-generation rock and blues. My strong hand is with the early Clapton (Cream period) style, and even more so the style of Jimi Hendrix. Amps I have owned over the years have included several vintage Fenders (including a 1959 3X10 tweed Bandmaster, many Voxes (liked the AC-50 and the Berkeley the best), Sunns, Kustoms, Hiwatt, Tweed Gretsch, etc, etc. Oh yes, and FOUR of the Super Lead 100 watts from the early 70's - the ones Marshall fans drool over, and a very rare 200W Super Bass. Out of ALL those amps, NOTHING has come even close to this TSL100 for tone and versatility. I don't care how many negative comments you read about it in these listings - you'll find negativity and complainers everywhere you look. These guys must be cracked, or have no ears. Not even my old Super Leads sounded this good. And one thing those amps vere definately NOT was versatile because, to me, the clean sound was flat and lackluster - you had to turn everything on 10 to get tone. The TSL has a great clean channel, but it also has a better (for me) clean sound that can be gotten in the Crunch channel that absolutely BRISTLES like a good old Vox withit's top end boost. For that, I run bass at 5, mid at 10, treble on 8, presence on 2, gain 2-4, Fender Strat with Texas Specials. The Lead sounds? What do you want? This amp has anything I would ever want to hear and more. And it makes me want to PLAY PLAY PLAY!! Undoubtedly, for my money (and it WAS a lot) the best amp I've ever owned in my life. I really don't see how it could be improved, sound-wise. Feature-wise, all I could suggest would be the ability to have seperate effects loop for the Crunch and Lead channels instead of one for the clean and a shared one for the Crunch and Lead - but that's a bone to pick. I predict that in 20 years, THIS will be the amp they measure all others against. Nothing else in it's catagory comes close. Any emails from others with this amp, or others with questions about it are welcome.

I'm the guy who submitted the review below, after having had the amp for just a few days and only playing it at home. Now that I've had the chance to gig with it live, I'd like to share what I learned. At home, I played the amp with the VPR (power cut) switch on to keep the volume down. It sounded beautiful with the gains on the crunch channel and lead channel set at 12 o'clock and the volumes at about 1/4. The clean channel was set with the gain on full. BUT..... at the gig I felt it was better to play with the VPR switch OFF and the amp at it's normal power capability. Well, let me tell you, it was like playing through a totally different amp. It really threw me for the first two sets! I had to increase the gain to full for the tone I wanted, because believe it or not, the amp can be very clean (and that's a plus I think). Also, switching between the channels was very confusing and screwed me up a bit. But I did finally find the settings, and I decided that sticking with ONE channel was the best - doing it the old fashioned way, and controlling everything from the guitar. And I have to tell you, this amp sounds KILLER. It has just the right sound for me with power to spare. Using my Fender strat, here are the settings that I arrived at. Lead channel (the one I decided to stick with) Presence - OFF, Deep switch - OFF, Tone Shift - OFF, Bass - 5, Middle - 10, Treble - 5, Volume - between 4 and 5, Gain - 10, Reverb set high. This amp really sings! Aside from the enthusiastic encore, I actually did have people come up to me and compliment my sound (always good to hear!).

If you do't already know what features this amp has, go to http://www.marshallamps.com/ for the most comprehensive rundown you'll find. For my money, they have included everything I have always wished for in an amp and missed since 1965 when I started playing. There are also a couple of things that I don't use (deep switch and tone shift). For those, I wouldn't say they are bad (as some others here have said) just because they don't compliment my style(s). Maybe a jazz guitarist would be very happy for a deep switch for example. Remember, this amp was designed to be versatile.

I use an $1,800.00 American made Fender custom shop strat, a $250.00 Japanese Tokai "Strat" with Seymore Duncan vintage strat pickup in the front, same thing in the middle with reverse wrap/polarity (This is a KILLER guitar, my main one), '67 Guild Starfire VI, an Epiphone Dot which I disposed of the pickups as soon as I got it home and put in a Gibson Humbucker by the neck and a Bill Lawrence XL500 at the bridge (my second main guitar, etc. etc. My style has been influenced by a wide range of styles - from early Clapton, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, all the American as well as British blues, 60's British pop, 70's Heavy Metal, you name it. Almost everything except jazz or country. To me, an amp must have rich harmonic tone at the cleaner settings as well as the dirty settings... must have a nice natural tube compression and smooth sustain (NOT coarse or gritty)at the higher volumes without sagging out. It should also sound good for lead at the lower volumes without sounding like a freaking kazoo or wax paper on a comb. This amp sounds GREAT at low volumes! I have just bought it, so I can't speak yet about the higher volumes. But having owned Marshalls in the past, I really can't imaging a Marshall sounding anything other than BETTER as you turn it up.

Reliability?? We shall see. Too soon to say.

Again, I've been playing since 1965. (my web site htp://members.aol.com/bluesguit1/index.html) I've owned a lot of different amps (and guitars)in those 34 years, including Marshalls. I have two very fine amps in the low-watt catagory - an 18watt 1965 Vox Berkeley Super Reverb, and a (modern) 60 watt Fender Super Amp. I bought the Marshall for the same reason I bought my first Marshall back in '72 - I got tired of being buried volume-wise by the band! Plus, I'm doing the Hendrix-style thing again, and I really need a stack behind me to pull off all the subtle feedback stuff properly. I toyed around with getting another old Marshall, or even a reissue... but I remember having those back then and saying, "God, if ONLY they would do such and such . . . what a great amp it would be!" And do you want to know what kind of amp it would be? Something about like a JCM2000 TSL. The only thing I regret is that Marshall no longer has the switchable power transformer for playing in either America or Europe. I would like to end this review by saying that, no matter how great this amp is, those sonofabitches at Marshall should all be lined up and sumarily shot for having the total lack of cool to charge musicians that much money for an amp. NO amp is worth the kind of money they charge. Plus they charge you extra for the cover!(How greedy can these guys get????) So, ... the amp is GREAT, but Marshall REALLY sucks!

