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Marshall DSL5C
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Marshall DSL5C

Tube Combo Guitar Amp from Marshall belonging to the DSL 2012 series

goldorock goldorock

« Very good Marshall amp for home use, even it if has a couple of weaknesses »

Published on 12/06/14 at 11:57
Value For Money : Correct
Audience: Advanced Users
This amp produces some splendid clean sounds.

Channel 1: It has a very good clean sound, not thick, not hyper-warm but, it's very clean and very nice.
Plus, you can have a very good and powerful crunch if you push it.
You could say it's for blues and rock, ac/dc etc.

Channel 2: I think it lacks treble and even some gain.
And especially a 12" speaker, but it's not bad at all.
Gary Moore isn't too far :) in his heavy metal phase.

This amp is truly excellent for heavy metal rhythm guitar (with scooped mids): It's what I would get for '90s hard rock/heavy metal (with the Tone Shift button engaged), because its sound is powerful.
Good dynamic response, to play some blues à la DSL.

On the other hand, if you crank up the mids (the high mids), the sound isn't nice, in my opinion.
So forget Santana and company.

To warp it up: If you are looking for a fat, powerful, dry overdrive that doesn't have a dip in the low mids,
this isn't the amp for you.

But, if you want to play Bon Jovi and similar sounds requiring punch, gain and a heavy sound, it's almost perfect! (otherwise, try a JVM).
Blues might be possible: A mix of blues and heavy metal, but blues in the Fender, Laney or Vox sense, no.

Do note that, like with many amps that have a 1/5w switch, you lose quite a bit in the high end
in 1w mode, so you'd better play in 5w.

I think the output power is manageable for home and it's pretty versatile, but the distorted sound is pretty modern and powerful, I'd say '80s and '90s.
It doesn't have that old-school Marshal sound, instead you get mid lows to play fast and powerful riffs.