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Hatsubai « The "standard" new Marshall »
Published on 05/13/11 at 17:10The Marshall JCM2000 DSL100 has been the flagship model for quite awhile. It was basically a replacement or upgraded version of the JCM800 that was so famous throughout the decades. The amplifier features two channels with different voicings, four EL34 tubes, four 12AX7 tubes, two modes per channel, an effects loop, reverb and more.
UTILIZATION
The amp is a great go-to amp for testing various pedals and guitars as it's a straight forward two channel amplifier that's easy to dial in. It takes pedals great, is somewhat versatile and has a good amount of features. The voicings on the channels also help enable this amp to be tailored to your playing style. The loop and the reverb are nice additions that should really be in every Marshall amp, in my opinion.
SOUNDS
The sounds can be a bit hit or miss depending on if you like the Marshall sound or not. The amplifier, while having a decent amount of gain, doesn't have tons of "usable" gain. Once you start really cranking the gain, I find it gets to be a bit buzzy. I prefer backing the gain down and using a boost pedal. Once you do that, you can get some awesome 80s metal tones. The clean tone on this, however, is nothing to write home about. I find it to be fairly bland and not very exciting at all. However, I normally don't expect much from a Marshall when it comes to clean tones simply due to the way they have their tone stack in the circuit. I prefer the Fender/Mesa style tone stack for clean tones.
OVERALL OPINION
These amplifiers go really cheap on the used market, and if you're looking for your first Marshall, this should be one the first amplifiers you check out. It's not quite as organic and huge sounding as the JCM800, but it has its own thing going on. It's also way more versatile than the JCM800, so you take the good with the bad. The features on this amp are great for the used prices, especially since people unload them for as low as $400ish at times. Just keep watching eBay for great deals.
UTILIZATION
The amp is a great go-to amp for testing various pedals and guitars as it's a straight forward two channel amplifier that's easy to dial in. It takes pedals great, is somewhat versatile and has a good amount of features. The voicings on the channels also help enable this amp to be tailored to your playing style. The loop and the reverb are nice additions that should really be in every Marshall amp, in my opinion.
SOUNDS
The sounds can be a bit hit or miss depending on if you like the Marshall sound or not. The amplifier, while having a decent amount of gain, doesn't have tons of "usable" gain. Once you start really cranking the gain, I find it gets to be a bit buzzy. I prefer backing the gain down and using a boost pedal. Once you do that, you can get some awesome 80s metal tones. The clean tone on this, however, is nothing to write home about. I find it to be fairly bland and not very exciting at all. However, I normally don't expect much from a Marshall when it comes to clean tones simply due to the way they have their tone stack in the circuit. I prefer the Fender/Mesa style tone stack for clean tones.
OVERALL OPINION
These amplifiers go really cheap on the used market, and if you're looking for your first Marshall, this should be one the first amplifiers you check out. It's not quite as organic and huge sounding as the JCM800, but it has its own thing going on. It's also way more versatile than the JCM800, so you take the good with the bad. The features on this amp are great for the used prices, especially since people unload them for as low as $400ish at times. Just keep watching eBay for great deals.