The features has allready been discribed in earlier reviews, however I like them all. Before this amp I used a JMP-1 with a 8008 poweramp and an alesis midiverb III but it got stolen, I think this amp sounds much better but I miss the built in midicontrol from the jmp-1. I play punkrock and the distortion of this baby is just what I need, I use the crunch and lead channels for shifting between ryth'm and solo volumes. With the deepswitch in you can almost forget to get a basist, just push it in and you have all the low end rumble you could wish for. I crank the clean channel up and push in the mid-boost so the duncans in my S-100 distorts if I play it hard and crystal clean if I play it soft, I only wish the gain would go a little further case it sounds a little unnatural with the gain all the way up. The About the reverb, I don't use it much but it sounds fine to me and it's alot better than the midiverb. I like the effects loop in wich I run a danelectro cool cat chorus, very good with a switch so I leave the pedal with the ac-adaptor by the amp and switch it on and of with the amps pedal. I tried the thing with a dummy in it but I didn't like the sound when I switched the loop on go get the lower volumes, it sounded weaker and didn't remain the punch but I really don't need more sounds than the crunch and lead so why bother?

As I said I use this amp wiith a Guild S-100 equipped with Seymore Duncan humbuckers, a Jeff Beck by the bridge and a 59' at the neck. In the store I first tried this amp with lots of different cheap guitar like fender squires, epiphones and so on, they all sounded like shit on this amp. To get the max out of this amp you need good picups, preferably humbuckers. A friend of mine brought his old strat over to try the amp out, he got a completly different sound out of the amp. Ofcourse he should get a different sound cause he uses a singlecoiled guitar with a bolton neck (the S100 has a glued) but I have never heard that big difference between two guitars trough the same amp, it truly brings out the charactistics of your guitar.
As others has stated before me, this amp is laud and that's all in the way of punkrock. Though punkrock is the base for my bands (Hellkave) music, it's mixed with lots of other styles like glam, metal, blues, psykadelia, rockabilly etc. Much like bands like Hellacopters and Backyard Babies and still not, other influenses are Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Back Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Marily Manson, Smashing Pumpkins, Guns 'n roses, Wildhearts and so on.
Some people says this amp sounds like shit, what guitars have they used? where? in what condition was the amp and the speakercab? shit compared to what?
This amp is not for everyone, it's a matter of taste if you like it or not. Pherhaps your guitar doesn't suit this amp, or amp doesn't suit yor style. The only way to find out is to try out a lot of amps and find one you like, it's up to you to decide if an amp is good or bad. Take these reviews as a guide to what amp you're gone start to look into, don't buy one cause someone tells you it's great.

Can't afford a backup so I guess I have to depend on it, it seems to be built to last tough. The only thing that worries me is the ringing sound from the tubes when I transport it to rehearsal place or gigs.

Never dealt with them, hope I wont have to.

I have to tell a story from a gig I made once. In a song where I use the clean/cranked channel I open up with a slow sensetive intro on my own, on that inte I also use the chorus and a boss tremolopedal to get a sweet, glittery sound. After the gig a guy actually came up to me and asked if I was playing an old fender twin reverb with vibrato on for that tune, he was very happy to hear that sound again and especially from a young band like mine (18-22 years old guys). I had to dissapoint him by saying that it actually was a marshall with a boss pedal, he got very suprised but he told me he would go and check one out if marshalls suddenly had started to sound that good.
For me it was simply the best amp I could buy.

Well, this baby has all the features you could ask for and MORE! But what good are they if you can't or don't want to use them? I've only had this amp a week and I STILL get a little confused on what buttons do what to the tone (after glancing through the manual like 1 minute I'm fine, but still).

This amp sounds ver mediocre. I mean, it's not a BAD amp, yet it's not a GOOD amp, I agree that it IS a good amp for rythm and crunch chords, but it's bad for slow melodic solos (i.e. Pink Floyd). Keep in mind that I haven't tried that many amps so that may distort my taste, but overall, this amp isn't THAT bad. For the price though, I doubt I'd buy another one, I doubt I'd be able to AFFORD one in the near future.

Well, only had it for a week so can't say anything. I don't like how it was cheaply made though, scroll down and read others opinions. Sorry, I don't have enough time to explain that Marshall definitly skimped out of quality here.

never needed it

Well, this isn't THAT bad, I mean it IS a Marshall, so it's got to have SOME Marshall tone (Marshall Theorum). But it just doesn't have that real distinct character that I'm looking for (Van HAlen leads, Scorpions crunch, Pink Floyd Sustain/heart and soul).

LISTEN UP!!! I'm putting this notice HERE because this is the latest head that Marshall has made, so hopefully many people will read it. Anyways, since the past decade or so, Marshall Quality has really been sucking up the place BAD! I know everyone (including myself) badmouths their tone, quality, and affordibility, but other than to warn people, what good does it do? None. So here is what you need to do. Go to www.marshallamps.com/ Then click on FEEDBACK. TELL them that they're going down the tubes. TELL them that they need to get their shit back in gear. I've already sent them a piece of my mind, hopefully you all will do the same. (And if you agree with me, tell them they need to make a new head that had the tone and angelic voicing of the JCM 800 100 W lead head!) But PLEASE tell them SOMETHING. Thank your time
~Later Steve

This 100 watt all tube amp has ALOT of features. It uses four Svetlana EL-34 for power tubes. It has Seperate 4 band EQ (pres, bass, mid and high) for all three foot-switchable channals, plus seperate reverb for the dirty, (crunch & lead share reverb) and clean. Never mind the bass-boost for clean and dirty, (again, crunch and lead share)plus a seperate mid-cut for both crunch and lead, and a mid-boost for the clean. It also features two parralel FX loops which can be run as a master FX channel for all 3 of 'em, or you can have seperate channels for dirty and clean. If you don't use any FX you can just insert a dummy into the loop to to get a lead boost in whichever channel you're switched on, or you can have a sperate boost for dirty and clean, by changing the FX mix levels, you change the vol of the boost. It also features a varity of options for outputting to a speaker which also changes the tone a little, my favorite is using the 4 ohms...gives it a tighter sound, more like what you hear live cuz they are usually using a full stack. You can just output in 16 ohms or 8 & 8 or 4 & 4 in parralel, enabling you to use speaker cabs in stereo or full stack. Last but least, the VPR (Virtual Power Reduction) lets you play at quieter vol's while driving the power tubes (or maybe pre-amp's, I am not sure) to max, allowing you to get full distortion. That covers most of the features. Now, not all of these work great for me...the mid-cut button (I hate buttons) makes it sound really thin, so I never use it. The bass-boost just does that...adds way to much bass, but it does improve the clean sometimes. The mid-boost makes it unuseble for me. I like a little mid but not alot in my clean channel. The clean channel isn't really that great, I think Marshall should've left the eq after the gain stages like in the 800 series. They left it the same i the crunch and lead, though. The clean is way too clean even turning the gain way up, just doesn't have the sound for what I need. The crunch and the lead are bassically the same but there are some slight tonal differences. The lead channel gets fuzzy sounding the higher the gain goes, blurring the sound a little. I was impressed with this amp at first but now that I have had it for about six months I don't know what to do. When I bought it, I did ALOT of reserch, but found out later that the clean is different than older Marshalls, they use a different transformer which is what really affects the amps tone. Also I was looking for that Slash, Zakk Wylde tone and also found out the 800 series used partial trasistors instead of all tubes like the 2000's. This amp just doesn't have that...the tone is ok, different, but not great. This amp is LOUD! I use ear plugs (as all musicains should. protect your ears they the most important part of your instrument), so I can turn it way up without blowing my eardrums. The tone DOES improve when you get the vol up there, like all Marshalls. The VPR does get the distortion up there, but eats the tone up cutting on the mids and highs. bassically if you want to come close (but not quite) to other Marshalls, leave the VPR alone. In all...this amp has ALOT, but does alot of it poorly. I DO like the FX loops, but wish they would add a lead boost foot-switch like the new Mesa Boggie I read about. The lead boost is very nice but I would like to be able to use fx AND have a boost at the same time. Much more practical that way... also the seperate EQ is nice but, since my veiw on amps has changed, it's not nessecary. My dream amp setup is now: Two 100watt Marshalls, one for clean and one for dirty, with an A/B switch to change amps instead of switching channels. I see myself selling this amp and buying two old 800's instead. I definetly could with how much this amp costs...they REALLY over priced this for what you get. I would give Marshall a 7 for effort in TRYING to do stuff that is good, but they overdid it with all of the buttons...and quality in sound isn't up to Mar

Right now I am using this head with a Marshall 4x12 AV slat-cab, with vintage 30 celestions. Handles 300 watts, sturdy, but needs bigger casters. I own one guitar at the moment...a EPI SG-310, which sucks, but I am getting a wine red les paul custom, which sounds absoluty wonderful in this amp. I owned a little twenty watt crate before getting this, so this was a big jump up. My music stlye is bassically 80's metal. I play very melodic solos with very hard crunchy riffs. I also play punk rock, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Motely Crue, GNR, Ozzy...
This amp would be PERFECT for a rythm guitarist! But since I play lead the tone just doesn't cut it. It has perfect tone and plenty of gain for rythym playing and I would suggest to any metal or rock rythym player to check it out. Also, it's not really noisy at all, unless your under florescent lights, or something, but all amps hum under them. This amp can make alot of sounds, but for me, not many that are useable. Even though this amp is supposed to be a 'monster gain' amp, I wouldn't call it that. Do not get this if you play death metal or the likes...it's not that 'high gain' in the first place. Only four pre-amp tubes and four power-amp tubes. And I am not looking for a ton of gain, just good tone, which this is kinda lacking "That Marshall Tone". It does sound like one, but lacks the character of older Marshalls. The reverb isn't bad...a little bright, but not bad. I would prefer to just get a good 'verb pedal and leave it out of the amp entirely, but this is just my opinion (like the rest of this review:) I give it a 7 cuz it isn't THAT bad of an amp, just laking in perfect lead tones...but would be awesome for rythym.

I have had this amp for a while now...about six months. I have played it almost three hours every day and haven't had a valve problem yet, but valves are new to me and I hear that it can vary from amp to amp. I WOULD use this amp without a backup if and often do, but it cost so much I couldn't even think about another one right now. Besides, I am thinking of selling this and getting two used 800's. This way I would have two amps that I can have seperate EQ for, AND a backup. If it works for Slash it would work for me. So I would say that the amp I have is very dependable...and I really can't say about other TSL 100's. But I got this through musicians friend and nothing came damaged or broken or missing or even scrached. And eveything worked fine the first time and has been working good ever since. So I am giving it a 10 for now...who knows about the future. But I feel good about it and feel that if I keep on treating it well, the only thig that could go is the tubes. It is built very sturdy, too...

I have been playing about 5 years and decided it was time to get a good amp. What I like: The FX loops...they are really effective for a lead boost, but like I said before, I wish the foot-switch had that PLUS the FX loops. I like the seperate EQ, but since I am planning on getting two different amps and using them with an A/B switch, it doesn't really matter to me. I would rather have and amp that does one thing well, than a whole bunch of things moderatly. kepp in mind that this might be 'THE AMP' for you rythym players, as long as you like blues, rock, and metal... What I hate: All the stupid buttons I don't use ANY of them cept the bass-boost on the clean, which tend to be either to bassy or to trebly at times. I am stll trying to get a useable clean sound after six months. Why did I buy this? you ask. Well, I blew my crates speaker when I craked it trying to get a good sound out of something that inherently doesn't have it, so I needed a new amp, and soon. So I picked up the latest catolog, and looked for all of the Marshall gear. I really didn't think about getting a used one, cuz I wanted a new Marshall. Go figure...anyway, Marshall isn't making many amps to choose from right now, and I thought I wanted an all tube amp. All tube is cool, but it doesn't quite have the sound I am looking for. So I bought it cuz I knew I wanted a Marshall, but had never tried it. Go figure... So after the glory of owning a Marshall wore off, I began to look deeper into amps and setups, became much more wiser, and came up with the double amp head as the way to go. Well, if it WAS stolen...god help the poor bastard. This cost me way too much for me not to think about taking drastic measures :) I would get it back and then sell it maybe, just because it's not that great for lead playing. But do NOT overlook this for rythym! Try this one out and see for yourself...take your guitar into a store and ask to try one out! Don't do like I did! My overall rating or this amp would be a 7 for lead and an 8 for rythym. Or...if you weren't playing 80's metal, and just good rock n roll, this amp is really worth trying out. It is also REALLY good at blues...which is cool. But this amp did cost alot and considering all that is usable on it, it just doesn't make sence for lead guitar.

Yes, yes . . . All the features one could want. The only question is, how many of them will anyone use? Let's see now, there's not only separate e.q. for all three channels, but there's the ever-famous 'deep-switch', 'tone shift', and presence and reverb. Big fucking deal for the tone shift and deep-switch, by the way.

To make a long story short, this amp is not only so overly hyped, by Guitar Player Magazine and others, that I could puke, but it also sounds frankly terrible. Yes, the Clean channel is good and unlike any previous out of a Marshall but it is hardly that good that you need to run right out and buy this amp now. As for the Overdrive channels, if uni-dimensional, ice-pick like, aggressive, and unsoulful distortion is your cup of tea, then I suppose you'll really go gagga. Personally, I think it's pathetic. Also, the only real difference I could detect between Overdrive 1 and 2 is that 2 definitely sucks worse than 1, in that it's more compressed, more fuzzy, and sucks whatever little string definition there may be out of what was Overdrive 1. This is the fabulous "flexibility" that Marshall is touting as the latest and greatest? Give me a break! By the way, no matter what preamp tubes I put in the thing, and particularly given that 3 out of 4 initial ones were so microphonic as to be nearly dead, I could never get a well-rounded, articulate overdrive sound from this piece of s**t. So, as for "brutal distortion", I would have to say yes, this amp's distortion is just pathetic enough as to be offensive and, in this way, truly "brutal". Can someone remind the great Marshall corporate thing that unidimensional distortion, that's just a shade off of solid-state and which lacks note definition and soul, isn't worth jack s**t? Finally, the 'deep' switch is perfectly worthless at even moderate volumes because it will give you so much obnoxious, boomy, and poorly focused low-end, that you will never use it. As for the 'tone shift' buttons, the bottom-line is this: 'Shift' button out equals more midrange, 'Shift' button in equals less. Wow! What a bunch of enginering geniuses, huh? What can I contrast this amp to? Well, for one, I've owned a Harry Kolbe modified Marshall JMP for quite a while and it thoroughly outpaces this amp in every respect. Yes, it is modified, I know, but as long as you were asking . . . On a more conservative and readily available side of things, I also own a Peavey Classic 100 which is a fantastic head that is vastly underrated. No, it doesn't have 'deep' or 'tone shift' switches and it's only a two-channel amp, but what it does have is superb clean and overdriven tones with body and soul, substantially better construction, a simpler layout, and it's loud as hell. I defy anyone to listen to that head and say it doesn't rock. By the way, the Peavey will set you back 1/2 of what the Marshall costs.

One thing that is certainly the case now with Marshall, if, in fact, it was not always the case, is that they are terribly unreliable amps, period. I don't know if it's all that great sunny weather and wealth in the U.K. that drives this fabulous level of quality along but it certainly is woeful. To begin with, the first TSL 100 I bought, and still packaged in the box, mind you, was dead on arrival. Just dead, unless you consider a bloated, farting sound coming from the amplifier as indicative of something worth resucitating. A quick poke around the back of the amp revealed the pre-amp tubes to be just short of completely burnt. One of them was so microphonic that just tapping it lightly let out a loud howl. I took the amp back to the dealer who, of course, apologized profusely, stating that "big corporations like Marshall" sometimes overlook things like the quality of the tubes they use. Yo, asshole, say what? The next one was tested out of the box, in the store, and at least worked. However, it's been said many times before, and you just know it's the truth: THE MUSIC STORE IS THE WORST PLACE IN THE WORLD TO TEST AN AMP. So, taking the thing home and actually playing it awhile, without the usual nudnicks (yiddish, baby!) milling about, more accurately revealed what this amp can and cannot do. Strikingly, though maybe predictably, I ultimately found the second head to be so unidimensional as to make me wonder about the quality of it's preamp tubes as well. So, off goes the back cover, yet another time, only to find those tubes microphonic as well, just not as horribly as the first ones. Well, I don't know about you, but the addage of the chain being no better than it's weakest link really seems germane. Is it really too much to expect that a company that makes their "flagship" model, and charges a commensurate amount for it, actually do something novel like test the tubes they're planning to use? I don't think that it's really asking too much. The other scary thing about this debacle is that many consumers may not know enough to test for microphonics, though this obviously takes no big skill, or want to believe that the great, big company put bullshit, inferior tubes into their brand-spanking, new equipment. If you don't think of it, and force yourself to settle for the hype or "Marshall just kinda' sounds this way, I guess . . .", you've been fucked, and at quite a price tag to boot. Finally, as I have seen written about elsewhere in this Data base, Marshall is now using Dagnall transformers which are, in short, garbage. Christ, no wonder these new heads hardly weigh anything. The transformers are so wimpy, it's a disgrace. If you would like yet another comparison, for example, go ahead and measure the difference in weight between the TSL and the Peavey Classic 100 heads. You're going to need a bit of muscle to move the latter because the transformers are actually made out of good quality, beefy metal. Featherweights, and lighter, though, will certainly enjoy the new, 'improved' lightness of Marshall JCM 2000 TSL heads. Wow, they're so groovy and compact, you know? The final problem with wimpy transformers is that you're going to be changing power tubes often, if you play with any kind of regularity, plus the heads just don't sound as good. As a sort of amusing side-note, I wrote to Marshall about the immediately defunct tubes in my amp, only to receive, you guessed it, no reply at all. Thank you, Marshall.

As you may have picked up by now, I find Marshall to be a disgusting conglomerate of schlock-meisters, still milking the almighty image of 'kings o' the stack' for all it's worth when their quality and sound stinks royally. Any company that can't even find the time to jot the tiniest note of apology for shitty tubes, in a brand new amp that they promote, needs to be killed. Plus, if you ever try to talk with them by phone, as I did in calling Korg in New York, they're a bunch of rude, disingenuous assholes.

I've been playing guitar for about 20 years and while I can really appreciate the idea of the latest and the greatest, and would truly love to see it, I also know when I'm getting sold the 'emperor's new clothes.' Maybe it's the punk in me, but I say that Marshall is resting on it's fat, lazy laurels, coasting on a reputation that has always been overblown in the least, and, in conjunction with their crappy, new products, now needs to be crushed. I would encourage anyone out there not to buy their products. There are simply too many other real, quality companies out there, for eg. VHT, Wizard, Peavey, or Bogner, to name a few, from which to chose. Oh, yes, in case you're wondering, I returned the second head for a definitive refund. The chime of cash coming back to me over the counter was a most merry, righteous sound indeed, and far better than any amp I've ever heard. Thanks, Marshall, for putting it all in perspective, you fucks!

The features for this 100 watt monster head have been covered by other reviews, so here is a quick list: 3 channels (clean, crunch, lead) seperate eq's for all channels reverb controls for clean and crunch/lead channels tone shaping switches (Deep, mid scoop (crunch/lead), mid boost (Clean) power reduction from 100watts down to about 25 watts! This amp is set up to give the player a wide range of sounds and to actually be able to use them live. The foot switch is smooth and there is no sound when switching channels.

I mainly play modern trippy rock....(Think Smashing Pumpkins, NIN, Pink Floyd). I run the head through an older Marshall 4x12 with celestion 25w "greenbacks". I play a 97 Fender strat plus with gold lace sensor pickups and a 74 Ibanez "lawsuit" Flying V with super 70's pickups. For effects I use a Digitech rp-3 (delay, chorus...etc), a crybaby wah, and a big muff. All of my equipment sounds great running through this head. The clean channel is super clean if you want it, or slightly overdriven with the gain cranked. I recently got a chance to use a VOX ac-15 in the studio. The clean channel on the TSL can nail that sound. The crunch channel is pure Marshall rock tone! It has all the classic Marshall tone and then some. The lead channel really kicks some ass. Boogie fans note: This amp will not sound like a TOV or dual recto solo head. If you like the saturated Boogie distortion don't get this or any Marshall! (Duh) The lead channel kicks into some really big tones. Great for heavy chord chunkin or soloing. The notes are clear and the pick attack just jumps out at you.

I just got the amp a few days ago. This is not my first Marshall tube amp, and in the past the only things that ever went wrong with my old ones were self indused (beer spills, etc...) so I don't beleive there will be any major problems with this one.

Haven't dealt with them yet.

I've been playing for about 16 years now and this is the best amp I've ever had. I've played through rack systems, solid state amps, various tube heads, and this one beats them all. I did try out a trem-o-verb, dual and single recto heads and combos. Those were all good, but I like the Marshall tone and feel, therefor I got the Marshall. All you Marshall stooges out there...If you can afford this head, get it! It covers all the classic marshall sounds and has many tones that are completely fresh and new. I love it.

New in 1999. The TSL is a very versatile amp in terms of mostly Marshall-type sounds (I'll get to the CLEAN channel later).
3 channels, channel switching either manually or via footswitch, dual effects loops, NEARLY complete EQ for all 3 channels (CRUNCH and LEAD share presence, loop, and reverb controls), Deep switch and "scoop" switch for CRUNCH and LEAD channels, mid-boost for CLEAN channel, impedance switch (4-8 ohms), separate output for 16 ohms, Virtual Power Reduction switch that reduces the output wattage to around 25 watts (very useful).
Wish List... To me the thing that would make this already versatile amp a real killer would be a "voicing" switch to change the overall character of all 3 channels to something very "non-Marshall". Don't get me wrong - you buy a Marshall to get the "Marshall Sound", but if they had me on the design team that'd be my suggestion. Short of that, a bias switch to allow use of different power tubes would be very cool.

I play a Heritage H-150CM (basically a Les Paul Standard) and a Tom Anderson Classic (S,S,H) through the amp with a few analog pedals.
You can get anything from a sparkling clean (ALMOST blackface) to a medium gain, warm Plexi purr to full blown, kill the children, distortion carnage. It all depends on the channel, EQ settings, and the guitar you're using (just like most amps).
I've seen a few reviews here bitching that this amp doesn't provide enough distortion - huh? I would say that only the HEAVIEST of the Metal crowd would feel that way about this amp! Turn both the volume and gain of the LEAD channel to 7, presence at 6, hit the "scoop" switch your gonna hurt somebody! But raw distortion is not the only thing the TSL will do by any means. The range of tones available on this amp is truly remarkable.
I play in a power-pop/post-punk band called Weedpuller (www.weedpuller.com). In their songs I've got to be able to start a tune with a very clean punchy intro, kick in a killer rhythm grind, then punch above the other instruments and solo. The TSL pulls this off without a hitch!
I bought a Mesa Dual Rectifier Solo Head initially for use with this band, but it just didn't cut it for me. And this is coming from a die-hard Mesa fan (I own a Mark II combo and a Mark IV head)! Comparatively, the Mesa needed far too much volume to achieve the same amount of kick (even with 2 power tubes pulled). Also (I hate to say it but) the clean channel on the Dual Recto really sucks, IMHO! I know tons of folks are using the Dual Recto's and apparently are quite happy with them, but I really tried hard to like that amp and just couldn't do it! I've heard that replacing the 6L6's with EL34's on the Recto's smooths out the distortion so it's not so buzzy and brittle, but I never tried it.

I've had the amp for about 3 months and have had no problems whatsoever - but ask me again in 2 years! I was somewhat concerned initially because during gigs I would notice an electrical smell in the vicinity of the amp. The smell eventually went away, so HOPEFULLY everythings OK. We'll see!

My dealings with Marshall (through Korg of course) have not been, shall we say, satisfactory. I wanted to build an interface between my DMC Audio Switcher and the TSL - or at least find out if it was possible. I asked for some input and a schematic of the footswitch and the amp. After several weeks of hassling them, they finally told me I'd have to go through one of their service centers for the information and that the service center would have to do all the work. Really not helpful at all! I eventuall had my drummer (who's a very sharp electrician) check it out and do the work - no problem! Works like a charm! It only required some modifications to the footswitch! Speaking of which - if any of you reading this eval are interested in controlling your TSL via MIDI, let me know! It can be done!

Been playing for 28 years (damn has it been that long?) I own several Mesa amps as well (gotta love 'em), the above mentioned guitars as well as a modded Tele, a Taylor acoustic, various effects, etc.
If the amp were stolen, I'd probably think seriously about replacing it...or maybe I'd check out one of the new Mesa Nomads coming out this Summer - they're supposed to kick major ass!
If you're looking for great tone with a definite Rock and Roll attitude, the TSL is a great choice!

The TSL is Marsahall's triple super lead 100 watt tube head( 4 x EL34 power tubes and 4 x ECC83 pre-amp tubes ). It has 3 channels, channel switching ( with a big ass switching pedal ), dual fx loops,VPR ( virtual power reduction ) switch, output mute switch ( in addition to standby switch ) and lots of knobs to tweak to your hearts content.

I'm using the TSL with a Marshall 1960B Stereo Cabinet loaded with 4 75 watt Celestion 12" speakers. I would prefer 25 watt Greenbacks or vintage 30 watters. Various Les Pauls ( 56 LP Jr, 62 LP SG Jr, 72 LP Gold Top w/P 90's, 2 1992 LP Classic+'s ), 69 335, and 2 80's dot 335's, vintage Strats and Teles and a recent Dano Baritone 6 string push this loud bitch to it's limits. The clean channel is kinda "UnMarshall" like. I guess it's Marshall's attempt to be Fender like. Well, it's an clean attempt that makes this amp versatile. When pushing the gain, the clean channel dirty's up a bit. My present clean setting is: Volume at 10 o'clock, Gain at 2 o'clock,Treble at 2 o'clock, Middle at 2 o'clock, Bass at 12 o'clock, Mid Boost out, Presence at 12 o'clock, Reverb at 11 o'clock and the Deep Switch in. By controlling the desired volume levels, I use my guitar controls. The 2nd Channel is Crunch. My settings are Volume at 10 o'clock, Gain at 3 o'clock, Treble at 11 o'clock,Middle at 10 o'clock, Bass at 3 o'clock, Presence at 3 o'clock, Reverb at 11 o'clock, Tone Shift out and Deep Switch in. With my LP volumed maxed and these channel settings, this channel resembles a modern day Plexi. Channel 3 is the lead channel. My settings are Volume at 10 o'clock, Gain at 3 o'clock, Treble at 2 o'clock, Middle at 12 o'clock, Bass at maximum, Presence and Reverb shared with the settings of Channel 2, Tone Shift in and Deep switch in. This sounds more saturated than channel 2- more gain-more like Black Sabbath meets Judas Priest. The reverb on this amp could be better.It lacks sparkle and tone. I'm spoiled by my Magnatone MP1's reverb and Fender 63 re-issue reverb tank. When using too much gain, the amp sort of gets a brittle distortion. You know, the brittle attack you hear at the music store when some annoying teenager thinks he's a virtuoso. Also when using the Virtual Power Reduction switch, the amp cuts down to 25 watts- this is an impressive feature- I turn up the volume and cut the gain- less brittle. This feature keeps me in good standing with my neighbors. Unlike some previous reviewers, I feel this amp has plenty of gain. I've been playing for over 30 years at some very high volumes- my ears can still make out tones and are sensitive to loudness- THIS AMP IS LOUD!!!!! This is a versatile Marshall. It sounds like a Marshall- not a Boogie, Fender, Hiwatt or a Matchless.

Well,I bought it 2 weeks ago. No problems. I use and not abuse my equipment. If you treat your stuff like a football, then your warranty is extra important.

Never had to call with this or any of my other Marshall amps.

I've been playing for 30 + years and have recently become a Marshall fan. I have 2 Marshall Bluesbreakers, JTM 30 and JTMC ext cab, 2 1922 cabs, Acoustic Soloist and a 1960 B Stereo Cab. Marshall makes good rock stuff. I also own a huge compliment of Gibson, Fender, Ovation, Guild, Ibanez and Parker equipment. I'm not the type to say that a Korean Epi through my Pignose is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Not to be boastful, I feel I know and recognize quality sound and quality equipment. This is a very versatile rock amp- remember ROCK AMP- not to be confused with the tones of other styled amps. I've heard other people play this amp and I was very turned off by the sound. A lot of players go to maxing the gain without noodling with the tones- by doing this you miss the whole tonal body that this amp has to offer. Max the gain and sound like a juvenille shred clone. Listen and adjust the volume, gain and tones and sound like you. It's an expensive amp-it's loud-use the tone controls- they work.

100 watt el34s 4/12ax7a 3 channel preamp with seperate eq for each

NOT ENOUGH GAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have had it for a week and put its through its paces at home for about 4 hours and then two nights of rehersals. so far so good.

havent had to use it yet!

Ive been playing for 40 years now and never liked marshall amps,at least not when im playing through them. thought i'd had a change of heart though thinking maybe they finally got it right but,but after bringing it home im sure glad i didnt get rid of my boogie stuff. the shame of it is if they wouldve put just that one more 12ax7 in there i would have been happy. i will give them a big A+ on improving the clean sound,the main reason i hated marshall in the first place. anyway its back to the store for this TSL. maybe theyll get it right next time. those modeling amps are looking better all the time!!!

This is a pretty modern amplifier. I'd date it within the last 2 years. Its fairly versatile but lacks that last bit of punch that you can only find in a Dual Rectifier. It's got 3 channels and a sh*tload of buttons. If it were up to me I'd stick another 12AX7 into this thing. It has good tonal characteristics but the extreme amounts of gain that I require are not in here. I personally never like to turn the gain all the way up on any amp. It always seems to kill certain notes. This amp is a good recording tool as is any marshall I've ever used. I tried it live once and it just doesn't have that big sound. Almosts like it is being compressed. It is however extraordinarily loud though. Much louder than a Boogie. Maybe if I plug the send of a Dual rectifier into the preamp of the TSL...

Its got a decent amount of crunch to it but its more like vinatge crunch. Some people rave about the elusive vintage sound and to those people, stop whining! Marshalls produce a genuine vintage tone. However I am a modern contemporary guitarist. I could give 2 sh*ts about vintage sounds. Would much rather be using my boogie. In the clean department it does sort of win over the boogie. Not because it sounds better but because it is easier to get to. The 3 channels really do give it a slight advantage over the boogie.

It is a Marshall. It is built like a rock (Its still not as strong as my boogie's chrome chasis!).

N/A

Been playing for...I dunno. Can't remeber. Would unfortunately for marshall not buy it again. I hate the fact that I can't push the sh*t out of it. I truthfully don't know why I picked this amp. It looked cool, and it said Marshall on it. If you want a really good vintage Metallica sound this is your amp. If you want to explore your brain to get your own sounds get a Dual Rectifier.

Amp has three channels with seperate eqs's for each. Besides this, each of the three channels has two eq configuration buttons (Tone Shift(On crunch and lead channels), mid boost(clean channel), and Deep(All channels.) It also has two effects loop, reverb, a mission control style footswitch, a direct out(for recording), and a power reduction button(Makes amp 1/4 as loud so you can push the power tubes.)

Clean Channel-With the mid boost off, the clean channel is identical to that of a DSL100. It sounds aproximately like a Twin. Clean channel-With mid boost on. This is the best sound the amp offers. I'm not really sure what to compare it to. It's definitely more fendery than marshally. I guess you could say that it sounds like a twin that's cranked. Crunch channel-With tone shift off-Sounds very much like AC/DC. Crunch channel-With tone shift on-Very punk sounding-Not really gainy Lead channel-With tone shift off-I never use it thisway Lead channel-with tone shift on-Wow----Much better sounding than a Dual Rectifier..(More personality) With the deep shift on you can make your guitar sound like basketballs bouncing on a gym floor. It also doesn't "fall apart" when you turn the gain down.(A la Dual Rectifier). It's the kinda sound that makes you smile every time you play with it.:)

All of the channels sound incredibly good. While the clean channel may not sound exactly like a twin, it does sound very good. I would say that each of the channels is a lot more like three seperate amps than "channels." The crunch channel cleans up very nicely when you roll your volume.(As does the lead channel.) I bought this amp and a Single Rectifier at the same time so I could see which one I really wanted. I would say that the clean channels are equally as good, but as far as distorted tonesgo, the Marshall wins. On the lead channel with the tone shifton and the deep switch activated, you can make the Marshall sound like the Recto, but better. (And with more personality.) Where the Mesa wins is in the fact that it is an easier amp to play. It seemed to hide my mistakes much better than the marshall. I'm tired, soI'm not going to write anymore.

Others have described the features of the amp sufficiently. Incredibly versatile. Although I'd prefer that the clean channel go a little higher on the gain scale, like the clean channel in the JCM 900 dual reverb, each of the three channels has several voices depending on the tone controls, gain settings, etc.

I've been playing the head with a standard JCM 900 1960B 4x12 cabinet with 75-watt celestions. I've played it with a Rickenbacker 650 (solid walnut body, oil finish, Rickenbacker humbuckers, gain structure in the neighborhood of P-100's), a Rickenbacker 620 (solid maple body, glossy finish, same Rickenbacker single coils that are in the 360 and 330), and an Epiphone Sheraton II (Es-335 copy) with Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickups.
Clean channel: It has the tone controls BEFORE the gain stages, like a Fender, as opposed to having them AFTER the gain stages, like a Marshall (the crunch and lead channels have standard Marshall post-gain stage tone controls). Sparkly, Fender-Twin like tones with the tone controls set with a fair amount of mid and treble. Even with the gain all the way up the tone will go into "bite" territory but won't break up at all until the amp is loud enough to get the power tubes cooking. There's a mid-boost switch which, when pushed in, adds a lot of mid to the sound and removes the midrange tone control from the circuit. It fattens the tone some, and adds a little gain. With the gain all the way up, the mid-boost on, the bass at about 7 and the treble about 4, the clean channel gets very fat with slight breakup with humbuckers- it's like Robby Krieger's tone on the Doors first album.
Crunch and lead channels: The reason I'm writing this because of the unbelievable versatility of the crunch and lead channels. With the crunch channel gain set in the low ranges(up to about 3) and the tone controls set with lots of mid and treble, the tone is almost EXACTLY like my Vox AC-30. I've got lots of Marshall heads of various eras and this is the only one that'll do that as well, though my JMP-era head will come close. At higher gain settings the crunch and lead channels go into standard Marshall territory, which I like a lot. There are slight variations in the voices of the lead and crunch channel (to my ears, the lead channel is slightly less midrangy) and the gain on 10 in the crunch channel is about like the gain on 6 in the lead channel. There's a lot of gain on tap in the lead channel, all usable to my taste. Oddly, my Fender Prosonic head has a bit more gain than this head at the highest settings, though the Prosonic has 6L6 power tubes, which have a higher "center" frequency range than the EL-34's in this Marshall, which are a little more midrangy and warm. There's also a mid-scoop switch on both the crunch and lead channels, which I don't like myself, that makes the amp sound like a fizzy metal machine.
I've only played this in my living room so far, so I'll report again after I've been able to play it loud.

This really will cover blackface Fender, Vox AC-30 and Marshall territory. I've seen other amps cover two of those ranges (the Fender Prosonic head will do AC-30 and blackface and then TOO much distortion, to the point that it's a fuzzy mess). If I was going to have only one amp this is it. It probably makes my AC-30 and my Prosonic unnecessary (except for the coolness factor and those blue speakers in the AC-30, which sound like nothing else).

Ths is the shurely one of the best versatile tube amps i played on! It has 3 seperate pre-amps which have all the features for the more blues/rock and heavy metal players. They really made a smart design at marshall, with only using 4 tubes for all these pre-amps. I only use this amp inhouse but i am convinced off it to make a good performance on stage! It shurely has enough power for that!

I am using a Fernandez Atack II guitar on the amp and i must say that the amp really gives every characteristic of it on every switching position of the pick ups. I like to play a lot of Gary Moore stuff(as good as i can get!) and i have been looking for years for a sound which comes good in his direction for a payable price and finally i have found it with this amp! With the amp switched to the lead channel, gain at 75% and volume on 40-50% its almost like i can hear THE REAL PARISIAN WALKWAYS " in my room. Another nice feature of the amp is the vpr button on which the amp plays at 25 Watts. My neighbours appriciate this and the amp stil keeps producing a good full clean, crunchy and distorted sound! The FX loop is also very good i only use a simple ibanzez chorus and boss digital delay foodpedal on it and they can be mixed very well in the right proportions through the fx loop pot. Worth mentioning is also the included speaker emulator which is activated when you push the output mute button. Finally i can play with my headphone on without using any power soaks on it , and the sound over my mixing pannel via the recording output of the amp even sounds very execptable. This amp is really the most versatile amp for its price i have ever played on! I really believe that for the blues/rock/heay metal player this is the best amp , considering its price, you can Get!

i only use the amp for a week now so i can't give you any indication!

For customer support one has to go to a distributor, in the past i have been looking for service manuals , schematics of marshall amps as an electronic engineer , but its very hard to get them. So i am not so satisfied with them!

I've been using it for some days now but i would shurely buy it again! The only thing i missed is a litlle more reverb in it , but probably all marshall amps have this lack, because i used to have a jcm 900 with the same shortage. I only can compare it with for instance a mesa boogie rectifier amp which is far more expensive , but i wouldn't change it for my tsl-100. So i really believe that for the price i have payd its one of the best you can get and that its the best Marshall Head amp ever Build!

New for 1998, this is an extremely versatile amp. I play rock, blues, fusion etc. This three channel amp has independant eq for each channel and all three are accessable via the footswitch. The clean channel can be dialed in to achieve all ranges of clean to mildly crunchy. Crunch channel voiced like the DSL 100 crunch channel. Great for blues and with the gain all the way up Good AC/DC Rock stuff. The Third Channel Smokes and is really good for rich sounding, high gain stuff. Other features include effect loops with front panel mix controls, Virtual power reduction switch which cuts volume but still uses output from all four EL34's and a direct out.

I use a Custom Shop Strat, Les Paul Custom, and 52 reissue tele. This amp sounds completely different with each guitar. The amp is really quiet as far as buzzes and sounds great at low volumes but at high volumes it sounds even better. The distortion will not get to the same death crunch as a Tremoverb but for what I play it sounds great.

Only had for two months but it works perfectly. No complaints.

Always had good experiece with Korg in the past.

I love this amp and would buy another one in a minute. When I bought it I had played the Tremoverb before the TSL and since I already own a DSL I intended to buy the Tremoverb, but when I tried the TSL I had no choice. I run both the TSL & DSL in stereo and they sound great together. I also run a few pedals and seem to have a very wide variety of tones with this setup. I know this is another one of those rave reviews that I detest on the forum but for me this is the best sounding amp I have ever owned.

This is just a quick update to my last submission. Read old submission for features and sound etc. It shouldn't be too hard to find since i'm the only one to have commented on this amp so far!

Gigged with it for the first time on Friday the 12th June 98. That's approximately three weeks after i bought it. Sounded absolutely fantastic until the footswitch decided it had had enough after about an hour of playing! Great having three channels isn't it? Not much good when you can't change between them though!

Everything you could ever need in an amp in my opinion. Three channels (clean, crunch and lead), all tube circuity, included footswitch with five switches and LEDs, two effects loops (seperate for clean and distortion channels), built in reverb, 100 Watts of power etc. etc.
There are a total of 21 knobs on the front of this amp and 9 push switches so that may give you an idea of the versatility of the thing. The FX loop can be configured to give two footswitchable volume levels if you don't use effects (like me) which gives you a seperate volume setting for rhythm playing and lead playing.
All three channels have individual volume, gain, bass, middle and treble controls. Clean channel has a mid-boost switch. Crunch and Lead channels both have tone shift switches which scoop out the mids.
Back panel includes send and return and level select switches for two effects loops. There is also a XLR output with speaker emulation - as of yet i haven't had chance to try this yet though so i don't know how authentic it sounds.
This amp would appear to have everything that i will ever want (wishful thinking i know but i really do like it) but i've only had it a week so i can't be positive about this yet. I used it for a band practice since then and i'm happy to report it sounded great.
Even sounds good at low volumes in my bedroom! (which is good for a hundred watt amp - especially using the virtual power reduction - there's another useful feature)

Every sound i was ever looking for in an amp. (but i won't really know this for sure of course until i've gigged with it). I play a fender strat plus with lace sensor single coil pickups and a handmade guitar fitted out with dimarzio humbuckers and a floyd rose trem. etc. The different characteristics of the two guitars really come through with this amp. I play a lot of different styles but mainly it's good old blues and rock and for these styles this amp really cuts it. the clean channel is great for anything (blues rhythm, country picking, jazz etc.) it all depends on the settings, the guitar and the way that you play it.
Crunch channel can be almost another darker cleaner channel at low gain settings. At mid-gain it is pure AC-DC style crunchy guitar sounds. At high gain it's got tremendous power and sustain. And this really is high gain - they call it the crunch channel but you could play in a metal band and never touch the lead channel!
The lead channel really sings straight away. Plug in a Les Paul and you will sound like Gary Moore! Of course that's a completely unfair comment to make because it won't at all but it's the closest sound i've ever got to his! My strat will give me some great heavily distorted blues/rock lead tones like Walter Trout whereas my rockier guitar provides me with instant Satriani like sounds through the lead channel.
The amp is also amazingly responsive to changes made on the guitar. The sounds of the different pickups really shine through and turning down the volume on my strat will turn a monstous high gain lead tone into a lovely, warm gently distorted cleanish sound with no problems at all.

Only had it a week so couldn't possibly comment on this. fingers crossed!

3 year warranty on the amp sounds pretty good to me. Never had to deal with them before though.

Well i know this review sounds like something you might read in a Marshall advert but i've just written my opinions on the amp. I only bought the thing a week ago but it just seems to sound better everytime i play it. I'll probably have to write an update to this review in the future when i've gigged with it a few times but i hope i'll still only have good things to say. The only bad thing i can possibly think of is that there's a small delay when switching between the channels using the footswitch but i don't forsee this being a big problem at all. So i feel i have no choice but to give it a ten!